Luis Adrian Rios

Research Program

Organizational Structure Learning Strategic Change

Assistant Professor of Strategy
Mitch Daniels School of Business · Purdue University
Editorial Boards: Strategic Management Journal · Organization Science
Journal of Organization Design

Luis Adrian Rios

I study how organization shapes the development and use of knowledge, and how that knowledge can in turn sustain or change the organization through which further learning occurs. Building on the view of the firm as a distributed knowledge system, my research addresses two interdependent questions: how organization emerges, persists, and changes; and how organization shapes learning and innovation.

The work makes three connected contributions. It explains how formative conditions, from the transition to public ownership to a disruption in a venture’s first year, leave durable differences in knowledge sourcing and coordination. It makes the organization of research observable across the whole firm, relating formal R&D organization to inventor networks that include both connected and disconnected groups, and it follows how collaboration adjusts to formal authority and how its pattern relates to firms’ ability to build on their own inventions. And it identifies how established knowledge and inherited commitments govern change: a mechanism through which performance-guided learning can restore an incumbent organizational code, and formal conditions for when commitments can be reversed, when an activity count identifies the current configuration, and what experimental findings must be retained to guide the next choice.

The methods follow the question: archival and quasi-experimental designs for the formation of organizational differences and their consequences, patent-based whole-network analysis inside the firm, and formal and computational models for mechanisms.

1.

The Research Program

Question I · Emergence, persistence, and change

Formative conditions leave durable differences

Opportunities around the transition to public ownership are associated with technological-acquisition practices that still differ twenty years later, and the divergence strengthens with age. A major disruption in a venture’s first year may preserve flexible coordination that maturation would otherwise displace. Related studies examine how corporate groups form where external capital markets are thin, and how existing alliance portfolios relate to later acquisition choices.

Papers 4, 1; 7, 13

Question II · Learning and innovation

The organization of research, observed across the whole firm

Accounting for R&D organization changes the interpretation of knowledge-sourcing relationships; collaboration adjusts gradually and asymmetrically following changes in formal authority; and patterns of collaboration are, in turn, associated with firms’ ability to build on their own inventions relative to rivals. Current projects extend this work to the conditions and the sequence of collaboration, through communication design and intertemporal brokerage.

Papers 6, 5, 3; 8, 9

Both questions · Knowledge, commitments, and change

How established knowledge and inherited commitments govern change

A mechanism through which performance-guided learning can restore an incumbent organizational code during the attempted incorporation of superior knowledge. Building on earlier work on organizational hysteresis, current formal research specifies when inherited commitments can be reversed, when an activity count identifies the current configuration, and what experimental findings must be retained to guide a subsequent choice.

Papers 2; 10, 11, 12; 14, 15, 16

Paper numbers follow the CV and the list below. Many papers bear on both questions; the questions organize the program rather than partition it. Across these studies I combine archival, computational, and formal research to distinguish the processes that produce an organizational pattern, its consequences for learning and innovation, and the conditions and information required to change it.

The Program in One Sentence

Organization shapes the development and use of knowledge, and that knowledge can in turn sustain or change the organization through which further learning occurs.

Two questions follow: how organization emerges, persists, and changes; and how organization shapes learning and innovation. The published work answers both with archival evidence and computational models; the current formal work specifies the conditions and the information that changing an organization requires.

Featured Visualizations (Published Work)

Two intrafirm inventor network maps for the same firm under different R&D authority structures

FIG. 1.  Two of the intrafirm inventor networks constructed for Argyres, Rios & Silverman (2020): the same firm under different R&D authority structures. Using patent co-invention records, 7,623 of these network snapshots were constructed, one for each firm-year observation. Mathematically derived measures allowed replicable quantification of network structure across the sample and over time.

Two pie charts of patent assignment across corporate affiliates: a decentralized pattern at Johnson & Johnson and a centralized pattern at Abbott Laboratories

FIG. 2.  Patterns of patent assignment from Arora, Belenzon & Rios (2014), top 30 affiliates shown: a decentralized pattern (Johnson & Johnson, left) and a centralized one (Abbott Laboratories, right). Our novel patent-assignment-based measure of R&D decentralization built from these data underlies the finding that decentralized units, positioned at the market boundary, derive more value from external knowledge.

Two simulation panels showing learning histories after hiring: lucky jumps and tug of war

FIG. 3.  Two learning histories after a 'perfect' hire, from Pham, Rios & Workiewicz (2026): 'lucky jumps' (left) and 'tug of war' (right). Star markers are changes proposed by the new hire; round markers, changes resulting from voting rounds with incumbent employees. The inertia, unfreezing, and change phases of the right panel show why the value of hiring is realized dynamically rather than at the moment of acquisition.

