William Ocasio
James F. Towey Professor of Business and Leadership and Director of Illinois Strategic Organization Initiative
Contact
311 Wohlers Hall
1206 S Sixth St
Champaign, IL 61820
Listings
Educational Background
- Ph.D., Organizational Behavior, Stanford University, 1992
- M.B.A., General Management, Harvard University, 1984
- B.A., Economics, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, 1976
Positions Held
- Director of ISOI, Illinois Strategic Organization Initiative, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020 to present
- James F. Towey Professor of Business and Leadership, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020 to present
- Professor of Business Administration, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020 to present
- John L. and Helen Kellogg Professor of Management and Organizations, Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2001-2016
Recent Publications
- Joseph, J., Laureiro, D., Nigam, A., Ocasio, W., & Rerup, C. Forthcoming. Research Frontiers on the Attention-Based View of the Firm. Strategic Organization.
- Ocasio, W. (2023). Institutions and their Social Construction: A Cross-Level Perspective. Organization Theory, Sage, 4 (3). link >
Other Publications
Articles
- Ocasio, W., Kraatz, M., & Chandler, D. (2023). Making Sense of Corporate Purpose. Strategy Science, 8 (2), 123-138. link >
- Ocasio, W., Yakis-Douglas, B., Boynton, D., Laamanen, T., Rerup, C., Vaara, E., & Whittington, R. (2023). It's a Different World: A Dialog on the Attention-Based View in a Post-Chandlerian World. Journal of Management Inquiry. link >
- Ocasio, W., & Gai, S. (2020). Institutions: Everywhere But Not Everything. Journal of Management Inquiry, SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA, 29 (3), 262-271. link >
- Ocasio, W., Boynton, D., & Rhee, L. (2020). March and the pursuit of organizational intelligence: the interplay between procedural rationality and sensible foolishness. Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, 29 (1), 225-239.
- Ocasio, W., Pozner, J., & Milner, D. (2020). Varieties of political capital and power in organizations: A review and integrative framework. Academy of Management Annals, Briarcliff Manor, NY, 14 (1), 303--338.
- Bartunek, J., Elsbach, K., Bell, E., Markides, C., Christianson, M., Sutcliffe, K., Pratt, M., Coyle-Shapiro, J., Glynn, M., Ocasio, W., & others, . (2019). Theorizing about an AOM president’s response to crisis and the counter responses it evoked. Journal of Management Inquiry, SAGE Publications, 28 (3), 276--282. link >
- Rhee, L., Ocasio, W., & Kim, T. (2019). Performance feedback in hierarchical business groups: The cross-level effects of cognitive accessibility on R & D search behavior. Organization Science, 30 (1), 51-69. link >
- Ocasio, W., & Joseph, J. (2018). The attention-based view of great strategies. Strategy Science, INFORMS, 3 (1), 289--294.
- Ocasio, W., Laamanen, T., & Vaara, E. (2018). Communication and attention dynamics: An attention-based view of strategic change. Strategic Management Journal, John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd Chichester, UK, 39 (1), 155--167.
- Shepherd, D., Mcmullen, J., & Ocasio, W. (2017). Is that an opportunity? An attention model of top managers' opportunity beliefs for strategic action. Strategic Management Journal, John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd Chichester, UK, 38 (3), 626--644.
- Glynn, M., Lawrence, T., Meyer, R., Ocasio, W., Ometto, M., & Soubli\`ere, Jean-Fran\ccois, . (2016). How Do Institutionalists Matter? Dialogue and Directions from the Closing Plenary', How Institutions Matter. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 48 393--406.
- Ocasio, W., & Radoynovska, N. (2016). Strategy and commitments to institutional logics: Organizational heterogeneity in business models and governance. Strategic Organization, Sage Publications Sage UK: London, England, 14 (4), 287--309.
- Ocasio, W., Mauskapf, M., & Steele, C. (2016). History, society, and institutions: The role of collective memory in the emergence and evolution of societal logics. Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Briarcliff Manor, NY, 41 (4), 676--699.
- Ocasio, W., Loewenstein, J., & Nigam, A. (2015). How streams of communication reproduce and change institutional logics: The role of categories. Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Briarcliff Manor, NY, 40 (1), 28--48.
- Joseph, J., Ocasio, W., & McDonnell, M. (2014). The structural elaboration of board independence: Executive power, institutional logics, and the adoption of CEO-only board structures in US corporate governance. Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Briarcliff Manor, NY, 57 (6), 1834--1858.
