Tom Kwon is an Assistant Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship at UCL School of Management. His research centres on technology strategy and innovation in nascent industries, where multiple technologies compete for dominance and firms must commit before a clear winner emerges. Specifically, he examines how firms adapt their technological development under high uncertainty, where incumbents, startups, and diversifying entrants compete to innovate around emerging technologies.

Bridging engineering and strategy, he studies the autonomous vehicle and robotics industries, drawing on large-scale datasets of patents, job postings, workforce data, and prototype testing records to trace how firms’ technologies and capabilities evolve. His dissertation was a finalist for both the Best Dissertation Award (TIM Division) and the Outstanding Dissertation Award (STR Division) at the Academy of Management.

He earned his PhD degree in the Department of Management and Organization at USC Marshall School of Business. Prior to his doctoral degree at USC, he earned his first PhD in Industrial Engineering at Seoul National University, specializing in technology management. He received his MS and BS in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.