PhD Blocked Seminar at HEC Paris: Category Research in Strategy Taking Stock and Future PerspectivesInstructor: Rodolphe Durand, Professor of Strategy and Business Policy, HEC Paris, France.
Course Objective: The aim of this seminar is to reflect on the recent expansion of category research in markets. This collection of articles points to categories as social, cognitive, and strategic constructions, accomplishments that result in actors stabilizing their conceptions of who is a member in a market category and what are the consequences of remaining so. It is the purpose of this seminar to acquaint participants with some of the issues of market category creation and development using several lenses to examine the advantages accruing to those who can countervail the imperatives of category membership. Much research in the study of categories in economics, sociology, and strategy assumes away the category definition problem by using conventional or convenient conceptualizations (e.g., formal industrial classifications, industry reports, third parties' aggregations, etc.). This course takes the position that there are many very interesting and important issues that are missed when one assumes that market categories pre-exist competition and strategy in the first place.
The course involves morning and afternoon discussion sessions distributed over four days. Each of the four class days will consist of a morning session in which a collection of articles will be openly discussed among everyone in the course. The purpose of these morning sessions is to introduce conceptual material to fuel analysis and new conceptual development. The afternoon session will involve individual work, small group discussion and group presentations about the key research issues that are suggested by the reading material assigned that day. Thursday's session will differ slightly in that each student will present an idea for an original research project that is suggested by the week's reading and discussions.
The course syllabus and reading material will be made available a few weeks before the start of the course. It is recommended that students begin to read the articles ahead of time and to begin preparation for the article reviews. The course period itself will be highly concentrated and time will be tight.
Dates: April 6-9, 2020
Format: 20hrs, 5 days, 5 ECTS
Tuition:- Participants from HEC Partner/Network Universities: EUR 350
- Participants form other universities: EUR 500
Location: HEC Paris, Campus Jouy en Josas, France
Services: Optional on-campus housing: approximately from EUR 70-90/night, Access to all campus facilities
How to ApplySubmit by email to Britta Delhay (
doctorat@hec.fr), your CV (résumé) and your personal statement (max one page) which includes your current research interests (thesis topic) and contact details of your thesis supervisor .
Application deadline: March 15th, 2020
Attached: Course prospectus
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Olivier Chatain
Associate Professor
PhD Coordinator, Business Policy and Strategy
HEC Paris
Jouy-en-Josas France
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