Overview
Broadly speaking, my research examines the intersection of market strategy and nonmarket strategy from a political perspective. In ongoing projects, I center on the implications of political risks, political status, political ideologies, and state capacity that structure inter-organizational relationships, novel organizational forms, and positive societal and organizational outcomes. Public-private partnerships, social impact, novel technology adoptions, and extreme inequalities are among the substantive topics through which I contextualize my theoretical pursuits. My research adopts a multi-methods approach, which draws on qualitative methods, regression frameworks, computational text analysis, and field experiments.
Broadly speaking, my research examines the intersection of market strategy and nonmarket strategy from a political perspective. In ongoing projects, I center on the implications of political risks, political status, political ideologies, and state capacity that structure inter-organizational relationships, novel organizational forms, and positive societal and organizational outcomes. Public-private partnerships, social impact, novel technology adoptions, and extreme inequalities are among the substantive topics through which I contextualize my theoretical pursuits. My research adopts a multi-methods approach, which draws on qualitative methods, regression frameworks, computational text analysis, and field experiments.
Dissertation: The Architecture of Grassroots-Oriented Corporate Philanthropy in China
Committee: Lis Clemens (co-chair), Brayden King, Amanda Sharkey (co-chair), Dingxin Zhao
Early Career Scholars Award, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), 2021
Social Impact Best Dissertation Prize, the University of Chicago, 2021
Center for International Social Science Research Dissertation Fellowship, 2021
Center for East Asian Studies Dissertation Fellowship, 2021
Charles R. Henderson Research Grant, 2020
This dissertation tracks unexpected CSR collaborations in China between firms and grassroots nonprofit organizations that are not dependent organs of the state. The research question is an intriguing one, as prior research in management, and sociology has documented that politically privileged nonprofits are the primary partners of firms’ CSR initiatives, within and beyond the authoritarian context. Specifically, my three-paper dissertation studies three interrelated topics in detail: (1) how collaborations with grassroots nonprofits, compared to state-led nonprofits, create unique core business opportunities for firms, (2) what configurations of citywide performance evaluation systems—as local status hierarchies—make nonprofits most appealing to corporate donors, and (3) why state-led nonprofits are able to secure corporate support of broader geographic scope than grassroots nonprofits. One key finding from a dissertation chapter is that political marginalization of grassroots nonprofits creates openings that companies leverage to use social endeavors to mitigate risks in core business activities. Combining interviews, participant observations, and quantitative and computational analysis of original datasets, this dissertation presents a key case demonstrating how a lack of political capital can nevertheless generate strategic advantages.
Committee: Lis Clemens (co-chair), Brayden King, Amanda Sharkey (co-chair), Dingxin Zhao
Early Career Scholars Award, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), 2021
Social Impact Best Dissertation Prize, the University of Chicago, 2021
Center for International Social Science Research Dissertation Fellowship, 2021
Center for East Asian Studies Dissertation Fellowship, 2021
Charles R. Henderson Research Grant, 2020
This dissertation tracks unexpected CSR collaborations in China between firms and grassroots nonprofit organizations that are not dependent organs of the state. The research question is an intriguing one, as prior research in management, and sociology has documented that politically privileged nonprofits are the primary partners of firms’ CSR initiatives, within and beyond the authoritarian context. Specifically, my three-paper dissertation studies three interrelated topics in detail: (1) how collaborations with grassroots nonprofits, compared to state-led nonprofits, create unique core business opportunities for firms, (2) what configurations of citywide performance evaluation systems—as local status hierarchies—make nonprofits most appealing to corporate donors, and (3) why state-led nonprofits are able to secure corporate support of broader geographic scope than grassroots nonprofits. One key finding from a dissertation chapter is that political marginalization of grassroots nonprofits creates openings that companies leverage to use social endeavors to mitigate risks in core business activities. Combining interviews, participant observations, and quantitative and computational analysis of original datasets, this dissertation presents a key case demonstrating how a lack of political capital can nevertheless generate strategic advantages.
