- PhD, Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1964
- MS, Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1959
- AB, Harvard College, 1956
William Starbuck is visiting professor at the Lundquist College of Business of the University of Oregon and professor emeritus at New York University. He received his MS and PhD in industrial administration at Carnegie Institute of Technology, after receiving an AB in physics at Harvard. He has also been awarded honorary doctorates by universities in Stockholm, Paris, and Aix-en-Provence. Earlier, he held faculty positions in economics, sociology, or management at Purdue University, the Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and New York University, as well as visiting positions in universities and business schools in Australia, England, France, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. As well, he was a senior research fellow at the International Institute of Management in Berlin.
He has been the editor of Administrative Science Quarterly; he chaired the screening committee for senior Fulbright awards in business management; he directed the doctoral program in business administration at New York University, and he was the President of the Academy of Management. He has been elected a fellow of the Academy of Management, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, the British Academy of Management, and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
He has published more than 170 articles on accounting, bargaining, business strategy, computer programming, computer simulation, forecasting, decision making, human-computer interaction, learning, organizational design, organizational growth and development, perception, scientific methods, and social revolutions. He has also authored two books and edited seventeen books, including the Handbook of Organizational Design, which was chosen the best book on management published during the year ending May 1982.
- Decision making
- Management
- Organization
- Organization design
- Organizational learning
- Perceptions
- Statistical methods
- Strategizing
- Better ways to teach strategic management
- Trends in research methods