Riitta Katila

• PhD, Dr.Eng.
• Professor at Stanford University

Research Summary We spotlight the use of machine learning in two‐stage matching models to deal with sample selection bias. Recent advances in machine learning have unlocked new empirical possibilities for inductive theorizing. In contrast, the opportunities to use machine learning in regression studies involving large‐scale data with many covariate...

While evolutionary computation is well suited for automatic discovery in engineering, it can also be used to gain insight into how humans and organizations could perform more effectively. Using a real-world problem of innovation search in organizations as the motivating example, this article first formalizes human creative problem solving as compet...

Amidst decline in public trust in technology, computing ethics have taken center stage, and critics have raised questions about corporate ethics washing. Yet few studies examine the actual implementation of AI ethics values in technology companies. Based on a qualitative analysis of technology workers tasked with integrating AI ethics into product...

This study examines whether “unblocking” competition through antitrust intervention against a dominant platform can spur complementor innovation in platform ecosystems. Using a novel dataset on enterprise infrastructure software and a difference‐in‐differences design, we examine the relation between the U.S. antitrust intervention against Microsoft...

Entrepreneurial and established firms form collaborative relationships to commercialize products. Through such ties, entrepreneurs seek (a) development help to hone ideas into marketable products and (b) access to markets. In most cases, entrepreneurs face a trade-off: they can be a big fish in a small pond, getting more attention and development h...

How a firm views its competitors affects its performance. We extend the networks literature to examine how a firm’s positioning in competition networks—networks of perceived competitive relations between firms—relates to a significant organizational outcome, namely, product innovation. We find that when firms position themselves in ways that allow...

Investments in enabling technologies—including the fifth-generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks (5G), artificial intelligence (AI), and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology—are important strategic decisions for firms. This paper asks how inventions that private firms developed with (versus without) public-sector pa...

Research Summary We examine a learning‐by‐doing methodology for iteration of early‐stage business ideas known as the “lean startup.” The purpose of this article is to lay out and test the key assumptions of the method, examining one particularly relevant boundary condition: the composition of the startup team. Using unique and detailed longitudinal...

The authors provide new quantitative evidence of the relationship between technologies and organizational design in the context of complex one-off products. The systems that produce complex, one-off products in mature, fragmented industries such as construction lack many of the typical organizational features that researchers have deemed critical t...

The article opens with a discussion of local search as a process of problem-solving, highlighting how it tends to be adopted by firms that are experts in the current business environment, but may be resistant to change. The result of the adoption of such a strategy is that organizations will make incremental rather than revolutionary changes. Local...

We explore the impact on innovation that professional end-users of a product have as inventors, executives, and board members in a young firm. In contrast to prior literature, which has emphasized technology roles, we put the spotlight on the executive and governance roles that many professional users take in young firms. Using an extensive custom-...

The article opens with a discussion of local search as a process of problem-solving, highlighting how it tends to be adopted by firms that are experts in the current business environment, but may be resistant to change. The result of the adoption of such a strategy is that organizations will make incremental rather than revolutionary changes. Local...

Can we enable anyone to create anything? The prototyping tools of a rising Maker Movement are enabling the next generation of artists, designers, educators, and engineers to bootstrap from napkin sketch to functional prototype. However for technical novices, the process of including electronic components in prototypes can hamper the creative proces...

As is widely observed in many market settings, sellers collaborate with intermediaries to commercialize products and to reach buyers. Sellers typically prefer intermediaries that have great market access—that is, intermediaries that can reach many buyers. But sellers also prefer a high relative standing in an intermediary’s portfolio, so that they...

While evolutionary computation is well suited for automatic discovery in engineering, it can also be used to gain insight into how humans and organizations could perform more effectively in competitive problem-solving domains. This paper formalizes human creative problem solving as competitive multi-agent search, and advances the hypothesis that ev...

Drawing on institutional theory, we examine how the institutional logics—taken-for granted norms, structures, and practices—of different types of funding partners influence young firms and their search for innovations. We test our hypotheses in a longitudinal study of a complete population of ventures in the minimally invasive surgical device indus...

In this study we explore the innovation impact that users have as executives, directors, and inventors in new firms. While users frequently advice firms as members of advisory boards or as external consultants, and commercialize their inventions by founding firms, we know surprisingly little about how young firms can effectively leverage users in v...

Inter-organizational relationships offer many potential benefits, but they also expose firms to dangers, such as misappropriation, that pull partners apart. This tension between collaboration and competition is central to tie formation, especially for young technology-focused firms who have both high need for resources and high appropriability of t...

In this chapter, we examine user interaction for the design and development of complex products and systems. Through a two-phase research effort, we explore and test the influence of user involvement (i.e. novice/average and expert/lead users) in early stage design and new product development.

This paper explores the innovation of unique, complex products. Unlike standard product development, which has received a lot of attention from researchers, unique, complex products lack many of the organizational features that researchers have deemed critical to product development and innovation success. Unique, complex products are often develop...

Interorganizational relationships offer many potential benefits, but they also expose firms to dangers, such as misappropriation, which pull partners apart. This tension between collaboration and competition is central to tie formation, especially for young technology firms that have both a high need for resources and high appropriability of their...

We inductively develop a process model of individual search in the context of technological invention, an important aspect of economic development that is also fundamental to the success of many organizations. Using an extensive archival content analysis of notable inventors we find that the search and discovery process of invention is inherently c...

We develop and test an attention-based theory of search by top management teams and the influence on firm innovativeness. Using an in-depth field study of 61 publicly traded high-technology firms and their top executives, we find that the location selection and intensity of search independently and jointly influence new product introductions. We ha...

In this article, we examine competitive moves by which firms achieve superior performance. In contrast to prior work that has focused on moves and the related competitive advantages of large firms, we draw attention to entrepreneurial firms. Based on 32 runs of a multi-round experiential simulation and in-depth participant interviews, we find that...

Prior work examines competitive moves in relatively stable markets. In contrast, we focus on less stable markets where competitive advantages are temporary and R&D moves are essential. Using evolutionary search theory and an experiential simulation with in-depth fieldwork, we find that the relationship between performance and subsequent competitive...

This paper investigates the effects on product innovation of firms' search to innovate, taking into account how a firm's search relates to that of its competitors. Drawing on organizational learning theory, we hypothesize that search timing relative to competitors matters and test two seemingly contradictory views: that competitors take away the ex...

This paper focuses on the tension that firms face between the need for resources from partners and the potentially damaging misappropriation of their own resources by corporate “sharks.” Taking an entrepreneurial lens, we study this tension at tie formation in corporate investment relationships in five U.S. technology-based industries over a 25-yea...

Drawing together contributions from leading thinkers around the world, this 2007 book reviews developments in the theory and practice of performance measurement and management. Significantly updated and modified from the first edition, the book includes ten additional chapters which review performance measurement from the perspectives of accounting...

Patents and patent citations are increasingly used as measures of innovation performance (e.g. Katila, 2002). However, confusion exists over the applicability of these measures and over the appropriate patent citation lag to be used. This chapter examines the measurement of innovation performance through patents, focusing especially on how to measu...

The article discusses a research study done to explain whether organizations introduce cutting-edge products when timing depends solely on their competitors. The two-part hypothesis states that moving early is based on searching technical knowledge earlier than competitors while the second part mentions moving later than opponents. An advantage to...

In this study, the environmental characteristics that giverise to innovation in new firms are investigated. Following a discussion of theresource-based view of the firm, several hypotheses are proposed. Takentogether, these hypotheses predict that new firms will have a higher rate ofinnovation in smaller, more competitive markets in which financial...

In this paper, we examine the emergence of resources. Our analysis of technological capability acquisition by global U.S.-based chemical firms shows that the emergence of resources is inherently evolutionary. We find that path-creating search that generates resource heterogeneity is a response to idiosyncratic situations faced by firms in their loc...

High-technology companies that discover new technological opportunities face two critical decisions: whether and when to collaborate in exploiting these opportunities. Prior research has examined factors such as transaction costs that determine whether firms decide to collaborate. In this study, we aim to understand when firms collaborate in exploi...

We extend the resource-based perspective to explain innovation in new firms that have yet to develop resources. Using data on firms' efforts to commercialize technological inventions, we tested a model of the environmental conditions under which new firms' lack of resources alternately promotes or constrains innovation. We found that new firm innov...

We examine how firms search, or solve problems, to create new products. According to organizational learning research, firms position themselves in a unidimensional search space that spans a spectrum from local to distant search. Our findings in the global robotics industry suggest that firms' search efforts actually vary across two distinct dimens...

Abstract This paper investigates how ,the age of the knowledge,that firms search affects how innovative they are. Two seemingly contradictory propositions are examined: (1) old knowledge hurts by making innovation activities obsolete, and, (2) old knowledge helps because it is more reliable and legitimate, thereby promoting innovation. Results base...

This paper examines the impact of acquisitions on the subsequent innovation performance of acquiring firms in the chemicals industry. We distinguish between technological acquisitions, acquisitions in which technology is a component of the acquired firm's assets, and nontechnological acquisitions: acquisitions that do not involve a technological co...

Technologically radical innovations are a key success factor in many high technology industries. This study examines how firms can measure performance on this key dimension. I ask two questions; 1, how can patent data be used to measure innovation and its radicalism, and 2, what are some of the empirical shortcomings with the current methods using...

This research examines two critical decisions facing R&D-intensive firms; whether and when to exchange their know-how with potential collaborative partners. While prior research has applied the transaction cost economics framework to study these know-how transactions, we propose that a more complete understanding of organizational boundaries requir...