Organized by the puzzle rather than the year. Each entry opens to a scholarly contribution and a practical relevance note. If a link fails, email me for a copy.
Documenting a disparity proves a difference exists. Analyzing the generating process identifies the problem. Specifying the mechanism enables the solution.
Beyond good intentions: An “Equity Architecture” blueprint for global football leadership
Rider, C. I., & Szymanski, S. (2026). Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, 1–24.
This viewpoint introduces the “Equity Architecture” framework through a comparative analysis of the NFL’s Rooney Rule and the English FA’s Football Leadership Diversity Code, drawing on secondary data and institutional theory. It treats leadership disparity as a design problem rather than an intractable one, locating its persistence in social closure, opportunity hoarding, and misaligned economic incentives, and it extracts five design principles that distinguish policies which move representation from those that produce symbolic compliance: mandated participation, process targets linked to outcomes, balanced incentives, full-pipeline scope, and institutionalized external advocacy. Others cite this paper because it moves beyond documenting disparities to a replicable blueprint for policy design, and because the analysis is portable to any sector where voluntary commitments have plateaued and statutory regulation is arriving.
Football’s playing talent is diverse and its leadership is not: Black players are 43% of the English Premier League but hold 4.4% of management and 1.6% of executive and ownership roles. The paper gives club executives, league administrators, and statutory regulators — including the UK’s new Independent Football Regulator — an actionable checklist for building a diversity policy that survives contact with incentives, rather than one adopted for legitimacy and then quietly decoupled from practice.
Racial disparity in leadership: Evidence of valuative bias in the promotions of National Football League coaches
Rider, C. I., Wade, J. B., Swaminathan, A., & Schwab, A. (2023). American Journal of Sociology, 129(1), 227–275.
Richard Scott Article Award, ASA OOW Section, 2026 · Award for Responsible Research in Management, 2024 · Finalist, AOM OMT Best Paper Published in 2023
Using detailed career data for more than 1,300 coaches, this article isolates “valuative bias” — systematic racial differences in how similar performance is rewarded — as a mechanism sustaining leadership disparities in the NFL. It shows that Black and White assistants with comparable records experience different promotion odds, particularly from key feeder roles into head coach positions, even after controlling for performance and experience. Others cite this paper because it offers a rigorous equity-analytics template for separating allocative from valuative bias.
Even in the stats-rich world of the NFL, the study finds that Black coaches must do more than White peers to get the same promotions. It shows that having objective numbers isn’t enough; leaders have to examine how they interpret those numbers if they truly want fair pipelines into top jobs.
Supporting mental health at work (Comment on “The epidemic of mental disorders in business”)
Pierce, L., & Rider, C. I. (2022). Administrative Science Quarterly, 67(1), 56–69.
This comment reframes workplace mental health as an organizational design and equity problem rather than solely an individual clinical issue. It highlights how job structure, leadership, and performance systems create or reduce psychological strain, and calls for longitudinal, intervention-oriented research to identify causal effects of those practices.
The piece argues that telling people to “manage their stress” is not enough; companies need to redesign work so routine practices don’t grind people down. Treating mental health as a strategic resource becomes a way to build both fairness and performance.
Achieving diversity through equity analytics
Rider, C. I., & Reagans, R. (2022). AACSB Insights.
This article introduces equity analytics as a framework for using organizational data to identify, understand, and address inequities in opportunities and outcomes. It distinguishes between differential treatment and disparate impact and centers data-generating processes as the basis for diagnosing mechanisms that produce disparities.
Organizations need to move beyond counting “diverse hires” and start analyzing where, exactly, their systems treat people unfairly. Equity analytics gives leaders a way to use their own data to spot and fix those problems rather than guessing.
Career mobility and racial diversity in law firms
Rider, C. I., Sterling, A. D., & Tan, D. (2016). In Diversity in Practice: Race, Gender, and Class in Legal and Professional Careers (pp. 357–382). Cambridge University Press.
This work analyzes how hiring, assignment, evaluation, promotion, and lateral moves combine to shape racial disparities in large law firms. It shows that seemingly neutral career processes systematically constrain the advancement and mobility of Black lawyers relative to White peers.
The legal profession’s diversity problem is not just about who gets hired out of law school. It is also about who gets key cases, mentoring, and lateral opportunities on the way to partnership — which points firms toward specific levers for change.
Isolating the symbolic implications of employee mobility: Price increases after hiring winemakers from prominent wineries
Roberts, P. W., Khaire, M., & Rider, C. I. (2011). American Economic Review, 101(3), 147–151.
Using the wine industry, this paper isolates the symbolic effects of hiring high-status employees by examining short-run price changes after wineries hire winemakers from prominent producers. It documents an immediate price premium attributable to transferred status, before any quality changes could plausibly occur.
Wineries that hire famous winemakers can raise prices right away, simply because of the name on the résumé — showing how hiring “stars” can pay off as a marketing move before they touch the product.
