Being of mixed Māori and Pākehā descent Carla holds a deep personal interest in the history of Māori-Pākehā relations and promoting cultural understanding. Her current research focuses mainly on intergroup relations, chiefly how group memberships influence attitudes and behaviour. Her publications typically examine how identity helps reproduce socio-economic inequalities but can be leveraged to address them. Reflecting her role in the Business School her work has broadened to include diversity management, identity economics and implicit bias. Her research using the Multidimensional Model of Māori identity and Cultural Engagement (MMM-ICE) has been recognised nationally and internationally for advancing ethnic identity research using psychometric measures and large samples.