Corey C. Phelps

• PhD
• Dean and Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at University of Oklahoma

We study how, when target firms are engaged in strategic alliances, the ambiguity surrounding an acquisition's anticipated synergies influences investors' reactions to announcements of acquisitions. Drawing on behavioral finance research and the resource redeployment literature, we predict that investors' limited access to the information encoded i...

Recognizing the multilevel nature of social networks and incorporating this perspective into our theorizing and analytics can help us in specifying and testing more accurate models and generate a better understanding of the integrated influence of social networks at different levels. Because organizational networks are a multilevel phenomenon and i...

This chapter applies the 4S method from end to end to a disguised, real-life case. It starts with a brief description of the Kangaroo Company and the issue at hand, which is basically to look into the attractiveness of “Kangaroo” (the leader in the men’s underwear market in “Syldavia”) as an acquisition target. It then discusses the problem stateme...

Most business people tend to have a hypothesis-driven approach to problem solving. When confronted with a problem, they naturally and almost immediately generate a candidate solution. In such circumstances, the problem-solving process essentially consists in trying to prove this solution right or wrong by confronting it with relevant evidence. The...

In practice, intuitive problem solving can go badly wrong. This chapter discusses its five specific pitfalls, based on real-life cases. First, a flawed problem definition almost invariably leads to irrelevant solutions. Second, most problem solvers start with a hypothetical solution in mind, which they tend to confirm instead of systematically chal...

Analytical frameworks come either from “theoretical” knowledge around the different functions of business management, such as the four P of the marketing mix, or from industry-specific expertise, such as the ARPU (average revenue per user) in telecom. They can be used as prepackaged, MECE breakdowns of typical business problems. As such, they provi...

The design thinking path to problem solving is appropriate whenever the problem is human centered, complex, and too poorly understood to be defined using the analytical TOSCA approach. In design thinking, the problem owner you consider is the user of the solution you are trying to design. Typically, this is a product or service, but the design thin...

The design thinking approach to the Structure stage in the 4S method is the Ideate phase. It entails generating a large and diverse set of concepts, using creativity techniques such as analogical thinking, brainwriting, morphological analysis, and SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to some other use, Eliminate, and Reverse) questions....

Problem structuring results in a list of elementary issues to crack or elementary hypotheses to test. You will address them one by one through various types of analyses. Start with an analysis plan, in which you identify the analyses and sources you need to address each elementary item. You must give priority to the analyses that can radically chan...

Walking the audience through PowerPoint slides is both the most frequent and the least efficient way to deliver recommendations. The challenge is to steer a productive conversation with problem owners in which visual aids do not become visual impediments. Telling relevant stories and using striking examples can help. Handing out a neat and concise...

Non-routine business problems, such as a sudden drop in performance a few months after a change of CEO, are hard to frame and involve a fuzzy combination of factors. Nevertheless, the human brain works in such a way that “obvious” conclusions immediately come to mind: putting the blame on the new CEO and firing him! Therein lies the core challenge...

Problem solving and solution selling are skills: they require practice to be learned. And since the tools covered in this book are not widely and systematically taught, you may not have had many opportunities to use them. But business life presents you with an endless supply of problems, which provide many learning opportunities. Seize them, starti...

Before reporting your recommendation, you must organize your findings into a compelling “story.” The most efficient storyline is a top-down pyramid that starts with communicating the core message head-on, and then discussing the few key points that collectively support it, while at the same time announcing the overall structure of the report. There...

The 4S method is an integrated, four-stage problem-solving approach that combines the tools of strategy consulting with insights from cognitive science and design thinking. The first S is to State the problem properly, identifying the core question at hand as well as its context, owner, and stakeholders. The second S is to Structure the problem, ei...

Ask the TOSCA questions to define the problem effectively. (1) What is the Trouble or symptoms that make this problem salient at the time it is considered? (2) Who is the Owner of the problem, or, in other words, who is the “client” of the problem-solving initiative? (3) What does Success mean? More specifically, what performance criteria will the...

Solving complex problems and selling their solutions is critical for personal and organizational success. However, it doesn’t come naturally and most of us haven’t been taught how to do it well. Research shows a host of pitfalls trips us up when we try: We’re quick to believe we understand a situation and jump to a flawed solution. We seek to confi...

Research summary How do external venturing units effectively achieve external knowledge search and integration of their initiatives with mainstream organizational units? We investigate this largely unexplored question through an inductive study of 17 corporate venture capital units. We document a set of five novel practices that influence the effic...

This study examines the conditions under which portfolios of corporate venture capital (CVC) relationships influence corporate investor innovation performance. We investigate this question using longitudinal data on CVC investment portfolios of 40 telecommunications equipment manufacturers. We find an inverted U-shaped effect of portfolio diversity...

Current research provides little insight into knowledge recombination capacities of open innovation communities and the entanglement of these capacities with social mobility of contributors. Extending the literature on network-level determinants of knowledge diffusion and reuse we examine the interrelation between technical ties and social ties con...

Received wisdom suggests that multipartner alliances are relatively unstable because of their complexity and theincreased potential for free riding. Nonetheless, multipartner alliances do benefit from built-in stabilizing third-party ties that mitigate opportunism and conflict between partner pairs. Previous empirical research on multipartner allia...

Corporate venture capital (CVC), direct minority equity investments made by established companies in privately held start-ups, has become an important strategic tool for many large companies. In particular, firms often pursue CVC investing as a way to learn about novel technologies. Although CVC investments are inherently exploratory and have been...

