The Master's Program in Administration at Universidade Paulista began its activities in 1997, being recommended by CAPES in 2005. At the time, under the concentration area titled "Strategy and Its Organizational Formats," the purpose was to analyze and study strategies and organizational networks in their various dimensions. Simultaneously, by contributing to knowledge and the improvement of management, the program developed debates, research, and propositions of theories and models for associations, NGOs, and governments. Two research lines were established: "Organizational Strategy" and "Business Network Management."
The research line "Organizational Strategy" dealt with the reconciliation between the external environment and internal resources, investigating how organizations faced and responded to confronted situations. The research projects were grouped into three central themes, all aligned with the divisions recognized by the Strategic Management Society (SMS) and the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Administration (ANPAD). The research line "Business Network Management" analyzed, critiqued, and expanded the concepts of networks. It developed methodologies to identify, monitor, and evaluate the processes and performance of networks in their various manifestations. The research projects, aligned with the network divisions recognized by international literature and grounded in the works of classical authors such as Granovetter's "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness" (1985), Nohria & Eccles' "Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action" (1992), and Castells' "The Network Society" (2005), were grouped into the themes of Social Approach and Economic Approach in Business Networks.
Over time, respecting the dynamics of Graduate Studies to adapt to the emergence of new areas of knowledge and methodologies that expressed the State of the Art and following the recommendations of the CAPES Area Committee, there was a need to update the Concentration Area and the program's research lines. In 2015, the Program began a transition phase, consolidated in the 2017-2020 quadrennium with the proposal of a new Concentration Area and research lines. The Concentration Area was renamed "Organizational Networks," and under it, two lines were established: "Strategies and Operations in Networks" and "Social Approaches in Networks."
The research line "Strategies and Operations in Networks" assumes that networks are arrangements of organizations aimed at reducing costs and resource dependency for companies. Thus, both the network and each organization within it can be studied. Within this approach, studies on strategies, chains, clusters, and operations in networks are found.
The research line "Social Approaches in Networks," in turn, understands that every organization or set of organizations, regardless of its purpose and/or nature, contains a web (network) of social relationships that directs, influences, and determines the actions, strategies, decisions, and behaviors of the actors. Changes in this web alter processes, governance, and organizational outcomes. Studies in this area seek correspondences between social relationships and other network variables, such as strategy, innovation, production practices, governance, content, structure, dynamics, and results.
Since the change in the concentration area, the Program has held events and activities that consolidate it in its Concentration Area. Evidence can be found, for example, in the leadership of themes at national and international conferences. Additionally, with the purpose of contributing to the training of qualified personnel in underserved regions of the country, the Program began, in September 2019, an interinstitutional master's class—MINTER—in partnership with the Educational Association of Rondônia—UNESC, in the city of Cacoal, Rondônia. The MINTER, approved by CAPES in August 2019 and completed in 2022, had a class of 9 (nine) regular students. In May 2020, the PPGA had its doctoral program recommended by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel—CAPES.
Some numbers that illustrate the Program's evolution are:
- 2013: 6 qualification boards and 6 dissertation defenses held;
- 2014: 7 qualification boards and 9 dissertation defenses held;
- 2015: 12 qualification boards and 5 dissertation defenses held;
- 2016: 32 qualification boards and 27 dissertation defenses held;
- 2017: 14 qualification boards and 18 dissertation defenses held;
- 2018: 15 qualification boards and 14 dissertation defenses held;
- 2020: 19 qualification boards and 8 dissertation defenses held;
- 2021: 14 qualification boards and 25 dissertation defenses held;
- 2022: 5 qualification boards and 8 dissertation defenses held;
- 2023: 10 qualification boards and 7 dissertation defenses held, in addition to 5 qualification boards and 1 doctoral thesis defense;
- 2024: 5 qualification boards and 8 dissertation defenses held, in addition to 5 qualification boards and 3 doctoral thesis defenses.