Research

Working Papers

New Paper: Firm Adaptation and Reallocation under Rationing: Evidence from South Africa. (2025) (With FC Eaglin, Z Kuloszewski, and J Wong). 

Summary: This study examines how infrastructure shocks reshape firm performance in emerging markets using South Africa's rotating electricity blackouts as a natural experiment with transaction-level data. We find that while electricity outages leave aggregate sales unchanged, they trigger market reallocation: high-performing firms investing in defensive technologies capture revenues from lower-performing competitors, with effects intensifying when outages are predictable. Long-term consequences include increased exit rates for baseline lower-performing firms. Our findings demonstrate how infrastructure failures accelerate market concentration in emerging markets by advantaging firms capable of technology-driven adaptation, fundamentally altering competition and market structure through differing resilience strategies.

Work in Progress

Anatomy of Technology Adoption: Firm Growth, Competitive Spillovers, & Consumer Reallocation. JMP 

Publications and R&Rs

FinTech & Financial Frictions: The Rise of Revenue-Based Financing. (2024) (With D Russel, C Shi). Reject and Resubmit, Review of Financial Studies.

Summary: This study examines how FinTech platforms impact entrepreneurship in emerging markets using transaction-level data from South Africa. We identify three effects of revenue-based financing: revenue hiding, adverse selection, and underlying positive impacts on firm performance. Our findings show that platforms' integrated technology ecosystem (payment processing, inventory management, lending) creates unique enforcement mechanisms—tying loan repayment to continued service use mitigates monitoring frictions that plague traditional lenders. This demonstrates how technology platforms enhance entrepreneurial performance and financial inclusion despite information asymmetries in developing economies.

The Uneven Impact of Generative AI on Entrepreneurial Performance. (2024) (With N Otis, S Delecourt, D Holtz, R Koning). Revise and Resubmit, Management Science.

Summary: This study investigates how generative AI affects entrepreneurial performance through a field experiment with Kenyan entrepreneurs, randomizing access to a GPT-4-powered business assistant via WhatsApp. Our findings reveal divergent outcomes: high-performing entrepreneurs experienced significant revenue gains while low performers saw declines, substantially widening the performance gap. Critically, this divergence stems not from differences in AI advice quality, but from entrepreneurs' varying capabilities in selecting and implementing AI recommendations—demonstrating that generative AI can amplify existing capability differences rather than democratizing strategic expertise in emerging markets.

Winner, Wharton People Analytics White Paper Competition (2024)

Winner AOM STR Division Best Paper Award in Industry, Competition, and Strategic Entrepreneurship (2024)

Second Place, SMS Annual Conference Best Paper Prize Competition (2024)

Nominated for the AOM Carolyn B. Dexter Award by the STR division (2024)

Media: The Economist; NPR Planet Money; VoxDev; Harvard Business School; Digital Data Design (D^3) Institute at Harvard; UC Berkeley Haas.

Design of Off-Grid Lighting Business Models to Serve the Poor: Field Experiments and Structural Analysis (2024). (With BS Uppari, S Netessine, I Popescu). Management Science. Vol. 70, No. 5. Published Version. SSRN Working Paper.

Summary: This study examines how rechargeable solar lamp technology businesses can optimize their strategies to serve low-income populations without electricity access. Through large-scale field experiments in Rwanda and structural modeling, we identify critical barriers—inconvenience and liquidity constraints—that limit technology adoption and entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Results demonstrate that addressing these constraints through operational strategies (establishing more recharge centers, home collection services, and flexible payment options) generates significantly higher consumer access and revenue impact than traditional price-reduction strategies.

Winner MSOM Society Award for Responsible Research (2024)

Winner INFORMS Technology, Innovation Management, and Entrepreneurship (TIMES) Best Working Paper Award (2022)

Winner INFORMS Public Sector Operations Research (PSOR) Best Paper Award

Finalist MSOM Service Management SIG Best Paper Award Competition (2024)

Finalist POMS Applied Research Challenge Award

Finalist INFORMS Decision Analysis Practice Award

Media: Amazon Science

Competition and Gender in the Lab vs Field: Experiments from off-grid Renewable Energy Entrepreneurs in Rural Rwanda (2021). Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics. Volume 91, April 2021. (With R Klege, M Visser, M Barron). 

Practitioner Publications

A Smarter Way to Design Business Strategies to Serve the Poor. (2023). INSEAD Knowledge. With BS Uppari, S Netessine, I Popescu. 

Providing off-grid light to poor communities. (2022). ORMS Today. With BS Uppari, S Netessine, I Popescu. 

Entrepreneurs Bringing Light To Rural Rwanda. (2022). Wharton Mack Institute for Innovation Management. With BS Uppari, S Netessine, I Popescu. 

Gender and Entrepreneurship in the Renewable Energy Sector of Rwanda. (2020). Institute of Development Studies Bulletin. Vol. 51 No.1. With M Barron, M Visser, R Klege, A Elam, A Shankar.