Steven J. Kahl

Steven Kahl researches the emergence of new products and firms within economic markets, with a focus on technological innovations. On a theoretical level, Kahl is interested in how market communities come to accept new categories and how this process can inform prevailing sociological explanations of markets. Empirically, Kahl's research is on how customers come to understand and use a new technology and how this process influences technological development and market competition. In related research, he also studies the role of services in innovation as a means to transfer knowledge between customers and producers. He has extensively studied the software industry, using both historical and quantitative research methods.

Prior to academia, Steven Kahl was a vice president in Global Investment Research at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in Boston, following the enterprise software sector. He is also a former research analyst at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Inc., senior consultant at Deloitte & Touche LLP in Minneapolis, and systems analyst at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in Washington, D.C.

\nKahl earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in philosophy from Dartmouth College, where he also was a senior fellow. He earned a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Minnesota, with a focus in epistemology and logic. In 2007, he earned a PhD in management from the Sloan School at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), specializing in technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He was the recipient of the Best Student Paper in the Academy of Management Technology and Innovation Management Division in 2006 and a Presidential Fellowship from MIT from 2003 to 2007.

Selected Publications

Utilizing Use: The Potential Impact of Customer Use Patterns on Technology and Industry Evolution, Best Paper Proceedings AOM 2007. With JoAnne Yates, "Radical Incrementalism: Factoring Customer Use into Technological Change," Best Paper Proceedings AOM 2006.