Selected Publications

We study firm performance in the semiconductor industry after the introduction of the integrated circuit, comparing the outcomes experienced by diversifying firms and new entrants across different clusters. Over the long term, succesful firms were disproportionately Spinoffs of leading firms, or diversifiers with a transistor background. New firms in Silicon Valley were more likely to enter at the technological frontier. However, over the long term, location had no significance on becoming a top producer.
In Industrial and Corporate Change, 2015

We study firm entry and inventor mobility in the Semiconductor Industry. Our results show most of the increased inventor mobility in Silicon Valley is due to inventors moving from parents to spinoffs, or from incumbents to recent entrants. Incumbents in Silicon Valley don’t seem to benefit from the greater mobility of inventors in the cluster, as they don’t hire inventors at a higer rate than incumbents in other regions, while they lose many inventors that leave to join new firms.
In Management Science, 2015

Working Papers

We analyze how the increasing adoption of OpenTable (OT) in New York City (NYC) affected consumer prices and business survival. We model the adoption decision as a prisioner’s dilemma. In our model, as long as OT can be used to poach customers from competitors, all restaurants will join the platform to poach customers from competitors or to protect their clientele from competitors. This results in inflated prices, but has no effect on restaurants’ profits. To test these predictions, we create a dataset containing prices, survival, and OpenTable participation for over 5,000 restaurants in NYC between 2005 and 2016. Our empirical analysis confirms the predictions of the model.
Manuscript, 2018

We draw from the literatures on organizational learning, strategy and entrepreneurship to examine different ways in which new firms benefit from hiring experienced workers. Our analysis shows new firms in the semiconductor industry hire many experienced inventors from incumbents in their first few years. Once these firms get established, their hiring of experienced inventors slow down considerably. We propose that while incumbents hire experience inventors to acquire specific pieces of knowledge, recent entrants hire experienced inventors to build up the firm capabilities. We test our hypotheses using patent citation data and detailed information on the origins of merchant semiconductor producers.
Manuscript, 2018

The popularity of online review platforms has turned online reputation management into a key concern for new business owners. As new businesses lack an established clientele and reputation, they may be disproportionately threatened by negative online reviews. In this study, I use a discontinuity regression design to analyze the causal effect of ratings obtained in Yelp (a popular online review platform) on new restaurant survival in New York City. I estimate that a half-star rating increase is associated with a decrease of 4% in the probability of failure by year two. This is a large effect, considering that 14% of restaurants in my sample fail in their first two years.
In Work in Progress, 2018

Work in Progress

(2018). The Effect of the European General Data Protection Regulation on the Online Publishing Industry. Work in Progress.

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Teaching

Information Systems Project

This is the capstone project course of the Master of Information System Management program at the Heinz College at CMU. As faculty advisor I work with teams of students designing and implementing an information system for an external client.

Carnegie Mellon University (Fall, 2018)

Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

I co-developed this class with other faculty at P. Universidad Catolica de Chile, and faculty from UC Berkeley’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. Students are required to develop a technology based entrepreneurial idea and produce a prototype and pitch for their project. The course finishes up in a competition where winners received seed funding for their projects (~US$7,500/project). In my two semesters teaching this course, several teams of my students went on to win the competition.

Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (Fall 2015, Spring 2016)

Technology, Policy, and Society

This course was part of the core curriculum of the Master in Energy program at P. Universidad Catolica de Chile. It covered topics on science and technology policy that are relevant to energy professional, and tools for analyzing complex problems in their social, technical, and economic dimensions.

Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (Fall 2015, Spring 2016)

The Strategy and Management of Technological Innovation

This course is part of the core curriculum of the Master in Engineering & Technology Innovation Managementat CMU. It is case-based method course that covers several different analytical frameworks for studying technology management problems, and for supporting decision-making.

Carnegie Mellon University (Fall 2013, Fall, 2014)

Leadership

The Clover 2030 Engineering Strategy

The Clover 2030 Engineering Strategy is a strategic plan funded by the Chilean Development Corporation aimed at transforming the school of engineering at two leading universities in Chile into world-class institutions that can become true engines for economic development and public wealth creation in Chile. The plan involves the investment of ~US$40 millions over a six years period in five areas: Engineering education; basic and applied research; international networks; internal governance; and technology transfer. A detailed overview of the project was featured on the September 2016 issue of Prism, the monthly flagship publication of the American Society for Engineering Education.

As executive director I was responsible, in coordination with the dean and vice-dean of the school of engineering, of developing the plan for the project’s activities, coordinating the implementation of the activities committed in the plan, controlling the execution of the budget, and assuring the plan was developed in accordance with the regulations of our funding agency. As faculty of the innovation and entrepreneurship area I was also involved in implementing the activities related to innovation and entrepreneurship education.

Contact