Research
My research addresses the theoretical and methodological challenges involved with studying how social and economic systems change. I am especially interested in understanding how individual actions aggregate into organization- and market-level outcomes; and in turn, how those emergent outcomes influence individual action and decision-making. I pursue this interest by investigating managerial and policy problems through a mixture of methods, and draw heavily on the ideas and tools of the emerging field of complex systems (for more, please see my complex systems and network analysis pages).
For example, my dissertation utilized a combination of social network analysis, computational modeling, statistical inference, and case analysis to investigate why it is so difficult for new ideas to take hold and have impact in troubled schools and school districts. This included investigating how individual action aggregates to organizational-level resistance to change; modeling how household preferences connect to market-level competition and innovation; and empirically estimating the magnitude of group-level influence on individual academic performance.
I also have a methodological interest in improving ways of integrating the benefits of computational methods with traditional quantitative and qualitative approaches. This includes using simulations of complex systems in laboratory settings to elicit individual-level preferences and decision-making rules. It also includes using computational modeling to gain insight into problems that arise as a result of temporarily ignoring the dynamics of heterogeneous agents in order to draw statistical inference – problems given labels such as endogeneity, identification, and confounding variables.
My work has been published in Science, Teachers College Record, and the Journal of Mathematical Economics, and is currently under review at Organization Science and Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Conferences where I have presented my research include the Academy of Management, the American Sociological Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the Sunbelt Social Network Analysis Conference. I also review articles for a variety of journals including Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Journal of the Learning Sciences, Journal of Mathematical Sociology, and Sociology of Education.
Publications
Maroulis, S., Guimera, R., Petry, H., Gomez, L., Amaral, L.A.N., Wilensky, U. (Forthcoming). “Complex Systems View of Educational Policy Research.” Science.
Maroulis, S. & Gomez, L. (2008). “Does ‘Connectedness’ Matter? Evidence from a Social Network
Analysis within a Small School Reform.” Teachers College Record, Vol. 110, Issue 9.
Papers Under Review
The Conspiracy of Organizational Change: A Complex Systems Perspective on School Reform
The Robustness of Inferences from Randomized and Quasi-Experiments
Patents
“Board Game for Teaching Project Management Skills.” US Patent #6237915 B1. Issued May 29, 2001
Book Chapters
Colyvas, J.A. & Maroulis, S. Academic Laboratories and the Reproduction of Proprietary Science: Modeling Organizational Rules through Autocatalytic Networks. Forthcoming in Padgett, J. and Powell, W.W. (eds.), The Emergence of Organizations and Markets.
Frank, K., Maroulis, S., Belman, D., & Kaplowitz, M. “The Social Embeddedness of Natural Resource Extraction and Use in Small Fishing Communities.” Forthcoming in Taylor, W. and Schechter, M. (eds.), Sustainable Fisheries: Multi-level Approaches to a Global Problem.
Work In Progress
Modeling Market-Based Reform in Education
Collective Problem Solving on Small World Networks (Laboratory Experiments)
Using the Counterfactual to Quantify the Robustness of Causal Inferences
Please see my current vita for a complete list of work that includes conference papers and invited talks.
