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, innovators, and market-movers can communicate to capture attention and mobilize resources, with a focus on strategic and economic narratives.

Research Summary

I draw on strategy theory, classical and economic sociology, and qualitative and mixed methods to explore the power and limits of strategic communication in entrepreneurship and markets.In my dissertation, I first review four decades of research on narrative in the social sciences and humanities, leading me to develop a new distinction between narrative in-communication and communication as-narrative (forthcoming in Academy of Management Annals). I then use this distinction to explain mixed findings on how entrepreneurs mobilize investors with narrative, and qualitative methods and impression management theory to analyze entrepreneur-investor interactions at three pitch competitions. Finally, in joint with Georg Rilinger, I use qualitative methods, accounting analysis, and machine learning to analyze how activist short sellers craft narratives that seek to coordinate audiences to move the market.In select working papers, I explore other questions in entrepreneurship and innovation. With Ethan Poskanzer, I study how a publicly-funded accelerator and pitch competition aims to stimulate regional development outside the dominant ecosystems. With Fiona Murray, I examine the recent rise and de-stigmatization of defense and dual-use entrepreneurship.

Research Publications and Projects

Published or accepted
Turner, Brad R. Forthcoming. “Narrative Affordances: What Stories Can and Cannot Do.” Academy of Management AnnalsPreparing manuscript
Turner, Brad R. Storytelling and the Real: Narrative Impression Management and Audience ResponseRilinger, Georg, and Brad R. Turner (co-first authors). “Stories That Move the Market: Activist Short Sellers and Coordinating Market Contrarianism”Select working papers
Turner, Brad R. Narrative BacklashPoskanzer, 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 entrepreneurship hackathon, IDEA Week (Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurial Advantage). This intensive course has given me opportunity to present, help sculpt the program, work hands-on with students, and learn from the amazing teaching team of Professor Fiona Murray, Dr. Phil Budden, and Gene Kesselman.I also TA'd Professor Georg Rilinger's Strategy Bootcamp, Professor Cat Turco's inimitable "Choice Points: Thinking About Life and Leadership Through Literature," and Professor Susan Silbey's "Designing Empirical Research in the Social Sciences"—springboard for so many research careers. Previously, I taught an elective course for the honors program at my alma mater, Syracuse University.Along the way, I 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.