Rahul Kapoor

• Carliss Baldwin, Marcel Bogers, Rahul Kapoor, Joel West (2024), Focusing the ecosystem lens on innovation studies, Research Policy, 53 (3), pp. 104-949. Abstract

  For nearly a century, the key role of innovation in economic growth has been acknowledged and studied. Today, innovations are increasingly understood as being embedded in ecosystems of autonomous actors, whether firms, other organizations, or individuals. These actors contribute in complementary ways to create a value proposition that is greater than the sum of the parts, with the integration of their products and processes made possible by modular interfaces between actors. Here we review the emergence of the ecosystem lens within innovation studies in the context of the Special Issue on Innovation Ecosystems and Ecosystem Innovation. After summarizing the history of the special issue, we review the nine articles in the special issue and show how they relate to defining the actors, joint value creation by the actors, coordinating the actors, value capture by the actors, and then the large issue of analyzing ecosystems as the unit of analysis. From this, we offer suggestions for future ecosystem research, including opportunities to combine the ecosystem lens with other lenses used in innovation studies, and new methods for studying ecosystem phenomena.

• Rahul Kapoor and Johann Peter Murmann (2024), The Organizational and Technological Origins of the US Shale Gas Revolution, 1947 to 2012, Industrial and Corporate Change, 33 (1), pp. 106-125. Abstract

  We explore the origins and the development of hydraulic fracking technology that made possible United States’ unexpected rise as a top producer of oil and gas. As hydraulic fracking was first used extensively to produce shale gas and only later to produce shale oil, we focus on analyzing what is often referred to as the “shale gas revolution.” We trace how the shale gas ecosystem evolved, what role different actors played in the unexpected shale gas revolution, and how the strategies and knowledge bases of the different actors differed and evolved over time.

• Rahul Kapoor and Daniel Wilde (2023), Peering Into a Crystal Ball: Forecasting Behavior and Industry Foresight, Strategic Management Journal. Abstract

  What makes some managers and entrepreneurs better at forecasting the industry context than others? We argue that, regardless of experience or expertise, a learning-based forecasting behavior in which individuals attend to and incorporate new relevant information from the environment into an updated belief that aligns with the Bayesian belief updating process is likely to generate superior industry foresight. However, the effectiveness of such a cognitively demanding process diminishes under high levels of uncertainty. We find support for these arguments using an experimental design of forecasting tournaments in the managerially relevant context of the global automotive industry from 2016-2019. The study provides a novel account of individual-level forecasting behavior and its effectiveness in an evolving industry, and suggests important implications for managers and entrepreneurs.

• Shiva Agarwal and Rahul Kapoor (2023), Value Creation Trade-off in Business Ecosystems: Leveraging Complementarities while Managing Interdependencies, Organization Science, 34 (3), pp. 1216-1242. Abstract

  We explore the role of ecosystem-level complementary technologies in explaining an innovation’s commercialization success. On the one hand, connections with complementary technologies help innovations create more value for their users. On the other hand, it can also limit the focal innovation’s value creation by exposing them to performance bottlenecks and adjustment costs. We further draw on the notion of specialization of complementary assets to ecosystems by considering complementary technologies that are specialized to a focal ecosystem and those that are available across multiple ecosystems. We highlight that while those complementary technologies that are specialized to an ecosystem facilitate greater value creation, they are more likely to subject the focal innovation to performance bottlenecks. Evidence from 244,034 apps launched by software developers for Apple’s iPhone ecosystem during 2008-2015 offers strong support for our framework.

• John Eklund and Rahul Kapoor (2021), Mind the Gaps: How Organization Design Shapes the Sourcing of Inventions, Organization Science. Abstract

  An important problem for many firms is sustaining their rate of innovation by launching new products on an ongoing basis. Accordingly, firms need to replenish their innovation pipelines with new inventions as existing inventions are weeded out or reach fruition. The replenishment can be done through internally generated inventions or through externally sourced inventions via licensing, alliance, or acquisition modes. Drawing on incentives- and knowledge-based views of the firm, we consider the difference in managerial decision making between centralized and decentralized research and development (R&D) organization designs and how it impacts firms’ propensities to draw on externally sourced inventions. As compared with centralized designs, decentralized designs are associated with greater incentives for managers to replenish their firms’ pipelines but are limited in terms of intraorganizational knowledge flows that can facilitate the creation of inventions. We explore these mechanisms using a novel data set of firms’ sourcing decisions within the pharmaceutical industry between 1996 and 2015. We find that firms with decentralized R&D designs replenish their pipelines with a higher proportion of externally sourced inventions than do firms with centralized designs. This difference is found to be mainly attributed to external sourcing via licensing and for inventions of moderate novelty. This study offers an important contribution to the question of how firms organize for innovation, highlighting the relationship between internal R&D organization design and the external sourcing of inventions. In so doing, it illustrates that the choice of organization design in terms of centralization or decentralization can shape a firm’s locus of innovation.

