Gideon D. Markman

IS CEO PAY IN HIGH-TECHNOLOGY FIRMS RELATED TO INNOVATION?

This study uses the resource-based view of the firm and agency theory to examine the relationship between innovation and CEO pay in 90 high-technology firms. With firm size, performance, and other ...

Research and Technology Commercialization

This paper introduces the special themed section on organizational interactions involving universities and firms that result in the commercialization of research and technology. Our objective is to shed light on some of the most vexing, yet under-researched predicaments research institutions encounter, despite their best efforts to advance commercialization. First, we synthesize and extend recent studies, including the papers in the special themed section. Next, we develop a taxonomy of modes of commercialization. Specifically, we consider internal approaches, quasi-internal approaches (e.g. incubators), university research parks, regional clusters, academic spin-offs and start-ups, licensing, contract research and consultancy, corporate venture capital, and open science and innovation. We also identify areas for further research at the individual (e.g. heterogeneity of entrepreneurial teams and experience; incentives), organizational and intra-university (e.g. corporate governance; nature of growth strategies; relationships with trading partners; boundary spanning activities) and technology levels (e.g. institutional context; reconfiguration of technology; valuation of technology).

Entrepreneurship from the Ivory Tower: Do Incentive Systems Matter?

There has been a paucity of research to date that has explored whether incentive systems—in the form of monetary payments to inventors, their department or institution, or to university technology transfer office (UTTO) personnel—affect entrepreneurial activities at U.S. universities. To shed light on whether financial incentives to scientists, their departments, and UTTO personnel effect entrepreneurial activity, we used both qualitative data (structured interviews with 128 UTTO directors) and quantitative data from surveys and databases available on the web. Our results show surprisingly and opposite to our theoretical predictions that incentives to scientists and to their departments are negatively related to entrepreneurial activity. In addition and consistent with theory-based predictions, pay to UTTO personnel is positively related to entrepreneurial activity. We conclude with a discussion that offers some implications to research, practice, and theory in the field of technology transfer.

Full-Time Faculty or Part-Time Entrepreneurs

When agents originate and develop inventions, new discoveries, or scientific breakthroughs, do all residual cash flows go to principals - the risk bearers who own the infrastructures, systems, and the productive assets? This research addresses this question, focusing on university scientists who essentially bypass their institutions when they privately sell or license discoveries made at laboratories of said institutions directly to the market. Using a random sample of 54 U.S. universities and 23 394 faculty members, the study shows that bypassing activity is reduced when universities rely on autonomous technology licensing offices (TLOs) and when faculty departments receive greater shares of the royalties from the licensing of said discoveries. Conversely, bypassing activity is increased with more valuable discoveries and heightened entrepreneurial activities on university campuses.

Patents as Surrogates for Inimitable and Non-Substitutable Resources

This study tests the view that competitive advantage lies in organizational processes and capabilities to secure patents. Since, by definition, patents are valuable and rare, here we test the extent to which patent citations and claims capture, respectively, inimitability and non-substitutability. Focusing on 85 publicly traded pharmaceutical firms (SIC 2834), we find that once the effects of firm size, past performance, and investment in innovation are held constant, inimitability is significantly related to firm profitability and new product introductions. Non-substitutability is significantly related to new product introductions only.

Entry Timing Enduring Lessons and Future Directions

Entry decisions—often critical to firm survival and growth, market evolution, and industry profitability—have been the subject of inquiry for decades. In particular, the timing of entry decisions, drawing primarily on the first-mover advantage (FMA) perspective, has emerged as a prominent area of study. While previous research confirms that entry timing is critical, a large number of contingencies create conceptual and methodological complexities that undermine the formation of a rigorous theory of entry timing. In this article, we review and synthesize management and marketing research on entry timing published in top-tier outlets from 1989 through 2013—the 25-year period that followed the publication of Lieberman and Montgomery’s seminal article on FMA. Distilling key lessons from this literature, our review tries to establish a foundational understanding of the conditions, methods, implications, and strategies of entry timing so that research might be reinvigorated in this domain. Our article concludes by offering a conceptual model of entry based on the lessons gleaned from the articles that we reviewed.

Linking Merger and Acquisition Strategies to Postmerger Integration: A Configurational Perspective of Human Resource Management

The extant literature tends to frame mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and postmerger integration (PMI) as strategies and outcomes, but this framing often leaves their underlying processes underexplored. We address this gap by redirecting attention to the view that M&As are largely embedded in social and human practices. Our conceptual study identifies three generic M&A strategies—annex & assimilate, harvest & protect, and link & promote—and matches them with three well-known PMI outcomes (i.e., absorption, preservation, and symbiosis, respectively). Using a configurational perspective and drawing upon the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) model, we develop a conceptual framework that reveals why and how AMO-enhancing human resource management (HRM) practices can link M&A strategies and PMI outcomes. Finally, we elaborate on the theoretical and practical contributions and chart a course for future inquiry and research applications for the M&A-HRM-PMI triad and its processes.

THE ROLE OF REGRETFUL THINKING, PERSEVERANCE, AND SELF-EFFICACY IN VENTURE FORMATION

Shane and Venkataraman (2000) and Venkataraman (1997) suggest that the field of entrepreneurship seeks to understand how opportunities are discovered, created, and exploited, by whom, and with what consequences (italic added). Surprisingly and despite the fact that the person – the entrepreneur – is central to the creation of new ventures, entrepreneurship scholars are reluctant to explicitly include individual differences in formal models of new venture formation. For example, notwithstanding the important role that entrepreneurs play in forging new wealth and creating new jobs, research to identify cognitive processes, attitudes, behaviors, traits, or other characteristics that distinguish entrepreneurs from others who opt to work as employees remains somewhat marginal. Indeed, only very few studies on individual differences have been published in leading management journals. One possible explanation for this reluctance is that in the past researchers might have classified most individual differences as traits research and thus criticism spilled over to include all individual difference research, regardless of whether the focus was trait, cognitions, emotions, attitudes, behaviors, or other characteristics.

The Effects of Hyper Growth on Firm Profitability

Although many scholars have suggested that firm growth creates employment, wealth, and broad economic development, no one has yet reviewed whether “hyper-growth” in sales (such as 500% to 30,000%) leads to profitability. Based on the Inc. 500 fastest-growing company database, this study uses a large sample size of 1,233 and found no correlation between growth rate and profitability.

The competitive dynamics of entrepreneurial market entry

Research on general market entry usually focuses on large enterprises. Often, however, small entrants can alter the competitive dynamics of an industry. This volume brings together the most prominent thought leaders and the best research on the asymmetric entrant-incumbent dynamics. The ideas presented offer a more nuanced perspective on how, when, where and with what consequences small, single-product firms enter markets that are dominated by large, multiproduct and multimarket incumbents.