Martin Ruef | Scholars@Duke

Martin Ruef
Jack and Pamela Egan Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship

My research considers the social context of entrepreneurship from both a contemporary and historical perspective. I draw on large-scale surveys of entrepreneurs in the United States to explore processes of team formation, innovation, exchange, and boundary maintenance in nascent business startups. My historical analyses address entrepreneurial activity and constraint during periods of profound institutional change. This work has considered a diverse range of sectors, including the organizational transformation of Southern agriculture and industry after the Civil War, African American entrepreneurship under Jim Crow, the transition of the U.S. healthcare system from professional monopoly to managed care, and the character of entrepreneurship during early mercantile and industrial capitalism.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Jack and Pamela Egan Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship, Sociology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2013
Professor in the Department of Sociology, Sociology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2013
Core Faculty in Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Initiatives 2018

Contact Information

344 Reuben-Cooke Building, Box 90088, Durham, NC 27708
martin.ruef@duke.edu (919) 660-5792
Curriculum Vitae
ResearchGate Profile

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Stanford University 1999
- M.A., Stanford University 1994
- B.S., Virginia Polytech Institute and State University 1990
Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Chair of Sociology, Sociology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2016 - 2019
- Director of the Markets and Management Certificate Program in the Department of Sociology, Sociology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2014 - 2016
- Associate Director of the Markets and Management Certificate Program, Sociology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2013 - 2014
- Research Professor in the Department of Sociology, Sociology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2012
Academic Positions Outside Duke
- Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies . 2019
Recognition
In the News
- JUL 6, 2022 Christianity Today
  
  Three Ways Collaborative Partnerships can Sustain Mission and Ministry
- MAR 15, 2022 Les Echos
  
  Macron’s 25 Unicorns, A Dangerous Fascination?
- JUL 10, 2020 JSTOR Daily
  
  How Residential Segregation Looked in the South
- APR 28, 2016 Financial Times
  
  Big Business Moves into Co-Working Spaces
- DEC 14, 2015 Boston Review
  
  A Street Divided
- DEC 14, 2014 Quartz
  
  A Better Formula for Calculating Startup Equity
- NOV 3, 2014 Wall Street Journal
  
  Are Entrepreneurs Really Different Than the Rest of Us?
- SEP 2, 2014
  
  American Sociological Association Honors Three Duke Faculty
- DEC 13, 2013 The Atlantic Cities
  
  Why some communities foster more entrepreneurs than others
- DEC 13, 2013 The Atlantic Cities
  
  Why some communities foster more entrepreneurs than others
- DEC 3, 2012 Duke Today
  
