Some startups bet everything on a single visionary founder. But new research from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business suggests shared leadership is a better option — if top management teams can work together without all the drama that sometimes triggers high-profile departures.
People love stories about determined entrepreneurs who work alone until they achieve success. But research from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business shows that an isolationist mindset is more likely to sink an enterprise than save it in the real world.
The automobile circa 1895 was perceived as a new, dangerous invention and a plaything of the rich. So the earliest auto races were essentially reliability trials, which morphed into mass-marketing opportunities for competing automakers. As Henry Ford recounted in 1922: “That ‘Model B’ — the first four‐cylinder car for general road use — had to be advertised. Winning a race or making a record was then the best kind of advertising.”
Nobody likes to feel trapped. But employees benefit in certain ways when two factors combine to pin them in place, making it harder for them to exit their organizations with intellectual and social capital. New research co-authored by Evan Starr at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business shows that employees tethered to their firms by noncompete clauses and nontransferable skills receive more on-the-job training and often get hired with less experience.
A new product coming to market is like a seedling emerging above ground. Like germination sows and nourishes a seed, a product’s underlying technology has to be discovered and developed beforehand.
