Brad R. Turner

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Introduction

I am a doctoral candidate in Economic Sociology at the MIT Sloan School of Management.My research explores how entrepreneurs, organizations, and market-movers can communicate to capture attention and mobilize resources, with a focus on strategic and economic narratives.

Research Summary

I explore the power and limits of strategic communication in entrepreneurship and markets.My dissertation focuses on how organizations use narratives, or stories, to achieve strategic goals. In my job-market paper, I qualitatively analyze entrepreneur-investor interactions at three pitch events. Based on the lines of questions that entrepreneurs receive from investors, I ground hypotheses about why some stories mobilize investors while others trigger skepticism and can damage credibility. In a second paper, with Georg Rilinger, I explore economic narratives that shape stock market valuations. We study activist short sellers - key critics in financial markets - who circulate sprawling narrative reports. We classify narratives using qualitative analysis and machine learning, combined with industry and firm-level data, and interviews. We theorize how short sellers motivate and coordinate audiences, which depends on varied evaluative standards. These papers draw on new theory developed in my review of 40 years of research on narrative as a tool for action in Academy of Management Annals.In select working papers, I am exploring questions in entrepreneurship and innovation. With Ethan Poskanzer, I explore how publicly-funded accelerators and pitch competitions stimulate regional economic development outside dominant ecosystems. And with Fiona Murray, I examine the recent rise and de-stigmatization of defense and dual-use entrepreneurship.

Research Publications and Projects

Published
Turner, Brad R. 2025. “Narrative Affordances: What Stories Can and Cannot Do.” Academy of Management AnnalsPreparing or submitted manuscripts
Turner, Brad R. [Paper on entrepreneur storytelling and investor response (under review)]Rilinger, Georg, and Brad R. Turner (co-first authors). Paper on persuasion and coordination in financial marketsSelect working papers
Poskanzer, Ethan and Brad R. Turner (co-first authors). "Can Public Entrepreneurship Programs Create Jobs Outside of Dominant Ecosystems? Analysis of an Accelerator and Pitch Competition’s Regional Impact." Status: Data collectionTurner, Brad R. and Fiona Murray. “From Defense to Offense: The De-Stigmatization of Dual-Use Entrepreneurship and Investing” (working title). Status: Data collection

Teaching

For three years, I have focused on supporting Sloan's pathbreaking EMBA hackathon, Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurial Advantage. As TA, I had ample opportunity to present, mentor students, and learn from the outstanding team of Professor Fiona Murray, Dr. Phil Budden, and Gene Keselman.I also served as TA for Georg Rilinger's Strategy Bootcamp; Cat Turco's Choice Points: Thinking About Life and Leadership Through Literature; and Susan Silbey's Designing Empirical Research in the Social Sciences. Previously, I taught an elective at my alma mater, Syracuse University.I also earned MIT's Grad Teaching Certificate, served as Sloan's Teaching Development Fellow (2022-2023), and co-wrote two Case Teaching Notes with HBS Professor Ranjay Gulati.

Personal Background

Before entering academia, I was a lab manager at Cornell-Johnson, an analyst at Bridgewater Associates, and a regional macroeconomic forecaster at Moody's Analytics. I hold a M.A. in sociology from the University of Chicago; a B.S. in economics from Syracuse University; and was a Fulbright Fellow in philosophy at the University of Helsinki.