I’m interested in taking this work in more directions, including how the digital economy and interests in sustainability affect each other. That’s potentially a vast pool of research ideas.”
Anna Fung
Professor of Management, Kogod School of Business
Fung’s team has completed a manuscript focused on open corporate innovation. Where traditional innovation in these sectors often occurs privately, the open model occurs when firms develop breakthroughs in partnership. The team’s most recent work explores internal and external factors that explain when and how firms collaborate and what determines the results of that collaboration. As Fung mentioned, this is just one lens through which she plans to explore this research, and she’s excited to learn more about what drives innovation across firms.
Besides her work with the National Science Foundation’s grant, Professor Fung’s research in this sphere covers a wide array of topics. Using patent data, case studies, and empirical research, she’s uncovered several trends in who innovates, when they do so, and how it materializes in their work. One of her recent papers studies how automotive firms innovate and invent in the wake of industry product recalls, discovering that the international context plays a significant role in whether the firm experiments or relies on routine. Another reveals that at the individual level, a well-rounded approach benefits inventors; studying patents, Fung has noted that a jack of all trades is more likely to create a breakthrough than somebody entrenched in one discipline, no matter what that discipline is.
She’s also noticed that professional experience matters for both individuals and firms. In one set of working papers, Fung and her coauthor study how firms use the breakthroughs they create, which in turn involves determining where these breakthroughs come from. “We find that older and smaller firms are more likely to create breakthroughs,” she explains. “In addition, when it comes to using the breakthroughs they create, older firms are better able to exploit their own inventions. It’s interesting in terms of understanding where creativity comes from and how it manifests after it’s been created.” By recognizing patterns of innovation in the field, Fung and her colleagues can predict future trends and determine what might be missing from a firm that hopes to make new strides.
As a Kogod professor, Fung aims to leave students with an understanding of what drives innovation so they can recognize it themselves in their careers. She teaches the school’s strategic management capstone course (MGMT-458), meaning that she often works with senior students preparing for new endeavors. “I try to give my students a wide variety of practical and theoretical concepts as they get ready to graduate,” Fung says. “I don’t think they’d want to just sit through a research seminar, so I definitely think my experience has shaped how I teach.”
She also tries to impart to them a lesson that she follows herself—that there’s always more to explore and learn, both on campus and beyond.
Fung is currently working with fellow Kogod management faculty members Tomasz Mroczkowski and David Bartlett to learn how accelerator programs decide who to fund and when to fund them. She also looks forward to the opportunity to work with experts from across the American University’s campus. “There’s cool research going on all over AU, and I’d love to work with more coauthors,” she says.
I think the fun part about our job is collaborating on and exploring new ideas and phenomena and then being able to share them.”
Anna Fung
Professor of Management, Kogod School of Business
Just as firms can collaborate to innovate in unforeseen ways, Professor Fung’s collaborations have led her to fascinating discoveries about business, technology, and what’s on the horizon in both.
