Publications

2023
Working Paper

Centralization and Organization Reproduction: Ethnic Innovation in R&D Centers and Satellite Locations

By: William R. Kerr

We study the relationship between firm centralization and organizational reproduction in satellite locations. For decentralized firms, the ethnic compositions of inventors in satellite locations mostly resemble their host cities, with little link to the inventor... View Details

Keywords: Ethnicity; Business Offices; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Organizational Design

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2020
Book

Work, Mate, Marry, Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny

Covering a time frame that ranges from 8000 BC to the present, and drawing upon both Marxist and feminist theories, the book argues that nearly all the decisions we make in our most intimate lives—whom to marry, how to have children, how to have sex, how to think about... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Demystifying the Math of the Coronavirus

By: Elon Kohlberg and Abraham Neyman

We provide an elementary mathematical description of the spread of the coronavirus. We explain two fundamental relationships: How the rate of growth in new infections is determined by the “effective reproductive number” and how the effective reproductive number is... View Details

Keywords: Coronavirus; Health Pandemics; Mathematical Methods

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January 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

LOLA: Do You Know What's in Your Tampon?

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Aldo Sesia

LOLA is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business launched in 2015. What started as a company to provide women with organic and transparent material-labeled tampons via a subscription model, had, by 2019 evolved to include additional menstrual and sexual wellness products.... View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Channels; Disruption; Business Model; Brands and Branding; Internet and the Web; Strategy; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

February 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Extend Fertility: Conceiving the Market for Egg Preservation (A)

By: Debora L. Spar and Olivia Hull

In April 2003, entrepreneur and MBA student Christy Jones was planning a new venture to help women preserve their fertility. Her company, Extend Fertility, would commercialize a technique known as egg freezing, in which a woman’s eggs were extracted and stored at low... View Details

Keywords: Assisted Reproduction; Entrepreneur; Health And Wellness; Fertility; Infertility; Women's Health; Creating Markets; Egg Freezing; Fertility Clinic; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Marketing Strategy

July 2008 (Revised August 2008)
Case

In-Vitro Fertilization: Outcomes Measurement

By: Michael E. Porter, Saquib Rahim and Benjamin Chung-Shi Tsai

As of 2007, there were very few examples of widespread measurement and reporting of health outcomes, a critical quality measure. In-vitro fertilization clinics have been required to report their patient's health outcomes since 1995. The protagonist of the case, Dr.... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Measurement and Metrics; Operations; Outcome or Result; Health Industry; Cleveland

February 1990 (Revised March 1990)
Case

Quantum Semiconductor, Inc.

By: Janice H. Hammond and Roy D. Shapiro

Quantum is faced with a difficult ethical dilemma--industry studies provide evidence that chemicals used in semiconductor manufacturing may cause women working in fabrication cleanrooms to suffer a higher likelihood of spontaneous abortions. The possibility of other... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Prejudice and Bias; Law; Equality and Inequality; Cost; Production; Ethics; Health; Gender; Semiconductor Industry

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Forthcoming
Article

Centralization and Organization Reproduction: Ethnic Innovation in R&D Centers and Satellite Locations

By: William R. Kerr

We study the relationship between firm centralization and organizational reproduction in satellite locations. For decentralized firms, the ethnic compositions of inventors in satellite locations mostly resemble their host cities, with little link to the inventor... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Reproduction; Centralization; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Organizational Design; Ethnicity

Research Summary

Overview

By: Lumumba B. Seegars

Lumumba Seegars explores the reproduction and contestation of intergroup inequality within organizations. View Details

Keywords: Race; Gender; Income

Research Summary

Overview

My work focuses generally on the intersection between technological change and societal structures, and on the many areas in which business both shapes and is shaped by societal norms. View Details

Keywords: Technological And Scientific Innovation; Technological Change: Choices And Consequences; Business ＆ Government Relations; Business And Community; Capitalism; Reproduction; Technological Innovation; Government and Politics; Gender; Business History; Business and Government Relations; Education Industry; United States; Europe; Africa; Asia

Research Summary

The Baby Business: How Markets are Changing the Future of Birth

It is difficult to conceive of the child as commerce. For even at the start of the 21st century, we like to believe that some things remain beyond both markets and science; that there are some things that money can't buy. In economic terms, these things are defined as... View Details

Research Summary

Work, Mate, Marry, Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny