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Brian S. Silverman

Brian S. Silverman

Brian S. Silverman

J.R.S. Prichard and Ann Wilson Chair in Management
Professor of Strategic Management

Degrees:

PhD, University of California at Berkeley
MA, University of California at Berkeley
SM, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
AB, Harvard University

Phone:

416-946-7811

Bio

Brian Silverman is Professor of Strategic Management, and holds the J.R.S. Prichard and Ann Wilson Chair in Management. He has previously served as Associate Dean, Research & Academic Resources. His research focuses on the ways in which a firm’s competitive strategy and organizational structure interact to affect its performance – in particular, its ability to access and exploit technological capabilities. He studies diverse industries including biotechnology, information processing, consumer electronics, and transportation. He has served in numerous roles in varied academic organizations. He is a Co-Editor at Strategic Management Journal, serves on the editorial boards of California Management ReviewOrganization Science, Research Policy, and Strategic Organization, and is a former Series Editor of Advances in Strategic Management.

His personal web page can be found here.

Academic Positions

  • 2017-2018, 2019-2020

    Associate Dean, Research and Academic Resources, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

  • 2004-Present

    J.R.S. Prichard and Ann Wilson Chair in Management, and Full Professor, Strategic Management, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

  • 2001-2004

    Magna International Professor of Strategy (2003-2004), and Associate Professor, Strategic Management, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

  • 1998-2001

    Assistant Professor, Competition and Strategy, Harvard Business School

  • 1995-1998

    Assistant Professor, Strategic Management, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

  • ------------------------------------------

    Visiting Positions, Short-term:

  • April 2019

    Visiting Fellow, Copenhagen Business School

  • November-December 2018

    Visiting Professor, Victoria University of Wellington

  • May-June 2017

    Academic Visitor, Said Business School, University of Oxford

  • March-April 2016

    Sandra Dawson Visiting Professor, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

  • Spring 2015

    Visiting Fellow, London Business School

  • February 2014

    Visiting Fellow, Technion

  • Fall 2010

    Visiting Scholar, Stern School of Business, New York University

  • March 2010

    Visiting Professor, Singapore Management University

  • March 2009

    Visiting Professor, Universite de Paris I

  • May 2005

    Visiting Professor, Universite de Paris XI

  • Spring 2004

    Senior Fellow, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

  • Fall 2003

    Visiting Scholar, Columbia Business School

Selected Publications - Papers

  • Transaction Cost Theory: Past Progress, Current Challenges, and Suggestions for the Future

    Cuypers, I.R.P., J-F. Hennart, B.S. Silverman, and G. Ertug,

    Academy of Management Annals

    Issue:15(1)

    2021

    Pages: 111-150

  • Organizational Change and the Dynamics of Innovation: Formal R&D Structure and Intrafirm Inventor Networks

    Argyres, N.S., L. Rios and B.S. Silverman

    Strategic Management Journal

    Issue:41(11)

    2020

    Pages: 2015-2049

  • History-informed Strategy Research: The Promise of History and Historical Research Methods in Advancing Strategy Scholarship

    Argyres, N.S., A. De Massis, N.J. Foss, F. Frattini, G. Jones and B.S. Silverman

    Strategic Management Journal

    Issue: 41(3)

    2020

    Pages: 343-368

  • Public Contracting for Private Innovation: Government Capabilities, Decision Rights, and Performance Outcomes

    Bruce, J.R., J.M. de Figuieredo and B.S. Silverman

    Strategic Management Journal

    Issue:40(4)

    2019

    Pages: 533-555

  • On the Genesis of Interfirm Relational Contracts

    de Figueiredo, J.M. & B.S.Silverman

    Strategy Science

    Issue:2(4)

    2017

    Pages: 234-245

  • Asset Ownership and Incentives in Early Shareholder Capitalism: Liverpool Shipping in the 18th Century

    Silverman, B.S. & P. Ingram

    Strategic Management Journal

    Issue:38(4)

    2017

    Pages: 854-875

  • The Cultural Contingency of Structure: Evidence from Entry to the Slave Trade In and Around the Abolition Movement

    Ingram, P. & B.S. Silverman

    American Journal of Sociology

    Issue:122(3)

    2016

    Pages: 755-797

  • The Effect of Social Interaction on Economic Transactions: Evidence from Changes in Two Retail Formats

    Goldfarb, A., R.C. McDevitt, S. Samila & B.S. Silverman

    Management Science

    Issue:61(12)

    2015

    Pages: 2963-2981

  • Water under the Bridge: Determinants of Franchise Renewal in Water Provision

    Chong, E., S. Saussier & B.S. Silverman

    Journal of Law, Economics and Organization

    Issue:31(S1)

    2015

    Pages: 3-39

  • Learning by Hiring or Hiring to Avoid Learning?

