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My research focuses on knowledge, human
assets, or human capital. Common themes include: 1) dilemmas
arising from knowledge-based assets (e.g., the "dark side"
of strategic assets); 2) how buyers cope when mergers & acquisitions
involve human assets; 3) how knowledge-intensity impacts diversification;
and 4) measuring core competence. If you are interested in
more information about my research program, feel free to read my Professional
Identity Statement. The following is a brief list
of recent publications. Additional information is in my vita.
- Coff, R., Coff, D., and Eastvold, R. 2006. The
Knowledge Leveraging Paradox: How to scale up without making
knowledge imitable. Forthcoming at Academy of Management
Review.
- Ahuja, G., Coff, R. and Lee, P. 2005. Managerial
Foresight and Attempted Rent Appropriation: Insider Trading on
Knowledge of Imminent Breakthroughs. Strategic
Management Journal. 26(8): 791-808.
- Coff, R. and Blyler, M. 2003. Dynamic
Capabilities, Social Capital, & Rent Appropriation: Ties that
Split Pies. Strategic Management Journal. 24: 677-686.
- Coff, R. & Lee, P. 2003. Insider
Trading as a Vehicle to Appropriate Rent from R&D. Strategic
Management Journal, 24(2): 183-190.
- Coff, R. 2003. Bidding
Wars Over R&D Intensive Firms: Knowledge, opportunism and
the market for corporate control. Academy of Management
Journal, 46(1): 74-85. (2.4M pdf)
- Coff, R. 2002. Human
Capital, Shared Expertise, and the Likelihood of Impasse in Corporate
Acquisitions. Journal of Management, 28(1): 115-137.
- Coff, R. 1999. When
Competitive Advantage Doesn’t Lead to Performance: Resource-based
Theory and Stakeholder Bargaining Power. Organization Science,
10(2): 119-133.
- Coff, R. 1999. How
Buyers Cope with Uncertainty When Acquiring Firms in Knowledge-Intensive
Industries: Caveat Emptor. Organization Science, 10(2):
144-161.
- Coff, R. 1999. How
Control in Human-asset-intensive Firms Differs from Physical-asset-intensive
Firms: a Multi-level Approach. (1M pdf) Journal of Managerial
Issues, 11(4): 389-405.
- Coff, R. 1997. Human
Assets and Management Dilemmas: Coping with Hazards on the Road
to Resource-based Theory. (1.5M pdf) Academy of Management
Review, 22(2): 374-402.
Expertise-Based Measure of Relatedness
Much of my M&A research (Org Science and J of Mgt
above) draws on an expertise-based measure of relatedness that uses
the Occupational Employment Survey data published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics.
The BLS surveys a large number of industries to identify
occupational breakdowns into over 700 distinct categories of
occupational expertise. Click here
to find out more about the Occupational
Employment Statistics program at the BLS. This allows us to identify which industries
draw on similar expertise. Of course, it correlates with the # of
common SIC digits. However, it is possible to be in very
different SIC code families but draw on similar expertise. Similar expertise
(as a resource) is a better way to estimate if a buyer
understands a target than product similarity (SICs alone). This is based on Moshe Farjoun's earlier work (Org Science 94).
The link below is a zipped MS Access file with pairs of 3 digit SIC
codes. The relatedness measure in the last column is the
occupational expertise overlap between the industries (0-100). In M&A
studies, expertise overlap for the buyer & target's primary SICs
provide a relatedness measure. For diversification, it is best to compare primary
& secondary SICs for each division and weigh them by sales. My
data are a little old (1990). To update them, you would have to recalculate the % overlap since
the BLS can only provide occupational breakdowns by
industry (not overlap).
Click
here to download OES.zip
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