Scholars@Duke
Ashish Arora

Ashish Arora

Rex Adams Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Fuqua School of Business
ashish.arora@duke.edu
Box 90120, Durham, NC 27708-0120
Fuqua School of Business, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

The Rise of Scientific Research in Corporate America

Journal Article Organization Science · December 17, 2024 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 ... 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

The missing middle: Value capture in the market for startups

Journal Article Research Policy · April 1, 2024 We argue that innovations that involve both upstream (technological) and downstream (commercialization) challenges are disadvantaged in a startup-based innovation system where startups develop inventions, while incumbents acquire startups. We propose an an ... Full text Cite

First-mover advantage and the private value of public science

Journal Article Research Policy · November 1, 2023 Technical progress increasingly relies on the use of scientific knowledge. But if much of this knowledge is in the public domain, can it be a source of private value? We find that average private returns to using public science are small, especially in cro ... Full text Cite

Invention value, inventive capability and the large firm advantage

Journal Article Research Policy · January 1, 2023 Do large firms produce more valuable inventions, and if so, why? After confirming that large firms indeed produce more valuable inventions, we consider two possible sources: a superior ability to invent, or a superior ability to extract value from their in ... Full text Cite

Science and the Market for Technology

Journal Article Management Science · October 1, 2022 Well-functioning markets for technology (MFT) allow inventors to sell their inventions to others that may derive more value from them. We argue that the growing use of science in inventions enhances MFT. Science-based inventions have higher gains from trad ... Full text Cite

Matching patents to compustat firms, 1980–2015: Dynamic reassignment, name changes, and ownership structures

Journal Article Research Policy · June 1, 2021 This paper describes the methodology used to construct a new sample of patents matched to Compustat firms for the period 1980–2015. We compare our data to existing NBER data sets and underscore several methodological improvements, including dynamic matchin ... Full text Cite

Knowledge sharing in alliances and alliance portfolios

Scholarly Edition · March 1, 2021 We develop a model of knowledge sharing in alliances and alliance portfolios. We show that, once the issue of encouraging effective collaboration is put center stage, many standard intuitions of the learning race view and alliance portfolio literature are ... Full text Cite

Waiting for the payday? The market for startups and the timing of entrepreneurial exit

Journal Article Management Science · March 1, 2021 Most technology startups are set up for exit through acquisition by large corporations. In choosing when to sell, startups face a trade-off. Early acquisition reduces execution errors, but later acquisition both improves the likelihood of finding a better ... Full text Cite

Knowledge Spillovers and Corporate Investment in Scientific Research

Journal Article American Economic Review · March 1, 2021 Using data on 800,000 corporate publications and patent citations to these publications between 1980 and 2015, we study how corporate investment in research is linked to its use in the firm’s inventions, and to spillovers to rivals. We find that private re ... Full text Cite

The changing structure of American innovation: Some cautionary remarks for economic growth

Journal Article · January 1, 2020 A defining feature of modern economic growth is the systematic application of science to advance technology. However, despite sustained progress in scientific knowledge, recent productivity growth in the United States has been disappointing. We review majo ... Full text Cite

Companies persist with biomedical papers.

Journal Article Nature · May 2019 Full text Cite

A theory of the US innovation ecosystem:Evolution and the social value of diversity

Journal Article Industrial and Corporate Change · April 1, 2019 This article reviews evidence on the changing structure of the US innovation ecosystem and then develops a simple model of the rise and fall of the large corporate lab. We suggest that the growth of American universities allowed at first the formation of l ... Full text Cite

Reversed citations and the localization of knowledge spillovers

Scholarly Edition · May 1, 2018 Spillover of knowledge is considered to be an important cause of agglomeration of inventive activity. Many studies argue that knowledge spillovers are localized based on the observation that patents tend to cite nearby patents disproportionately. Specifica ... Full text Cite

The decline of science in corporate R&D

Journal Article Strategic Management Journal · January 1, 2018 Research summary: In this article, we document a shift away from science by large corporations between 1980 and 2006. We find that publications by company scientists have declined over time in a range of industries. We also find that the value attributable ... Full text Cite

Papers to patents.

