Patricia H. Thornton is an American organizational theorist, and Grand Challenge Initiative Professor of Sociology and Entrepreneurship at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

as well as Adjunct Associate Professor of Business Administration at the

Fuqua School of Business The Duke University Fuqua School of Business (pronounced ) is the business school of Duke University, a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina. It enrolls more than 1,300 students in degree-seeking programs. Du ...

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. She is known for her work on "the sociology of entrepreneurship" and "the Institutional Logics Perspective."

Life and work

Thornton obtained her PhD in sociology in 1993 at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. Her committee was

W. Richard Scott William Richard Scott (born December 18, 1932) is an American sociologist, and Emeritus Professor at Stanford University, specialised in institutional theory and organisation science. He is known for his research on the relation between organiz ...

, John Meyer,

Jeffrey Pfeffer Jeffrey Pfeffer (born July 23, 1946, St. Louis, Missouri) is an American business theorist and the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Biography Pfeffer graduated high school from th ...

, and Nancy Tuma, and her dissertation was "Acquisition Growth of College Publishing, 1958-1990." One of her first publications to come out of her dissertation research was "The problem of boundaries in contemporary research on organizations," co-authored with Nancy Tuma and which won the best paper award from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the

Academy of Management An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the g ...

. After graduation Thornton was visiting scholar in Organizational Behavior at

INSEAD INSEAD ( ; French: ''Institut européen d'administration des affaires'') is a non-profit business school with locations in Europe (Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE) and North America (San Francisco, USA ...

, and visiting scholar in Management Science and Engineering at

. At Duke University Fuqua School of Business she is appointed adjunct professor and is affiliated with its Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She was also visiting associate professor at

's Department of Sociology. In 2015 Thornton became Grand Challenge Initiative Professor of Sociology and Entrepreneurship at

where she currently teaches "The Social Science of Entrepreneurship." Thornton's research interests are in the fields of "organization theory, innovation and entrepreneurship, and the social and cultural factors promoting entrepreneurship... pecificallyin developing the Action Learning Approach for teaching entrepreneurship using live business plans, entrepreneurs, and investors."

Selected publications

* Thornton, Patricia H., William Ocasio, and Michael Lounsbury. ''The institutional logics perspective: A new approach to culture, structure, and process.'' Oxford University Press, 2012. Articles, a selection: * Thornton, Patricia H.
The sociology of entrepreneurship
" Annual Review of Sociology (1999): 19–46. * Thornton, Patricia H., and William Ocasio.
Institutional logics and the historical contingency of power in organizations: Executive succession in the higher education publishing industry, 1958-1990 1
" ''American journal of Sociology'' 105.3 (1999): 801–843. * Thornton, Patricia H., and William Ocasio.
Institutional logics
" The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism 840 (2008): 99–128.

References

External links

Patricia H. Thornton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Patricia H. 1960s births Living people American business theorists American sociologists American women sociologists Stanford University alumni Duke University faculty 21st-century American women Year of birth missing (living people)