Dr. Sougata Poddar
Email: poddar@chapman.edu
Website: https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/sougata-poddar
College: Argyros School of Business and Economics
Overview of scholarly research/creative activity: Professor Sougata Poddar's main research focus is to understand and analyze the impact of consumer behavior, firm strategies, emerging technologies and technology trends in the decision-making process of firms and organizations. His broad areas of research interest are in Applied Economic Theory and Industrial Organization.
Specific projects working on: Project Title: Innovation, Diffusion and Shelving – Stories of Technology Transfer In many markets, we observe scenarios where a firm sometimes pay to acquire new technologies (patents), however, does not use them for its use i.e. shelves them. The question is, why a firm would do that when acquiring a new technology (patent) is costly. One would think patents can have option value, even if at the moment it is unclear if or how they might ultimately be used. However, it is hard to justify the kinds of sums that companies have been paying for patent portfolios simply on the basis of option value. We believe one of the important reasons is by acquiring the new technology (patent) exclusively, the firm can actually prevent its competitor from using it, and thus maintain its strategic advantage in the market. This direction of research and related issues are not adequately explored, and there is big gap to be filled in here to understand the general motives behind acquiring new technologies/patents by large corporations. Here are some real evidences of happening of lot of "shelving": • In 2011, a consortium of Apple, Microsoft, and other large firms bought a portfolio of about 6,000 patents from Nextel for $4.5 billion (outbidding Google). • Google later acquired Motorola Mobile for $12.5 billion, which gave Google a portfolio of over 17,000 patents. We aim to do an in-in-depth analysis of this phenomenon with regard to patent licensing and technology transfer.
Number of students looking to work with: 3-4
Time commitment for students: Meet once/week
When students are needed: Spring 2021, Summer 2021
Requirements for students who work with you: Did Micro and Macro Economics, and have some Math skills.
What would students be expected to do: Literature research/summary