Douglas Hannah
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buildit.bsky.social
Douglas Hannah
@buildit.bsky.social
690 followers 790 following 200 posts
Prof @ University of Illinois Gies College of Business. I like making things, and I study how people make things. #entrepreneurship #strategy #ecosystems #cognition
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buildit.bsky.social
If you’re in #Boston tonight, you’ve got 4 more hours to look across the river at the gazetothestars.com installation at #MIT looking back at you
An eyeball projected onto the dome of an M.I.T. building, shot at night
March 15, 2025 at 12:36 AM
buildit.bsky.social
A picture of the Futurama crew with the overlaid quote, “This isn’t a business. I’ve always thought of it more as a source of cheap labor. Like a family.”
January 19, 2025 at 9:09 PM
buildit.bsky.social
💯 agree. Pfeffer et al (2005) are arguing explicitly for the treatment effect, through socialization. I'm out of my expertise here, but my understanding is that the evidence is mixed. Gerlach (2017) for example calls for more (and better) research to disentangle. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Text from the paper being discussed, by Ferraro et al (2005). It reads, "he behavioral assumptions and language that characterize economics influence theories and expectations about human behavior. These widely espoused and accepted theories, and the language they embody, then influence how people behave individually and the institutions they design as contexts for others’ behavior. Individual behavior and institutional designs create a reality that, in turn, reinforces beliefs in the validity of assumptions of economic theories." Text from the paper being discussed, by Ferraro et al (2005). It reads, "We would expect to find different results in countries where the dominant version of economics is not imbued in the principles of the neoclassic orthodoxy. The experiments of Frank et al. (1993) provide some suggestive evidence. They compared the effect of two different types of economics classes: a class in microeconomics taught by a neoclassical economist and one taught by an institutional economist. The students in the institutional economist’s class did not exhibit the same increase in self-interested behavior found in the neoclassical economist’s class."
January 17, 2025 at 4:48 PM
buildit.bsky.social
FWIW, I think business schools are in trouble if the world (and our prospective students) believe that our product makes them bad people.

First image is from Fabrizio, Pfeffer, and Sutton (2005). journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/...
Text from a paper by Ferraro, Pfeffer, and Sutton, titled, "Economics language and assumptions." The text reads, "Cadsby and Maynes (1998)found that economics and business students, compared to nurses, tended to move toward an inefficient free-riding equilibrium in an experiment using a threshold game. In an ultimatum game (e.g., Thaler, 1988), Carter and Irons (1991) found that student subjects who were economics majors tended to keep more of the resources for themselves than students who had declared a noneconomics major and were not enrolled in an economics course. Frank, Gilovich, and Regan (1993) found that economists defected more often in a prisoner's dilemma game and that economics professors were less likely than those from other disciplines to donate to charity. Frank and Schulze (2000) found that economists were more corruptible than others. In their experiment, students in a German university were asked to recommend a plumber for a film club from a set of offers that varied both by the price charged and by the amount the person would receive if the plumber they recommended was selected. Economics students were more likely to recommend a plumber that charged a higher price when they received more money for doing so. There is, then, a large and growing body of literature that suggests that economists and economics students act differently from others. Why?" Text from the economist article being discussed. The text reads: "The stereotype of profit-maximisation is not entirely unfounded. One study by Daron Acemoglu, Alex Xi He and Daniel le Maire, three academics, shows that managers with business degrees are less likely to share profits with workers than their less commercially experienced peers. What are these folks like on weekends? Another paper from 2007 by Nicole Stephens, Hazel Markus and Sarah Townsend found that when compared with firefighters, MBA students were orders of magnitude more likely to be upset if a friend knowingly bought the same car as theirs."
January 17, 2025 at 3:06 PM
buildit.bsky.social
I disagree (podcasts can be great), but this IS a chance to share one of my favorite quotes on writing
A photograph of a quote by Michael Eric Dawson, from an article called “the ghost of Corn West”. The quote reads “The ecstasies of the spoken word, when scholarship is at stake, leave the deep reader and the long listener hungry for more. Writing is an often-painful task that can feel like the death of one’s past. Equally discomfiting is seeing one’s present commitments to truths crumble once one begins to tap away at the keyboard or scar the page with ink. Writing demands a different sort of apprenticeship to ideas than does speaking. It beckons one to revisit over an extended, or at least delayed, period the same material and to revise what one thinks. Revision is reading again and again what one writes so that one can think again and again about what one wants to say and in turn determine if better and deeper things can be said.”
January 15, 2025 at 2:09 PM
buildit.bsky.social
Ten days left to submit to the Industry Studies Association conference, June 4-6 in Cambridge (at MIT).

