Faculty Development Plan

Abstract:

The following plan was developed as part of the Faculty Development Series at Brigham Young University. The intent of this plan is to aid my development in scholarship, teaching, and citizenship over the coming academic year, and to set a foundation for my continued contribution to the mission and aims of BYU. For each professional area—scholarship, teaching, and citizenship—I provide (a) a self-assessment of my performance and abilities, and (b) goals and plans for the year.

Scholarship

Self-Assessment

I study the interaction among social actors’ various market signals and actors’ subsequent evaluation by external audiences. My work draws principally from economic and organizational sociology, particularly the literatures on status, commensuration, and categorization. In my work on status, I study how an actor’s sudden elevation in status alters the attention a neighboring actor receives. In studies of market categories, I investigate the causal effect of categorization on returns to coherent and typical identity claims, as well as the potentially positive consequences of novel category combinations. This work is unified in its focus on the social nature of signals and the dynamic structure of markets.

While exploring fundamental social science questions, my work also has implications for managerial decision making. In many multi-sided platforms (e.g., eBay, Alibaba, Facebook, Amazon, Airbnb, TaskRabbit, eLance, Prosper, Kiva), managers are tasked with curating goods, services, or content produced by users, as well as facilitating the evaluation and selection of these products by others. My research speaks directly to the ‘market-making’ problems of optimally categorizing offerings, facilitating comparison, and cultivating positive cross-network effects.

In Winter 2016, I met with my department chair to discuss my progress in scholarship. We agreed that while I have several projects in process, and the work I have produced is of good quality, I can improve my effectiveness in submitting projects for review and responding to editorial decisions in a timely manner. I tend to continue tinkering with manuscripts—exploring alternate modeling assumptions, measurement approaches, and theoretical framing—with the (perhaps illusory) goal of minimizing objections at the review stage. In discussion with colleagues and from early career mentoring activities in the broader academy, I see that a better approach is to prepare ‘minimum viable papers’ that capture the essence of what I am trying to do, solicit preliminary review from collogues in the department and elsewhere, incorporate this round of feedback, and submit these revised ‘MVPs’ for publication, then revising per the specific feedback of reviewers.

Goals and Plans

Below, I outline the goals for scholarship development through February 2017, and specify plans to achieve these goals. Where appropriate, I describe current progress in achieving these goals.

  • Goal: Submit a revised manuscript in response to a ‘revise and resubmit’ decision
    • Plans: In mid-2015, I received a ‘revise and resubmit’ decision on a first-authored manuscript from Administrative Science Quarterly. My coauthors and I have through October 2016 to respond to reviewer comments. Responding to this R&R has been top priority this summer. I recently completed all of the robustness check analyses requested, have drafted a new discussion section emphasizing our theoretical contributions, and am waiting on a coauthor’s edits. My plan is to submit this manuscript in early September.
  • Goal: Submit two additional manuscripts for publication
    • Plans: In the course of winter semester’s faculty development workshops, I joined a writing circle with five other colleagues in my department. I workshopped the above manuscript as well as a paper stemming from my dissertation. From participating in this circle, I have determined to consolidate two of my dissertation chapters into one paper investigating the causal effects of labeling on the returns of coherence and typicality. Though the writing circle disbanded at the start of summer, I will continue the practice of writing to a schedule, with a minimum of 30 minutes writing for this specific project daily through November 2016, by which time I intend to submit this manuscript for publication.
    • Plans: At the recent Academy of Management meeting, I discussed past projects with a coauthor and we determined to revive and submit them for publication. One under consideration is a paper that was rejected from Management Science, another (one we are more excited about) involves familiar data but would require new analysis and theoretical framing. Between these efforts, I intend to submit an additional manuscript for publication more in the manner of the ‘minimum viable paper’ strategy described above. By mid-September, after my R&R is completed, I will revisit these older projects and determine which would be most amenable to an MVP submission by February 2017.
  • Goal: Submit two new, early-stage manuscripts for exhibition at major conferences
    • Plans: I am beginning two new projects, one with previous coauthors (Toby Stuart and Pierre Azoulay), and another with a new coauthor (Joel Baum). I will present my new project with Stuart and Azoulay at the West Coast Research Symposium in September. In October, I will present my project with Baum at the Network Evolution Conference at INSEAD. I will use both early exhibition opportunities to push manuscript development forward and to solicit feedback from key audiences. Then, in parallel with my ‘consolidation revision’ described above, I will prepare conference manuscripts for the annual meetings of the Academy of Management and Strategic Management Society.

