Christopher Law Email & Phone Number

I'm a PhD student in Strategy & Entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School. I study founders, org culture, startups, and strategic human capital. My dissertation focuses on new organizations. I first analyze the choice to become an entrepreneur. Using career histories of highly similar college graduates, I find that Black women are more likely than others to start companies after working in a startup. I next study cofounders. Research demonstrates the criticality of cofounders but also points to their relationship as the top reason firms fail. I follow five teams of cofounders for 18 months to learn how cofounders work together effectively (or not). Lastly, I study the social organizing phase of entrepreneurship and ask "How is culture created in new organizations?" Traditional studies of organizational culture study large and mature organizations but overlook organizations in their earliest days. My longitudinal study of eight new tech companies suggests that many "best practices" from research or practitioners have negative cultural implications for new firms.