(Updated Jun 2026)
UNDER REVIEW
Tan, M. & Chai, S. “Legitimation process in segmented nascent industries” (Real title disguised for peer review) [Dissertation chapter]
2nd Round Revise & Resubmit at Strategic Management Journal
Nominated for Best PhD Paper Prize, SMS Istanbul 2024
Nominated for “That’s Interesting!” Award, EGOS Milan 2024
Selected conference presentations/workshops: GRONEN Barcelona (2026), HoFoW Lyon (2026), AOM Copenhagen (2025), ARCS Paris - PhD workshop (2025), SMS Istanbul (2024), EGOS Milan (2024)
A study about the emergence and legitimation of a new multi-segmented industry centered around valorizing insects for multiple applications. Abstract omitted for peer review.
SELECTED WORK IN PROGRESS
Tan, M. “Got milk? Oscillating moral dominance between the market of infant formula and the intimate practice of breastfeeding in 20th century America” [Dissertation chapter, job market paper] Target: Administrative Science Quarterly
Selected conference presentations/workshops: EGOS Bergamo/virtual (2026), Ethnography Atelier (2026), Organization Science Winter Conference Paris - Doctoral Consortium (2026), AOM Management History Division virtual PDW (2025)
The relentless expansion of markets into intimate spheres of life triggers resistance from nonmarket domain. Yet, as literature focuses on paths toward the ultimate triumph or failure of marketization or nonmarket resistance, it overlooks how the two domains co-evolve over time and how market or nonmarket organizing of intimacy that seems settled at one time may be renegotiated again. To this end, I build a historical case study on the interplay between infant formula market and breastfeeding across 20th century America. I leverage extensive historical sources from formula firms, breastfeeding proponents, parents, pediatricians, the government, and mainstream media to build a theory of oscillating moral dominance between market and nonmarket modes of organizing intimate practices. My findings reveal three mechanisms that, in each phase, sway the moral directive of infant feeding toward either the marketized product or the nonmarket, embodied practice: provocateurs’ disruption of moral status quo, incumbent actors’ responses to new moral frames, and their compliance to shifting macro-level normative pressures. Each phase ended with reconfigured inter-actor arrangements, setting the stage for the next cycle of moral re-evaluation. The findings contribute to studies on market-intimacy interfaces, morals and markets, and the sociology of morality. I conclude that the march of markets is not totally unfettered, nor is the protective counterreaction from nonmarket domains permanent; instead, the two move in a cycle of oscillating moralities that prevent either sphere from fully eclipsing the other.
Tan, M. “Emotions and Emergence: How Entrepreneurs Manage Consumers’ Aversive Emotions in Nascent Market of Insect-as-Food Products” [Dissertation chapter, analyzing data] Target: Academy of Management Journal
Selected conference presentations/workshops: Showcase Symposium, AOM Philadelphia (2026)
Extant research has focused on the critical role of cognitive processes for new category acceptance, but has neglected emotions from consideration. In some categories, emotional appeal may be as critical as cognitive legitimacy. Further complicating, the growing environmental consciousness has spurred entrepreneurs’ entry into moral markets that often involve sustainable products from unconventional inputs. The materiality of such inputs can evoke nonconscious, aversive emotions. Given the scarcity of research examining how audience emotions shape nascent category emergence and how entrepreneurs account for these affective dynamics, this paper asks: How do entrepreneurial actors in nascent markets manage consumers’ aversive emotions? To explore this question, I draw from the emerging nascent market centered around insects as sustainable food products. I build a theory on how entrepreneurs build mental representation of emotional composition diversity and intensity of different customer groups (in particular aversive emotions such as disgust, fear, and shame), and how this representation plays a role in their strategic actions and decisions in shaping and legitimating the insect-as-food category.
Tan, M. “Reviving Old Technologies and Valorizing Mundane Objects through Reassignment of Functions and Meanings” [Conceptual paper, writing stage] Target: Academy of Management Review
Objects and technologies possess both functional and symbolic values, but research often examines these dimensions separately. One research stream focuses on the functional value creation of objects through technical innovations that address audience’s practical needs. Another stream explores how actors mobilize cultural resources to imbue objects or products with symbolic value that fulfills audience’s desires for expression and meaning. Given the separate domains of research, extant scholarship overlooks phenomena where actors reassign objects with both radically new functional use and symbolic meaning, and face resulting audience dissonances. Amidst pressures from today's social and environmental crises, various organizations, social movements, and entrepreneurs increasingly rethink and question the roles of mundane, familiar, or discarded objects and technologies. This study theorizes how heterogenous actors 1) reassign objects and technologies with new (un)favorable uses and meanings and 2) address audience dissonances that result from these reassignment attempts.
Tan, M. & Huising, R. “Defining the Tools of the Trade: Market Forces and Medical Expertise through Visual Analysis of Print Advertisements in Pediatrics Journals” [Collecting additional data]
Huising, R. & Tan, M. “Constructing a Culture of Responsibility Among Biosafety and Biosecurity Professionals” [Analyzing data]
METHODOLOGY-RELATED WORK
Huising R.*, McAlpine, C.*, & Tan, M.*, “Becoming who you are: Voices and journeys of qualitative scholars” [Analyzing data]
*alphabetical order, equal authorship
This project explores the process of becoming and being an academic scholar. We interview scholars with expertise in qualitative research methods across different career and life stages about their experiences, challenges, relationships, and moments of meaning in their scholarly lives. The central focus is not on their specific research findings, but on their trajectories as people and scientists—how they navigate identity, purpose, feedback, collaboration, boundaries, craft, and joy in the academic profession.