Featured Visualizations (Active Projects)

New Directions

Two current streams extend the program. Intertemporal brokerage asks how knowledge moves across disconnected regions of an inventor network when no contemporaneous tie spans the gap. Organizational hysteresis asks how histories of environmental and managerial conditions become current portfolios of inherited commitments, when those commitments can be reversed, when an activity count identifies the configuration, and what experimental findings a record must retain to guide the next choice. One stream puts time into brokerage; the other formalizes organizational memory and representation.

Intertemporal brokerage: spanning disconnected regions across time

A classic debate in innovation and network theory highlights the tradeoff between closure and brokerage. High-bandwidth, trust-based transfer thrives inside a dense group (Coleman). Yet access to non-redundant knowledge increases across structural holes (Burt). However, this tension has traditionally been argued in cross-sectional/static settings, with both sides assuming at least one path between every inventor through the network. Recent work in whole intrafirm inventor networks has shown that the second condition is generally not the case, as 40–60% of a large firm’s inventors sit in components with no collaborative path to the giant component or to one another (Argyres, Rios & Silverman 2020). In this project we resolve the tension by studying temporal brokers: inventors embedded in one region at a point in time who then are observed in another region to which there is never a co-temporal path. We argue that spanning the two sequentially rather than simultaneously allows for the ferrying of non-redundant knowledge (a la Burt), without actually bridging the separation that made it differentiated (a la Coleman).

In 800 large U.S.-patenting firms observed from 1985 through 2015, patents from teams that include a recent intertemporal broker are, on average, more novel than those from teams in stable positions. Isolated groups are not superior sites of exploratory invention in place, yet entrants from them, especially those whose prior technological repertoires are distant from the receiving network’s, are associated with the most novel patents inside the connected core. This helps explain the puzzle surfaced in our earlier work (ARS 2020 and ARS 2025) of why isolated components are so prevalent despite being, on average, less exploratory. First-authored work with Argyres and Silverman, under review at Strategic Management Journal.

Giant component Isolated component Intertemporal broker Movement across time
Connectedness More connected Less connected
Period Movement

FIG. 4.  A dense giant component sits between two isolated inventor components. Set connectedness to add or remove the ties between them. Three illustrative structures are shown (densely linked), one bridging tie (semi-decomposable), or no ties (Isolated). When the clusters are disconnected, two switches appear: Period advances a single inventor from one observation window (T+0) to the next (T+1), moving them across the gap, and Movement sets whether that inventor is outbound (giant → isolate) or inbound (isolate → giant). The mover counts as a temporal broker only here, where no contemporaneous tie joins the regions; the red arc is the bridge across time.

Organizational hysteresis: how history shapes activities and commitments

Hysteresis provides a formal language for selective organizational memory. I model a portfolio of activities and commitments—plants, programs, routines, products, market positions, or other elements—each represented as active or inactive, with a START threshold above its STOP threshold. Because an element can remain active under conditions that would not justify starting it anew, the same current condition can support different portfolios depending on the path taken to reach it.

The agenda currently has two linked parts. The Memory of Persistence studies the write side: which events rewrite the portfolio, how new highs and new lows act differently, and how bounded feasible conditions make some commitments reversible, effectively permanent, or unreachable. On Exactitude in Organization studies the read side: when an exact aggregate count identifies the underlying configuration, when it pools strategically different states, and how much categorical detail restores sufficiency; a second result holds the configuration known and asks what experimental findings a record must retain to guide the next test.

Network evolution is one special case, and the one I intend to test empirically first. A potential inventor tie can be treated as a component with a formation threshold and a lower dissolution threshold, so formal changes may build connections more readily than they unwind them. Earlier work provides a natural setting: R&D centralization increased inventor connectedness, while decentralization did not symmetrically reverse it (Argyres, Rios & Silverman 2020).

FIG. 5.  The Preisach plane. Each dot is a hysteron: an organizational activity or commitment with a START threshold α and a lower STOP threshold β. Filled dots are active; hollow dots are inactive. The red staircase separates the two states given the path of the input. The upper-left inset shows the switching rule for one representative component, also marked by the red-ringed dot on the plane.

Instructions:

Adjust input u and the red front sweeps the population: rising input activates components from the left, while falling input deactivates them from the top. The active portfolio therefore depends on the direction of travel, not only on the current value of u. The Input–Output panel traces the resulting path; the dashed outline is the major loop from a full sweep. Reverse course inside it and the trace forms nested minor loops that close on their own turning points, illustrating return-point memory. More hysterons smooth the curve; wider threshold spread fattens the loop; greater dispersion scatters component thresholds outward; and shifting the center produces a biased response. The dashed box marks the feasible input range [−1, 1]. Components with α > 1 cannot be activated within that range, while components with β < −1 cannot be deactivated once active, so the portfolio need not fully saturate or return to its initial state.