Journal Article Nature · December 2017 Full text Cite

Back to Basics: Why Do Firms Invest in Research?

Scholarly Edition · February 2017 Cite

The paradox of openness revisited: Collaborative innovation and patenting by UK innovators

Journal Article Research Policy · September 1, 2016 We revisit the "paradox of openness" in the literature which consists of two conflicting views on the link between patenting and open innovation - the spillover prevention and the organizational openness views. We use the data from the Survey of Innovation ... Full text Open Access Cite

Introduction to the Special Section on Patent Use

Journal Article Research Policy · September 1, 2016 Full text Cite

The acquisition and commercialization of invention in American manufacturing: Incidence and impact

Scholarly Edition · July 1, 2016 Recent accounts suggest the development and commercialization of invention has become more "open." Greater division of labor between inventors and innovators can enhance social welfare through gains from trade and economies of specialization. Moreover, thi ... Full text Cite

Question-based innovations in strategy research methods

Journal Article Strategic Management Journal · January 1, 2016 This special issue is devoted to exploring new methods for addressing questions in strategic management. This introduction synthesizes the collective contribution of the articles for strategy research. The articles draw on methods from other fields, extend ... Full text Cite

Public support for technical advance: The role of firm size

Journal Article Industrial and Corporate Change · August 1, 2015 This article develops a model that shows how firm size-that most important firm-level correlate of R&D-moderates the impact of demand- and supply-side government policies that support R&D. The most robust result is that government support to product R&D wi ... Full text Cite

Make, buy, organize: The interplay between research, external knowledge, and firm structure

Journal Article Strategic Management Journal · March 1, 2014 We bridge current streams of innovation research to explore the interplay between R&D, external knowledge, and organizational structure - three elements of a firm's innovation strategy, which we argue should logically be studied together. Using within-firm ... Full text Cite

Going soft: How the rise of software-based innovation led to the decline of japan's it industry and the resurgence of silicon valley

Journal Article Review of Economics and Statistics · October 28, 2013 This paper documents a systematic shift in the nature of innovation in information technology (IT) toward increasing dependence on software. Using a broad panel of U.S. and Japanese publicly listed IT firms in the period 1983 to 2004, we show that this cha ... Full text Cite

Managing licensing in a market for technology

Journal Article Management Science · May 1, 2013 Technology licensing is an important means for companies to extract more value from their intellectual assets. We build a model that helps understand how licensing activity should be organized within large corporations. More specifically, we compare decent ... Full text Cite

Private Investment in Human Capital and Industrial Development

Chapter · September 20, 2012 This chapter explores the role of human capital in the regional location of the software industry, focusing on private investment in the software exports industry of India during 1990-2003. The data support the significant effect of human capital on the gr ... Full text Cite

Private Investment in Human Capital and Industrial Development

Chapter · September 20, 2012 This chapter explores the role of human capital in the regional location of the software industry, focusing on private investment in the software exports industry of India during 1990-2003. The data support the significant effect of human capital on the gr ... Full text Cite

Insecure advantage? Markets for technology and the value of resources for entrepreneurial ventures

Journal Article Strategic Management Journal · March 1, 2012 We study how the impact of capabilities for performance is contingent upon the environment. Using a novel dataset of information security start-ups, we study how markets for technology change the relative impact of technology and marketing capabilities on ... Full text Cite

Managing licensing in a market for technology

Conference Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings · January 1, 2012 We analyze how licensing activity should be organized within large corporations. If licensing is decentralized, the business unit forgoes valuable licensing opportunities since rewards for licensing are (optimally) weaker than those for production. We theo ... Full text Cite

Cash-out or flameout! Opportunity cost and entrepreneurial strategy: Theory, and evidence from the information security industry

Journal Article Management Science · October 1, 2011 We analyze how entrepreneurial opportunity cost conditions performance. Departing from the common practice of using survival as a measure of entrepreneurial performance, we model both failure and cashout (liquidity event) as conditioned by the same underly ... Full text Cite

Complementarity and information technology adoption: Local area networks and the Internet

