Essays on economic sociology of innovation and entrepreneurship
Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2019
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | eng |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123583 |
| _version_ | 1811084114683494400 |
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| author | Kim, Hyejun. |
| author2 | Ezra Zuckerman Sivan. |
| author_facet | Ezra Zuckerman Sivan. Kim, Hyejun. |
| author_sort | Kim, Hyejun. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2019 |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:45:03Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/123583 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:45:03Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1235832020-01-24T03:17:01Z Essays on economic sociology of innovation and entrepreneurship Kim, Hyejun. Ezra Zuckerman Sivan. Ezra Zuckerman Sivan. Sloan School of Management. Sloan School of Management Sloan School of Management. Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2019 Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references. This dissertation considers how innovation and entrepreneurship are developed, encouraged, and evaluated with the theoretical lens of economic sociology. The first chapter investigates who becomes an entrepreneur among the pool of general consumers. The process by which individuals become entrepreneurs is often described as a decisive moment of transition, yet it necessarily involves a series of smaller steps. By breaking down the transition stages of knitting hobbyists' transition to producers who sell their original design patterns, the study examines the distinctive characteristics that affect users' decision to (a) create new products and (b) commercialize them. The second chapter examines the role of social capital in revealing and encouraging entrepreneurship. To the question of how social capital benefits innovation and entrepreneurship, existing literature has provided one dominant answer: access to information and resources. In this study, I suggest an alternative mechanism how social capital benefits an individual's entrepreneurial transition: social networks provide potential entrepreneurs self-confidence on the promise of their new ideas and encourages their entry into the market. Using a matched sample of potential innovators, I show that an individual's participation in a local group encourages her transition to an entrepreneur, especially for those who already have the necessary skills for the transition. The empirical analysis resonates with qualitative evidence that hobbyists make the transition to entrepreneurs when encouraged by their friends. The third chapter (co-authored with Pierre Azoulay and Ezra Zuckerman) considers commitment-based typecasting among knit designers. We show that "commitment-based typecasting" has two characteristic features: asymmetry in audience valuation and retrospective reevaluation. When a novice performer experiences an "identity shock" that suggests that she is more committed to the audience for one category than another, "betrayed" audience tends to regard her as having always been less committed to the rival audience/category. We test this theory in the domain of knitting, where there is a divide between avant-garde knitters and traditional knitters, and we show that when a novice knit designer is first published in the publication associated with one category, this elicits a retrospective devaluation of her prior work by the audience of the opposing category. by Hyejun Kim. Chapter 1. Sharing or Selling: Multiple Stages of Entrepreneurial Transitions in the Hobbyist Community -- Chapter 2. Knitting Community: The Role of Social Capital in Revealing and Encouraging Entrepreneurship -- Chapter 3. Never Really One of Us: Commitment-based Typecasting among Knit Designers. Ph. D. Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management 2020-01-23T16:58:08Z 2020-01-23T16:58:08Z 2019 2019 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123583 1135802341 eng MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 106 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Sloan School of Management. Kim, Hyejun. Essays on economic sociology of innovation and entrepreneurship |
| title | Essays on economic sociology of innovation and entrepreneurship |
| title_full | Essays on economic sociology of innovation and entrepreneurship |
| title_fullStr | Essays on economic sociology of innovation and entrepreneurship |
| title_full_unstemmed | Essays on economic sociology of innovation and entrepreneurship |
| title_short | Essays on economic sociology of innovation and entrepreneurship |
| title_sort | essays on economic sociology of innovation and entrepreneurship |
| topic | Sloan School of Management. |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123583 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kimhyejun essaysoneconomicsociologyofinnovationandentrepreneurship |