James W. Riley
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
James Riley is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches LEAD in the MBA required curriculum.
Professor Riley is an economic sociologist. He conducts ethnographic research to produce qualitative studies on the role of status, norms, social valuations, and organizational culture within innovation-driven organizations, creative industries, and cultural markets. His fieldwork aims to identify and distill complex informal governance structures and relational mechanisms to generate observationally grounded theories of organizational actors’ strategic behavior.
Professor Riley earned a Ph.D. from MIT Sloan School of Management, an M.S. in Urbanization and Development from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California.
- Journal Articles
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- Friis, Simon, and James Riley. "Eliminating Algorithmic Bias Is Just the Beginning of Equitable AI." Harvard Business Review (website) (September 29, 2023). View Details
- Working Papers
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- Riley, James, and Giacomo Negro. "Socio-Spatial Semiotics: How Cultural Marketplaces Reproduce Status by Design." Working Paper, August 2025. View Details
- Riley, James, and Ezra Zuckerman Sivan. "“If You’re Not There… You’re Not There”: How Art Market Platforms Induce Status Anxiety to Coerce Participation." Working Paper, August 2024. View Details
- Cases and Teaching Materials
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- Riley, James, and Andrea Dorbu. "Designed for Purpose: “Never a Failure. Always a Lesson”." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 426-009, July 2025. View Details
- Riley, James, and Andrea Dorbu. "Designed for Purpose: “Never a Failure. Always a Lesson”." Harvard Business School Case 426-008, July 2025. View Details
- Riley, James, Alexis Lefort, and Helen Yap. "The Value of Art on Campus as a Vision for Educating Leaders Who Make a Difference." Harvard Business School Case 425-110, June 2025. View Details
- Additional Information
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LinksAbout Me
- Areas of Interest
- In The News
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