Portrait of Professor Daniel Beunza

Professor Daniel Beunza

Professor of Social Studies of Finance

Bayes Business School , Faculty of Management

Contact

About

Overview

Daniel Beunza is Professor of Social Studies of Finance at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass). Beunza's research explores the ways in which social relations and technology shape financial value. His award-winning ethnography of a derivatives trading room on a Wall Street bank traced the roots of extraordinary returns to the use of space and internal organization. Beunza’s recent book, “Taking the Floor: Models, Morals and Management in a Wall Street Trading Room” (Princeton University Press) is an ethnographic study of moral consequences of the use of economic models on Wall Street, and won the 2020 George Terry Award by the Academy of Management and the 2020 Best Book Award by the European Group on Organisation Studies (EGOS). Beunza obtained his PhD from New York University, and has previously taught at Columbia University, the London School of Economics and Copenhagen Business School. His research has been published in Organization Science, Organization Studies and Economy and Society. Beunza is a leading contributor to the social studies of finance literature, and edited the blog Socializing Finance. He has served as Chair of the Academic Network of the Principles of Responsible Investment, and collaborated with the UK Banking Standards Board on the use of ethnography to enhance professional standards in the UK’s financial sector.

Qualifications

  • PhD, New York University, United States, September 1997 - May 2003

Employment

  • Associate Professor, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, September 2017 - August 2018
  • Assistant Professor, London School of Economics/ Management, United Kingdom, September 2009 - July 2018
  • Assistant Professor, Columbia Business School, United States, August 2006 - August 2009

Memberships of committees

  • Chair, Academic Network, Principles of Responsible Investment, September 2015 - September 2017

Expertise

Primary topics

  • Organization Theory

Additional topics

  • Finance

Industries

  • financial services

Geographic Areas

  • Americas - North
  • Europe - Western

Research students

1stsupervisor

Publications

Books (3)

  1. Beunza, D. (2019). Taking the Floor: Models, Morals, and Management in a Wall Street Trading Room.
  2. Beunza, D. (2019). Taking the Floor: Models, Morals, and Management in a Wall Street Trading Room. ISBN 9780691162812.
  3. Stark, D., Beunza, D., Girard, M. and Lukács, J. (2011). The sense of dissonance: Accounts of worth in economic life.

Chapters (14)

  1. Beunza, D. (2019). When All Is Said and Done. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 243-274). ISBN 9780691162812.
  2. Beunza, D. (2019). Trading Robots and Social Cues. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 38-54). ISBN 9780691162812.
  3. Beunza, D. (2019). The Global Financial Crisis. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 190-214). ISBN 9780691162812.
  4. Beunza, D. (2019). Taking the Floor Models, Morals, and Management in a Wall Street Trading Room Conclusion. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 275-293). ISBN 9780691162812.
  5. Beunza, D. (2019). Scandal. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 215-242). ISBN 9780691162812.
  6. Beunza, D. (2019). Resonance. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 172-189). ISBN 9780691162812.
  7. Beunza, D. (2019). Performative Spirals. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 120-145). ISBN 9780691162812.
  8. Beunza, D. (2019). Norms. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 146-171). ISBN 9780691162812.
  9. Beunza, D. (2019). Models and Reflexivity. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 73-97). ISBN 9780691162812.
  10. Beunza, D. (2019). Managers. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 98-119). ISBN 9780691162812.
  11. Beunza, D. (2019). First Impressions. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 20-37). ISBN 9780691162812.
  12. Beunza, D. (2019). Animating the Market. TAKING THE FLOOR: MODELS, MORALS, AND MANAGEMENT IN A WALL STREET TRADING ROOM (pp. 55-72). ISBN 9780691162812.
  13. Beunza, D. and Garud, R. (2007). Calculators, lemmings or frame-makers? The intermediary role of securities analysts. MARKET DEVICES (pp. 13-39). ISBN 9781405170284.
  14. Beunza, D. and Stark, D. (2005). Resolving identities: Successive crises in a trading room after 9/11. Wounded City the Social Impact of 9 11 (pp. 293-320).

Conference papers and proceedings (2)

  1. Beunza, D. and Stark, D. Distributed calculation: Mechanisms of risk arbitrage in a world of uncertainty. .
  2. BEUNZA, D. and STARK, D. DISTRIBUTED CALCULATION: MECHANISMS OF RISK ARBITRAGE IN A WORLD OF UNCERTAINTY. .doi:10.5465/ambpp.2007.26508359

Journal articles (24)

  1. Nava, L., Matsuno, K. and Beunza, D. (2026). Long-Term Organizational Growth Following Disasters: The Role of Collective Empathy. Journal of Management. doi:10.1177/01492063261436832

    [publisher’s website]

  2. Ossandón, J., Onto, G., Beunza, D., Motta, E., Roscoe, P. and Slater, D. (2026). Symposium on ‘Do ethnographers make markets?’ Journal of Cultural Economy, 19(3), pp. 476-489. doi:10.1080/17530350.2026.2667239

    [publisher’s website]

  3. Taeger, M. and Beunza, D. (2026). Troubled ontologies: an economization approach to climate risk and its politics. Journal of Cultural Economy, 19(2), pp. 278-301. doi:10.1080/17530350.2025.2579917
  4. Taeger, M. and Beunza, D. (2026). Troubled ontologies: an economisation approach to climate risk and its politics. Journal of Cultural Economy, 19(2), pp. 278-301. doi:10.1080/17530350.2025.2579917

    [publisher’s website]