Discovery, discernment, and exploitation: Entrepreneurial mechanisms at the nexus of individual and opportunity
Barach, M. A., & Rider, C. I. (2023). Strategic Management Journal, 44(12), 2858–2887.
This paper decomposes entrepreneurial action into three mechanisms — discovery, discernment, and exploitation — and embeds them in an opportunity-discovery framework tested on an online freelance platform. It shows how shared and observer-specific components of opportunity value shape transitions from freelancer to founder.
Starting a business turns out to be three problems: noticing potential opportunities, telling great ones from merely good ones, and mobilizing resources to act. The study shows why some people systematically move from gigs to companies while others stall out.
Entrepreneurship and social mobility: Three status metaphors for future research
Rider, C. I., Choe, S., Myung, B. J., & McCullers, K. E. (2023). Research in Organizational Behavior, 43, 100192.
This conceptual article introduces three status metaphors — the ladder, hurdle, and safety net — to clarify when entrepreneurship promotes upward mobility, merely protects against loss, or remains blocked by structural barriers. It reframes entrepreneurship as a status-laden mobility process.
Starting a business is not always a ticket up; for some people it’s a real ladder, for others a shaky safety net, and for many a path full of unfair hurdles. That distinction matters for policymakers and educators.
Experience and entrepreneurship: A career transition perspective
Rider, C. I., Thompson, P., Kacperczyk, A., & Tåg, J. (2019). ILR Review, 72(5), 1149–1181.
Viewing entrepreneurship as one career move among many, this article uses longitudinal data to link different types of prior experience to both entry into self-employment and subsequent venture outcomes. It separates the effects of industry, firm, and role histories.
People are most likely to start successful firms after careers that gave them broad and relevant experience, not just long tenure. Today’s jobs quietly shape whether tomorrow’s workers can credibly leave to become founders.
The spatial scope of competition and the geographical distribution of entrepreneurship: Magazine foundings and the U.S. Post Office
Haveman, H. A., & Rider, C. I. (2014). Sociological Science, 1, 111–127.
Using historical data on U.S. magazine foundings and the spread of postal infrastructure, this paper shows how changes in communication and distribution costs reshape the geographic boundaries of competition. State-built infrastructure can both intensify rivalry in some locations and open new niches elsewhere.
As postal service improved, small-town publishers could reach distant readers and compete with big-city magazines — a parallel to how today’s digital and logistics infrastructures reshape where it makes sense to start a venture.
How employees’ prior affiliations constrain organizational network change: A study of U.S. venture capital and private equity
Rider, C. I. (2012). Administrative Science Quarterly, 57(3), 453–483.
This article shows that when firms hire professionals, they also inherit the relational templates those professionals built at prior employers, constraining subsequent network evolution. In U.S. venture capital and private equity, new syndication ties tend to mirror employees’ past patterns.
Venture and private equity firms often end up doing deals with the same partners their hires worked with in previous jobs. That reliance on inherited relationships limits who they see as plausible collaborators.
They just fade away: Mortality in the U.S. venture capital industry
Rider, C. I., & Swaminathan, A. (2012). Industrial and Corporate Change, 21(1), 151–185.
Complementing research on founding and growth, this paper theorizes “disorganizing” as the gradual process by which firms die and tests it on life histories of 1,891 U.S. venture capital organizations. Efforts to avoid failure by reducing engagement with key audiences typically increase mortality hazards by eroding appeal.
Many VC firms don’t implode; they quietly withdraw from deals and relationships until they become irrelevant. That slow fade provides early warning signs investors and managers can watch for.
Constraints on the control benefits of brokerage: A study of placement agents in U.S. venture capital fundraising
Rider, C. I. (2009). Administrative Science Quarterly, 54(4), 575–601.
This article examines when brokers occupying structural holes can actually exercise control, using placement agents in venture capital fundraising as the empirical context. Broker power is constrained when counterparties are sophisticated and reputational transparency is high.
Being in the middle of deals doesn’t always mean calling the shots. When both sides of a transaction are savvy and visible, placement agents act more like necessary go-betweens than power brokers.
Entrepreneurs as organizational products: Revisited
Audia, P. G., & Rider, C. I. (2006). In J. R. Baum, R. A. Baron, & M. Frese (Eds.), The Psychology of Entrepreneurship. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
This chapter revisits the idea that entrepreneurs are shaped by prior organizational contexts, synthesizing evidence on careers, learning, and culture. It highlights mechanisms — role modeling, internal mobility, exposure to particular problems — that connect employment experiences to later founding behavior.
Workplaces quietly “train” many future founders, often without intending to. What people learn, who they meet, and which problems they tackle on the job shape the ventures they later start.
A garage and an idea: What more does an entrepreneur need?
Audia, P. G., & Rider, C. I. (2005). California Management Review, 48(1), 6–28.
