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Publications
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(119,830)
- Faculty Publications (311)
- 2022
- Chapter
Immigration Policy Levers for U.S. Innovation and Startups
By: William R. Kerr and Sari Pekkala Kerr
Immigrants account for about a quarter of US invention and entrepreneurship despite a policy environment that is not well suited for these purposes. This chapter reviews the U.S. immigration policy environment that governs how skilled migrants move to America for... View Details
- Article
Use Purpose to Transform Your Workplace
By: Leena Nair, Nick Dalton, Patrick Hull and William Kerr
Is keeping pace with the future of work incompatible with using purpose to guide the organization? Unilever is stretching its well-known commitment to purpose for a new and daunting challenge—the transformation of its workforce of more than 149,000 employees. Its... View Details
- 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
- 2022
- Working Paper
The Transformation of Self Employment
By: Innessa Colaiacovo, Margaret Dalton, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
Over the past half-century, while self-employment has consistently accounted for around one in ten of the United States workforce, its composition has changed. Since 1970, industries with high startup capital requirements have declined from 53% of self-employment to... View Details
- 1 Dec 2021
- Interview
Hubert Joly on Humanizing the Profit Motive
Can businesses afford to see employees in terms other than unit labor cost? How do you factor the Golden Rule into a profit and loss statement? Former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly explains how unlearning business orthodoxies helped him prove that a human-centered approach... View Details
- November 2021 (Revised March 2022)
- Case
AppHarvest: Rebuilding the Appalachian Economy Through Agriculture
By: Joshua Lev Krieger, William R. Kerr and Christian Godwin
In 2021, AppHarvest completed construction of a 60-acre indoor farming facility, one of the world’s largest, recorded its first sales, and went public in a multi-billion dollar IPO. Described as “a force of nature,” Jonathan Webb founded the company to bring jobs back... View Details
- 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
- September 2021 (Revised March 2022)
- Case
Katie Couric Media: Landing the First Client
By: N. Louis Shipley and William R. Kerr
In May 2018, celebrated journalist Katie Couric and her husband, John Molner, had recently launched a full-service media firm called Katie Couric Media (KCM). Couric treasured the opportunity to address important social issues like gender equality, environmental... View Details
- July 2021
- Case
A Close Shave at Squire
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
- June 28, 2021
- Article
4 Imperatives for Managing in a Hybrid World
By: Kalle Heikkinen, William R. Kerr, Mika Malin and Panu Routila
As more and more companies turn to a hybrid model of work more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, what challenges are leaders likely to face when managing people both in the office and remotely? Interviews with 38 executives in Nordic countries point to four main... View Details
- Spring 2021
- Article
Whose Job Is It Anyway? Co-Ethnic Hiring in New U.S. Ventures
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
We explore co-ethnic hiring among new ventures using U.S. administrative data. Co-ethnic hiring is ubiquitous among immigrant groups, averaging about 22.5% and ranging from <2% to >40%. Co-ethnic hiring grows with the size of the local ethnic workforce, greater... View Details
Keywords: Hiring; Job Creation; E-Verify; Immigration; Selection and Staffing; Ethnicity; Entrepreneurship
- 2021
- Working Paper
Whose Job Is It Anyway? Co-Ethnic Hiring in New U.S. Ventures
By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
We explore co-ethnic hiring among new ventures using U.S. administrative data. Co-ethnic hiring is ubiquitous among immigrant groups, averaging about 22.5% and ranging from <2% to >40%. Co-ethnic hiring grows with the size of the local ethnic workforce, greater... View Details
Keywords: Hiring; Job Creation; E-Verify; Immigration; Selection and Staffing; Ethnicity; Entrepreneurship
- January 2021
- Background Note
Note on the Future of Work
By: William R. Kerr, Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman and Bailey McAfee
- November 2020
- Background Note
The New Generation of Retail
By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and James Palano
- November 2020
- Teaching Note
Unilever's Response to the Future of Work
By: William R. Kerr and Bailey McAfee
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 820-104. View Details
- July 2020 (Revised September 2020)
- Case
MobSquad
By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, William R. Kerr and Susie L. Ma
Irfhan Rawji (MBA 2004) launched MobSquad in October 2018 to help American tech start-ups retain hard-to-find talent, many of whom struggled with U.S. work visa issues, such as software engineers with experience in artificial intelligence, machine learning, or data... View Details
- Summer 2020
- Article
Tech Clusters
By: William R. Kerr and Frederic Robert-Nicoud
Tech clusters like Silicon Valley play a central role for modern innovation, business competitiveness, and economic performance. This paper reviews what constitutes a tech cluster, how they function internally, and the degree to which policy makers can purposefully... View Details
- June 2020
- Case
Agile Consumer Product Innovation with Alibaba's Tmall Innovation Center
By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and James Palano
Consumer products companies were beset by changes on all sides during the 2010s. Customers were increasingly turning to ecommerce platforms rather than shopping in-store. Meanwhile, nimble, digitally-savvy competitors were gaining market share by capitalizing on the... View Details
- June 2020
- Teaching Note
Catalant's Operating System for the Future of Work
By: Christopher Stanton, William R. Kerr, James Palano and Kendall Smith
This case touches on the topics of project-based work, agile methodology, and skill and talent management through Catalant's evolution as a company. Catalant’s journey to becoming a software platform and talent marketplace provides context for students to explore new... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
Global Talent and U.S. Immigration Policy
By: William R. Kerr
Talent is a critical resource for today’s knowledge economy. The United States has benefited substantially from high-skilled migration since the 1970s, especially with respect to innovation and entrepreneurship. This chapter reviews data on these immigrant... View Details