Importance of your research and work

I am a McKnight Dissertation Fellow pursuing a PhD in strategy and entrepreneurship in the College of Business at Florida State University. My research interests are social capital, social networks, and entrepreneurship. Prior to entering the doctoral program at FSU, I served as a minister and helped raise funds for a nonprofit focused on healthcare and education. In those roles in the nonprofit sector, I saw how a well-developed and carefully managed strategy could have transformative effects on the quality of new organizations and how effectively they were able to serve people in need. But I also saw a lot of hard work and good intentions wasted in trying to build organizations that failed to take off. With estimates that as many as 90% of new organizations fail before launch, I hope my research helps entrepreneurs be more successful in launching their organizations.