  5. Benner, M.J. and Beunza, D. (2025). The Influence of Analysts on Innovation: An Evolutionary View of Evaluative Frames. Academy of Management Review, 50(2), pp. 318-341. doi:10.5465/amr.2021.0122

    [publisher’s website]

  6. Beccarini, I., Beunza, D., Ferraro, F. and Hoepner, A.G.F. (2023). The Contingent Role of Conflict: Deliberative Interaction and Disagreement in Shareholder Engagement. Business Ethics Quarterly, 33(1), pp. 26-66. doi:10.1017/beq.2021.46

    [publisher’s website]

  7. Beunza, D. (2022). Can Baboons Save Wall Street? Response to Comments on Taking the Floor. Sociologica, 16(1), pp. 89-94. doi:10.6092/issn.1971-8853/14773
  8. Beunza, D. and Ferraro, F. (2019). Performative Work: Bridging Performativity and Institutional Theory in the Responsible Investment Field. Organization Studies, 40(4), pp. 515-543. doi:10.1177/0170840617747917

    [publisher’s website]

  9. Ferraro, F. and Beunza, D. (2018). Creating common ground: A communicative action model of dialogue in shareholder engagement. Organization Science, 29(6), pp. 989-1236. doi:10.1287/orsc.2018.1226

    [publisher’s website]

  10. Beunza, D. (2018). Noise: Living and Trading in Electronic Finance. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 47(6), pp. 744-746. doi:10.1177/0094306118805422kk

    [publisher’s website]

  11. Castelle, M., Millo, Y., Beunza, D. and Lubin, D.C. (2016). Where do electronic markets come from? Regulation and the transformation of financial exchanges. Economy and Society, 45(2), pp. 166-200. doi:10.1080/03085147.2016.1213985

    [publisher’s website]

  12. Beunza, D. and Stark, D. (2016). From Dissonance to Resonance: Cognitive Interdependence in Quantitative Finance. Journal of Economic Sociology, 17(2), pp. 50-87. doi:10.17323/1726-3247-2016-2-50-87

    [publisher’s website]

  13. Beunza, D. (2014). Money at Work: On the Job with Priests, Poker Players, and Hedge Fund Traders. By Robert Delaney. New York: New York University Press, 2012. Pp. viii+271. $35.00. American Journal of Sociology, 119(5), pp. 1498-1500. doi:10.1086/674713

    [publisher’s website]

  14. Beunza, D. and Stark, D. (2012). From dissonance to resonance: cognitive interdependence in quantitative finance. Economy and Society, 41(3), pp. 383-417. doi:10.1080/03085147.2011.638155

    [publisher’s website]

  15. MacKenzie, D., Beunza, D., Millo, Y. and Pardo-Guerra, J.P. (2012). DRILLING THROUGH THE ALLEGHENY MOUNTAINS. Journal of Cultural Economy, 5(3), pp. 279-296. doi:10.1080/17530350.2012.674963

    [publisher’s website]

  16. MacKenzie, D., Beunza, D., Millo, Y. and Pardo-Guerra, J.P. (2012). DRILLING THROUGH THE ALLEGHENY MOUNTAINS. Journal of Cultural Economy, 5(3), pp. 279-296
  17. Beunza, D. (2008). REVIEW ESSAY. Journal of Cultural Economy, 1(1), pp. 93-100
  18. Beunza, D. (2007). In praise of ambiguity: a commentary on exaptation. European Management Review, 4(3), pp. 157-159. doi:10.1057/palgrave.emr.1500087

    [publisher’s website]

  19. Beunza, D. and Garud, R. (2007). Calculators, Lemmings or Frame-Makers? The Intermediary Role of Securities Analysts. The Sociological Review, 55(2_suppl), pp. 13-39. doi:10.1111/j.1467-954x.2007.00728.x

    [publisher’s website]

  20. Beunza, D., Hardie, I. and MacKenzie, D. (2006). A Price is a Social Thing: Towards a Material Sociology of Arbitrage. Organization Studies, 27(5), pp. 721-745. doi:10.1177/0170840606065923

    [publisher’s website]

  21. Beunza, D. (2006). New artistic engagements with the capital markets. economic sociology_the european electronic newsletter, 7(3), pp. 29-33
  22. Beunza, D. (2004). Tools of the trade: the socio-technology of arbitrage in a Wall Street trading room. Industrial and Corporate Change, 13(2), pp. 369-400. doi:10.1093/icc/dth015

    [publisher’s website]

  23. Beunza, D. and Stark, D. (2003). Outils de marché. Réseaux, n o 122(6), pp. 63-109. doi:10.3917/res.122.0063

    [publisher’s website]

  24. Beunza, D. and Stark, D. (2003). Dopo l'11 settembre: innovazione e ripresa nelle "trading room" di Wall Street. Stato E Mercato, (68), pp. 185-215. doi:10.1425/9551

Scholarly editions (2)

  1. Pardo-Guerra, J.P., Beunza, D., Millo, Y. and MacKenzie, D. (2010). Impersonal efficiency and the dangers of a fully automated securities exchange.
  2. Beunza, D. and Millo, Y. Blended automation: integrating algorithms on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Working paper

Professional activities

Consultancy

  1. Banking Standards Board (Private Sector) (September 2016 - December 2017)
    Training executive members of the BSB in ethnographic research methods to understand organizational culture in banks and financial organisations. Also: advisory role in the use of grounded theory to analyse open-ended responses in BSB member surveys, focus groups, and interviews