Ahmet Uzay Sezer

My research focuses on how firms learn and protect knowledge while engaging in strategic transactions such as alliances, acquisitions, and divestitures within international settings. I investigate these topics empirically using quantitative methods such as patent data analysis and sequence analysis. I will be on the market in fall and will
attend AOM Seattle and SMS London.  

JOB MARKET PAPER

Knowledge spillover and knowledge "spillback" in alliances
Research on alliances suggests that exposing knowledge to partners can restrict a firm's appropriation of value from that knowledge. The current study examines the possibility that knowledge spillover to a partner can instead provide opportunities for the firm to learn from the partner's inventions that build upon the spilled knowledge, thereby enabling the firm to regain value that would otherwise be lost. This is termed knowledge "spillback." Analyses of 1,089 alliances formed during the period 2000–2015 by 323 firms in the global electronics and machinery industries show that knowledge spillover to a partner induces subsequent knowledge spillback, yet knowledge spillback diminishes as knowledge spillover intensifies. I demonstrate that the positive association of knowledge spillback with spillover is reinforced by the cumulativeness of the firm's knowledge. In turn, this positive association is weakened by the firm's reliance on prior industry knowledge and by the relatedness of the firm's and partner's knowledge bases. My analyses also show that knowledge spillback from partners increases the technological value of the firm's inventions, and thus contributes to the firm's value gain from its alliances.

PUBLICATIONS

• Friedmann, JC., Lavie,
  D., & Rademaker, L. 2021. Does the predator become the prey? Knowledge leakage and role reversal in alliances. In S. Taneja: Best Paper Proceedings of the
  Eighty-first Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management: 11117
• Friedmann, JC. 2022.
  Knowledge spillover and knowledge spillback in alliances. In S. Taneja: Best Paper Proceedings of the Eighty-second Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management:10709

WORKING PAPERS

• Friedmann, JC., Lavie, D., & Rademaker, L. – "Does the predator become the prey? Knowledge spillover and the learning of knowledge protection in alliances"
• Friedmann, JC., & Pedersen, T.  – "National innovation systems and knowledge acquisition in international alliances"
• Friedmann, JC. – "Knowledge spillover and knowledge 'spillback' in alliances"
• Dupin, L.E., & Friedmann, JC. – "Ideological cousins: How firms with similar ideologies benefit from entry into adjacent industries"
• Feldman, E., Friedmann, JC., & Hernandez, E. – "Putting strategy back into corporate strategy: Sequences of alliances, acquisitions, and divestitures"