2.

Publications & Working Papers

Peer-Reviewed and Forthcoming

1.

Early Environmental Shocks and Organizational Reconfiguration in High-Growth Ventures

Dutta, S., Nahm, J., & Rios, L.A.  ·  Organization Science  ·  Forthcoming

Links 19,984 U.S. ventures that later received venture financing to major disaster declarations in their founding counties during their first year. Exposed ventures show higher subsequent failure hazards and no general financing advantage, yet greater IPO responsiveness to favorable market windows and more entry into new technological classes; personnel histories for a subsample show greater role overlap and outside-industry expertise. The patterns are consistent with early disruption preserving flexible coordination that maturation would otherwise displace.

Forthcoming
2.

When Do Firms Learn By Hiring? How Complexity Moderates the Value of New Knowledge

Pham, D.N., Rios, L.A., & Workiewicz, M.  ·  Strategic Management Journal  ·  2026

Computational modeling reveals a mechanism of inertia: firms with high internal fit may face greater difficulty absorbing external knowledge because new hires disrupt tightly matched internal routines, even absent cognitive or social barriers. The value of hiring is realized dynamically rather than at the moment of acquisition.

Winner, Best Paper Award, Behavioral Strategy Interest Group, and nominee, Best Conference Paper Award, SMS Annual Conference 2025.

SMJ
3.

On the Heels of Giants: Internal Network Structure and the Race to Build on Prior Innovation

Argyres, N., Rios, L.A., & Silverman, B.S.  ·  Strategic Management Journal  ·  2025

Drawing on patent and inventor network data, we show that specific network topologies, near-decomposability and integration may influence the speed at which firms build on their own knowledge before rivals can expropriate. We provide the first systematic large-scale documentation of Generative Appropriability, the race to recombine internal knowledge before it leaks and becomes external knowledge for rivals. A novel finding is that this process is strongly conditioned by organizational structure.

SMJ
4.

On the Origin of Technological Acquisition Strategy: The Interaction Between Organizational Plasticity and Environmental Munificence

Rios, L.A.  ·  Strategic Management Journal  ·  2021  ·  Solo Authored

A firm's acquisitiveness is not simply a contemporaneous response to market opportunities. Using 1,201 IPO firms observed over 20 years, this paper shows that favorable conditions during a firm's early plastic period can shape persistent acquisition trajectories that remain visible across later market conditions. External sourcing is not a continuous choice but a trajectory, locked in early and persistent for decades.

Solo
5.

Organizational Change and the Dynamics of Innovation: Formal R&D Structure and Intrafirm Inventor Networks

Argyres, N., Rios, L.A., & Silverman, B.S.  ·  Strategic Management Journal  ·  2020

Using inventor network measures developed in this line of research, formal R&D authority changes propagate through informal inventor networks over a multi-year lag. Centralization increases inventor connectedness, which in turn broadens innovation impact and technological search, showing how formal structure shapes research behavior through informal networks.

SMJ
6.

Make, Buy, Organize: The Interplay Between Research, External Knowledge, and Firm Structure

Arora, A., Belenzon, S., & Rios, L.A.  ·  Strategic Management Journal  ·  2014  ·  342 Citations

Develops a patent-assignment-based measure of R&D decentralization to show how organizational structure shapes the mode of innovation: centralized firms extract more value from internal R&D, while decentralized units, positioned at the market boundary, derive more value from external knowledge.

SMJ
7.

Capital Markets and Firm Organization: How Financial Development Shapes European Corporate Groups

Belenzon, S., Berkovitz, T., & Rios, L.A.  ·  Management Science  ·  2013  ·  178 Citations

Using firm-level data across 15 countries, this paper shows that underdeveloped external capital markets encourage corporate group formation, linking macro-environmental conditions to firm-boundary decisions. Where external markets fall short, firms construct internal ones; a boundary condition becomes an organizational form.

MS

Under Review and Working Papers

8.

Organization Design and Learning in the Remote Era

Pham, D.N., Rios, L.A., & Workiewicz, M.  ·  Strategic Management Journal  ·  Invited second-round revision

Communication structures with the same average number of contacts produce different learning, so communication architecture cannot be reduced to contact count. In the model, slower remote diffusion preserves useful differences in beliefs when there is time to learn and prevents timely exchange when there is not; the appropriate redesign depends on task interdependence, the learning horizon, and the structure already organizing communication.

R&R
9.

