Dear COR colleagues,
You are cordially invited to a COR seminar with Professor David Obstfeld.
“Getting New Things Done: Networks, Brokerage, and the Assembly of Innovative Action”
Friday, December 1
12:00-1:30
SBSG 1321
Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to cor@uci.edu by November 21.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Nina Bandelj
Melissa Mazmanian
COR Co-Directors
Talk Abstract
This talk presents the core ideas from my new book with Stanford University Press: “Getting New Things Done: Networks, Brokerage, and the Assembly of Innovative Action.” Mobilizing people to pursue action in the pursuit of innovation depends critically on the effective orchestration of social networks and knowledge sharing. This orchestration is vital to the pursuit of innovation, especially in a world increasingly reliant on collaborative projects that assemble actors with diverse interests, abilities, and knowledge. In the talk, I offer a conceptual framework along with original ethnographic data from an automotive design context for conceptualizing how social network and knowledge processes combine to influence success in both routine and non-routine innovation. I integrate recent work to propose a theory of social skill with implications at the micro-, organizational-, and industry levels and how it applies (briefly) to artistic movements, collective action, and entrepreneurship. I will also discuss a new research direction (in collaboration with Richard Arum and others), which applies the above theoretical framework to identifying student behaviors and institutional practices associated with underrepresented minority college student success and career advancement.
Speaker Bio
David Obstfeld is Associate Professor of Management at the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics, California State University at Fullerton. Professor Obstfeld’s research examines how the knowledge-intensive, network-based social processes that result in organizational change and innovation unfold at the local and firm levels. Currently, his interests focus on how the interaction of social network-based brokerage activity, knowledge articulation, creative projects, and collective action influence entrepreneurship, innovation, and firm strategy. David Obstfeld has published in such journals as Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, and Industrial and Corporate Change. At Mihaylo, Professor Obstfeld teaches courses in entrepreneurship and strategy. He received his A.B. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Prior to embarking on an academic career, he served as Director of Training and Development at The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae).