Peter Younkin

Desautels Faculty of Management

Strategy and Organization

Courses

BUSA 465 Technological Entrepreneurship
MGCR 360 Social Context of Business

Peter Younkin is an assistant professor of Strategy & Organization in the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. He joined the faculty in 2010 after earning a PhD. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Peter’s research focuses on the emergence and evolution of industries. His dissertation examined the U.S. pharmaceutical industry to understand the role of technological, political, and social change in shaping the organization of the modern industry. Recent papers have examined what distinguishes transformative from non-transformative shocks to a market, the diffusion of "bad ideas", and the use of scientific controversy to mitigate change in the market for prescription drugs. These projects address questions in economic sociology, organizational theory, and the studies of science and technology.

Currently, Peter is developing two new research projects that extend his interest in market emergence. The first looks at the growth of crowdfunding sites to explore how people assess value in different settings. This work questions whether the same factors that increase philanthropic contributions might act to reduce an individuals willingness to make loans or investments. In other words, do we give money to married teachers but prefer to invest money in single entrepreneurs? The second project examines the divergent emergence of emissions exchanges in the United States and Europe.

His research has been presented at the Academy of Management and American Sociological Association meetings.

In 2012, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award for the Desautels Faculty of Management.