A Q&A with Sukhun Kang, Assistant Faculty

Our department had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with Assistant Professor Sukhun Kang, one of the most recent additions to our faculty catalog. Read his full interview to learn more about his background, research interests, teaching, and more! 

Personal website: https://www.sukhunkang.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sukhunkang

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sukhunkang

 

Tell me a little bit about yourself. 

Q: What is your background?   

A: I was trained as a computer engineer, and spent over four years in the semiconductor industry. But I’d view myself as someone with a background somewhere in between technology and business since my time as an undergraduate student in Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). On a personal level, I’ve recently moved to Santa Barbara for this position, and have found it an amazing place for my family! 

Q: What would people be surprised to know about you? 

A: Sometimes, people are surprised to learn that I come from the field of computer engineering. Another thing that surprises people about me is that I founded a startup before. After the iPhone came out, my classmates and I created an internet startup where we managed several apps/platforms. After two to three years, it unfortunately faded out as we failed to raise follow-on funding, but it was still a valuable experience. 

Tell me about your research interests. 

Q: Describe a current project you’re working on.

A: My research primarily focuses on the intersection of innovation and entrepreneurship, especially within the biopharmaceutical and high-tech industries. My work explores the intricate ways in which technology influences innovation, aiming to identify the key drivers and obstacles to technology adoption and its effects on individuals, firms, and our society. My research methods are mostly quantitative based on econometric methods. More specifically, what I do in my research is testing my hypotheses using data about how innovative dynamics change how companies in the industry operate—and how that reflects on the wider industry. 

One of my current projects focuses on the factors that make pharmaceutical companies provide early access to their investigational drugs. Along with my collaborators, I’m examining factors that make firms more or less likely to provide expanded access to their recent innovative technologies. 

I also have other projects. A recent project of mine looks at strategic decision-making around innovation in the biopharmaceutical sector. If we view disease areas as submarkets, we can ask, “How do companies change their strategies to achieve competitive positions in an industry, and how does that affect the industry as a whole?” Another project of mine focuses on the impact of The Cancer Genome Atlas on how oncology drug companies change the ways they innovate, by making them recognize what they’ve been working on as genetically similar to some other cancers. 

Q: What would you say is the most surprising thing about your research? 

A: I’m always thinking about the short-term vs. long-term, or intended vs. unintended consequences of business and policy decisions. I’m interested in empirical puzzles that are less intuitive in the first sight: things that may look counterintuitive from the first impression but would become more intuitive when you turn things around and look at them carefully. In that sense, what’s most surprising about my research is that seemingly puzzling phenomena can often be understood better with a deep-dive of theoretical and empirical investigation.

Q: How did you first get interested in your research topic?

A: I start my research by listening to the news and talking to practitioners—seeing something happen in the real-world, and then asking why. Then I think about how to frame this phenomena in a way that would interest academics. 

I’m drawn to topics like the political structure behind Uber or impact of The Cancer Genome Atlas on Firm innovation. Usually, when new technology comes around, it’s not regulated in the beginning, so users will think it’s beneficial to have something in the short-term without really seeing the causes and effects that are only visible after time passes. For example, when I looked at Uber and saw it being banned in some cities, but not in others, I started wondering why that could be. Then I began interviewing people, and learned that people said there were politics around it. It all happened very organically. My thinking went: if politics has a real impact on entrepreneurial entry, then that has an implication for startups. If I’m able to show that with this data, then I’ll be able to say that this is early evidence for political competition at the city level, which would then affect how startups operate. 

Q: What do you think has been your greatest contribution to your field so far?

A: I don’t think I’ve made significant contributions yet, as I’m very new to the field, but I look forward to contributing to the literature and industry.

The way that I want to have a broader impact—not just for academics but for industry, practitioners, and policymakers—is by providing more clarity on how business and policy decisions can have unintended consequences if not carefully thought out. Not necessarily siding with one side, but being objective and demystifying that gap. For example, for my Uber paper, it might feel like it’s the mayors who may be the problem, but they’re not intentionally doing harm—they’re trying to benefit their constituents, which in turn benefits themselves but has somewhat unexpected consequences. 

Q: What are some current topics that are important in the world right now that your research speaks to?

A: There is evidence that innovation is getting more difficult across industries, especially in biopharmaceutical industry. I hope to find a potential explanation for why this is the case. This is another reason why, as I mentioned earlier, my collaborators and I are studying whether drug innovation is indeed declining in the pharmaceutical industry. For example, does this trend mean that drugs are becoming less effective over time? Or, does it mean that we’ve conquered all of the easy problems, and are now facing the remaining challenges? In this project, my collaborators and I want to assess if the changes we’re observing come from science becoming harder, or companies changing strategy. 

Tell me about your teaching experience. 

Q: What has been your favorite class to teach?

A: I taught TMP120, an undergraduate course that introduces the topic of strategic management. It was a really fascinating experience for me. I think it will continue to be my favorite class even after a few years. All the students were very smart and eager to learn. The students really enjoyed the guest speakers I brought to the class. This year, I brought Ryan Lee from the Pinkfong Company and Roland Nassim from Abbvie. I hope to do this more often when I get a chance. 

Q: How do you bring your research into the classroom?

A: I’ve brought my research into the classroom when I was teaching about platforms (where I showed my article on Uber). I also had a separate session on the strategy and innovation of the pharmaceutical industry, where I invited Roland Nassim. The students really liked him and appreciated that he’s a local so they can follow up with him.

Q: What is one new topic that you’ve been focusing on in the classroom? 

A: Some new topics include one session on corporate social responsibility, and another on the pharmaceutical industry (which I mentioned above). It usually involves getting students to think about long-term consequences of strategic management. 

Q: If you could tell your students just one thing, what would it be?

A: If I could tell my students just one thing, it would be a quote from the late Randy Pausch: “Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.”