Natarajan Balasubramanian

Professor of Management, Albert & Betty Hill Endowed Professor

Natarajan Balasubramanian is Albert & Betty Hill Endowed Professor of Management at the Whitman School of Management. His research aims to enhance our understanding of economic value creation by new and existing firms. To this end, he typically uses large-scale data to uncover generalizable facts about how competition, innovation, and learning affect the entry and performance of firms. His research has been published in Management Science, Review of Economics & Statistics, and Strategic Management Journal. His research work also earned him the prestigious Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship in 2012. He is currently an associate editor at Strategic Management Journal and reviews for many of the leading management journals. Prof. Balasubramanian teaches aspects of strategic management to undergraduate and graduate students. His teaching is built on the belief that the ability to solve unstructured problems and the ability to bring to bear quantitative analysis to decision making along with the ability to persuade a diverse audience about one's viewpoint will be increasingly critical assets for business professionals. Accordingly, he aims to foster critical discussion and thinking through his teaching, in addition to being an active learner himself. In his prior corporate life at Andersen and Infosys, he worked on business valuation, business process re-engineering, and public sector restructuring assignments.

Ph.D., Management, University of California, Los Angeles

Strategic Management, Firm Performance, Technological Change, Industry Evolution

Employee entrepreneurship, innovation, learning, productivity and industry competition

Publications

How do US firms grow? New evidence from a growth decomposition

2025 Strategic Management Journal,46,1,49-81, Sivadasan, J., Dharwadkar, R., Ren, C.
How Do Frictions That Impede Transfer of Business Ownership Affect Business Entry and Exit? Evidence from Product Line Exception Adoptions

2024 Strategic Management Journal,45(7),1300-1325, Sivadasan, J., Xu, W.
How does worker mobility affect business adoption of new technologies? The case of machine learning

2024 Strategic Management Journal,45(8),1510-1538, Chen, R., Forman, C.
Employment Restrictions on Resource Transferability and Value Appropriation from Employees

2024 Strategic Management Journal,45(12),2519-2547, Starr, E., Yamaguchi, S.
Cue-Ball Effect: Propagating the Impact of a Change in Competitive Advantage to Distant Competitors

2024 Strategic Management Journal,45(6),1087-1116, Makadok, R., Chiu, W.
Incidence and performance of spinouts and incumbent new establishments: Role of selection and redeployability within parent firms

2023 Strategic Management Journal,44,10,2460-2488, Sakakibara, M.
Human capital, parent size and the destination industry of spinouts.

2020 Strategic Management Journal,41,5,815-840, Sakakibara, M.
Substituting Human Decision-Making with Machine Learning: Implications for Organizational Learning

2020 Academy of Management Review,47,448–465, Ye, Y., Xu, M.
Locked In? Noncompete Enforceability and the Mobility of High Tech Workers

2020 Journal of Human Resources,57,S349-S396, Chang, J., Sakakibara, M., Sivadasan, J., Starr, E.
Deadlines, Work Flows, Task Sorting, and Work Quality

2018 Management Science,64,4, 1804-1824 , Lee, J., Sivadasan, J.
Enforcing Covenants Not to Compete: The Life-Cycle Impact on New Firms

2018 Management Science,64,2,552-572, Starr, E., Sakakibara, M.
Toward a Dynamic Notion of Value Creation and Appropriation in Firms: The Concept and Measurement of Economic Gain

2018 Strategic Management Journal,39,6,1546-72, Lieberman, M., Garcia, R.
Screening Spinouts? How Noncompete Enforceability Affects the Creation, Growth, and Survival of New Firms

2018 Management Science,64,2,552-572, Starr, E., Sakakibara, M.
Value Creation and Appropriation in Firms: Conceptual Review and a Method for Measurement.

2018 Strategic Management Journal,39,1546-1572, Lieberman, M., Garcia, R.
Familial transient financial difficulties during infancy and long-term developmental concerns

2017 Psychological Medicine, Ramanathan, S., Faraone, S.
Measuring Value Creation and Appropriation in Firms: Application of the VCA Model.

