Publications

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2019
Chapter

Blacks Leading Whites: How Mutual and Dual (Ingroup and Outgroup) Identification Affect Inequality

By: Lumumba Babushe Seegars and Lakshmi Ramarajan

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September 2020
Teaching Plan

Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship

By: George Serafeim

Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques had spent the summer between their first and second years of their MBA program fund raising for their start-up venture capital (VC) firm, Harlem Capital Partners. Harlem Capital was founded upon the principle that addressing the... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital Firm Compensation; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurial Financing; Black Entrepreneurs; Black Leadership; Black Inventors; Inclusion; Minority-owned Businesses; Race And Ethnicity; Race Characteristics; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Diversity; Race; Gender; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry; United States

October 2019
Case

Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship (A)

By: George Serafeim and David Freiberg

Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques had spent the summer between their first and second years of their Harvard Business School MBA program fund raising for their start-up venture capital (VC) firm, Harlem Capital Partners. Harlem Capital was founded upon the... View Details

2011
Working Paper

Inside the Black Box of the Corporate Staff: An Exploratory Analysis Through the Lens of E-Mail Networks

The corporate staff is central in theories of the multi-business firm, but empirical evidence on its function is limited. In this paper, we examine the high-level role of two units of a corporate staff through analysis of electronic communications. We find sharp... View Details

Keywords: Theory; Business Ventures; Internet and the Web; Communication; Employment; Management Teams; Networks

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2021
Working Paper

Organizing in the Shadows of White Hegemony: Comparing How Black versus Asian Employees Collectively Contest Racial Marginalization in the Workplace

By: Lumumba Babushe Seegars

February 2022
Teaching Note

AptDeco: Circular Economy Furniture Marketplace

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-069. AptDeco, a used furniture marketplace, was growing rapidly in the tri-state area. The co-founders were confident that the business model, financial position, and unit economics positioned AptDeco for scaling in the massive $120... View Details

Keywords: E-Commerce Strategy; Mobile; Word-of-Mouth; Word Of Mouth; Word-of-mouth Marketing; Internet Marketing; Growth Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Two Sided Markets; Two-sided Market; Two-sided Marketplace; Two-Sided Markets; Two-sided Network; Black Entrepreneurs; Black Leadership; African Americans; African-American Protagonist; Circular; Peer-to-peer Markets; Furniture Industry; Growth Hacking; Monetization Strategy; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Acquisition; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Expansion; Brands and Branding; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; North America; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US)

February 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

AptDeco: Circular Economy Furniture Marketplace

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jamie Merkrebs

AptDeco, a used furniture marketplace, was growing rapidly in the tri-state area. The co-founders were confident that the business model, financial position, and unit economics positioned AptDeco for scaling in the massive $120 billion furniture market, despite its... View Details

April 1998 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Classic Pen Company, The: Developing an ABC Model

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Classic Pen has diversified from its core blue and black pen business by introducing new specialized colors. But costs have risen and margins on blue and black pens are decreasing. The controller turns to activity-based costing (ABC) for an explanation. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Manufacturing Industry

28 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

How Racial Bias Taints Customer Service: Evidence from 6,000 Hotels

matter. Preliminary results from a series of studies of hotel concierge interactions show that front-line service workers often treat customers inequitably, providing better assistance to white customers than Black and Asian customers.... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

02 Mar 2021
HBS Case

The Tulsa Massacre: Is Racial Justice Possible 100 Years Later?

American history, yet descendants of residents harmed by the attack note that government officials have never made reparations for those killed or for homes and businesses that were destroyed. The killing of George Floyd by a police officer last summer and the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September–October 2021
Article

Frontiers: Can an AI Algorithm Mitigate Racial Economic Inequality? An Analysis in the Context of Airbnb

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Nitin Mehta, Param Singh and Kannan Srinivasan

We study the effect of Airbnb’s smart-pricing algorithm on the racial disparity in the daily revenue earned by Airbnb hosts. Our empirical strategy exploits Airbnb’s introduction of the algorithm and its voluntary adoption by hosts as a quasi-natural experiment. Among... View Details

Keywords: Smart Pricing; Pricing Algorithm; Machine Bias; Discrimination; Racial Disparity; Social Inequality; Airbnb Revenue; Revenue; Race; Equality and Inequality; Prejudice and Bias; Price; Mathematical Methods; Accommodations Industry

SSRN

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16 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

Crowdsourcing Is Helping Hollywood Reduce the Risk of Movie-Making

industries like biotech, you can test things along the way to see if they are feasible, but for creative ideas like a film, you can’t experiment. You have huge uncertainty and you have to think about how to manage that risk.” One way that movie producers have found to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Motion Pictures & Video

13 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

just one of four Black CEOs leading a Fortune 500 company. Frazier is also outspoken, having resigned from President Trump’s American Manufacturing Council to make a clear statement against “hatred, bigotry and group supremacy” that... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Pharmaceutical

February 2020
Case

Bill Riddick and the Durham S.O.S. Charrette

By: Francesca Gino and Jeffrey Huizinga

Bill Riddick employs the charrette process to help black and white community leaders overcome differences and desegregate local schools in Durham, North Carolina. View Details

Keywords: Charrette; Schools; Desegregation; Education; Social Issues; Race; Leading Change; History; Durham; North Carolina

21 Nov 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Cold Call: Building a More Equitable Culture at Delta Air Lines

Keywords: Re: Linda A. Hill; Air Transportation

January 17, 2022
Article

Reducing Racial Disparities in Cancer Outcomes

By: Kathy Giusti and Richard G. Hamermesh

A disproportionate number of Black patients die from cancer in the United States. A key to addressing this problem is enrolling more Black patients in clinical trials. A strategy consisting of these three parts can help accomplish this goal: 1) centralize information... View Details

Keywords: Cancer Trials; Racial Disparity; Health Testing and Trials; Race; Strategy

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01 Jun 2023
HBS Case

A Nike Executive Hid His Criminal Past to Turn His Life Around. What If He Didn't Have To?

imprisoned come from predominantly minority communities. In 2018, Black Americans were incarcerated in state prisons at nearly six times the rate of White Americans, research shows. Many prison reform advocates say long-standing... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Apparel & Accessories

13 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Don't Turn Your Marketing Function Over to AI Just Yet

Imagine a future in which a smart marketing machine can predict the needs and habits of individual consumers and the dynamics of competitors across industries and markets. This device would collect data to answer strategic questions, guide managerial decisions, and... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

March 2018 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Edward Lewis: Essence Magazine

By: Steven Rogers and Jacqueline Adams

Essence, the first magazine aimed at African-American women, was created by four, young, Black entrepreneurs in the aftermath of massive racial and political upheaval in the United States in 1968. The venture was a financial, branding and cultural success. By 2005, the... View Details