Seminar 1

September 27th 2011 : Kenji Klein

Location/Time: SB116, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Speaker Bio: Kenji Klein is a doctoral student in Organization and Management.  He received funding, with his advisor Jone Pearce, from the Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.  He was named an INFORMS Organization Science  dissertation proposal competition finalist for this research.

Seminar Topic: Creating and Maintaining Institutions
Through the Production and Perpetuation of Ignorance

Abstract: Institutional scholars have long argued that the inability of actors to conceptualize alternatives to dominant institutional arrangements plays a key role in the maintenance of those arrangements, yet little is known about how actors come to be unable to conceptualize alternatives to such arrangements.  This paper addresses that gap through historical analysis of the origins and perpetuation of marijuana prohibition.  This analysis reveals the way in which institutionalization depends upon the ongoing disruption and suppression of knowledge, communities, and material artifacts that undermine the taken-for-granted status of dominant institutions.  It also suggests conditions under which the taken-for-granted status of dominant institutions becomes vulnerable to erosion.  Implications for research on institutional work and power in institutional processes are discussed.  A case is made for the relevance of the study of ignorance and forgetting in organizational processes to supplement the extensive literature on knowledge and learning. 

Seminar 2

October 6th 2011 : Anne Marie Knott

Location/Time: SB117, 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm

Speaker Bio: Anne Marie Knott is Professor of Strategy at the Olin School of Business, Washington University. Previously, she was Assistant Professor of Management at Wharton where she taught Entrepreneurship from 1995-2004.  Professor Knott received a B.S. in Math from University of Utah, an MBA from UCLA in marketing and operations management, and a PhD from UCLA in Management.

Her general research interest is the interplay between firm strategies and innovation/economic growth.  Roughly half this work looks at entrepreneurship; the other half looks at large scale R&D—since the two appear to be complementary.  Her academic work is published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Small Business Economics, Organization Science, Management Science and Strategic Management Journal.  In addition to the academic work she has an entrepreneurship text, “Venture Design” and a forthcoming book from Harvard Business Press “Organizational IQ” which translates her measure of R&D effectiveness into implications for managers.

Prior to her academic career, Professor Knott spent one year managing her father’s startup print shop, fifteen years at Hughes Aircraft Company doing R&D on missile guidance systems, and seven days on Family Feud.  A clip from one of the episodes can be seen every thirty minutes on the Family Feud slot machine at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. 

Seminar Topic: Delayed exit

Abstract: Delayed exit is a substantial economic problem.  A prevalent explanation for delayed exit is behavioral biases associated with escalated commitment.  In general however exit will exhibit inertia even absent bias.  This arises both from decision maker efforts to avoid Type I error while discovering the long run prospects of an endeavor and from the option value of exit.  Solutions to exit delays differ depending upon which source predominates, yet empirical tests to date have not disentangled the relative importance of these sources.  We characterize exit delay in the population of U.S. banks between 1984 and 1997, and examine its causes.  The exit behavior of bank holding companies is consistent with efforts to minimize Type I error. By contrast, the behavior of non-bank holding companies, where agency problems are presumably less severe, is consistent with taking the option value of learning into account.  Both bank holding companies and non-bank holding companies exhibit asymmetric responses to positive and negative performance information, consistent with behavioral bias, although this asymmetric updating is more severe in bank holding companies.

Seminar 3

February 23rd 2012 : Maxim Sytch

Location/Time: SB112, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Speaker Bio:  Maxim Sytch's research focuses on the dynamics of the social structure of interorganizational relations (e.g., partnership ties and patent infringement lawsuits among organizations) and on their consequences for individual organizations and their exchanges. He also examines the implications of social structure for entire communities of organizations. Coupling various methodologies (longitudinal analysis, agent-based modeling, survey analysis, and qualitative research) with social network analytic techniques, he assesses how interorganizational ties form, evolve, and aggregate into globally interconnected social systems. He investigates how the structure of these systems and an organization’s position in them impacts organizational behavior and outcomes and the evolution and outcomes of interorganizational dyadic exchanges. Organization-level outcomes include the organization’s performance in procurement relationships; its propensity to enter into collaborative relationships and to initiate and sustain conflictual interactions; and the organization’s growth rate and innovation performance. He also examines the implications of global network structures for entire communities of organizations in terms of the networks’ enabling or constraining the diffusion of knowledge across different industries.
 

