Publications

SSRN

24 Oct 2023
Research & Ideas

When Tech Platforms Identify Black-Owned Businesses, White Customers Buy

visits—boosting in-store traffic by about 10 percent. “Technology companies can play a role in working toward racial equity.” The study, called “The Benefits of Revealing Race: Evidence from Minority-Owned Businesses,” also found that... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Food & Beverage

08 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

Black Employees Not Only Earn Less, But Deal with Bad Bosses and Poor Conditions

A racial salary gap has persisted in the US for more than 50 years among minority groups, with Black people currently earning 30 to 35 percent less than Whites. Now new research shows that in addition to receiving smaller paychecks, Black... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

November–December 2020
Article

Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case

By: Robin Ely and David A. Thomas

Leaders may mean well when they tout the economic payoffs of hiring more women and people of color, but there is no research support for the notion that diversifying the workforce automatically improves a company’s performance. This article critiques the popular... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Change; Trust

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28 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Racism and Digital Design: How Online Platforms Can Thwart Discrimination

profound impact on the inclusivity of the systems you are creating," says Luca, who has also coauthored a new case study, Racial Discrimination on Airbnb: The Role of Platform Design. "Platform companies should think through the... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Travel; Entertainment & Recreation; Service

16 Dec 2020
Blog Post

Alumni on the Black Lives Matter Movement

HBS alumni have been actively engaged in responding to the racial and social injustice in their communities and around the world. Read their various efforts below: OCTOBER 20 In their new book A Blessing: Women of Color Teaming Up to... View Details

September 2016
Article

Whitened Résumés: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor Market

By: Sonia K. Kang, K. A. DeCelles, András Tilcsik and Sora Jun

Using interviews, a laboratory experiment, and a résumé audit study, we examine racial minorities’ attempts to avoid anticipated discrimination in labor markets by concealing or downplaying racial cues in job applications, a practice known as "résumé whitening."... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Selection and Staffing; Job Search; Race

03 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Why Confronting Racism in AI 'Creates a Better Future for All of Us'

huge understanding of your market and the way the world works. You’re leaving money on the table! You’re not going to make as much money as you could by not considering the experience of racialized “others.” Think about the tech space. I... View Details

Keywords: by Barbara DeLollis

08 May 2023
Research & Ideas

How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Crushed Crowdfunding for Minority Entrepreneurs

builds upon previous research on “systemic racial bias in entrepreneurial finance,” illustrating a “more direct” connection between shifts in public attitudes and struggles experienced by minority creators... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

27 Feb 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, February 27, 2018

Review Firm Turnover and the Return of Racial Establishment Segregation By: Ferguson, John-Paul, and Rembrand Koning Abstract—Racial segregation between American workplaces is greater today than it was a generation ago. This increase has... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

We May Have Taken Too Much Credit for Easing Workplace Segregation

Hroe Large American companies are less racially integrated today than a generation ago—in fact, businesses have returned to the bleaker segregation levels of the 1970s, new research shows. This racial... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the Third Place Ideal

By: Francesca Gino, Katherine B. Coffman and Jeff Huizinga

On April 12, 2018, two African American entrepreneurs had scheduled a business meeting at a Starbucks in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. They sat without ordering, waiting for a local businessman to show up for the meeting. The store manager called 911... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Prejudice and Bias; Crisis Management; Employees; Training

Educators

July 2021
Article

Structuring Local Environments to Avoid Diversity: Anxiety Drives Whites' Geographical and Institutional Self-Segregation Preferences

By: Eric Anicich, Jon M. Jachimowicz, Merrick Osborne and L. Taylor Phillips

The current research explores how local racial diversity affects Whites’ efforts to structure their local communities to avoid incidental intergroup contact. In two experimental studies (N=509; Studies 1a-b), we consider Whites’ choices to structure a fictional,... View Details

Keywords: Segregration; Structural/institutional Racism; Organizational Exclusion; Diversity; Race; Organizations; Local Range; Prejudice and Bias

July 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Trouble at Basecamp: Managing Politics, Polarization, and Conflict in the Workplace (A)

By: Nour Kteily, Deepak Malhotra and David Lane

As founders of the software company Basecamp, Jason Fried and David H. Hansson were used to being the subjects of social media attention. Both maintained active and dedicated Twitter followings for their unique perspectives on management and life. But on April 26,... View Details

Educators

02 Jan 2024
Cold Call Podcast

Should Businesses Take a Stand on Societal Issues?

Keywords: Re: Hubert Joly

April 2013
Article

Gendered Races: Implications for Interracial Marriage, Leadership Selection, and Athletic Participation

By: Adam D. Galinsky, Erika V. Hall and Amy J.C. Cuddy

Six studies explored the overlap between racial and gender stereotypes and the consequences of this overlap for interracial dating, leadership selection, and athletic participation. Two initial studies, utilizing explicit and implicit measures, captured the stereotype... View Details

Keywords: Stereotypes; Attraction; Prejudice and Bias; Leadership; Race; Attitudes; Family and Family Relationships; Sports; Gender; United States

02 Aug 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Discrimination, Disenfranchisement and African American WWII Military Enlistment

Keywords: by Nancy Qian and Marco Tabellini

The Limits of Algorithmic Measures of Race in Studies of Outcome Disparities

We show that the use of algorithms to predict race has significant limitations in measuring and understanding the sources of racial disparities in finance, economics, and other contexts. First, we derive theoretically the direction and magnitude of measurement... View Details

Fall, 2024
Article

Sixty Years of the Voting Rights Act: Progress and Pitfalls

By: Andrea Bernini, Giovanni Facchini, Marco Tabellini and Cecilia Testa

We review the literature on the effects of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA), which removed formal restrictions to Black political participation. After a brief description of racial discrimination suffered by Black Americans since Reconstruction, we introduce the goals... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Equality and Inequality; Race; Political Elections; Voting; Policy; Outcome or Result; Government Legislation

2014
Working Paper

Digital Discrimination: The Case of Airbnb.com

By: Benjamin Edelman and Michael Luca

Online marketplaces often contain information not only about products, but also about the people selling the products. In an effort to facilitate trust, many platforms encourage sellers to provide personal profiles and even to post pictures of themselves. However,... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Internet and the Web; Race; Trust; Renting or Rental; Accommodations Industry; Real Estate Industry

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