Overview
Ashish Arora is the Senior Associate Dean for Strategy and Rex D. Adams Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
His research focuses on the economics of technology and technical change. Arora's research has included the study of technology intensive industries such as software, biotechnology and chemicals, the economics of information security, and the role of patents and licensing in promoting technology startups. He has studied the rise of the software industry and the pharmaceutical industry in emerging economies. His current research focuses on the management of intellectual property and licensing in corporations, and innovation based entrepreneurship.
Arora has taught a variety of courses, including Economics of Information Security and Risk Management. He currently teaches Entrepreneurial Strategy for Innovation Based Ventures, and Emerging Markets Strategy.
He serves as departmental editor, Management Science, served as an editor of Research Policy between 2008 - 2014, and is on the editorial board of Strategic Management Journal, Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, Information Economics and Policy, Journal of Evolutionary Economics. In the past, he has served on advisory panels to the Secretary of Commerce, the National Academy of Sciences, and The Association for Computing Machinery.
He has consulted to the Chemical Manufacturing Association, National Science Foundation, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Intellectual Ventures, UK Intellectual Property Office, the Brattle Group, Intel Capital and Tata Consultancy Services, and to startups including SCA Technologies, Upswing (advisory board), Wunderbar Kids (advisory board).
Arora received his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University in 1992, and was on the faculty at the Heinz School, Carnegie Mellon University, where he held the H. John Heinz Professorship, till 2009. He has served as a visiting professor at Scuola Santa Anna, Pisa, Bocconi University, Milan, and Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
His research focuses on the economics of technology and technical change. Arora's research has included the study of technology intensive industries such as software, biotechnology and chemicals, the economics of information security, and the role of patents and licensing in promoting technology startups. He has studied the rise of the software industry and the pharmaceutical industry in emerging economies. His current research focuses on the management of intellectual property and licensing in corporations, and innovation based entrepreneurship.
Arora has taught a variety of courses, including Economics of Information Security and Risk Management. He currently teaches Entrepreneurial Strategy for Innovation Based Ventures, and Emerging Markets Strategy.
He serves as departmental editor, Management Science, served as an editor of Research Policy between 2008 - 2014, and is on the editorial board of Strategic Management Journal, Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, Information Economics and Policy, Journal of Evolutionary Economics. In the past, he has served on advisory panels to the Secretary of Commerce, the National Academy of Sciences, and The Association for Computing Machinery.
He has consulted to the Chemical Manufacturing Association, National Science Foundation, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Intellectual Ventures, UK Intellectual Property Office, the Brattle Group, Intel Capital and Tata Consultancy Services, and to startups including SCA Technologies, Upswing (advisory board), Wunderbar Kids (advisory board).
Arora received his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University in 1992, and was on the faculty at the Heinz School, Carnegie Mellon University, where he held the H. John Heinz Professorship, till 2009. He has served as a visiting professor at Scuola Santa Anna, Pisa, Bocconi University, Milan, and Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Rex Adams Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
·
2010 - Present
Fuqua School of Business
Professor of Business Administration
·
2009 - Present
Fuqua School of Business
Recent Publications
The reorganization of the American innovation ecosystem and the challenge of translating science
Journal Article Industrial and Corporate Change · December 1, 2025 In this paper, we focus on lack of translational research as a potential explanation for the recent slowdown in productivity growth, as opposed to a slowdown in science or the decline in the novelty of science. We provide evidence that the translation of s ... Full text CiteThe 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 CiteInventive capabilities in the division of innovative labor
Journal Article Economics of Innovation and New Technology · January 1, 2025 We study how a firm's inventive capability conditions its participation in a division of innovative labor. Using a survey of US manufacturing firms, and treating inventive capability as unobserved, we estimate a finite-mixture model guided by simple theory ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Federal procurement and R&D policies and private innovation
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation · 2023 - 2025Intellectual Property Rights, Start-ups, and the Market for Technology in the American Innovation Ecosystem
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Qualcomm Incorporated · 2022 - 2023View All Grants
Education
Stanford University ·
1992
Ph.D.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (India) ·
1986
M.A.
St. Stephen's College, Delhi (India) ·
1984
B.A.