Research Overview

I am an ethnographer who seeks to understand how the development and use of emerging technologies influences work, occupations, and organizations. I study innovation processes in unique contexts, such as AI development at an elite teaching hospital in China, or a distributed financial organization engaging in cryptocurrency market manipulation online, to identify empirical puzzles that cannot be explained by existing theory. Theoretically, my work contributes to topics in the Carnegie School (e.g., routine dynamics and organizational learning) and the sociology of work and occupations.

I was a finalist in the 2021 INFORMS/Organization Science Dissertation Proposal Competition and winner of the EGOS That’s Interesting! Paper Award 2022.

Publications

Spencer, Bryan, Claus Rerup, and Carlo Salvato. 2023. “Routine Regulation as a Source for Managing Conflict within Alliances: An Integrative Framework.” Industrial and Corporate Change, 32(6), 1333-1351.  https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtad059

Rerup, Claus and Bryan Spencer. “Learning and interpretation in a world of disinformation: Footnotes on ignorance, conflict, and ambiguity.” Scandinavian Journal of Management, 101358.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2024.101358

Spencer, Bryan and Claus Rerup. “The Dynamics of Inferential Interpretation in Experiential Learning: Deciphering Hidden Goals from Ambiguous Experience.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 69(4), 962–1005. https://doi.org/10.1177/00018392241273301

·  Nominated: EGOS Best Student Paper Award 2021

·  Nominated: 2020 Strategic Management Society Annual Conference: Conference Best Paper Prize; Best PhD Paper Prize; Strategy Practice Interest Group Best Paper Prize

Additional information can be found on my CV.