Max Henri Boisot: an organization scholar and management visionary
Following the two well-attended and successful sessions at the 2012 EGOS Colloquium on the work of the late Max Boisot, the
EGOS Board has decided to establish an annual award relating to his field of scholarship. This award will be funded from the
royalties accruing from a book to be published in early 2013 by Oxford University Press which will be both a memorial to Max's
work and a means of bringing it to a wider readership. The book's editors are John Child (University of Birmingham, UK) and
Martin Ihrig (The Wharton School, USA). Max was a regular participant at EGOS Colloquia, and EGOS is the ideal home for such
an award.
The topic for this award is the knowledge-based study of complex organizations and systems. Contributions in any of the main
areas in which Max Boisot forged new
understanding through a knowledge perspective are eligible for the award, in particular research on organizational complexity,
the strategic management of knowledge, China's business system, and Big Science. The award will recognize an outstanding paper,
and early career scholars (defined as less than five years since their PhD/doctorate) will be given preference. While the
honour and publicity of gaining the award will be the most important consideration, the recipients will also receive 250 Euros
per award.
We hope that the EGOS community will find the prospect of this annual award to be attractive, especially as a means of encouraging further advances in the field that Max Boisot did so much to pioneer.