My research focuses on social networks, norm-violating practices, and behavioral change. I adopt a social networks lens to investigate how micro-level interactions shape norm-violating practices that sustain professional deviance and how to disrupt these processes to promote change.
My dissertation draws on a longitudinal network of 500,000 physicians and 213 million prescriptions to study the social network dynamics of high-risk prescribing in the U.S. prescription drug epidemic. This research was awarded the winner of Responsible Research in Management Award (RRMB) in 2024.
My current research explores the network processes that promote or inhibit regulatory compliance. In my latest work, I study the impact of quasi-exogenous network interventions on norm-violating professional practices.
In a related stream of work, I investigate national trends in high-risk prescribing and document unmet healthcare needs in the substantive context of the U.S. prescription drug epidemic (JAMA, JAMA Psychiatry, Health Affairs, and Psychiatric Services).
Research Articles
Zhang, V., Mohliver, A., & King, M. (2023). “Where is all the Deviance? Liminal Prescribing and the Social Networks Underlying the Prescription Drug Crisis”, Administrative Science Quarterly
Winner of Responsible Research in Management Award (RRMB)
Featured in Organizational Musings blog: Feeding Addiction: Why Do Doctors Over- Prescribe Dangerous Drugs?
WSB press release: Loners, not bad apples, are fueling the prescription drug crisis
Zhang, V. & King, M. (2021), “Tie Decay and Dissolution: Contentious Prescribing Practices in the Prescription Drug Epidemic”, Organization Science
Olfson, M., Zhang, V. (2021), King, M., & Mojtabai, R. “Changes in Buprenorphine Prescriptions Following Medicaid Expansion” Psychiatric Services
Olfson, M., Zhang, V., Schoenbaum, M., & King, M. (2020), “Trends in Buprenorphine Treatment in the United States, 2009-2018”, JAMA
Olfson, M., Zhang, V., Schoenbaum, M., & King, M. (2020), “Buprenorphine Treatment by Primary Care Providers, Psychiatrists and Addiction Specialists, and Other Prescribers”, Health Affairs
Zhang, V., Olfson, M., & King, M. (2019). “Opioid and Benzodiazepine Coprescribing in the United States Before and After US Food and Drug Administration Boxed Warning”, JAMA Psychiatry
Clustering of high-risk prescribing in physician networks; darker color indicates higher intensity opioid prescribing