Faculty and Research
Director: Ajay Mehra, PhD
Director of the LINKS Center for Social Network Analysis, Chellgren Endowed Chair in Corporate Strategy, Professor
Ajay is a professor in the Gatton College of Business and a board member of LINKS, a center for social network analysis (www.linkscenter.org). His research focuses on the role of psychology in the perception and construction of social networks in the workplace. Ajay has done consulting work with a range of business organizations, both here in the U.S. and overseas, to help them harness the power of social networks to enhance innovation and employee well-being. He has served on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, and the British Journal of Management. Ajay is a past recipient of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association's Great Teacher award.
Steve Borgatti, PhD
Gatton Chair, University Research Professor
Stephen P. Borgatti is the Gatton Endowed Chair of Management. He received his B.A. in Anthropology at Cornell and earned his Ph.D. in Mathematical Social Science at the University of California, Irvine.
Walter Ferrier, PhD
Department Chair, Carol Martin Gatton Professorship in Management
Walter “Wally” Ferrier is the Chair of and Professor in the Department of Management in the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the University of Maryland, an M.A. in International Commerce from the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky, and a B.S. in Economics also from the University of Kentucky. He served as a visiting scholar at both Stanford University and the Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University) in Finland.
Wally’s research interests include the dynamics of head-to-head competition, strategic decision making, and the influence of inter-organizational networks on strategy. His research has been published in the Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Strategic Organization, and others. He won the Academy of Management Journal’s “Best Paper Award” for his research on competitive interaction published in 1999. He was awarded research grants from the National Science Foundation and the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada.
He teaches courses in strategic management and international business in the Gatton College’s Ph.D., MBA, and undergraduate programs, as well as the UK’s MBA program in Athens, Greece.
Wally has international work experience in Germany as a sales representative for a New Hampshire-based industrial computer terminal manufacturer, in Austria as a market research intern with IBM-Vienna, and in the U.S. with PNC Bank as an international banking officer. He has strategic planning/consulting experience for a variety of manufacturing and service firms, as well as some non-profit organizations.
Prior to pursuing graduate work, Wally competed as a member of UK’s track team, and later competed nationally as a triathlete and cyclist. Although raised in the metropolitan New York-New Jersey area, he is a Kentucky native who currently enjoys cycling, hunting and the shooting sports, cooking, and competitive swimming.
Dan Halgin, PhD
Associate Professor
Daniel S. Halgin is Associate Professor of Management at the University of Kentucky and a member of the LINKS Center for Social Networks Analysis. He is also co-Editor in Chief of Connections and former director of the Intra-Organizational Networks Conference. He received his Ph.D. from the Management and Organizations Department at Boston College. His work has appeared in Organization Science, Social Networks, Organization Studies, Academy of Management Discoveries, Journal of Organizational Behavior, PloS ONE and other outlets. His research interests include social networks and social cognition in organizations and markets.
Rebekah Hong
Assistant Professor
Rebekah Hong is an Assistant Professor in Management at the University of Kentucky. She earned her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior/Human Resources at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.
Her research primarily focuses on creativity and innovation, idea ownership and diversity in teams, and the future of work. Through her research, she seeks to identify strategies to help organizations cultivate employee creativity and drive innovation.
Before starting her doctoral degree, she worked as a human resource professional and recruiter in the financial and retail industries and in management consulting, specializing in diversity and inclusion.
Ji Youn (Rose) Kim
Carol Martin Gatton Professorship in Management
Ji Youn (Rose) Kim is an Associate Professor of Management at the Gatton College of Business & Economics at the University of Kentucky. She received her PhD in Strategic Management from the University of Washington (Seattle). Her research interests include inter- and intra-organizational networks, learning, innovation and technology entrepreneurship. Her research has appeared in such outlets as Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management, Strategy Science and Social Networks.
Robert Krause, PhD
Assistant Professor
Robert Krause earned a Ph.D. in Sociological Methods from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 2019. He also holds degrees in behavioral science and cognitive neuroscience from universities in the Netherlands and Germany, respectively. Prior to joining Gatton, he served as a postdoctoral scholar at the Free University in Berlin. Robert is arguably one the world’s leading experts in Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models and Exponential Growth Models. He will help extend the Department of Management’s already-world-leading reputation in social network analysis into many new, exciting directions. Aside from research, Robert will teach research methods courses in the Management Department’s PhD program and the new Master of Science in Strategic Human Resource Analytics program.
Ko Kuwabara
Associate Professor
Ko Kuwabara is an Associate Professor of Management at University of Kentucky. Ko’s research interests include networking, negotiations, and workplace politics. His current stream of research explores the motivational psychology of networking: who builds effective networks, what inhibits people from networking, and what can be done to promote sustained engagement in networking. He is currently designing and evaluating different interventions in order to help professionals build and manage their networks more effectively. In related research, he has examined the emergence of trust in cross-cultural interactions and online markets. His research has been published in leading academic journals including the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, American Journal of Sociology, and Psychological Science.
Professor Kuwabara earned his PhD and BA in Sociology from Cornell University. Prior to joining the University of Kentucky, he was an associate professor of management at INSEAD in Singapore and the Columbia Business School where he taught courses on negotiation, social networks, and organisational change in the MBA and various executive education programs for organizations in Southeast Asia, Europe, Middle East, and North America.
Shihan Li
Assistant Professor
Shihan Li is an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Kentucky. She earned her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University, Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. Shihan’s research focuses on enhancing organizational and individual performance and well-being by examining the dynamic interplay between social networks and the distribution of feelings, behaviors, and cognitions within organizations. Her work primarily explores how personnel management practices impact the development of human and social capital, how social dynamics shape perceptions and reactions to social environments, and what facilitates the creation of a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. In her research, she employs mixed-method approaches and advanced analytical techniques, with a particular emphasis on social network analyses of archival data and longitudinal field surveys. Her research aims to deepen the understanding of dynamic social processes in the workplace and provide actionable insights for individuals, groups, and organizations to leverage this knowledge for better outcomes.