• Rahul Kapoor and Thomas Klueter (2021), Unbundling and Managing Uncertainty Surrounding Emerging Technologies, Strategy Science, 6 (1), pp. 62-74. Abstract

  Emerging technologies, while offering enormous potential for economic growth, carry a high degree of uncertainty regarding whether and when that potential may be realized. How can firms evaluate the uncertainty surrounding an emerging technology? To address this question, we offer a structured approach that unbundles the uncertainty surrounding emerging technologies, incorporating both supply- and demand-side factors. These include the focal technology itself, the potential market applications, the users adopting the technology, the ecosystem of activities that support the technology’s value creation, and the business model with which the technology is being commercialized. We further consider that the uncertainty surrounding each of these sources may not be resolved in a vacuum, but, rather, that it may interact with other sources of uncertainty in a pooled, sequential, or reciprocal way. Such a structured approach of evaluating uncertainty can help firms and managers in terms of the cognitive processes and the managerial practices and provide microfoundations for dynamic managerial capabilities. We illustrate the applicability of the framework for two emerging technologies—gene therapy and autonomous vehicles—and how the framework can be integrated with prominent managerial practices for managing uncertainty.

• Natalya Vinokurova and Rahul Kapoor (2020), Converting Inventions into Innovations in Large Firms: How Inventors at Xerox Navigated the Innovation Process to Commercialize Their Ideas, Strategic Management Journal, 41 (13), pp. 2372-2399. Abstract

  How can inventors in large firms navigate their organizations’ innovation processes to commercialize breakthrough inventions? Using historical case studies of three breakthrough inventions at Xerox—office workstations, personal computers, and laser printers, we illustrate how inventors navigated multiple evaluation criteria across different organizational units to attract resources towards inventions. These criteria stemmed from Xerox’s first successful breakthrough invention, the 914 copier and the specific objectives of the organizational units. We highlight two approaches deployed by Xerox inventors—searching across the organization for more favorable evaluation criteria and shaping the evaluation criteria to help attract resources. While searching leveraged the heterogeneity of evaluation criteria across the different organizational units, shaping required the presence of evaluative uncertainty with respect to the appropriate criteria for evaluating breakthrough inventions.

• Martin Ganco, Rahul Kapoor, Gwendolyn K. Lee (2020), From Rugged Landscapes to Rugged Ecosystems: Structure of Interdependencies and Firms’ Innovative Search, Academy of Management Review. Abstract

  Managers and academics are increasingly viewing innovating firms as being interdependent on other firms in the business ecosystem. But how might the structure of interdependencies shape the innovativeness of firms in an ecosystem? To answer this question, we develop a search-based theory that considers a multiplicity of upstream and downstream firms simultaneously innovating in an ecosystem, contributing to and searching for novel combinations of components. We conceptualize two types of structural interdependencies between firms in an ecosystem based on the structure of technological interactions between components and the structure of input–output flows between stages of production. Using a simulation model, we show that downstream firms can benefit from mixing and matching components produced upstream, whereas upstream firms can benefit from optimizing their search more narrowly around their focal components. Importantly, these benefits that accrue to upstream and downstream firms are significantly impacted by the structure of technological and flow interdependencies in the ecosystem.

• Rahul Kapoor and Thomas Klueter (2020), Progress and Setbacks: The Two Faces of Technology Emergence, Research Policy, 49 (1). Abstract

  Emerging technologies are an important driver of economic growth. However, the process of their emergence may not only be characterized by technological progress but also by setbacks. We offer a perspective on technology emergence that explicitly incorporates setbacks into the technology’s evolution and explains how industry participants may react to setbacks in emerging technologies. We consider that the locus of innovation in an emerging technology encompasses different types of organizations (industry incumbents, entrants and public research organizations (PROs)) who operate in different institutional environments, and explore how these organizations react to setbacks in terms of their R&D efforts. We study two emerging biotechnologies in the global pharmaceutical industry – gene therapy (GT) and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The emergence of both technologies during the 1990s was punctuated by periods of setbacks. We observe a gradual increase in industry participants’ R&D efforts during periods of progress and a significant decline in those efforts immediately following setbacks. The decline in R&D efforts was more pronounced for firms than for PROs as well as for those firms that were listed on the stock market in contrast to those that were privately financed. Finally, the decline in R&D efforts towards GT was much more pronounced for those organizations located in countries with high capital fluidity. These findings reinforce that organizational and institutional characteristics that are typically attributed to facilitate R&D efforts towards emerging technologies do induce greater levels of those efforts during periods of progress. However, the same characteristics are also associated with a significant decline in R&D efforts immediately following periods of setbacks. Overall, the study illustrates how setbacks reconfigure the locus of innovation in emerging technologies and offers a richer perspective on technology emergence as one that is rooted in both progress and setbacks. In so doing, it highlights the challenges of sustaining technological progress and offers guidance for policy.

