SIM Research Seminar by Louise Lindbjerg

The SIM Section invites you to a SIM Research Seminar where Louise Lindbjerg from Aalborg University will give  the following presentation:

The strategy of hiring entrepreneurs for corporate innovation

The seminar is hosted by Lars Frederiksen.

Abstract
What human capital do firms need to bring new ideas to market? Combining the registry and Community Innovation Survey from Denmark, we document a robust positive relationship between hiring former entrepreneurs and firms’ sales from innovation. Individual sorting across firms does not appear to produce patterns that can explain this relationship; neither do overall ability, prior success, hiring modality, technical or general managerial skills, or industry experience differences between founders and non-founders. Entrepreneurial human capital is more useful when paired with middle management decision rights, for more incremental offerings, and for innovation-active firms, but is susceptible to depreciation. Our findings suggest former founders possess execution skills, a generalist ability to create and exploit market gaps by acquiring and mobilizing resources around new ideas. By shedding light on the nature of entrepreneurial skills, we highlight a novel human capital input to innovation that may help firms appropriate a larger share of the value their knowledge generates.

  
Everyone is welcome!