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College on Organization Science
Best Dissertation Proposal Competition

Best Dissertation Proposal Competition

Submission Deadline: July 13, 2020

2019 Winner(s)

Saerom Lee, University of Michigan, Ross School of Business

Winning material: “The myth of the flat start-up: reconsidering the organizational structure of start-ups”

Purpose of the Award

2020 Committee Chair:
Pete Aceves
pedro.aceves@unibocconi.it

We invite you to submit your dissertation proposal to the INFORMS/Organization Science Dissertation Proposal Competition. Now in its 28th year, this competition is one of the most prestigious available to doctoral students studying organizations. Eight finalists will be chosen, based on reviews by experienced referees. Finalists will present their dissertation proposals in a workshop on Saturday, November 7, 2020 at the fall INFORMS Conference held in National Harbor, MD. During the workshop, finalists will receive detailed feedback from a panel of respected organizational scholars who act as final judges for the competition. The all-day workshop also provides a wonderful opportunity to interact with a small group of future colleagues. At the workshop, the judges will select a winner and a runner up. If we are unable to hold the competition in person this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we will hold it virtually.

Application Process

View information about eligibility, procedures and deadlines
Click here for more information

Past Awardees

2019 Winner(s)

Saerom Lee, University of Michigan, Ross School of Business

2019 Runner-Up

Angelica Leigh, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler Business School

2018 First Place

Basima Tewfik, Wharton School

2018 Second Place

Hyo Kang, Haas School of Busines

Rebecca Paluch, Cornell University

2018 Finalist

John Eklund, Wharton School

Stefan Dimitriadis, Harvard Business School

Britta Glennon, Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy

Trey Cummings, Olin School of Business

Michael Lee, Harvard Business School

2017 Winner(s)

Pedro Aceves, University of Chicago, Sociology

2017 Runner-Up

Evelyn Zhang, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper Business School

2016 Winner(s)

Tristan Botelho, MIT, Sloan School of Management

2016 Finalist

David Clough, INSEAD

Priyanka Dwivedi, Pennsylvania State University

Sora Jun, Stanford University

Michael Mauskapf, Northwestern University

Yongzhi Wang, University of Southern California

Sarah Wittman, INSEAD

2016 Runner-Up

Jeffrey Thomas, New York University

2015 Winner(s)

Julia DiBenigno, MIT, Sloan School of Management

2015 Finalist

Pooria Assadi, Simon Fraser University Feng Bai, University of British Columbia, Sauder School of Business Santiago Campero, MIT, Sloan School of Business Jillian Chown, Toronto, Rotman School of Management Tiffany Johnson, Penn State, Smeal College of Business Derek Harmon, University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business Amer Madi, INSEAD François Neville, Georgia State, Robinson College of Business

2014 First Place

Mabel Abraham, MIT, Sloan School of Management

2014 Finalist

Abhinav Gupta, Pennsylvania State University Matthew Karlesky, University of Michigan McKenzie Rees, University of Utah Jacqueline Kirtley, Boston University Douglas Lepisto, Boston College Eunhee Sohn, MIT

2014 Runner-Up

Trevor Young-Hyman, University of Wisconsin-Madison

2013 First Place

Sujin Jang, Harvard Business School

2013 Finalist

Jin-Hyun Bae, New York University Brad Fulton, Duke University Heeyon Kim, University of Michigan KiYoung Lee, University of Minnesota Matthew Lee, Harvard Business School Jean-Nicolas Reyt, Paris Dauphine University/New York University

2013 Runner-Up

Chad Murphy, Pennsylvania State University

2012 First Place

Melissa A. Valentine, Harvard University

2012 Finalist

Sean R. Martin, Cornell University Mary-Hunter McDonnell, Northwestern University Jay O’Toole, University of Wisconsin Ryan L. Raffaelli, Boston College Elizabeth D. Rouse, Boston College Andrew K. Schnackenberg, Case Western Reserve University Melissa A. Valentine, Harvard University Shellwyn L. Weston, New York University

2011 First Place

Jessica Kennedy, University of California, Berkeley

2011 Second Place

Erin Scott, Washington University in St. Louis

2011 Finalist

Michael Bikard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Andreea Gorbatai, Harvard University

Shoko Kato, Syracuse University

Kenji Klein, University of California, Irvine

Daniel Smith, Georgia Institute of Technology

Jeffrey Treem, Northwestern University

2010 First Place

Jennifer Petriglieri, INSEAD

2010 Second Place

Mary Kate Stimmler, University of California, Berkeley

2010 Finalist

Adam Cobb, University of Michigan

Flannery Garnett, University of Michigan

Amol Joshi, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Tomasz Obloj, INSEAD

