Sharon Belenzon

Sharon Belenzon is the Fundación Damm Distinguished Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy area at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). His work examines how businesses shape and are shaped by the innovation ecosystem. He studies why corporations invest in science, why this engagement has declined, and how that shift is transforming the sources of technological progress. His research documents a structural change in the American innovation system: corporate labs once advanced frontier science, but their role has eroded as universities and startups have become the main engines of discovery. This redistribution of inventive activity creates new dependencies between firms and the science base. It also raises a policy challenge—how to sustain the translation of research into market innovation when the actors generating knowledge differ from those commercializing it. In related projects, Belenzon studies how organizational structures and ownership models affect firms’ ability to innovate and compete. He compares how companies across advanced and emerging economies adapt their internal organization to local innovation systems and institutional constraints. His research has appeared in Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, American Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Journal, Research Policy, and Journal of Law and Economics.

Sharon Belenzon is a researcher at Duke University whose work focuses on the intersection of innovation, corporate strategy, and knowledge transfer. Her research explores how firms navigate the complexities of internal and external knowledge, the role of corporate R&D in scientific advancement, and the impact of institutional factors on innovation. Belenzon's studies also examine the relationship between firm structure, ownership, and innovation performance, as well as the influence of financial markets on corporate organization. Her work highlights the importance of understanding how knowledge spillovers and market dynamics shape technological progress and firm value.