Marissa King

Marissa King
  • Alice Y. Hung President’s Distinguished Professor
  • Professor of Health Care Management
  • Professor of Management

Contact Information

  • office Address:

    206 Colonial Penn Center
    3641 Locust Walk
    Philadelphia, PA 19104

Links: CV, Personal Website

Overview

Marissa King is the Alice Y. Hung President’s Distinguished Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Professor King’s research examines social networks, social influence, and organizational dynamics within health care. Her work has significantly contributed to our understanding of the social dynamics surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions and substance use disorders.

As a passionate teacher and speaker, she is dedicated to translating her academic expertise into practice. She is the author of the book Social Chemistry: Decoding the Elements of Human Connection. Her research, writing, and book have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, and National Public Radio, among other outlets.

King’s research has been published in leading academic journals across many fields including JAMA, Health Affairs, Administrative Science Quarterly, and American Sociological Review. She has been the Principal Investigator on multiple projects funded by the National Institutes of Health. Prior to joining the Wharton faculty, she was a professor at the Yale School of Management. She received her PhD from Columbia University.

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Research

  • Yiftach Yarmar, Tiantian Yang, Marissa King (2026), When Women Stick Together: Network-Based Gender Inequality and Disruptive Events, Academy of Management Journal. Abstract

    Social networks play a role in exacerbating or ameliorating inequality. The persistence of network-based inequality is well documented. However, the mechanisms that disrupt this unequal access to resources remain poorly understood. This study investigates how structurally disruptive events, such as mergers and acquisitions (M&As), reshape gender homophily and resource sharing in networks. We examine how 59 M&As shape the evolution of 82,064 physicians’ referral and patient-sharing networks. We find that disruptive events enhance women’s access to resources by altering gender-homophily dynamics in formation, and maintenance. Specifically, acquisitions intensify men’s tendency to form ties with other men. In contrast, women are more likely to preserve ties with other women, with all-women dyads exhibiting greater resilience and higher maintenance rates than mixed-gender or all-men dyads. This dynamic results in richer networks for women, shielding them from the adverse effects of organizational disruption. These results highlight contrasting network behaviors following disruption: women winnow their networks, reinforcing stable, trust-based relationships with women, while men widen theirs, forming new distant ties with men. By demonstrating how gendered network dynamics evolve in response to disruptions, this study contributes to scholarship on gender inequality, network resilience, and conditions under which homophilous ties can mitigate disparities.

Teaching

Past Courses

  • HCMG3330 - Leading the HC Workforce

    The nature of the healthcare industry presents a unique set of managerial challenges. The health care workforce operates in a complex, fast-paced, uncertain, and interdependent environment. Power dynamics, hierarchy, and specialization make coordination particularly difficult in this setting. The course will provide students with frameworks and tools from management science tailored to the health care setting. At the end of course, students will: (1) be able to apply evidence-based management principles to health care contexts and (2) have practical skills for leading, managing, and thriving in health care.

  • HCMG3570 - HC Data and Analytics

    Health care data creates unparalleled opportunities to save lives, improve health, strengthen the health care workforce, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. But it also presents a unique set of challenges ranging from privacy to data consistency. In this course, we begin by surveying the health care data landscape and then turn to how to use this rich data to better manage care and organizations. We will refine the art of asking good questions and gain first-hand experience applying analytics to answer them. We will also examine innovative businesses focused on health care data and analytics. At the end of this course, students will: (1) Understand the topography of the health care data landscape, (2) Have the skills necessary to be thoughtful consumers of evidence on health care, (3) Be able to use data and analytics to improve care and health care management, and (4) Anticipate business opportunities in health care data and analytics.

  • HCMG8570 - Hc Data and Analytics

    Health care data creates unparalleled opportunities to save lives, improve health, strengthen the health care workforce, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. But it also presents a unique set of challenges ranging from privacy to data consistency. In this course, we begin by surveying the health care data landscape and then turn to how to use this rich data to better manage care and organizations. We will refine the art of asking good questions and gain first-hand experience applying analytics to answer them. We will also examine innovative businesses focused on health care data and analytics. At the end of this course, students will: (1) Understand the topography of the health care data landscape, (2) Have the skills necessary to be thoughtful consumers of evidence on health care, (3) Be able to use data and analytics to improve care and health care management, and (4) Anticipate business opportunities in health care data and analytics.

  • HCMG8990 - Independent Study

    Arranged with members of the Faculty of the Health Care Systems Department. For further information contact the Department office, Room 204, Colonial Penn Center, 3641 Locust Walk, 898-6861.

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Yiftach Yarmar, Tiantian Yang, Marissa King (2026), When Women Stick Together: Network-Based Gender Inequality and Disruptive Events, Academy of Management Journal.
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