Computational Approaches to the Study of Organizations

Aim

After completion of the course, the student should at an advanced level be able to:

• describe, combine and apply models in organization theory to analyse research questions
• integrate knowledge of quantitative and computational methods into the study of organizations
• describe and evaluate applications of quantitative and computational methods in organizational scholarship
• evaluate the current state of quantitative empirical research on organizations
• formulate research questions of relevance to the contemporary study of organizations

Content

This course engages with research on organizations, with a specific focus on quantitative methods and computational models. Theories and empirical research in the study of organizations are discussed and compared, including organizational demography, internal labour markets, organizational decision making, and organizational ecology. Research papers on organizations are read and assessed, theoretical models of organizations are formulated, and empirical predictions from theoretical models are derived. Special attention will be paid to the use of complex statistical and computational methods in organization research.