Welcome! 

I am an Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. I study why start-ups succeed or fail to capture entrepreneurial opportunities. To address this question, I focus on the human capital acquisition and organizational design of start-ups―that is, how firms acquire and organize their employees at the early stage of their life cycle and how they adjust their organizational design to meet the needs of their distinct challenges in venture scaling.

My research has appeared in Strategic Management Journal, Strategy Science, and Harvard Business Review. My dissertation was recognized as the winner of the INFORMS/Organization Science Dissertation Proposal Competition (2019), the winner of the Strategic Management Society Best Conference PhD Paper Prize (2019), the runner-up of the Industry Studies Association Dissertation Award (2021), and the finalist of the Academy of Management TIM Division Dissertation Award (2022). My other studies have also received several awards, including the Strategic Management Society Conference Strategic Human Capital Interest Group Best Paper Award (2022), the Academy of Management OMT Division Best Paper Award (2022), and the Strategy Science Conference Best Paper Award (2022).

For more information, please feel free to contact me at saeroms@wharton.upenn.edu.