Events

Abstract:

Does the emigration of high-skilled individuals necessarily reduce innovation in the source country due to the loss of human capital? Combining industry- and inventor-level patenting and migration data from 30 European countries, we show that emigration can positively contribute to patenting in source countries due to the existence of reverse knowledge flows.

Both OLS and IV regressions suggest that bilateral knowledge flows (measured by cross-border citations and collaborations) increase in the number of high-skilled migrants. While the high-skilled migrants are not inventing in their home country anymore, they contribute to cross-border knowledge and technology diffusion and thus help poorer countries to catch up to the technology frontier.

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