Seminar Topic: Where Do Lawsuits Come From? The Role of Spatial Distribution of Principals and Legal Mediating Agents 

Abstract: This study investigates the origins of interorganizational litigation. It explores how the spatial distribution of principals (companies) and mediating agents (intellectual property litigation firms) can facilitate and sustain patent infringement lawsuits among companies. Spatial propinquity is hypothesized to determine the nature of interaction and social relationships between the principal’s and the mediating agent’s employees, which can subsequently affect the mediating agent’s involvement in identifying opportunities for the principal to engage in litigation. This study’s context is the patterns of spatial distribution of 405 U.S. biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies (the principals) and the population of 365 intellectual property (IP) litigation firms (the mediating agents) and their 2,255 U.S. regional offices. It relates these patterns to the companies’ involvement in patent infringement disputes from 1999 to 2006. Additionally, this study uses evidence from thirty-six semi-structured interviews with legal practitioners. Results suggest that proximity to IP litigation firms increases the number of lawsuits a company files, even when accounting for the endogeneity in law firms’ location choices.  Greater proximity to the IP litigation firm retained for a given lawsuit also lengthens that lawsuit’s duration, although this effect is moderated by the characteristics of the local institutional environment in which the company is located.

Seminar 4
 

March 1st 2012 : Ted Baker

Location/Time: SB116, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Seminar Topic: TBD

Abstract: TBD 

Seminar 5

March 15th 2012 : Joel Baum

Location/Time: SB112, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Speaker Bio: Joel A.C. Baum is the George E. Connell Chair in Organizations and Society, and Associate Dean, Faculty at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto (with a cross-appointment to the Department of Sociology).  Joel is interested in patterns of competition and cooperation among firms, and their influence on firm behavior, learning, and performance. He is a founding coeditor of Strategic Organization and served as editor-in-chief of Advances in Strategic Management from 1998 to 2010. He received his PhD in organizational behavior from the University of Toronto late in the last millennium.

Seminar Topic: TBD

Abstract: TBD 

April 25th 2012 : Denis Trapido

Location/Time: SB223, 09:30 am - 11:00 am

Seminar Topic: TBD

Seminar 1

September 30th 2010 : Siew Hong Teoh (David Hirshleifer), Accounting, The Paul Merage School of Business, UCI

Location/Time: SB 112, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Speaker Bio: Professor Teoh is the Dean’s Professor of Accounting at UCI. She has served on faculty at UCLA, University of Michigan, and The Ohio State University. Her recent research studies psychological effects on managerial and firm behaviors and performance. Her work on earnings management has been praised by scholars for the important finding that the market seems not to efficiently impound management's actions into security prices. She received awards from the Social Investment Forum (Moskowitz prize for best paper in the area on socially responsible investing) and the Chicago Quantitative Alliance. She has published widely in leading journals in Accounting, Finance, and Economics. They include The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and the Rand Journal of Economics.

Seminar Topic: Are Overconfident CEOs Better Innovators?

 By David Hirshleifer, Angie Low, and Siew Hong Teoh

 Abstract: Using options- and press-based proxies for CEO overconfidence (Malmendier and Tate 2005a, 2005b,   

 2008), we find that over the 1993-2003 period, firms with overconfident CEOs have greater return volatility, invest more 

 in innovation, obtain more patents and patent citations, and achieve greater innovative success for given research and

 development (R&D) expenditure. Overconfident managers only achieve greater innovation than non-overconfident

 managers in innovative industries. Overconfidence is not associated with lower sales, ROA, or Q.

Seminar 2

December 2nd 2010 : Toby Stuart

Location/Time: SB112, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Speaker Bio: Toby E. Stuart is the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Previously he was the Arthur J. Samberg Professor of Organizations & Strategy and Academic Director of the Eugene M. Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia Business School. He was also course head for Strategy Formulation. From 1995 to 2003, he was on the faculty at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, where he was the Fred G. Steingraber-A.T. Kearney Professor of Organizations & Strategy. He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. He holds an A.B., summa cum laude, in economics from Carleton College. Prior to earning his Ph.D., Dr. Stuart was a Research Associate at the Harvard Business School.
 

