I am John (Cheon Mok) Kim, a PhD Candidate in Strategy at the Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine.
I study organizational learning, behavioral theory of the firm, and organizational design. Specifically, I explore (1) how organizations learn from ambiguous experiences and (2) from whom firms learn from.
My dissertation examines the antecedents, consequences, and dynamics of organizational reference group selection. To investigate these topics, I employ a mix of research methods, including quasi-natural experiments and textual analysis. I explore my research questions in a variety of empirical settings including the medical device industry, multidivisional corporations, and professional e-sports teams.
My research has been recognized with awards including the STR Distinguished Paper Award and Best Paper Proceedings from the Academy of Management Annual Meeting and the Samsung Economic Research Institute Best Paper Award. My research has been published in journals including Academy of Management Journal.
I lived in various different countries including United Kingdom, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, and United States. In my free time, I like to cook, explore nice restaurants, play tennis, watch soccer and spend time with my two lovely cats Dami and Bbo.