Denis Trapido

Associate Professor

Denis Trapido

Associate Professor

Denis Trapido is Associate Professor of Management and Organization. Prior to joining the UW Bothell School of Business, Professor Trapido was on the faculty of the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2008.

Dr. Trapido’s research focuses on the effects of competition on the formation of social and economic ties, the origins and rewards of creativity, and the evolution of professional networks. His work has examined a variety of professional communities, including the venture capital industry, academic disciplines and historical communities of maritime merchants. His fieldwork in the San Francisco Bay Area, supported by the National Science Foundation, has mapped the networks of competition and inter-organizational ties among two thirds of the active drug development companies in the region. Dr. Trapido’s research has appeared in Organization Science, the American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Research Policy, Research in Organizational Behavior, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, and European Sociological Review. He has also contributed book chapters and published wider-interest interdisciplinary work.

Dr. Trapido has developed and taught courses in organization theory, organizational behavior and innovation management to undergraduate, MBA and doctoral students.


Education

2008 Ph.D. in Sociology, Stanford University
2003 M.A. in Sociology, Stanford University
2002 M.A. in Sociology and Social Policy, University of Tartu
2001 B.A. in Sociology (minors in Economics and Political Science), University of Tartu

Courses

Undergraduate

Managing Organizational Behavior
Management of Organizations
Managing Innovation

Masters

Management of Innovative Organizations
Organizational Analysis for Management
Managing Organizational Effectiveness

Ph.D.

Organization Theory

Research and Scholarship Interests

Organization Theory, Social Networks, Economic Sociology, Creativity and Innovation, Social Inequality in Markets

2023 to present – Associate Professor, School of Business, UW Bothell
2015-2023 – Assistant Professor, School of Business, UW Bothell
2008-2015 – Assistant Professor of Organization and Management at the Paul Merage School of Business and Assistant Professor (by courtesy) of Sociology, UC Irvine

Selected Publications

Trapido, Denis. 2025. “Proactivity Punished: Nativist Bias in Advice Seeking.” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 28(3): 600-621.

Trapido, Denis and Sharon Koppman. 2023. “Creativity as Privilege.” Research in Organizational Behavior, 43, 100193.

Trapido, Denis. 2022. “The Female Penalty for Novelty and the Offsetting Effect of Alternate Status Characteristics.” Social Forces 100(4): 1592-1618.

Pechmann, Cornelia, Kelly E. Yoon, Denis Trapido, and Judith J. Prochaska. 2021. “Perceived Costs versus Actual Benefits of Demographic Self-Disclosure in Online Support Groups.” Journal of Consumer Psychology 31(3):450-477.

Trapido, Denis, Francesca Pallotti, and Alessandro Lomi. 2020. “Client’s outcomes from providers’ networks: the role of relational exclusivity and complementary capabilities.” Connections 40(1):31-46.

Trapido, Denis. 2015. “How Novelty in Knowledge Earns Recognition: The Role of Consistent Identities.” Research Policy 44(8):1488-1500.

Trapido, Denis. 2013. “Counterbalances to Economic Homophily: Microlevel Mechanisms in a Historical Setting.” American Journal of Sociology 119(2):444-485.

Trapido, Denis. 2013. “Dual Signals: How Competition Makes or Breaks Interfirm Social Ties.” Organization Science 24(2):498-512.

Trapido, Denis. 2012. “Performance Implications of Syndication Networks.” Pp. 401-420 in The Oxford Handbook of Venture Capital, edited by D. Cumming. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Trapido, Denis and Henning Hillmann. 2010. “Relational Counterbalances to Economic Endogamy: A Theory and a Historical Example.” Academy of Management Proceedings.

Trapido, Denis. 2007. “Competitive Embeddedness and the Emergence of Interfirm Cooperation.” Social Forces 86(1):165-191.

Trapido, Denis. 2007. “Gendered Transition: Post-Soviet Trends in Gender Wage Inequality among Young Full-Time Workers.” European Sociological Review 23(2):223-237.