Benjamin L. Hallen

Assistant Professor of Management and Organization

University of Maryland
R.H. Smith School of Business
4558 Van Munching Hall
College Park, MD 20742

Phone: 301.405.9495
Email: bhallen@rhsmith.umd.edu
Department webpage

Education

PhD in Strategy, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship - Stanford University (MS&E)
M.C.S. in Computer Science - University of Virginia
B.S. in Electrical Engineering - University of Virginia
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Research

The Causes and Consequences of the Initial Network Positions of New Organizations: From Whom do Entrepreneurs Receive Investments
Forthcoming, Administrative Science Quarterly
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Abstract:
This paper examines the mechanisms by which organizations establish their initial network positions, or sets of network ties. Although there has been significant research on the evolution of organizational network positions, how a new organization establishes its original network position has received more limited attention. I attempt to redress this imbalance using two competing logics, one based on the previously developed network ties and human capital of a new organization’s founders and the other based on a new organization’s early accomplishments. I test these logics in a study of venture capitalists and other investment organizations forming investment ties with (e.g., investing in) 92 Internet security ventures. In contrast to the literature on network position evolution, I find that new organizations take multiple paths to their initial network positions, with which path an organization takes being determined by when it forms its first ties.


Catalyzing Strategies: How Entrepreneurs Accelerate Inter-Organizational Relationship Formation to Secure Professional Investments
Joint with Kathleen Eisenhardt (Stanford University)
Currently under review
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Abstract:
Although inter-organizational relationships are crucial for new organizations, the behavioral strategies that entrepreneurs actually use to form such relationships are relatively unexplored. Building on fine-grained field data from 9 Internet security ventures receiving equity investments from professional investors, we induct a theoretical framework that addresses how entrepreneurs overcome the tendency of potential partners to wait to commit. Specifically, entrepreneurs successfully form relationships when they engage in four catalyzing strategies: they casually date potential partners in advance (not approaching potential partners when a tie is needed), synchronize pursuing relationships with proofpoints of progress (not timing around resource needs), actively create competition by crafting credible alternatives (not passively waiting for potential partners to commit), and focus on realistic potential partners by scrutinizing interest (not taking professed interest at face value). Collectively, these catalyzing strategies accelerate relationship formation by unlocking the value of network ties and information signals. Overall, our study contributes a more textured view of successful entrepreneurial relationship formation to the literature on inter-organizational relationship formation. Moreover, our findings suggest a duality to network ties and information signals, such that their value lies intertwined in the simple possession of such ties and signals and the concurrent use of complementary catalyzing strategies.