Aija Leiponen

Associate Professor

Areas of Expertise

Economics and Management of Innovation, Organizational Economics, Business Strategy

251 Warren Hall
Ph: 607.255.7588
E-mail: aija.leiponen@cornell.edu

Aija Leiponen joined the Department of Applied Economics and Management in 2001. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration. During her doctoral studies, she spent two years as a Fulbright scholar in the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining Cornell University, she carried out research at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, Institute for Industrial Relations in UC Berkeley, and the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) in Finland.

Professor Leiponen’s teaching and research focus on the sources and
effects of technological change in the economy. The overarching goal of her research program is to understand the role of inter-organizational cooperation in innovation. For example, she has examined the creation and transfer of knowledge between business service firms (such as management consulting, engineering, and R&D services) and their clients, the decentralization of R&D activities into geographically distinct units, and the cooperative creation of technological standards in wireless telecommunications.

Most recent projects investigate small firms’ strategies to protect the
returns on their innovation investments, and wireless telecommunication firms' prior art search strategies in patenting.

Teaching

AEM 3220: Internet Strategy
AEM 3330: European Business Institutions
AEM 4370: Innovation Strategy

Selected Publications

Innovation Objectives, Knowledge Sources, and the Benefits of Breadth (co-authored with Constance E. Helfat). Forthcoming in Strategic Management Journal, 2009.

Competing Through Cooperation: The Organization of Standard Setting in Wireless Telecommunications. Management Science, 2008.

Control of Intellectual Assets in Client Relationships: Implications for
Innovation. Strategic Management Journal, 2008.

What exactly are technological regimes? Intra-industry heterogeneity in
the organization of innovation activities (co-authored with Ina Drejer).
Research Policy Vol. 36: 1221-1238 (2007).

Skills and Innovation. International Journal of Industrial Organization
Vol. 23, No. 5-6: 303-323 (lead article) (2005).

Working Papers (available upon request)

When Does Distributed Innovation Make Sense? Location, Decentralization, and Innovation Success (joint with Constance E. Helfat). Under third review at Organization Science.

Can't Block, Must Run: Small Firms and Appropriability (joint with Justin
Byma). Under revision for Research Policy.

Is Service Innovation Different? Under revision for Industrial and
Corporate Change.

Collaboration and Networking in Cooperative Standard Setting (co-authored with Talia Bar).

Work in Progress

Value Creation and Capture from Emerging Technologies (with Ari Hyytinen and Markku Maula).

Global Engagement and Innovation Performance (with Constance Helfat).

Education

Ph.D. (Economics), Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, 2000
M.S. (Economics), Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, 1993

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