- Gavetti, G., Greve, H., Levinthal, D., & Ocasio, W. (2012). The behavioral theory of the firm: Assessment and prospects. Academy of Management Annals, Routledge, 6 (1), 1--40.
- Joseph, J., & Ocasio, W. (2012). Architecture, attention, and adaptation in the multibusiness firm: General electric from 1951 to 2001. Strategic Management Journal, John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd. Chichester, UK, 33 (6), 633--660.
- Loewenstein, J., Ocasio, W., & Jones, C. (2012). Vocabularies and vocabulary structure: A new approach linking categories, practices, and institutions. Academy of Management Annals, Routledge, 6 (1), 41--86.
- Mauskapf, M., Ocasio, W., & Zajac, E. (2011). Dissonance as a Source of Change at the New York Philharmonic, 1842--1928.
- Ocasio, W. (2011). Attention to attention. Organization Science, INFORMS, 22 (5), 1286--1296.
- Nigam, A., & Ocasio, W. (2010). Event attention, environmental sensemaking, and change in institutional logics: An inductive analysis of the effects of public attention to Clinton's health care reform initiative. Organization Science, INFORMS, 21 (4), 823--841.
- Ocasio, W. (2008). A ‘Neo-Carnegie’Perspective on Organizations. The SAGE Handbook of New Approaches in Management and Organization, Sage, 150--152.
- Ocasio, W. (2008). Organizational change. International encyclopedia of organization studies, Sage London, 3 1020--1024.
- Ocasio, W., & Joseph, J. (2008). Rise and fall-or transformation?: The evolution of strategic planning at the General Electric Company, 1940--2006. Long Range Planning, Pergamon, 41 (3), 248--272.
- Thornton, P., Ocasio, W., Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., & Suddaby, R. (2008). The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism. Institutional logics, Sage London, England.
- Britton, M., & Ocasio, W. (2007). Urbanization and spatial organization: hospital and orphanage location in Chicago, 1848--1916. Social forces, The University of North Carolina Press, 85 (3), 1303--1317.
- Gavetti, G., Levinthal, D., & Ocasio, W. (2007). Perspective—Neo-Carnegie: The Carnegie school’s past, present, and reconstructing for the future. Organization Science, INFORMS, 18 (3), 523--536.
- Ocasio, W., & Joseph, J. (2006). Governance Channels and Organizational Design at General Electric: 1950--2001. Organization Design, Springer US, 267--284.
- Ocasio, W. (2005). The opacity of risk: Language and the culture of safety in NASA’s space shuttle program. Organization at the limit: Lessons from the Columbia disaster, Blackwell Publishing Malden, MA, 101--121.
- Ocasio, W., & Joseph, J. (2005). An attention based theory of strategy formulation: Linking decision making and guided evolution in strategy processes. Advances in Strategic Management, 22 39--61.
- Ocasio, W., & Joseph, J. (2005). Cultural adaptation and institutional change: The evolution of vocabularies of corporate governance, 1972--2003. Poetics, North-Holland, 33 (3-4), 163--178.
- Hoffman, A., & Ocasio, W. (2001). Not all events are attended equally: Toward a middle-range theory of industry attention to external events. Organization Science, INFORMS, 12 (4), 414--434.
- Ocasio, W. (2001). How do organizations think. Organizational cognition: Computation and interpretation, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Mahwah, NJ, 39--60.
- Barnett, W., Mischke, G., & Ocasio, W. (2000). The evolution of collective strategies among organizations. Organization Studies, Walter de Gruyter Berlin/New York, 21 (2), 325--354.
- Ocasio, W. (1999). Institutionalized action and corporate governance: The reliance on rules of CEO succession. Administrative Science Quarterly, SAGE Publications, 44 (2), 384--416.
- Ocasio, W., & Kim, H. (1999). The circulation of corporate control: Selection of functional backgrounds of new CEOs in large US manufacturing firms, 1981--1992. Administrative Science Quarterly, SAGE Publications, 44 (3), 532--562.
- Thornton, P., & Ocasio, W. (1999). Institutional logics and the historical contingency of power in organizations: Executive succession in the higher education publishing industry, 1958--1990. American journal of Sociology, The University of Chicago Press, 105 (3), 801--843.
