Cross-disciplinary Seminar Series in

Strategy and Entrepreneurship

Knowledge Bridging by Biotechnology Start-ups

David Hsu

Edward B. and Shirley R. Shils Term Assistant Professor of Management

The Wharton School

University of Pennsylvania
May 20, 2005
Room 1415, 1:15-2:45pm

Abstract:  We investigate a type of technological boundary spanning-oriented search in which firms apply knowledge from one technical domain to innovate in another, a phenomenon we term knowledge bridging. In an analysis of all the biotechnology firms founded to commercialize recombinant DNA technology, we examine the consequences of knowledge bridging at the patent level of analysis, as well as the determinants of this search behavior at the firm-year level of analysis. The empirical setting allows us to establish a common technological starting point and examine technological search behavior over time. At the patent level of analysis, we find that knowledge bridging is significantly associated with measures of patent value. At the firm-year level, we find that firms vary in knowledge bridging use, which in turn is correlated with firms’ initial search direction, funding environment munificence, and product development success (or lack thereof). The paper contributes to both the conceptual and empirical literature on technological search.

David Hsu is the Edward and Shirley Shils Term Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His research, focused on commercializing technology, developing technology-based ventures, and venture capital, has appeared in the RAND Journal of Economics and the Journal of Finance. At Wharton, he teaches two MBA electives, Entrepreneurship and Venture Initiation and Management of Technology. David’s PhD is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his prior degrees are from Stanford and Harvard Universities.

For information about the series, contact Bob Jones at rjones@rhsmith.umd.edu.