We are pleased to announce the organization of the 18th edition of the Medici Summer School in Management Studies for doctoral students and young researchers. This year, the Summer School will be hosted by MIT Sloan, from June 21 to June 26, 2026.
The school is organized and sponsored by Bologna Business School (University of Bologna), HEC Paris (Sustainability and Organizations Institute), and the MIT Sloan School of Management (Economic Sociology PhD Program).
Details about the program and the application process are provided below. Please don't hesitate to spread the word!
The Medici Organizing Team
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Mission
The Summer School is designed to promote doctoral education and research in organization theory and related fields (economic sociology, management studies, strategy) and contribute to the development of enlightened practice in the management of business organizations. The Medici Summer School advocates a special focus on cross-fertilizing research across North American and European traditions. The Summer School is a unique educational program for qualified doctoral students interacting with thought leaders in the management field who have shared their knowledge and wisdom on frontier research topics and on how they work to push out that frontier.
This is where the Medici School especially shines. The faculty do not just discuss their "finished products" but will share their "back stage" and developmental experiences behind their work and careers. And other faculty amplify and refine these lessons from their distinctive experiences. And students are at center stage, as they are encouraged to "ask any question" and indeed test out their own ideas about how to identify exciting opportunities and navigate the associated challenges.
The Medici School combines lectures and research seminars by prominent international scholars with active engagement by participating students.
Every day of the one-week program is scheduled to end with the presentation of students' research related to the topic of the School and with a panel of senior faculty providing feedback. There is no fee to participate. Selected candidates will be fully covered in their accommodation expenses provided that they stay the full week. However, transportation is not covered by the organizers.
The Summer School will begin on Sunday June 21 with an informal evening welcome event and will conclude in the afternoon of Friday June 26.
Theme: Sociology Meets Management/Management Meets Sociology
The 2026 Medici Summer School explores the intersection of economic sociology and management (Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Organization Theory). This boundary offers significant opportunities but poses real challenges. The School brings together faculty and students to clarify what makes these opportunities exciting and how to navigate the obstacles. In our research and teaching, the faculty of the Medici School have found numerous opportunities at this intersection, and they have also encountered numerous obstacles. By bringing together a wider array of faculty and students who are also operating at that intersection, the 2026 edition of the Medici School will help clarify the nature of those exciting opportunities and share ideas for how to address the challenges.
One example of the opportunities that have been realized in recent years is the significant line of research at the intersection of entrepreneurship and social mobility. Sociologists and management scholars have shown that entrepreneurship often reproduces rather than disrupts inequality. Who becomes an entrepreneur depends heavily on family wealth, social networks, and access to early-career organizational experiences that build relevant skills. They've documented how geographic clustering creates self-reinforcing advantages, and how the "entrepreneurial path" functions differently across class positions. These findings are driven from sociological attention to structure and context, but are essential for entrepreneurship research.
Another exciting opportunity pertains to how labor market structures, categorical systems and how employment arrangements shape careers and inequality. Examples here include how inequality can be produced at the hiring interface and in work conditions as a result of subtle features of employment institutions and evaluative processes. This research, conducted both by sociologists and management scholars, is key to identifying how entrenched inequalities may be ameliorated.
Yet another set of opportunities are macro and cross-national. What is the role for government, for regulation, and for labor-management relations in producing different outcomes at such macro levels of analysis? Paradoxes abound, with seemingly laissez-faire systems sometimes functioning like managed economies and vice versa. Research at this intersection has also emphasized the role of path-dependence, with national and regional differences persisting over generations, but also highlighted surprising change.
A final example pertains to the innovation and spread of new ideas. Sociologists and management scholars have long made significant and abiding contributions to questions about how new ideas, practices, and technologies emerge despite pressures that reinforce the status quo; how such innovations spread; and how and when they become institutionalized or are discarded. The social structures determining the spread of ideas can have a first order effect on paths of innovation.
The above opportunities are representative of those we will explore at this year's Medici, and we will be alert to recent developments that make it both more urgent and more exciting to realize these opportunities. Whether it is the rise of Artificial Intelligence, the rise of platform-based businesses, or the contested terrain of social identity, there are opportunities at the intersection of management and sociology to make an important contribution.
