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SSRN Research Paper Series
The Social Science Research Network’s Research Paper Series includes working papers produced by Stanford GSB the Rock Center.
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Beyond "Social Contagion": Associative Diffusion and the Emergence of Cultural Variation
Network models of diffusion predominantly think about cultural variation as a product of social contagion. But culture does not spread like a virus. In this paper, we propose an alternative explanation which we refer to as associative diffusion.…
Distinguishing Round from Square Pegs: Predicting Hiring Based on Pre-hire Language Use
This article examines how cultural matching relates to a job applicant’s likelihood of getting hired into an organization and identifies the components of cultural similarity that matter most for hiring success. Cultural compatibility at…
The Divergent Effects of Diversity Ideologies for Race and Gender Relations
Both practitioners and scholars have shown interest in initiatives that reduce bias and promote inclusion. Diversity ideologies—or beliefs and practices regarding how to approach group differences in diverse settings—have been studied as one set…
The Effect of Economic Consequences on Social Judgment and Choice: Reward Interdependence and the Preference for Sociability versus Competence
Journal of Organizational Behavior, in press
Competence and sociability (warmth) are fundamental dimensions of social judgment in organizations. However, these qualities are frequently seen as negatively related, with mixed…
Why Great Strategies Spring from Identity Movements
We extend the emergent lens on strategy formulation by arguing that great strategies arise from insurgent identity movements. In motivating the paper, we depict Steve Jobs as an activist constituted by the personal computing movement that…
A Tilt Toward Equality? Gender and Allocation in Horizontal Organizations
This paper tackles the intersection of two trends, the increasing prevalence of flat, so-called horizontal organizations and the greater gender diversity of the workers that such organizations employ. We investigate why these organizations may be…
Taking Aim: Corporate Opportunity Structures and Activists’ Selection of Corporate Targets
Scholars agree that the tenor of a firms’ past interactions with contentious activists - which represent a strong signal of the openness of a firm’s opportunity structures - impacts the likelihood that the firm will be targeted in the future.…
Alignment at Work: Using Language to Distinguish the Internalization and Self-Regulation Components of Cultural Fit in Organizations
Cultural fit is widely believed to affect the success of individuals and the groups to which they belong. Yet it remains an elusive, poorly measured construct. Recent research draws on computational linguistics to measure cultural fit but…
Once in the Door: Tryouts and the Gender Wage Gap in the Managerial Pipeline
Under 2nd Review, Management Science
Women pursue managerial credentials at nearly the same rate as men but evidence suggests they receive lower salaries from the onset of their managerial careers. While demand-side…
Resolving Strategic Integration Challenges in the Multibusiness Firm: Meg Whitman Moves from “Better Together” to “Splitting HP in Two”
This paper examines Meg Whitman’s tenure as HP’s CEO from September 2011 till March 2016. It considers the external contextual forces shaping radical changes in the information technology industry as well as the internal contextual forces…
Built to Become: HP's History of Becoming - 1939-2016: An Integral Process Overview
This paper conceptualizes HP’s history of becoming between 1939 and 2015 in terms of an integral process overview encompassing seven distinct epochs and associated corporate transformations, and discusses the differential contributions of…
What Are Your Signature Stories?
A Nordstrom customer in the mid 70s walked into the Fairbanks, Alaska store and asked to “return” two worn snow tires. An awkward moment! Nordstrom, which evolved from a shoe store to a department store, never sold tires (although another company…
Enculturation Trajectories and Individual Attainment: An Interactional Language Use Model of Cultural Dynamics in Organizations
How do people adapt to organizational culture and what are the consequences for their outcomes in the organization? These fundamental questions about culture have previously been examined using self-report measures, which are subject to reporting…
Fitting in or Standing Out? The Tradeoffs of Structural and Cultural Embeddedness
A recurring theme in sociological research is the tradeoff between fitting in and standing out. Prior work examining this tension has tended to take either a network structural or a cultural perspective. We instead fuse these two traditions to…
Hiring the Right Employees: Trial Employment, Social Networks, and Post-Entry Outcomes
Research suggests that finding and hiring the right workers may be as important to firms as managing workers after they join organizations. However, hiring the right workers is difficult. In this paper trial employment is examined as…
Movement Spillover and Union Support during the “Long Protest Wave”
This paper examines whether protest associated with the “long protest wave” of the 1960s and 1970s positively influenced private-sector union support. Past research has found no such influence. We use measures designed to more closely represent…
Spillovers inside Conglomerates: Incentives and Capital
Using hand-collected data on divisional managers at conglomerates, we find that a change in industry surplus in one division generates large spillovers on managerial payoffs in other divisions of the same firm. These spillovers arise only within…
Built to Become: Corporate Longevity and Strategic Leadership
This paper discusses the phenomenon of “built to become:” an open-ended ongoing process for which there is no grand ex ante plan possible and which unfolds through a series of transformations in the course of the strategic evolution of…