Journal Article Information Economics and Policy · July 1, 2010 This paper measures complementarity between two information technology adoption decisions. Assembling establishment-level data of software usage, we develop a discrete-choice model where establishments choose whether to adopt Internet Protocol-based LAN op ... Full text Cite

Competition and patching of security vulnerabilities: An empirical analysis

Journal Article Information Economics and Policy · May 1, 2010 We empirically estimate the effect of competition on vendor patching of software defects by exploiting variation in number of vendors that share a common flaw or common vulnerabilities. We distinguish between two effects: the direct competition effect when ... Full text Cite

Ideas for rent: An overview of markets for technology

Journal Article Industrial and Corporate Change · April 15, 2010 This article surveys some of the recent literature on technology markets, and summarizes its main issues and insights. We structure our analysis in three parts: the supply and demand of technology; the factors that condition the formation and growth of tec ... Full text Cite

An empirical analysis of software vendors' patch release behavior: Impact of vulnerability disclosure

Journal Article Information Systems Research · January 1, 2010 Akey aspect of better and more secure software is timely patch release by software vendors for the vulnerabilities in their products. Software vulnerability disclosure, which refers to the publication of vulnerability information, has generated intense deb ... Full text Cite

The market for technology

Chapter · January 1, 2010 This chapter reviews the growing literature on the "market for technology," a broad term that denotes trade in technology disembodied from physical goods. The market for technology flourished during the nineteenth century in the United States. After severa ... Full text Cite

A breath of fresh air? Firm type, scale, scope, and selection effects in drug development

Journal Article Management Science · October 1, 2009 This paper compares the innovation performance of established pharmaceutical firms and biotech companies, controlling for differences in the scale and scope of research. We develop a structural model to analyze more than 3,000 drug research and development ... Full text Cite

Authors' response

Journal Article Communications of the ACM · May 1, 2009 Full text Cite

Economic and business dimensions: The extent of globalization of software innovation

Journal Article Communications of the ACM · February 1, 2009 Some of the significant factors associated with software innovation and the globalization of the industry are discussed. Researchers are investigating the way a software will be developed and introduced in the market. It is expected that software can be de ... Full text Cite

Is the division of labor limited by the extent of the market?: Evidence from the chemical industry

Journal Article Industrial and Corporate Change · January 1, 2009 In the age of outsourcing, it is easy to forget that outsourcing is simply one manifestation of the division of labor. Adam Smith's dictum that the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market has created difficulties when applied to a division ... Full text Cite

R&D and the patent premium

Journal Article International Journal of Industrial Organization · September 1, 2008 We analyze the effect of patenting on R&D with a model linking a firm's R&D effort with its decision to patent, recognizing that R&D and patenting affect one another and are both driven by many of the same factors. Using survey data for the U.S. manufactur ... Full text Cite

Optimal Policy for software sulnerability disclosure

Journal Article Management Science · April 1, 2008 Software vulnerabilities represent a serious threat to cybersecurity, most cyberattacks exploit known vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, there is no agreed-upon policy for their disclosure. Disclosure policy (which sets a protected period given to a vendor to ... Full text Cite

Patents and the market for technology

Other Frontiers of Economics and Globalization · January 1, 2008 Firms have typically tried to profit from their technical innovations by selling them indirectly, embedded in goods and services. Markets for technology, in which innovations are sold or licensed, have been much rarer. Yet, trade in technology has grown sy ... Full text Cite

The Chemical Industry

Chapter · 2008 Cite

Software

Chapter · 2008 Cite

Bridging the Gap: Conclusions

Journal Article · September 1, 2007 This chapter summarizes what is common and what is not in the experiences of the individual countries studied. It develops an interpretive framework for understanding the growth of the software industry in these countries, and attempts to distill the lesso ... Full text Cite

From Underdogs to Tigers: The Rise and Growth of the Software Industry in Brazil, China, India, Ireland, and Israel

Chapter · September 1, 2007 In 1980, the Indian software industry was practically non-existent. By the 1990s, the industry was one of the largest employers in manufacturing. Similar patterns of growth can be found in other emerging economies. Given that the software industry is commo ... Full text Cite

Organizational Capabilities and the Rise of the Software Industry in the Emerging Economies: Lessons from the History of some US Industries