To say that there are opportunities at this intersection between fields is not to say that it is easy to realize such opportunities. Beyond the usual challenges of doing cutting edge research and getting it published, it can be especially challenging to operate at the intersection of multiple fields.
Program and Faculty
The host faculty members include representatives from the three co-sponsoring institutions and those who have been organizing the Summer School over the years. Host faculty at this year's summer school include Emilio J. Castilla, Georg Rilinger, Nathan Wilmers and Ezra Zuckerman Sivan (MIT); Simone Ferriani (Bologna & Bayes); and Rodolphe Durand (HEC Paris).
In addition to the host faculty, the Summer School will bring together guest faculty who are leading strategy, organizations, sociology, and social psychology scholars. As in prior years, each of these guests has an exciting research agenda that touches on the chosen theme. And they are also chosen to be diverse on multiple dimensions, including empirical application, specific research question, and research methodology. This helps to spark exciting cross-fertilization of ideas that is one of the hallmarks of the Medici experience. Another aspect of that experience is a consistent focus on the research process. Participants gain less from learning about "fully baked" research than from sharing ideas about the "baking process" itself.
Finally, as in 2023, the middle day this year will feature a mini-conference. Given the number and range of scholars in the vicinity of MIT that are doing leading-edge work at the intersection of sociology and management, this day will be devoted to panels that bring together such scholars for stimulating conversation with one another and with the Medici community.
The tentative schedule outline is as follows:
Sunday, June 21: Evening Welcome Reception
Monday June 22: Guest faculty leader: David Pedulla, Harvard
Tuesday, June 23: Guest faculty leader: Monica Prasad, Johns Hopkins
Wednesday, June 24: Thematic panels
Thursday, June 25: Guest faculty leader: Olenka Kacperczyk, London Business School
Friday, June 26: Guest faculty leader: Renate Meyer, WU Vienna
Each guest faculty member will be in residence at the School for at least two days, allowing ample time for one-to-one sessions, knowledge sharing, and networking opportunities.
A typical day (other than Wednesday) will feature a guest faculty member presenting on their research, an integrative session led by a host faculty member that explores links among the guest faculty research, and a workshop in which the host and guest faculty work with students to flesh out their own ideas, both theoretically and empirically.
There will also be organized opportunities to get to know MIT, Boston/Cambridge, and the local innovation ecosystem.
Overall, students will advance in their own research via:
- Exposure to the cutting edge of research in this area
- Open discussion of key challenges experienced by the faculty in their own research
- Direct feedback on how to tackle complex questions of both theory and empirics
Application procedure
The School will admit 20-25 student participants. Applications are welcome from current Ph.D. students in Management, Strategy, Organization Theory, Economic Sociology, and related disciplines from universities worldwide. Students for the Summer School will be selected in accordance with the quality of their doctoral curricula, research interests, and application materials. Applications from students who have completed at least two years of doctoral training will be considered, with preference given to those who have satisfied their course requirements and qualifying exams but have not yet embarked on their dissertation research. Applications from post-docs will also be considered.
There is no application or participation fee. Student participants will be responsible for covering their own travel expenses to and from MIT, but the Summer School will cover accommodation and board expenses during the week of sessions provided that students attend the entire week. Applications should include:
A. A simple statement declaring that the applicant is interested in being considered for admission to the Summer School together with the applicant's contact information: email address, telephone, and mailing address. All of this should be in the body of an email sent to the address below.
B. Curriculum vitae listing educational background, Ph.D. program, scholarly achievements, nationality, etc.
C. A motivation letter (no longer than 1 page) indicating the applicant's current research activities and their specific interest in the theme for the 2026 Summer School.
D. A brief recommendation letter from one faculty member of their dissertation committee.
E. Applicants are also encouraged (but not required) to submit an extended abstract or discussion note that they could present during the Summer School. The Selection Committee will evaluate the relevance of this paper to the 2026 School theme.
All application materials should be sent by March 1st, 2026 exclusively via email to the following address: medici2026@mit.edu with application Medici Summer School in the subject of the email. For any specific inquiry or clarification please also contact medici2026@mit.edu. Admitted candidates will be notified by March 15th, 2026.
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Simone Ferriani
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