- Ocasio, W. (1997). Towards an attention-based view of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd 18 (S1), 187--206.
- Ocasio, W. (1995). The enactment of economic adversity: A reconciliation of theories of failure-induced change and threat-rigidity. Research in organizational behavior, JAI Press, 17 287--331.
- Ocasio, W. (1994). Boards as normative arenas: corporate governance and the routines of CEO selection.
- Ocasio, W. (1994). Environmental selection and organizational structuring: steps toward a theory of inertia and adaptation in organizations.
- Ocasio, W. (1994). Political dynamics and the circulation of power: CEO succession in US industrial corporations, 1960-1990. Administrative Science Quarterly, Cornell University Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, 285--312.
- Mann, A., & Ocasio, W. (1978). Patterns of Income Concentration over Time in Puerto Rico: A Curvilinear Regression Model. Eastern Economic Journal, JSTOR, 4 (3/4), 177--184.
- Mann, A., & Ocasio, W. (1975). La distribution del ingreso en Puerto Rico: una nueva dimension. Revista de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 19 (1), 3--23.
Book Chapters
- Radoynovska, N., Ocasio, W., & Laasch, O. (2020). The emerging logic of responsible management: Institutional pluralism, leadership, and strategizing. Research Handbook of Responsible Management Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Ocasio, W., , L., & , D. (2019). Attention, Knowledge, and Organizational Learning. Handbook on Group and Organizational Learning Oxford University Press.
- Ocasio, W., Thornton, P., & Lounsbury, M. (2017). Advances to the institutional logics perspective. The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism ( pp. 509--531). SAGE Publications Ltd.
- Glynn, M., Lawrence, T., Meyer, R., Ocasio, W., Ometto, M., & Soubliere, J. (2016). How do institutionalists matter? Dialogue and directions from the closing plenary. Research in the Sociology of Organizations ( vol. 48A, pp. 393-406). link >
- Pouthier, V., Steele, C., & Ocasio, W. (2013). From agents to principles: The changing relationship between hospitalist identity and logics of health care. Institutional Logics in Action, Part A Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
- Ocasio, W. (2012). Situated attention, loose and tight coupling, and the garbage can model. The garbage can model of organizational choice: Looking forward at forty Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
- Thornton, P., & Ocasio, W. (2008). Institutional logics. The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism Sage.
Book Reviews
- Ocasio, W. (2022). Carnegie Goes to California: Advancing and Celebrating the Work of James G. March. ( 4 ed vol. 67, pp. NP80-NP84). Administrative Science Quarterly. link >
Conference Proceedings
- Boynton, D., & Ocasio, W. (2019). Business Models: Toolkits for Sensemaking in a Post-Chandlerian Economy. Academy of Management Proceedings ( 1 ed vol. 2019, pp. 15967).
- DANI\cSMAN, A, ., & Ocasio, W. (2012). Globalization vs. Societal Sectors: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Health Care Financing in OECD Countries ˜ - 28th European Group for Organizational Studies. 28th European Group for Organizational Studies Conference.
- Ocasio, W., & Thornton, P. (2006). CORPORATE HIERARCHIES IN MARKETS: THE EFFECTS OF STRUCTURE AND STRATEGY ON ORGANIZATIONAL SURVIVAL Academy of Management Proceedings ( 1 ed vol. 2006, pp. K1--K6).
- Joseph, J., & Ocasio, W. (2005). And then there were none: Political settlements of insider board membership. Academy of Management Proceedings.
- Ocasio, W., & Pozner, J. (2005). Beyond dependence: A political capital perspective on power in organizations. annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA.
Other Publications
- Thornton, P., Ocasio, W., & Lounsbury, M. (2012). The institutional logics perspective. Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences: an interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resource.
- Ocasio, W. (2002). Organizational power and dependence. ( pp. 363--385). Companion to organizations.
- Ocasio, W. (1992). Organizational change under economic adversity: a theoretical formulation and empirical application to CEO succession [microform]. Stanford University.
Presentations
- Ocasio, W. (2023). Attention Based View, Carnegies School, and Behavioral Strategy. 2024 Annual Meeting of the Strategic Management Society, Strategic Management Society.
- Ocasio, W. (2023). Attentional Control through Institutions, Organizations, Management, and Algorithms. 2023 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AoM), Organization and Management Theory Division of AoM.
