Keehyuk Ra

I am a PhD candidate in Strategy at Foster School of Business, University of Washington.
My research explores how sociopolitical and institutional factors—including political and moral values, audience evaluations, and social influences—become consequential for organizations and other market actors. Across settings including established firms, labor markets, entrepreneurship, and sports, I use large-scale archival data and quasi-experimental designs to study how such factors shape organizational decisions and market outcomes.

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Working Papers

Stuck in oil? Industry stigma and barriers to cross-industry worker mobility
(with Shinjae Won and Richard Benton)
Invited for revision at Administrative Science Quarterly

Pipes and funnels: Board composition and the interorganizational imitation of strategic practices
(with Abhinav Gupta and Richard Benton)
Invited for revision at Strategic Management Journal

Local community ideology and offshoring as contested strategic practice - Dissertation chapter

Work in Progress

Workforce political heterogeneity and startup growth
(with S. Joseph Shin)
Preliminary analysis completed

Firm responses to product ingredient controversies under evaluative ambiguity
Preliminary analysis completed

Publications

Journal Articles

Not on the right rung for me? How status inconsistency leads to avoidance of status-threatening ties in NCAA
(with Bo Kyung Kim)
PLoS ONE, 2024
▸ Show Abstract | Link

Abstract: This study examines the impact of status inconsistency on status-threatening activities within NCAA Division I men's basketball teams. Specifically, we focus on a nested form of status that includes both individual and group-level elements. We argue that organizations dealing with status inconsistency stemming from such nested form face challenges in reducing status inconsistency. To maintain their deserved status, these status-inconsistent organizations tend to avoid activities that could further threaten their status, despite potential economic gains. An analysis of NCAA Division I men's basketball scheduling data from 2000 to 2019 provides robust support to our theoretical arguments. Our findings suggest that the status inconsistency between a team's status and its conference status diminished the likelihood of scheduling games with non-Division I teams, a behavior considered counter-normative in this context. This effect is most prominent among teams in "Mid Major" conferences, while teams with recent participation in the NCAA Tournament show a mitigated effect.