Peter T. Gianiodis

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.

Advancing A Typology Of Open Innovation

Interest in the concept of open innovation (OI) has increased during recent years; yet, this line of inquiry remains limited due to the lack of a more comprehensive conceptual framework. As a first step toward a unifying framework, we provide a critical review of previous research on the conceptualization, antecedents, and consequences of OI. We then offer a typology describing four OI strategies: (i) innovation seeker, (ii) innovation provider, (iii) intermediary, and (iv) open innovator, which emerge through unique combinations of sources of innovation, firm attributes, and mechanisms of inter-organizational exchange, and produce varying outcomes. Finally, we discuss our typologys implications for theory and practice, and advance potential research avenues.

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.

Entrepreneurship Unleashed: Understanding Entrepreneurial Education outside of the Business School

A growing trend in entrepreneurship education is the development of blended entrepreneurial programs (BEPs)—programs that merge entrepreneurial curriculum with a technical degree—located outside traditional business school settings. In this paper we suggest that individual, student‐level attributes may be as important to entrepreneurial outcomes as curricular considerations in BEPs. Using data from current and recent graduates of a BEP our study suggests that personal attributes—an individuals entrepreneurial passion—increase the likelihood of entrepreneurial intention among its students. Consequently, our findings indicate that BEPs may need to consider applicant characteristics to maximize the likelihood of entrepreneurial outcomes from its program.

University Scientists’ Choice to Commercialize their Discoveries

We extend the literature on scientific discovery and commercialization by examining entrepreneurial action by university-based scientists. Specifically, we investigate the decision process and the paths to commercialize academic technologies. University-based technology transfer involves multiple stakeholders with competing interests; hence, we believe researchers should apply a multilevel theoretical lens, which starts with the disclosure of discoveries made by scientists in their labs. We build a multilevel framework that views the scientists’ choice to first disclose viable discoveries to pursue entrepreneurial action as a function of three factors: (i) a scientists rent orientation, (ii) a universitys rent doctrine, and (iii) the rent doctrine of the scientific field in which the scientist conducts research. We suggest that commercial disclosure most often occurs when there is alignment between these three factors. Lastly, we advance an agenda for future empirical research by developing specific propositions about the key constructs and relationships concerning university-based entrepreneurial action.

The Protection And Deployment Of Financial Innovation

Prevailing theory suggests that firms that effectively protect technological discoveries from emulation will create and capture value. Despite its importance, little research has examined the specific mechanisms of how to protect technological discoveries, and have heretofore emphasized the importance of inherent resource attributes to limit competitor emulation. Using a sample of financial patents, we test theory regarding the effects of resource attributes and deployment mechanisms on resource-based emulation. Results indicate both resource attributes and deployment affect competitor action. However, the timing of emulation often depends upon contextual factors. Thus, resource deployment actions are critical to erecting sustainable resource barriers.

On Strategic Trade-Offs: Does the Principle of Energy Conservation Explain the Trade-Off Law?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reaffirm the suggestion that there are at least two distinct types of laws of trade-off that affect all firms and, in doing so, to contribute toward resolving the persistent trade-off debate in the literature. Design/methodology/approach Conceptual study using implicit deductive reasoning. Findings Two types of trade-offs are identified: “internal” can be understood following the dictates of the law of diminishing returns, while “external” can be modeled using the principle of energy conservation. Research limitations/implications New insights are provided by discussing the impact of both laws of trade-off on the resource-based view of the firm, on new capabilities such as sustainability and innovativeness and on key strategic choices. Practical implications The study explains why trade-offs occur and outlines contextual factors that determine the “strength” of the trade-offs. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has attempted to investigate the topic of strategic trade-offs on the basis of the principle of energy conservation.

THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION ON TECHNOLOGICAL REGIMES: THE SOURCING OF FINANCIAL INNOVATION

Scholars and managers alike seek to better explain disruptive change and its effects on technological regimes. In this study, we apply two logics of change — Schumpeterian and punctuated equilibrium — and conduct a natural experiment to evaluate how a governmental intervention shock affected the sourcing of knowledge within an existing technological regime. In particular, we investigate the extent to which patterns of knowledge sourcing changed within the technological regime governing financial innovation. We find that patterns of knowledge sourcing change subsequent to the government intervention, but in more nuanced ways as predicted by Schumpeterian and punctuated equilibrium logic. Specifically, knowledge sourcing demonstrates an “accelerated” punctuated equilibrium change with knowledge convergence between incumbents and new entrants occurring under high levels of uncertainty, rather than when the regime stabilized. We discuss the implications on Schumpeter’s concept of creative destruction, as disruptive change may only undermine some aspects of an existing technological regime.

Trust, integrated information technology and new product success

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the combined roles via trust relationships of the two technology cores of the firm: information technology (IT) and R&D and their impact on new product success. Design/methodology/approach A model was tested whereby trust and the integrated IT strategy account for a significant amount of the variance in a broad range of new product development (NPD) outcomes for a survey sample of 223 manufacturing firms. Respondents said design practices and quality methods like Six Sigma accounted for a total of over 25 percent of the reports of the most helpful approaches in promoting effective NPD. At the same time their biggest challenges were having a clear strategic direction within which to operate and resolving cost and resource issues which accounted for over a third (34 percent) of barriers to success. Findings Respondents reported that a total of over 25 percent of the reports of the most helpful approaches in promoting effective included these quality methods. At the same time their biggest challenges were having a clear strategic direction within which to operate and resolving cost and resource issues which accounted for over a third (34 percent) of barriers to success. High-tech firms were less likely to report integrated IT strategies, but this tended to be counterbalanced by high levels of trust in the IT function and adoption of organizational innovations for execution of strategic intent. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. Research limitations/implications Survey methods produce broad results with low response rates in most studies involving R&D and NPD, and this study is no exception. Practical implications With the challenge of strategy alignment reported by many of these firms, it seems clear that the top management team cannot afford to leave NPD challenges to engineering teams and NPD programs without guidance and general vision. Social implications NPD has become the staple of most manufacturing firms as a way of meeting and beating the competition worldwide. However, trust between functional areas often starts before people are even employed and should begin in training and educational programs. Originality/value Designing NPD programs is at the heart of many firms’ competitive strategies and the fast learning companies are the winners. Very little is known about the trust relationship between IT and R&D and their combined effects on new product success which we have found to be significant and unexpected in their impacts.