RESEARCH & CV
EIGHTEEN YEARS OF ASKING WHY TEAMS WORK — and
why they don't.
For nearly two decades I’ve studied organizations from the inside, working alongside entrepreneurs, family business owners, managers, and employees. That work explores the hidden routines that shape culture, leadership, and organizational performance, revealing practical insights that help leaders build resilient teams and stronger organizations.
Three Areas of Research
RESEARCH THAT HELPS Organizations Perform
the book
TEAM CULTURE & Organizational Performance
Understanding how teams build cultures that endure, adapt, and perform.


Built on immersive research inside small businesses, this stream examines how teams create culture through everyday interactions rather than written policies. By studying organizations during periods of stability, crisis, and growth, this work reveals why some teams remain resilient under pressure while others struggle to adapt. These insights now form the foundation of my forthcoming book, Hidden Rhythms of Teams, which translates this research into practical lessons for leaders.


Questions I explore:
How do high-performing teams build cultures that survive growth and change?
How do high-performing teams build cultures that survive growth and change?
How do high-performing teams build cultures that survive growth and change?
STREAM TWO
FAMILY BUSINESS & Entrepreneurship
Exploring how ownership, relationships, and culture shape entrepreneurial organizations.


Family firms make up the vast majority of businesses worldwide, yet many operate differently than traditional organizations. My research examines how family relationships, entrepreneurial decision making, and organizational culture influence strategy, innovation, succession, growth, and long-term performance. Drawing on sociology and management, I seek to broaden how we understand businesses where family and work are deeply intertwined.


Questions I explore:
How do family relationships influence business decisions and organizational culture?
When do family and business priorities reinforce one another and when do they conflict?
How do entrepreneurial firms grow while preserving the cultures that made them successful?
STREAM three
WORKPLACE decision making & bias
Examining how subtle social cues influence hiring, leadership, and organizational decisions.


Organizations strive to make objective decisions, yet unconscious biases often shape how people evaluate applicants, colleagues, and leaders. Using experimental research methods—including matched resumes, recorded voices, behavioral experiments, and emerging computational approaches—I study how people form impressions and how organizations can improve fairness and decision quality.


Questions I explore:
How do first impressions shape hiring and promotion decisions?
What hidden biases influence perceptions of competence and leadership?
How can organizations improve decision making while reducing bias?
WORK WITH ERIC
JOURNAL ARTICLES & book chapters
A selection of peer-reviewed work. The full list — including works in progress — is in the
downloadable CV above.
Journal Articles
2025
The Family Firm Advantage? Assessing Performance Differences Among Women-Owned and Spousal-Owned Firms from the U.S. Annual Business Survey
Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research. 15(1): 28. With Myriam Quispe-Agnoli.
2025
Cultural Reproduction or Cultural Repertoire: Women Leaders, Legitimacy and Performance in Family and Nonfamily Firms.
SN Business and Economics. 5(9): 1-23. With Myriam Quispe-Agnoli.
2025
Buyer Perceptions of Single- and Mixed-Gender Dyadic Sales Teams: Should I have a Wingman or a Wingwoman?
Journal of Applied Marketing Theory. 12(1): 39-56. With Melissa Clark.
2024
How Family Firm Advisors Understand Their Clients: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Social Capital Signaling in Web-Based Marketing.
Randolph, Robert, Eric Kushins and Prachi Gala. Journal of Family Business Management. 14(2): 380-400. With Robert Randloph and Prachi Gala
2023
Institutional Theory and Institutional Racism: Barriers to Business Success Faced by POC Entrepreneurs and the Family Firm Advantage.
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research. 29(9/10): 2157-2174. With Myriam Quispe-Agnoli.
2017
Disruptive Innovation in Rural American Healthcare: The Physician Assistant Practice.
International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, 11(2):165–182. With Henry Heard and Michael Weber.
2016
A Relationship Approach to Matching Interfirm Exchanges Between SME Executives and Corporate Business Executives.
Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 28(1):95–125.
2014
Sounding Like Your Race in the Employment Process: An Experiment on Speaker Voice, Race Identification, and Stereotyping.
Race and Social Problems, 6(3):237–248.
Book Chapters, Cases and Anthologies
2025
Kushins, Eric. “Playing with Words, Building with Spaghetti, Watching Romantic Comedies: Three Activities for Teaching About Teams,”
Southern Management Association Annual Conference. Greenville, SC. October 2025.
2025
Quispe-Agnoli, Myriam and Eric Kushins. “Tokenism and the Family Firm: The Structural Implications of the Gender Distribution of Ownership.”
Southern Economic Association Annual Conference, Tampa, FL. November 2025.
2024
Navigating Relational Rifts and Communication Clashes in the Peyton Family Firm.
In Case Studies in Family Business: Overcoming Destructive Conflict, Deviance, and Dysfunction in the Family Firm, ed. Roland E. Kidwell. Edward Elgar Publishing. With Gaia Marchisio and Robert Randolph.
2022
Introduction to Sociology: An Anthology. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic Publishing.
Edited with Elaina Behounek. Conference and invited talks
2022
Where Did All the Free Family Firm Labor Go? Women's Changing Role and Inclusion in the U.S. Economy.
In The Power of Inclusion in Family Business, eds. R.N. Trevinyo-Rodriguez and M.A. Gallo. Emerald Publishing. With Myriam Quispe-Agnoli.
2020
Developing a 'Sociological Imagination' of Families in Family Business Research.
In A Research Agenda for Family Business: A Way Ahead for the Field, ed. A. Calabro. Edward Elgar Publishing. With Elaina Behounek.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
CONFERENCES & invited talks
A sample of recent academic and invited presentations. See the full CV for the complete list.
​2025
Quispe-Agnoli, Myriam and Eric Kushins. “Tokenism and the Family Firm: The Structural Implications of the Gender Distribution of Ownership.”
Southern Economic Association Annual Conference, Tampa, FL. November 2025.
2025
Kushins, Eric. “Playing with Words, Building with Spaghetti, Watching Romantic Comedies: Three Activities for Teaching About Teams,” Southern Management Association Annual Conference.
Greenville, SC. October 2025.
2023
Cultural Reproduction or Cultural Toolkit: The Legitimacy and Impact of Women Leaders in Family and Non-Family Firms.
Southern Management Association Annual Conference, St. Pete Beach, FL.
2023
How to Have Difficult Conversations with Staff, Co-Workers and Clients.
Invited presentation. StepStone Family & Youth Services Leadership Summit, LaGrange, GA.
2023
Managing the Growing Venture: Transitioning to 'Professional' Management
Invited presentation. Rome Chamber Small Business Collective, Rome, GA.
2022
Introduction to Sociology: An Anthology. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic Publishing. Edited with Elaina Behounek.
Conference and invited talks
2020
Sociological Methodologies to Problematize Family Business Research.
Academy of Management Annual Meeting (virtual).
EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS
ACADEMIC background
2020
SHRM-SCP
Academy of Management Annual Meeting (virtual).
2015
PhD, Sociology & Organization Management
Rutgers University
2015
Certificate in Cognitive Science
Rutgers University
2017
ASQ Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
American Society for Quality
2012
M.A., Sociology
Rutgers University
2002
B.A. with Honors, The College of Social Studies
Wesleyan University