    Tzabbar, D., B.S. Silverman & B. Aharonson

    Journal of Managerial Psychology

    Issue:30(5)

    2014

    Pages: 550-564

  • Learning through Foreign Market Participation: The Relative Benefits of Exporting, Importing, and Foreign Direct Investment

    Almodovar, P., J. Saiz-Briones & B.S. Silverman

    Journal of Technology Transfer

    Issue:39(6)

    2014

    Pages: 915-944

  • Firm Survival and Industry Evolution in Vertically Related Populations

    de Figueiredo, J.M. & B.S. Silverman

    Management Science

    Issue:58(9)

    2012

    Pages: 1632-1650

  • Arms Race or Detente? The Effect of Alliance Announcements on Rivals' Market Values

    Oxley, J.E., R.C. Sampson & B.S. Silverman

    Management Science

    Issue:55(8)

    2009

    Pages: 1321-1337

  • Churn, Baby, Churn: Strategic Dynamics Among Dominant and Fringe Firms in a Segmented Industry

    de Figueiredo, J.M. & B.S. Silverman

    Management Science

    Issue:53(4)

    2007

    Pages: 632-650

  • The 'Problem' of Creating and Capturing Value

    Nickerson, J.A., B.S. Silverman & T.R. Zenger

    Strategic Organization

    Issue:5(3)

    2007

    Pages: 211-225

  • Profiting from Technological Innovation by Others: The Effect of Competitor Patenting on Firm Value

    McGahan, A.M. & B.S. Silverman

    Research Policy

    Issue:35(8)

    2006

    Pages: 1222-1242

  • The Returns to Lobbying: University Lobbying Efforts and the Allocation of 'Earmarked' Academic Grants

    de Figueiredo, J.M. & B.S. Silverman

    Journal of Law and Economics

    Issue:49(2)

    2006

    Pages: 597-626

  • Picking Winners or Making Them? Alliances, Patents, and Human Capital as Selection Criteria in Venture Financing and Performance of Biotechnology Startups

    Baum, J.A.C. & B.S. Silverman

    Journal of Business Venturing

    Issue:19

    2004

    Pages: 411-436

  • R&D, Organization Structure, and the Development of Corporate Technological Knowledge

    Argyres, N.S. & B.S. Silverman

    Strategic Management Journal

    Issue:25(8-9)

    2004

    Pages: 929-958

  • Why Aren't All Truck Drivers Owner-Operators? Asset Ownership and the Employment Relation in Interstate For-hire Trucking

    Nickerson, J.A. & B.S. Silverman

    Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, forthcoming

    Issue:12(1)

    2003

    Pages: pp. 91-118

  • Why Firms Want to Organize Efficiently and What Keeps them from Doing So: Inappropriate Governance, Performance, and Adaptation in a Deregulated Industry

    Nickerson, J.A. & B.S. Silverman

    Administrative Science Quarterly

    Issue:48(3)

    2003

    Pages: 433-465

  • Alliance-based Competitive Dynamics

    Silverman, B.S. & J.A.C. Baum

    Academy of Management Journal

    Issue:45(4)

    2002

    Pages: pp. 791-817

  • How Does Innovative Activity Change as Industries Mature?

    McGahan, A.M. & B.S. Silverman

    International Journal of Industrial Organization

    Issue:19(7)

    2001

    Pages: pp. 1141-1160

  • Canadian Biotechnology Startups, 1991?1997: The Role of Incumbents' Patents and Strategic Alliances in Controlling Competition

    Calabrese, T., J.A.C. Baum & B.S. Silverman

    Social Science Research

    Issue:29(4)

    2000

    Pages: pp. 503-534

  • Don't Go it Alone: Alliance Networks and Startup Performance in Canadian Biotechnology

    Baum, J.A.C., T. Calabrese & B.S. Silverman

    Strategic Management Journal

    Issue:21(3)

    2000

    Pages: pp. 267-294

  • Technological Resources and the Direction of Corporate Diversification: Toward an Integration of the Resource-Based View and Transaction Cost Economics

    Silverman, B.S.