Teaching

Self-Assessment

In Fall 2015, I taught two sections of Business Management 470: Entrepreneurial Innovation, and in Winter 2016, I taught three sections of Business Management 480R: New Venture Bootcamp. I had a wonderful experience in my inaugural year of teaching. The students were a delight to work with and I found the process of preparing for and facilitating in-class learning experiences energizing and increasingly natural. One of the overarching lessons from this first year was how doing the learning activities I asked my students to do—even if my version of the activity were necessarily abbreviated, given constraints—helped bolster my integrity as an instructor and encouraged student engagement. I was pleased to see that my qualitative self-assessment of how things went was generally reflected in my student ratings: I was rated above the department and university average.

Personally, I would like to improve in how I help students recognize their own development, and I want to better sequence my class sessions. Additionally, my student evaluations identify ‘Spiritually Strengthening’ and ‘Intellectually Enlarging’ as the areas most needing improvement. The latter teaching area relates to my learning assessments and how I connect concepts over the course of the semester; admittedly, ‘spiritually strengthening’ seems more elusive to me. Fortunately, sessions in the Faculty Development Seminar provided several ideas on how I better invite the Spirit my classes. These ideas are reflected in the goals and plans below.

Goals and Plans

  • Goal: Improve how my classes help students achieve the Aims of a BYU Education–particularly, improve how my course can be (a) spiritually strengthening and (b) intellectually enlarging. I will seek to assess my progress by qualitative feedback from students and the formal student ratings.
    • Plans: I will observe the teaching of two colleagues in courses related to my courses (Chad Carlos, MBA 671; Nile Hatch, Crocker Fellows) and ask them for advice on these specific areas. I will also invite two colleagues to observe my teaching in Fall 2016 and develop a plan for improvement based on their feedback. Lastly, I will utilize the CTL mid-course review system and visit with them about the areas identified above.

Citizenship

Self-Assessment

Throughout the past year, I have established a pattern of citizenship both inside and outside the university. I have participated in several internal and external activities contributing to my university citizenship. In Fall 2015, I served as a judge for the Big Idea competition and the Student Entrepreneur of the Year competition, both campus events. I also received an early external citizenship opportunity in May 2016 as BYU convened the International Business Model Competition (IBMC) at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. There, I served as a mentor for several competing teams from around the world and acted as a judge in a semifinal round.

It seems there will be ample opportunities to serve the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology; I recognize that I could improve as a citizen of my department and college, particularly in initiating informal discussions with colleagues and facilitating connections with external scholars.

Goals and Plans

  • Goal: Provide service to the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (CET) as a judge or mentor in at least two campus-hosted competitions.
    • Plans: Attend the monthly correlation meetings of the CET to identify possible assignments.
  • Goal: Take more initiative in arranging informal activities with my OLS and Marriott School colleagues.
    • Plans: Between now and February 2017, take the lead in organizing research conversations over lunch on at least four occasions, including at least once with colleagues outside my department.
  • Goal: Invite two scholars from other universities to present in the OLS department research seminar, and assist in coordinating their schedules.
    • Plans: As this requires providing guest speakers advance notice, I will reach out to potential speakers this fall (likely during the conferences I am attending this semester) with the intent that they visit during the winter semester.

Resources

The Office of the Dean has provided research support funds that will facilitate the projects and conference travel described above. Already, I have beneficially utilized the resources of the Center for Teaching and Learning and the feedback of my colleagues. My group leader and mentor has been an invaluable help in organizing my teaching and engaging in citizenship assignments. Ultimately, the scarcest resource will be my time. In my first year at BYU, I somewhat assembled my professional development areas serially—with a teaching-focused fall semester, followed by a research-focused winter semester, and significant citizenship activities largely occurring at the end of the academic year or in the summer. One meta-purpose of my faculty development plan is to increase my capacity to thrive in my multiple professional responsibilities simultaneously. I look forward to describing my progress in subsequent reports.