{"71226":{"#nid":"71226","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tech Researchers Win 2008 Sloan Industry Studies Best Paper Prize","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech researchers recently won the 2008 Sloan Industry Studies Best Paper Award for their holistic examination of strategies employed by pharmaceutical firms for innovating in the realm of biotechnology.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ETitled \u0027Building Dynamic Capabilities: Innovation Driven by Individual-, Firm-, and Network-Level Effects,\u0027 the study was co-authored by Frank Rothaermel, associate professor of strategic management at Georgia Tech; and Drew Hess, who recently completed his doctorate in strategic management at Georgia Tech and accepted a faculty position at the University of Virginia.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThey published their paper in the journal Organization Science in 2007. The Best Paper Prize they won is awarded annually to articles in leading academic journals that demonstrate excellence in industry studies research.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe industry studies community is multidisciplinary, composed of researchers who gain an in-depth understanding of industries through a wide range of quantitative and qualitative research methods (including direct observation and primary data collection). They usually conduct their research across multiple firms within a particular industry.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFor the Best Paper Prize, Rothaermel and Hess were up against researchers from a variety of other fields, including economics, sociology, psychology, political science, and engineering. Rothaermel and Hess reportedly impressed their peers with their comprehensive research approach, involving close field contact with industry people and multiple-level analysis of tremendous amounts of data from a 22-year period. One of the evaluators wrote that the \u0027study is possibly the most comprehensive\u0027 if its kind.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe authors say their most surprising finding concerned the role that very high-performing scientists (termed \u0027star scientists\u0027) have on innovation within a pharmaceutical firm. Several previous studies have emphasized the importance of star scientists, but Rothaermel and Hess found that average performers (the rank-and-file or \u0027nonstar scientists\u0027) were primarily responsible for drug development. The stars are more important as visionaries, guiding the firm in promising new research directions.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022This research demonstrates that individuals matter, but it\u0027s important to understand that not all human capital is created equal,\u0022 says Rothaermel, who considers the study\u0027s findings relevant to innovation in other industries. \u0022Once firms understand that, they can organize their structure accordingly to enhance their innovative performance.\u0022\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIn addition to the individual-level contributions of scientists, the researchers also studied other strategies employed by pharmaceutical firms to build innovative capability, including the acquisition of biotechnology firms and the formation of alliances with other firms or universities.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMany firms employ multiple strategies to innovation at once, but that grab-bag approach may actually lead to decreases in innovative output, found Rothaermel and Hess. \u0022In other words, when investigating the number of innovation mechanisms a firm should employ, more is not always better,\u0022 they write. \u0022Instead, the managers who take a discerning and discriminating approach towards selecting innovation mechanisms will be most successful in building the dynamic capabilities necessary to continuously innovate.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ETheir Best Paper Prize was presented May 1 at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation\u0027s 2008 Industries Studies Conference in Boston.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESince 1990, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation\u0027s Industry Studies program has operated on the belief that industries are sufficiently different from one another that they individually merit rigorous academic study. Rothaermel won a two-year Sloan Industry Studies Fellowship in 2006. He holds the College of Management\u0027s Angel and Stephen M. Deedy Professorship.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers recently won the 2008 Sloan Industry Studies Best Paper Award for their holistic examination of strategies employed by pharmaceutical firms for innovating in the realm of biotechnology.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers win Best Paper Prize"}],"uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2008-05-07 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:01:10","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2008-05-07T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2008-05-07T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"71227":{"id":"71227","type":"image","title":"Frank Rothaermel","body":null,"created":"1449177358","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:15:58","changed":"1475894632","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:52"}},"media_ids":["71227"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/mgt.gatech.edu\/index.html","title":"College of Management"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"139","name":"Business"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2008","name":"College of Management"},{"id":"2107","name":"Expert"},{"id":"2104","name":"Frank Rothaermel"},{"id":"246","name":"Georgia Institute of Technology"},{"id":"109","name":"Georgia Tech"},{"id":"2106","name":"Paper"},{"id":"170764","name":"Sloan Industry Studies Best Paper Award"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003EBrad Dixon\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECollege of Management\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:brad.dixon@mgt.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EContact Brad Dixon\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-3943\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["brad.dixon@mgt.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}