His research has examined the formulation of firm strategies in a number of industries; the formation, governance, and consequences of strategic alliances; organizational design and new venture formation in established firms; venture capital networks, and the role of networks in the creation of new firms. In a recent project, he is examining the circumstances surrounding academic life scientists’ technology commercialization initiatives, including starting and advising firms. He has published numerous articles in refereed management, strategy, and general field journals, including Administrative Science Quarterly, American Journal of Sociology, Science, Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, Research Policy, and Industrial and Corporate Change. He has served as an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Sociology and is a member of the editorial boards of Administrative Science Quarterly, Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, Research Policy, and Industrial and Corporate Change.
 

Professor Stuart is the recipient of the 2007 Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship, which is granted every other year to recognize one individual’s contributions to entrepreneurship research. He has also received the Administrative Science Quarterly’s Scholarly Contribution (best paper) award, as well as the Columbia Business School’s Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

Seminar Topic: Matthew: Effect or Fable?

Abstract: Status effects occur when actors are accorded differential recognition for their efforts depending on their location in a status ordering, holding constant the quality of these efforts. In practice, because it is diffcult to measure quality, this ceteris paribus proviso often precludes convincing empirical assessments of the magnitude of status effects. We address this problem by examining the impact of a major status-conferring prize that shifts actors’ positions in a prestige ordering. Specifically, using a precisely constructed matched sample, we estimate the effect of a scientist becoming a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator (HHMI) on citations to articles the scientist published before the prize was awarded. We find evidence of a post-appointment citation boost, but the effect is small and confined to a short window of time. Consistent with theories of status, however, the effect of the prize is significantly larger when there is uncertainty about producer and product quality. 

Seminar 3

January 21st 2011 : Woody Powell

Location/Time: SB117, 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Speaker Bio:  Walter W. Powell is Professor of Education, Sociology, Organizational Behavior, Management Science and Engineering, and Communication at Stanford University, and an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute.  His interests focus on the processes through which knowledge is transferred across organizations, and the role of networks in facilitating or hindering innovation and institutions in codifying ideas. He recently completed a book with John Padgett, titled The Emergence of Organizations and Markets, culminating a decade- long project that analyzes the role of networks in invention, transposition, and re-functionality.

His 1990 article, “Neither Market Nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization,” won the 1991 Max Weber prize. “Network Dynamics and Field Evolution: The Growth of Inter-Organizational Collaboration,” with D. White, K. Koput, and J. Owen-Smith (2005), received the 2007 Viviana Zelizer prize for best paper in economic sociology.  “Technological Change and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology,” with K. Koput and L. Smith-Doerr (1996), was recognized by Administrative Science Quarterly as its most influential publication in 2002. His 1983 paper with Paul DiMaggio, “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields,” with Paul DiMaggio, is the most cited article in the history of the American Sociological Review.

Powell is the author or editor of Books: The Culture and Commerce of Publishing, with Lewis Coser and Charles Kadushin (Basic Books, 1982); Getting into Print: The Decision-Making Process in Scholarly Publishing (U. of Chicago Press, 1985);  The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, with Paul DiMaggio (U. of Chicago Press, 1991); Private Action and the Public Good, with Elisabeth Clemens (Yale U. Press, 1997); and The Nonprofit Sector, with Richard Steinberg (Yale U. Press, 2006).  He received his PhD in Sociology from SUNY – Stony Brook, and previously taught at Yale, MIT, and the University of Arizona. He holds honorary degrees from Uppsala University, Copenhagen Business School, and the Helsinki School of Economics, and is a foreign member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Science.
 

Seminar Topic: Organizational and Institutional Genesis: The Emergence of High-Tech Clusters in the Life Sciences

Abstract: Most research on the emergence of high-tech clusters samples on successful cases, and works backwards to trace a narrative, often highlighting the role of specific individuals or groups.  Our approach begins with the formation of a new field - - biotechnology in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and follows the field to the present.  We emphasize the sequence of network formation, and the importance of organizational diversity and catalytic organizations that provide relational and normative glue.  We examine eleven regions in the U.S. that were rich in resources - - ideas, money, and skills - - that could have lead to the formation of life science clusters.  Three of the communities formed robust groupings, but most did not. 

