Catherine J. Turco

Catherine J. Turco is the Michael M. Koerner (1949) Professor of Entrepreneurship and an Associate Professor in Sloan's MIT Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management group as well as its program in Economic Sociology.

Turco is an ethnographer and economic sociologist who studies cultural dynamics in organizations, occupations, and markets, with a particular focus on the role of meaning in economic life. 

She is the author of Harvard Square: A Love Story (2023) and The Conversational Firm: Rethinking Bureaucracy in the Age of Social Media (2016). Her research has also appeared in the American Journal of Sociology and the American Sociological Review, and has been recognized with awards from the American Sociological Association. It has been covered by The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, CNN, and Fortune.

Prior to entering academia, Turco worked as a technology investment banker and then in the software industry, where she managed a corporate venture fund. She has consulted to a number of organizations on issues of corporate strategy and culture.

Turco received her BA in economics from Harvard College, where in addition to her studies, she was president of Harvard Student Agencies/Let’s Go Inc., a 1,000-person company. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. She received her MA and PhD in sociology from Harvard University, where she was a Presidential Scholar.