Gerald Fredrick (Jerry) Davis (born 1961) is an American sociologist and the Gilbert and Ruth Whitaker Professor of Business Administration at the University of Michigan, known for his work on corporate networks,[1] social movements[2] and organization theory.
[3][4] Davis obtained his AB in philosophy and psychology at the University of Michigan in 1984, his MA in Sociology from Stanford University, and his PhD in Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1990.
In the year 1997–98, he served as a research fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California.
[citation needed] Davis described his research interests as "broadly concerned with the effects of finance on society".
Recent writings examine how ideas about corporate social responsibility have evolved to meet changes in the structures and geographic footprint of multinational corporations; whether "shareholder capitalism" is still a viable model for economic development; how income inequality in an economy is related to corporate size and structure; why theories about organizations do (or do not) progress; how architecture shapes social networks and innovation in organizations; why stock markets spread to some countries and not others; and whether there exist viable organizational alternatives to shareholder-owned corporations in the United States.