Although local details are always relevant, our argument transcends the nuances of history in each community to specify the processes and mechanisms that foster catalytic growth.  The necessary conditions are a diversity of for-profit, nonprofit, and public organizations, a local anchor tenant, and a dense web of local relationships.  These features make possible cross-network transposition, whereby experience, status, and legitimacy in one domain are converted into ‘fresh’ action in another.  The argument does not hinge on specific types of organizations or ingredients; indeed, it is general enough to accommodate multiple pathways.

Sponsored By: Don Beall Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Department of Sociology, and Center for Organizational Research

Host:  Professor Christine M. Beckman

Scheduling RSVP: Maria E. Gonzalez-Tan  (Email:  mgonzal9@uci.edu) 

Seminar 4

April 7th 2011 : Professor Katherine Phillips, Visiting Faculty Stanford Graduate School of Business, Organizational Behavior; Visiting Scholar at the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Location/ Time: SB306 12:00-1:30pm

Speaker Bio: Professor Katherine W. Phillips (née Williams) is Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Co-Director of the Center on the Science of Diversity. She joined the faculty in 1999 after receiving her PhD in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Professor Phillips’ research focuses on understanding the impact of social and task-relevant diversity on group functioning and individual outcomes. She has looked at the impact of gender on the utilization of expertise, the impact of race and other social distinctions on information sharing in groups, and generally speaking seeks to understand how to get any group of people to share, listen to, and successfully integrate the ideas and information possessed by all members of the organization. Her work can be found in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Research in Organizational Behavior (under Williams). Professor Phillips has received awards for her research from the International Association of Conflict Management, the Academy of Management, and the State Farm Foundation.

Professor Phillips’ research has been featured in numerous media outlets including the Chicago Tribune, Time Magazine.com, Fortune.com, Working Women, The Globe and Mail, and The Mint.
 

Seminar Topic: The Value of Diversity in Teams? An Integrated Perspective                                       
In this talk I will provide an overview of my research on diversity in teams. The talk will culminate in the presentation of recent work showing that the purported downsides of social category diversity may ultimately be responsible for the benefits that accrue.

Abstract: A purported downside of social category diversity is decreased relationship focus (i.e., one’s focus on establishing a positive social bond with a coworker). However, this lack of relationship focus serves as a central mechanism that improves pre-meeting elaboration and ultimately decision-making performance in diverse settings. Moreover, when given the opportunity to accumulate important unique information diverse teams are more likely to acquire the information and use it properly for improved group performance while homogeneous teams are more likely to leave information on the table in an effort to avoid conflict. When they do accrue unique information they are less able to use it for effective performance. We discuss the value of studying pre- and early-stage interaction and propose a re-consideration of the “downside” of social category diversity. 

Seminar 5

 April 29th 2011 : Lynne G. Zucker

 Location/ Time : SB112 12:00-1:30pm

Speaker Bio : Dr. Lynne G. Zucker currently serves as Professor of Sociology (1989- ) and Public Policy (1996- )
and as Director (1996- ) of the Center for International Science, Technology, and Cultural Policy in the
UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles. Concurrently, she
holds appointments as Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research and Fellow of
the California Council on Science and Technology. She has also served as Consulting Sociologist with
the American Institute of Physics.

Lynne Zucker is the widely-cited author of seven books and monographs as well as numerous journal
and other articles on organizational theory, analysis, and evaluation, institutional structure and process, trust
production, generation and sharing of knowledge, science and its commercialization, civil service,
government spending and services, unionization, and permanently failing organizations. She is currently
extending her research to the area of cultural production. She has served on editorial boards for the top
organizational and sociological journals, most notably Administrative Science Quarterly, American Journal
of Sociology, and American Sociological Review. She has also served on the NSF Young Presidential
Scholar Award Panel, NSF Sociology Panel, and, most recently, served on the NSF Partnerships For
Innovation Panel.

