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 Articles

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.

Working Papers

Mahabadi, S., Cohen, L. E. and Karunakaran, A. “Collaborative Job Design: How Investors and Entrepreneurs Collaboratively Build and Broker to Create Structures that Endure.”

Mahabadi, S., Karunakaran, A. and Cohen, L. E. “A Paradox of Early-stage Startup Evaluation: Information Gathering Versus the Obsession over the “Ideal” Founder.”

Mahabadi, S. “How Accelerators Shape Entrepreneurial Identities: Evidence from an Accelerator Program.”

Cohen, L. E., Mahabadi, S. and Yang, T.* “ Why Startup Jobs Matter: How Startup Jobs Push Job Seekers and Employees out of the Startup Hiring Ecosystem.”*Equal contribution of authors.

Conference Presentations

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want: Hiring As an Occasion for Structuring Startup Teams.” The Davis Conference on Qualitative Research 2024, UC Davis, California.

“How Accelerators Shape Entrepreneurial Identity.” West Coast Research Symposium on Technology Entrepreneurship 2023, Foster School of Business, Seattle.

“How Investors Shape How and Who Startups Hire.” Presented at Wharton People and Organizations Conference 2023, Philadelphia; McGill-Cornell Institutions & Entrepreneurship 20223, Montréal.

“Why Startup Jobs Matter: How Startup Jobs Push Job Seekers and Employees out of the Startup Hiring Ecosystem.”Presented at Wharton People and Organizations Conference 2022, Philadelphia; Presented at EGOS 2022, Vienna.

“External Influences: How Investors Shape How and Who Startups Hire.” Presented at Academy of Management Connections 2022, Seattle, WA; West Coast Research Symposium on Technology Entrepreneurship 2022, Foster School of Business, Seattle.

A Paradox of Early-stage Startup Evaluation: Information Gathering Versus the Obsession over the “Ideal” Founder.” Presented at the Wharton People and Organizations Conference 2022, Philadelphia.

“How Advisors Shape Entrepreneurial Identities: Evidence from an Accelerator Program.” Presented at the Alberta Institution Conference 2022, Edmonton, Alberta.

Teaching

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

SEM 433 - Managing Organizational Change

This course examines organization change, e.g. how organizations make transitions from one state to another. There is also a focus on understanding how management goes about changing corporate culture, organization structure and management systems. Prerequisite: SEM 201, 301 or 310. Open to third- and fourth-year students.

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 500.

SEM 633 - Managing Organizational Change

This course examines organization change, e.g. how organizations make transitions from one state to another. There is also a focus on understanding how management goes about changing corporate culture, organization structure and management systems.

SEM 641 - Business Strategy

This course examines top management decisions and emphasizes the development of business and corporate strategy. It integrates the management principles studied in the business core using a series of business cases. Guest Faculty members and executives will participate. Prerequisite: All required Year one MBA core courses.

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