Benjamin N.B. Alexander
Associate Professor
Dr. Benjamin N.B. Alexander is an Associate Professor of Management, as well as the MBA program director, at the Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly. He received his Ph.D. from the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University and his M.A. from George Mason University. Prior to becoming an academic, Ben worked at Marriott International and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. He has also volunteered extensively in Cambodia, Israel, and the United States.
Ben’s research focuses on stakeholder management, collective action, research methods, and entrepreneurial ecosystems. His interest in how organizations navigate their responsibilities to different stakeholders has motivated projects on social entrepreneurship, family firms, and business education in a variety of industries and countries. His research has been published in outlets including the Journal of Business Research, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, the Wiley Handbook of Entrepreneurship, and Academic-Practitioner Relationships.
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Education
- Ph.D., Management, Tulane University
- M.A., Industrial/Organizational Psychology, George Mason University
- B.S., Psychology, Tufts University
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Experience
- Assistant Professor of Management, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA
- Talent Management Consultant, Marriott International, Bethesda, MD
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Recent Publications
- Randolph, R., Alexander, B. N., Debicki, B. J., & Zajkowski, R. (2019). Untangling non-economic objectives in family & non-family SMEs: A goal systems approach. Journal of Business Research, 98, 317-327. Published online.
- Alexander, B. N., & Smith, A. D. (2018). Organizational access in qualitative research. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal. Published online.
- Alexander, B. N., Coget, J-F., & Dahm, P. D. (2018). Does Elon Musk Rank? Leadership, Creativity, and Stakeholder Impact. Journal of Case Research and Inquiry, 4, 65-82.
- Shani, A. B., Tenkasi, R. V., & Alexander, B. N. (2017). Knowledge and practice: A historical perspective on collaborative management research. In J. M. Bartunek, & J. McKenzie (Eds.), Academic-practitioner research partnerships: Developments, complexities and opportunities, Routledge: New York.
- DeNisi, A. S., & Alexander, B. N. (2017). The dark side of the entrepreneurial personality: Undesirable or maladaptive traits and behaviors associated with entrepreneurs. In T. Chamorro-Premuzic, B. Klinger, G. Ahmetoglu, & T. Karcisky (Eds.), Wiley Handbook of Entrepreneurship, John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, NJ.
