News

Even at its most over-the-top moments, the show Succession is a shockingly accurate portrayal of what succession can do to a family business.

Research by Juan Bu and Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra shows that new ventures in emerging markets, initially created informally, suffer from costs that persist and constrain a firm's ability to innovate even after they formalize their status. As a result of these informality costs, informally created new ventures are more likely to develop imitative rather than innovative new products. However, being acquired by other firms and improvements in the national innovation system can weaken the persistence of these informality costs, resulting in more innovation. To explain these findings, Bu and Cuervo-Cazurra develop the concept of internal imprinting, which captures how the internal characteristics of a company result in the establishment of practices that persist over time, affecting behavior and innovation. Managers in emerging markets should consider formalizing their firms from the beginning or joining a private business group to mitigate the negative impact of informality on their firms' innovativeness.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, center, and her family leave the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse after the jury found her guilty on four counts in San Jose, Calif. Holmes was found guilty of four counts of defrauding investors, each carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Photo by Dai Sugano/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images

Pierre Choueiri Family Professor in Global Business Michael Enright claims that to succeed internationally, Western companies must understand that business will be conducted on a whole new playing field.

Launched this year, the Bradford-Osborne Research Award is the first national award to recognize research published in peer-reviewed journals that contributes to advancing the growth of businesses owned by people of color. Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation Venkat Kuppuswamy received the award for his co-authored 2017 Management Science paper, “The Colorblind Crowd? Founder Race and Performance in Crowdfunding.”

You like digging your toes in it and children enjoy building castles out of it. Now consider for a moment a world without sand. Sheila Puffer, distinguished professor of international business, explains how that will be our reality someday.

3D printers and cloud-based design programs have created the “perfect storm” for companies to expand their ability to innovate according to “The Innovation Navigator,” a new book written by Tucker Marion and Sebastian Fixson.

Kevin Boudreau, associate professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the D'Amore-McKim School of Business, is featured in News at Northeastern for his research on why scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs behave like they do.

Professor Venkat Kuppuswamy reflects on the impact of cast diversity after Asian-led “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Searching” simultaneously top box office charts.

Professor Tucker Marion answers questions about the trend toward the “gamification of learning” and describes his recently launched innovation simulator.