William Richard Scott (born December 18, 1932) is an American sociologist, and Emeritus Professor at Stanford University, specialised in institutional theory and organisation science.

[1][2] Born in Parsons, Kansas to Charles H. Scott and Hildegarde Hewil, Scott received his PhD from the University of Chicago under Peter Blau,[3] 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).

In 2013 he received the Distinguished Educator Award from the same Division; and in 2015, he was named the Eminent Scholar of the Year by the Academy of International Business.

In 2000, the Section on Organization, Occupations and Work of the American Sociological Association created the W. Richard Scott Award to annually recognize an outstanding article-length contribution to the field.

During the past three decades, he has concentrated his writing and research on the relation between organizations and their institutional environments.