Timothy Bernarr Folta

Professor

Faculty Director, CCEI

Thomas John and Bette Wolff Family Chair in Strategic Entrepreneurship

Management &

Entrepreneurship

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See Professor Folta’s CV

Education/Professional Certification

• Ph.D. in Management, Purdue University (1994)

Areas of Expertise

• Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy
• Corporate Strategy and Diversification
• Market Entry and Exit
• Managing Uncertainty

Biography

Timothy B. Folta (Ph.D. Purdue University) is Professor; Thomas John and Bette Wolff Family Chair of Strategic Entrepreneurship at University of Connecticut.

His research and teaching examine both entrepreneurship and corporate strategy, analyzing decisions around entry, exit, and diversification. He is currently examining the role of the corporate headquarters in multi-business firms in reallocating strategic resources across businesses, and the effectiveness of government grant programs in supporting technical entrepreneurship. His research has garnered a number of awards, including several Best Paper awards at the Academy of Management (1994 Business Policy and Strategy; 1992 Entrepreneurship), the 2012 IDEA Foundational Paper Award by the Entrepreneurship Division at the Academy of Management honoring a paper that has powerfully and positively changed the conversation in the field of entrepreneurship for at least a decade; the 2009 Fulbright Special Senior Scholar Award for the 60th anniversary of the Fulbright program in Italy; the 2006 Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration Award for the best conference paper exploring the importance of small business to the U.S. economy or a public policy issue of importance to the entrepreneurial community; and appeared in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and Strategic Management Journal. He co-Edited the 2016 volume of Advances in Strategic Management on Resource Redeployment and Corporate Strategy, and is on the editorial boards of Journal of Business Venturing, Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and Strategy Science. Tim served as the 2020-21 Chair of the Strategic Management Division (>5,600 members) of the Academy of Management and has held leadership positions in the Academy of Management, serving as a member of the executive committees of the Strategic Management (STR) Division (2003-2005, 2017-2022) and the Entrepreneurship Division (2015-17), co-Chair of the STR Doctoral Consortium (2004-2005), and member of the STR Research Committee (1999-2001). In 2022, he launched a research seminar series on Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy.

He is a Visiting Research Professor at Instituto de Empresa (Madrid), and has been a Fellow at the University of Strasbourg (France) Institute for Advanced Study (2012-2016), ESADE Business School (Barcelona), Ecole de Management Lyon, and LUISS University (Rome). Prior to his UConn appointment he held the Brock Family Chair of Strategic Management at Purdue University. He regularly teaches executives, masters, undergraduates, and Ph.D. students.

Achievements

• 2023 Nominated for the 2023 Responsible Research in Management Awards co-sponsored by Fellows of the Academy of Management and the Community for Responsible Research in Business and Management, for paper titled “Does government fund the best entrepreneurial ventures? The case of the Small Business Innovation Research Program” and published in Academy of Management Discoveries
• 2021 Bright Idea Award for paper titled “Does government fund the best entrepreneurial ventures? The case of the Small Business Innovation Research Program”. The award is selected annually for the top 10 publications by business school faculty in the State of New Jersey.
• 2019, 2020 Award for Teaching Excellence, Instituto de Empresa (Madrid)
• 2018 Best Paper in the Corporate Strategy Interest Group at the 2018 Strategic Management Society Conference in Paris, for paper titled “How does the potential for resource redeployment affect market exit decisions? Evidence from the global retail sector”, with T Sohl.
• 2012-2016 Fellow to the University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study, which strives to encourage and support research in science and humanities at the highest level by bringing together local and foreign scholars from diverse disciplines and fostering interactions among researchers and with the wider community of the university.
• 2012 IDEA Foundational Paper Award in the Entrepreneurship Division at the Academy of Management honoring a paper that has powerfully and positively changed the conversation in the field of entrepreneurship for at least a decade
• 2009 Fulbright Special Senior Scholar Award for the 60th anniversary of the Fulbright program in Italy
• 2006 Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration Award for the best conference paper exploring the importance of small business to the U.S. economy or a public policy issue of importance to the entrepreneurial community
• 1994 Gleuck Best Paper award in the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management
• 1992 Best Empirical Paper award in the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management

