Steven J. Kahl

Steve Kahl teaches the core course Leading Organizations and an elective course called Leading Entrepreneurial Organizations. Steve is affiliated with the Center for Digital Strategies and is actively involved with entrepreneurship as the faculty director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. Prior to Tuck, Steve was an Assistant Professor of Organizations and Strategy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business from 2007–2012. Prior to academia, he was a vice president in Global Investment Research at Goldman, Sachs & Co, a former research analyst at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Inc., and consultant at Deloitte & Touche and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).

Steve’s research examines how new markets emerge through sociological and cognitive perspectives. He examines how markets come to understand new firms and innovations through historically grounded content and discursive analysis. One set of projects analyzes the commercialization of the computer in insurance and manufacturing. This work considers how various groups interpreted the computer, how these interpretations evolved over time, and the challenges entrepreneurs face in forming these perception.

Related work also considers how different occupations strategized to expand their control through the implementation of the computer. Steve has also looked at issues associated with emergence in the applications software market, jazz, and financial regulations.

Professor Kahl’s research has been published (or is forthcoming) in Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Advances in Strategic Management, and Research in the Sociology of Organizations.

Current Research Topics

• Social structure and cognitive foundations of market emergence
• Organizational structure and strategy
• Entrepreneurship
• Role of services in technology and industry evolution

Professional Activities

Academic positions

• Tuck School of Business, 2012–present
• Assistant Professor, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 2007–12 

Nonacademic positions

• Associate/Vice President, Global Investment Research, Goldman, Sachs & Co., 1999–2002
• Research Analyst, US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, Inc., 1997–99
• IT consultant, Deloitte & Touche LLP, 1995–97
• Systems Analyst, Andersen Consulting, 1991–93

Editorial positions

• Editorial Board, Strategic Management Journal
• Advances in Strategic Management co-editor with Brian Silverman and Michael Cusumano on 2012 volume on “History and Strategy”
• Ad hoc Reviewer Administrative Science Quarterly, American Journal of Sociology, Management Science, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Research Policy, Strategic Management Society (Dissertation Proposals) Theory and Society

Working Papers

• With B. King and G. Liegel, "Task Relations, Technological Innovation, and Jursidictional Change"
• With S. Grodal, "Conceptual Strategies: Multi-Level Discursive Analysis in Strategy Research"
• With C. Bingham, "The Logic and Structure of Category Formation"
• With J. Yates, "‘The Hard-Working Obedient Moron’: The Role of Power and Authority In Computer Use in Insurance, 1947–1960s"
• With D. Phillips, "Market Crises and the (Re)establishment of Market Order: A Sociological Investigation of the “Fair Market” Rule Implementation in Financial Markets"

Awards

• 2014 Paul E. Raether Fellowship
• 2014 3M Nontenured Faculty Grant
• 2011 Best Paper Proceedings Academy of Management, OMT Division, The Process of Schema Development: How the Insurance Industry Conceptualized the Computer: 1947–1975
• 2010 Best Paper (co-winner) for Structural Positions paper at UC Davis Qualitative Conference
• 2008 Booth Scholar (2008-2009 school year)
• 2007 Best Paper Proceedings Academy of Management, TIM Division, Considering the Customer: Determinants and Impact of Using Technology
• 2006 Best student paper finalist for TIM Division, Academy of Management, Radical Incrementalism: How the Insurance Market Understood and Used the Early Computer (JoAnne Yates)
• 2003 Presidential Fellowship (MIT, 2003-2007)

Selected Publications

• With S. Grodal, "Discursive Strategies and Radical Technological Change: Multi-Level Discourse Analysis of the Early Computer (1947-1958)," Forthcoming, Strategic Management Journal
• "Product Conceptual Systems: Toward a Cognitive Processing Model," Forthcoming, Advances in Strategic Management
• "Associations, Jurisdictional Battles and the Development of Dual-Purpose Capabilities," _Academy of Management Perspectives, _Vol. 28: 381-394, 2014
• With C. Bingham, "Anticipatory Learning: The Avoidance of Negative Outcomes in Entrepreneurial Firms," Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Vol. 8: 101-127, 2014
• With M.Cusumano and F. Suarez, “Services and the Business Models of Product Firms: An Empirical Analysis of the Software Industry,” Management Science, Vol. 59 No. 2, 2013
• With C. Bingham, “The Process of Schema Emergence: Assimilation, Deconstruction, Unitization and the Plurality of Analogies,”_ Academy of Management Journal_, Vol. 56: 14-34, 2013
• With C. Bingham, "How to Use Analogies to Introduce New Ideas," Sloan Management Review, 2013
• With J. Yates and G. Leigel, Audience Structure and the Failure of Institutional Entrepreneurship, Advances in Strategic Management, Vol. 29, 2012
• With Y. Kim and D. Phillips, "Identity Sequences and the Early Adoption Pattern of the Jazz Canon (1920-1929)," Research in Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 31, 2010