Welcome
About me - Research:
You can call me Chris. I am a PhD Candidate in Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
My research interests relate to how organizations recognize and adapt to local (i.e., state or municipality-level) variation in stakeholder issues.
More broadly, I seek to understand the reciprocal system-level relationship between corporations and the features of their local environments. This includes understanding how the activities of large corporations affect, or are affected by nonprofits, government, and entrepreneurial activity.
I apply concepts from stakeholder and nonmarket strategy, as well as organizational theory, to understand place-based corporate activity. Empirically, I enjoy developing and leveraging large-scale geospatial datasets of media coverage, corporate operations, demography, and institutional features that often vary by city, county, country or state.
Dissertation
My dissertation, entitled "Going Local: Corporations, Localities, and Stakeholder Issues" explores the complex relationship between corporate activities, location-based strategy, and social outcomes in the communities where they operate. Through three empirical studies, I investigate how corporate migration, resource allocation, and engagement strategies affect and are affected by changing local social outcomes, such as poverty, and polarizing issues that vary across institutional contexts like voting rights.
Work & Education History
Before pursuing my doctoral studies, I worked for a global cybersecurity startup and conducted research on ESG investing at NYU. Additionally, I used to run operations for a nonprofit startup competition and incubator. I started my career in management consulting, focusing on the international investment management industry. This entailed managing studies and working with firms across Canada, the US, and Europe. I hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Applied & Resource Economics from the University of Connecticut, as well as a master's degree in Management Science from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Teaching Experience:
- Essentials of Entrepreneurship
- Management 101
- Guest Lecturer: Evaluating Evidence - Week on Instrumental Variables
- Various TAing across Exec MBA, MBA, and undergraduate business (e.g., global strategy) and economics courses
- Student thesis advising
- Support to various programs: e.g., dissertation workshop series and entrepreneurial programming
Affiliations
I am most actively involved in the Wharton ESG Initiative, but also support both Wharton's Political Risk & Identity and Impact Investing Research Labs. I stay connected with former colleagues at NYU Stern's Center for Sustainable Business and University of Connecticut's Applied & Resource Economics Departments as well.
