[求助] Strategy 的同志们请帮个忙

我自己的就读方向是HR，我现在重新申请PhD的时候，准备偏向Strategy和HR中的staffing略有结合的方向，比如Strategic Planning，但大的方向还是HR。但是，系里教授现在都强烈建议我考虑申请strategy方向，因为更有前景。说到我自己的偏好，其实对strategy还是很感兴趣的，而且由于HR牵扯到太多法律方面的东西，做起来的确有些苦恼，因为不感兴趣。

我和系里一个Strategy方向的教授后面做strategic planning 方面的research有一个多学期了（直到我毕业会一直跟着他做，主要是merge和acquisition中的financial和HR staffing方面的东西），参与并完成了两个他主持的consulting project（G.E., P&G），计划今年年底会有一篇相关的研究paper在美国这边刊物上发出来（教授一作我二作），刊物一般，acceptance rate 只有.3 左右。但是教授说这个研究背景对于申strategy已经够了。

我想请教一下各位，如果申请Strategy，有哪些具体方向可以考虑呢？谢谢建议！

虽然没什么好的建议，不过我觉得你可以浏览下各个学校的网页，上面有很全的关于strategy下的各个方向。然后你就可以选和自己兴趣匹配的。

I guess you can consider this issue from two dimensions: theory level or phenomenon level. Here are some questions you may want to think about in terms of potential research directions:

In terms of the theory-level issues, are you interested in econ-oriented or sociology-based strategy research? Or, are you equipped with decent econometric/ statistics skills for quantitative research?

The major theoretical perspectives for the econ-based camp would be transaction cost, industrial organization, agency theory or game theory, etc. On the other hand, social network/ social capital/ embeddedness, new institutional theory, resource dependence and organizational ecology/ demography are among the most popular theories for the latter type of strategy research. Others, like resource-based view, upper echelon perspective are kind of in between.

As for the phenomenon- or topic-wise issues, there are tons of topics that may fall within the category of "strategy" research-- essentially anything. For example, corporate governnance, org boundary, org design, org change, org learning, alliances, M&A, international business, industry dynamics, diversification, technology and innovation, signals and symbols, entrepreneurship, effects of business practices (incluign accounting practices, financial disclosure, and of course HR policies), etc. A topic can usually be explored from different theoretical perspective; for example, "alliances" can be studies with either social network or TCE perspective. 

Among all these topics and thepretical perspectives, I guess the upper echelon perspective may be the best fit in terms of your background (it's both a theory and a phenomenom-- the major figures of this perspective believe that the demographic compisition of the upper echelon matters a lot, and they have empirically examined the effects on performance or decision makiing). But, to be honest, it's not an emerging theory, and few prestigious schools are focusing on this line of research.

Also, some sociologists in the business school (especially those new institutional folks) have been inspecting diversity management/ HR issues in organizations, like Frank Dobbin and Erin Kelly. But this type of research is very discipline-oriented (to be specific, sociology-oriented).

Good luck!

如果你这个周五有空的话，你可以去OSU的fisher college参加一个seminar。这个seminar的主题是关于strategic HR的issues and prospects,我相信这个比较match你的背景。我把广告贴在下面。