Seminar – Founder Industry Specific Experience: An Asset or a Liability? The case of International Expansion

Professor Niron Hashai, Arison School of Business

Firms typically use their knowledge to achieve growth. In newly established firms, this knowledge initially comes from their founders’ experiences. We propose that founders’ industry specific prior experience facilitates new firm growth in the short run, but in the long run becomes an obstacle to experiential learning essential for continued growth. We further propose that founders possessing industry specific and general prior experiences are better positioned to facilitate growth in both the short and long runs. Finally, we propose that the combination of industry specific and general prior experience of founders positively affects firm growth. We test these propositions in the context of founders’ international experience and the international expansion of high technology new firms. Our analysis shows that early in new firms’ international expansion, the more industry-specific the prior international experience of founders, the more positive its effect on international growth. Yet, once these firms gain international experience, the more industry specific the prior international experience of founders the more negative its effect on international growth. In parallel, we find that the more diverse are the prior international experiences of individual founders or founding teams, in terms of being industry specific or general, the more positive their effect on international growth.

Speaker bio

Niron Hashai is an Associate Professor at the Arison School of Business, the Interdisciplinary Center, Israel and the Albertson-Waltuch Chair in Business Administration at the School of Business Administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Professor Hashai obtained his BSc in Computer Sciences from the Technion and his MBA and PhD from Tel Aviv University. His research interests include: theory of the multinational corporation, technological innovation, diversification, and growth patterns of high technology firms. His research was published in top strategy, management, international business and innovation journals, including: Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Research Policy, Strategic Management Journal and Strategy Science.

Professor Hashai serves on the boards of the Journal of International Business Studies, and the Global Strategy Journal, among others. Niron is also a visiting Associate Professor at New York University, the Startup Nation visiting fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, the University of Oxford, the Peter J. Buckley International Visiting Fellow at Leeds University Business School and an associate member at the John H. Dunning Research Centre, University of Reading.

Professor Hashai is co-founder of HUstart – the Hebrew University entrepreneurship center and the Israel Strategy Conference (ISC).