The Generative Archipelago: Intertemporal Brokerage and Exploratory Invention Across Intrafirm Collaboration Networks

Rios, L.A. (First Author), Argyres, N., & Silverman, B.S.  ·  Strategic Management Journal  ·  Under review

Knowledge associated with a group outside the firm’s main connected network may become useful through an inventor’s later collaborations elsewhere. Intertemporal brokerage concerns the sequence of an inventor’s collaborations rather than a position spanning both sides of a structural gap. In 800 large U.S.-patenting firms, disconnected groups’ patents are less novel in place, yet entrants from those groups, especially those with technologically distant repertoires, are associated with the most novel patents inside the main network.

Under Review
10.

Strategic Persistence and Hysteresis: Boundary Choices in Changing Environments

Jena, D., McGrath, P., & Rios, L.A.  ·  Working paper

Distinguishes the attractiveness of an external opportunity from the prospective cost of changing the operating arrangement needed to pursue it. A two-threshold switching model shows how a temporary change in opportunities can leave a lasting difference in boundary choices without learning or increasing returns; archival evidence documents persistent acquisition, alliance, and divestiture orientations and their associations with valuation.

WP
11.

On Exactitude in Organization: Hysteresis, Experimental Memory, and Innovation Search

Rios, L.A.  ·  Working paper  ·  Solo Authored

An exact count of active commitments can describe configurations that respond differently to the same intervention. The paper establishes when a count identifies the configuration, when categorical reporting is required, and, once the configuration is known, what experimental findings a record must retain to guide the next test.

WP
12.

The Memory of Persistence: A Formal Model of Organizational Imprinting and Erasure

Rios, L.A.  ·  Working paper  ·  Solo Authored

Models a portfolio of inherited commitments, each with its own START and STOP thresholds, and derives which historical influences remain embodied in it, what subsequent conditions erase them, and when bounded feasible conditions make commitments reversible, effectively permanent, or unreachable.

WP
13.

Alliances and Acquisitions: Complements or Substitutes?

Nary, P. & Rios, L.A.  ·  Working paper

Relates existing alliance portfolios to the industrial direction of subsequent acquisitions: a target outside the firm’s core industry may complement capabilities accessible through its partners.

WP

Interdisciplinary & Formal Modeling Publications

Peer-reviewed work on hysteresis, threshold dynamics, and path-dependent switching. These papers provide formal foundations for my current agenda on organizational memory, representation, asymmetric adjustment, and the persistence of structure.

14.

A Model of Hysteresis Arising from Social Interaction within a Firm

Rios, L.A. (First Author), Rachinskii, D., & Cross, R.  ·  Journal of Physics: Conference Series  ·  2017

Uses formal hysteresis modeling to examine how social interaction within firms can generate path-dependent organizational outcomes.

Formal
15.

On the Rationale for Hysteresis in Economic Decisions

Rios, L.A. (First Author), Rachinskii, D., & Cross, R.  ·  Journal of Physics: Conference Series  ·  2017

Extends hysteresis logic to economic decision-making, showing how prior states and threshold effects can make organizational and economic responses history-dependent rather than immediately reversible.

Formal
16.

A Model of Probabilistic Hysteretic Switching in Organizations

Rios, L.A. (First Author), Cross, R., & Rachinskii, D.  ·  Extended Abstracts Summer 2016: Slow-Fast Systems and Hysteresis, Theory and Applications (Birkhäuser)  ·  2018

Develops a formal model of probabilistic switching in organizations, linking threshold dynamics and history-dependent response to persistent organizational behavior.

Formal
3.

Background

Academic Positions

  • Assistant Professor of Strategy
    Purdue University, Daniels School · 2020 to present
  • Assistant Professor of Strategy
    The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania · 2016 to 2020

Education

  • PhD, Strategic Management
    Duke University, Fuqua School of Business
  • MBA, Real Estate Development and Finance
    UNC, Kenan-Flagler Business School
  • BA, English & American Literature and Language
    Harvard University

Editorial Service

  • Editorial Board
    Strategic Management Journal
  • Editorial Board
    Organization Science
  • Editorial Board
    Journal of Organization Design
  • Ad Hoc Reviewer
    Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategy Science, Research Policy, and others

Selected Awards & Grants

  • Best Paper, Behavioral Strategy IG, for "When Do Firms Learn by Hiring?"
    SMS Annual Conference, 2025
  • Olin Award: Research Enhancing Business Results · $25,000
    Washington University in St. Louis
  • Krannert Young Faculty Scholar Award · $5,000
    Daniels School of Business, Purdue University
  • SSHRC Grant · $96,000
    Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
  • Wharton/Mack Institute Grants (4) · $43,000
    The Wharton School