Peter Younkin is an assistant professor of management at the University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business. He earned his BA from Columbia University and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to the Lundquist College, he worked at McGill University as an assistant professor of strategy and organization.

What is your current research?

I study gender and racial discrimination in entrepreneurship. This generally means bias among resource providers but can also mean the challenges female and minority founders face in attracting talented employees and the challenges they face engaging customers.

What should the public know about your research (why is your topic important?)

In a recent project, we show that non-technical cofounders have a harder time getting rehired into traditional firms than similarly qualified candidates who never pursued entrepreneurship. However, we also find that this is only true for men and female candidates face no penalties for pursuing entrepreneurship.

Why is studying entrepreneurship and innovation relevant for society?

Entrepreneurship is a vehicle for social and class mobility, it is a way to introduce new technologies and ideas to the market, and has historically been a way for groups facing organizational bias to generate new paths to economic success. What more could you want?