Date & Time
Wednesday, October 21, 8:30–17:45
Location
Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF)
Wilhelmstraße 67, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Registration Fees
- Non‑Member: $105
- SMS Member: $90
Event Overview
A defining feature of today’s geo-economic landscape is the rapid and uneven transformation of opportunity structures across regions, industries, and social groups. Artificial intelligence and automation are reshaping skill requirements and potentially substituting for traditional “mobility gateway” jobs. Geopolitical realignment and shifting expectations around diversity, equity, and inclusion are altering the institutional environment in which firms design recruitment, promotion, and compensation systems. Meanwhile, deindustrialization and energy transitions are weakening traditional employment paths in “left-behind” regions, fueling political discontent.
This one-day workshop brings together leading scholars and practitioners to examine how organizations and entrepreneurial ecosystems respond strategically to these unequal opportunity structures. Four curated panel discussions and an interactive Research Sprint address how recruitment systems, internal labor markets, and career ladders shape mobility trajectories; when and for whom entrepreneurship functions as a pathway to upward mobility; what evidence organizations and NGOs actually need to design mobility-enhancing strategies; and how declining opportunities relate to populism and democratic resilience.
The Extension is co-organized by Christopher I. Rider (University of Michigan), Leif Brändle (University of Hohenheim), Aleksandra Kacperczyk (London Business School), and Karl Wennberg (Stockholm School of Economics), with practice partners Netzwerk Chancen, Startup-Verband, and Bertelsmann Stiftung. It features scholars from strategy, entrepreneurship, sociology, and political economy alongside practitioners working on social mobility and equitable opportunity in Germany and beyond.
Key Takeaways
Participants will gain:
- Conceptual frameworks for understanding how fragmentation reshapes access to opportunity
- Cross‑national evidence on measuring social mobility using advanced data and methods
- Practitioner perspectives on the evidence needed to design effective mobility programs
- Insight into how opportunity gaps relate to populism and democratic resilience
- Hands‑on experience designing a multi‑method research project during an interactive Research Sprint
- Connections to an international research and practice community
Agenda
08:30–09:00 — Registration and Coffee
9:00–9:15 — Welcome and Framing
Introduction of the Extension theme, its connection to the SMS 2026 Annual Conference and the Six Big Questions of Strategic Management, and an overview of the day’s structure and expected outcomes.
09:15–10:30 — Panel 1: Reimagining Social Mobility In and Around Organizations
How should we conceptualize opportunity structures and mobility pathways in the context of geo-economic fragmentation? What does social mobility look like when traditional career ladders are disrupted by deindustrialization, automation, and shifting institutional environments? When and for whom does entrepreneurship function as a pathway to upward mobility?
10:30–10:45 — Coffee Break
10:45–12:00 — Panel 2: Measuring Mobility: Research Design and Data Frontiers
What are the measurement challenges in studying social mobility across organizational and regional contexts? How do we design studies that capture mobility trajectories across countries, institutions, and career types? Where are the data gaps, and what new methodological approaches can address them?
12:00–13:15 — Lunch and Poster Session
Buffet lunch with poster displays from registered participants presenting work-in-progress on social mobility, organizations, and entrepreneurship. Poster presenters circulate during the full 75-minute window.
13:15–14:30 — Panel 3: From Evidence to Action: Practitioner Perspectives on Equitable Opportunity
What do organizations, NGOs, and foundations actually need from researchers to design mobility-enhancing programs? What evidence gaps exist, and what does actionable research look like from the practitioner side? How can research–practice partnerships generate evidence that changes organizational behavior?
14:30–14:45 — Coffee Break
14:45–16:00 — Panel 4: Mobility, Populism, and Democratic Resilience in a Fragmented Landscape
How do declining or unequally distributed opportunities relate to political discontent, support for populist parties, and democratic backsliding? What role do firms’ nonmarket strategies and community engagement play in regions experiencing mobility risk? How do patterns of spatial inequality, top-earner segregation, and industrial restructuring across countries shape who benefits from economic change and who is left behind?
16:00–17:30 — Research Sprint: “From Evidence Gap to Project in a Page”
Three practice partners — Netzwerk Chancen, Startup-Verband, and Bertelsmann Stiftung — each present a real evidence gap from their work via pre-recorded video pitches. Participants self-select into mixed scholar–practitioner groups of approximately 10–13 people. Each group designs a multi-method research project in real time, using AI tools to produce a scrollable HTML “project page” with a research question, theoretical mechanisms, multi-method design, a conceptual visualization of anticipated results (“Figure 1 from the dream paper”), and a 150-word aspirational abstract.
Each group includes at least one “builder” who translates the group’s ideas into a live webpage using AI-assisted vibecoding (e.g., Claude, Gemini). A gallery wall displays all three project pages updating in real time. The session closes with 4-minute presentations from each group, practice partner responses, and a participant vote on three awards:
- Most Theoretically Ambitious — the project that would most advance the field
- Most Actionable — the project a practice partner would co-fund tomorrow
- Best Picture — the most compelling conceptual visualization of anticipated results
All project pages will be compiled into a “SMS Berlin 2026 Research Sprint Gallery” and shared with participants and practice partners after the event.
17:30–17:45 — Closing Plenary
Synthesis of key insights from the day’s four panels and the Research Sprint. Presentation of draft research and practice priorities on social mobility in and around organizations. Next steps for collaboration between scholars and practice partners, and for engagement with the broader SMS community.
Speakers and Participants
Co-Organizers
- Leif Brändle, Lecturer, University of Hohenheim
- Christopher I. Rider, Thomas C. Kinnear Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, University of Michigan
- Aleksandra (Olenka) Kacperczyk, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School
- Karl Wennberg, Professor, Stockholm School of Economics
Confirmed Panelists
- Ha Hoang, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, ESSEC Business School
- Eric Yanfei Zhao, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
- Martin Hällsten, Professor of Sociology, Stockholm University
- Isabell Stamm, Professor of Sociology, TU Berlin / Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- Janina Sundermeier, Junior Professor of Digital Entrepreneurship and Diversity, Freie Universität Berlin
Confirmed Practice and Policy Partners
- Katrin Janeczka, Managing Director, Netzwerk Chancen
- Alexander Hirschfeld, Team Leader Research, Startup-Verband
- Julia Scheerer & Jennifer Eschweiler, Project Managers, Sustainable Social Market Economy, Bertelsmann Stiftung
Local Partners
- Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF)
- Freie Universität Berlin — via Janina Sundermeier
- TU Berlin — via Isabell Stamm
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- University of Hohenheim
- University of Michigan, Ross School of Business