16313: Cultivating Talent: Integrating Structured Training and Experiential Learning

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

15:30 - 17:00 CEST (GMT+2)

Location: Bella Center: Hall C- C4-m3

Session Type: Symposium (panel)
Orientation: Practice,Research
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/pM63GP

Moderator(s)

ML

Megan Lawrence

Vanderbilt University, United States
VB

Victor M. Bennett

The University of Utah, United States

Panelist(s)

MB

Matthew James Bidwell

U. of Pennsylvania, United States
RC

Russell Coff

Wisconsin School of Business, United States
DK

David Kryscynski

Rutgers U., School of Management and Labor Relations, United States
MM

Myriam Mariani

Bocconi University, Italy
SS

Scott A. Snell

U. of Virginia, United States

Firms' access to critical resources, particularly talent, are a key factor in achieving and sustaining a competitive advantage, and firms go to great lengths to design systems and processes to try to successfully source and aggregate human capital. To that end, firms generally pursue two types of strategies to access the needed talent – the pursuit of expertise to identify and hire existing talent or the development of talent pipelines internally. This panel aims to reflect on the latter strategy – the development of a talent pipeline. Specifically, we bring together scholars with research across two dominant tools used by firms for skill acquisition and development: (1) deliberate, structured training and (2) experience-driven position-based learning. By highlighting the intersections and distinctions between targeted training and learning-by-doing, the session will provide attendees with a deeper understanding of how these approaches can be leveraged to build talent effectively. Through this discussion, we hope to bridge gaps in current research, foster innovation in methodologies, and contribute to the evolving discourse on human capital’s critical role in strategy.