The Management Department in the School of Business Presents:
“Structural Recombination and Innovation: Unlocking Internal Knowledge Synergy through Structural Change”
A Seminar Featuring:
Professor Samina Karim
Associate Professor Strategy & Innovation, Boston University School of Management
Friday, April 11th
9:30 – 11:00am
School of Business, Room 302
For more information, or to RSVP, please contact Pamela Costa.
ABSTRACT
This paper examines how structural recombination of business units within a firm impacts subsequent firm innovation. We argue that structural recombination is both a means for firms to unlock the potential for intra-organizational knowledge recombination, and a source of disruption to the firm’s existing knowledge resources, so that the overall effect of structural recombination on innovation will depend upon the balance between these two effects. Structural recombination will have a positive effect on innovation where there are substantial unrealized intra-organizational knowledge synergies, or where the high quality of the firm’s existing knowledge resources limits disruption, with the latter effect weakening the former. Results from a 20-year panel of 71 firms operating in the U.S. medical sector confirm these arguments. The study thus provides a contingent view of the effects of structural recombination on firm innovation, while highlighting the role of structural recombination in realizing untapped knowledge synergies within the firm.
BIOGRAPHY
Samina Karim is one of the leading experts in the area of corporate restructuring and the reconfiguration of resources and market activities. She has also extensively studied post-acquisition integration, alliances, and the choice firms make to pursue acquisitions versus internal development. Professor Karim is especially interested in mobile devices and services, and has extensive experience in the medical sector both in her research and her previous work as an R&D engineer with Hewlett-Packard’s former medical products group. Her research has been published in several book chapters and in leading journals including Strategic Management Journal and Management Science.
For more information, contact: Pamela Costa at pcosta@business.uconn.edu