Copenhagen Business School

About: Copenhagen Business School is a education organization based out in Copenhagen, Hovedstaden, Denmark. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Corporate governance & Entrepreneurship. The organization has 2194 authors who have published 9649 publications receiving 341898 citations.

A story of breakthrough versus incremental innovation: corporate entrepreneurship in the global pharmaceutical industry

Abstract: Breakthrough innovations are difficult to create, yet they are critical to long-term competitive advantage. This highlights the considerable opportunities and risks that face corporate entrepreneurs. We study the complex explorative and exploitative entrepreneurial processes of multinational firms operating in the global pharmaceutical industry. We analyze over 1,500 new drug approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We find that a successful track record in breakthrough innovation significantly increases the likelihood of a current breakthrough, while achievements in nongeneric incremental innovation do not have a significant effect. A strong foundation in generic incremental innovation hinders breakthrough performance. Thus, incremental innovation processes appear to be heterogeneous. Products that emerge from joint ventures and alliances are more likely to be breakthroughs. Foreign subsidiary participation in innovation processes did not significantly inhibit breakthroughs. These suggestive findings support the decentralization literature that highlights the benefits associated with exploiting knowledge from foreign centers of excellence. Contrary to the literature arguing that younger firms tend to have greater advantages in exploration, we do not find firm age to be a significant predictor of the likelihood of breakthrough innovation. Copyright © 2010 Strategic Management Society.

Age Structure of the Workforce and Firm Performance

Abstract: In this contribution, we examine the interrelation between corporate age structures and firm performance. In particular, we address the issues, whether firms with young rather than older employees are successful and whether firms with homogeneous or heterogeneous workforces are doing well. Several theoretical approaches are discussed with respect to these questions and divergent hypotheses are derived. Using Danish linked employer-employee data, we find that both mean age and dispersion of age in firms are inversely u-shaped related to firm performance.

Accessing remote knowledge—the roles of trade fairs, pipelines, crowdsourcing and listening posts

Abstract: Work on clusters during the last few decades convincingly demonstrates enhanced opportunities for local growth and entrepreneurship, but external upstream knowledge linkages are often overlooked or taken for granted. This article is an attempt to remedy this situation by investigating why and how young, single-site firms search for distant sources of complementary competences. The discussion is positioned within a comprehensive framework that allows a systematic investigation of the approaches available to firms engaged in globally extended learning. By utilizing the distinction between problem awareness (what remote knowledge is needed?) and source awareness (where does this knowledge reside?) the article explores the relative merits and inherent limitations of pipelines, listening posts, crowdsourcing and trade fairs to acquire knowledge and solutions from geographically and relationally remote sources.

Shielding Idiosyncrasy from Isomorphic Pressures: Towards Optimal Distinctiveness in European Filmmaking

Abstract: This paper advances a micro theory of creative action by examining how distinctive artists shield their idiosyncratic styles from the isomorphic pressures of a field. It draws on the cases of three internationally recognized, distinctive European film directors –Pedro Almodovar (Spain), Nanni Moretti (Italy) and Lars von Trier (Denmark). We argue that in a cinema field, managing artistic pressures for distinctiveness versus business pressures for profits drive filmmakers’ quest for optimal distinctiveness. This quest seeks both exclusive (unique style) and inclusive (audienceappealing) artwork with legitimacy in the field. Our theory of creative action for optimal distinctiveness suggests that film directors increase their control by personally consolidating artistic and production roles, by forming close partnership with a committed producer, and by establishing their own production company. Ironically, to escape the iron cage of local cinema fields, film directors increasingly control the coupling of art and business.

User Community vs. Producer Innovation Development Efficiency: A First Empirical Study

Abstract: In this paper we report upon a first empirical exploration of the relative efficiency of innovation development by product users vs. product producers. In a study of over 50 years of product innovation in the whitewater kayaking field, we find users in aggregate were approximately 3X more efficient at developing important kayaking product innovations than were producers in aggregate. We speculate that this result is driven by what we term “efficiencies of scope” in problem-solving. These can favor an aggregation of many user innovators, each spending a little, over fewer producer innovators benefitting from higher economies of scale in product development. We also note that the present study explores only one initial point on what is likely to be a complex efficiency landscape.