Academic Events

Networking Entrepreneurs

10:30 am-12:00 pm, March 2, 2026 (Monday)

Room 904, Teaching Complex D Building

Fernando Vega-Redondo

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Can peer interaction foster entrepreneurship in large-scale environments? We first address this question empirically through a pan-African RCT involving nearly 5,000 entrepreneurs from 49 countries where treated subjects interacted either in-person or virtually. Our analysis reveals a trade-off between interaction “bandwidth” and scalability, which is effectively addressed only if virtual interaction operates under significant but moderate peer diversity. Network-based peer effects are, however, estimated positive in all virtual arms. To explain this counterintuitive contrast, we develop a theory, supported by the evidence, that differentiates constructive from disruptive influence and also structurally identifies when scalable (hence impactful) interaction is fruitful.

Professor Fernando Vega-Redondo is currently Professor of Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research largely focuses on the theory of games and its socio-economic applications, with a special emphasis on how strategic behavior is shaped by the interplay of social networks, learning, and evolution. Prof. Vega-Redondo has published over one hundred articles in leading journals in the fields of economics, game theory, biology, and physics, as well as in Science, Nature Human Behavior, and PNAS. He has also been elected fellow of the Econometric Society, Game Theory Society, and the Society for the Advance of Economic Theory.