Sharique, it’s fascinating that you are studying innovation as a sociologist, which I take – probably too simplistically – as research on how social interactions shape outcomes.   You’ve got three streams outlined on your website.  I wanted to start by asking you about your work on the gaps between new science and its implementation into commercial products.    What are you finding about the ways in which science becomes a product that we can use as consumers?

Sharique began by describing a paper that was motivated by differences across Universities such as MIT/Stanford vs. others in the extent of the commercialized science that their faculty and students generate.    This led him and his co-authors to investigate ways to measure the potential of science to generate commercializable insights.   Using an AI-based tool, he and his colleagues created a proxy that predicts latent potential in scientific publications (and please check out Sharique’s substack for info on it).  The tool picks up on characteristics of a publication such as the size of the problem it addresses, the clarity of its insight, and the identification of mechanisms on how the proposed solution works. 

While this isn’t a silver bullet, it’s an exciting way to think about where unexploited potential scientific insights can deliver.

A second stream of Sharique’s work is called “Understanding the labor market for new skills.”    What are you finding in this domain?

              Sharique has two new papers that he described in this area.

The first on the Hunt for Talent focuses on the growing phenomenon of the recruiting of talent into companies through mechanisms other than job postings.  Back in 1994 or so, only about 4% of employees were hired through recruiting.  Today, about 15% are hired in this way across the board, with 20-25% of highly skilled people “hunted” for their talent.   The paper walks through the implications of this by focusing on issues such as the conveyance of bargaining power into the hands of a few visible prospects.  The role of LinkedIn and other online marketplaces for talent is pivotal to the process.

A second paper on the Aging Firm describes the implications of another phenomenon, which is the aging of the workforce of many companies.   There’s an inversion of the distribution of employee age, with many older people holding important roles for longer periods of time in many companies.  What does this mean for the loss of tacit knowledge, insight, and historical understanding as the workforce finally retires?  What does it mean for entry-level jobs.  These are the kinds of questions that Sharique and his colleagues investigate.

What makes you optimistic?

Sharique is optimistic.   Why?  There’s a lot of opportunity for young people who want to make a positive difference in the world.  Students share a common commitment to step up and do something important.  We can support that by encouraging bold, creative, effective reimagining of what the world can be.  New ideas are our greatest chance at achieving the kinds of breakthroughs that we all want.