Skip to main content

Sharon Belenzon

Fundación Damm Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Fuqua School of Business
Box 90120, Durham, NC 27708-0120
Fuqua School of Business, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


Sharon Belenzon is the Fundación Damm Distinguished Professor of Strategy at the Fuqua School of Business. His research explores the conditions under which firms in developed nations coalesce into groups, and how different attributes of such groups are related to resource reallocation, innovation, and firm performance. Professor Belenzon’s research is dedicated to advance the understanding of how firm organizational structure mediates, and is mediated by, firm strategy, and of how structure conditions the way in which resources are mobilized across different units of the organization, focusing on financial resources, innovation, managerial talent, and brands (names). His research has been featured in top academic journals, such as Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Journal, and Journal of Law and Economics. Professor Belenzon received his PhD from the London School of Economics, and completed post-doctorate work at the University of Oxford, Nuffield College. He has also been the recipient of the Kauffman foundation post-doctorate fellowship at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He earned MA and BA degrees in Economics from TelAviv University. At Fuqua, he teaches the core strategy course, Principles of Strategy, and the PhD strategy seminar, and is engaged in advising PhD students.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Fundación Damm Distinguished Professor of Business Administration · 2023 - Present Fuqua School of Business
Professor of Business Administration · 2020 - Present Fuqua School of Business

In the News


Published August 7, 2025
The Lucrative Nature of R&D Contracts
Published November 7, 2023
Why Companies Should Prioritize Science
Published May 4, 2023
Duke Awards 44 Distinguished Professorships

View All News

Recent Publications


The Rise of Scientific Research in Corporate America

Journal Article Organization Science · July 1, 2025 It is widely believed that university and corporate research are complementary: companies invest in research in part to develop the capacity to absorb the knowledge emerging from universities. However, as we show in this paper, corporate research in the Un ... Full text Cite

When does patent protection spur cumulative research within firms?

Journal Article Journal of Law Economics and Organization · November 1, 2024 We estimate the effect of patent protection on follow-on investments in corporate scientific research. We exploit a new method for identifying an exogenous reduction in the protection a granted patent provides. Using data on public, research-active firms b ... Full text Cite

Managing risk in corporate groups: Limited liability, asset partitioning, and risk compartmentalization

Journal Article Strategic Management Journal · December 1, 2023 Research Summary: Limited liability enables corporate parents to avoid financial responsibility of their subsidiaries. However, courts can disregard separate legal personality, “pierce the corporate veil,” and impose the debts of a subsidiary on its parent ... Full text Cite
View All Publications

Recent Grants


Federal procurement and R&D policies and private innovation

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation · 2023 - 2025

Intellectual Property Rights, Start-ups, and the Market for Technology in the American Innovation Ecosystem

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by Qualcomm Incorporated · 2022 - 2023

View All Grants

Education, Training & Certifications


London School of Economics (United Kingdom) · 2005 Ph.D.