Industry Studies

Gail M. Pesyna, Program Director

Industry Studies Workshop Grants

The Sloan Industry Studies Workshops Series promotes workshops that further research on topics that cut across industries or otherwise advance scholarship in Industry Studies. The framework that has been established for this program is very flexible. Expressions of interest will be discussed by the Industry Studies Committee with the idea of identifying workshop topics that might be moved forward and funded as quickly as possible. Workshops that are not funded immediately may be reconsidered especially if there is demonstrated interest in the topic from a cross section of Industry Centers and/or other Affiliates. Indeed, re-submissions are encouraged when strong interest is evident.

The Committee welcomes ideas for workshops from any Industry Studies Affiliate. We expect the range of proposed topics to continue to be substantial. Some workshops may be stimulated by current events or by current discussions over the listserv such as the employment consequences of outsourcing. Workshops also could be used as a way of helping related research projects to be shared across industries. At times, such topics as supply chains, globalization, high performance work systems, wage inequality, industry clusters, homeland security and benchmarking all have been the focus of activity by a cross section of scholars in the community. Workshops can also be developed around aspects of research methodology, such as a methods-based graduate course in business or economics or a workshop on database development. Finally, workshops on such topics as fundraising, marketing, and communications strategies for industry centers are also welcomed.

Industry Studies Affiliates interested in organizing one of the workshops in this series, or sharing such interest with a partner in some other research group or Industry Center, are invited to submit a brief (2-3 pages) concept paper that outlines the proposed workshop for Committee review. Concept papers should describe a workshop topic, make a brief case for its academic and/or practical importance, and explain how the workshop will promote the future development of industry studies. Every workshop should produce some sort of "deliverable" that is of value to the industry studies community, such as a list of key research questions, research findings, a statement of policy recommendations, an outline for collaborative research, or a report on effective practices in methodology, pedagogy, or center management. Workshops are expected to be small in size (approximately 15-20 participants and 2-3 days) and interdisciplinary.

The Industry Studies Committee would like workshops to have several common elements, the most important being that the workshop focus draws widely on the expertise of the community. We also want each workshop to be goal oriented, in the sense that a product can be widely shared or a research problem can be well articulated as a consequence of the workshop activities. Communication among participants before and during the workshop also will be an important part of the structure. Funding for the workshops will be modest but flexible in that the Workshop Leader will ultimately decide the distribution of expenditures among facilities expenses, administration, travel, lodging, etc. We expect workshop grants typically to be in the range of $25,000 - $35,000.

Once a workshop is funded, the Workshop Leader should be willing to write (or co-write) an agenda-setting discussion paper and to monitor and encourage a pre-workshop exchange of ideas and information through a workshop website, listserv, or phone conferences. The Workshop Leader would also invite appropriate participants, chair the workshop, moderate discussion, and ensure that the final workshop deliverable is acceptable to the participants.

Affiliates who have a possible workshop topic in mind and would like to discuss this program further should contact:

Frank Giarratani
Center for Industry Studies
Department of Economics
4926 Posvar Hall
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

frankg@pitt.edu
(412) 648-1741

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