People at ILR

Ben Rissing
people / faculty

Ben A. Rissing

Associate Professor
Organizational Behavior

Overview

Professor Ben A. Rissing studies regulatory, mobility, and social processes that operate behind the scenes to shape important facets of modern careers. These topics include how government regulators affect immigrant hiring and compensation, the performance implications of worker mobility, and the functioning of new organizational recruitment systems reliant on social connections. For his research, he negotiates access to, and analyzes, unique personnel data within U.S. government agencies, for-profit businesses, and university admissions systems, which often encompass millions of observations. Using modern data analytics, he builds datasets by joining disparate administrative, application, and employee records. Rissing uses these data to test theories with key implications for governments, workers, and practitioners.

Dr. Rissing earned his doctorate in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management; master’s degrees in management science and engineering management from MIT and Duke University, respectively; and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia. Before joining Cornell University, Ben was the Hugh W. Pearson Visiting Professor of Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship at Brown University and a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Brown University Watson Institute for International Studies. He also previously conducted research as a Wertheim Fellow with the Harvard Law School.

Publications

Journal Articles

Book Chapters

  • Ben A. Rissing. 2013. Highly-skilled Information and Technology Migrant Workers. in Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration. Hoboken, NJ, United States: Wiley Blackwell, 2013. I. Ness and P. Bellwood. (1646-1651)

Book Reviews

  • Ben A. Rissing. 2017. Book Review of The Diversity Bargain and Other Dilemmas of Race, Admissions, and Meritocracy at Elite Universities. in Administrative Science Quarterly. Sage Publications, 2017. (1-3)
  • Ben A. Rissing. 2016. Book Review of Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs. in Organization Studies. Sage Publications, 2016. (1189-1192)

Honors and Awards

  • Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, SUNY: The State University of New York. 2023
  • Best Paper Proceedings Recipient, Academy of Management. 2021
  • Shah Family Dean’s Excellence Funding Award, Cornell University. 2021
  • MacIntyre Award for Exemplary Teaching and Advising, Cornell University. 2020
  • Best Paper Proceedings Recipient, Academy of Management. 2019
  • OMT Best Paper Finalist, Academy of Management. 2019
  • Faculty Fellow, Institute for the Social Sciences, Cornell University. 2019
  • Giarratani Rising Star Award, Industry Studies Association. 2018
  • Finalist, Research Paper Competition, Wharton People and Analytics Conference. 2017
  • Class of 2017 Faculty and Staff Award, Cornell University. 2016
  • Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award, Brown University. 2015
  • National Finalist, White House Fellows Program. 2014
  • Best Paper Proceedings Recipient, Academy of Management. 2012
  • Award Recipient, U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Research Paper Program. 2011

Contact

Ives Hall, Room 393
rissing@cornell.edu