Professor Zucker received her A.B. with Distinction in Sociology & Psychology from Wells College in
1966. She took her M.A. in 1969 and Ph.D. in 1974 from the Sociology Department of Stanford University.
She has been a member of the UCLA Sociology Department faculty since then, as Lecturer (1974-75),
Assistant Professor (1975-81), and Associate Professor (1981-89) before being appointed Professor.
She has also served in a variety of university and other appointments since 1974 including Economist
with the Statistics of Income Division of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (1989-94), and visiting
appointments in the Department of Sociology of the University of Chicago (1982), the Program on Non-
Profit Organizations of the Institute for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University (1986), and the Ph.D.
Program in Organizational Behavior at the Harvard Business School (1987). She was U.S. representative for
organizational data on the British Economic and Social Research Council and National Science Foundation
Joint Committee on Comparative Binational Data (1986-89) and a member of the Committee on Evaluation
of Employment and Training Programs of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council:
Committee on Evaluation of Employment and Training Programs (1977-80).

Dr. Zucker and her husband, Michael Darby, who is the Warren C. Cordner Distinguished Professor of
Money and Financial Markets in the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management, have four children.
They serve on the Board of Directors of the Opera Associates and pursue a variety of cultural interests.
- UCLA/L&S -

Seminar Topic : Economic Effects of the Co-Evolution of Universities and Firms:Tacit and Deeded Knowledge    Protection and Acquisition; Lynne G. Zucker and Michael R. Darby, UCLA and NBER 

Abstract : Strategies and incentives of firms behave like “genes” in providing a framework or set of recipes for reaching organizational objectives; the expression of these genes occurs in the skills that employees have. Near the knowledge frontier, the skills are often based on highly tacit knowledge and are difficult to learn without working directly with other scientists who already have these skills. As on-going discoveries are made, nearly continuous learning of this hands-on type is required, pressuring scientists in existing organizations to update knowledge and skills. We report preliminary evidence that those scientists who cross the firm-university boundary in their collaborations or personal employment histories are subsequently much more productive in patenting and in publishing than fellow employees, whether currently working in a firm or in a university. These skills (patenting- and publishing-related) are synergistic, with production of one skill set often producing more new discoveries and resources that are valuable to the production of the other.Tacit knowledge also affects the ability of pre-existing organizations to acquire access to the new knowledge. When knowledge is sufficiently discontinuous, new firms are born in response, built around those scientists who have the new skills, while existing organizations must recruit or re-train to acquire skills needed for conversion. The value of tacit knowledge when observable and easily copied by others may be rapidly competed away, but if learning by doing is required to gain the knowledge, then it may be naturally excludable such that training by the scientist(s) who made the discovery may be required initially and this ability to do hands-on training to others may only gradually spread to others. We have found significant positive effects of tacit or defacto intellectual property rights on number of patents granted (deeded rights) and on number of products in development, and also find roughly equal effects of defacto and deeded rights on financial success of firms. These findings argue strongly for including both tacit-based rights and deeded rights in models predicting financial and other success.

Seminar 6

May 26th 2011 : Kaye Schoonhoven

Location/ Time : SB112 12:00-1:30pm

Speaker Bio : Claudia Schoonhoven is Professor of Organization and Strategy and the past Editor-in-Chief of Organization Science. Her research focuses on the evolutionary dynamics of technology-based firms, innovation, and entrepreneurship. She is currently investigating the influence of strategic partnerships on new venture performance and the dynamic effects of entrepreneurship on the evolution of industries. Her research has been published in the Administrative Science Quarterly, the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, and other journals and books. She is co-author of The Entrepreurship Dynamic: origins of entrepreneurship and the evolution of industries (Stanford University Press, 2001) and The Innovation Marathon: Lessons from High Technology Firms, (Basil Blackwell, 1990; Jossey-Bass, 1993).

From 1993 - 1998, Dr. Schoonhoven served as Professor of Business Administration, Amos Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. She was elected to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Management, has Chaired the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy, served as President of the Western Academy of Management, and on the editorial boards of the Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, and Journal of Business Venturing.

