Publications

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30 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 30

still the world's currency of choice. The Agglomeration of U.S. Ethnic Inventors Author:William R. Kerr Publication:In Economics of Agglomeration, edited by Edward Glaeser.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

05 Jul 2016
First Look

July 5, 2016

Influencing Human Behavior By: Reddy, Sheila M., Jensen Montambault, Yuta J. Masuda, Ayelet Gneezy, Elizabeth Keenan, William Butler, Jonathan R. Fisher, and Stanley T. Asah Abstract—Behavioral sciences can... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: December 21

article reviews recent research conducted by the authors that finds that intellectual property rights reform increases technology transfers, foreign direct investment inflows, and industrial development. It also places the findings of... View Details

2015
Working Paper

Informal Tradables and the Employment Growth of Indian Manufacturing

By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Alexander Segura

India's manufacturing growth from 1989 to 2010 displays two intriguing properties: 1) a substantial fraction of absolute and net employment growth is concentrated in informal tradable industries, and 2) much of this growth is connected to the development of one-person... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing; India; Informality; Small And Medium-sized Enterprises; Development Economics; Manufacturing Industry; India

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January 2014
Article

The Consequences of Entrepreneurial Finance: Evidence from Angel Financings

By: William R. Kerr, Josh Lerner and Antoinette Schoar

This paper documents that ventures that are funded by two successful angel groups experience superior outcomes to rejected ventures: they have improved survival, exits, employment, patenting, web traffic, and financing. We use strong discontinuities in angel funding... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Financing and Loans; Interests; Employment; Patents; Internet and the Web; Operations; Entrepreneurship; Business Exit or Shutdown

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17 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 17

we are committed to see such change continue to happen in the finance of today. Download the paper: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1985594 Is India's Manufacturing Sector Moving Away from Cities? Authors:Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover Goswami, and View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

February 2011
Case

Chegg: Textbook Rental Takes Flight

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, William A. Sahlman and Evan W. Richardson

In late 2010, Silicon Valley-based Chegg, the leading online college textbook rental company, is scaling rapidly. The case recounts Chegg's history from its origins as a distant competitor to Craigslist in college classified listings through a pivot into textbook... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Higher Education; Entrepreneurship; Books; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Service Operations; Renting or Rental; Online Technology; Education Industry; Service Industry; California

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

Keywords: Future Of Work; Purpose; Unilever; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Talent and Talent Management; Transition; Decision Making; Transformation

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November 2023
Case

Swanson Health: Becoming a Super Seller

By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and Paige Boehmcke

Founded in 1969, Swanson Health sold vitamins, supplements, natural health products, and organic foods. Over the years, the company had successfully navigated multiple industry transitions as it expanded from a print catalog to sell products on its own... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Transition; Growth Management; Distribution Channels; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Health Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

19 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 19

intangibles. Read the paper: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=913363 Cases & Course MaterialsInternet Securities, Inc.: Path to Sustainability Lynda M. Applegate, William R. Kerr, and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 21, 2009

William R. Kerr Publication:Journal of Economics and Management Strategy (forthcoming) Abstract Why are some places more entrepreneurial than others? We use Census Bureau data... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

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

Keywords: Work Visas; H1-B; Business Ventures; Business Startups; Labor; Human Capital; Human Resources; Crisis Management; Employment Industry; Canada; United States

01 Jun 2004
News

Working the Street

destined to succeed his father, William R. Timken Jr. (MBA 1962), at the helm of The Timken Company, the Canton, Ohio–based multinational manufacturing firm. Indeed, Kurt worked at Timken for five years... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; tattoo; removal; program; Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities; Government

15 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 15, 2008

Working PapersEconomic Factors Underlying the Unbundling of Advertising Agency Services Authors:Mohammad Arzaghi, Ernst R. Berndt, James C. Davis, and Alvin J. Silk Abstract This paper addresses a longstanding puzzle involving the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

12 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 12, 2017

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53200 September–October 2017 Harvard Business Review Managing Our Hub Economy: Strategy, Ethics, and Network Competition in the Age of Digital Superpowers By: Iansiti, Marco, and Karim R.... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

03 Jan 2007
First Look

First Look: January 3, 2007

available for download Banking Deregulation, Financial Constraints, and Entrepreneurship Authors:William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda Abstract We study how U.S. branch banking deregulations affected the entry of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 18

consistency between instrument, research question, and context. Paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1838538 Working PapersGrowth through Heterogeneous Innovations Authors:Akcigit, Ufuk, and William R. View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

08 Nov 2016
First Look

November 8, 2016

Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses: Current Knowledge and Challenges Immigrant Entrepreneurship By: Kerr, William R., and Sari Pekkala Kerr Abstract—We examine immigrant entrepreneurship and the survival... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2024
Case

Chime Solutions

By: Shai Bernstein, William R. Kerr, Christopher Stanton, Raymond Kluender and Mel Martin

Just two years after launching its 10k by 2020 initiative to hire 10,000 employees by 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Chief Executive Officer Mark Wilson to send nearly all of his staff at Chime Solutions (Chime) to work from home. Chime was a customer contact firm... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Service Operations; Recruitment; Performance; Change Management; Retention; Financial Institutions; Employee Relationship Management; Talent and Talent Management; Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Communications Industry; Service Industry; United States