Tiantian Yang

Tiantian Yang is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She received her PhD from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2014. Prior to joining Wharton, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Duke University. She has published many articles, including several in top management and sociology journals, such as the American Sociological Review, Organization Science and Journal of Management. She has received two highly prestigious awards based on nominations and recommendations: the Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship in 2012 (15 awarded nationwide) and the Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship in 2017 (7 awarded nationwide).

Tiantian’s research makes three principle contributions to the study of entrepreneurship, career mobility, and social inequality. First, she examines the entrepreneurial process to understand the mechanisms by which entrepreneurs can successfully create new organizations. Second, she draws on organizational theory and perspectives of career mobility to understand the career antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurial mobility. Third, she examines how inequalities in career attainment are (re)produced along gender and race lines in understudied social settings.

Awards and Honors

• Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences Summer Institute, 2019
• Frank H. Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise Research Grant, 2019
• Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship, 2017
• Arts & Sciences Council Committee Faculty Research Grant, Duke University, 2017
• Arts & Sciences Council Committee Faculty Research Grant, Duke University, 2015
• Howard W. Odum Award for Excellence, University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, Department of Sociology, 2013
• Royster Society of Fellows Dissertation Completion Fellowship Award, 2013
• Ewing Marion Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship, 2012