• John Eklund and Rahul Kapoor (2019), Pursuing the New while Sustaining the Current: Incumbent Strategies and Firm Value during the Nascent Period of Industry Change, Organization Science, 30 (2), pp. 383-404. Abstract

  This study considers the nascent period of industry change when the prevalent business model is being threatened by a new model, but there is significant uncertainty with respect to whether and when the new model will dominate. We focus on the challenge of incumbents pursuing both models simultaneously during the nascent period, and the implications on their firms’ valuations. Our theory is premised on the adjustment costs incurred by incumbents associated with the sharing of resources across business models and the conflict between managers vying for limited resources. While firms’ assets and competitive environments are key drivers of their value, we argue that they also impact adjustment costs. Evidence from the U.S. electric utility industry, which is undergoing a change from a centralized to a decentralized model, offers strong support for our arguments. The greater the level of incumbents’ assets that are specific to the existing model, and the greater the level of competition that they face, the lower are their firms’ valuations when investing in the new model relative to when investing in the existing model. Hence, ironically, those incumbents potentially most threatened by the change seem to be least rewarded for their efforts to renew themselves. However, pursuing the new model via alliances can help mitigate adjustment costs. The study uncovers the challenges that incumbents face as they pursue the new model in tandem with the existing dominant model, and helps explain why some incumbents may successfully navigate the changing industry landscape while others may stumble.

• All Research from Rahul Kapoor »

Past Courses

MGMT7310 – TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY

The course is designed to meet the needs of future managers, entrepreneurs, consultants and investors who must analyze and develop business strategies in technology-based industries. The emphasis is on learning conceptual models and frameworks to help navigate the complexity and dynamism in such industries. This is not a course in new product development or in using information technology to improve business processes and offerings. We will take a perspective of both established and emerging firms competing through technological innovations, and study the key strategic drivers of value creation and appropriation in the context of business ecosystems. The course uses a combination of cases, simulation and readings. The cases are drawn primarily from technology-based industries. Note, however, that the case discussions are mainly based on strategic (not technical) issues. Hence, a technical background is not required for fruitful participation.

Past Courses

• MGMT2140 - Tech & Innov Strategy

  The course is designed to meet the needs of future managers, entrepreneurs, consultants and investors who must analyze and develop business strategies in technology-based industries. The emphasis is on learning conceptual models and frameworks to help navigate the complexity and dynamism in such industries. This is not a course in new product development or in using information technology to improve business processes and offerings. We will take a perspective of both established and emerging firms competing through technological innovations, and study the key strategic drivers of value creation and appropriation in the context of business ecosystems. There is definitely an overlap in content with other courses in intermediate microeconomics, or managerial economics. Nevertheless, the treatment is sufficiently distinctive to make it complementary to those other treatments for a student who is particularly interested in economic change, or is otherwise interested in acquiring a broader view of economics.

• MGMT2370 - Management of Technology

  The course is designed to meet the needs of the future managers, entrepreneurs, consultants and investors who must analyze and develop business strategies in technology-based industries. The emphasis is on learning conceptual models and frameworks to help navigate the complexity and dynamism in such industries. This is not a course in new product development or in using information technology to improve business processes and offerings. We will take a perspective of both established and emerging firms competing through technological innovations, and study the key strategic drivers of value creation and appropriation in the context of business ecosystems. In addition to prerequisites, this course is exclusively reserved for Management and Technology students.

• MGMT6110 - Managing Est Enterprise

  This course is about managing large enterprises that face the strategic challenge of being the incumbent in the market and the organizational challenge of needing to balance the forces of inertia and change. The firms of interest in this course tend to operate in a wide range of markets and segments, frequently on a global basis, and need to constantly deploy their resources to fend off challenges from new entrants and technologies that threaten their established positions. The class is organized around three distinct but related topics that managers of established firms must consider: strategy, human and social capital, and global strategy.

• MGMT7310 - Technology Strategy

  The course is designed to meet the needs of future managers, entrepreneurs, consultants and investors who must analyze and develop business strategies in technology-based industries. The emphasis is on learning conceptual models and frameworks to help navigate the complexity and dynamism in such industries. This is not a course in new product development or in using information technology to improve business processes and offerings. We will take a perspective of both established and emerging firms competing through technological innovations, and study the key strategic drivers of value creation and appropriation in the context of business ecosystems. The course uses a combination of cases, simulation and readings. The cases are drawn primarily from technology-based industries. Note, however, that the case discussions are mainly based on strategic (not technical) issues. Hence, a technical background is not required for fruitful participation.

