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 Research

 

My research focuses on learning, decision making, and strategy, often using formal models to examine the empirical implications of alternative theories. My recent work has examined how the process of learning from experience can systematically bias the sample of information and experiences individuals and firms have access to. In a series of paper I have illustrated how learning from such biased samples can generate in-group bias, discrimination, risk aversion, and conformity.

 

Publications

Denrell, J. and Z. Shapira (2009). “Performance Sampling and Bimodal Duration Dependence.” Journal of Mathematical Sociology., 33: 66-91.

 

Denrell, J. (2008). “Indirect Social Influence” Science, 321 (5885, July 4), 47-48. Link to article.

 

Denrell, J. (2008). “Organizational Risk Taking: Adaptation versus Variable Risk Preferences.” Industrial and Corporate Change, 17 (3), 427-466. Link to journal website.

 

Denrell, J. and B. Kovacs (2008). “Selective Sampling of Empirical Settings in Organizational Studies.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 53, 109-144. Link to journal website.

Denrell, J. and G. Le Mens (2007). “Interdependent Sampling and Social Influence.” Psychological Review, 114 (2): 398-422. Link to journal website.

T. Andersen, J. Denrell, and R. Bettis (2007). “Strategic Responsiveness and Bowman’s Risk-Return Paradox.” Strategic Management Journal, 28(4): 409-427. Link to journal website.

Denrell, J. (2007). “Adaptive Learning and Risk Taking.” Psychological Review, 114 (1): 177-187. Link to journal website.

Denrell, J. (2006). “Superstitious behavior as a byproduct of intelligent adaptation” Handbook of Organizational Decision Making. Edited by William Starbuck and Gerald Hodkinson. Forthcoming, Oxford University Press.

 

Denrell, J. (2005). “Why Most People Disapprove of Me: Experience Sampling in Impression Formation”. Psychological Review, 112 (4), 951-978. Link to journal website.

 

Denrell, J. (2005). “Should We Be Impressed with High Performance?” Journal of Management Inquiry, 14 (3), 292-298. Link to journal website.

 

Denrell, J. (2005). “Selection Bias and the Perils of Benchmarking”. Harvard Business Review, April, 2005, 114-119. Link to journal website.

 

Denrell, J. (2005). “The Performance of Performance, Journal of Management and Governance, 8 (4), 345-349.

 

Denrell, J, Arvidsson, N., and U. Zander (2004). “Managing Knowledge in the Dark: An Empirical Examination of the Reliability of Competency Evaluations.” Management Science, 50 (11), 1491-1503. Link to journal website.

 

Denrell, J., C. Fang, and D. Levinthal (2004).“From T-Mazes to Labyrinths: Learning from Model-Based Feedback.” Management Science, 50 (10), 1366-1378. Link to journal website.

 

Denrell, J. (2004). “Random Walks and Sustained Competitive Advantage.” Management Science 50 (7): 922-934. Link to journal website.

 

Denrell, J., C. Fang, and S. Winter (2003). “The Economics of Strategic Opportunity.” Strategic Management Journal, 24 (10): 977-990. Link to journal website.

 

Denrell, J. (2003). “Vicarious Learning, Under-Sampling of Failure, and the Myths of Management,” Organization Science, 14 (3): 227-243. Link to journal website.

 

Denrell, J. and J. G. March (2001). “Adaptation as Information Restriction: The Hot Stove Effect,” Organization Science, 12 (5): 523-538. Link to journal website. Link to JSTOR.

 

Denrell, J. (2000). “Radical Organization Theory: An Incomplete Contract Approach to Power and Organizational Design,” Rationality and Society, 12: 39-61. Link to journal website.

 

Working Papers

 

Denrell, J. “Mean-Variance Preferences as the Outcome of Reinforcement Learning”

 

Denrell, J. and G. Le MensHow Concerns for Legitimacy Can Bias Assessments of Efficiency”.

 

Denrell, J. “Competitive Learning and Market Differentiation”

 

Denrell, J. “Learning from and by the Crowd”

 

Denrell, J. and G. Le MensIllusory Correlations as the Outcome of Experiential Sampling”

 

Denrell, J. and G. Le Mens. Information Bias in Rational Learning”

 

Denrell, J. and G. Le Mens. “Learning to be Myopic.”

 

Denrell, J. and C. Fang. “Predicting the next big thing: Is an accurate vision an indication or good or poor judgment?.

 

 

 

 

 

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Graduate School of BusinessStanford University