Anderson School of Management

Abstract: Research Summary: We examine to what extent and when multiunit firms internally redeploy managers between units. While theory has emphasized how changes in demand conditions affect redeployment, we argue that optimal internal resource allocation involves consideration of both demand and each unit's resource supply. We formalize this argument, showing how redeployment arises from “supply‐side inducements”—return advantages in new over existing resource uses resulting from changes in resource supply. Empirical tests using manager deaths as an exogenous, supply‐side shock to firms' resource stocks support our arguments, showing that firms frequently redeploy resources away from better‐endowed and toward negatively affected units. Incorporating supply‐side inducements into redeployment theory implies additional value‐creation opportunities from redeployment and carries novel predictions for the direction of intra‐firm resource flows. Managerial Summary: Firms continuously decide how to allocate valuable resources—such as their most productive workers, unique inputs, or machinery—among different units. We argue that to optimally allocate such resources, managers must respond to changes in both the demand environment and in the resource stock of different units. When some units successfully accumulate resources while others suffer adverse shocks, opportunity exists to improve efficiency by internally redeploying resources. Counterintuitively, optimal redeployment frequently involves shifting resources away from successful, well‐endowed units. New business units, being resource‐poor, are often the most important recipients of resources. Empirical analyses studying how firms allocate managers in a large sample of Brazilian firms offer support for these arguments.

Abstract: Research Summary: We use a novel longitudinal dataset, constructed from 16 downloads of VentureXpert records collected over 20 years, to characterize the international migration of venture‐capital‐backed startups. We find that: (i) 1078 firms in our sample (1.4%) migrate; (ii) countries with high levels of in‐migration also have high levels of out‐migration; (iii) migrating firms move to places with more investors; (iv) pre‐move investors and their connections most strongly predict migration patterns; and (v) movers raise more money than non‐movers, primarily from investors at their destinations. Overall, these patterns appear inconsistent with those expected if startups move primarily in search of talent or customers. Instead, the flows across countries look more like international trade, with startups seeking capital, and social connections between investors defining the shipping lanes. Managerial Summary: Although many high‐profile startups have relocated their headquarters from one country to another, systematic information on this phenomenon has been scarce. How frequently do these moves happen? Why do startups move? Over 20 years, we have built a database that can begin to answer these questions. International moves appear rare. When startups do move, they tend to move to places with more venture capital, particularly when their existing investors have connections in those places. Movers, moreover, raise more money than non‐movers, mostly from investors in their destination countries. Capital availability, rather than access to talent or proximity to customers, appears to be the strongest predictor of startup migration.

Abstract: With unfolding advances in anti‐discrimination policy, communication technology, and affordable transportation, society is gaining an historic opportunity to embrace differences in background and perspective as part of ordinary life. Unfortunately, we can be overly pessimistic about the prospect of attracting stakeholders to the work, because overwhelming societal barriers have long perpetuated narrow and inauspicious views of our paths forward. The result can be our unnecessary and ineffective reliance on top‐down imperatives as necessary to compel engagement. Improvisation can help us do better. After describing how contextual conditions are shifting favorably, I illustrate the prospective benefits of an improvisational approach to EDI—particularly in fostering intrinsic motivation—and extend basic psychological needs theory to provide guidance for successful implementation.

This is a compilation of my poetry written between 1960 and 2023