Sara Mahabadi, PhD, MBA

Area of Study / Keywords

Hiring and Job Design in Entrepreneurial Organizations Entrepreneurial Identity Startups Evaluation Startups Acceleration

About

Sara Mahabadi is an assistant professor at the University of Alberta’s Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Management. Her research examines the phenomenon of entrepreneurship from an organizational theory lens. She is interested in how investors — such as venture capitalists and accelerator firms — select, support and alter startups. She additionally draws on ethnographic observation, interviews and archival data to understand how the processes of selection and support unfold and influence hiring and acceleration in startups.

Sara received her masters of business administration degree and her PhD in management (organizational behavior) from McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management in 2017 and 2023, respectively. Her academic work experience began at McGill, where she held various positions over the years. Then, in July of 2022, she joined the U of A as an assistant professor. 

She is the recipient of multiple awards, including two Alberta School of Business (ASB) EFF-SAS Awards — both in the 2022-2023 academic year — an ASB Teaching Grant, an ASB Faculty Research Grant, a Desautels Doctoral Fellowship, and the 2017 National Bank Financial Group PhD Fellowship Award, among others. 

Watch an introduction to Sara's research here!

Research

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Cohen, L. E. and Mahabadi, S. (2022). “In the Midst of Hiring: Pathways to Anticipated and Accidental Job Evolution during Hiring.” Organization Science. 33 (5), 1938- 1963.

Cohen, L. E., Dokko, G., & Mahabadi, S. (2023). “The Creation of Routines and Roles in Startups.” Forthcoming in Olav Sorenson & Patricia H. Thornton, De Gruyter Handbook of Sociology of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Teaching

Sara teaches a variety of strategy and entrepreneurship courses both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

SEM 502 - Organization Strategy/Managing Organizations

The first part of this course examines the formation of business strategy. It recognizes the complexities and messiness of strategy formation and explores how organizations actually develop strategies. The second part examines the evolution, determinants, and relevance of alternative ways of organizing. Contemporary ideas (e.g. re-engineering, the learning organization, virtual organizations) are critically reviewed. Not open to students who have completed SEM 610. Prerequisite: SEM 501.

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