Contact

suecohen@katz.pitt.edu
412-648-1707

Katz Graduate School of Business
University of Pittsburgh
252 Mervis Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Profile

Susan K. Cohen is Associate Professor of Organizations and Entrepreneurship at the Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh. Her research addresses the question: How do firms successfully innovate? She has investigated organizational antecedents to innovation performance, including the structure of knowledge and capability, social network position, CEO occupational experience, alliance formation, and ecosystem strategy. Susan’s research builds on resource- and knowledge-based theories of the firm, social network theory, design science and technology frames, and the theory of complex contagion, and contributes to the knowledge base on innovation and commercialization strategies. Her current interests include the roles of firm-specific language in transforming life science business models and how the structure of regional entrepreneurial ecosystems affects new venture strategies to access resources. Her research has appeared in Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Research Policy, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, and Technological Forecasting and Social Change. Susan is an Associate Editor at the Academy of Management Discoveries and TIM Division Program Chair – Elect.

Download CV

Courses Recently Taught

• Commercializing New Technologies
• Leading Organizations to Innovate Smarter
• Competing in Emerging Economies
• Strategic Management

Research Grants

• Pitt Seed Grant, Understanding, Building and Achieving Diversity and Inclusion Excellence in the University of Pittsburgh Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, awarded Fall 2021-2023. $48,972, with Mary Goldberg, Jon Pearlman, Hassan Karimi
• Pitt Seed Grant, Wicked Problem Innovation: Community Development in Pittsburgh, awarded Fall 2021-2023. $50,000, with Stephanie Dangel, Law School
• Co-PI on 5-year $4.5 million IMPACT Grant from NIDILRR, led by Jon Pearlman and Mary Goldberg, Rehabilitation and Health Sciences, 2018-2023. 
• Grant from the Center for Healthcare Management at University of Pittsburgh, for Improving Pharmaceutical R&D Productivity through Open Innovation, 2016-2017 ($7000)
• Grant for research on Enabling Breakthroughs through Open Innovation, and to create a new experiential learning course on Global Venturing and Entrepreneurship, January 2013-December, 2014, $100,000 from the PPG Foundation.
• Global Academic Partnership grant, $20,000 to organize a conference pairing academics with executives. The conference: Global Collaboration for Technological Innovation was held in 2011. At the request of our corporate and academic participants, we convened a second conference in 2012: Accelerating R&D through Global Open Innovation, and again in 2013: Leading Organizations to Innovate Smarter, with the gracious financial support of our corporate sponsors: Bayer, Alcoa, PPG, Westinghouse, Braskem.
• National Science Foundation, grant to support the project: A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Absorptive Capacity and Alliance Networks on Innovation in the Global Pharmaceutical Industry, 2002. ($69,754)
• Small Grants / Junior Faculty Grants program, University of Pittsburgh, to examine how the breadth and depth of a firm’s absorptive capacity interact with its network position and attributes of its alliance structure to affect its innovation performance, 2002. ($13,818)
• National Science Foundation, grant to support the project: Incumbent Resurgence Strategies: Evidence from the Machine Tool Industry, 1975-1995, 2001. ($59,772)
• Small Grants / Junior Faculty Grants program, University of Pittsburgh, to support a series of projects on R&D alliances, network structures, and the value of a firm’s intellectual capital, 2001. ($10,363)
• International Business Center grant, Katz Graduate School of Business, to support research on incumbent resurgence strategies in the machine tool industry, 1975-1995, 2001. ($3000)
• Institute on Industrial Competitiveness, Katz Graduate School of Business, to support research on incumbent resurgence strategies in the machine tool industry, 1975-1995, 2001. ($2500)
• Carnegie Bosch Institute grant to organize a conference on global R&D, received October, 2000. ($50,000)
• International Business Center, ($5000) and the Institute on Industrial Competitiveness, ($5000) Katz Graduate School of Business to support the conference on global R&D; received January, 2001.
• Center for Innovation Management Studies Grant, jointly awarded by the National Science Foundation, Lehigh University, and a corporate advisory board, with Bala Chakravarthy and KK Sinha, 1996-1998, ($10,000).

