Publications

January 2001 (Revised May 2001)
Background Note

State, The

By: Rawi E. Abdelal

Surveys approaches to understanding the state; highlights the relationships between the state, order, and property; and offers an analytical framework for how states vary from place to place and over time. View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Governance Compliance; Framework; Economic Sectors; Policy; Private Ownership; Public Ownership; Entrepreneurship; Development Economics; Equality and Inequality

Educators

2024
Working Paper

Demographically Biased Technological Change

By: Victor Manuel Bennett, John-Paul Ferguson, Masoomeh Kalantari and Rembrand Koning

Who gets the jobs that automation creates? A consensus has begun to emerge that said technologies complement rather than substitute for labor. However, they also shift the demand for specific types of skills and other worker competencies. Such shifts imply unequal... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Employment; Equality and Inequality; Demographics

July 2023
Article

The Old Boys' Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap

By: Zoë B. Cullen and Ricardo Perez-Truglia

Offices are social places. Employees and managers take breaks together and talk about family and hobbies. In this study, we show that employees’ social interactions with their managers can be advantageous for their careers, and that this phenomenon contributes to the... View Details

Keywords: Career; Promotions; Social Interactions; Networking; Interpersonal Communication; Familiarity; Equality and Inequality; Gender

March 2022
Teaching Note

Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham

By: Katherine Coffman and Olivia Hull

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 921-006, “Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham." This case invites students to explore the individual and structural factors that lead to an under-representation of women in male-dominated domains, and to think critically about... View Details

Keywords: Inclusion; Gender Gap; Gender Inclusivity; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

March 2020
Article

Explaining the Persistence of Gender Inequality: The Work-family Narrative as a Social Defense Against 24/7 Work Culture

By: Irene Padavic, Robin J. Ely and Erin M. Reid

It is widely accepted that the conflict between women’s family obligations and professional jobs’ long hours lies at the heart of their stalled advancement. Yet research suggests that this “work-family narrative” is incomplete: men also experience it and nevertheless... View Details

Keywords: 24/7 Work Culture; Hegemonic Narrative; Social Defense; Work-family Conflict; Systems-psychodynamic Theory; Work-Life Balance; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Organizational Culture

1978
Chapter

Changing Organizational Constraints: Toward Promoting Equal Opportunity and Treatment for Women in Public Service Systems

By: R. M. Kanter

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Equality and Inequality; Public Sector; Service Operations; Gender

05 Jul 2017
What Do You Think?

Can Innovation Save Us From Ourselves?

Summing Up Do We Need to Give More Attention to the Dark Side of Innovation? Innovation may be able to help us deal with problems such as famine, pollution, and even global warming. But unless it can prove to be just as effective in combating destructive human traits... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

September 2020
Article

Dignity, Inequality, and the Populist Backlash: Lessons from America and Europe for a Sustainable Globalization

By: Rawi Abdelal

The greatest challenge to the sustainability of our current era of globalization comes from within the United States. Most Americans have come to reject globalization. We must discern the lessons from the parts of the developed world where the backlash is also... View Details

Keywords: Populism; Backlash; Dignity; Globalization; Economic Systems; Equality and Inequality; Policy; Values and Beliefs; United States; Europe

2020
Working Paper

Dignity, Inequality, and the Populist Backlash: Lessons from America and Europe for a Sustainable Globalization

By: Rawi Abdelal

The greatest challenge to the sustainability of our current era of globalization comes from within the United States. Most Americans have come to reject globalization. We must discern the lessons from the parts of the developed world where the backlash is also... View Details

Keywords: Pandemics; Populism; Dignity; Globalization; Economic Systems; Equality and Inequality; Policy; Values and Beliefs; United States; Europe; France; Germany

October 2013
Article

Barriers to Completion of Patient Reported Outcome Measures

By: Elizabeth H. Schamber, Steven K. Takemoto, Kate Eresian Chenek and Kevin J. Bozic

Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs) are commonly used in total joint arthroplasty (TJA) to assess surgical outcomes. However certain patient populations may be underrepresented due to lower survey completion rates. The purpose of this study is to evaluate... View Details

Keywords: Patient Reported Outcome Measures; PROM; Total Joint Arthroplasty; Hip; Knee; Electronic Survey; Equality and Inequality; Demographics; Surveys; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

23 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

Researchers Prove C-Suite Gender Gap—but Can’t Explain It

Here’s some bad news and some worse news for women who aspire to the executive suite. The bad news is that there’s a huge gender gap in top corporate positions, both in terms of the number of female executives and how much money they make compared to men. “Our results... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

20 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Gender-Diverse Companies Thrive Only Where Diversity is Embraced

question to Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Letian Zhang, who studies organizational theory and strategy with a focus on social inequalities and status hierarchies. He explores the issue in a recent paper scheduled to be... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

11 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 11

Cassandra L. Govan, Dan Ariely, and Elise Holland Abstract—Recent evidence suggests that Americans underestimate wealth inequality in the United States and favor a more equal wealth distribution (Norton & Ariely, 2011). Does this... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

The Price of Equality: Suboptimal Resource Allocations across Social Categories

By: Stephen M. Garcia, Max Bazerman, Shirli Kopelman, Avishalom Tor and Dale T. Miller

This paper explores the influence of social categories on the perceived trade-off between relatively bad but equal distribution of resources between two parties and profit maximizing, yet asymmetric, payoffs. Studies 1 and 2 show that people prefer to maximize profits... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Resource Allocation; Societal Protocols; Profit; Decision Making; Prejudice and Bias; Market Transactions; Ethics; Power and Influence; Distribution; Organizations

Article

When Seeking Help, Women and Racial/Ethnic Minorities Benefit from Explicitly Stating Their Identity

By: Erika L. Kirgios, Aneesh Rai, Edward H. Chang and Katherine L. Milkman

Receiving help can make or break a career, but women and racial/ethnic minorities do not always receive the support they seek. Across two audit experiments—one with politicians and another with students—as well as an online experiment (total n = 5,145), we test whether... View Details

Keywords: Support; Marginalized Communities; Personal Development and Career; Equality and Inequality; Identity; Race; Gender; Communication Intention and Meaning

June 2018 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn: The Power of Writing to Launch and Sustain a Movement

By: Julie Battilana, Lakshmi Ramarajan and Michael Norris

In 2018, New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof and his wife, former Times writer Sheryl WuDunn (HBS ’86) who worked in finance, were planning for their next book. The couple’s earlier books had given rise to social movements around gender equity and poverty issues.... View Details

Keywords: Social Movement; Gender Equality; Writing; Social Issues; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Poverty; Books; Change; Leadership

Educators

February 2017 (Revised December 2018)
Case

From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek and Margot Eiran

In June 2016, Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, wrestled with how to sustain Israel’s strong innovation track record and the country’s reputation as the “start-up nation.” Despite the economic miracle the country had wrought since its founding, he... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Government and Politics; Economy; Equality and Inequality; Israel

Educators