    Management Science

    Issue:45(8)

    1999

    Pages: pp. 1109-1124

  • Technological Overlap and Interfirm Cooperation: Implications for the Resource-Based View of the Firm

    Mowery, D.C., J.E. Oxley & B.S. Silverman

    Research Policy

    Issue:27(5)

    1998

    Pages: pp. 507-523

  • Profitability, Transactional Alignment, and Organizational Mortality in the U.S. Trucking Industry

    Silverman, B.S., J.A. Nickerson & J. Freeman

    Strategic Management Journal

    Issue:18(Summer)

    1997

    Pages: pp. 31-52

  • Strategic Alliances and Interfirm Knowledge Transfer

    Mowery, D.C., J.E. Oxley & B.S. Silverman

    Strategic Management Journal

    Issue:17(Winter)

    1996

    Pages: pp. 77-91

  • The Lessons of SEMATECH: Implications for the Design of High-Technology Research Consortia

    Grindley, P., D.C. Mowery & B. Silverman

    Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

    Issue:13(4), Fall

    1994

    Pages: pp. 723-758

Selected Publications - Books and Chapters

  • Firm-Specific Human Capital and Strategy/Entrepreneurship Research: Three Opportunities

    Silverman, B.S.

    in D. Tzabbar and B. Crillo (editors), Advances in Strategic Management 41 (Employee Mobility: A Conversation Across Disciplines and Setting a New Agenda). Bingley UK: Emerald Group

    2020

  • Markets for Knowledge: Intellectual Property, Organizational Arrangements, Knowledge Workers, and International Governance

    Silverman, B.S.

    in E. Brousseau, J. Glachant and J. Sgard (editors), Oxford Handbook on International Economic Governance and Market Regulation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, in press

    2019

  • Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Platforms: Advances in Strategic Management, volume 37

    Furman, J., A. Gawer, B.S. Silverman & S. Stern (editors)

    Bingley UK: Emerald Group

    2017

  • Addressing Endogeneity in Alliance Research

    Martinez, O., J.E. Oxley & B.S. Silverman

    in L. Mesquita, R. Ragozzino & J.J. Reuer (editors), Collaborative Strategy: A Guide to Strategic Alliances, Northampton MA: Edward Elgar

    2017

  • Collaboration and Competition in Business Ecosystems: Advances in Strategic Management, volume 30

    Adner, R., J.E. Oxley & B.S. Silverman (editors)

    Bingley UK: Emerald Press

    2013

  • History and Strategy: Advances in Strategic Management volume 29

    Kahl, S.J., B.S. Silverman & M.A. Cusumano (editors)

    Bingley UK: Emerald Press

    2012

  • History in Strategy Research: What, Why, and How

    Ingram, P., H. Rao & B.S. Silverman

    in S.J. Kahl, B.S. Silverman & M.A. Cusumano (editors), History and Strategy: Advances in Strategic Management volume 29, Bingley UK: Emerald Press

    2012

  • New Frontiers in the Strategic Management of Organizational Change

    Nickerson, J.A. & B.S. Silverman

    in J.A. Nickerson & B.S. Silverman (editors), The Economic Institutions of Strategy: Advances in Strategic Management, Volume 26, London UK: Emerald Press

    2009

  • The Economic Institutions of Strategy: Advances in Strategic Management, Volume 26

    Nickerson, J.A. & B.S. Silverman (editors)

    London UK: Emerald Press

    2009

  • How Does the Government (Want to) Fund Science? Politics, Lobbying and Academic Earmarks

    de Figueiredo, J.M. & B.S. Silverman

    in R.G. Ehrenberg and P. Stephan (editors), Science and the University, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press

    2007

  • Inter-firm Alliances: A New Institutional Perspective

    Oxley, J.E. & B.S. Silverman

    in E. Brousseau and J. Glachant (editors), New Institutional Economics: A Guidebook, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

    2007

  • The Two Faces of Partner-Specific Absorptive Capacity: Learning and Cospecialization in Strategic Alliances

    Mowery, D.C., J.E. Oxley & B.S. Silverman

    in F. Contractor and P. Lorange (editors), Cooperative Strategies and Alliances, London: Elsevier Science

    2002

  • Technological Resources and the Logic of Corporate Diversification

    Silverman, B.S.

    London, UK: Routledge Press

    2002

  • The New Institutionalism in Strategic Management: Advances in Strategic Management volume 19

    Ingram, P. & B.S. Silverman, editors

    Stamford CT: JAI Press

    2002

  • Complexity, Attractors and Path Dependence and Creation in Technological Evolution

    Baum, J.A.C. & B.S. Silverman

    in R. Garud and P. Karnoe (editors), Path as Process (Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

    2001

  • Organizational Economics

    Silverman, B.S.

    in J.A.C. Baum, editor, Blackwell Companion to Organizations, London: Blackwell Publishers

    2001

  • Complexity in the Dynamics of Organizational Founding and Failure

    Baum, J.A.C. & B.S. Silverman

    in M. Lissack and H. Gunz (editors), Managing Complexity in Organizations, New York: Quorum Press

