My research interests revolve around sociomateriality, sensemaking theory, and the micro-foundations of institutional processes (micro-institutionalism). 

 

I am committed to employing ethnographic methods in my research. My commitment to ethnography is as personal as it is intellectual. First, as a scholar and researcher, I think ethnography, with an intensive focus on generating in-depth understandings of people’s lived experiences, is the right method to study sociomateriality and culture. Second, as a human being, I am deeply passionate about ethnography as a way of understanding our very strange yet deeply human world. I find great satisfaction in connecting to and understanding human subjects.

​

 

PUBLICATIONS

Cao, M. (2026). To the lighthouse: Moral injury, moral resilience, and moral courage. In F. Scholz & J. M. Szulc (Eds.), Towards Greater Equality in Academia: A Collective Response (pp. 200–209). Edward Elgar Publishing.

 

 

MANUSCRIPTS UNDER REVIEW

Cao, M. ‘First, let’s eat cake’: The material world triggers building blocks of resilience through sensemaking. Under review as of October 2026.

​

 

MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION

Cao, M. & Atay, E. ‘Becoming, Resisting, and Situating’: A dialectical model of how organizational actors respond to disparate institutional logics over time. To be submitted to Organization Theory in 2027. (Accepted for presentation at the Organization Theory Winter Workshop in Paris, France, 2027)

 

Cao, M. & Wang, C. ‘Do you know my son’s favorite food?’: Emotional labor and sensemaking are shaped by family discourse as local expressions of embeddedness. To be submitted to Organization Studies in 2027.

 

Cao, M. ‘Maybe don’t mention Harvard!’: Social reproduction processes in the translation of Bourdieu’s four forms of capital in Asian societies. To be submitted to Business and Society in 2027.

 

​​

​

​

​​