  A Sociologist with a Long View
- MAY 13, 2012 Forbes
  
  How Companies can Benefit from Inclusion
- APR 23, 2011 Wall Street Journal
  
  Our Social Networks, Ourselves
Awards & Honors
Expertise
Subject Headings
Global Scholarship
- Research
Research
External Relationships
- Edward Elgar Publishing
- Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
- Princeton University Press
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Books
  - Aldrich, Howard, Martin Ruef, and Stephen Lippmann. Organizations Evolving (3rd Edition). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2020.
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  - Ruef, M. Between Slavery and Capitalism: The Legacy of Emancipation in the American South. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.
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  - Ruef, M. The Entrepreneurial Group: Social Identities, Relations, and Collective Action. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010.
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  - Ruef, M., and M. Lounsbury. The Sociology of Entrepreneurship. Vol. 25. New York: Elsevier, 2007.
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  - Aldrich, H., and M. Ruef. Organizations Evolving (2nd Edition). London: Sage, 2006.
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  - Scott, W. R., M. Ruef, P. J. Mendel, and C. A. Caronna. Institutional Change and Healthcare Organizations: From Professional Dominance to Managed Care. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
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- Academic Articles
  - Ruef, Martin, and Angelina Grigoryeva. “Micro-Segregation and the Jewish Ghetto: A Comparison of Ethnic Communities in Germany.” European Journal of Sociology forthcoming (2022).
  - Ruef, Martin. “Racial Segregation under Slavery.” Social Forces 100, no. 3 (2022): 935–60. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab012.
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  - Ruef, Martin, and Angelina Grigoryeva. “Jim Crow and the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis.” American Journal of Sociology 126, no. 2 (September 30, 2020): 407–52. https://doi.org/10.1086/711686.
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  - Ruef, M. “The Household as a Source of Labor for Entrepreneurs: Evidence from New York City during Industrialization.” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal 14, no. 1 (2020): 20–42. https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1309.
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  - Wezel, Filippo, and Martin Ruef. “Learning against the Wind: Diversity and Performance on the Ships of the Dutch East India Company.” Strategy Science 5, no. 4 (2020): 330–47. https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2020.0114.
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  - Aldrich, H., and M. Ruef. “Unicorns, Gazelles, and Other Distractions on the Way to Understanding Real Entrepreneurship in America.” Academy of Management Perspectives 32, no. 4 (2018): 458–458. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2017.0123.
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  - Rickne, Annika, M. Ruef, and Karl Wennberg. “The Socially and Spatially Bounded Relationships of Entrepreneurial Activity: Olav Sorenson -- Recipient of the 2018 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research.” Small Business Economics 51, no. 3 (2018): 515–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0075-8.
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  - Ruef, M., and Angelina Grigoryeva. “Jim Crow, Ethnic Enclaves, and Status Attainment: Occupational Mobility among U.S. Blacks, 1880-1940.” American Journal of Sociology 124, no. 3 (2018): 814–59. https://doi.org/10.1086/701020.
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  - Kwon, S. -. W., and M. Ruef. “The Imprint of Labor Markets on Entrepreneurial Performance.” Journal of Business Venturing 32, no. 6 (2017): 611–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2017.08.002.
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  - Ruef, M. “Ecological and Rational Choice Models of Endogenous Change.” Rationality and Society 29, no. 1 (2017): 55–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043463116685664.
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  - Wezel, F., and M. Ruef. “Agents with Principles: The Control of Labor in the Dutch East India Company, 1700-1796.” American Sociological Review 82, no. 5 (2017): 1009–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122417718165.
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  - Godfrey, P., J. Hassard, E. O’Connor, M. Rowlinson, and M. Ruef. “What is Organizational History? Towards a Creative Synthesis of History and Organization Studies.” Academy of Management Review 41, no. 4 (2016): 590–608. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2016.0040.
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  - Ruef, M., and S. W. Kwon. “Neighborhood Associations and Social Capital.” Social Forces 95, no. 1 (2016): 159–90. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sow053.
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  - Grigoryeva, A., and M. Ruef. “The Historical Demography of Racial Segregation.” American Sociological Review 80, no. 4 (2015): 814–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122415589170.
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  - Ruef, M. “Sociology of Entrepreneurship.” Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2015.
