Reputational Concerns and Advice-Seeking at Work

(with Lea Heursen and Marina Chugunova, submitted to Journal of Political Economy, SSRN)

Abstract

Do reputational concerns impede knowledge diffusion at work? While seeking advice supports learning, many professionals may worry it also signals incompetence, adversely affecting career prospects. In an experiment with white-collar professionals, we demonstrate that such reputational concerns cause a significant and sizable decrease in seeking helpful advice, with little evidence that evaluators’ prior beliefs about competence mitigate this effect. Although advice-seeking does not actually affect evaluators’ competence assessments, an intervention study shows that the misperception that it does is persistent and difficult to correct. A complementary survey confirms that reputational concerns are a common barrier to advice-seeking in the workplace.

How Competition and Gender Composition Shape Innovation Processes 

(preparation for submission to Research Policy, SSRN)

Abstract

Women participate less in innovative activities than men, raising concerns about untapped inventive potential. Does the often competitive and male-dominated nature of innovative environments discourage women from innovating? An online field experiment with over 1,000 U.S. white-collar professionals tests how incentives and the gender composition of competitors affect early-stage innovation. By exogenously varying these factors, the study isolates their individual and combined effects on creative ideation and idea selection which are critical stages at the onset of innovation processes. Women generate more novel ideas than men in every condition, including winner-take-all contests. Yet when gender is visible, they submit lower-quality ideas during the selection stage, while men excel in gender-balanced competitions. Changes in overconfidence and perceived competitiveness, driven by competitor composition, mediate these effects. Designing innovation contests with these dynamics, organizations can foster environments that unlock the full creative potential of both women and men. 

Firm Boundaries from the Outside in - How Firms can Improve Collaboration with Freelancers

(with Tobias Kretschmer, Jonathan Jensen, Marlo Raveendran, Frederike Eulitz, Ted Liu, Gabriela Burlacu, and Ariadne Papatheodorou-Harvati, preparation for submission to the Journal of Organization Design, SSRN)

Abstract

As firms hire freelancers for complex projects, firm boundaries become more permeable. This affects firm ability to capture value and freelancer ability to sustain independent careers. Yet, freelancer-firm collaboration remains underexplored. Using data from 456 freelancers on an online labor market, we ask how five collaboration dimensions-coordination, cooperation, and three forms of socialization-affect project outcomes. Cooperation and role socialization predict project satisfaction, return intentions, and freelancer well-being, and less collaboration failures. Thus, firm boundaries are shaped by contracts or structure, but also by freelancer integration into workflows, expectations, and relationships-rendering collaboration mechanisms central to modern organization design.