Research
Social Approval Assets, Behavioral Strategy and Competitive Advantage of Startups
Dissertation, “From Legitimacy to Competitive Advantage: Social Approval and Strategic Behaviors of Nascent Firms“
My dissertation comprises two essays on the co-construction of individual and organizational celebrities and their impact on stakeholder evaluations, ultimately influencing their competitive advantage in the context of startup firms. Emotional capability is crucial for organizations when they lack rational track records to communicate with stakeholders. Celebrity is an intangible asset that enables organizations and individuals to generate positive evaluations through emotional resonance with a broad audience, potentially serving as a competitive advantage. The first essay explores the co-construction process of startup firms and their founders’ celebrity status by developing celebrity archetypes and examining the symbiotic person-organization fit that creates startup firm value. The second essay examines the impact of founder-CEO celebrity status at IPO on stakeholders’ evaluations. I analyze how the presence of a founder-CEO celebrity affects stakeholders’ evaluations of startup firms in terms of market valuation, operational performance, and employee satisfaction. The objectives of my dissertation are to showcase the archetypes of startup celebrities as communication mediums between the organization and its stakeholders and to examine the influence of celebrities on startup stakeholders’ evaluation of the firm, affecting the organization’s competitive advantage.
Behavioral Strategy, Media, and Social Approval Asset
Kim, T. & Pollock, T. G. “[Category Conformity, Media Visibility, and Social Construction of Celebrity].” (Revise and Resubmit at Organization Science)
*Presented in “Emerging Scholars” session in 2023 Oxford Reputation Symposium
*Awarded “SMA 2024 Best Doctoral Student Paper” in Organization Theory, International Management, and Management History Track, 2024 Southern Management Association
We draw on the celebrity and categories literatures to explore how unknown actors’ conforming and non-conforming behaviors affect their ability to advance in a celebrity certification contest, the media’s role in this process, and how the timing of their conforming and nonconforming actions affect their influence. We use data on competitors [Blinded for the review] to explore how the extent to which competitors’ song and costume choices conform to their initial musical genre affects their ability to advance in the competition. We also explore how this relationship is affected by the media coverage they receive, and when the behaviors and coverage occur. We find that conforming to a certain genre increased the likelihood they advanced in the competition. However, this base relationship was influenced by both the individual’s media visibility and the timing of when it occurred. We found evidence that media visibility attenuates, and can even reverse, the effect of conformity, but only during the early phase of audiences’ exposure to the actor. Our study contributes to our understanding of celebrity’s antecedents, how conforming behavior can enhance celebrity, and the importance of temporal considerations when assessing non-conforming behavior.
Reputation, Crisis Management, and Firm Performance
Yan, J., Wang, S., Munyon, T., Crook, R., & Kim, T. 2024. Firm Actions and Media Tenor After a Data Breach: A quasi replication and extension of Zavyalova et al.’s (2012) product harm study. Journal of Management Scientific Reports, 2(1), 27-61.
Replications are becoming increasingly important within management inquiry. We conduct a quasi-replication of Zavyalova and colleagues’ (2012) toy recall study. This study has become prominent among research that examines how media tenor and firm responses to negative events shape firms’ media evaluations. Drawing on a sample of 287 data breach events at public firms in the US, we draw on and retest Zavyalova et al.’s theorized relationships in a breach context.
We corroborate some of their results by finding that media evaluations are shaped by firm responses and industry situations following a breach. Our findings also extend their relationships and findings by highlighting how firms should engage in impression management following data breaches. Taken together, our study generalizes the findings of Zavyalova et al. to a different
context and provides further evidence of the robustness of prior research. We also contribute to social evaluation and impression management research.
Stakeholder Enrollment and Entrepreneurship
Kim, T & Jung, J. 2023. “Dance with Followers: Stakeholder Enrollment and Co-Creating Business Model Innovation.” (Working Paper)
Presented in Round Table Sessions in 2023 Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference
We investigate how entrepreneurs entice their potential stakeholder using a business model in social media platforms, how it affects further business model innovation, and how entrepreneurial opportunity co-creation with their audiences affect the business model innovation. The social media platform YouTube channels are the research setting, which allows entrepreneurs to operate their business within the platform and gain more access to the public as potential customers. The depth and frequency of communication have revealed the dynamic transformation of the entrepreneurial process. Entrepreneurs present the video clips with their own strategy and platforms, which can be differentiated from other channels. In addition, some entrepreneurs actively show the intention in the video clips encouraging audiences to subscribe and like their content to maximize their profit, while others do not push their audiences. These contrasting strategies differently affect the audiences’ motivation to engage and enroll in the channel and are reflected in their business model. We draw stakeholder enrollment literature to capture the behavioral strategy of entrepreneurs to garner audiences’ resources for opportunity co-creation and integrate it into entrepreneurial business innovation literature. Therefore, in this study, we explore how entrepreneurs and stakeholders in a market engage in business model innovations to create business opportunities. Specifically, we focus on audiences in online spaces as potential stakeholders; most of them can be the customers because entrepreneurs innovate business models to find a way to create value for their customers mainly (Casadesus-Masanell & Zhu, 2013; Zach, Nicolau, & Sharma, 2020).
Corporate Responsibility as a Competitive Advantage
Kim, T. 2019. Corporate Social Responsibility as a Competitive Advantage of Firm Performance. (Master’s degree Thesis paper)
While prior studies examining the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) mainly focus on financial performance, this research investigates whether CSR act as a strategy for competitive advantage managing valuable resources, such as human and social capital. Using environment, social, governance (ESG) rating data from Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS) based on the Korean market context, this research examines the effects of reputation on firm’s financial performance, government related investment (public pension investment), and employees’ job satisfaction. The results show that there is no significant relationship between ESG rating and financial performance. However, ESG rating positively impacts on Korea National Pension’s impact investment and employee’s job satisfaction. The research shows the importance of CSR rating in maintaining governmental investment and valuable human capital.
Political Cooperation and Crisis Management
Jho, W. & Kim, T. 2012. American Hegemony and Political Dynamics of Financial Cooperation in East Asia. Journal of International Studies, 16(1), 3-28.
This article analyzes the financial cooperation in East Asia, referred to as the ‘Chiang. Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM).’ The failure of the Asia Monetary Fund (AMF) seemed to make regional cooperation or institutionalization more difficult to achieve. However, the CMIM has advanced formal institutionalization through policy coordination among East Asian states. The proposal of the AMF, discussed right after the Asian financial crisis in 1997, failed to win acceptance in the region. Then, why did East Asian states support the CMIM? In which mechanism does the CMIM work for regional cooperation? This article explores hegemonic shifts, power relations between major countries, and their perceptions in regional financial cooperation by leaders of the countries. This paper argues that the evolution of regional financial cooperation has been possible through the interactions between changing perceptions and preferences of major East Asian countries in the frame of the ASEAN+3.
Strategic Human Resource Management
Nam, H. Kim, T., & Ju, M. 2009. “The Possibility of Korean ODA : The Research On The Development Cooperation by VRIO”. The Future of Korean Development Cooperation. edited by Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Paju: Hanwool Academy Press.
Finalist, the 5th International Development Thesis Competition, KOICA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, South Korea.
We provided innovation strategies for a government agency, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), by winning thesis competition. Based on the resource-based view, this research collected 228 survey data from incumbent agents and retired agents, and then found out that human capital is a primary valuable resource. For developing the active organization structure, I held a position modeling the retention strategy by developing high performance work system building knowledge networks among regional specialists and volunteers who have diverse backgrounds ranging from engineering, agriculture, and government organizers.
Tan Kim 