Diana Jue-Rajasingh

Diana Jue-Rajasingh is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management. Her research sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, emerging markets, and sustainable development. She studies how new ventures, nascent industries, and marginalized actors become legible – they are understood, evaluated, and included – by customers, investors, partners, and other stakeholders. Empirically, Diana focuses on social innovations such as smoke-reducing cookstoves, water treatment technologies, and biodegradable sanitary pads. Using mixed methods, including field experiments and qualitative research, she explores how these innovations are promoted by new ventures and emerging industries in East Africa and India.

Diana’s research has been published in leading strategy and management journals, including Organization Science and the Strategic Management Journal. Her work has been supported by the Kauffman Foundation, the Strategy Research Foundation, and Responsible Research for Business and Management, among others.

Prior to earning her Ph.D. in Strategy and Sociology from the University of Michigan, Diana co-founded Essmart, a social enterprise focused on solving last-mile distribution challenges for social innovations in peri-urban and rural India. For her work in India, she was recognized as an Echoing Green Fellow and a Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur.

She received her S.B. degrees in Economics and Urban Studies and Planning, as well as her master’s degree in City Planning (International Development), from MIT.