2017 Strategic Management Journal,38,6,1193-1211, Garcia, R., Lieberman, M.
Macroeconomic environment during infancy as a possible risk factor for adolescent behavioral problems

2013 JAMA Psychiatry,70,2,218-225, Ramanathan, S., Krishnadas, R.
Learning-by-doing and market structure

2011 Journal of Industrial Economics,59,2,177-198, Lieberman, M.
New plant venture performance differences among incumbent, diversifying, and entrepreneurial firms: The impact of industry learning intensity

2011 Management Science,57,3,549-565,
What happens when firms patent? New evidence from U.S. Economic census data

2011 Review of Economics and Statistics,93,1,126-146, Sivadasan, J.
Industry learning environment and the heterogeneity of firm performance

2010 Strategic Management Journal,
Capital resalability, productivity dispersion, and market structure

2009 Review of Economics and Statistics,91,3,547-557, Sivadasan, J.
Firm age and innovation

2008 Industrial and Corporate Change,17,5,1019-1047, Lee, J.

Jan 01, 2024
Received - Outstanding Reviewer
Academy of Management Review
Jan 01, 2021
Whitman Research Fellow
Whitman School of Management
May 01, 2018
Edward Pettinella Associate Professorship of Business
Whitman School of Management
Sep 01, 2016
Guttag Faculty Fellow
Whitman School of Management
Aug 01, 2016
Distinguished Paper Award
BPS Division, Academy of Management
Jan 01, 2014
Whitman Research Fellow
Whitman School of Management
Jan 01, 2013
Guttag Junior Faculty Award
Whitman School of Management
Jan 01, 2012
Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellow
Entrepreneurship Research
Apr 01, 2008
Best Professor
Downtown MBA Program, Florida International University
Jan 01, 2008
Received - Outstanding Dissertation Award Competition
BPS, Academy of Management
Jan 01, 2008
Finalist, Outstanding Dissertation Award Competition
Business Policy and Strategy Division, Academy of Management
Jan 01, 2007
Received - California Census Research Data Center Dissertation Fellowship
Jan 01, 2006
Received - UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship
Jan 01, 2006
Received - Gladys Byram Fellowship

January 01, 2023
Cable company’s future in New York is uncertain after ruling, experts say
August 30, 2018 Daily Orange
Why signing a noncompete agreement is bad for you and the economy
December 22, 2017 Audio Boom

Natarajan Balasubramanian

Publications

How do US firms grow? New evidence from a growth decomposition

How Do Frictions That Impede Transfer of Business Ownership Affect Business Entry and Exit? Evidence from Product Line Exception Adoptions

How does worker mobility affect business adoption of new technologies? The case of machine learning

Employment Restrictions on Resource Transferability and Value Appropriation from Employees

Cue-Ball Effect: Propagating the Impact of a Change in Competitive Advantage to Distant Competitors

Incidence and performance of spinouts and incumbent new establishments: Role of selection and redeployability within parent firms

Human capital, parent size and the destination industry of spinouts.

Substituting Human Decision-Making with Machine Learning: Implications for Organizational Learning

Locked In? Noncompete Enforceability and the Mobility of High Tech Workers

Deadlines, Work Flows, Task Sorting, and Work Quality

Enforcing Covenants Not to Compete: The Life-Cycle Impact on New Firms

Toward a Dynamic Notion of Value Creation and Appropriation in Firms: The Concept and Measurement of Economic Gain

Screening Spinouts? How Noncompete Enforceability Affects the Creation, Growth, and Survival of New Firms

Value Creation and Appropriation in Firms: Conceptual Review and a Method for Measurement.

Familial transient financial difficulties during infancy and long-term developmental concerns

Measuring Value Creation and Appropriation in Firms: Application of the VCA Model.

Macroeconomic environment during infancy as a possible risk factor for adolescent behavioral problems

Learning-by-doing and market structure

New plant venture performance differences among incumbent, diversifying, and entrepreneurial firms: The impact of industry learning intensity

What happens when firms patent? New evidence from U.S. Economic census data

Industry learning environment and the heterogeneity of firm performance

Capital resalability, productivity dispersion, and market structure

Firm age and innovation

Received - Outstanding Reviewer

Whitman Research Fellow

Edward Pettinella Associate Professorship of Business

Guttag Faculty Fellow

Distinguished Paper Award

Whitman Research Fellow

Guttag Junior Faculty Award

Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellow

Best Professor

Received - Outstanding Dissertation Award Competition

Finalist, Outstanding Dissertation Award Competition

Received - California Census Research Data Center Dissertation Fellowship

Received - UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship

Received - Gladys Byram Fellowship

Cable company’s future in New York is uncertain after ruling, experts say

Why signing a noncompete agreement is bad for you and the economy