Seminar Topic :  Where do new firms come from? Science and Innovation precursors of
de novo population emergence in nanotechnology 1970-2004

Abstract : We have learned a great deal about how technology and innovation processes operate within existing firms and across organizations and industries. This includes for example studies of in-house research, technology alliances, organizational networks, and the acquisition of innovative firms (e.g. Utterback, 1970; Utterback et al., 1988; Brown & Eisenhardt, 1997; Eisenhardt & Schoonhoven, 1996; Rosenkopf et al. 2001; Tushman, 2004). However we have limited understanding about how new populations of science-based organizations emerge from theoretical breakthroughs, scientific research, and patented innovations based on new science. We do not know how scientific knowledge and technical knowledge combine with the availability of human resources to impact new population emergence. In this paper we investigate these questions by drawing from institutional and ecological theory to predict the birth of de novo dedicated nanotechnology organizations from 1970 to 2004.

Over the period 1970-2004 we control for VC resource availability, prior de alio entrants, prior de novo entrants, and field legitimacy. We find that higher growth of scientific knowledge (published scientific articles) increases the new firm founding rate, whereas technical knowledge growth (patent filings) decreases the founding rate.  With respect to the impact of human capital availability, growth of in the number of scientific authors has a curvilinear effect, initially increasing the birth rate with a subsequent decrease. Conversely, growth in the number of patent authors has the opposite curvilinear effect, initially decreasing births, and subsequently increasing the birth rate. The relationship of these results to existing theory is discussed.

Seminar 1

November 9^th 2009: Renee Rottner- UC Irvine, Organization & Management

Speaker Bio: Renee Rottner is a doctoral student at UCI's Merage School of Business. Her research focuses on the process of innovation and R&D-intensive organizations, and her related interests include the social impact of technology, public policy, and entrepreneurship. She has a master’s degree in management science from Stanford University and a grant from NASA (with her advisor, Prof. Christine Beckman) that is partially funding this research.

Seminar Topic: Growth Rings:  Patterns of Resource Bundle Emergence and Dynamics in New Ventures

Abstract: I will discuss my research on innovative activity in established and entrepreneurial organizations, and in particular the processes of legitimacy and resource acquisition in innovation.  My dissertation examines an established organization, NASA, and the processes by which legitimacy is acquired to sustain innovation in a space telescope project from 1971-2003.  After briefly laying out this research on how legitimacy is acquired, lost and reacquired in an established setting, I will present a separate study on how resources are acquired, lost and reacquired in new ventures and how these patterns of resource acquisition affect firm survival. This inductive study of new ventures identifies eight resource categories and four resource bundling dynamics: resource diversity, resource balance, managerial bundling skill, and bundling speed. I argue that these dynamics by which resources are bundled and rebundled affect new firm survival by increasing the ability of the firm to withstand uncertainty and shocks. These dynamics are illustrated with a new comparative case method called ‘growth rings.’  Implications for entrepreneurial theory and practice will be discussed.

Seminar 2

Jaunary 28^th 2010 : Jac Mezaros, National Science Foundation

Location/Time: SB 122 

Speaker Bio: Jacqueline Meszaros is Program Director for Innovation and Organizational Sciences and for Decision, Risk and Management Sciences at the National Science Foundation. She also has responsibilities in the areas of complexity studies and virtual organizations within the Social, Behavioral and Economic sciences.  Jack's Ph.D. was in Management and her post- Doctoral work was in Behavioral Economics at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.  Her primary research has been on individual and organizational decision making about low-probability, high-consequence risks. Jack was a professor of management at the University of Washington, Bothell, and at Temple University before she joined the NSF five years ago.