ISA draws a super crowd of management, innovation, and policy folks united by a desire to do deep, empirical research on industries. #mgmtsky #orgstudies

www.industrystudies.org/isa-2025-con...
Screenshot of the conference website. The text reads: "Context Matters: Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Industrial Policy in the New Era of Geopolitics Submissions Now Open for ISA 2025 Conference | June 4-6, 2025 | Cambridge, MA Due Date: January 24, 2025 (submission links below) Join the Industry Studies Association (ISA) for our 2025 annual conference, held at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from June 4-6, 2025. This year’s conference marks ISA’s 15th anniversary and celebrates the profound impact that industry studies research continues to have on both academic scholarship and public policy. ISA in an offshoot of the Sloan Foundation studies, including the influential international motor vehicle study that took place at MIT. " Screenshot of the conference website. The text reads: "For 2025, we plan to focuson AI regulation, industrial policy, and sustainable innovation. Research paper sessions presenting cutting-edge findings across several key streams: Sustainable Innovation, Energy, and Mobility: Explore sustainability challenges in energy, the future of mobility (including electric vehicles), and industrial decarbonization Health Systems, Biotechnology, and Pharmaceuticals: Present research on healthcare systems, biotechnology, and the evolving pharmaceutical landscape Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and AI-Driven Transformation: Examine how AI and digital technologies are reshaping innovation ecosystems and entrepreneurship Public Policy and Global Competitiveness: Investigate the role of public policy in shaping industrial competitiveness, market structures, and firm strategies Labor Markets, Organizations, and the Future of Work: Discuss labor relations, organizational structures, and the evolving nature of work Operations, Supply Chain, and AI-Enhanced Industry 4.0: Delve into the technological innovations driving efficiency and transformation in supply chains and operations General Industry Studies: A flexible stream for high-quality research that doesn’t fit into the above categories but contributes to the understanding of industries and their evolution"
January 14, 2025 at 9:51 PM
buildit.bsky.social
Or, with a different type of poetry, this quote from my work on Covid-19 with @valerioiannucci.bsky.social
Red text on a white background, reading “This s**t’s f***ed and it must be unf***ed. And if not you? Who? If not now? When? Sick of it, I don't want to put up with it. I don't want to live in such a dysfunctional world. So if nobody else is going to do it, f*** it. It's on me.”
January 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
buildit.bsky.social
In fact, research suggests that communities’ ability to bounce back from disaster is tightly tied to their organizing capacity – with more founding & more rapid founding tied to resilience!

Link: psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-...
Link: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
A screenshot of "Creating in the crucibles of nature's fury: Associational diversity and local social entrepreneurship after natural disasters in California, 1991-2010", by Sunasir Dutta A screenshot of a paper by Huggy Rao and Henrich Greve, titled "Disasters and community resilience: Spanish flu and the formation of retail cooperatives in Norway"
January 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
buildit.bsky.social
Sometimes ventures are super short lived (Italian students set up espresso stands following a 1980 earthquake in southern Italy), but other times they aren’t

Amazing companies/orgs all emerged in the early days of Covid – and have had lasting impact & operations
The open source medical supplies organization logo The Helpful Engineering organization logo. The Get Us PPE Logo and URL. The text reads, "we get donated PPE to those who need it most" The project N95 organization logo.
January 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
buildit.bsky.social
Part of what makes ventures effective in crisis contexts is that they tend to be informal and flexible – which works well when the context is ambiguous and dynamic

For ex, entrepreneurs set up money transfer systems and a centralized support wiki after Hurricane Katrina

