Driven by Gies College of Business' commitment to achieving the highest standard in faculty excellence and globally renowned research, the Illinois Strategic Organizations Initiative (ISOI) addresses unmet demand by academic communities and corporations for interdisciplinary research in strategic organizational design and management. ISOI conducts, sponsors, and promotes world-class research and thought leadership in strategic organizations and builds upon Gies College of Business’ distinguished history and reputation in both organizational behavior and strategy. Major theoretical innovations in strategic organizations were developed at Illinois, including resource dependence theory, organizational symbolism, managerial cognition, and institutional pluralism.
Purpose
To make organizational behavior more strategic, and to make strategy more organizational.
Vision
To establish Gies College of Business as a global leader and agenda-setter in developing theoretical and applied transdisciplinary research on strategic organizations.
Mission
To conduct, sponsor, and promote world-class transdisciplinary research and thought leadership on strategic organizations
Research Spotlight
Jewels in the crown: Exploring the motivations and team building processes of employee entrepreneurs
Sonali K. Shah, Rajshree Agarwal, Raj Echambadi
Published in Strategic Management Journal
This study examines motivations and team building processes of employee entrepreneurs in the disk-drive industry. Our inductive, grounded theory building approach uncovers that ringleaders—founders who spearhead spinout creation—are driven by a nonpecuniary desire to create in a fertile environment, when they encounter frictions within the parent firm. Cofounders share the desire to create, but ensure departure on good terms to retain the option of returning to paid employment as a safeguard against entrepreneurial risk. We uncover an endogenous team building process in which more successful founding teams engage in “workplace instrumentality”—creating workplaces through deliberate selection of cofounders who have complementary functional knowledge, but are similar in that they possess superior problem-solving abilities, best-in-class talent, and common workplace values. [READ FULL PAPER]
Research and Scholarship that Make a Global Impact
ISOI is committed to engaging with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, the broader academic community, and the world of business through research that cuts across disciplines and subdisciplines.
ISOI at UIUC is a community-building research program on the University of Illinois’ flagship campus. Members participate in workshops and other opportunities to delve into the research of strategic organizations. This program is led by Professor Joseph Mahoney, ISOI Associate Director.
ISOI Global Research Networks engage academic scholars from around the nation and world to create a new research agenda at the intersection of strategic organizational design and management. This program is led by Professor Matthew Kraatz, ISOI Associate Director.
ISOI Strategic Organizations Partnerships joins practitioners and academics through the sponsorship of applied research, data collection, and communication exchange. It seeks to help both parties learn from each other and see theory in practice. This program is led by Professor William Ocasio, ISOI Director.
ISOI Leadership
William Ocasio
Director
James F. Towey Professor of Business and Leadership
Matthew Kraatz
Associate Director
Merle H. and Virginia Downs Boren Professor in Business Administration
Joseph Mahoney
Associate Director
Professor of Business Administration and Caterpillar Chair of Business