“I enjoyed both history and physics,” Argyres says. “So I chose to study economics, which I thought was sort of a nice compromise. It was the more science-y social science.”

Argyres, PhD, the Vernon W. and Marion K. Piper Professor of Strategy at Olin Business School, still straddles two worlds, balancing his role as professor and researcher with his position as senior associate dean of faculty.

Argyres’ academic research focuses on economic theories of the firm, organizational economics and technology management.

But he still uses his social science skills as dean to help recruit, evaluate and promote Olin faculty members.

Born in Massachusetts, Argyres grew up in Plattsburg, N.Y. He moved to California in high school before heading to the University of California, Los Angeles, to study economics.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in economics cum laude from UCLA in 1986, Argyres went to the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a doctorate in economics, with a concentration in the economics of organizations and international economics. His dissertation was titled “Essays on Technology Strategy and Organization.”

Following stints at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and the Boston University School of Management, Argyres arrived at WUSTL in 2008.

His current research interests include strategy and structure, contracting and inter-organizational arrangements, strategy and the institutional environment, and organizational politics.

Focus on research

“My research focuses on why companies will decide to do a certain activity themselves versus contracting with an outside company,” Argyres says. “That leads to several questions about designing contracts and managing an alliance with an outside company.

“However, doing a project in-house also leads to questions about organizing it and if that organization is centralized or de-centralized.”

Argyres teaches a course in the Professional MBA program on organizational design and an undergraduate course on business strategy. He has taught doctoral seminars in the past. Next year, he is slated to teach an MBA day class on critical thinking and integration.

“I’m in the process of designing that course now,” Argyres says. “It will be aimed at getting students to do more practice of their critical thinking skills during the first semester.

“It will be more than a lecture course,” he says. “I’ll be coaching them on communication, critical thinking and how to integrate the different business functions they study — marketing, finance, strategy — while examining real-world business situations. I hope to improve their sense of sophistication about analyzing business situations.”

The business of a business school

While research and teaching are a large focus of his job, Argyres also serves as senior associate dean of faculty at Olin.

In that role, he helps the school in recruiting new faculty members and with evaluating and promoting current faculty.

“I meet with the various areas of the school to help coordinate their recruiting plans,” Argyres says. “I meet with all of the faculty members we are trying to hire, and I help decide which faculty we do hire. I also lead the committee that is in charge of evaluating the junior faculty members.”

Olin Business School continues to be a highly regarded destination for potential faculty members.

“We hired quite successfully this academic year,” Argyres says. “We had seven positions open and we filled six of them. We’re very proud of that. It’s not so easy to hire business school faculty when you are going for the really top-notch people. We go for the best, which means we are competing with Harvard, Wharton, Michigan and others.”

He says one new faculty member in the strategy section had six other job offers, but chose to come to Olin. “That’s pretty good,” Argyres says.

The school has 64 tenure and tenure-track faculty members, 15 full-time lecturers and several part-time faculty members.

“We are actually a school that is relatively small for our ranking,” Argyres says. “Other schools similar to us, like USC and Duke, private schools that rank in the top 25, will have 90 or 100 faculty members. Our smaller size helps professors better know their students.”

The school continues to grow, and Argyres says hiring the best faculty members will continue to be a top priority.

“We have very, very high-quality faculty members at Olin,” he says. “One of the things that attracted me here, and something that is pretty unique about the Olin school, is that almost every single faculty member is very active in research and on the cutting edge of their field.

“At many other schools, including some of the very top ones, you might have professors who got famous several years ago and are not so currently active any longer,” he says. “That is not the case here. Our faculty members regularly get offers from higher ranking schools. It’s a blessing and a curse, but we do quite well.”

Great students

Argyres says Olin students are among the best in the nation as well.

“I find the undergraduates to be strong, motivated and interested in learning,” he says. “They are very involved in non-academic activities. The evening students bring a wealth of real-world experience to the classroom.”

Argyres thinks the university as a whole is a very soundly managed place.

“WUSTL has done a great job of conservatively managing itself financially,” he says. “We came through the crisis with flying colors. We didn’t overextend ourselves on building, and we do it without big-time Division I sports, which is very impressive.”

He also thinks quite highly of the Olin Business School.

“It’s very collegial here,” he says. “Faculty members get along very well, which is not always the case. That makes my job much easier. There are great faculty resources here.”

Argyres’ wife, Laura, is pursuing a master’s degree in education. The couple has two children: Sophie, 15, and Aaron, 13.

When Argyres isn’t teaching and working with faculty, he enjoys playing tennis with colleagues. He also likes to play squash, piano and chess.

Recently, Argyres has been highly involved with the Academy of Management, the leading professional association for scholars dedicated to creating and disseminating knowledge about management and organizations.

Argyres was elected program chair for the group’s national meeting last year and will become chair of the business strategy division in August. Founded in 1936, the academy now includes more than 18,000 members from 110 countries.

“Nick is a marvelous colleague,” says Jackson A. Nickerson, PhD, the Frahm Family Professor of Organization & Strategy. “From the get-go, Nick has been willing to step up and support the Olin community in a variety of ways, including his new role as the senior associate dean of faculty.

“He adds greatly to Olin’s environment of collegiality and conversation that contribute to making any organization great,” Nickerson says.

Fast facts about Nick S. Argyres

Title: The Vernon W. and Marion K. Piper Professor of Strategy and senior associate dean of faculty at Olin Business School
Family: Wife, Laura, and two children: daughter, Sophie, 15, and son, Aaron, 13
Hobbies: Tennis, squash, piano and chess