Authors: Nicole Coviello (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Abstract: This seminar is in two parts: 1) an overview of Dr Coviello’s current research at the interface of entrepreneurship, marketing, and international business; and 2) a deeper dive into one of those studies: “Leveraging the Lab: How Pre-founding R&D Collaboration Influences the Internationalization Timing of Academic Spin-offs.” In that study, she (with Achim Walter, Monika Sienknecht, and Thomas Ritter) observe how prior research emphasizes the role of international and business-related experience for early internationalization. But what if experience was obtained in other ways? They study the scientist-founders of 149 academic spin-offs, using cognition theory to argue for a curvilinear relationship between breadth of pre-founding R&D collaboration and internationalization timing. This longitudinal study combines survey and patent data to show that increased breadth of collaboration with international scientists increases and then decreases the likelihood of early internationalization. The results are similar but less robust for collaboration with industry partners. The findings suggest that past studies on experience in new venture internationalization underestimate the role of R&D collaboration and the research-based heritage of many new firms.
Host: Hana Milanov