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Professor Sharique Hasan, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University delivered a talk on the topic ‘Conversational Peers and Idea Generation: Evidence from a Field Experiment’ at IIM Indore on December 22, 2015.
Professor Sharique Hasan’s talk revolved around his research where he has been examining the social determinants of high quality ideas. He mentioned how innovative ideas are developed in an individual and transferred across a team; which in turn creates innovative products. ‘Innovative thinking is important not only in fields like teaching or technology, but also in mundane areas, for one to grow in his career not only as an individual but also along with the team he works with’, he noted.
Professor Hasan mentioned how networks are important throughout the innovative trajectory, comprising of quality, quantity and diffusion of information, finding talents and funding; all of which involve conversation, formal collaboration, co-working and exposure to new perspective. ‘Conversation is the most important mechanism for any network as it helps in transferring information, sharing references and perspectives and also critique. Although conversations are the hardest to study because they are unstructured have a high range of variation’, Professor Hasan mentioned.
Professor Hasan also discussed about various factors affecting innovative thinking and what can be done to help create a better idea both at individual as well as team level.
The talk concluded with a Q&A session wherein Professor Hasan interacted with the participants and answered their queries related to research. The talk was attended by faculty and FPM participants of IIM Indore.
About Professor Hasan
Prof. Hasan’s research interests are in the areas of social networks, work, entrepreneurship, labour markets and organizational design. He is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Professor Hasan received his BS in Computer Science and Philosophy from Rutgers College in New Jersey, an MS in Public Policy and Management and his PhD in Organizational Theory and Management from Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College. His doctoral dissertation, “Social Networks, Stratification and Careers in Organizations” won the Herbert A. Simon Doctoral Dissertation Award in the Administrative Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University. His research has been published or is forthcoming in Organization Science, Management Science, the American Sociological Review, and Administrative Science Quarterly.