Diana Jue-Rajasingh

When “Less Is More”: How Statistical Discrimination Can Decrease Predictive Accuracy

We challenge statistical discrimination theory, which suggests that using all information about job candidates – including social group membership like race or gender – to make predictions. Drawing on heuristics research in psychology, we argue that utilizing less information can be better. We show that even small amounts of decision maker inconsistency and environmental uncertainty can make predictions using group membership less accurate that predictions that do not use this information. That is, using all available information about a job candidate only improves predictive accuracy under a very specific set of conditions, thus suggesting that statistical discrimination often results in worse predictions. By understanding when statistical discrimination improves or worsens predictions, our work cautions decision makers and uncovers paths toward reducing the occurrence of situations in which statistical discrimination benefits predictive accuracy, thus reducing its pervasiveness in society.

Addressing the Market Failures of Environmental Health Products

We leverage research in development economics and public health to understands why attempts to create markets and businesses for socially beneficial products targeting global health have failed. We provide a research framework for management and strategy scholars who are interested in addressing problems related to both supply and demand in these markets by highlighting multiple points of market failure in the provision and adoption of these products. This book chapter has been foundational to my research, enabling me to identify and test strategies that address these market failures.

Operational strategies for distributing durable goods in the base of the pyramid

We examine two strategies commonly used in practice by distributors in low-income contexts: 1) improving product affordability through discounts and 2) increasing awareness of products’ value. It is found that among low-income, risk averse customers whose ability to pay is lower than their willingness to pay, there are specific trade-offs to implementing these two strategies. The first strategy only benefits the distributor, while the second strategy may be detrimental depending on customers’ ability to pay and risk aversion. Moreover, in this context, the distributor’s profit-maximizing budget allocation often yields the lowest consumer surplus. This misalignment between profits and consumer surplus disappears if customers’ ability to pay is high. Furthermore, the misalignment can be resolved if the distributor offers free product returns. The results of this model are confirmed through a general model and numerical simulations.

The Cross-Border Effects of Institutional Carriers and Intermediaries on Entrepreneurial Entry into a Nascent Industry

I examine whether a market-building institutional intermediary in one country can affect entrepreneurial entry into the nascent industries of other countries. Through an analysis of 109 country-level industries for the innovative product of clean cookstoves between 2013 and 2018, it is found that entrepreneurial entry into the industry is predicted by the number of organizations that operated both in these countries and in countries where an infrastructure-building intermediary also operated. It is argued that the cross-border effects of the intermediary occur through the development of institutional carriers. These institutional carriers take part in a process of inter-organizational evangelism, as they are attracted to the industry-supporting institutional infrastructure established by the intermediary, grow in their acceptance of this institutional infrastructure, and extend elements of this institutional infrastructure to other places where they operate. Empirical analyses additionally show that the effectiveness of institutional carriers on entrepreneurial entry in the nascent industry depends on the carriers’ size and activities, as well as the culture of the countries that receives these carriers. The findings of this research shed new light on institutional carriers and the intermediaries that develop them, and they carry implications for how the growth of industries promoting innovations – especially those that generate health, social, and/or environmental benefits – can be supported globally.

• Winner, Douglas Nigh Award (2022)
• Academy of Management Annual Meeting Best Paper (2022); short version published in conference proceedings
• Iterations of this work have been presented/workshopped at the following: USC CPPP Philanthropy and Social Impact Research Symposium (2019), Mitsui Symposium on Comparative Corporate Governance and Globalization (2018), Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society Junior Scholars Forum (2018), Social Entrepreneurship Conference (2017), Ivey/ARCS PhD Sustainability Academy (2017)

New Ventures' Strategic Use of Social Impact Framing in Interfirm Relationships

Even though a commitment to improving society and the environment is generally seen as a desirable organizational characteristic, should new ventures always frame themselves in this way? I run a lab-in-the-field experiment with 716 independent retail shops in Bangalore, India and an online experiment with 234 survey takers to test how a venture's use of social impact framing affects the creation of partnerships for selling an innovative water treatment technology. Results show that even within the same stakeholder group, different results arise. In the lab-in-the-field experiment, there was no average effect of the social impact frame, but partnerships decreased when a male representative used it and increased when a female representative used it. In the online experiment, the venture's social impact frame caused an increase in partnerships. To reconcile different outcomes both within and across stakeholder groups, I develop and propose a framework of expertise-based skepticism. This work contributes to growing on entrepreneurial strategy, social claim making, and the legitimation of nascent markets. More broadly, I speak to research on how social issues -- problems and solutions -- can be framed to mobilize support from stakeholders across sectors.

• Nominated for the Strategic Management Society (SMS) Annual Conference Best Paper Prize, Research Methods Paper Prize, and Responsible Research Paper Prize (2022)
• Iterations of this work have been presented/workshopped at the following: Consortium on Competitive and Cooperation (CCC) Annual Conference for Doctoral Student Research (2022), Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS) Annual Research Conference (2022), Group for Research on Organizations and the Natural Environment (GRONEN) Doctoral Consortium (2022), Non-Market Strategy Research Community (NMSRC) Doctoral Conference (2021), Smith Entrepreneurship Research Conference (SERC) Doctoral Consortium (2021)

Unpacking the "Expat Gap" in Funding: Exploring the Differences between Locally-led Social Enterprises and Foreign-led Social Enterprises

I explore why enterprises led by local entrepreneurs are less likely to receive funding than enterprises led by expatriate entrepreneurs in markets for socially beneficial products. Through an inductive study of emerging clean cooking markets in East Africa, I find that local and expatriate entrepreneurs differ in their familiarity of the lived experiences of their customers and beneficiaries. This possession of deep, local knowledge affects the characteristics and scope of the social problem that their enterprises exist to address, the degree to which their companies are solutions to the identified social problems, and the extent to which customers/beneficiaries are part of the solution as opposed to being recipients of a solution. These contribute to the different choices that local and expatriate entrepreneurs make in terms of the business models they implement and the customers they target. Despite being able to leverage the emerging clean cooking market’s institutional infrastructure to different degrees, both types of entrepreneurs persist in the market – though in different ways. The ongoing presence of both local and expatriate entrepreneurs highlights tensions between the field’s effort to balance social and financial goals and slows market development. However, this creates guardrails for the entire field, making the prioritization of financial goals over social goals much more difficult at the field level, and enables the simultaneous addressing of both immediate and future market needs.

• Nominated for the Strategic Management Society (SMS) Responsible Research Paper Prize (2022)
• Iterations of this work have been presented/workshopped at the following: Social Entrepreneurship Conference (2021), European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium (2021), Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) Conference (2021), Doctoral Seminar in Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (SEPHI) (2021), Annual Academy of Management Annual Meeting (2020)

Managing Marginalized Entrepreneurial Identity for the Creation of New Markets: Evidence from Muslim American Entreprenuers

The Color of their Skin or the Content of their Character? Social Bias, Reputation, & Employment Outcomes in Online Labor Platforms