Chapter · September 1, 2007 Agglomeration economies involving knowledge spillovers are a common explanation for persistent regional leadership, such as that displayed by India in software services. This chapter offers a different perspective by drawing upon recent work by Klepper on ... Full text Cite

Open versus closed firms and the dynamics of industry evolution

Journal Article Journal of Industrial Economics · September 1, 2007 We develop a model of industry evolution in which firms choose proprietary standards (closed firm) or adopt a common standard (open firm). A closed entrant can capture multiple profits whereas an open entrant faces lower entry barriers: The odds of closed ... Full text Cite

Proximity and information technology outsourcing: How local are IT services markets?

Journal Article Journal of Management Information Systems · September 1, 2007 We examine the question of which services are tradable within a concrete setting: the outsourcing of information technology (IT) services across a broad cross-section of establishments in the United States. If markets for IT services are local, then we sho ... Full text Cite

Introduction

Chapter · September 1, 2007 This chapter introduces the subject of in the book, namely a study of the growth of the software industry in a number of emerging economies such as India, Brazil, China, Ireland, and Israel. A review of chapters is provided. ... Full text Cite

Effects of information-revelation policies under market-structure uncertainty

Journal Article Management Science · August 1, 2007 Geographically dispersed sellers in electronic reverse marketplaces such as those hosted by market-makers like Ariba are uncertain about the number of competitors they face in any given market session. We refer to this uncertainty about the number of compe ... Full text Cite

Comments to chapters 3 and 4

Chapter · January 1, 2007 Full text Cite

Proximity and software programming: IT outsourcing and the local market

Conference Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · January 1, 2007 We examine the question of which services are tradable within a concrete setting: the outsourcing of IT services across a broad cross-section of establishments in the US. We analyze outsourcing decisions from 52,191 establishments with over 100 employees a ... Full text Cite

Does information security attack frequency increase with vulnerability disclosure? An empirical analysis

Journal Article Information Systems Frontiers · December 1, 2006 Research in information security, risk management and investment has grown in importance over the last few years. However, without reliable estimates on attack probabilities, risk management is difficult to do in practice. Using a novel data set, we provid ... Full text Cite

An empirical analysis of software vendors' patching behavior: Impact of vulnerability disclosure

Conference ICIS 2006 Proceedings - Twenty Seventh International Conference on Information Systems · December 1, 2006 One key aspect of better and more secure software is timely and reliable patching of vulnerabilities by software vendors. Recently software vulnerability disclosure, which refers to the publication of vulnerability information before a patch to fix the vul ... Cite

Research note - Sell first, fix later: Impact of patching on software quality

Journal Article Management Science · March 1, 2006 We present a model of fixing or patching a software problem after the product has been released in the market. Specifically, we model a software firm's trade-off in releasing a buggy product early and investments in fixing it later. Just as the marginal co ... Full text Cite

Challenges to sustainable risk management: Case example in information network security

Journal Article EMJ - Engineering Management Journal · March 1, 2006 This article contributes to more sustainable management of risk by describing frameworks for (1) valuation of avoided risks and (2) improving outsourced information security services. These contributions address the absence of a structure for rewarding suc ... Full text Cite

Patent protection, complementary assets, and firms' incentives for technology licensing

Journal Article Management Science · February 1, 2006 This paper analyzes the relationship between technology licensing and the effectiveness of patent protection. Using the 1994 Carnegie Mellon survey on industrial research and development (R&D) in the United States, we develop and test a simple structural m ... Full text Cite

Response to comments in special notes and comments section, ICC 14:6 (2006)

Journal Article Industrial and Corporate Change · January 1, 2006 Full text Cite

Pricing diagnostic information

Journal Article Management Science · July 1, 2005 Diagnostic information allows an agent to predict the state of nature about the success of an investment project better than the prior. We analyze the optimal pricing scheme for selling diagnostic information to buyers with different, privately known, ex a ... Full text Cite

A value-based approach to predicting system properties from design

Conference 7th International Workshop on Economics-Driven Software Engineering Research, EDSER 2005 - International Conference on Software Engineering 2005 · May 15, 2005 Traditional engineering requires evaluating designs before implementing them. Evaluating a design predicts the properties of a reasonable implementation and the value of these properties to a stakeholder. Software engineering has some (though not enough) r ... Full text Cite

