Alex Glosenberg, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Management, College of Business Administration
- Los Angeles CA UNITED STATES
Biography
Alex conducts applied research to understand, and enhance, entrepreneurship and workforce development in lower-income settings and among marginalized populations. Alex has published over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and reports in such venues as the Journal of Vocational Behavior, the Journal of Business Venturing Insights, and Scientific Reports. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Vocational Behavior. Alex is the co-founder of the Foster Workforce Development (FWD) Institute (fwdi.org) that combines psychological insights into work with information technology to empower marginalized populations. Alex has consulted with a range of prominent global stakeholders including the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, the Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China, Greenpeace International, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
Alex earned his Ph.D. in industrial-organizational psychology from North Carolina State University. His dissertation focused on the effect of socioeconomic factors on the psychology of entrepreneurial behavior. While a doctoral student, Alex earned a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue research into the psychology of work in lower-income settings. He grew interested in the nexus of work psychology, entrepreneurship, technology, and global development while serving as a United States Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of South Africa.
Education
North Carolina State University
Ph.D.
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
2018
Massey University
Gradulate Diploma with Distinction
Psychology
2011
University of Colorado at Boulder
B.A.
International Affairs
2006
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Co-Director, LMU's Ascend LA Program
Alex helped lead a joint effort by LMU, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and CMG Alliance to facilitate the empowerment of hundreds of BIPOC and women entrepreneurs in Los Angeles. Over the course of multiple cohorts, this initiative has helped entrepreneurs generate over $60 million in new contracts.
Entrepreneurial Mindset Training for Marginalized Populations
Alex is a Master Trainer for the Personal Initiative approach to training entrepreneurs that draws upon psychological insights into entrepreneurial success. This approach has demonstrated superior results to traditional approaches to entrepreneurship education/training. Alex has trained hundreds of entrepreneurs across the globe - from North Korean refugee entrepreneurs in South Korea to entrepreneurs in Nigeria and South Africa.
Articles
Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Engines for Sustainability
Introduction to Management: Functions and Challenges – Oxford University Press (in press)This textbook chapter provides an introduction to key concepts in entrepreneurship and innovation with a special focus on sustainability and social entrepreneurship.
To engage with the UN SDGs the “how” is just as important as the “what”: A case for engagement with the aid-effectiveness framework
Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice (in press)This study calls for the adoption of a best-practice framework in the field of international development to help guide the private sector, including social enterprises, as they engage with social and environmental problems.
The relationship of self-efficacy with entrepreneurial success: A meta-analytic replication and extension
Journal of Business Venturing Insights (2022)This study conducts a broader and updated meta-analysis of the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and success revealing that this relationship cannot be properly understood without taking into account success type.
Creating waves of change: Grove Collaborative, the problem of plastics, and innovation for environmental and financial sustainability
Case Research Journal (2022)This study considers the case of Gove Collaborative, a fast-growing consumer packaged goods online marketplace that is considering removing plastic from all of its products within five years.
Evidence for ‘pushed out’ and ‘opt out’ factors in women’s career inclusion across the world of work in the United States
Journal of Career Assessment (2022)This study provides unique evidence for the continuing influence of forces of marginalization leading to a lack of women's inclusion in the workplace.
Person-vocation fit across the world of work: Evaluating the generalizability of the circular model of vocational interests and social cognitive career theory across 74 countries
Journal of Vocational Behavior (2019)Using the broadest global study of vocational interests to date, this study reveals socioeconomic limitations to our understanding of career interest theories.
A risky shift? An exploration of the measurement equivalence of entrepreneurial attitudes and entrepreneurial orientation across socioeconomic gradients
Journal of Business Venturing Insights (2017)While entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is often conceptualized on a firm level of analysis, scholarship has highlighted that firm-level strategy is influenced by the psychology of managers. Because an individual's psychological approach to risk-taking is influenced by socioeconomic factors, we explored whether responses to risk-taking items in scales of individual-level entrepreneurial attitudes and firm-level EO are influenced by socioeconomic status and the socioeconomic development of regions.
From handmaidens to POSH humanitarians: The case for making human capabilities the business of I-O psychology
Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice (2017)The study of the psychology of workers has a decidedly POSH perspective on the world; that is, it has focused on Professionals who hold Official jobs in a formal economy and who enjoy relative Safety from discrimination while also living in High-income countries. This POSH perspective reflects an underlying bias away from people living in multidimensional poverty. We empirically illustrate some of the connections between a POSH perspective and poverty by reviewing 100 years of research, and then make a case for why a neglect of people living in poverty undermines science and practice.
Barriers and opportunities at the base of the pyramid: The role of the private sector in inclusive development
United Nations Development Programme (2014)The private sector can be a key driver of inclusive sustainable development at the base of the pyramid. In a report for the United Nations Development Programme, we worked with scholars from a variety of disciplines to outline important policy considerations for stakeholders to consider as they help to ensure that for-profit businesses, corporate social responsibility initiatives, inclusive businesses, and social enterprises create lasting positive change for people living in poverty.
