Managing Outliers and Anomalies

In this timely book, Martin Ruef and Colin Birkhead consider how academics and practitioners can learn from unusual entrepreneurs, leaders, and organizations. They clarify how researchers make sense of extremes – in particular, whether they see them as outliers (extreme cases) or anomalies (extreme events). Chapters examine key outliers and anomalies throughout economic history, including eBay, General Electric, the House of Rothschild and Madam C.J. Walker. The book offers in-depth investigations of businesses and leaders, focusing on the distinctive qualities that drive performance. It assesses anomalous events via parameters and processes, highlighting spatial, temporal, industry and organizational contexts that shift performance outcomes. Pairing analysis of real world examples with comparison groups, Ruef and Birkhead address our bias towards extreme cases and events, while employing methodological tools for learning from them through qualitative, frequentist and Bayesian approaches. Managing Outliers and Anomalies is an insightful resource for scholars and students of entrepreneurship, leadership, organizations, sociology and public policy. The integrated case studies also make this essential reading for practitioners in business and entrepreneurship.