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  - Kwon, S. W., C. Heflin, and M. Ruef. “Community Social Capital and Entrepreneurship.” American Sociological Review 78, no. 6 (2013): 980–1008. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122413506440.
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  - Ruef, M. “Constructing Labor Markets: The Valuation of Black Labor in the U.S. South, 1831 to 1867.” American Sociological Review 77, no. 6 (2012): 970–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122412465282.
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  - Ruef, M., and D. Reinecke. “Does Capitalism Produce an Entrepreneurial Class?” Research in Organizational Behavior 31 (2011): 225–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2011.09.006.
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  - Ruef, M. “On the Social Embeddedness of Greed.” Sociological Forum 25, no. 3 (2010): 607–10. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2010.01198.x.
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  - Ruef, M. “"Let a Hundred Flowers Blossom": The Cross-Fertilization of Organization Studies at Stanford.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations 28 (2010): 387–93.
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  - Ruef, M. “Economic Inequality among Entrepreneurs.” Research in the Sociology of Work 18 (2009): 57–87.
  - Ruef, M., and A. Harness. “Agrarian Origins of Management Ideology: The Roman and Antebellum Cases.” Organization Studies 30, no. 6 (2009): 589–607. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840609104801.
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  - Ruef, M., and K. Patterson. “Credit and Classification: The Impact of Industry Boundaries in 19th Century America.” Administrative Science Quarterly 54, no. 3 (2009): 486–520. https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.2009.54.3.486.
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  - Ruef, M., and K. Patterson. “Organizations and Local Development: Economic and Demographic Growth among Southern Counties during Reconstruction.” Social Forces 87, no. 4 (2009): 1743–76. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.0.0190.
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  - Ruef, M., and M. Lounsbury. “Introduction: The Sociology of Entrepreneurship.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations 25 (2007): 1–29.
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  - Xu, H., and M. Ruef. “Boundary Formation in Emergent Organizations.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations 25 (2007): 125–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0733-558X(06)25004-3.
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  - Ruef, M. “Boom and Bust: The Effect of Entrepreneurial Inertia on Organizational Populations.” Advances in Strategic Management 23 (2006): 29–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-3322(06)23002-X.
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  - Ruef, M. “Origins of Organizations: The Entrepreneurial Process.” Research in the Sociology of Work 15 (2005): 63–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-2833(05)15004-3.
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  - Ruef, M. “The Demise of an Organizational Form: Emancipation and Plantation Agriculture in the American South, 1860-1880.” American Journal of Sociology 109 (2004): 1365–1410. https://doi.org/10.1086/381772.
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  - Ruef, M. “For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ecological Perspectives on Industrial Decline and Resurgence.” Industrial and Corporate Change 13, no. 1 (2004): 61–89. https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/13.1.61.
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  - Xu, H., and M. Ruef. “The Myth of the Risk-Tolerant Entrepreneur.” Strategic Organization 2, no. 4 (2004): 331–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127004047617.
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  - Ruef, M. “A Sociological Perspective on Strategic Organization.” Strategic Organization 1, no. 2 (2003): 241–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127003001002309.
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  - Ruef, M., H. Aldrich, and N. Carter. “The Structure of Founding Teams: Homophily, Strong Ties, and Isolation among U.S. Entrepreneurs.” American Sociological Review 68, no. 2 (2003): 195–222.
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  - Ruef, M., and B. Fletcher. “Legacies of American Slavery: Status Attainment among Southern Blacks after Emancipation.” Social Forces 82, no. 2 (2003): 445–80. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2004.0024.
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  - Ruef, M. “Strong Ties, Weak Ties and Islands: Structural and Cultural Predictors of Organizational Innovation.” Industrial and Corporate Change 11, no. 3 (2002): 427–49. https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/11.3.427.
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  - Ruef, M. “A Structural Event Approach to the Analysis of Group Composition.” Social Networks 24, no. 2 (2002): 135–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-8733(01)00054-5.
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  - Ruef, M. “Unpacking the Liability of Aging: Toward a Socially-Embedded Account of Organizational Disbanding.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations 19 (2002): 195–228.
