01
Radical Technological Change and the Specialist–Generalist Tension: How Uncertainty and Competition Shape Skill Demand
Tianyu He, Karin Hoisl, Victoria Sevcenko & Tiancheng Wang
Abstract
Radical technological shifts force firms to reconsider whether adaptation requires broad, flexible knowledge or deep, domain-specific expertise. This study examines how firms’ demand for generalists and specialists changes after they produce radical inventions, and how market uncertainty and competition condition that response. The authors combine Burning Glass job-posting data with PATSTAT patent records for 2010–2020. The observational analysis associates radical invention with stronger demand for specialists, particularly in more competitive environments; greater uncertainty instead shifts demand toward generalists. Three preregistered online vignette experiments separately manipulate radical technological change, uncertainty, and competition to examine causality and mechanisms. The experiments reproduce the central pattern: perceived competition intensifies preferences for specialist skills, while perceived uncertainty increases preferences for generalist skills. Across the studies, competition has the stronger effect, clarifying how external conditions shape firms’ workforce choices during technological discontinuity.
02
Task Complexity, Doctor Experience, and the Value of Supervisors: Evidence from an Emergency Department
Miguel Espinosa, David Kryscynski, Victoria Sevcenko & Sergio Prada
Abstract
Supervisory expertise can improve service quality while slowing delivery. This study examines that trade-off in a Colombian hospital emergency department using 184,530 patient encounters handled by 225 physicians from 2016 to 2022. The empirical design exploits the quasi-random assignment of patients, physicians, and supervisors across shifts to estimate how supervision by an emergency-medicine specialist affects generalist physicians. Specialist supervision reduces the probability of a 30-day readmission by 1.7 percentage points but increases patient length of stay by 7.8 percent. These effects vary with task conditions: urgency weakens both the quality gain and the delay, while diagnostic ambiguity removes the readmission benefit and further lengthens stays. Measured task complexity does not significantly alter the effect. Additional analyses indicate that longer stays arise mainly from greater coordination, including more handoffs and specialist consultations, rather than increased monitoring or knowledge transfer.
03
Interdependent Agendas in Sustainability: Analyzing the Trade-offs in Firm Decarbonization and Workforce Diversity
Sukti Ghosh, Victoria Sevcenko & Jasjit Singh
Abstract
Firms increasingly pursue environmental and social sustainability goals at the same time, but progress on one dimension can hinder another. This study examines a potential tension between decarbonization and workforce gender diversity by analyzing more than 16 million online job profiles from 713 U.S. Fortune 1000 firms between 2011 and 2022. The evidence shows that green-job creation is associated with lower female representation. The authors identify geography as an important mechanism: green roles are often concentrated in particular locations, while women face greater mobility constraints linked to family responsibilities and commuting preferences. Consistent with this account, gender gaps are smaller for green jobs located in metropolitan areas and for roles offering greater remote-work flexibility. The findings show how organizational design choices can shape firms’ ability to pursue environmental and social objectives together.