A paper by Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business professor Sanjay Jain, which was co-authored with A.Petkova, A.Wadhwa & X.Yao, titled “Reputation and decision making under ambiguity: A study of U.S. venture capital firm investments in the emerging clean energy sector” was published in the April 2014 issue of the Academy of Management Journal. The Academy of Management Journal is one of the premier management journals.
The abstract of the paper is as follows:
“This study examines the role of reputation on decision making under ambiguity. Drawing on social cognition and behavioral theories, we propose that a firm’s reputation exerts dual pressures on its decision-making under ambiguity. On the one hand, a firm’s reputation increases its aspirations for future performance and promotes its engagement in risky strategies to achieve them. On the other hand, preserving the already established reputation requires a firm to deliver consistent performance over time, which promotes greater use of risk reduction strategies. Our analyses of the U.S. venture capital firms’ investments in the clean energy sector from 1990 to 2008 demonstrate that while reputable firms are more likely to invest in the emerging sector, they also employ risk reduction strategies more extensively. The sector’s legitimation further influences these firms’ investment decisions both directly and through its interaction with firm reputation.”
Professor Jain’s research interests include technology strategy, institutional entrepreneurship, innovation management, university-technology commercialization and qualitative methods.
As an Assistant Professor, he teaches the graduate capstone class titled “Business Policy in High Technology Firms” and the undergraduate capstone course in strategic analysis.
Dr. Jain received his PhD in Management from New York University, his post-graduate diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, and his bachelor of engineering from Bangalore University.
He has also published papers in the Academy of Management Journal, Research Policy, Organization Studies and Industrial and Corporate Change that have covered technologies such as Java, Linux, Wikipedia and embryonic stem cells.