Select Book Chapters, Monographs, or Videos

• Video presentation at the National Science Foundation in April 2021 on paper titled “Does Government Fund the Best Entrepreneurial Ventures“.
• Oxford Encyclopedia entry on Resource Redeployment
• Video of presentation at SMS session on Corporate Adjustment
• Video October 2020 Interview of corporate strategy and entrepreneurship researcher Tim Folta in Strategy Researcher Virtual Proseminar video series Episode 16
• Video of presentation on paper titled “Does Government Fund the Best Entrepreneurial Ventures“, and article published at the University of Buffalo.
• Book chapter titled ‘Examining Resource Redeployment in Multibusiness Firms’ (with Constance E Helfat and Samina Karim). In Timothy B Folta, Constance E Helfat, and Samina Karim (Eds), Resource Redeployment and Corporate Strategy, Advances in Strategic Management (Volume 35, 2016, pp. 1-17), London: Emerald Publishing.
• Video of Marvin Lieberman presenting our paper titled “Entry, Exit, and the Potential for Resource Redeployment“
• Video of Arkadiy Sakhartov presenting our paper titled “Relatedness, Resource Redeployability, and Firm Value“
• Video of Arkadiy Sakhartov presenting our paper titled “Getting Beyond Relatedness as a Driver of Corporate Value“
• See TEDx Purdue video on ‘Myths of Entrepreneurship‘. Also listed on “7 TED Talks that Will Change the Way You Look at Business“
• Book chapter titled ‘Hedging strategies,’ (with A. Sakhartov) In M. Augier and D. Teece (Eds.) Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management. Palgrave MacMillan: London. 2013.
• Book chapter titled ‘Entrepreneurial risk,’ In D. Kuratko and M. Morris (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurial Research. Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA. 2012.
• Book chapter titled ‘Information asymmetry in entrepreneurship,’ (with S. Dutta) In D. Kuratko and M. Morris (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurial Research. Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA.

