A Date With Destiny: The Impact of Early Environment on Persistent Innovation Strategy

Research Summary: Using novel data on 1,211 public firms, I show that innovative organizations exposed to environments with lower M&A activity just after their initial public offering (IPO) respond by engaging in fewer technological acquisitions and more internal research. Interestingly, this adaptive reaction becomes inertial shortly after IPO and persists well into maturity. The study advances our understanding of how the environment shapes heterogeneity and capabilities through its impact on firm structure and accumulation of resources. I discuss how these results can help bridge inertial versus adaptive perspectives in the study of organizations, by documenting an instance when the two sequentially interact. Managerial Summary: There has been much evidence to suggest that mature innovative firms tend to have a preferred mode for accessing new technology: either by making it internally or buying it from other firms. However, we do not know very well how firms develop these preferences. This paper investigates how financial market conditions affect young firms around the time of going public, and shows that recently IPO’d firms that experience depressed M&A markets go on to rely less on acquisitions when they mature. Conversely, these firms seem to develop more technologies in-house. These findings suggest that some early events in a firm’s life may have long-lasting consequences, which may be difficult to change later

A model of hysteresis arising from social interaction within a firm

This paper subscribes to the view that a key distinguishing feature of a firm is its social nature. We present a model in which hysteresis arises from the social interactions between employees. Employees have a simple response to incentives in the form of the pay available outside the firm relative to that available within the firm. Allowing for social interaction, whereby employees are influenced by the effort levels of fellow employees, leads to the distinctive effects, such as lazy relay responses to incentives, associated with hysteresis

On the rationale for hysteresis in economic decisions

In the social sciences there are plausible reasons to postulate that hysteresis effects are important. The available evidence, however, is predominantly at the macro level. In this paper we review the evidence regarding hysteresis in the neural processes underlying human behavior. We argue that there is a need for experimental and neuroimaging studies to fill the gap in knowledge about hysteresis processes at the micro level in the social sciences

Capital Markets and Firm Organization: How Financial Development Shapes European Corporate Groups

We investigate the effect of financial development on the formation of European corporate groups. Because cross-country regressions are hard to interpret in a causal sense, we exploit exogenous industry measures to investigate a specific channel through which financial development may affect group affiliation: internal capital markets. Using a comprehensive firm-level data set on European corporate groups in 15 countries, we find that countries with less developed financial markets have a higher percentage of group affiliates in more capital-intensive industries. This relationship is more pronounced for young and small firms and for affiliates of large and diversified groups. Our findings are consistent with the view that internal capital markets may, under some conditions, be more efficient than prevailing external markets, and that this may drive group affiliation even in developed economies

Make, Buy, Organize: The Interplay between Research, External Knowledge, and Firm Structure

We bridge current streams of innovation research to explore the interplay between R&D, external knowledge, and organizational structure–three elements of a firm\u27s innovation strategy which we argue should logically be studied together. Using within-firm patent assignment patterns, we develop a novel measure of structure for a large sample of American firms. We find that centralized firms invest more in research and patent more per R&D dollar than decentralized firms. Both types access technology via mergers and acquisitions, but their acquisitions differ in terms of frequency, size, and integration. Consistent with our framework, their sources of value creation differ: while centralized firms derive more value from internal R&D, decentralized firms rely more on external knowledge. We discuss how these findings should stimulate more integrative work on theories of innovation

The Organization of R&D in American Corporations: The Determinants and Consequences of Decentralization

We study the relationship between decentralization of R&D, innovation and firm performance using a novel dataset on the organizational structure of 1,290 American publicly-listed corporations, 2,615 of their affiliate firms, as well as characteristics of 594,903 patents that they hold. We explore the tension between centralization and decentralization of R&D, which trades off between responsiveness to immediate and local business needs and the type of research that can benefit the firm as a whole. To do this, we develop two novel measures of decentralization. First, using intra-firm patent assignments, we distinguish between patents that are assigned to the inventing unit rather than to corporate headquarters. Second, we exploit the variation between firms which posses a central corporate R&D labs and those that do not. We find that centralized R&D tends be more scientific, broader in scope, and have more technical impact, while being more likely in firms that operate within a narrower range of businesses, in complex technologies, or that are less reliant upon acquisitions. Additionally, we find that firms with a more decentralized structure, on average, invest less in R&D, generate fewer patents per R&D, and exhibit greater sales growth and higher market value. We discuss several theories that can explain these relationships, as well as potential avenues for future research.

Gases ideales: Brújula Termodinámica

En el presente artículo se discute el empleo de una poderosa herramienta mnemotécnica denominada “brújula termodinámica” para obtener muy fácilmente las expresiones de las variables de estado termodinámicas no medibles tales como U, H, S, en función de las variables de estado sí medibles tales como P, V, y T. Por medio de las ecuaciones obtenidas y de la ecuación de estado de los gases ideales, se estudia el comportamiento termodinámico de un gas ideal puro

Gases ideales: procesos psicrometricos

En el presente artículo se discute la aplicación de la ecuación de estado de los gases ideales a un gas multicomponente, para lo cual deben obtenerse previamente sendas expresiones para la fracción molar y el cociente molar del componente i de la mezcla, en términos diferentes a una simple división entre números de moles; se hace necesario involucrar otras variables claves tales como la presión y el volumen. Subsiguientemente se dan ejemplos de la forma en la cual se pueden aplicar dichas relaciones para los cálculos psicrométrico

Guias prácticas para los sistemas de flujo

Este artículo cubre los distintos componentes de los sistemas de flujo tanto desde un punto de vista conceptual como desde un punto de vista práctico, indicando un gran número de “buenas prácticas de ingeniería” (también conocidas como “reglas de dedo” ó “reglas heurísticas” ó soluciones prácticas, las cuales no aparecen fácilmente recopiladas en las publicaciones técnicas) que deben ser tenidas en cuenta en el diseño, montaje, operación, y mantenimiento de los mismos. Se resalta el hecho de que tales enfoques no son normalmente seguidos en los cursos universitarios convencionales sobre el particular tales como Transferencia de Momentum ó Mecánica de Fluídos