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Kalinda Ukanwa is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Southern California. A quantitative modeler, Professor Ukanwa researches how algorithmic bias, algorithmic decision-making, and consumer reputations impact firms. She is the winner of the 2018 Eli Jones Promising Young Scholar Award and a finalist for the 2018 INFORMS Service Science Best Student Paper Award, 2019 Howard/AMA Doctoral Dissertation Award, and the 2020 AMS Mary Kay Doctoral Dissertation Award. In a prior life, Professor Ukanwa was an industrial engineer, financial analyst, and finance executive at Walt Disney, Citigroup, Viacom, and Kaplan.
Areas of Expertise
Course List
INSIGHT + ANALYSIS
Kalinda Ukanwa's latest interviews, quotes, citations, and research in the media.
Op-Ed: Algorithmic Bias Isn't Just Unfair, It's Bad For Business
Kalinda Ukanwa, Assistant Professor of Marketing, details how if not better regulated, AI will continue to propagate existing racial biases for The Boston Globe. [paywall]
Quoted: Kalinda Ukanwa in The Guardian
Kalinda Ukanwa, Assistant Professor of Marketing, is quoted by The Guardian about allegations of algorithmic biases on social media platforms.
Quoted: Kalinda Ukanwa in the Dallas Morning News
Kalinda Ukanwa, Assistant Professor of Marketing, details her comment on a study by MoneyGeek on the best cities for Black women to flourish in the Dallas Morning News. [paywall]
Quoted: Kalinda Ukanwa in Bloomberg Law
Kalinda Ukanwa, Assistant Professor of Marketing, outlines the challenges associated with removing systemic racial bias from calculating insurance premiums for Bloomberg Law.
RESEARCH + PUBLICATIONS
Marketing theory suggests that when groups of consumers differ in product preferences, they form unique market segments. We use this perspective to illuminate a novel antecedent to racial segregation in the school market. Specifically, the current research reveals that US Black and White parents differ in how they value school attributes. These differences in preferences for school attributes can lead these groups to select different types of schools, resulting in segregation even when the varying preferences have nothing to do with the racial demographic of the school. We theorize that these preference differences stem from motivational differences in pursuit of social status. Given the de facto US racial hierarchy that assigns Black people to a lower social status, Black parents are more motivated to seek schools that signal they can improve their children's status. Simulations of parental school decisions at scale show that preference differences under an unmitigated school choice policy lead to 10.7% more segregated schools -- the equivalent of over 6 million K-12 US children. In contrast, if Black and White parents had similar preferences, unmitigated school choice would reduce racial segregation. This research may inform public policy concerning school choice and school segregation.
This article addresses two seemingly incompatible claims about identity: (a ) complex, multivalent identities are advantageous because they afford greater flexibility versus (b) simple, focused identities are advantageous because they facilitate valuation. Following Faulkner, it is hypothesized that a focused identity is helpful in gaining entrée into an arena but subsequently leads to increasing limitations. The labor market for feature‐film actors is analyzed via career patterns recorded in the Internet Movie Database and interviews with key informants, allowing the article to distinguish between typecasting effects and those due to underlying skill differences or social networks. Important implications are drawn for research on identity formation in various social arenas, on categorical boundaries in external labor markets, and on the actor‐position interplay inherent in market dynamics.