Ben Shields
Yvonne Patterson
yvonnecp@mit.edu
Building E62-337
SHIELDSB@MIT.EDU
Senior Lecturer, Managerial Communication
01. Biography
01.Biography
02.Publications
03.Articles & Press
Academic Groups
Managerial Communication
Academic Area
Behavioral and Policy Sciences
Ben Shields is a Senior Lecturer in Managerial Communication at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He studies the multibillion-dollar sports industry to identify broadly transferable management lessons in areas such as leadership communication, data-driven decision making, and innovation.
He is the author or coauthor of three books, Social Media Management: Persuasion in Networked Culture (Oxford University Press, 2016), The Sports Strategist: Developing Leaders for a High Performance Industry (Oxford University Press, 2015), and The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace (McGraw-Hill, 2006).
He teaches a number of courses in the graduate programs at MIT Sloan, including Communication for Leaders, Social Media Management, Sloan Fellows Seminar on Leadership, and a new course on sports management and analytics that will be offered in spring 2020.
Shields also teaches in the MIT Sloan Executive Education program. He is the Faculty Director of two programs: the Formula 1 Extreme Innovation Series and the Global Executive Academy. He also serves as the CoFaculty Director of the LEAD20@MIT program with the Ruderman Family Foundation. In addition, he created and teaches the open enrollment program Analytics Management: Business Lessons from the Sports Data Revolution. Shields also teaches in two other open enrollment programs: Communication and Persuasion in the Digital Age and Maximizing Your Personal Productivity.
His other sports work at MIT includes co-hosting "Counterpoints," the sports analytics podcast from the MIT Sloan Management Review, and teaching in the MIT Sports Entrepreneurship Bootcamp program, which is offered through MIT's Office of Open Learning.
Prior to MIT, Shields served as the Director of Social Media and Marketing at ESPN. He oversaw social media strategy for the ESPN brand and collaborated across the enterprise to develop and implement company-wide social strategy. He also worked on marketing strategy for several ESPN brands and sub-brands, including the SportsCenter "DaDaDa" campaign and the Emmy Award-winning "It's Not Crazy, It's Sports" brand campaign.
Shields holds a BS and MA in communication studies and a PhD in media, technology, and society, all from Northwestern University.
Shields wins teaching award
Ben Shields has won a 2020 Teaching with Digital Technology Award from MIT for his work teaching on campus and/or remotely. Shields won the award along with fellow Sloan faculty members Kara Blackburn, Vivek Farias, Michelle Hanlon, Alexandre Jacquillat, Miro Kazakoff, and Rodrigo Verdi. These student-nominated awards recognize faculty and instructors who have used digital technology to improve teaching and learning for MIT students. This recognition also gives the MIT community the opportunity to learn from their innovative practices. The awards were co-sponsored by MIT Open Learning and the Office of the Vice Chancellor. This year, students submitted a total of 487 nominations for 232 faculty and instructors, and 30 winners were selected by Dean of Digital Learning Krishna Rajagopal and Vice Chancellor Ian Waitz, with help from MIT Open Learning staff.
Social Media Management: Persuasion in Networked Culture.
Shields, Ben. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016.
The Sports Strategist: Developing Leaders in a High-Performance Industry.
Rein, Irving, Ben Shields, and Adam Grossman. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014.
​The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace.
Rein, Irving, Philip Kotler, and Ben Shields. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education, 2014.
How the National Women's Soccer League thrived in the pandemic
The NWSL was the first professional sports league to return to action during the pandemic and the first to crown a champion. It succeeded in reaching larger audiences and expanding to new markets.
From professional sports, 3 diversity insights
A workshop taught by two MIT Sloan experts explores race and gender in sports, drawing insights for diversity efforts in business management.
Press Source: Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal
MIT Sloan program puts real-world racial, gender issues on table
Last month, MBA students at the MIT Sloan School of Management explored issues of race and gender in sports.
Faculty: Ray Reagans Ben Shields
Press Source: Los Angeles Daily News
How will spectator sports look after COVID-19?
"We are, as an industry, forced to redefine what it means to attend a sporting event."
Faculty: Ben Shields
Press Source: KNSD-TV (Video)
NBC 7 News at 6
"All we have right now as fans is a digital experience," says [Senior Lecturer Ben] Shields.
Press Source: Sports Business Journal | SBJ Unpacks (Podcast)
The road ahead: Innovation in sports with Ben Shields
Ben Shields discusses how the sports industry can survive the pandemic and in what ways innovation can reshape the sports industry.