Sharon Belenzon, Ph.D.

Professor, Duke University

Sharon Belenzon is an Assistant Professor of Strategy at the Fuqua School of Business. His research explores the conditions under which firms in developed nations coalesce into groups, and how different attributes of such groups are related to resource reallocation, innovation, and firm performance. Professor Belenzon's research is dedicated to advance the understanding of how firm organizational structure mediates, and is mediated by, firm strategy, and of how structure conditions the way in which resources are mobilized across different units of the organization, focusing on financial resources, innovation, managerial talent, and brands (names). His research has been featured in top academic journals, such as Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Journal, and Journal of Law and Economics. Professor Belenzon received his PhD from the London School of Economics, and completed post-doctorate work at the University of Oxford, Nuffield College. He has also been the recipient of the Kauffman foundation post-doctorate fellowship at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He earned MA and BA degrees in Economics from Tel-Aviv University. At Fuqua, he teaches the core strategy course, Principles of Strategy, and the PhD strategy seminar, and is engaged in advising PhD students.

Killing the Golden Goose? The Decline of Science in Corporate R&D

There is a widespread belief among commentators that large American corporations are withdrawing from research. Large corporations may still collaborate with universities and acquire promising science-based start-ups, but their labs increasingly focus on developing existing knowledge and commercializing it, rather than creating new knowledge. In this paper, we combine firm-level financial information with a large and comprehensive dataset on firm publications, patents and acquisitions to quantify the withdrawal from science by large American corporations between 1980 and 2006. This withdrawal is associated with a decline in the private value of research activities, even though scientific knowledge itself remains important for corporate invention. We discuss the managerial and policy implications of our findings.