Tan Kim

About Tan

My research focuses on social evaluations’—celebrity, reputation, status—roles in uncertain and complex environments, and how they influence stakeholders and organizational actors cognitive decision-making processes. Additionally, I am interested in understanding how social evaluations are created, maintained, and transformed. I investigate these dynamics in the contexts of unknown actors, during IPOs, and in cases of misconduct by mature firms. I analyze how pre-existing socially constructed categories (e.g., industry, occupation, genre, gender) shape expectations and affect the evaluation process when organizations and their executives interact with external (e.g., investors, media, and analysts) and internal (e.g., employees) stakeholders. Thus, my research broadly encompasses social evaluations, stakeholder involvement in entrepreneurship, and competitive dynamics and resource mobilization. I incorporate a multi-level approach that includes sentiment analysis and topic modeling for text analyses, machine learning to track image consistency, and general quantitative econometric tools.  

I earned my master’s degree in Business Administration at Seoul National University and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science at Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.

Before joining academia, I worked as an administrative officer in the Korean Academy of Management, a human resource specialist with GS Global Corporation, and served as an intelligence officer (1st lieutenant) in the Republic of Korea Air Force.

In addition to my academic pursuits, I enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking, surfing, and bouldering. I also love road trips, which provide inspiration and new ideas for my research.