Background

Chris Yenkey is an associate professor in the Sonoco International Business Department at the Univ. of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business. He also serves as the Academic Director for the Moore School’s Lifelong Learning program, the Faculty Director for African Studies at USC’s Walker Institute of International and Area Studies, and as a core faculty member of USC’s Rule of Law Collaborative. 

Prior to joining the Moore School in 2016, Prof. Yenkey was an assistant professor of organizations and markets at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business from 2011-2016, where he was the John E. Jueck Faculty Fellow from 2015-2016 and held courtesy appointments in the departments of Sociology and African Studies.

While earning his Ph.D. in Economic Sociology at Cornell University, Prof. Yenkey was a visiting scholar in 2008 at the Institute for Economic Affairs in Nairobi, Kenya, and served as associate director of the Center for the Study of Economy and Society at Cornell University from 2010-2011. Prior to his graduate studies, Yenkey received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Texas, Austin, in 2001 and served as a research associate in the Department of Economic Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 2001 to 2003.

Teaching

Prof. Yenkey teaches in several areas related to his research. At the Ph.D. level, he teaches the department’s first-year research design course. At the master’s level, he teaches courses on organizational misconduct and corruption in the Moore School’s Master of International Business and Professional MBA programs. At the undergraduate level, he teaches the regional specialty course Business in Africa. He also leads an annual short-term study abroad course to Kenya during Maymester, where students engage in experiential learning directly with top companies, entrepreneurs, and thinkers.

Prof. Yenkey supervises Ph.D. students at the Univ. of South Carolina as well Strathmore University (Nairobi, Kenya). He has also taught research methods to African policy makers and academics in workshops co-hosted by the Univ. of Stellenbosch Business School in Cape Town, South Africa.

Research Interests

Economic sociology, organization theory, emerging and frontier markets, corruption, distrust, organizational wrongdoing, research design. 

Prof. Yenkey also advances research through professional service. In 2025-2026, he served as a technical advisor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Coalition for the Rule of Law in Global Markets. He currently serves as an associate editor at Management Science, a consulting editor at American Journal of Sociology, and a member of the editorial board at Administrative Science Quarterly.

Education

• Ph.D., Sociology, Cornell University, 2011
• B.A., Economics (Highest Honors), University of Texas-Austin, 2003

Recent Publications

Yenkey, Christopher, Brent Simpson, and Paul Bliese. 2026. “Situational Support for Corruption: A Two-Part Field Experiment on Collusive Versus Coercive Bribery.” Organization Science, 37(1): 1-40. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2024.18659

Yenkey, Christopher with Jonas Hjort and Changcheng Song. 2025. “Ethnic Investing and the Value of Firms.” Management Science. Articles in Advance: https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.03660.

Yenkey, Christopher and Donald Palmer. 2025. “Career Consequences of Performance Enhancing Misconduct: Insights from Professional Road Cycling, 2000-2010” Management Science 71(11): 9462-9484. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.03681

Yenkey, Christopher and Nathaniel Hill. 2021. “Trade and Sustainability: Three Decades of Change Across Africa,” Africa Journal of Management, 8(1): 109-142. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322373.2021.2001290

Yenkey, Christopher.  2018. “The Outsider’s Advantage: Distrust as a Deterrent to Exploitation.” American Journal of Sociology, 124 (3): 613-663. https://doi.org/10.1086/700694

Yenkey, Christopher. 2018. “Fraud and Market Participation: Social Relations as a Moderator of Organizational Misconduct,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 63 (1): 43-84. https://doi.org/10.1177/00018392176943