Maxim Sytch is a Professor in the Department of Management and Organizations, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. Previously, he was a lecturer in the Department of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. His research explores how networks of relationships among individuals and organizations emerge and shape behaviors and outcomes. This work has explicated the novel dynamics of power, influence, and knowledge creation and transfer in social structures. In his most recent research, he examines how collaborative networked systems can withstand major shocks and disruptions — such as those inflicted by natural and human-made disasters, social and political unrest, wars, and pandemics — and recover from them effectively. He also examines how and under what circumstances professional service organizations can induce demand for their services that are unnecessary for the buyers and can be detrimental to them. 

This research has been published in leading journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, California Law Review, California Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Managerial and Decision Economics, Organization Science, Sloan Management Review, and The Wall Street Journal. His work has also been covered by AsiaOne.com, BBC, BusinessWeek, The Brunei Times, Phys.org, Reuters, and Yahoo News. In addition, his essays appeared in Huffington Post, Inc.com, and the Observer. In 2010, his study examining dynamics of influence in patent infringement litigation won the Best Paper Award from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management. In 2012, another study, which examined the relationship between network communities and firms’ invention productivity, was a finalist for the Best Paper Award at the Israel Strategy Conference. In 2016, his paper on social structures interconnecting lawyers and federal judges in litigation was the finalist for the Best Paper on Entrepreneurship Award from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management. In 2019, his paper on network inequality among inventors was the finalist for the Best Paper Award on Knowledge and Innovation at the Strategic Management Society Conference and in 2021 won the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion research award from the Ross School of Business. 

He serves as an Associate Editor of Administrative Science Quarterly. He won the Outstanding Reviewer Awards from both the Academy of Management Journal and Organization Science. He was recognized as the best reviewer by the Academy of Management eight times. In 2022, Maxim Sytch won the Neary Teaching Excellence award, which recognizes the best instructor in the full-time Ross MBA program; in 2014, he won the Ross Executive Education teaching award for open enrollment programs. Maxim Sytch holds a Ph.D. from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Areas of Expertise: Organization Theory, Economic Sociology, Complex Systems, Law, Collaboration, Conflict, Networks, Interorganizational Relations, Intellectual Property, Organizational Design