    1999

  • Economic Performance, Strategic Position, and Vulnerability to Ecological Pressure in the U.S. Interstate Trucking Industry

    Nickerson, J.A. & B.S. Silverman

    in J.A.C. Baum (editor), Advances in Strategic Management 15

    1998

    Pages: pp. 37-61

Honors and Awards

  • 2017

    Dan and Mary Lou Schendel Best Paper Prize, Strategic Management Journal

  • 2017

    Gould Prize, American Journal of Sociology

  • 2017

    Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award, American Sociology Association, Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section

  • 2005-2018 (except sabbatical years)

    Excellence in Teaching Award, Rotman School of Management

  • 2012

    Best Paper Award, Israel Strategy Conference

  • 2010

    Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management, Business Policy & Strategy Division

  • 2010

    Most Impactful Paper, Journal of Business Venturing

  • 2003

    Best Paper, Entrepreneurship Division, Academy of Management

  • 2003

    Best Professor, University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management 2nd-year MBA class

  • 2002

    Runner-up, Best Professor, University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management 2nd-year MBA class

  • 2001

    Noted Alliance Expert, Corporate Strategy Board, Washington DC

  • 2000

    Two papers nominated for McKinsey/Strategic Management Society Best Conference Paper Prize,

  • 1999

    Best Paper Award of Excellence, Technology and Innovation Management Division, Administrative Sciences Association of Canada

  • 1998

    Honourable Mention Award of Excellence, Organization Theory Division, Administrative Sciences Association of Canada

  • 1997

    Best Paper Award, Organization Theory Division, ASAC

  • 1997

    Honourable Mention Award, Policy Division, ASAC

  • 1997

    Best Professor, University of Toronto 1st -Year MBA class

  • 1997

    Finalist, Best Dissertation Award, Business Policy & Strategy Division, Academy of Management

Professional Affiliations/Memberships

  • Academy of Management

  • Africa Academy of Management

  • American Economic Association

  • European Group for Organization Studies

  • Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics

  • Strategic Management Society

Academic / Professional Service

  • EDITORIAL SERVICE,

  • 2021-

    Co-Editor, Strategic Management Journal

  • 2019-

    Editorial Board, California Management Review

  • 2006-

    Editorial Board, Organization Science

  • 2006-

    Advisory Editor, Research Policy

  • 2001-

    Editorial Board, Strategic Organization

  • 2020-2021

    Associate Editor, Strategic Management Journal

  • 2011-2017

    Series Editor, Advances in Strategic Management

  • 2004-2008

    Editorial Board, Administrative Science Quarterly

  • 2001-2006

    Departmental Editor, Journal of International Business Studies

  • 2001-2004

    Editorial Board, Academy of Management Review

  • 1999-2001

    Editorial Board, Business & Politics

  • ,

  • OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE,

  • 2019-

    Member of Leadership Board, Consortium on Competitiveness and Cooperation

  • 2019-

    Board Member, Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics

  • 2018

    Past Division Chair, Academy of Management, Strategic Management Division (formerly BPS)

  • 2017

    Division Chair, Academy of Management, Business Policy & Strategy Division

  • 2016

    Division Chair-Elect, Academy of Management, Business Policy & Strategy Division

  • 2015

    Program Chair, Academy of Management, Business Policy & Strategy Division

  • 2014

    Assistant Program Chair, Academy of Management, Business Policy & Strategy Division

  • 2014-2015

    Secretary, Strategy Research Initiative

  • 2012-2015

    Member, Executive Board, Strategy Research Initiative (Chair, 2012-2013)

  • 2008-2011

    Board Member, Strategy Research Initiative

  • 2010-

    Member, Scientific Council, Economics of PPP Chair, Universite de Paris I Sorbonne

  • 2009-2012

    Advisory Board Member, Israel Strategy Conference

  • 2007-2010

    Board Member, International Society of New Institutional Economics

  • 2004-2006

    Executive Committee member, Academy of Management, Business Policy & Strategy Division

  • 2002-2003

    Co-chair, Doctoral Consortium, Academy of Management, Business, Policy & Strategy Division

  • 1999-2001

    Executive committee member at large, Academy of Management, Technology and Innovation Management Division

  • 2000

    Division Chair, Administrative Sciences Association of Canada, Technology and Innovation Management Group

  • 1999

    Program Chair, Administrative Sciences Association of Canada, Technology and Innovation Management Group

  • 1998

    Academic Reviewer, Administrative Sciences Association of Canada, Technology and Innovation Management Group