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TIM-troduction: Araks Ayvazyan

  



As part of our profiles of TIM people, let us introduce Araks Ayvazyan of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid which is, unsurprisingly, located in the capital of Spain. Araks, so…

What are your research interests right now?

My current research interests include technology management, innovation and corporate governance. Specifically, I am studying why firms practice inside-out open innovation, in a setting, where the firms voluntarily grant access to their proprietary knowledge, without any direct financial benefits in return. I also look at how these practices affect other firms in the market. Finally, I am trying to understand the role of boards of directors in firms' participation in markets for technology.

What do you think is your most exciting contribution to academia?

To me, the most exciting outcome of my research so far is that outbound openness triggers more trading for intellectual property rights. This study is particularly interesting, as it introduces a new angle for explaining the decision of firms to open up their IP strategy. While on the one hand, by opening up, the focal firm loses control over its IP rights, on the other hand, by doing so, it incentivizes others to become more involved in the opened up knowledge areas. Thereby, as we show in the paper, the focal firm gets more opportunities for internalization, via increased engagement in markets for technology.

At the 2019 Conference you won the TIM Best Paper Award. Tell us about the paper and why you think its findings are important.

The paper "Sharing is Caring: Outbound Open Innovation and the Subsequent Innovation Process" investigates the implications of a firm's decision to open up its IP strategy for the focal firm itself and for the industry. Though this practice may seem counter-intuitive from the resource-based view perspective, we show that not necessarily is it detrimental for the focal firm. In the first part, we show that the opening up firm may benefit from outbound openness through "bringing in" the knowledge created using its liberated knowledge. Another channel of internalization provide tradings in markets for technology. In the second part of the paper, we find that outbound openness affects the innovation output and type, market structure characteristics, as well as trading activities in markets for technology at the industry level. Overall, I believe our findings help to broaden the understanding of outbound openness.

Tell us something personal about yourself.

Not sure how personal this would be perceived by others, but I like taking photos, photo editing. If a day passes without me writing/working, that might very well mean I had too much time spent on Photoshop (it has been a while though). I also like swimming, playing ping pong, and reading.

Thanks Araks!

If you (the reader) would like to be profiled for a TIM-troduction, or would like to nominate someone else, please contact us at: tim@aom.org.

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