Economies of software vulnerability disclosure

Journal Article IEEE Security and Privacy · January 1, 2005 A theoritical framework identifying the key data elements which needs to develop a sensible way of handling vulnerability is discussed. Two data sets to identify the vendor response to attack data fom honeypot is also presented. Bugtraq contains details of ... Full text Cite

Iterative incentive scheme for outsourced IA

Journal Article Proceedings fron the Fifth Annual IEEE System, Man and Cybernetics Information Assurance Workshop, SMC · December 1, 2004 The outsourcing of information assurance (IA) at the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) is discussed. A model is proposed to motivate outsourcer for better performance using service level agreements (SLA) and incentives as tools. The model uses an iterative ... Cite

Measuring the risk-based value of IT security solutions

Journal Article IT Professional · November 1, 2004 A risk management approach that integrates risk profile with actual damages and implementation costs to determine the costs and benefits of information security solutions, is discussed. Two crucial concepts of the approach, incident types and bypass rates, ... Full text Cite

Specialized supply firms, property rights and firm boundaries

Journal Article Industrial and Corporate Change · June 1, 2004 Full text Cite

Specialized supply firms, property rights and firm boundaries

Journal Article Industrial and Corporate Change · January 1, 2004 The proper specification of intellectual property rights (IPRs) is a delicate and controversial matter. In this paper, we consider one specialized context in which IPRs can add to efficiency. We build on contributions of both 'firm capabilities' scholars ( ... Full text Cite

Licensing the market for technology

Journal Article Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization · October 1, 2003 In technology-based industries, incumbent firms often license their technology to potential competitors. Such a strategy is difficult to explain within traditional models of licensing. This paper extends the literature on licensing by relaxing the assumpti ... Full text Cite

Science and the law. Working through the patent problem.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · February 2003 Full text Cite

The software industry and India's economic development

Journal Article Information Economics and Policy · June 1, 2002 This paper assesses the contribution of software to India's economic development, paying particular attention to the role of software in the absorption of labour and the development of human capital in the economy. The success of the software industry has ... Full text Cite

The IEBM Handbook of Economics

Book · 2002 With contributions from leading international academics, this handbook covers systems of economic organization, systems of economic thought, business enterprise, industrial organization, economic institutions, and notable economists. ... Cite

Chemicals

Chapter · 2002 Cite

Markets for technology in the knowledge economy

Journal Article International Social Science Journal · January 1, 2002 Although market transactions for technologies, ideas, knowledge, or information are limited by several imperfections, there is increasing evidence that they have become more common than in the past. In this paper we argue that these markets change the trad ... Full text Cite

The Indian software services industry

Journal Article Research Policy · October 1, 2001 The Indian software exports have grown in spectacular fashion. Its success has, for the most part, been a combination of resource endowments, a mixture of benign neglect and active encouragement from a normally intrusive government, and good timing. The bu ... Full text Cite

Specialized technology suppliers, international spillovers and investment: Evidence from the chemical industry

Journal Article Journal of Development Economics · June 1, 2001 In this paper we study how the development of specialized upstream technology suppliers in leading countries improves technology access and lowers investment costs for downstream firms in follower countries. We test this idea using a novel database coverin ... Full text Cite

Markets for technology and their implications for corporate strategy

Journal Article Industrial and Corporate Change · January 1, 2001 Although market transactions for technologies, ideas, knowledge or information are limited by several well-known imperfections, there is evidence that they have become more common than in the past. In this paper we analyze how the presence of markets for t ... Cite

Chemicals and Long-Term Economic Growth Insights from the Chemical Industry

Book · September 4, 2000 A paperback edition of a highly successful hardcover edition, "Chemicals and Long-Term Economic Growth" examines how commercial and technological leadership in the chemical industry has developed over the last century and a half, the forces ... ... Cite

Enter at your own risk: HMO participation and enrollment in the Medicare risk market

