Derek Yonai
Professional Profile
Derek K. Yonai is the Director of the Brown Innovation Center and the Peter and Sue Freytag Associate Professor of Economics in the School of Business at Flagler College and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics.
Previously, Dr. Yonai was a tenured Associate Professor of Business at Emporia State University and was the Director of the Koch Center for Leadership and Ethics. Before joining Emporia State University, he was the Managing Director of the O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Yonai was also the Founding Director of the Center for Free Enterprise at Florida Southern College and the Lundy Chair of the Philosophy of Business at Campbell University. At Florida Southern College and Campbell University, he was responsible for developing and supervising their free enterprise education and outreach programs.
Dr. Yonai has been recognized for his teaching, earning the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award at Campbell University and the “Spirit of Inquiry Award” from the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.
His published research discusses the economic role of property rights and the law, and his popular writings deal with the importance of economic freedom. Dr. Yonai’s most recent research addresses how business and management scholars misunderstand Milton Friedman's work and the free enterprise system.
Given his previous roles, Dr. Yonai enjoys engaging the public. He has given numerous radio interviews, appearing on shows in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, Montana, and South Dakota. Dr. Yonai has also written various Op-Eds that have appeared in various outlets, including the Dallas Morning News, Sun Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel, Detroit News, and Miami Herald. He has also given many public talks on humanizing business education.
Dr. Yonai earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of California at Irvine and graduated with honors from Whittier College School of Law. He also earned a Master of Arts in economics and a Ph.D. from George Mason University.
Research
Recent Publications
Nippani, S., Muldoon, J., Yonai, D. K., Matricano, D. (2024). “Small Entrepreneurs and Choice of Banks: Some Lessons From the Banking Literature and Game Theory in the Aftermath of the Covid-19 Pandemi.c” Journal of Small Business Management.
Muldoon, J., Yonai, D. K., Richard, T. & Akter, S. (2024). “Model City Failure: New Haven and Limits to the Entrepreneurial State.”Journal of the
International Council for Small Business, doi:10.1080/26437015.2024.2338177
Muldoon, J., & Yonai, D. K. (2023). “A wrong but seductive idea: Public choice and the entrepreneurial state.” Journal of the International Council for Small Business. doi:10.1080/26437015.2023.2182730
Muldoon, J., Gould, A. M., & Yonai, D. K. (2022). “Conjuring-Up a Bad Guy: The Academy’s Straw-Manning of Milton Friedman’s Perspective of Corporate Social Responsibility and its Consequences.” The American Economist, 68(2), 05694345221145008. doi:10.1177/0569434.
Yonai, D. K. (2021). “Rational Irrationality Operationalized: Incivility, the new normal.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics and Business Law, 10(4).
Yonai, D.K. (2018) “Raking up Rents: Cambridge University Press v. Patton.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics and Business Law, 7(2).