Erin Reid, Harvard Business School

Adina Sterling, Emory University

2009 First Place

Renee Rottner, University of California-Irvine

2009 Second Place

Jason Greenberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2009 Finalist

N. Andrew Cohen, University of Pennsylvania

Shon Hiatt, Cornell University

Ana Elisa Iglesias, Georgia State University

Shimul Melwani, University of Pennsylvania

Otilia Obodaru, INSEAD

Lori Qingyuan Yue, Columbia University

2008 First Place

H. Colleen Stuart, University of Toronto

2008 Second Place

Marlys K. Christianson, University of Michigan

2008 Finalist

Catherine Anderson, University of Maryland

Colin Fisher, Harvard University

Spencer Harrison, Arizona State University

Benjamin Herndon, University of Texas - Austin

Justin I. Miller, NYU - Stern

Rachael Leah Shwom, Michigan State

2007 First Place

Heidi Gardner, London Business School

2007 Second Place

J.P. Eggers, University of Pennsylvania

2007 Finalist

Marla Baskerville, Tulane University

Y. Sekou Bermiss, Northwestern University

Denisa Mindruta, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Christopher Rider, University of California at Berkeley

Mario Schijven, Tilburg University

Karl Wennberg, Stockholm School of Economics

2006 First Place

Celia Moore, University of Toronto

2006 Second Place

Michael Ashworth, Carnegie-Mellon University

2006 Finalist

Benjamin Cole, University of Michigan

Laura Erskine, University of Southern California

Yan Gong, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Ben Hallen, Stanford University

Mike Pfarrer, University of Maryland

Brian Wu, University of Pennsylvania

2005 First Place

Susan Perkins, New York University

2005 Second Place

Sharon James Wade, University of Minnesota

Donald A. Lange, University of Texas at Austin

2005 Finalist

Jared D. Harris, University of Minnesota

Arik Lifschitz, Columbia University

Ilya Okhmatovskiy, University of Southern California

Ming Piao, Northwestern University

Kim-Chi Wakefield Trinh, Duke University

2004 First Place

Micki Eisenman, Columbia University

Kate Kellogg, Sloan School of Management, MIT

2004 Second Place

Govert Vroom, INSEAD

2004 Finalist

Michel Anteby, Stern School of Business, New York University

Scott Johnson, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota

June-Young Kim, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Christopher Marquis, University of Michigan

Thomas Moliterno, University of California, Irvine

2003 First Place

Minyuan Zhao, New York University

2003 Second Place

Gina Dokko, University of Pennsylvania

2003 Finalist

Gino Cattani, University of Pennsylvania

Mary Dunn, Boston College

Sarah Kaplan, MIT

Taco H. Reus, Florida State University

Nina Shah, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Andrew V. Shipilov, University of Toronto

Tim Simcoe, University of California, Berkeley

2002 First Place

Anne Parmigiani, University of Michigan

2002 Second Place

Myeong-Gu Seo, Boston College

2002 Finalist

Ben Bryant, London Business School

Dania A. Dialdin, Northwestern University

Seok-Woo Kwon, University of Southern California

Klaus Weber, University of Michigan

Beiging (Emery) Yao, University of Pittsburgh

Sai Yayavaram, University of Texas - Austin

2001 First Place

Ann Terlaak, University of California - Santa Barbara

2001 Second Place

Alexandra Kalev, Princeton University Robert Salomon, NYU

2001 Finalist

Michael DeVaughn Patrick L. Schultz Charles Williams Samina Z. Karim Karen Page

2000 First Place

Daniel Byrd, University of Michigan

2000 Second Place

Phanish Puranum, Wharton Markus Vodesek, University of Michigan

1999 First Place

Jay Kim, University of Wisconsin

1999 Second Place

Riitta Katila, University of Texas

Galit Ailon-Souday, Tel Aviv University

1998 First Place

Lydia Bigelow, University of California-Berkeley

1998 Second Place

Andreas Schwab, University of Wisconsin

Shawn Marie Lofstrom, University of Minnesota

1998 Finalist

Joseph Broschak, University of Texas at Austin Charles Dhanaraj, University of Western Ontario Michael Lenox, MIT Marvin Washington, Northwestern University Mary Zellmer-Bruhn, University of Wisconsin

1997 First Place

Timothy Pollock, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

1997 Second Place

Deborah Balser, Cornell University Pek-Hooi Soh, MIT

1996 First Place

Nancy Staudenmayer, MIT

1996 Second Place

Constance James, UCLA

1995 First Place

Gautam Ahuja, University of Michigan

1995 Second Place

Anne Cummings, University of Illinois Tammy Madsen, UCLA

1994 First Place

Mary Tripsas, MIT

1994 Second Place

Anne Marie Knott, UCLA

1993 First Place

Eric Darr, Carnegie Mellon University

1993 Second Place

Tina Diekmann, Northwestern University

1992 First Place

Mark Suchman, Stanford University

1992 Second Place

Jeff Dyer, UCLA

1991 First Place

Pam Haunschild, Carnegie Mellon University

1991 Second Place

Brian Uzzi, SUNY Stonybrook and Northwestern University

Best Dissertation Proposal Competition

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2019 Winner(s)

Purpose of the Award

Application Process

Past Awardees

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