Publications

July 2021
Case

A Close Shave at Squire

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Zoë B. Cullen, William R. Kerr, Benjamin N. Roth and Michael Norris

In 2020, just after closing a $34 million Series B financing round, Dave Salvant and Songe LaRon consider how to adjust their business, Squire Technologies, to the new realities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their barbershop technology, including tools to run a shop... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Pandemics; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Technology Industry; New York (city, NY); San Francisco

February 2017
Case

Yemeksepeti: Growing and Expanding the Business Model through Data

By: William R. Kerr, Gamze Yucaoglu and Eren Kuzucu

In October 2016, Nevzat Aydin, co-founder and CEO of Yemeksepeti, the Turkish online food-ordering company, was looking over the company's quarterly results and projections for the upcoming year with his management team. It had been almost a year and a half since Aydin... View Details

21 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: Feb. 21

and contracts in shaping the growth and influence of business enterprises. It presents entrepreneurs, executives, and the firms they controlled as driving actors in national economies and international growth. Alongside an original introduction, we have selected work... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2022
Article

Winner Takes All? Tech Clusters, Population Centers, and the Spatial Transformation of U.S. Invention

By: Brad Chattergoon and William R. Kerr

U.S. invention has become increasingly concentrated around major tech centers since the 1970s, with implications for how much cities across the country share in concomitant local benefits. Is invention becoming a winner-takes-all race? We explore the rising spatial... View Details

Keywords: Clusters; Invention; Agglomeration; Artificial Intelligence; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Applications and Software; Industry Clusters; AI and Machine Learning

2016
Working Paper

Collusion in Markets with Syndication

By: John William Hatfield, Scott Kominers and Richard Lowery

Markets for IPOs and debt issuances are syndicated, in the sense that a bidder who wins a contract may invite losing bidders to join a syndicate that together fulfills the contract. We show that in markets with syndication, standard intuitions from... View Details

Keywords: Collusion; Antitrust; IPO Underwriting; Syndication; ＂Repeated Games＂

23 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 23, 2018

difficult tasks. Second, overestimation of ability by both men and women varies across categories. To understand these patterns, we develop a model that separates gender stereotypes from misestimation of ability related to the difficulty... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

07 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 7, 2007

interpretable results, and that performance is improved by achieving good results simultaneously along several inter-related dimensions. The Transformation from 'I' to 'We' Authors:Bill George and Andrew N.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

12 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 12, 2019

that hold back progress in resource mobilization research. We then propose a path ahead for future research guided by two overarching goals. First, we advocate for a process perspective, focusing attention on how an individual actor’s... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

2017
Working Paper

Digital Labor Markets and Global Talent Flows

By: John Horton, William R. Kerr and Christopher Stanton

Digital labor markets are rapidly expanding and connecting companies and contractors on a global basis. We review the environment in which these markets take root, the micro- and macro-level studies of their operations, their ongoing evolution and recent trends, and... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Talent and Talent Management; Labor

2021
Working Paper

Winner Takes All? Tech Clusters, Population Centers, and the Spatial Transformation of U.S. Invention

By: Brad Chattergoon and William R. Kerr

U.S. invention has become increasingly concentrated around major tech centers since the 1970s, with implications for how much cities across the country share in concomitant local benefits. Is invention becoming a winner-takes-all race? We explore the rising spatial... View Details

Keywords: Invention; Innovation; Artificial Intelligence; Clusters; Agglomeration; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Applications and Software; Industry Clusters; United States

May 2012
Article

Measuring the Prevalence of Questionable Research Practices with Incentives for Truth-telling

By: Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein and Drazen Prelec

Cases of clear scientific misconduct have received significant media attention recently, but less flagrant transgressions of research norms may be more prevalent and in the long run more damaging to the academic enterprise. We surveyed over 2,000 psychologists about... View Details

Keywords: Research; Practice; Motivation and Incentives; Surveys; Values and Beliefs; Measurement and Metrics

March – April 2010
Article

The Need for Ideological Consciousness

By: George C. Lodge

Every so often in American history a crisis comes along that requires Americans to inspect cherished assumptions and to act in a way that many find ideologically repulsive. Although our leaders insist that such actions are pragmatic-the only sensible way to deal with... View Details

Keywords: History; Leadership; Competition; Framework; Consumer Behavior; Business and Community Relations; Government and Politics; Financial Crisis; Planning; United States

14 Jun 2016
First Look

June 14, 2016

patent applications in 1976 to 16% in 2008. This is partly driven by the increase in the prevalence of information and communication technology; however, even for patents unrelated to information and communication technology, we see a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Consistent Belief in a Good True Self in Misanthropes and Three Interdependent Cultures

By: Julian De Freitas, Hagop Sarkissian, George E. Newman, Igor Grossman, Felipe De Brigard, Andres Luco and Joshua Knobe

People sometimes explain behavior by appealing to an essentialist concept of the self, often referred to as the true self. Existing studies suggest that people tend to believe that the true self is morally virtuous; that is deep inside, every person is motivated to... View Details

Keywords: Concepts; Social Cognition; Moral Reasoning; True Self; Culture; Misanthropy; Behavior; Values and Beliefs; Moral Sensibility

September 2022
Article

House Prices, Home Equity and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from U.S. Census Micro Data

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

During 1992-2007, house price growth is strongly correlated with local entrepreneurship. We show with Census Bureau data that most of this entry is related to construction and real estate; these entrants tend to be small and short-lived. Using a 1998 Texas reform that... View Details

Keywords: House Prices; Collateral Channel; Entry; Entrepreneurship; Housing; Real Estate Industry; Construction Industry

March 2015
Case

West Coast Chill

By: William A. Sahlman, Robert F. White and Stephanie Puzio

The fall of 2010 marked the 20th year that Mitchell Joseph, a fourth generation beverage executive, serial entrepreneur, and the founder of the Joseph Company (the "Company"), had been working on developing the technology for a self-chilling can. Mitchell was at an... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

November 1994 (Revised May 2002)
Case

K-III: A Leveraged Build-Up

By: George P. Baker III, Nicola Bamford and Nicolas Greenspan

Explores the strategy, financing, and governance of a new type of organizational form, dubbed the Leveraged Build-Up by its inventor, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. The company makes leveraged acquisitions of small publishing companies, managing them in a very... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Financial Management; Leveraged Buyouts; Cash Flow; Organizational Structure; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Publishing Industry

Article

Brand Values and Capital Market Valuation

By: Mary Barth, Michael B. Clement, George Foster and Ron Kasznik

Brand value estimates are significantly positively related to prices and returns, incremental to accounting variables. Questionable brand value estimate reliability underlies lack of financial statement recognition for brands. Findings suggest estimates are relevant... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Valuation