William Richard Scott is an American sociologist, and Emeritus Professor at Stanford University, specialised in institutional theory and organisation science.
Education
Born in Parsons, Kansas to Charles H. Scott and Hildegarde Hewil, Scott received his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago, and has received honorary doctorates from the Copenhagen School of Business (2000), the Helsinki School of Economics and Business (2001), and Aarhus University in Denmark (2010).
Career
He is known for his research on the relation between organizations and their institutional environments. Scott has spent his entire professional career at Stanford, serving as chair of the Sociology Department (1972–1975), as director of the Training Program on Organizations and Mental Health (1972–1989), and as director of the Stanford Center for Organizations Research (1988–1996). Since 1997 he is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology with courtesy appointments in the Graduate School of Business, Graduate School of Education, and School of Medicine at Stanford University.
Scott was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine in 1975.
Scott served as editor of the Annual Review of Sociology (1987–1991), and as president of the Sociological Research Association (2006–2007). In 2000, the Section on Organization, Occupations and of the American Sociological Association created the West. Richard Scott Award to annually recognize an outstanding article-length contribution to the field