学术活动

Topic:

A promise not (yet) fulfilled: Entrepreneurship, opportunity underexploitation, and the reproduction of inequality via consumer markets

Time&Date: 

10:00 am - 11:30 am, June 14, 2024 (Friday)

Venue

Room 619, Teaching A Building

Zoom Link: 
https:

https://cuhk-edu-cn.zoom.us/j/4439404336?pwd=NTZ1c0NjQWtHaFljV0NMWVY1ZUNKdz09
Meeting ID: 443 940 4336

Speaker:

Prof. Garry Bruton (Texas Christian University)

In this paper, we offer a theory of opportunity underexploitation that explains how consumer disadvantage is coupled to the entrepreneurial process such that market inefficiencies disproportionately affect consumers from marginalized groups. We define opportunity underexploitation as a shortfall in entrepreneurial activity given an opportunity’s potential value and the availability of resources in a system. We theorize that the social closure encountered by entrepreneurs from marginalized groups, the segregation of marginalized groups from non-marginalized groups, and the stereotyping of marginalized consumer groups all produce shortfalls in both the number of entrepreneurs seeking to exploit an opportunity and the resources they mobilize to do so. In turn, these shortfalls increase the prices marginalized consumer groups pay and reduce the availability of products marginalized consumer groups desire relative to what would be expected had markets been more efficient, in addition to reinforcing feedback loops. With this theory, we interrogate the Weberian ideal of neutral markets and identify breakdowns in the process of opportunity exploitation that, when remedied, will reduce inequality through increases in the efficiency of consumer markets.

Biography:

Garry Bruton is a Professor of Management at the Neeley School of Business, Texas Christian University. His research interests are at the intersection of entrepreneurship, international business, and strategy. He has published over 100 articles in leading journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Business Studies, and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. In addition, he has co-authored three textbooks. Previously he was President of the Asia Academy of Management and former General Editor of the Academy of Management Perspectives and Journal of Management Studies.  He is the only person to hold the Hall Fulbright Chair in Entrepreneurship twice.  In 2018, Clarivate Analytics identified Professor Bruton as one of the 96 most cited faculty in the world in all Business & Economic disciplines for research published 2006-2016. In 2019 he was identified using Web of Science data as among the 0.1% of the world’s faculty for citations of his research in all disciplines in all universities in the world for research published 2008-2018. In 2021 he was #74 in US in business and management domains (largely all fields except finance and economics) for citation impact (H-factor) according to Research.com. In 2022 he was identified as one of the top 10 publishers in the world from 1995-2020 in the three leading entrepreneurship journals (ETP, JBV, SEJ). In 2023 Stanford University identified Professor Bruton as one of the top 2% of cited scholars in all disciplines in the world.