- Ocasio, W. (2023). Connections and Opportunities for Integration Between Carnegie Perspective and Institutional Logics. 2023 Academy of Management Annual Conference, Academy of Management.
- Ocasio, W. (2023). Hierarchy and the Changing Nature of Organizations. 2023 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Academy of Manaagement.
- Ocasio, W. (2023). Panel on Corporate Purpose. 2023 Oxford Conference on Corporate Reputation, Oxford Center for Corporate Reputation.
- Ocasio, W. (2022). The Dynamics of Corporate Reputation: An Attention-Based View. Oxford Conference on Reputation, Oxford University.
- Ocasio, W. (2022). Back to the Future:Institutional Change, the Firm’s Political Coalition, and the Changing Goals of the Firm. Academy of Management Annual Conferencd.
- Ocasio, W. (2022). Organizational Intelligence. Academy of Management AnnualMeeting.
- Ocasio, W. (2022). Organizational Attention. Carnegie School of Organizational Learning.
- Ocasio, W., & Kraatz, M. (2022). Corporate Purpose. ISOI Conference on Corporate Purpose, ISOI, GIes College of Business.
- Ocasio, W. (2020). Legitimacy Contests and Neoliberal Reforms in Mexico's Energy Sector: An Institutional Logics Perspective. Speaker Series, Organizational Behavior Area, Gies College of Business.
- Ocasio, W. (2019). Legitimacy Contests and Neoliberal Reforms in Mexico's Energy Sector: An Institutional Logics Perspective. Distinguished Scholar, University of Melbourne.
- Ocasio, W. (2018). Business Models in IPOs: A Toolkit for Strategic Communications in Post-Chandlerian Firms. Department Speaker Series, Management Department, University of Minnessota.
- Ocasio, W. (2018). Legitimacy Contests and Neoliberal Reforms in Mexico's Energy Sector: An Institutional Logics Perspective. Speaker Series, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Technical Reports
- Ocasio, W., & Wohlgezogen, F. (2010). Attention and control. Working Paper.
- Kim, H., & Ocasio, W. (1995). Investor exit, investor voice: Institutional investor, performance monitoring, and CEO succession. Working paper, Northwestern University.
Working Papers
- Zhang, H., & Ocasio, W. Institutional Logics at the Organizational Core: Power-Dependence and Legitimating Behaviors in China's Emerging Civil Sector.
Honors and Awards
- Fellow of the Academy of Management, Academy of Management, 2024 to present
- 2023 Organization and Management Theory Division Distinguished Scholar, Organization and Management Theory Division, Academy of Management, 2023 to present
- Distinguished Faculty Recruitment Program, University of Illinois System, 2020 to present
- Fellow of the Oxford Corporate Reputation Center, Oxford University, Corporate Reputation Center, 2023-2026
- Dean's Impact Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2021
Grants
- Attentional Control and Organizational Intelligence, Gies College of Business, 2024-2026
- Natural Language Processing of Shield Illinois Emails, National Supercomputer Center, 2023-2024
- Attentional Dynamics at Shield Illinois, Gies College of Business, 2023-2015
- Distinguished Faculty Recruitment Program, University of Illinois System, 2020-2025
Service
- Co-Editor, Special Issue on Corporate Purpose, Strategy Science, 2022 to present
- Associate Editor, Journal of Organizational Design, 2020 to present
- Editorial Board, Organization Science, 2017 to present
- Co-Editor Special Issue on the Attention-Based View of the Firm: Past, Present, and Future, Strategic Organization, 2021-2024
Teaching Interests
Organization Behavior and Theory
Business and Leadership
Organizational Purpose
Strategic Organization Design
Research Interests
Organizational Attention
Institutional Theory
Corporate Purpose
Organizational Intelligence
Current Courses
-
Designing and Managing Orgs (BADM 312) Understanding of complex organizations; particular attention to ways of dividing work, achieving coordination, and issues connected with change and adaptation.
-
Founds of Organizational Behav (BADM 510) Introduction to the principal theories and important empirical research in various disciplines that study organizations; in addition to examination of the subject matter content of various disciplines, students critically examine the capacities and limitations of the various fields to make contributions to the study of organizations.
-
Institutional Theory (BADM 590) Special topics in the general area of business. Topics are selected by the instructor at the beginning of each term.
Contact
311 Wohlers Hall
1206 S Sixth St
Champaign, IL 61820