This article deconstructs the “garage myth” by showing that many successful founders are “organizational products” who draw on prior employers’ resources, routines, and networks. Institutional and organizational foundations, not just individual inspiration, underpin new venture success.
Most “garage entrepreneurs” actually bring ideas, skills, and contacts from earlier jobs. Working in a strong organization first often turns out to be the best preparation for founding a firm later.
How Ukrainian companies are transforming wartime challenges into lifelines
Sytch, M., & Rider, C. I. (2024). MIT Sloan Management Review.
This article uses the Russian invasion of Ukraine to show how firms reconfigure capabilities, supply chains, and social ties to support both survival and civic responsibility under extreme duress. It treats wartime corporate action as a mechanism linking business continuity to community resilience.
When war hit Ukraine, many firms turned their people, equipment, and relationships into lifelines — delivering food, shelter, and medical support while still trying to operate. The same capabilities that drive performance in normal times can keep communities alive in a crisis.
How the basis for status perceptions varies with perceiver status
Tan, D., & Rider, C. I. (2023). Organization Science, 34(2), 509–531.
This study treats status as jointly produced by signalers and audiences, showing that higher- and lower-status perceivers rely on different cues when evaluating others. It documents a “perceiver-status effect” in which elite and less elite audiences weight credentials, performance, and relational signals differently.
Who you are changes how you judge others. For organizations, the same person, product, or firm can look very different depending on who is doing the evaluation — with implications for branding, investor relations, and career strategy.
Retention is not a strategic imperative: On the pros and cons of employee turnover
Rider, C. I., & Tan, D. (2019). In A. J. Nyberg & T. P. Moliterno (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Strategic Human Capital Resources (Ch. 28). Edward Elgar.
This chapter challenges the assumption that minimizing turnover is always optimal, advancing a contingency view of when exits help or hurt firms. It identifies mechanisms through which turnover can refresh skills, correct mismatches, and expand alumni networks, alongside conditions where it destroys critical human and social capital.
Some turnover is healthy: it brings in fresh ideas and creates alumni who become clients or partners. The strategic challenge is not “zero turnover” but losing the right people at the right time.
Let them go? How losing employees to competitors can enhance firm status
Tan, D., & Rider, C. I. (2017). Strategic Management Journal, 38(9), 1848–1874.
SMS Strategic Human Capital Interest Group Best Conference Paper, 2015
Contrary to the view of turnover as purely costly, this paper demonstrates that losing employees to higher-status firms can raise a focal firm’s own status via alumni-based signaling. Analyses of interfirm mobility show that exits to elite destinations function as endorsements of the losing firm’s developmental quality.
When your people are hired away by top-tier rivals, it signals that your organization produces talent worth poaching. That badge of quality can make it easier to attract more strong hires.
Why are firms rigid? A general framework and empirical tests
de Figueiredo, R. J. P., Rawley, E., & Rider, C. I. (2015). Organization Science, 26(5), 1502–1519.
This article offers a multi-mechanism framework for organizational rigidity that integrates structural interdependence, political interests, and cognitive frames, then tests these mechanisms in firms facing change. Resistance can stem from capability constraints, from coalitions protecting their stakes, or from misperceptions of the environment.
The study explains why “we need to change” so often turns into “but we can’t.” Each source of rigidity calls for a different fix, so diagnosing the underlying mechanism becomes a central leadership task.
Organizational failure and intraprofessional status loss
Rider, C. I., & Negro, G. (2015). Organization Science, 26(3), 633–649.
Focusing on professional communities, this paper shows how an organization’s failure can contaminate the status of its associated professionals, even when their individual performance is hard to observe. It identifies conditions under which this “stigma by association” is intensified or muted.
When a firm collapses, people in the same profession often downgrade everyone who worked there, regardless of who was at fault. Your employer’s reputation quietly shapes your own standing long after you leave.
Labor market advantages of organizational status: A study of lateral partner hiring by large U.S. law firms
Rider, C. I., & Tan, D. (2015). Organization Science, 26(2), 356–372.
This article demonstrates that high-status law firms enjoy systematic advantages in attracting lateral partners, even after accounting for firm size and profitability. Status acts as a labor-market asset by signaling quality and providing access to better clients and collaborators.
Prestigious firms don’t just win more clients; they also win more — and often better — lateral hires, sometimes without paying the most. For many lawyers the brand on the business card is worth a pay discount.
Close, but not the same: Locally headquartered organizations and agglomeration economies in a declining industry
Audia, P. G., & Rider, C. I. (2010). Research Policy, 39(3), 360–374.
This paper examines the role of geographic proximity and organizational structure in declining industries. It shows that locally headquartered firms experience different pressures and advantages from agglomeration compared to branch locations of multi-unit firms.
Strategic location decisions for headquarters matter differently as industries contract. Locally rooted organizations navigate downturns with distinct trade-offs compared to their multi-location competitors.