Seminar 3

March 19^th 2010 : Jason P. Davis, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Host: Yu Zhang)

Location/Time: SB 117, 2:00 pm - 3:30pm

Seminar Topic: Rotating Leadership and Symbiotic Organization: Relationship Processes in the Context of Collaborative Innovation

Abstract:  Relationships between firms are at the heart of how industries are organized, and are central to industry innovation. Despite significant attention focusing on the exchange and endorsement value of these relationships, and how they are formed, little attention has been given to their capacity to generate innovations. Using a multi-case, inductive study of eight technology collaborations between ten firms in the computing and communications industries, this paper examines how interorganizational relationships engender innovation and adaptation in unpredictable and interdependent environments. Comparisons of successful and unsuccessful collaborations show that generating collaborative innovations depends not only on appropriate design conditions (e.g., governance form, social embeddedness) as suggested by prior literature, but also on using appropriate organizational processes that lead relationships over time. While less successful collaborations are associated with domineering leadership or consensus leadership processes, successful collaborations use a rotating leadership process that creates transient unilateral leadership opportunities for each partner. Rotating leadership involves alternating decision control between partners to engender high-quality contributions of technologies and IP, fluctuating cascades of network activation which dynamically modify innovative team composition, and zig-zagging relationship trajectories that effectively search the broader space of potential innovations. A broader contribution is to reframe inter-organizational relationships as organizational symbiosis, a state of organization that engenders mutually reinforcing adaptive changes to partner’s strategies and structures.

Seminar 4

April 15^th 2010 : Deb Dougherty, Rutgers

Location/Time: SB 112, 12 - 1:30 p.m.

Abstract: Research on learning for innovation finds that exploratory product innovation is vital for many organizations, but does not explain the social practices that constitute this capability. The logic underlying exploitative learning for innovation eliminates the complexity and emergence that are inherent in exploration. We build an empirically grounded process theory that explains how people can create complex product knowledge, using 99 interviews with people engaged in drug discovery. Our theory defines the complex content of exploratory product knowledge and the emergent yet systematic learning processes through which innovators create this knowledge. Exploratory innovators search for clues to interdependencies between products and multiple application systems, using three social practices: reaching out for clues, iteratively integrating clues into a manageable configuration, and assessing the progress of learning.  We sketch out managerial approaches to enable these practices, and discuss how searching for clues may be the capability for learning that underpins a wider range of product innovations.

Seminar 5

May 20^th 2010 : Mary Tripsas, Entrepreneurship, Harvard Business School (Host: Christine Beckman)

Location/Time: SB 112, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

Seminar Topic: The Influence of Prior Industry Affiliation on Framing in Nascent Industries: The Evolution of Digital Cameras

Abstract: New industries sparked by technological change are characterized by high technological, market, and competitive uncertainty. In this paper we explore how a firm's conceptualization of products in this context, reflected in its introduction of product features, is influenced by prior industry affiliation.  We hypothesize first, that prior industry experience shapes a set of shared beliefs resulting in similar and concurrent firm behavior, second, that firms will notice and imitate the behaviors of firms from the same prior industry, and third, that as firms gain experience with particular features, the influence of prior industry will decrease.  Our hypotheses are supported by findings from a quantitative, large sample study of digital cameras introduced from 1991 to 2006 by firms from three prior industries: photography, consumer electronics, and computers.  By 2003, several features had emerged as a dominant design, however the timing and rate of adoption varied by prior industry. This study extends previous research on firm entry into new domains by examining heterogeneity in firms' feature-level entry choices.  In addition, we contribute to work on dominant designs, going beyond characterizing a dominant design as a set of technological choices, to understanding cognitive convergence on a standard set of demand-side product features.

Seminar 6

  June 9th 2010 : Joanna Ho, Accounting, The Paul Merage School of Business, UCI (Host: Christine Beckman)

  Location/Time: SB 116, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

  Seminar Topic: Are Family Firms Less Likely to Sacrifice Innovation Activities for Earnings Management?

  Abstract: We examine whether managerial myopia, proxied by the reduction of research and development (R&D)  

  spending, differs between family and non-family firms. Using data from the S&P 1500 firms, we find that, compared 

  to  non-family firms, family firms are less likely to cut R&D spending to meet short-term earnings goals. Furthermore,

  the likelihood of cutting R&D spending to meet short-term earnings goals is lower for actively-managed family firms

  than passively-managed family firms. In addition, our empirical analysis shows that, when under heightened

 pressure to manage earnings, the tendency to engage in accrual-based earnings management is not different

 between family and non-family firms; however, family firms are less likely to undertake real earnings management

 activities including the manipulation of cash flow from operations and discretionary expenses.