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Education Stanford University, Graduate School of Business Ph.D. Business Administration (Organizational Behavior), June 2010 (Expected) Committee: Hayagreeva Rao (Chair), Michael T. Hannan, Jesper Sørensen
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business M.B.A. Strategic Management and Marketing Concentrations, 1999
Carnegie Mellon University B.S. Industrial Management and Economics, 1992
Research Interests My research interests are in organizational theory and economic sociology and how these theories may help inform our understanding of strategy and entrepreneurship. In particular, I study the effects of social categorization on market participants. Socially recognized categories tend to shape, limit, or affect perceptions of “buyers” and “sellers.” This is because category schemata create understanding and guide behaviors in recognizable ways by developing expectations of and for participants. However, these same schemas can unduly pigeonhole the sellers they classify, thereby constraining market actors by limiting their conduct to what buyers anticipate. This leads market participants who work across multiple categories to be disadvantaged because they are not easily understood or recognized. This parallels the literature on corporate diversification which suggests that combining businesses from disparate industries results in firm underperformance because of functional difficulties. However, theories on social categorization propose a complementary reason – that disadvantage stems from external perceptions of confusion and difficulty in evaluation of a multi-faceted actor.
I am currently working with unique data on detailed actions of small businesses and freelancers in an online market setting to demonstrate how these dynamics affect transactions. In particular, I study how non-conformity to recognized category schema affect a social actor’s credibility and reputation by examining the choices buyers make when deciding between sellers. I have also studied online markets for personal loans and Italian wines.
Teaching Interests Organizational strategy and structure, organizational change, entrepreneurship, and human resources
Research Papers Leung, Ming D. and
Giacomo Negro. 2009.
Leung, Ming D. and
Amanda J. Sharkey. 2009.
Leung,
Ming D. 2009.
Negro, Giacomo,
Michael T. Hannan, Hayagreeva Rao, and Ming D. Leung. 2007.
Dissertation
Abstract Organizational sociologists propose that social mechanisms of classification lead applicants who straddle multiple categories to suffer a discount. This parallels the work by strategy researchers who often find a penalty to diversification. To date, most of this research, whether on multiple-category membership or diversification, has implicitly suggested a candidate’s identity is an amalgam of their contemporaneous affiliations and ignored the historic conditions by which they have accumulated such varied associations.
This paper attempts to link two seemingly unrelated streams of literature, multiple category membership and historical context, by asking the question: Are there more or less acceptable sequences of historic categorical affiliations? While extant research has demonstrated that past experiences across multiple categories disadvantage social actors, it has ignored how the order of these categorical attachments may affect buyer perceptions. Instead of implicating what experiences a social actor has accumulated as having an effect on their future prospects, I suggest that the sequence of how a social actor accumulated their experiences as important.
In particular, I posit that movements between less associated categories will seem erratic and reduces a candidate’s credibility. Because classification paradigms necessarily highlight potential differences (or similarities) in past experiences, those candidates with sequences of experiences spanning more disparate categories will seem less committed. I suggest this uncertainty is due to the juxtaposition of less associated past experiences, which makes the background less familiar to an audience.
I find support for this theory in an online market for freelancing services, www.elance.com. I study activity by individuals and small businesses and show those job seekers with more erratic categorical backgrounds are less likely to garner subsequent work. These effects hold net of other alternative hypotheses, such as breadth, coherence, or relatedness of past experiences.
Conference Activities 2009 “Out of Sight, Out of Mind? The Mere Labeling Effect of Multi-Category Membership in Markets” Author, Academy of Management Annual Meeting
“Sequential Category Membership and Credibility in an Online Marketplace for Services” Presenter, Organizational Ecology Conference Presenter, Stanford/Berkeley OB Conference
Chair and Facilitator, Academy of Management Annual Meeting
2008 “Status Transfer Across Categorical Boundaries in an Online Marketplace for Services” Presenter, American Sociological Association Presenter, Academy of Management Annual Meeting
2007 “Category Cognition: Audience Recognition of Winemaker Categories in the Barolo and Barbaresco Winemaking District” Presenter, American Sociological Association Presenter, Academy of Management Annual Meeting Presenter, Stanford/Berkeley OB Conference
OMT Symposium “Grade of Membership Effects and Consequences” Organizer, Academy of Management Annual Meeting
Personal Languages - English (native), Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin, conversational)
Travel and photography - regions visited: Western Europe, Southeast Asia, China, and India
Cooking - particular cuisines include: French Provincial, Chinese, and Italian
My son - Gio
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