Research

The focus of my research agenda lies at the intersection of innovation, organizational search, cognition, and social dynamics, like politics and status hierarchies. In particular, I investigate fundamental questions like how organizations search, explore, and find novel ideas. How do external pressures alter firms’ search process and the knowledge pursued? How are breakthrough ideas unusual? Why do we persist in exploring ideas despite failures? How do scientists and entrepreneurs think and make decisions? What role do social dynamics play, and what determines the nature of the discoveries companies bring to society?

I have developed a research portfolio that follows two different yet complementary directions to address these questions. The first strand of my research focuses on innovation, organizational search, and decision-making during discovery processes. In the second strand, I explore social dynamics – such as politics and social status – and their consequences in search directions and individual behaviors. 

In my research, I span diverse data sources and assorted quantitative methods, ranging from patents and drug development to data on firms' political activity and sports data. I have been employing causal or quasi-causal inferences like difference-in-differences and regression discontinuity designs, event-history analysis, sequence analysis, and applied (supervised) machine learning. 

Ultimately, I like to think of myself as an educated wonderer for interesting answers to relevant questions.