Events

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room 313

Boundary-spanners in networks have been shown to be in a privileged position to generate innovation outcomes, yet it is unclear how individuals seeking to leverage that position decide which contacts to rely on and when. This paper analyzes how individuals with dedicated boundary-spanning roles between industry and academia draw on their network resources to perform their jobs. Using an experiment-based setup we test how personality and cognition inform boundary-spanners’ decisions whether to rely on academic or industry contacts in their network in different situations. We predict that individual identification as an academic (industry) researcher will generally lead them to rely on academic (industry) contacts regardless of whether the input sought is of academic or industry nature, whereas individuals with high self-monitoring orientation would be more likely to match reliance on academic (industry) contacts to academic (industry) problems. The experimental design seeks to disentangle to what extent differences in network choices are rooted in individual cognitive ability to recall – i.e. “activate” – the full breadth of potential contacts or more deliberate behavioural preferences to “mobilize” certain contacts over others.

Contact Person: Felix Poege

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Marstallplatz 1 (Room E10)

If you plan on attending, we kindly request that you register by Wednesday, 24 January 2018 with Ms. Rosanna Würf (rosanna.wuerf(at)miplc.de).

For further information, please download the invitation.

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room 313

This paper uses a rich panel data set of Indian manufacturing firms to analyze the effects of domestic and international acquisitions on various outcomes at target firm and product level. We apply recent methodological advances in the estimation of production functions together with information on prices and quantities to estimate physical productivity, markups, marginal costs and proxies for product quality.

Using a propensity score reweighting estimator, we find that acquisitions are associated with increases in quantities and markups and lower marginal costs on average. These changes are most pronounced if acquirers are located in technologically advanced countries. We also provide evidence that the quality of products increases while quality-adjusted prices fall upon acquisitions. Our results indicate that technology transfer from foreign acquirers to domestic firms, predicted by theories of multinational firms, can materialize in both cost- and quality-based gains and benefit both firms and consumers.

Contact Person: Felix Poege

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room 313

The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of a decision weakening patents in light of the arguments made by stakeholders during the policymaking process. We show that the common belief that weaker patents lead to fewer innovations is wrong, while accounting for the heterogeneous patent-related strategies. Using a unique dataset on the entire population of French firms over 1995-2010 matched with their patents, we propose a cleaner test compared to previous literature using a measure closer to the concept of patenting propensity and a novel empirical approach. The arguments made by the Supreme Court and Amici in court documents show that the policy objectives are partially attained. While large firms in complex products industries reduce preemptive patenting, other firms use patents less as an appropriation mechanisms. Nevertheless, innovative activities remain high overall, due to the availability of alternative appropriation mechanisms and the spillovers allowed by weaker patents.

Contact Person: Dr. Fabian Gaessler

This lecture will cover the intersection of data protection/privacy and trademarks, with a particular focus on the adverse effects that international data transfers have on brands.
Trademarks/brands are symbols that embody goodwill (e.g., the ability to attract and retain customers). As data is wildly labeled as the “new oil”, doubts regarding the security of personal data seem to be on everyone’s minds. Naturally, failures to prevent infringements of the individual’s right to privacy result in immeasurable brand damage and irreparable reputational harm, which lead to the loss of customers’ trust. Accordingly, this lecture will include a discussion on why international trademark/brand owners should be particularly aware of the legal rules governing data transfers outside of the European Economic Area. In particular, we will discuss the recent developments in the substance, proactive information governance strategies for taming “big data”, and the requirement to secure the “crown jewels” of the enterprise.

If you plan on attending, we kindly request that you register with Ms. Rosanna Würf  by Monday, 15 January 2018.

Moderation: Jörg Hoffmann

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Raum E10

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room 101

When preparing a research article, academics engage in informal intellectual collaboration by asking other academics for feedback, which gives rise to a social network. We study whether informal intellectual collaboration with an academic who is more central in this social network results in a research article having higher scientific impact. To identify the effect of centrality changes of the most central commenter acknowledged on an article, we exploit deaths of scholars occurring somewhere in the network. We show that citation count increases by 1 citation if the most central commenter on the average article increases her Bonacich centrality by 2%. The effect is mediated by a decay in importance of more distance connections and robust to different network definitions.
To illustrate our results, we develop a structural model in which a positive externality from intellectual collaboration implies that collaborating with a more central colleague results in larger scientific impact of the research article.

Contact person: Dr. Fabian Gaessler

Moderation: Michael Neumann

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room 101

Max Planck Institut for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Room 313

In this paper, we begin with a review of the venture capital (VC) literature. We then briefly present mixed methods research, which combines quantitative and qualitative data and exploratory and confirmatory analysis in one study, and an illustrative study on VC learning. We then suggest mixed methods-related directions for future VC research, addressing gaps in the relational, learning, and related aspects under research stream, and presenting a cross-disciplinary mixed methods-related approach. Lastly, we provide a short critical discussion on both methods and research practices. In doing so, we hope to stimulate entrepreneurship scholars’ interest in these underutilized methods.

Contact Person: Dr. Fabian Gaessler