Link: bit.ly/40w5oAl
A screenshot of an article titled "Coordinating expertise among emergent groups responding to disaster", by Ann Majchrzak, Sirkka Jarvenpaa, and Andrea Hollingshead A screenshot from Wikipedia of an article about the Katrina PeopleFinder Project. The first paragraph reads, "The Katrina PeopleFinder Project was set up in early September, 2005 in response to the dozens of groups collecting "lost and safe" lists for people affected by Hurricane Katrina.[1] It provided a virtual messaging center using skype as well as creating "a uniform standard for collecting, compiling, data-entering", and "searching information on people affected by Hurricane Katrina".[2] The project was conceived on Friday, September 2 with the establishment of the KatrinaHelp Wiki. Volunteers manually entered 15,200 records in less than 24 hours[2] and data entry was stopped with over 90,000 entries (when no new entries were apparent) by Tuesday, September 7. Dozens of technologists and thousands of volunteers had helped make it happen. The Katrina PeopleFinder Project is an example of a nonprofit technology initiative implemented entirely by volunteers. Over 4000 people donated their time as data entry crew members."
January 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
buildit.bsky.social
We often think of outside agencies or carpetbagging outsiders swooping in, but research suggests that entrepreneurs are often members of the local community – folks who know the lay of the land, who needs help, and how to get things done.

Paper link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
A screenshot of the article "Local venturing as compassion organizing in the aftermath of a natural disaster: The role of localness and community in reducing suffering" by Dean Shepherd and Trenton Williams. The abstract reads, "In contrast to models of compassion within existing organizations, this grounded theory study examines how ventures emerge relying on localness and community in direct response to ‘opportunities’ to alleviate suffering in the aftermath of a natural disaster. While a natural disaster is a surprising disruptive event devastating a local community, that local community is nested within a broader community, which can be a source of abundant resources. Ventures created in the aftermath of a natural disaster, given local knowledge and unencumbered by pre-existing systems, procedures, and capabilities, are highly effective at connecting the broader community with the local community through customizing resources to meet victims’ needs and to quickly delivering these resources to alleviate suffering."
January 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
buildit.bsky.social
For example, entrepreneurs sold food and water in tent cities following the immediate aftermath 2010 Haiti earthquake. Others provided orphan rescue, psychological counseling, and job placement

Paper link: bit.ly/4heYHrX
A screenshot of the paper " Building resilience or providing sustenance: Different paths of emergent ventures in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake" by Trent Williams and Dean Shepherd A screenshot of a news article titled "entrepreneurial spirit thrives in Canaan, Haiti", dates January 10, 2018. The image depicts a man in a blue shirt holding food products.
January 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
buildit.bsky.social
Entrepreneurship in the wake of the disasters often gets a bad rap – profiteering & price gouging. And sometimes it is! See @davidmcswane.bsky.social’s amazing “Pandemic, Inc” on efforts to source PPE during Covid
A picture of the cover of David McSwane's book "Pandemic, Inc", with a note that it was shortlisted for the 2022 Business Book Awards. A headshot portrait of author/reporter David McSwane
January 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
buildit.bsky.social
A new follower, obviously in response to my order, “Give me your most millennial bot account, stuffed with your second most millennial bot account”
Screenshot of three recent posts from a bot account, talking about the price of avocados, saying “literally” all the time, and juggling student loans Screenshot of three posts from a bot account that just followed me, talking about parents not understanding memes, sending tweets to exes, and family politics
January 13, 2025 at 8:58 PM
buildit.bsky.social
Very cool new paper by Jiayi Bao at @tamu.bsky.social: #Makerspaces lead to more startups. This is driven by intentional (vs accidental) hardware founders - i.e., its not about ppl playing & discovering ideas, but by deliberate experimentation & prototyping!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Screenshot of the paper, from Strategic Management Journal, titled "Do makerspaces affect entrepreneurship? If so, who, how, and when?" The abstract reads: Makerspaces are physical spaces that offer individuals fabrication tools and materials (e.g., 3D printers) to make artifacts. Although not designed specifically for entrepreneurs, these spaces offer affordable access to rapid prototyping infrastructure. This study examines whether makerspaces affect entrepreneurship and, if so, who, how, and when. Leveraging hand-collected data on US makerspaces and large archival data on Kickstarter projects, I show that makerspaces positively affect entrepreneurial participation and subsequent commercialization outcomes. However, these effects are mostly specific to hardware (vs. nonhardware) activities that typically involve physical prototypes. I find that the effect on entry is driven more by new (vs. established) but intentional (vs. accidental) entrepreneurs and that the effect on commercialization comes from two operating and complementary channels—resource provision and social facilitation. A map of the United States by metropolitan statistical area (MSAs), showing the density of maker spaces. There are a lot!
January 13, 2025 at 4:27 PM
buildit.bsky.social
So there is a thread on the economics of the newspaper industry and how to save journalism and, correct me if I’m wrong, it starts with a chat about startup financing between the founder of Craigslist and…a porn bot account?
Screenshot of two posts, one by Craig Newmark explaining how he bootstrapped Craigslist, and a reply accusing him of killing the newspaper industry
January 10, 2025 at 10:32 PM
buildit.bsky.social
If you can't give up entirely on HBS, you can also offer students a choice. For my MBAs, I create two course packs: A “full” coursepack, containing all the readings ($$, but easy), and a “lite” version that contains only those readings they can’t get for free somewhere.
A screen shot from Harvard Business School publishing, showing two paired course packs - a "full" version and a "light" version, which contains only those readings they weren't able to find somewhere online for free.
January 3, 2025 at 3:03 PM
buildit.bsky.social
Course materials costs can add up for students, but there are ways to help. I've been able to build my intro undergrad #entrepreneurship course using only free materials.

