Mohammad Boroumand

On the 2026–27 academic job market

Mohammad Boroumand

PhD Candidate in Strategic Management and Policy · Schulich School of Business, York University

I study how external audiences, particularly security analysts, shape firms' strategic positioning and executives' communication and behavior.

My research combines large-scale archival data with econometrics, natural language processing, machine learning, and large language models. Expected PhD completion: April 2027.

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CV updated August 2026.

Mohammad Boroumand

Research

Research

I examine how firms and executives respond to competition, scrutiny, and external evaluation.

Job Market Paper

Managerial Communication Under Analyst Scrutiny

Mohammad Boroumand & Majid Majzoubi

Using approximately 14,000 S&P 500 earnings calls, we examine how the composition of analyst audiences shapes managers' responses during earnings-call Q&A. The study combines an LLM-based classification procedure with analysts' prior questioning and coverage histories.

FindingAudience composition is systematically associated with whether managers respond directly or provide non-answers, with these relationships becoming more pronounced following unfavorable evaluations.

Illustration of executives declining to answer analyst questions
Managerial non-answering in earnings-call Q&A.
Core strategic positioning pattern
Rival moves awayFocal firm follows →
Rival moves towardFocal firm differentiates ←

The study tests these dynamics across more than 150,000 focal firm–rival dyads.

Strategic Positioning

Maintaining the Right Distance: A Dyadic and Dynamic View of Firm Positioning

Mohammad Boroumand, Majid Majzoubi, Kamyar Goudarzi & Eric Y. Zhao

Using transformer-based embeddings of 10-K business descriptions across more than 150,000 focal firm–rival dyads, we study how firms reposition when close rivals change their strategic position.

FindingFirms tend to follow rivals that move away and differentiate when rivals move toward them. Analyst evaluations and shared analyst coverage condition these strategic responses.

Working paper · Finalist, SMS Best Proposal Award for Rigor.

Other Research Projects

Noise Interacts with Value to Create Innovation Premiums and Penalties

Wayne Johnson, David Tannenbaum & Mohammad Boroumand

We examine how novelty generates disagreement among evaluators and show that disagreement penalizes novelty among higher-rated options but creates an innovation premium among lower-rated options.

Working paper · Association for Consumer Research Annual Conference, 2026.

Identity Claim Changes and Analyst Coverage: The Moderating Role of Categorical Context

Mohammad Boroumand, Majid Majzoubi & Suresh Kotha

We examine how changes in firms' claimed identities affect analyst coverage and how categorical context conditions those consequences.

Invited resubmission, Organization Studies.

Teaching

Teaching

  • Instructor of Record, Strategic Management for International Business (INTL 3000), Schulich School of Business, Fall 2024 · 53 students.
  • Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Business (MGMT 1000), Schulich School of Business, Fall 2023 · students voted me one of the course's top three teaching assistants out of ten.
  • Taught sessions in a PhD-level Research Method Seminar at Sharif University of Technology.
  • Completed the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW).
6.1 / 7.0Instructor evaluation
5.86Faculty average
5.50Department average
75.5%Response rate (40/53)

I enjoyed how the course used proper examples regarding the course content. I also liked how there were new and interesting concepts that help us understand businesses in real life.

I liked how the cases were real life applicable and how I can get a deeper knowledge in regards to different industries. I also like how it made [me] think critically.

Anonymous student comments, Strategic Management for International Business, Fall 2024.

Background

Academic and professional experience

2021–2027
PhD Candidate, Strategic Management and Policy
Schulich School of Business, York University
2019–2020
Procurement Specialist
Unilever
2018–2021
MBA
Sharif University of Technology
2018–2019
Management Trainee
Danone Waters
2014–2018
BSc, Mechanical Engineering
Sharif University of Technology
Schulich School of Business, Sharif University of Technology, Unilever, and Danone

Contact

Mohammad Boroumand

Toronto, Canada

mbrmnd@schulich.yorku.ca Curriculum Vitae LinkedIn ↗