About

Lori Rosenkopf is the Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship at The Wharton School and holds the position of Simon and Midge Palley Professor of Management. She is involved in the leadership and development of entrepreneurial programs and initiatives at Penn, including the partnership that provides a physical hub for entrepreneurship across the university. Rosenkopf emphasizes a 'start here' approach aimed at democratizing entrepreneurship for all students at Penn, exemplified by initiatives such as Tangen Hall, the largest student entrepreneurship hub in the world. Her role involves fostering interdisciplinary, integrated, and inclusive entrepreneurship, supporting a wide range of programs, events, and community engagement efforts to promote innovation and entrepreneurial leadership within the university ecosystem.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Political Science
• Epistemology
• Machine Learning
• Business
• Economics
• Econometrics
• Industrial organization
• Knowledge management
• Social psychology
• Law
• Psychology
• Geography
• Economic growth
• Materials science
• Philosophy
• Composite material
• Management science
• Mathematics
• Public relations

Selected publications

• Mapping the landscape of research findings: Generalization across contexts in strategic management research

  Strategic Management Journal · 2026-02-11

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Research Summary Knowledge accumulation requires that we understand whether and when relationships identified in any research setting generalize to others—that is, suggesting domains where results hold (or not). Strategy scholars carefully identify how theoretical mechanisms operate in their chosen research contexts, but attend less to whether their findings apply in other contexts. Accordingly, we recommend reframing empirical contexts, typically described in terms of nominal categories (e.g., industries, countries, or time periods), by highlighting contextual attributes of the nominal settings (e.g., industry concentration or technological modularity), which in turn reflect more abstract conceptual categories (e.g., uncertainty, interdependence, and variance) across potential research contexts. This approach can help integrate prior findings and suggest future study contexts to better enhance our understanding of the research landscape. Managerial Summary Academic research in strategic management tends to derive findings in very specific nominal settings—particular industries, years, and regions. Since strategy practitioners operate across a wide variety of industries and regions, they need to assess whether available research findings are applicable in their own settings. We suggest that understanding whether and when research findings apply to unstudied settings can be facilitated by categorizing research settings using more abstract conceptual constructs (such as environment uncertainty, variance across firms, or interdependence between firms), rather than by the traditional emphasis on nominal settings. We discuss a variety of research setting attributes (such as industry concentration and technological modularity) that can aid the translation of extant research findings to settings where practitioners are operating.

  PublisherDOI

• Unstoppable Entrepreneurs

  University of Pennsylvania Press eBooks · 2025-10-28

  book1st authorCorresponding

  Discover your own path to entrepreneurship and make your mark in the world In a world where entrepreneurship often seems to be driven by tech prodigies and venture-backed unicorns, many aspiring entrepreneurs find themselves wondering: “What if I don’t fit the stereotype of a Silicon Valley wunderkind? Is there a place for me in this landscape?” In Unstoppable Entrepreneurs , Lori Rosenkopf, Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship at The Wharton School, shatters these limiting perceptions, revealing an array of entrepreneurial paths that are open to anyone with the drive to create value through innovation. Drawing from her thirty-year career and interactions with more than 20,000 students, Rosenkopf offers a compelling roadmap for entrepreneurial success. From Amy Errett’s disruption of the hair care industry with Madison Reed to Jarrid Tingle’s mission to diversify venture funding through Harlem Capital, the book showcases a rich tapestry of founders who have carved their own unique paths. These inspiring stories reveal that entrepreneurship is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor, but a realm of possibilities limited only by one’s imagination and determination. In Unstoppable Entrepreneurs , discover: + 7 distinct entrepreneurial paths, from disruptors to intrapreneurs; + The 6 Rs of entrepreneurial success; + Insights for navigating the inevitable setbacks and challenges; + Strategies for overcoming biases and obstacles in securing funding and support; and + Tools for developing an entrepreneurial mindset, regardless of background or industry. Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur with a groundbreaking idea, a seasoned business owner looking to scale, or an employee seeking to drive innovation within your organization, this essential read will challenge your assumptions, unleash your entrepreneurial potential, and inspire you to make your mark in the world.

  PublisherDOI

• Technology and Industry Evolution: A Perspective of Ecosystem

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  While the existing literature pays most attention to incumbents and new entrants in technology evolution, the burgeoning ecosystem literature sheds light on a broader array of players and stakeholders—complementors, competitors (including incumbents and entrants), suppliers, customers, and government agents. These studies reveal a delicate and intricate network of connections between firms and these different stakeholders, suggesting that the dynamics of technology and industry evolution are far more complex than previously understood. The purpose of this symposium is to enrich the investigation of technology and industry evolution by integrating an ecosystem perspective into the line of studies. The three papers presented in this symposium aim to capitalize on this opportunity, offering fresh insights from this perspective to the Strategic Management (STR) and Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) audience, by expanding our understanding of these complex interdependencies and their role in the evolution of industries and technologies. Redefining Value Proposition as a Proactive Response When Losing the Technology Competition Author: Charlotte Jacobs; Louisiana State University Author: Gwendolyn Kuo-fang Lee; Not Associated A Third-Party Perspective on the U.S. Sanctions on Huawei in International Standard-setting Author: Qingqing Chen; Author: Lori Rosenkopf; University of Pennsylvania Industry and Ecosystem Co-Evolution: How Complementary Products Shape Entry and Exit Dynamics Author: Cameron D. Miller; Syracuse University Author: Richard D Wang; Babson College

  PublisherDOI

• Not in‐sourced here! When does external technology sourcing yield familiar versus novel solutions?

  Strategic Management Journal · 2024-10-16 · 8 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Research Summary When established firms source technology from specialized technology firms, extant research has typically assumed that this in‐sourced technology is novel . We test this assumption by modeling in‐sourcing decisions using a problem‐solution lens wherein firms choose from available external technological solutions to solve their market problems. Since the locus of identification, evaluation, and selection of external solutions remains internal to the firm's R&D personnel, we argue that they frequently prefer familiar over novel solutions. We identify two factors that help firms overcome this preference for familiarity: when top managers focus their attention on the market problem or when they receive feedback from unexpected failures to solve that problem. Our case control analysis of 715 in‐sourced emerging technological solutions in the biopharmaceutical industry offers broad support to our theoretical framework. Managerial Summary Established firms are commonly advised to source novel technologies externally. Yet since this sourcing process is driven by in‐house R&D personnel, we suggest that a firm's choice of external technology solutions may still tend toward familiar ones. We confirm this preference by examining in‐sourcing events of emerging technological solutions by established firms in the biopharmaceutical industry. Despite this preference, we then show that increased top management attention toward a market problem and experiencing unexpected failures in bringing products to market catalyze a receptiveness to novel technological solutions. Our findings help managers in established firms recognize that their claims or intentions to seek novel technology are not always consistent with actual in‐sourcing choices, and suggest when firms can overcome this tendency.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Unstoppable Entrepreneurs

  Wharton School Press eBooks · 2024-12-10 · 1 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  Wharton School Press eBooks · 2024-12-10

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• WHO STEPS INTO THE VOID? A 3rd-party Perspective on the US Sanctions on Huawei in International SSO

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2023

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Computer Science
  • Political Science

  This paper examines the role of third-party companies in the standard-setting process when the cooperation between two groups of key players is exogenously disrupted. By jointly considering technology interdependence and cooperative interactions between players in an innovation ecosystem, the paper builds a framework to understand the third party's technological and sociological salience in the face of disruptions. The paper argues that after the disruption, a third-party player will become more influential in the standard setting process if it could (1) replace either party in the disrupted relationship (the substitution effect); or (2) serve as an information broker connecting the two groups of key players (the brokerage effect). Past cooperation experience magnifies the substitution effect, and the technology proximity between the disconnected two parties negatively moderates the brokerage effect. The theory hypotheses are supported by evidence collected in 3GPP, an international telecommunication standard-setting organization, during the recent US sanctions on Huawei. By tracking 130 active third-party companies' standard proposals in 535 3GPP meetings, I find supportive evidence for the substitution and the brokerage effects.

  PublisherDOI

• A Strategic Multiplexity Perspective on Innovation Diffusion

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Computer Science
  • Business
  PublisherDOI

• Is the Boss Always Right? Discerning the Effects of Hierarchy on Exploration and Exploitation

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2021

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine Learning

  The literature on antecedents and consequences of exploration and exploitation behavior in organization learning, while extensive, uses both a wide variety of context-dependent operationalizations and also exhibits a clear methodological tradeoff between the strong causal inference of models and the realism of field and archival studies. Experiments with human subjects raise the promise of examining actual human behavior under controls that strengthen causal inference. To design an experiment with these properties, we focused on a structural determinant of exploration and exploitation behavior and analyzed the effect of hierarchical authority on team behavior and performance in a simple multi-armed bandit game. Consistent with extant literature, hierarchy increases exploitation behavior. Importantly, while models of simple multi-armed bandit games predict convergence on strategies that maximize performance, our experiments with humans demonstrated that hierarchical authority reduced convergence despite this increase in exploitation behavior. Post-hoc analyses demonstrate that hierarchical conditions yield more convergence on sub-optimal strategies than non-hierarchical conditions. These results demonstrate the importance of testing modeling assumptions about human behavior in experimental conditions, and we conclude by offering an agenda for further research in this area.

  PublisherDOI

• Competition–cooperation interplay during multifirm technology coordination: The effect of firm heterogeneity on conflict and consensus in a technology standards organization

  Strategic Management Journal · 2018-03-05 · 128 citations

  articleSenior author

  Research Summary: We examine how competitive tensions and cooperative motivations together shape firms’ interactions and group‐level outcomes during technology coordination activities in multifirm settings. Analyzing the communication and voting behavior of 115 firms across three subcommittees of a computing industry technology standards‐setting organization over 14 years, we find that existing product‐market positions influence how firms with highly overlapped technological resources differ in their interactions: when their product‐markets are more competitive, they exhibit greater support for the emerging standard, as evidenced by positivity and certainty of interaction tone; but when they possess a broader array of complementary products, support is tempered. At the subcommittee level, after accounting for aggregate competitive tensions in prior interactions, heterogeneity in both firms’ relational influence as well as their prior multiparty experience improve consensus. Managerial Summary: In innovation ecosystems, competing firms are often obligated to collaborate with each other in large multifirm forums to develop the technical standards that enable interoperability between their products. We show how the networks of technical and commercial relationships between firms shape such standards activities in two steps. First, firms who share many common technology interests with others communicate their support for new standards more vigorously when they participate in more competitive product‐markets, but less vigorously when they possess more complementary products. Second, communities find broader support for standards when there is greater imbalance across both firms’ prior collaborative experiences as well as their pattern of relationships. We demonstrate these results in a study of 115 firms participating in computer peripherals standards development over 14 years.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Dovev Lavie

  Bocconi University

  9 shared

• Anindya Ghosh

  Tilburg University

  8 shared

• Michael L. Tushman

  5 shared

• Eric Abrahamson

  Columbia University

  4 shared

• Gina Dokko

  University of California, Davis

  4 shared

• Lyle Ungar

  California University of Pennsylvania

  4 shared

• Jingoo Kang

  3 shared

• Ram Ranganathan

  The University of Texas at Austin

  3 shared

Labs

• Venture LabPI

Awards & honors

• Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship Alumni Achievement Award