Geoffrey Borchhardt
I am a doctoral candidate in Organizations & Management at Yale School of Management.
Most of my research explores questions surrounding the careers of small business owners. I study how entry into entrepreneurship affects people's careers,
both in terms of pay as well as performance, in the United States and India.
In other work, I explore how competitive environments influence the choice of organizational partnerships and future innovative performance.
I expect to graduate in 2024. Prior to my graduate studies at Yale, I received my B.Sc. in Business Administration and Sociology from Copenhagen Business School and M.Sc. in Sociology from the University of Oxford.
geoffrey.borchhardt@yale.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Selected Working Papers
[1] ''Expertise, competitive overlap, and partner choice''
(with Balázs Kovács and Michelle Rogan)
R&R at Administrative Science Quarterly
▸ Open abstract
In market networks, firms regularly turn to other firms to supply expertise critical to their operations yet not held within the firm. When seeking expert partners, should firms avoid or select partners who also work with their competitors, i.e., have second order competitive overlap? Contrary to arguments in existing literature using a ''pipes'' view of relationships which predict the avoidance of partners serving competitors, we adopt a ''prisms'' view and argue that second order overlap serves as a signal of expertise, which positively affects partner choice under uncertainty. The signal effect is strongest when alter-centric uncertainty is highest - for new partners, nascent industries, and new technologies. We test our arguments for the effect of competitive overlap on expert partner choice in the context of patent law firm selection by inventing firms (i.e., clients), and we find robust evidence for our predictions. In an exploratory analysis, we also find that competitive overlap affects performance outcomes: patents handled by law firms with higher levels of competitive overlap take longer to get accepted but result in broader patents. The pattern of results suggests that firms that rely on competitive overlap as an expertise signal may reduce search costs without a net loss in performance.
[2] ''Entrepreneurship as the safe option''
(with Olav Sorenson)
working paper (older version)
▸ Open abstract
We examine the returns to entrepreneurship in India. We find that entrepreneurs, on average, earn more than they would expect in paid employment. That positive effect holds for every subgroup of entrepreneurs, from the growth-oriented to the self-employed offering personal services. Further analysis reveals that this positive effect appears to stem almost entirely from the fact that entrepreneurs in India have more stable income streams, they have fewer months with no income. Only people in stable, salaried employment report comparable, or higher, earnings. Entrepreneurship may therefore represent a safer option for most people.