Select Publications

• ‘Do Firms Proactively Build Internal Markets for Redeployment? Evidence from a Natural Experiment (with Timo Sohl). Management Science (forthcoming). 
• ‘Does NIH select the right healthcare ventures through the SBIR grant program?‘ (with S. Dutta and J. Rodrigues). Forthcoming in Journal of Technology Transfer, 2023, 48(4): 1206-1220.
• ‘The Value of Flexibility in Multi-Business Firms,‘ (with T Dickler, M Giarratana, J Santalo), Strategic Management Journal, 2022, 43(12): 2602-2628.
• ‘Resource Redeployment.’ In Oxford Bibliographies in Management. Ed. Ricky Griffin. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• ‘Market Exit and the Potential for Resource Redeployment: Evidence from the Global Retail Sector,’ (with T Sohl). Strategic Management Journal; 2021;42:2273–229.
• ‘Declining markets, resource specificity, and redeployment decisions,’ (with T Sohl). Strategic Management Review, 2(2): 391-412.
• ‘Identifying internal markets for resource redeployment,’ (with T Dickler). Strategic Management Journal, 41(2020): 2341-2371.  
• ‘Does government fund the best entrepreneurial ventures? The case of the Small Business Innovation Research Program’ (with S. Dutta and J. Rodrigues). Academy of Management Discovery, 2022, Vol. 8, No. 1, 103–138.
• ‘CEO career horizon, corporate governance, and real options: The role of economic short-termism,’ (with J.M. Lee and J.C. Park). Strategic Management Journal, 39(2018): 2703-2725.
• ‘Endogeneity in strategy-performance analysis: An application to initial human capital strategy and new venture performance,’ (with V. Rocha, M. van Praag, and A. Carneiro). Organizational Research Methods, 22(3): 2018: 740-764.
• ‘Entry, exit, and the potential for resource redeployment‘ (with M. Lieberman and G. Lee).  Strategic Management Journal, 38(2017): 526-544.
• ‘Resource Redeployment and Corporate Strategy (with C. Helfat and S. Karim). Volume 35 of series titled Advances in Strategic Management, 2016, London:Emerald Publishing.
• ‘Examining resource redeployment in multi-business firms‘ (with C. Helfat and S. Karim). In Folta, Helfat, and Karim (Eds.) Resource Redeployment and Corporate Strategy, Advances in Strategic Management, 35 (2016).
• ‘A comparison of the effect of angels and venture capitalists on innovation and value creation‘ (with Supradeep Dutta). Journal of Business Venturing, 31(2016): 39-54.
• ‘A model scholar and preeminent contributor to our understanding of strategic entrepreneurship: Arnold C Cooper (1933-2012).’ Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 8 (2014): 349-360.
• ‘Getting beyond relatedness as a driver of corporate value,’ (with A. Sakhartov) Strategic Management Journal, 36(2015): 1939-1959.
• ‘Resource relatedness, redeployability, and firm value,’ (with A. Sakhartov) Strategic Management Journal, 35 (2014): 1781-1797.
• ‘Rationalizing organizational change: A need for comparative testing,’ (with A. Sakhartov) Organization Science, 24, 4 (2013): 1140-1156.
• ‘Entrepreneurial entry thresholds,’ (with B. McCann), Journal of Economic and Behavioral Organization, 84, 3 (2012): 782-800.
• ‘Performance differentials within geographic clusters,’ (with B. McCann) Journal of Business Venturing, 26, 1(2011): 104-123.
• ‘Hybrid Entrepreneurship,’ (with F. Delmar and K. Wennberg) Management Science, 56, 2(2010): 253-269.
• ‘Demand- and supply-side agglomerations: Distinguishing between fundamentally different manifestations of agglomeration,’ (with B. McCann) Journal of Management Studies, 46, 3(2009): 362-392.
• ‘Sunk costs, uncertainty, and market exit: A real options perspective,’ (with J. O’Brien) Industrial and Corporate Change, 18, 5(2009): 807-.
• ‘A transaction cost perspective on why, how, and when cash impacts firm performance,’ (with J. O’Brien) Managerial and Decision Economics, 30, 7(2009): 465-479.
• ‘Location matters: Where have we been and where might we go in agglomeration research,’ (with B. McCann) Journal of Management, 34, 3(2008): 532-565.
• ‘Determinants of firm-specific thresholds in acquisition decisions,’ (with J. O’Brien) Managerial and Decision Economics, 29, 2-3(2008): 209-225.
• ‘Moderating effects of investor experience on the signaling value of private equity placements,’ (with J. Janney) Journal of Business Venturing, 21, 1(2006): 27-44.
• ‘Uncertainty, irreversibility, and the likelihood of entry: An empirical assessment of the option to defer,’ (with D. Johnson and J. O’Brien) Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 61, 3(2006): 432-452.
• ‘Geographic cluster size and firm performance,’ (with A. Cooper and Y. Baik) Journal of Business Venturing, 21, 2 (2006): 217-242.
• ‘Non-additivity in portfolios of exploration activities: A real options-based analysis of equity alliances in biotechnology,’ (with R. Vassolo and J. Anand) Strategic Management Journal, 25, 11(2004): 1045-1061.
• ‘Entry in the presence of dueling options,’ (with J. O’Brien) Strategic Management Journal, 25, 2(2004): 121-138.
• ‘Strategic benefits to firms issuing private equity placements,’ (with J. Janney) Strategic Management Journal, 25, 3(2004): 223-242.
• ‘A real options perspective on entrepreneurial entry in the face of uncertainty,’ (with J. O’Brien and D. Johnson) Managerial and Decision Economics, 24, 8(2003): 515-533.
• ‘Signaling through private equity placements and its impact on the valuation of biotechnology firms,’ (with J. Janney) Journal of Business Venturing, 18, 3(2003): 361-380.
• ‘Temporary workers as real options,’ (with D. Foote) Human Resource Management Review, 12, 4(2002): 579-597.
• ‘Option value and entry timing,’ (with K. Miller) Strategic Management Journal, 23, 7(2002): 655-665.
• ‘Real options in equity partnerships,’ (with K. Miller) Strategic Management Journal, 23, 1(2002): 77-88.
• ‘The effect of national culture on partner buyouts in cross-border biotechnology alliances,’ (with W. Ferrier) Journal of High Technology Management Research, 11, 2(2000): 175-198.
• ‘Governance and uncertainty: The tradeoff between administrative control and commitment,’ Strategic Management Journal, 19, 11(1998): 1007-1028.
• ‘Survival of the fittest? Entrepreneurial human capital and the persistence of underperforming firms,’ (with J. Gimeno, A. Cooper, and C. Woo) Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 4(1997): 750-783. Winner of 2012 IDEA Foundational Paper Award honoring a paper that has powerfully and positively changed the conversation in the field of entrepreneurship for at least a decade by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management.
• ‘Entrepreneurial information search,’ (with A. Cooper and C. Woo) Journal of Business Venturing, 10, 2(1995), pp. 107-120.