Biography

Research 

His research spans Strategic Leadership, Organization Theory, and Entrepreneurship, focusing on how social evaluations—such as celebrity, reputation, and status—influence stakeholder decision-making in complex organizational environments. He is particularly interested in how resource-constrained young organizations leverage intangible assets and strategic behaviors to attract key stakeholders during the scale-up process, effectively mobilizing resources such as potential investors and employees for growth. He examines how emotional resonance develops between organizational actors and audiences during celebrity formation, particularly when traditional performance metrics are limited, and explores how socially constructed categories (gender, race, occupation, political orientation) shape evaluation processes and their evolution over time. His work employs content analysis and machine learning techniques

Background

He holds a Ph.D. from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where his dissertation examined the interplay between social evaluation (intangible assets) and market evaluation by institutional and individual investors during startup IPOs, and their impact on startup performance. He earned an M.S. in Human Resource Management and Organizations from Seoul National University, researching how corporate ESG reputation affects firm performance and employee satisfaction. He also holds an M.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Yonsei University.

Before entering academia, he served as Administrative Secretary at the Korean Academy of Management and worked in HR at GS Global. He also led a social entrepreneurship project with young artists to upcycle discarded electronic appliances.

Education 

Ph.D. in Strategy and Entrepreneurship, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA 

M.S. in Human Resource Management & Organizations, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

M.A. in Political Science (International Political Economy), Yonsei Unviersity, Seoul, South Korea

B.A. in Political Science and International Relations, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea 

Publications