Research Overview

My research agenda examines how social identity operates as a strategic resource and constraint for organizations and entrepreneurs. While identity is often treated as a background characteristic, I theorize and empirically examine how identity becomes salient through disclosure, signaling, and audience interpretation—and how those processes shape organizational outcomes.

Substantively, my work speaks to questions of inequality, market evaluation, and organizational differentiation. Empirically, I draw on diverse data sources including digital trace data, administrative records, interviews with business owners, and original datasets linking organizational behavior to local social and political contexts.

 Job Market Paper

My job market paper examines when and why business owners disclose marginalized social identities in market-facing contexts, and how those disclosures shape audience evaluations. Using large-scale archival data combined with contextual measures, the project shows that identity disclosure is not uniform across organizations or places, but is patterned by local context and audience composition. The findings highlight identity disclosure as a strategic choice with both benefits and risks, and contribute to theories of market evaluation, identity, and inequality.

Status: In progress.

 Selected Projects

Identity Disclosure in Context
Examines how geographic, political, and industry contexts shape the likelihood that business owners disclose racial and gender identities.

Intersectional Identity and Market Outcomes
Studies how intersecting identities are disclosed and evaluated differently than single-axis identities.