About Me

I'm Derek Lief, a Ph.D. candidate in Strategy at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. I am also a Neubauer Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). 

I am currently on the academic job market for 2024 - 2025. 

My research focuses on better understanding how firms can most competitively position themselves through the selection of human capital, and the incentive structures they implement to attract, retain and motivate job seekers and employees alike. Theoretically, I adopt an interdisciplinary approach that draws on insights from strategic management, organization theory, economic sociology, and political science. Methodologically, I run experiments, conduct econometric analyses on observational data, and employ qualitative methods.

My dissertation examines these questions by studying the effect of the theoretical construct of organizational religiosity (OR) on firm outcomes, primarily through its effect on human capital. It is segmented into three main parts. In the first, I develop the construct of OR by establishing its theoretical validity and defining a quantitative measure for it. In the second, I focus on factor markets, where I study how OR impacts the employer-employee match at the organizational boundary (the “outside effect”) in terms of the reservation wage, and worker behavior within the firm’s boundary (the “inside effect”) in terms of employee contributions. Finally, in the third, I focus on product markets, where I consider how higher levels of OR prevent the firm from competing in certain markets, while providing opportunities in others.

My interest in human capital and the intersection of religion and business stems from my experience as a consultant with FTI Consulting from 2008 - 2012, and the roughly seven years I have spent living in the Middle East, including both Israel and Jordan. I grew up in San Francisco, went to boarding school in Santa Barbara, and college in Philadelphia. 

You can find my CV here.

Contact: dlief@umich.edu