BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Varying Serendipity Between Inventors
DTSTART:20201026T170000
DTSTAMP:20260407T003910Z
UID:1829f3e34fc6c216305d96693c46c0e76035b596130cf352b32e174a
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Keith Pennington (University of Minnesota)\nKeith Pennington (
 University of Minnesota)\n"Varying Serendipity Between Inventors"\nDiscuss
 ant: Raj Choudhury (HBS)\n \nAbstract\nI explore the effect of chance enc
 ounters on innovation. To do so\, I introduce the use of local flu prevale
 nce as an exogenous influence on chance encounters during the knowledge-se
 eking process of inventors. I argue that a social avoidance response to a 
 disease epidemic – a phenomenon well-established in epidemiology literat
 ure – decreases the likelihood of chance encounters between geographical
 ly proximate people. I establish and validate a measure of local flu preva
 lence during inventive search as proxy for lower potential chance encounte
 rs affecting an innovation. I predict and find that collaborations that ar
 e more influenced by chance encounters result in more novel recombinations
  of knowledge because “serendipitous” knowledge from chance encounters
  is less constrained by the tendency toward local\, exploitative search. D
 uring times with fewer chance encounters\, inventors substitute where they
  get knowledge\, more often turning to prior contacts and\, therefore\, li
 mit recombination potential.\nKeywords: Chance encounters\, inventive sear
 ch\, innovation\n\nEPFL Virtual Innovation Seminar\nEVIS is a bi-weekly vi
 rtual seminar series focusing on Science\, Technology and Innovation topic
 s studied through the lens of Economics\, Entrepreneurship\, Strategy and 
 Finance.
LOCATION:https://epfl.zoom.us/j/94520487048
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR