Research

Publications

• (2021) Social Learning in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Community Establishments’ Closure Decisions Follow Those of Nearby Chain Establishments. Management Science. (with Mathijs de Vaan, Abhishek Nagaraj and Sameer Srivastava). Link

• (2025) Fleming, L. and S. Mumtaz, S. Arts . Evolutionary perspectives on innovation. Sorenson, Olav, and Patricia Thornton (Eds.), De Gruyter Handbook of the Sociology of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. De Gruyter: New York, NY

Working Papers

• Lost in Translation? Science Communication and the Commercial Diffusion of Ideas.  Job Market Paper

  • Abstract: The use and exploitation of scientific knowledge is a key driver of firm performance and innovation. Even though the scientific knowledge presented in scientific publications is broadly accessible and offers commercializable ideas to firms, it is not necessarily digestible as scientific papers use specialized language and often fail to explain the broader implications and potential applications of the research. Science Communication, i.e., translation of complex scientific ideas into accessible, non-technical descriptions through popular press, has the potential to help firms access hard-to-reach scientific ideas and develop new innovations. In this project, utilizing a novel dataset comprising over 350,000 press releases about scientific papers from the last 25 years—each matched to corresponding scientific publications and exploiting exogenous variations in press release coverage due to press office congestion at universities—I investigate the causal impact of science communication on patent citations by firms. I find that press coverage can increase the likelihood of a paper getting cited by a patent by 161%, and these effects are particularly important for firms to access scientific insights from papers in sub-fields beyond their immediate focus or papers using highly technical language. However, firms still need scientific capacity and resources to benefit as the effects are concentrated in larger firms and those employing scientists. I discuss the implications of this work for the literature in the fields of strategy, innovation, and science communication.

• From Lab to Limelight: Media's Role in Boosting Scientific Impact. (with Abhishek Nagaraj)
  
  

Work in progress

• Encouraging Open Science Practices in Minority Serving Institutions (with Abhishek Nagaraj).