Yixi Chen

I am a 5th-year Ph.D. candidate in Management (Organization Theory) at Columbia Business School. My research sits at the intersection of stigma, narrative, and evaluation. I examine how individuals strategically present their stigmatized identities in evaluative settings and how stigmatized identities can shift from being perceived as liabilities to being seen as assets. In my dissertation, I study two important yet understudied populations–entrepreneurs with incarceration histories and those with neurodivergent conditions–exploring how their identity disclosure strategies shape investor perceptions of legitimacy, distinctiveness, and worth. I leverage experiments combined with interviews, surveys, and computational text analysis. Beyond my dissertation, I study how individuals present their lower social class and gender identities and the consequences on their professional networks and performances. Before coming to Columbia, I worked as a Senior Analyst at Mastercard International (New York and Shanghai) and as a pre-doctoral researcher at the Berkeley Cultural Lab. Outside of work, I enjoy playing fetch with my dog in Central Park, traveling, and reading science fiction.