My research interests have evolved considerably over the years. Today, I am fundamentally interested in entrepreneurial strategy and technology & innovation management as I seek to understand how firms (both large and small) build new products and compete in high-tech industries. I explore various questions such as: (a) why do some firms develop superior new products compared to others? (b) what role do founders and founding teams play in driving startup performance? (c) how do startups identify viable markets? (d) what investments (in human capital, business processes, and technology stacks) do the most successful firms make?
My doctoral dissertation examined the emergence of two carbon nanomaterials: nanotubes and graphene. The key theme was that general-purpose technologies — those with a wide range of applications — offer firms unique opportunities in terms of business models and market applications. Since carbon nanomaterials have demonstrated ubiquitous uses, I investigated how firms made various market entry, innovation, and collaboration decisions when pursuing such technology.
In researching these questions and contexts, I employ numerous causal inference tools, natural language processing algorithms, and large-sample econometric analyses.
Published Research Papers
"Zooming in or zooming out: Entrants' product portfolios in the nascent drone industry"
Shermon, A., & Moeen, M
Stategic Management Journal, July 2022
Faced with demand uncertainty and heterogeneity in a nascent industry, entrants often consider how many customer segments to serve by tailoring the usage breadth of their product portfolios. Portfolio usage breadth is the extent to which products in a portfolio collectively span distinct customer segments. We suggest that when entrants have use experience in contexts that are potential users of the new product, their portfolios exhibit low usage breadth, due to demand‐oriented cognition and knowledge. The relationship is stronger for diversifying entrants relative to startups. The empirical context is the U.S. commercial drone industry, wherein entrants need to adapt their product portfolios for five robust and distinct customer segments of photography, short‐distance inspection, long‐distance surveying, agriculture, and aerial supply chain management.
Working Papers (some titles altered to preserve anonymity in the review process)
Hierarchy and Product Adaptation in Startups
Hall, T., Shermon, A., Allen, R., Howell, T.
Revise & Resubmit at Organization Science
Markets for Technology & Direction of Startups' Invention
Shermon, A.
Revise & Resubmit at Research Policy
Founders and Organizational Structure in Startups
Hall, T., Howell, T., Shermon, A., and Allen, R.
Under Review at Strategic Management Journal
Regulatory Uncertainty and Timing of Startups' Entry
Herbst, V., Henkel, J., Shermon, A.
Under Review at Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal
Timing the Tools: The Contingent Benefits of Controlled Experiments and Qualitative Feedback in Startups
Howell, T., Allen, R., Shermon, A., Hall, T.
Preparing Manuscript for Submission
Upstream, Downstream Divergence: Startups' Value Chain Positions and External Resource Acquisition with a New Technology
Shermon, A., & Bisui, S.
Preparing Manuscript for Submission
Select Early-Stage Projects
Open-Source Software & Technology Adoption
with M. Raj
Industry Choices of Serial Entrepreneurs
with R. Allen, T. Hall, & T. Howell