  - Ruef, M. “The Emergence of Organizational Forms: A Community Ecology Approach.” American Journal of Sociology 106, no. 3 (2000): 658–714. https://doi.org/10.1086/318963.
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  - Ruef, M. “Social Ontology and the Dynamics of Organizational Forms: Creating Market Actors in the Healthcare Field, 1966-1994.” Social Forces 77, no. 4 (1999): 1403–32. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/77.4.1403.
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  - Ruef, M., P. Mendel, and W. R. Scott. “An Organizational Field Approach to Resource Environments in Healthcare: Comparing Entries of Hospitals and Home Health Agencies in the San Francisco Bay Region.” Health Services Research 32, no. 6 (1998): 775–803.
  - Ruef, M., and W. R. Scott. “A Multidimensional Model of Organizational Legitimacy: Hospital Survival in Changing Institutional Environments.” Administrative Science Quarterly 43, no. 4 (1998): 877–904. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393619.
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  - Ruef, M. “Assessing Organizational Fitness on a Dynamic Landscape: An Empirical Test of the Relative Inertia Thesis.” Strategic Management Journal 18, no. 11 (1997): 837–53. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199712)18:11<837::AID-SMJ917>3.0.CO;2-B.
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  - Ruef, M. “Prolegomenon to the Relation between Social Theory and Method.” Journal of Mathematical Sociology 22, no. 3 (1997): 303–32.
  - Ruef, M. “The Evolution of Convention: Conformity and Innovation in Task-Oriented Networks.” Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory 2, no. 1 (1996): 5–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00125761.
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- Book Sections
  - Aldrich, Howard, Martin Ruef, and Stephen Lippmann. “Entrepreneurial Networks.” In World Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, 151–59. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2021.
  - Ruef, M. “Reason and Rationalization: Modes of Argumentation Among Health-Care Professionals.” In Communicative Practices in Workplaces and the Professions: Cultural Perspectives on the Regulation of Discourse and Organizations, 93–111, 2017. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315224954-10.
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  - Ruef, M., and M. Nag. “The Classification of Organizational Forms: Theory and Application to the Field of Higher Education.” In Remaking College: The Changing Ecology of Higher Education, edited by M. Kirst and M. Stevens, 84–109. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015.
  - Ruef, M. “The Human and Financial Capital of the Southern Middle Class, 1850-1900.” In The Southern Middle Class in the Long Nineteenth Century, edited by J. D. Wells and J. R. Green, 202–24. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 2011.
  - Ruef, M. “Entrepreneurial Groups.” In Historical Foundations of Entrepreneurship Research, edited by H. Landstrom and F. Lohrke, 205–28. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2010.
  - Ruef, M., B. Bonikowski, and H. E. Aldrich. “Business Owner Demography, Human Capital, and Social Networks.” In International Studies in Entrepreneurship, 23:95–114, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09523-3_6.
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  - Ruef, M. “Karl Mannheim.” In Encyclopedia of Sociology, edited by G. Ritzer, 2756–59. London: Blackwell, 2007.
  - Ruef, M. “Organizational Ecology.” In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management, Organizational Behavior, edited by N. Nicholson, P. G. Audia, and M. M. Pillutla, 285–89. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006.
  - Aldrich, H., N. Carter, and M. Ruef. “Startup Teams.” In Handbook of Entrepreneurial Dynamics: The Process of Organizational Creation, edited by W. B. Gartner, K. Shaver, N. Carter, and P. Reynolds, 299–310. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004.
  - Ruef, M. “At the Interstices of Organizations: The Expansion of the Management Consulting Profession, 1933-97.” In The Expansion of Management Knowledge: Carriers, Flows, and Sources, edited by K. Sahlin-Andersson and L. Engwall. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002.
- Book Reviews
  - Ruef, Martin. “Evolutionary Processes and Organizational Adaptation.” Administrative Science Quarterly. The Johnson School, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/00018392211070231.
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  - Ruef, Martin. “The Genesis of Rebellion: Governance, Grievance, and Mutiny in the Age of Sail.” Mobilization. Unknown, 2021.
  - Ruef, Martin. “The Corsairs of Saint-Malo: Network Organization of a Merchant Elite under the Ancien Regime.” Social Forces. Oxford University Press, 2021.
  - Ruef, Martin. “Slavery in the North: Forgetting History and Recovering Memory.” American Journal of Sociology. University of Chicago Press, 2020.
  - Ruef, Martin. “American Bonds: How Credit Markets Shaped a Nation.” American Journal of Sociology. University of Chicago Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1086/710229.
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  - Ruef, M. “The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism, 1815-1860.” The Historian. Blackwell Publishing Inc., June 1, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1111/hisn.12527.
