Karr* & Park, 2026
Academy of Management Annual Conference 2026, Philadelphia, PA, USA
AOM Best Paper Proceedings
Abstract: Rating systems are a central governance mechanism through which platform owners facilitate value-enhancing exchanges between complementors and users by reducing information asymmetry, improving market efficiency, and informally regulating complement quality. However, what happens when an established rating system is abruptly removed by a platform owner? This study investigates how platform owner-initiated de-governance, or the removal of a rating system, impacts complementor performance. Leveraging the Webtoon platform’s abrupt removal of its user-determined rating system, we employ a difference-in-differences design using a novel weekly panel dataset of 2,083 complementors across two web comic platforms (Webtoon and Tapas) from January to November 2025. We find that the removal of ratings is associated with an overall increase in complementor performance, consistent with the idea that de-governance increases strategic uncertainty and reallocates user attention, prompting users to shift from passive filtering based on numerical ratings to the active exploration of content. However, these performance gains are more pronounced for complementors with early lifecycle stage complements, while those offering niche complements benefit significantly less. These findings contribute to platform strategy and the attention-based view by challenging the assumption that more information can drive platform transactions, highlighting instead that uncertainty can reallocate user attention and reshape complementor performance outcomes.
Karr*, 2025
Academy of Management Annual Conference 2025, Copenhagen, Denmark
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between complementor strategic decisions to engage with users, both on- and cross-platform, and complementor performance. Using a novel dataset comprising of 1,175 unique complementors from the WEBTOON platform, spanning September 2023 to September 2024, this study finds that complementor engagement with users, both on- and cross-platform, is positively associated with complementor performance. The study also reveals that both on- and cross-platform user reciprocal engagement yields positive performance outcomes for complementors. In contrast to previous platform-centric research, which emphasizes the size of complements as a primary driver for value creation, this study adopts a complementor perspective, highlighting how complementor strategic choices can provide alternate sources of value creation that extend beyond size alone. Drawing on the resource-based view and resource exchange theory, this study suggests that complementor engagement with users, both on and across different platforms, can strengthen the intensity of network effects and positively influence performance. Furthermore, this study argues that, particularly for the cross-platform context, the benefits of complementor engagement outweigh the risks, ultimately allowing for better complementor performance on the focal platform.
Karr* & Kim, 2024
Academy of Management Annual Conference 2024, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Abstract: This study explores the distinct consequences of material and immaterial environmental, social, and governance (ESG) controversies on a firm's financial performance, as well as potential contextual factors that may exacerbate or mitigate this relationship. Using a large sample of 7,136 internationally distributed, listed firms from 2014 to 2022, we find that the market imposes penalties on firms for material ESG controversies, but not for immaterial ones. More specifically, investors choose to overlook a firm’s immaterial ESG controversies, suggesting a potential ESG-washing mechanism at play on the investor side. Our study also finds that the regulatory quality in a firm’s home country intensifies the adverse effects of material ESG controversies on firm performance. We present findings and interpret them within existing theoretical frameworks, particularly through the lenses of expectancy violations theory, stakeholder theory, and institutional theory. While prior literature has presented mixed findings regarding the impact of ESG controversies on firm performance, our study outlines potentially important drivers behind these conflicting outcomes and provides new insights to the nonmarket strategy field through our consideration of the nature of ESG controversies and key country-level influences.
Karr*, Kim & Kim, 2023
Academy of Management Annual Conference 2023, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Also invited to present at the Strategic Management Society Annual Conference 2023, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Abstract: This study investigates how firms strategically utilize the materiality or immateriality of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues to manage their ESG score and offset negative ESG-related impressions. More specifically, we pull from impression management literature to suggest that when firms face reputational threats (i.e., receiving a low ESG score or facing ESG-related controversies), they strive to enhance their aggregate ESG score by improving their immaterial ESG performance, which is easier, faster, and less costly than improving performance in material ESG areas. Using a large sample of publicly traded U.S. firms ranging from 2012 to 2021, we find that firms facing poor ESG scores, especially manufacturing firms, are more susceptible to engaging in subsequent gaming tactics by improving their immaterial ESG performance in order to manage their ESG-related image without having to face significant financial trade-offs. We also find that firms facing ESG controversies are less likely to do so.
Lee, Kim, Karr* & Mah, 2022
Academy of Management Annual Conference 2022, Virtual
Abstract: Prior literature has largely focused on the resilience of entrepreneurship in times of crisis, while paying little attention to the roles of individuals, organizations, and communities in driving transformation. The recent COVID-19 pandemic presents a timely setting to further investigate the relationship between entrepreneurship and crises. This paper applies field theory in order to answer the following questions: (1) What characteristics of a crisis trigger entrepreneurship? In what ways does a crisis foster entrepreneurship?; (2) What are the factors that influence the creation and survival of new firms in times of crisis?; and (3) What are the regional characteristics that exist where entrepreneurship is active in times of crisis? After conducting a comprehensive literature review, we found that mere resiliency or a return to the status quo does not guarantee future success. Rather, it is the entrepreneurial actors who possess the skills and power necessary to transform existing fields and foster creative destruction, innovation, and community development. Only then can faster recovery, economic welfare, social welfare, and sustainable value creation be generated. This study contributes to entrepreneurship and crisis related literature by examining how entrepreneurs, firms, and communities can achieve sustainable growth, even in the midst of a crisis.
*Presenter