Here’s what I did – plus thread and resources. Please add your own!

#academicsky #academicchatter
A text-heavy image describing how I designed a syllabus using only free (to students) materials. I relied largely on book chapters, HBR articles, research articles, and video content. Cases were the hardest to replace, but I found podcasts and newspaper articles were sometimes effective substitutes. Overall, I was able to reduce my per-student cost by almost $100!
January 3, 2025 at 3:03 PM
buildit.bsky.social
Update: I eventually prevailed, and to the victor goes the spoils
A photo of my blue-shirted chest, covered with stickers awarded by my daughter for having solved her “find the differences” puzzle.
December 30, 2024 at 11:25 PM
buildit.bsky.social
My plea for help sadly went unanswered (but I appreciate the effort)
Two images from the kids show Bluey, featuring three dogs riding a skateboard. There are apparently four subtle differences between the two images. White text on a black background depicting ChatGPT’s attempt to spot the differences between the two images.
December 30, 2024 at 9:10 PM
buildit.bsky.social
Hey, there we go!
Picture of the Duolingo streak count, reading 1800 days. There is a flaming owl.
December 28, 2024 at 10:39 PM
buildit.bsky.social
Having been tasked with keeping alive the tamagotchi Santa brought, I’m thinking that paying for a box *whose sole purpose is to beep when you don’t pay attention to it* was a lot more innocuous before the dawn of the attention economy
A pink tamagotchi on a stone table; the lcd screen shows a tiny bouncing blob
December 28, 2024 at 2:43 AM
buildit.bsky.social
Disney on Ice was a) very fun, and will be b) mandatory field trip the next time I teach corporate strategy
A photograph from Disney on Ice, depicting skaters in costume under colored floodlights in a hockey arena. A map of Disney’s 1957 corporate strategy, depicting flows and interdependencies between the various elements of disneys business - films, amusement parks, merchandising, and publications.
December 22, 2024 at 8:04 PM
buildit.bsky.social
Christmas tree is up, with more than a week to spare!
A Christmas tree made of wrapping paper, attached to the wall around a corner Paper Christmas tree in construction, with wrapping paper laid out on the floor
December 14, 2024 at 5:40 PM
buildit.bsky.social
When I read @economist.com Bartleby is always what I’m looking forward to - how cool to see my mentor and reluctant rec letter writer @bobsutton.net featured!
Photograph of an article in the Economist, with lots of text and an image of a man pulling against red tape
December 10, 2024 at 3:59 PM