Wesley W. Koo, PhD

Wesley W. Koo is an Assistant Professor in the Management & Organization area at Johns Hopkins University, Carey Business School. Wesley's research examines the relations between business, technology, and society. It focuses on platform governance and technology adoption across social sectors. 

For example, he has studied rural entrepreneurs' ability to navigate algorithmic change and platform governance’s impact on domestic workers. His research has been published in top-tier academic journals and disseminated by leading media outlets. He serves on the editorial boards at Organization Science, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and Strategic Management Journal.

Before joining Carey, Wesley was an assistant professor of strategy at INSEAD. He received his Ph.D. at Stanford University, where his research was supported by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Stanford SEED, Accel Partners, Strategic Management Society, and Alibaba Group. Prior to Stanford, Wesley was a tech entrepreneur and received dual degrees in Environmental Engineering and Management from MIT.

Teaching

Current

• Strategic Management

Research

Selected Publications

• 2025 Jue-Rajasingh, D & Koo, WW. "From Margins to Mainstream: The Narrative Dilemma in Scaling Social Ventures." Accepted at Strategic Management Journal.
• 2025 Koo, WW & Eesley, CE. "Take Me Home, Country Roads: Return Migration and Platform Enabled Entrepreneurship." Organization Science.
• 2024 Koo, WW. "Hybrid Governance of Platform Entrepreneurs." Research Policy.
• 2023 Motley, C, Eesley, CE, & Koo, WW. “Born Into Chaos: Founding Team Imprinting and Environmental Change”. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal
• 2023 Bahar, D, Choudhury, P, Kim, DY, & Koo, WW. “Innovation on Wings: Nonstop Flights and Firm Innovation in the Global Context”. Management Science.
• 2021 Koo, WW, & Eesley, CE. “Platform Governance and the Rural-Urban Divide: Sellers’ Responses to Design Change”. Strategic Management Journal.
• 2020 Wibbens, PD, Koo, WW, & McGahan, AM. “How many more days of social distancing before community transmission is controlled? A hierarchical Bayesian model of COVID-19 by jurisdiction”. PLOS One.

Selected Working Papers

• Burbano, VC, Koo, WW, & Luo, J. “A Platform Rating System and Vulnerable Workers: Evidence from Field Experiments in Singapore.”
• Wu, WY, Koo, WW, & Jia, N. “Beacon’s Local Glow: Localization and Homogenization Effects of Endorsement in Grassroots Entrepreneurship.”
• Koo, WW, Zhang, M, & Choudhury, P. “Temporal Distance and User Interactions on a Digital Platform.”
• Koo, WW, Pu, JC, & Gao, NQ. “AI Review Summary, Customer Ratings, and Performance Entrenchment.”
• Koo, WW & Takeda, Y. “Crossing the Divide? Professionals’ Responses to a Polarizing Political Event.”
• Koo, WW. “Cross-Lingual Effects of AI-Generated Content on Human Work.”