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Business Research Awards Announced
November 07, 2002
2002-11-07 - Two experts in technology strategy – one a specialist in commercialization and the other in competitive strategy – have won the 2002 Queen’s School of Business Research Awards.
The New Researcher Award goes to Ajay Agrawal, whose work focuses on how firms compete in the market for ideas, the commercialization of university-based science, the strategic use of intellectual property rights, technology clusters, and international labor mobility and knowledge flows.
In one of his current projects, Dr. Agrawal is studying private sector competition over the intellectual property of discoveries by public sector scientists, most of whom are university professors. “This is competition where the economy meets the academy,” he says. “An issue of central importance to both firms and governments, it is an increasingly common phenomenon, yet remains surprisingly understudied.”
Mihkel Tombak, an international educator and consultant, receives the Queen's School of Business Research Excellence Award. Dr. Tombak uses game theory models and empirical techniques to resolve problems of mergers and acquisitions, capital structure, strategic investment competition, and researching joint ventures. He is also involved in a project that examines the auto parts industry and the effect of new market mechanisms on the structure of the industry.
“What excites me in my present research is the meeting of theory and practice: being able to translate theory into ideas for managers and policy makers,” says Dr. Tombak. “For example, some of my work in mergers has applications for competition authorities setting merger guidelines.”
At the awards presentation, the School’s Acting Dean Lew Johnson noted that recipients are selected by a review committee of their faculty peers. “These awards are given annually to faculty members to encourage, promote, and facilitate research in the School,” he said. “It is a special way to recognize the contributions of our colleagues.”