Existing research provides little insight into how social influence affects the adoption and diffusion of compet-ing innovative artifacts and how the experiences of organizational members who have worked with particular innovations in their previous employers affect their current organizations’ adoption decision. We adapt and extend the heterogeneo...

A large and growing body of empirical research shows that social relationships and the networks these relationships constitute are influential in explaining the processes of knowledge creation, diffusion, absorption and use. We refer to such networks as 'knowledge networks.' We advance an understanding of knowledge networks at multiple levels by co...

The article explores multipartner alliance stability through the extension of the logic of embeddedness for interorganizational relations. Alliance partners are described as embedded when their network of previous or existing alliances functions as a source of trustworthy information about the capabilities and reliability of the partner firm. Multi...

This paper takes a real options view of corporate venture capital (CVC), which are direct minority equity investments made by established companies in privately held entrepreneurial ventures. CVC investments have been characterized as creating growth options for corporate investors. We argue corporate investors often exercise these growth options b...

This paper has been published under a different title. Here is the complete citation: Basu, S., Phelps, C., & Kotha, S. (2016). Search and integration in external venturing: An inductive examination of corporate venture capital units. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 10: 129-152.

This paper takes a real options view of corporate venture capital (CVC), which are direct minority equity investments made by established companies in privately held entrepreneurial ventures. CVC investments have been characterized as creating growth options for corporate investors. We argue corporate investors often exercise these growth options b...

Although research suggests knowledge spillovers benefit imitators often at the expense of originators, we investigate how originating firms may also benefit from their own spillovers. When an originating firm's spillovers are recombined with complementary knowledge by recipient firms, a pool of external knowledge is formed that is inherently relate...

This study examines when established firms participate in corporate venture capital (CVC). We build on the resource-based view of interfirm collaboration and emphasize the strategic flexibility of CVC relationships. We use longitudinal data on 477 firms from 1990 to 2000 to test our hypotheses. We find that firms in industries with rapid technologi...

This study examines the influence of the structure and composition of a firm's alliance network on its exploratory innovation. In a longitudinal investigation of 77 telecommunications equipment manufacturers, I find the technological diversity of a firm's alliance partners increases its exploratory innovation. I also find that network density among...

This study examines the conditions under which firms participate in corporate venture capital (CVC), an important mode of exploration and strategic renewal. In developing our theory, we integrate insights from our field research with the resource-based view of interfirm collaboration and emphasize the strategic flexibility inherent in CVC relations...

The structure of alliance networks influences their potential for knowledge creation. Dense local clustering provides information transmission capacity in the network by fostering communication and cooperation. Nonredundant connections contract the distance between firms and give the network greater reach by tapping a wider range of knowledge resou...

Corporate venture capital investing in young, entrepreneurial firms is an important tool through which large, established organizations can stimulate innovation and knowledge generation within their own boundaries. In this study, we examine the conditions under which CVC investing influences the investing firm’s degree of exploratory knowledge crea...

The structure of alliance networks strongly influences their potential for knowledge creation. Dense local clustering provides transmission capacity in the network by fostering communication and cooperation while non-redundant connections contract the distance between firms and give the network greater reach by tapping a wider range of knowledge re...

The structure of alliance networks strongly influences their potential for knowledge creation. Dense local clustering provides bandwidth in the network by fostering communication and cooperation while non-redundant connections contract the distance between firms and give the network greater reach by tapping a wider range of knowledge resources. How...

We integrate research on creativity and innovation at the individual, group and interfirm-network levels to develop a level-agnostic definition of a knowledge network. We identify properties of these networks that appear to be common across levels, and show how these properties influence knowledge diffusion and search. We then apply graph theoretic...

For the most part, studies on timing of entry have attempted to determine the advantages that early entrants may be able to develop and hold over subsequent entrants. Given that a large number of firms attempt to enter at a much later stage in the development of the market, it is particularly surprising that little research has attempted to examine...

Typescript. Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2003. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-269).

In this study, we investigated a neglected form of extrarole behavior called taking charge and sought to understand factors that motivate employees to engage in this activity. Taking charge is discretionary behavior intended to effect organizationally functional change. We obtained both self-report and coworker data for 275 white-collar employees f...

This chapter examines learning in and among strategic groups, using a situated learning perspective in which knowledge and its meaning are negotiated and constructed by actors who interact in a community with which they identify. We explore the implications of a situated-learning perspective for individual firms, strategic groups, and populations,...

Taking charge is defined as extra-role behavior intended to effect functional change. Data were obtained from 275 employees. Taking charge (reported by co-workers) related to employees' felt responsibility, self-efficacy, and perceived top management openness. Results expand current understanding of extra-role behavior by demonstrating factors that...

"Isolating mechanisms" and "sustainable advantage" are two constructs that have traditionally formed the cornerstones of business strategy. These constructs evoke images of firms isolating themselves and their technologies from others in order to sustain a monopoly position. In today's networked environments, we propose that a polar set of construc...

Organizations exploit the information diffusion and signaling properties of their existing interorganizational networks to manage the risks and uncertainty involved in forming new partnerships. How then do new organizations that are unknown to existing network members gain admission to the network? This study examines the conditions under which a s...

A large and growing body of empirical research shows that social relationships and the networks these relationships constitute are influential in explaining the processes of knowledge creation, diffusion, absorption and use. We refer to such networks as “knowledge networks.” We advance an understanding of knowledge networks at multiple levels by co...