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  - Ruef, M. “The Port Royal Experiment: A Case Study in Development.” Journal of Southern History, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1353/soh.2016.0019.
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  - Ruef, M. “Between Monopoly and Free Trade: The English East India Company, 1600-1757.” Contemporary Sociology, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094306115609925l.
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  - Ruef, M. “Human Capital, Inter-Firm Mobility, and Organizational Evolution.” Contemporary Sociology. American Sociological Association, 2009.
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  - Ruef, M. “From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 2008.
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  - Ruef, M. “The Two Reconstructions: The Struggle for Black Enfranchisement.” American Journal of Sociology, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1086/502999.
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  - Ruef, M. “Social Movements and Organization Theory.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 2005.
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  - Ruef, M. “Changing Organizations: Business Networks in the New Political Economy.” Social Forces, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2003.0043.
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  - Ruef, M. “The Twenty-First-Century Firm: Changing Economic Organization in International Perspective.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 2002. https://doi.org/10.2307/3094916.
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  - Ruef, M. “Making Markets: Opportunism and Restraint on Wall Street.” Administrative Science Quarterly. SAGE Publications (UK and US), 1999. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666968.
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  - Ruef, Martin. “Protectors of Pluralism: Religious Minorities and the Rescue of Jews in the Low Countries during the Holocaust.” Social Forces. Oxford University Press (OUP), n.d. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaa041.
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- Conference Papers
  - Ruef, M. “Reply to Critics -- Between Slavery and Capitalism.” In Trajectories, 28:41–44. ASA Section on Comparative and Historical Sociology, 2016.
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  - Ruef, M. “Organizational Sociology has a Past ... Does it Have a Future?” In Work in Progress. ASA Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work, 2014.
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  - Ruef, M., and A. Harness. “The myth of modern management: Roman and antebellum management ideology in comparative perspective.” In Academy of Management 2007 Annual Meeting: Doing Well by Doing Good, Aom 2007, 2007. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2007.26530873.
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  - Ruef, M., and A. Harness. “The Myth of Modern Management: Roman and Antebellum Management Ideology in Comparative Perspective.” In Academy of Management 2007 Annual Meeting: Doing Well by Doing Good, Aom 2007, 2007.
  - Kim, P., H. E. Aldrich, and M. Ruef. “Fruits of Co-Laboring: Effects of Entrepreneurial Team Stability on the Organizational Founding Process,” 2005.
  - Aldrich, H. E., N. M. Carter, and M. Ruef. “With Very Little Help From Their Friends: Gender and Relational Composition of Nascent Entrepreneurs' Startup Teams.” In Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, 156–69, 2002.
- Theses and Dissertations
  - RUEF, M. “The Rise of Managed Health Care: An Inquiry into the Evolution of Discourse, Ideology, and Power,” 1999.
Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
Service to the Profession
- Chair, Viviana Zelizer Award Committee. 2017 2017
- Board Member, American Sociological Review. 2015 - 2018 2015 - 2018
- Chair, W. Richard Scott Award Committee. 2015 2015
- Board Member, Social Forces. 2014 - 2020 2014 - 2020
- Guest Editor, Academy of Management Review (STF). 2014 - 2016 2014 - 2016
- Chair, Max Weber Award Committee. 2012 2012
- Associate Editor, Administrative Science Quarterly. 2010 - 2012 2010 - 2012
- Council Member, ASA Economic Sociology Section. 2009 - 2012 2009 - 2012
- Session Organizer, Social Networks (ASA Conference). 2006 2006
- Board Member, Administrative Science Quarterly. 2005 - 2009 2005 - 2009
- Board Member, American Journal of Sociology. 2002 - 2004 2002 - 2004
- Board Member, Strategic Organization. 2002 - 2005 2002 - 2005
- Board Member, Social Forces. 1999 - 2002 1999 - 2002
Service to Duke
- Director, I&E Graduate and Professional Certificate. 2020 - 2024 2020 - 2024
- Chair, Department of Sociology. 2016 - 2019 2016 - 2019
- Certificate Director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program. 2014 - 2015 2014 - 2015
- Director/Associate Director, Markets and Management Studies. 2013 - 2016 2013 - 2016

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Previous Appointments & Affiliations

Academic Positions Outside Duke

In the News

Awards & Honors

Subject Headings

Global Scholarship

Research

External Relationships

Selected Publications

Books

Academic Articles

Book Sections

Book Reviews

Conference Papers

Theses and Dissertations

Recent Courses

Service to the Profession

Service to Duke