• MGMT7980 - Managing and Motivating

  People are the most valuable asset of any business, but they are also the most unpredictable, and the most difficult, asset to manage. And although managing people well is critical to the health of any organization, most managers don't get the training they need to make good management decisions. Now, award-winning authors and renowned management Professors Mike Useem and Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School have designed this course to introduce you to the key elements of managing people. Based on their popular course at Wharton, this course will teach you how to motivate individual performance and design reward systems, how to design jobs and organize work for high performance, how to make good and timely management decisions, and how to design and change the your organization's architecture. By the end of this course, you'll have developed the skills you need to start motivating, organizing, and rewarding people in your organization so that you can thrive as a business and as a social organization. This course can also only be applied towards unrestricted electives at the undergraduate level.

• MGMT8970 - Global Modular Course A

  Special course arranged for Wharton MBA students, focused on global business, management and innovation.

• MGMT8980 - Global Modular Course B

  removing WH 898 as erroneous crosslist.

• MGMT9270 - Tech & Innov Strategy

  This quarter-length doctoral seminar deals with major streams of management research in technology strategy and innovation. We will focus on both classical topics such as incumbents' management of technological change and industry evolution, and new emergent topics such as ecosystems and platforms. The emphasis will be on understanding the link between technologies and firms in terms of both strategy choices and performance outcomes.

• MGMT9320 - Prosem in Mgmt

  This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the methodological approaches we commonly think of as qualitative, with special emphasis on ethnography, semi- structured interviews, case studies, content analysis, and mixed-methods research. The course will cover the basic techniques for collecting, interpreting, and analyzing qualitative (i.e. non-numerical) data. In the spring quarter, the course will operate on two interrelated dimensions, one focused on the theoretical approaches to various types of qualitative research, the other focused on the practical techniques of data collection, such as identifying key informants, selecting respondents, collecting field notes and conducting interviews. In the fall semester, the course will operate on two interrelated dimensions, one focused on the theoretical approaches on building arguments and theory from qualitative data, the other focused on the practical techniques of data collection, such as analyzing data, writing, and presenting findings. Note: This class is part of a two-part sequence which focuses on qualitative data collection and analysis. The first of this course, offered in the Spring, focuses on data collection and the second half of the course, offered the following Fall, will focus on qualitative data analysis. Each course is seven weeks long. Students may take either class independently or consecutively.

• WH2130 - Global Modular Course B

  TBD

• Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2024
• Best Paper Prize (Behavioral Strategy), Strategic Management Society Conference, 2023
• Wharton Teaching Excellence Award, 2023
• Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2021
• Distinguished Paper Award, Academy of Management STR Division, 2021
• Dan and Mary Lou Schendel Best Paper Prize, Strategic Management Journal, 2020
• Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2020
• Distinguished Paper Award, Academy of Management STR Division, 2020
• Wharton Teaching Excellence Award (Undergraduate Division), 2019
• Wharton Faculty Fellow, 2019
• Research in Strategic Management Scholar, Strategy Research Foundation, 2019
• Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Review, 2018
• Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2016
• Finalist, Academy of Management Journal Best Article Award, 2015
• Second Prize, Best Paper in Innovation Management (EBS Business School and MikroFORUM), 2013
• First runner-up, INFORMS-Industry Studies Association Best Paper Prize, 2013
• Outstanding Reviewer Award, Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management, 2012
• Winner, Academy of Management Technology and Innovation Management Division Past Chairs Emerging Scholar Award, 2011
• Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2010
• Finalist, Sloan Industry Studies Dissertation Award, 2009
• Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2008
• Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2005
• Carolyn Dexter Award Nominee, Academy of Management Meeting, 2005
• Nanyang Technological University Natsteel Gold Medal, 1997
• Singapore Airlines – Neptune Orient Lines Undergraduate Scholarship, 1993

• This will determine Tesla's growth over the next decade, CNN Business Perspectives - 07/29/2020
• Why Tesla needs Elon Musk, CNN Business Perspectives - 03/20/2019
• Why We Might See ‘Facebook Prime’ in the Near Future, Fortune - 07/31/2018

Knowledge @ Wharton

• Why Companies Need to Address Caregiver Burnout, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/30/2024
• Slow Burn | Jisung Park, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/30/2024
• How to Improve Work-life Balance for Caregiving Employees, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/30/2024
• Why ETFs Are Scoring Over Mutual Funds, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/29/2024
• The AI-Savvy Leader: Building the Leadership Skills to Make AI Work, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/29/2024
• Summer Reading: Wharton Faculty Picks, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/23/2024
• What Does Your Writing Style Say About You?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/23/2024
• How to Align Private Equity Motives with Nursing Home Outcomes, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/22/2024
• Baby Bust | Stewart Friedman, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/16/2024
• Why Are Private Equity Firms Buying Mental Health Clinics?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/15/2024