Program on the Legal Profession
Harvard Law School
23 Everett Street #G-24
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 495-9134

Narrative

Young-Kyu Kim received his PhD from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 2008. In his doctoral work, Young-Kyu examined the issue of social status and organizational identity in various empirical settings, such as the venture capital industry and legal/financial advisory services in the mergers and acquisitions markets. His current research involves the application of his theoretical work to the law firm context. During his fellowship, he has been working on the Program’s Corporate Purchasing Project, investigating the role of social networks in lawyers’ career mobility, and exploring the issue of social status in the legal service industry.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Young-Kyu studied information system management at Carnegie Mellon University and worked for the Korea Information Society Development Institute, where he actively participated in various legislative reform projects in the telecommunication and postal sectors in Korea. One of his research projects, “Why Pseudonyms? Deception as Identity Preservation among Jazz Record Companies, 1920 – 1929 (with Professor Damon J. Phillips at the University of Chicago)” has recently been published at Organization Science in the May-June 2009 Issue.

Education

PhD; MBA , University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, 2008

Master of Information Systems Management (MISM), Carnegie Mellon University, 2002

MBA, Seoul National University, 1996

BA, Seoul National University, 1994

Publications

Why Pseudonyms? Deception as Identity Preservation among Jazz Record Companies, 1920-1929. (with Damon J. Phillips, Organizational Science, May/June 2009, Vol. 20, Issue 3, pp. 481-499)

How Does Status Affect Performance? Status as an Asset Versus Status as a Liability in the PGA and NASCAR (with Matthew S. Bothner and Edward B. Smith, Organizational Science, Revise & Resubmit)

Presentations

An Instrumental Variable Approach to Uncover the Status Dynamics in the US Venture Capital Industry
Selected for Best Paper Proceedings
August, 2009
2009 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
Chicago

Patterns of the Movement of Partners Across Law Firms
(with Ashish Nanda)
May, 2009
2009 Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association
Denver

Status Coherence and Organizational Identity
August, 2008
2008 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
Anaheim

How Does Status Affect Performance? Status as an Asset Versus Status as a Liability in the PGA and NASCAR
(with Matthew S. Bothner and Edward Smith)
August, 2008
2008 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association
Boston

An Examination of Status Dynamics in the U.S. Venture Capital Industry
August, 2007
2007 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
Philadelphia