Journal Article Economic Inquiry · January 1, 2000 We examine HMO participation and enrollment in the Medicare risk market for the years 1990 to 1995. We develop a profit-maximization model of HMO behavior, which explicitly considers potential linkages between an HMO's production decision in the commercial ... Full text Cite

Wholly owned subsidiary versus technology licensing in the worldwide chemical industry

Journal Article Journal of International Business Studies · January 1, 2000 This paper empirically analyzes the determinants of the choice between wholly owned subsidiary and technology licensing as a strategy for expansion abroad. We use a new and comprehensive database on worldwide plant level investments in the chemical industr ... Full text Cite

IBIZA: E-market Infrastructure for Custom-built Information Products

Journal Article Information Systems Frontiers · January 1, 2000 The merger of electronic commerce, intelligent agent and distributed computing technologies over TCP/IP-based platforms enables the creation of electronic markets in new types of products featuring both human and software agents as actors. One such example ... Full text Cite

Enter at your own risk: HMO participation and enrollment in the Medicare risk market

Journal Article Economic Inquiry · January 1, 2000 We examine HMO participation and enrollment in the Medicare risk market for the years 1990 to 1995. We develop a profit-maximization model of HMO behavior, which explicitly considers potential linkages between an HMO's production decision in the commercial ... Full text Cite

Buying in a businesslike fashion - And paying more?

Journal Article Public Administration Review · January 1, 2000 The government, particularly the Department of Defense (DoD), is undergoing yet another wave of acquisition reforms, which are intended to bring commercial buying practices to DoD's purchasing operations. This research shows that, prior to these reforms, t ... Full text Cite

Division of labour and the locus of inventive activity

Journal Article Journal of Management and Governance · November 1, 1997 This paper argues that modularity of knowledge and technologies has important implications for the locus of inventive activities. This is because modularity allows for a separation of the innovation process in two main activities: The production of basic ( ... Full text Cite

Patents, licensing, and market structure in the chemical industry

Journal Article Research Policy · January 1, 1997 The strategies of rent appropriation and industry structure are inter-dependent. How firms use patents depends upon industry structure, and in turn, affects industry structure. In the 19th century, market leaders in the chemical industry combined patents a ... Full text Cite

Domestic markets and international competitiveness: Generic and product-specific competencies in the engineering sector

Journal Article Strategic Management Journal · January 1, 1997 This paper develops a theory of how the size of the domestic market shapes firm competencies. Our theory implies that large markets are beneficial even if factors such as economies of scale or learning effects are absent. We validate our model by an intern ... Full text Cite

Contracting for tacit knowledge: The provision of technical services in technology licensing contracts

Journal Article Journal of Development Economics · August 1, 1996 Recent research on the economic payoff from new technology has emphasized the importance of tacit knowledge or know-how. This paper shows that arm's length contract can overcome the problems in contracting for know-how by bundling complementary inputs with ... Full text Cite

Testing for complementarities in reduced-form regressions: A note

Journal Article Economics Letters · January 1996 Full text Cite

The role of institution-building in US industrial modernization programs

Journal Article Research Policy · January 1, 1996 An important issue for evaluating industrial modernization programs is how well alternative intervention strategies address the underlying problems that contribute to uneven patterns of technology adoption. The one-on-one industrial extension service model ... Full text Cite

Licensing tacit knowledge: Intellectual property rights and the market for know-how

Journal Article Economics of Innovation and New Technology · January 1, 1995 Technology transfer involves more than just the permission to use knowledge covered by patents; the transfer of know-how is critical to the successful utilization of the transferred technology. However, know-how is typically difficult to codify, costly to ... Full text Cite

The changing technology of technological change: general and abstract knowledge and the division of innovative labour

Journal Article Research Policy · January 1, 1994 In the past, most innovations have resulted from empiricist procedures; the outcome of each trial yielding knowledge that could not be readily extended to other contexts. While trial and-error may remain the primary engine of innovation, developments in ma ... Full text Cite

R&D and the Patent Premium

Scholarly Edition We analyze the effect of patenting on R&D with a model linking a firm's R&D effort with its decision to patent, recognizing that R&D and patenting affect one another and are both driven by many of the same factors. Using survey data for the U.S. manufactur ... Link to item Cite