Jens-Christian Friedmann

Hello visitor! 

I am an Assistant Professor in Strategic Management at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

My research focuses on how firms learn and protect knowledge while engaging in strategic transactions such as alliances, acquisitions, and divestitures within international settings. I investigate these topics empirically using quantitative methods such as patent data analysis and sequence analysis.

I hold a PhD in Business Administration and Management from Bocconi University. 

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Contact

Erasmus University, Rotterdam School of Management

Department of Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship

Office T7-46, Mandeville Building

Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA, Rotterdam (NL)

friedmann@rsm.nl 

Research interest

My research focuses on how firms learn and protect knowledge while engaging in strategic transactions such as alliances, acquisitions, and divestitures within international settings. I investigate these topics empirically by relying on archival data and using quantitative methods. Theoretically, my research draws primarily from the organizational learning and knowledge management literatures, alluding to vicarious learning, absorptive capacity, and transfer learning.


My three-essay dissertation studies how firms cope with emerging challenges in absorbing and protecting knowledge from alliance partners. The first chapter examines how firms from emerging economies that assumed the “student” role in prior alliances reverse roles and transition to the “teacher” role, while learning how to protect their own knowledge from spillover to prospective partners. The second chapter studies how national innovation systems in firms’ home countries influence their learning from alliance partners. Finally, the third chapter examines how outbound knowledge spillovers to alliance partners can benefit the firm as it learns from its partners’ recombinations of the spilled knowledge. Together, these studies contribute to the literature on learning in alliances by offering a new understanding of the dynamics of knowledge accumulation and protection. Methodologically, my dissertation relies on patent citation analysis to measure flows of proprietary knowledge among alliance partners. It combines patent data with a broad array of other archival data to address the research questions raised in each chapter.


Aside from my dissertation, I initiated a second research stream that ventures beyond the alliance context. This second stream aims to integrate the disparate literatures on knowledge management in alliances, acquisitions, and divestitures. This promotes the idea that firms consider those transactions not as ends in-and-of-themselves, but as means of achieving broader strategic objectives. 

Papers

Publications

Working papers

Conferences, consortia, workshops