Why is it that organizational researchers have been lax in examining this question? (Or have I simply been looking in the wrong places?)Why is this not a question in the broader literature? Why is it restricted to the small subsection of nonprofits? If researchers are truly interested in developing theories of organizational behavior shouldn’t we take into account this fundamental aspect that creates heterogeneity within organizational fields/markets and populations?

This issue becomes increasingly interesting given the growing interest within the field in categories of organizations and organizational identities. Recent work by Greta Hsu, Michael T. Hannan, Ezra Zuckerman, and others has focused on organizations and the impacts of the different identities on an organization’s likelihood of success in a given industry or field. It seems to me that this has direct relevance for both the issue of sector differences as well as higher education, which as I mentioned is my field of interest. This is in fact one of the issues that I will be examining in my dissertation research. Hopefully I can shed some light on the role of sector differences and multiple identities on higher education institutions and organizations more generally. Bringing these two issues together will hopefully aid in bridging this gap in the organizations literature.

Like many of my colleagues, my interest in nonprofit studies and social entrepreneurship came about through various other channels. Upon graduating with a degree in journalism from Arizona State University, my intention was to go to law school. A close mentor of mine who was on the faculty of the School of Public Affairs at ASU suggested I look into getting an MPA first to boost my chances of getting into a good law school. For this and various other reasons, I followed this advice and after I completed my master’s I had more or less forgotten about law school and was intent on pursuing a PhD. While earning my MPA, I had the opportunity to work in some unique capacities such as directing all of the student events for the 2004 Presidential Debate at ASU. From there I worked as a graduate intern in the state and local government relations office at Salt River Project, one of Arizona’s largest electric utilities (and some might say, due to their intricate system of dams, the reason Phoenix is able to exist in it’s current state.) After that I worked as a contracted consultant for various organizations before I was hired as the Policy and Research Analyst at the Arizona Association of Counties (AACo), a 501(c)4 organization that represents Arizona’s 15 counties before the Arizona State Legislature. While I loved my time at AACo (and some days still wish I was there) I cut my time short in order to pursue my PhD in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at UGA.

Some might say I can’t make up my mind; I just like to think I’m interested in a lot of different things. When I arrived at Georgia, I had in tow a completely different set of intentions than I have now. While I am very interested in public management, I have also gained a keen interest in contracting, cross-sector collaboration, or partnership between organizations of differing sectors by any other name, which logically exposed me more to the nonprofit and commercial sector. And furthermore, it all made sense to me as nearly all of my previous professional work experience  involved collaborating with partners of a different sector. I have been fortunate enough to use some of these examples in my current research.

At this time, I am in the dissertation writing phase of my program, and I will go on the academic job market at some point this year. The topic of my dissertation is on the subject of organizational innovation and how managers of public and nonprofit organizations perceive and value innovation within their respective agencies given a set of environmental and managerial characteristics. I enjoyed presenting this work at conferences in 2009, but will be much more gratified by getting it into a bound book in 2010.

Other research I’m working on includes a project on service learning and volunteerism by students providing free tax services to the public, a comparative study on social enterprise and social innovation initiatives, and a study on accountability measures in cross-sector collaborations.

I look forward to writing on all of these things in the coming months, and also look forward to interesting and spirited dialogue with my colleagues here!