Alexander Glosenberg

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Summary

Alexander Glosenberg is an associate professor of management at Loyola Marymount University. He has focused his research on the potential for entrepreneurship to empower some of the world’s most marginalized populations. In particular, Glosenberg has incorporated psychological insights into effective training to assist North Korean refugee entrepreneurs; marginalized women in South Korea; Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and women entrepreneurs in Los Angeles, California; and entrepreneurs living in poverty in the African countries of Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. His work has sought to achieve key economic, social, and psychological outcomes.

Description of Research Impact

Using his background as an industrial-organizational psychologist, Glosenberg has built upon the world’s most cutting-edge approaches to entrepreneurial mindset training, which, in randomized, controlled trials has shown superior potential to traditional approaches in training entrepreneurs. In particular, Glosenberg has innovated on the Personal Initiative (PI) approach to training, having been instructed by its progenitor, professor Michael Frese.

Glosenberg has adapted and applied the PI approach to new contexts and populations, including marginalized groups in the United States (BIPOC and women entrepreneurs), in South Korea, and across the continent of Africa. In Africa, for example, Glosenberg helped to train more than 10 faculty members at Babcock University outside of Lagos, Nigeria, enabling those instructors to use the PI technique with their students and the local community.

In California, Glosenberg helped lead the Ascend Los Angeles program and assisted in training over 100 BIPOC and women entrepreneurs. Over the past three years, Glosenberg has helped these entrepreneurs increase their revenues by over 60 million USD. Just as importantly, the entrepreneurial mindset training Glosenberg deployed as part of this intervention has helped entrepreneurs address symptoms of imposter syndrome and racial trauma. His work in addressing these challenges was featured in the Ascend conference in 2023, a gathering of 15 Ascend programs from around the U.S.

In South Korea, Glosenberg has partnered with an international development organization, the Asia Foundation, to support both North Korean refugee entrepreneurs (most of whom are women) and women entrepreneurs from marginalized backgrounds. Because gender inequality can be particularly high in South Korea, many refugees and women find their greatest economic opportunity via entrepreneurship. Glosenberg prepared North Korean refugees and South Korean women entrepreneurs to be trainers in the PI approach, then worked with the Asia Foundation to evaluate the results.

North Korean refugees reported major increases in not only their entrepreneurial self-efficacy but also their self-confidence in navigating and participating in South Korean society. Perhaps most impressive among the results was the experience of a group of South Korean women who independently established a group called the Personal Initiative Women’s Association, intended to empower women entrepreneurs throughout their country.

Supporting Link

• “Unlocking the Entrepreneurship of North Korean Refugees,” The Asia Foundation