Jill Purdy, Ph.D.

Professor and Director, Entrepreneurship Initiative
Phone
253-692-5635
Campus Box
358420
Degrees
Ph.D.
Business Administration
Pennsylvania State University
1994
B.B.A.
Business Administration
College of William and Mary
1988
Introduction

Dr. Purdy studies how people influence and are influenced by the organizations and environments in which they operate. She is interested in how collaboration and entrepreneurship can generate innovative and sustainable solutions to challenging problems that often span across the business, government, and nonprofit sectors. Her current research focuses on power in partnerships, building entrepreneurial ecosystems, and social and environmental innovation.

Dr. Purdy's research is published in leading academic journals including Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Business and Society, Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Management Inquiry, and Public Administration Review. She is the author, with Barbara Gray, of Collaborating For Our Future: Multistakeholder Partnerships for Solving Complex Problems from Oxford University Press. Her work has been cited by scholars in public policy, engineering, education, environmental science, public health, urban affairs, and communication.

Dr. Purdy is a founding faculty member of the Milgard School of Business. She has held numerous leadership roles at UW Tacoma including MBA program director, director of the Center for Leadership and Social Responsibility, Faculty Assembly Chair, Interim Dean, and Associate Vice Chancellor. From 2017-2021, Dr. Purdy served as Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (chief academic officer of UW Tacoma).

Honors and Awards
Publication Date Bibliographic Citation
2022

Dorado, S., Antadze, N., Purdy, J., & Branzei, O. (2022). Standing on the shoulders of giants: Leveraging management research on grand challenges. Business and Society. 61(5), 1242-1281.

2022

Gray, B., Purdy, J. & Ansari, S. (2022). Confronting power asymmetries in partnerships to address grand challenges. Organization Theory. https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877221098765

2019

Purdy, J. M., Ansari, S. & Gray, B. (2019). Are logics enough? Framing as an alternative tool for understanding institutional meaning making. Journal of Management Inquiry, 28 (4), 409-419.

2018

Gray, B. and Purdy, J. M. (2018). Collaborating for Our Future: Multistakeholder Partnerships for Solving Complex Problems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780198782841.

2018

Thompson, T., Purdy, J. M. & Ventresca, M. (2018). How entrepreneurial ecosystems take form: Evidence from social impact initiatives in Seattle. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 12 (1): 96-116

2017

Skilton, P. F., & Purdy, J. M. (2017). Authenticity, power, and pluralism: A framework for understanding stakeholder evaluations of corporate social responsibility activities. Business Ethics Quarterly, 27(1), 99–123.

2016

Purdy, J. M. (2016). The role of power in collaborative governance. In R. Margerum & C. Robinson (Eds.), The Challenges of Collaboration in Environmental Governance. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

2016

Thompson, T. A. & Purdy, J. M. (2016) Practice variation as a mechanism for influencing institutional complexity: Local experiments in funding social impact businesses. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 48 (A), 157-199.

2015

Gray, B., Purdy, J. M. & Ansari, S. S. (2015). From interactions to institutions: Microprocesses of framing and mechanisms for the structuring of institutional fields. Academy of Management Review, 40(1): 115-143.