Joshua Lev Krieger

Josh Krieger is an assistant professor of business administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit. Josh’s research focuses on R&D strategy and the economics of innovation. His work examines project portfolio selection, R&D competition, and how firms and research organizations adjust their R&D efforts in response to new information and resources. He has taught the first year course, The Entrepreneurial Manager, and currently teaches a second year elective course: Tough Tech Ventures, which examines the development, commercialization and financing of cutting-edge science and technology.

Josh has a BA in economics and government from Cornell University.  He received his PhD at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he was a recipient of the Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship in Entrepreneurship Research, and a National Bureau of Economic Research Predoctoral Fellow in the International Network on the Value of Medical Research. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked in economic and litigation consulting at Cornerstone Research in Boston.

Journal Articles

• Krieger, Joshua L., Kyle R. Myers, and Ariel D. Stern. "How Important Is Editorial Gatekeeping? Evidence from Top Biomedical Journals." Review of Economics and Statistics (forthcoming). View Details
• Krieger, Joshua L., Xuelin Li, and Richard T. Thakor. "Find and Replace: R&D Investment Following the Erosion of Existing Products." Management Science 68, no. 9 (September 2022): 6552–6571. View Details
• Krieger, Joshua, Danielle Li, and Dimitris Papanikolaou. "Missing Novelty in Drug Development." Review of Financial Studies 35, no. 2 (February 2022): 636–679. View Details
• Benmelech, Efraim, Janice Eberly, Dimitris Papanikolaou, and Joshua Krieger. "Private and Social Returns to R&D: Drug Development and Demographics." AEA Papers and Proceedings 111 (May 2021): 336–340. View Details
• Krieger, Joshua L. "Trials and Terminations: Learning from Competitors' R&D Failures." Management Science 67, no. 9 (September 2021). View Details
• Azoulay, Pierre, Jeffrey L. Furman, Joshua Lev Krieger, and Fiona Murray. "Retractions." Review of Economics and Statistics 97, no. 5 (December 2015): 1118–1136. View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev, Fiona Murray, J. Scott Roberts, and Robert C. Green. "The Impact of Personal Genomics on Risk Perceptions and Medical Decision-Making." Nature Biotechnology 34, no. 9 (September 2016): 912–918. View Details
• Azoulay, Pierre, Alessandro Bonatti, and Joshua Lev Krieger. "The Career Effects of Scandal: Evidence from Scientific Retractions." Research Policy 46, no. 9 (November 2017). View Details

Working Papers

• Krieger, Joshua, and Ramana Nanda. "Are Transformational Ideas Harder to Fund? Resource Allocation to R&D Projects at a Global Pharmaceutical Firm." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-014, August 2022. View Details
• Krieger, Joshua L., Kyle R. Myers, and Ariel D. Stern. "How Important Is Editorial Gatekeeping? Evidence from Top Biomedical Journals." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-011, September 2021. (Revised January 2023. Accepted at Review of Economics and Statistics.) View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev, Monika Schnitzer, and Martin Watzinger. "Standing on the Shoulders of Science." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-128, June 2021. (Revised September 2022.) View Details
• Krieger, Joshua L. "Trials and Terminations: Learning from Competitors' R&D Failures." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-043, November 2017. (Revised June 2020. Forthcoming in Management Science.) View Details

Cases and Teaching Materials

• Lerner, Josh, and Joshua Lev Krieger. "In-Q-Tel: Innovation On A Mission." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 823-042, August 2022. View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev, and Josh Lerner. "In-Q-Tel: Innovation On A Mission." Harvard Business School Case 823-031, August 2022. View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev, William R. Kerr, and Bailey McAfee. "AppHarvest: Rebuilding the Appalachian Economy Through Agriculture." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 823-024, August 2022. View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev, Abhishek Nagaraj, and James Barnett. "Tomorrow.io Goes To Space." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 822-102, March 2022. View Details
• Kluender, Ray, Joshua Krieger, and Mitch Weiss. "Biobot Analytics." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 822-079, March 2022. View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev, Abhishek Nagaraj, and James Barnett. "Tomorrow.io Goes To Space." Harvard Business School Case 822-005, January 2022. View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev. "Catalys Pacific." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 822-086, January 2022. (Revised March 2022.) View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev, William R. Kerr, and Christian Godwin. "AppHarvest: Rebuilding the Appalachian Economy Through Agriculture." Harvard Business School Case 822-067, November 2021. (Revised March 2022.) View Details
• Kluender, Raymond, Joshua Krieger, and Mitchell Weiss. "Biobot Analytics." Harvard Business School Case 821-045, January 2021. (Revised December 2021.) View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev, Christopher Stanton, and James Barnett. "Forecasting ClimaCell." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 821-008, December 2020. (Revised March 2022.) View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev. "Catalys Pacific." Harvard Business School Case 821-035, September 2020. (Revised January 2021.) View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev, Christopher Stanton, and James Barnett. "Forecasting ClimaCell." Harvard Business School Case 820-044, December 2019. View Details
• Krieger, Joshua Lev, Tom Nicholas, and Matthew Preble. "The 'Wonder Drug' That Killed Babies." Harvard Business School Case 818-044, November 2017. View Details

Research Summary

Overview

In examining the competitive dynamics of R&D strategy, Josh has become particularly interested in how the introduction of new knowledge generated by rivals impacts the direction of R&D efforts. Understanding how new information alters project portfolio decisions is important for firms investing in uncertain new technologies, as well as for policy makers, who wish to spur innovation through regulatory policy (e.g., disclosure requirements). News about novel discoveries is crucial for firms that build on related knowledge to create new technologies and products. Announcements about R&D outcomes and exciting new findings force competing firms to reassess their current approach and decide how to exploit external signals. Similarly, failed projects and retracted findings may also have serious consequences for industry rivals. In the wake of these negative news events, firms must determine how to interpret failures and apply the lessons to their own project portfolios. With this research stream, Josh hopes to add to the theoretical and empirical understanding of how firms, investors, and individuals prioritize among different uncertain investments, while reacting to and learning from new information. Josh’s empirical work utilizes large and novel data to gain a finely grained picture of competition and investments across innovative projects and products. He has collected data sets on molecular novelty and target similarity in drug development projects, connected genomic risk markers to behavioral survey responses, and used text analysis tools to evaluate the relatedness of scientific research projects. He has also used bibliometric analyses to measure the utilization and diffusion of knowledge, as well as the reputation of individual researchers. In ongoing research, Josh continues to construct and use detailed data on technological distance and progress to accurately characterize competition and productivity in R&D-based sectors of the economy.

Additional Information

• Josh Lev Krieger CV 09 2022