Seminar
Speaker: Prof. Zur B. Shapira
Affiliation: William R. Berkley Professorship of Entrepreneurship, Stern School of Business New York University
Title: Are flatter organizations more innovative? Hierarchical depth and the importance of ideas
Abstract: In this paper, we discuss a formal model of idea flows and project / idea combination in companies and how hierarchies might influence those combinations (cf., Seshadri and Shapira, 2003). We then use the results of the model to generate hypotheses about the importance and variance of importance of ideas. Then we test the hypotheses based on an analysis of patents for 544 firms surveyed by a compensation consultant, in which the hierarchical depth of the firm was also available. We find that indeed, even after controlling for size, span of control, and other important variables, firms with deeper hierarchies tended to have a more “important” patent based on its citations . We conclude the paper with a discussion of the implications of these results for organization theory and innovation.
About the speaker: Zur Shapira is the William Berkley Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management at the Stern School of Business, New York University. He was a Research Fellow at the International Institute of Management in Berlin, a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, a Resident Scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Rationality. He is a fellow of the Academy of Management and a fellow of the American Psychological Society. His publications include the books: Risk Taking: A Managerial Perspective, Organizational Decision Making, Technological Learning: Oversights and Foresights, Organizational Cognition, and The Evolution of a New Industry: A Genealogical Approach. He and has appeared on NBC nightly News, NBC’s Today Show, BBC worldwide, CNBC and NPR. His research was cited in Forbes Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Institutional Investor, The Hill, The Marker, The Seattle Times and the Wall Street Journal. He has been Editor in Chief of Organization Science.