Browning's research areas include the study of narratives, complexity, the role of lists and stories in organizations, information-communication technology, cooperation and competition in organizations, and grounded theory as a research strategy. Browning?s recent work emphasizes narrative theory and the study of complex organizations. His complexity and narrative analyses include a study of SEMATCH, a semiconductor research and testing consortium. In his review of complexity theory and organizational research organizations, Phillip Anderson, in the journal, Organization Science, (1999) calls Browning?s 1995 work on complexity a "pathbreaking example." Professor Browning has also applied complexity theory and narrative to Information/Communication Technologies ICTs (2004), to the study of organizational sensemaking (2005), and to organizational failure (2006).