Professional Service and Activities

• TIM Division of the Academy of Management, Division Program Chair – Elect, since 2022.
• Associate Editor, Academy of Management Discoveries, since 2019 https://aom.org/research/journals/discoveries/discoveries-editorial-team  
• Co-Editor, with Jochen Menges (University of Zurich) for special issue of Academy of Management Discoveries: The Human Side of the Future of Work
• Engaged Scholars Project Development Cohort, Community Partners Grant, University of Pittsburgh, 2022-2023
• Distinguished Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Discoveries, 2018
• Editorial Board of Journal of Management, 2007 – 2015
• Co-editor, with John E. Prescott (University of Pittsburgh) and Kathleen Eisenhardt (Stanford University) for a Special Issue of Strategic Management Journal on ‘The Global Acquisition, Protection, and Leveraging of Technological Competencies’, Volume 25, August-September, 2004

Degrees

• PhD in Strategic Management, University of Minnesota, 1998
• BS in Management Information Systems, Clarkson University, 1986

Recent Publications

Sean T. Hsu and Susan K. Cohen (2022) Overcoming the incumbent dilemma: The dual roles of multimarket competition. Journal of Management Studies, 59(2): 319-348.  https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12719.

Sean T. Hsu and Susan K. Cohen (2020) Revisiting the R&D performance relationship: The moderating role of factor market characteristics. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 57:(July-Sept). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jengtecman.2020.101570.

Erin Higgins, Michelle Zorrilla; Kathleen M. Murphy; Megan D’Innocenzo; Mary R. Goldberg; Susan K. Cohen; Nancy Augustine; Jon Pearlman. (2022). Barriers and Facilitators to Technology Transfer of NIDILRR Grantees. Disability and Rehabilitation. Assistive Technology, 1-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2022.2122604

Michelle Zorrilla, Jingning Ao, Lauren Terhorst, Susan Cohen, Mary Goldberg, Jon Pearlman. (2022) Using the Lens of Assistive Technology to Develop a Technology Translation Readiness Assessment Tool (TTRAT)™ to Evaluate Market Readiness. Disability and Rehabilitation. Assistive Technology, 1-16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2022.2153936

Innovation Search Dynamics in New Domains: An Exploratory Study of Academic Founders’ Search for Funding in the Biotechnology Industry. with Natasha Munshi.Technological Forecasting and Social Change. Available online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.12.018

Firm heterogeneity in complex problem solving: A knowledge-based look at invention. with Turanay Caner and Frits Pil. Strategic Management Journal. Available online: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.2615/abstract

Stock of downstream complementary as a catalyst for product innovation during technological change in the US machine tool industry. with Raja Roy. June 2017. Strategic Management Journal, 38(6): 1253-1267. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2557.

With whom do technology sponsors partner during technology battles? Social networking strategies for unproven (and proven) technologies, with Tsuhsiang (Sean) Hsu, Kristina Dahlin, Organization Science. 2016. 27(4): 846-872. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2016.1063. 

Converting inventions into breakthrough innovations: The role of exploitation alliance network knowledge heterogeneity, with Turanay Caner, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management. 2016, 40(April-June): 29-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jengtecman.2016.03.002

Disruption in the US machine tool industry: The role of inhouse users and pre-disruption component experience in firm response, with Raja Roy. Research Policy. 2015, 44(8): 1555-1565. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2015.01.004.

Public policies in a regulated entrepreneurial setting. with Alfred Marcus. Business and Politics. 2015, 17(2): 221-251. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1369525800001637

Information sharing strategies in a standards contest: The case of 2G wireless communication. with Jodi Potter. Journal of High Technology Management Research. Sept. 2010, 21(2): 108-121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hitech.2010.05.005

Niche width revisited: organizational scope, behavior, and performance. with Olav Sorenson, Charlotte Ren, and Raja Roy. Strategic Management Journal, 2006, 27: 915-936. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20142387.

Modularity: Implications for imitation, innovation, and sustained competitive advantage. with Frits Pil. Academy of Management Review, 2006, 31(4): 995-1001. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2006.22528166

Product- line expansion and resource cannibalization. with Peter W. Roberts. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2005, 57(1): 49-70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2003.10.006

The global acquisition, protection, and leverage of scientific and technological competences with Kathleen Eisenhardt and John Prescott. Strategic Management Journal, 2004, 25(8-9, August-September Special Issue): 713-722. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.425

The persistence of knowledge-based advantage: an empirical test for product performance and technological knowledge. with Bala Chakravarthy. Strategic Management Journal, 2002, 23(4): 285-306. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.223

Avoiding competence substitution through knowledge sharing. with Shobha Das and Kevin McCabe. Academy of Management Review, 2000, 25(2): 1-18. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2000.3312917

Academic Area

Organizations and Entrepreneurship