For Academics

My research can be grouped into two main categories: Strategy, Organization and Management of Innovation (1), and Economics and Policy of Innovation (2).  A recurrent theme in my works is a focus on capturing or appropriating value from innovation.  My special interest is in what I call creation-conditional-on-capture (ccc) startegies: namely, these are value creation strategies that are designed with an eye on eventual appropriability.

Strategy, Organization, and Management of Innovation

Ongoing Research (No Working Papers Available/Publicly Accessible).

"Creation conditional on Capture (CCC) - R&D allocations in System Technologies"
How should firms allocate their R&D resources across complex technology landscapes in order to maximize expected profits? In this work, jointly conducted with Tobias Kretschmer, we formally model firms' trade-offs between specialization and diversification in complex technology environments in which different forces such as transaction costs, learning-based complementarities, and demand-side externalities pull in different directions.

"Co-operation, Competition, and the Value of Managerial Intelligence - A Simulation Approach"
Does intelligence matter when R&D managers have to trade off between the effects of co-operation and competition? This paper, co-authored with Massimo Warglien and Tobias Kretschmer, picks up on this question. We simulate different "population strategies" for technology spaces, and we compare the profitability of those strategies that vary with regards to their underlying managerial intelligence.

"The Origins of Organizational Design - Learning from Open Source Software Projects"
How do organizational principles such as specialization and co-ordination emerge? These fundamental questions are largely unanswered as of today. Oliver Alexy, Phanish Puranam, and I seek to develop a better understanding by examining the evolution of Open Source Software projects in depth.

Working Papers

"What's New About 'New' Forms of Organizing?"
In this paper, Phanish Puranam, Oliver Alexy, and I assess if new theories of organization are necessary to explain new forms of organizing. We first specify exactly what makes novel forms of organizing new. To that end we propose clear criteria for making such an assessment, and we show how they are useful in assessing if and when new theories of organization may truly be needed. We illustrate our arguments by drawing on instances of well-established forms of organizing, as well as relatively recent ones such as those instantiated by Linux, Wikipedia, InnoCentive and TopCoder.

 
"In - group Biases and Innovation Diffusion"
This paper, co-authored with Olav Sorenson, examines the mechanisms underlying large corporations' failure to adopt ideas for innovation suggested from within their boundaries. We propose and empirically test that individuals identify with their subunits within the organization and therefore tend to have biased perceptions against ideas that emerge from other parts of the organization, a mechanism that we call "organizational provincialism".

"Patent Sharks and the Sustainability of Value Destruction Strategies"
In this paper Joachim Henkel and I argue that patent sharks pose one of the major challenges to both the theoretical understanding and practise of R&D- and IP-related strategy. We formally and empirically identify different types of blackmailing strategies and we show that at least one type of shark strategy will survive any policy changes intended to counteract the infringement business.

"Gaining it by Giving it Away - Capturing Value in'Mixed' Appropriabilty Regimes"
For a different project, Oliver Alexy I analyse the corporate motives and successfulness of firms' strategies to donate intellectual property rights.

A video abstract of a recent presentation in Zurich on my work with Oliver Alexy can be found here.

"Hierarchies, Polyarchies and Endogenous Screening"
Since the publication of Sah and Stiglitz's work in 1986, organizational designers have discussed how to combine individually flawed screening functions of agents to minimize type I and type II errors in organizations. In this paper, I empirically show that agents' screening functions themselves are influenced by organizational structure, thereby becoming (more complicated) endogenous design parameters (than non-behavioural theory predicts). A first working paper is available upon request.

"The Hidden Costs of Outsourcing - Evidence from Patent Data"
In this project, I integrate value appropriation activities into the existing theory of how innovative firms should optimally draw their boundaries. The first paper, analyzing firms' costs of forgetting knowledge through outsourcing, is co-authored with Stefan Wagner and will be forthcoming in the Strategic Management Journal. 


"Collateral Damage for R&D Manufacturers - How Patent Sharks Operate in Markets for Technology"
This paper, co-authored with Joachim Henkel and Ferdinand Schneider, presents an empirical analysis of different assault strategies pursued by patent sharks against R&D intensive firms. The article is forthcoming in Industrial and Corporate Change.

"Value Appropriation as an Organizational Capability: the Case of IP Protection Through Patents"
In my research with Phanish Puranam (SIM/LBS) I try to understand which organizational determinants constitute a firm's capability to appropriate returns from its innovative activity.  A joint publication was published in the Strategic Management Journal (2009).

 
"Big Picture - Patent Sharks"
In this paper, printed in the June 2008 issue of Harvard Business Review, Joachim Henkel and I sketch how R&D-intensive manufacturers can forearm themselves against the threats posed by patent sharks.  We suggest ways of proactively adjusting R&D strategies in order to preempt shark attacks.

 
"How Executives can Enhance IP Strategy and Performance"
In this paper, published in the Fall Issue of 2007 Sloan Management Review, I examine the optimal level of engagement by top-level management (C level) in IPR-related strategizing.  I delineate the role the management committee and the board play in making firms successful players.

"On Sharks, Trolls, and Their Patent Prey"
In this paper, Joachim Henkel, Christopher Heath, and I examine why R&D-intensive manufacturers have to forearm themselves against being caught by (small) litigious patent holders. This paper is published in Research Policy (2007).

"Strategic Management of Intellectual Property"
This paper, published in Sloan Management Review (2004), is the first to establish a clear understanding of the options intellectual property rights offer when shaping business strategy.

"Improving Patent Valuation Methods for Management"
In this paper, published in Research Policy (2004), I validate a new set of bibliographic and full-text indicators to be used for patent portfolio valuations.

"What Determines Patent Value?"
This article, published in Research Policy (2003), examines empirically which characteristics drive a patent's financial value.

Economics and Policy of Innovation

Working Papers

"On the Effectiveness of Novelty and Inventive Step as Patentability Requirements"
Using an original structural model, this paper disentangles the value contributions of "objective technological quality" from other value driving characteristics of a patent in an attempt to show how effective the levers of the patent system are in stimulating R&D.

"Comparing the Value Relevance of R&D Reporting in Germany"
Using German corporate and stock-market data, this paper, co-authored with Fred Ramb, tries to disentangle the true accounting standard specific effects of R&D reporting from spurious endogenous choice effects.

 

Published/Forthcoming Papers

(links may only be accessible from inside the London Business School Portal)

"Measuring Patent Assessment Quality: Analysing the Degree and Kind of (In)Consistency in Patent Offices' Decision Making"
In this paper, published in Research Policy (2007), Paul Burke and I empirically analyze the decision-making consistency of the European Patent Office in the area of biotechnology in the 1980s in order to shed light on the level of "service quality" provided by the EPO in emerging technological areas.


"The Private Values of Thickets and Fences"
This paper, published in Economics of Innovation and New Technology (2004), examines how bulks of patent rights in discrete and complex technological industries impact on the economic value of the underlying invention.

"Determinants of Oppositions Against EPO Patent Grants"
In this paper, published in the International Journal of Industrial Organization (2004), Dietmar Harhoff and I analyze the characteristic features of the opposition procedure at the European Patent Office.