Events

Abstract:

For high-tech startups, gaining access to resources and funding is often considered crucial. This need has created technology markets to attract partners and resource providers. Corporate venturing is a form of markets for technology (MfT) that provides nurturing, specialized advice and resources to new technology by investing in startups. However the typical issues involved with MfT – namely misappropriation risks– have made startups reluctant about sharing their key technological information with corporate venture capitalists (CVC), potentially retarding efficient market matching and consequently technology development. Lifting informational constraints may facilitate the market and enable us to measure the pure impact of CVC investment.

Assessing the potential impact of information constraints has been challenging due to severe endogeneity concerns. This study investigates the causal impact of technological information exposure on the likelihood, quality and timing of CVC-startup match formation. We exploit the American Inventor’s Protection Act (AIPA) as an exogenous shock to technological information publicity, which enables us to measure an unbiased impact of information exposure. The results confirm that strategic information withhold by startups has lowered the incident of CVC investments, while informational exposure increases the likelihood, quality and hazard rate of CVC-startup match.

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We would like to celebrate our 50th anniversary together with you in a two-day event befitting the occasion – a ceremony on the first day and an academic symposium on the second – and to take the opportunity to discuss the Institute’s previous research contributions and possible avenues for future research.

Further Information: "50th anniversary"

Abstract: This paper studies the implications of internal social comparisons – benchmarking business units against each other – for organizational adaptation and performance. While extant research has mainly focused on the effects of internal social comparisons on the volume of organizational effort, we build on behavioral theory on organizational adaptation and aspiration-driven search to suggest that such comparisons may also affect the direction of effort. Using a computational model, we show how internal social comparisons can effectively regulate organizational search processes through two mechanisms:

1. a classification effect whereby the organization is guaranteed to contain both exploring and exploiting units, and
2. a sampling effect whereby social comparisons protect against premature switching from exploitation to exploration.

We explore important boundary conditions on the viability of internal social comparisons, including environmental dynamics, resource munificence, and the comparability of business units. We also demonstrate how the performance of internal social comparisons is boosted in the presence of complementarities between business units. Thus, under appropriate circumstances, internal social comparisons can affect firm performance in beneficial ways, suggesting why many executives actively encourage such comparisons. The study has implications for work on intra-organizational competition, aspirations-driven search, the adaptation of multi-unit firms, and balancing exploration and exploitation.

See paper attached.

Abstract:

The underrepresentation of women at the top of hierarchies is often explained by gender differences in preferences. We find support for this claim by analyzing a large dataset from an online card game community, a stylized yet natural setting characterized by self-selection into an uncertain, competitive and male-dominated environment. We observe gender differences in playing behavior consistent with women being more averse towards risk and competition. Moreover, we demonstrate how “shying away” makes female players less successful: despite no gender gap in playing skills, women accumulate lower scores than men due to their relative avoidance of risky and competitive situations.

Abstract:

Studies on moderators of the innovation performance relationship in entrepreneurship research are scarce. Thus in this paper we use a dataset consisting of 416 entrepreneurs from the German federal state of Thuringia in order to examine the moderating effect of the Big Five personality traits extraversion, openness and conscientiousness on the relationship between entrepreneurial innovation and exit by failure in highly innovative industries. Correspondingly, we identify exit by failure with the help of bankruptcy information and self-reports. In order to account for self-selection into innovative entrepreneurship, stratification on the propensity score is utilized to overcome self-selection bias. After accounting for self-selection into innovation, we find that personality moderates the innovation failure relationship. Extraversion strengthens the negative effect of innovation on exit by failure. In contrast, openness and conscientiousness weaken the negative effect of innovation on entrepreneurial failure.

Abstract:

Compulsory licenses in competition law have been criticized primarily for their detrimental effect on incentives to innovate. As dynamic efficiency including innovation leads to more economic welfare than static efficiency, it should be the preferred policy choice. However, innovation is a complex process that goes beyond merely creating incentives for the private sector. This paper by relying on the Sectorial Systems of Innovation (SSI) approach investigates the Brazilian and Indian pharmaceutical sector and demonstrates the differences in innovative capability in these two jurisdictions. Whereas, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has moved up the R&D value chain, its Brazilian counterpart, by and large, is still in the phase of imitation. The paper uses this difference to draw a prescription for compulsory licenses under competition law in Brazil and India.

Why do individuals become entrepreneurs? When do they succeed? We develop a model in which individuals use pedigree (e.g., educational qualifications) as a signal to convince employers of their unobserved ability. However, this signal is imperfect, and individuals who correctly believe their ability is greater than their pedigree conveys to employers, choose entrepreneurship. Since ability, not pedigree, matters for productivity, entrepreneurs earn more than employees of the same pedigree. Our empirical analysis of two separate nationally representative longitudinal samples of individuals residing in the US and the UK supports the model’s predictions that (A) Entrepreneurs have higher ability than employees of the same pedigree, (B) Employees have better pedigree than entrepreneurs of the same ability, and (C) Entrepreneurs earn more, on average, than employees of the same pedigree, and their earnings display higher variance. We discuss the implications of our findings for entrepreneurship, education, and public policy.

The most recent version of the paper can be accessed at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2596846

Abstracts
The past two years have seen a very active enforcement of Anti-Monopoly law (AML) in China, especially in the intellectual property rights intensive industries. The enforcement agencies frequently carry out investigations into international companies in Internet and ICT industries. The "Qualcomm" decision made by NDRC (China’s national development and reform commission) in 2015 has drawn great attention not only in China but also worldwide, as some disputed approaches applied and remedies imposed by NDRC showed a relative strict regulation on price-related abusive conduct of practicing IPR. The balance between the protection of intellectual property and effective competition is always a tough ongoing topic. In this context, on the last day of 2015 NDRC invited public comments on its draft "Anti-Monopoly Guideline on Intellectual Property Abuse". Together with this, drafts from other two enforcement agencies and SIPO (State IP office) will be submitted to the Anti-Monopoly Committee under State Council for review in the first half of this year. In the light of the enforcement practices, the guideline intends to clarify and improve already established principles regarding the prohibition of abusive use of IPRs under Chinese AML.

This report will give an overview to the guideline drafts, and particularly comment on the draft of NDRC. The focal points in this draft guideline will be discussed, such as the unfairly high royalties, no-challenge clauses, and injunction relieves of IPR holders, etc. Moreover, the report intends to offer a glance into the public enforcement of AML status quo, and discuss the inconsistencies between the statutory provisions and practice of law, given the broad discretion of the enforcement agencies.
 
About the Speaker
Ms. Yukun Xiao LL.M (LMU), Ph.D candidate of Prof. Ackermann at the LMU. Her research fields include international competition law, innovation and competition policy. Her Ph.D research focuses on the public and private enforcement of the competition law in EU, Germany and China. Since 2014 Yukun Xiao has worked for Fraunhofer Gesellschaft at the department of IP commercialization. In January 2016 Fraunhofer Gesellschaft was invited by Delegation of the European Union and Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Beijing to comment on the NDRC Draft Guideline. Yukun Xiao was responsible for drawing up the first draft of opinions at Fraunhofer Gesellschaft.
 
About the Discussant:
Ms. Xin Zhao, PhD. Candidate of Tongji University Law School, Shanghai, China. She was Fulbright Visiting Scholar in The George Washington University and DAAD Scholarship holder. Her research fields are Anti-Monopoly Law and Patent Law.