Suntae Kim

Suntae Kim, PhD

Assistant Professor
Academic AreaManagement & Organization
Academic AreaInnovation & Entrepreneurship
Areas of InterestSocial innovation, Crisis management, Entrepreneurship

Suntae Kim is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organization at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He studies innovation amid adversity: how new forms of organizing emerge in the context of hardship, such as poverty, crisis, and discrimination. Specifically, Suntae has studied how entrepreneurship can revitalize challenged places like Detroit, how a social entrepreneurship movement (B Corp movement) emerged to overcome corporate cooptation, how the South Korean public health system transformed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, how a Pittsburgh worker-coop emerged despite entrepreneurial challenges, and how North Korean refugees reboot their lives as entrepreneurs.He studies these phenomena using qualitative research methods with a strong focus on unpacking processes.

Suntae received his doctoral degree from the University of Michigan, and prior to joining Carey, he served as an Assistant Professor at Boston College's Carroll School of Management.

Education

  • PhD, Business Administration, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • MS & BS in Business Administration, Seoul National University

Research

Selected publications

Working papers

  • Kim, S., Lee, H., Yoon, S., & Pak, Y. (under review, Administrative Science Quarterly). Title removed for anonymous review.
    • Topic: investigation into how complex social systems can adaptively reconstruct itself amid an unfolding crisis, in the context of initial COVID-19 outbreaks in South Korea
  • Young-Hyman, T., Kim, S., & Sobering, K. The Tenuous Emergence of Less Hierarchical Organizations: Dynamics Between Collectivist and Entrepreneurial Ideals. Preparing Manuscript.
    • Topic: emergence process of a fledgling worker cooperative amid tensions between ideals of democratic organizing and entrepreneurial organizing
  • Lee, H., Kim, S., Yoon, S., & Pak, Y. An Inevitable Failure of “Infallible Entrepreneurship” for North Korean Refugees. Analyzing Data.
    • Topic: study of complex entanglement between refugee entrepreneurship and host country’s social entrepreneurship, in the context of a sudden failure of a once-renowned South Korean entrepreneurship training program for North Korean refugees
  • Pak, Y., Kim, S., Yoon, S, & Lee, H. Need, Merit, and Script: How a Social Enterprise Molded Refugee Entrepreneurship. Preparing Manuscript.
    • Topic: the role of cultural scripts on determining success of North Korean refugee entrepreneurs in South Korea

Teaching

Current

  • Leadership and Organizational Behavior (Full-time MBA & Part-time MBA)

Honors and distinctions

  • Responsible Research in Business & Management Honor Roll, 2023
  • Carroll School Teaching Star, Boston College, 2019
  • Carroll School of Management Kelly Research Grant, Boston College, 2018
  • Carroll School of Management Faculty Fellowship, Boston College, 2017-2018
  • Robert Kahn Fellowship for the Scientific Study of Social Issues, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 2014-2015
  • American Council of Stock Plan Professionals Fellowship, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, 2014-2015 
  • Rackham Graduate School Research Grant, University of Michigan, 2014
  • Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2013-2014
  • Best Symposium Award, Organization and Management Theory Division, Academy of Management, 2013
  • Above and Beyond the Call of Duty Reviewer Award, Organization and Management Theory Division, Academy of Management, 2013
  • Ross Doctoral Research Grant, University of Michigan, 2013
  • Robert D. and Janet E. Neary Award, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, 2012
  • Samsung Scholarship, 2009-2014

Impact and engagement

Business

Selected articles for business practitioners

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