Faculty
Jeffrey Barden
Associate Professor
Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Jeffrey Barden

541-737-3309

jeff.barden@oregonstate.edu

Faculty
Jeffrey Barden
Overview
Overview
Background
Publications

Background

Education

Ph.D. in management, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
M.B.A. in information Systems and international business, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
B.A. in economics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Experience

Jeff Barden joined the Strategy and Entrepreneurship group in the College of Business in September 2013. Barden’s research focuses on inter-organizational relationships, exchange, entrepreneurship and technology.  Barden teaches strategy to M.B.A. and undergraduate students.

Service

Editorial Board, Academy of Management Journal, 2013-present

Editorial Board, Strategic Management Journal, 2013-Present

Publications

Academic Journal
Strategy & Entrepreneurship

“The Strategic Development and Deployment of Human Cultural Capital Resources”

Through a variety of tactics, such as the use of celebrity endorsements, firms use the images of people to strengthen firm capabilities. However, the human capital resources (HCR) literature curiously excludes this source of competitive advantage. Indeed, the HCR literature usefully explains how the knowledge, skills, abilities and other intrinsic attributes (KSAOs) of people enhance firm capabilities to create and appropriate value, but because the value of human cultural capital depends on audiences culturally bestowing attention and meaning on people, the HCR literature explicitly excludes human cultural capital from the definition of human capital. Further, theory of how firms use cultural capital to support widely recognized strategies for market positioning, timing, and diversification is underdeveloped. I address this inconsistency in the HCR literature by recognizing the complementary concept of human cultural capital resources (HCCR), which provides a generalizable theoretical touchstone for research on narrower topics, like celebrity endorsements and brand ambassadors. Mirroring the distinction between HCR and human capital, I define HCCR as the interaction between human cultural capital and the other resources and capabilities that underpin firm strategy. I argue that the mechanistic influence of human cultural capital operates through rhetoric. Further, I suggest that human cultural capital has two primary components – salience and legitimacy – and these two components are themselves each composed of two components – distinctiveness and recognizability, and technical and ethical legitimacy. Using these components, I develop a set of baseline propositions about the optimal sourcing and deployment of human cultural capital across widely recognized strategies.
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Jeffrey Barden "The Strategic Development and Deployment of Human Cultural Capital Resources" Journal of Management and Strategy 2026

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Academic Journal
Strategy & Entrepreneurship

“Swinging for the Fences? Payroll, Performance and Risk Behavior in the Major League Baseball Draft”

This study examines the way competitive advantage and organization performance mediate the effect of potential slack – externally-available resources – on organization risk behavior in Major League Baseball’s amateur draft. It tests the hypotheses that local market munificence provides payroll advantage and increases on-field performance and that payroll disadvantage and poor performance increase teams’ likelihood of selecting riskier high school players instead of college players. Consistent with resource deprivation theory, results suggest that payroll disadvantage promotes risk-taking; however, on-field success encourages risk-taking early in the draft. Indeed, pick number appears to have a U-shape relationship with risk-taking where winning increases confidence earlier in the draft and low stakes promote risk-seeking later. This study contributes to the literature by suggesting that input-based and outcome-based reference metrics have different effects on risk behavior and that managerial hubris may influence risk behavior through information availability rather than having a general effect.
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Jeffrey Barden and Yohan Choi "Swinging for the Fences? Payroll, Performance and Risk Behavior in the Major League Baseball Draft" Journal of Sport Management 2021 View on: Google Scholar

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Academic Journal
Strategy & Entrepreneurship

“Horizontal Competition and Interorganizational Exchange Partner Selection: An Analysis of Major League Baseball Player Trades”

This study examines the influence of horizontal competition on interorganizational exchange. Interorganizational competition is a multidimensional construct that can influence exchange in multiple, sometimes countervailing ways. With an analysis of Major League Baseball player trades, we examine the influences of three components of competition – goal conflict, rivalry, and competitive interaction – on interorganizational exchange partner selection. We find that that goal conflict reduces the hazard rate of exchange between organizations, but competitive interaction increases it. Moreover, we find evidence that prior exchange moderates the competition-exchange relationship by reducing the perceived risks and information benefits of exchange with a competitor. We do not find evidence that interorganizational rivalry shapes subsequent exchange behavior.
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Jeffrey Barden and Alex Vestal "Horizontal Competition and Interorganizational Exchange Partner Selection: An Analysis of Major League Baseball Player Trades" Strategic Organization 2019 View on: Google Scholar

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Academic Journal
Strategy & Entrepreneurship

“Hometown Proximity, Coaching Change, and the Success of College Basketball Recruits.”

In this study, we examine the influence of hometown proximity on collegiate athletic recruit performance. The geographic proximity of a new recruit's local community to a recruiting organization can influence the recruit's performance after joining an organization. However, the direction of the effect of such proximity is not clear. Previous research suggests that human resource proximity facilitates recruits' social embeddedness in the community in and around the recruiting organization. In turn, proximity may increase recruit performance by facilitating learning, trust-building, and social commitment. However, prior research also suggests that proximity could have some negative influences. Our empirical analysis of collegiate basketball recruits suggests that the geographic proximity of an organization to a new recruit's hometown generally has a positive influence on both individual and team performance. However, proximity may become a disadvantage when there is a disruptive, involuntary coaching change after the recruit joins the organization.
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Jeffrey Barden, D. Bluhm, T. Mitchell and T. Lee "Hometown Proximity, Coaching Change, and the Success of College Basketball Recruits." Journal of Sport Management 230-246 pages 2013 View on: Google Scholar

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Academic Journal
Strategy & Entrepreneurship

“The influences of being acquired on subsidiary innovation adoption”

Received research suggests that a firm subsidiary's acquisition by a new owner has countervailing effects on the subsidiary's innovation adoption behavior. On one hand, ownership change can make a subsidiary more receptive to innovation by reducing some inertial forces and introducing new resources to overcome others. Alternatively, the costs and demands of an acquisition can draw decision makers' attention away from important innovations in the technological environment. This event history study disentangles these countervailing influences by examining the influences of radio station ownership change on stations' adoptions of HD Radio® technology. The study finds that a change in ownership control does have a positive direct influence on the likelihood of technology adoption, but that it also curtails tendency for subsidiaries to subsequently mimic others' technology adoptions.
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Jeffrey Barden "The influences of being acquired on subsidiary innovation adoption" Strategic Management Journal 1269-1285 pages 2012 View on: Google Scholar

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Academic Journal
Strategy & Entrepreneurship

“The influence of R&D investment on the use of corporate venture capital: An industry-level analysis”

We consider how internal research and development (R&D) influences the use of corporate venture capital (CVC) and how this relationship varies across industries. We find that, in general, R&D investments increase the number of CVC deals in an industry. We also find that R&D investment has a particularly strong influence on the use of CVC in industries that are growing rapidly and changing technologically. Our analysis provides greater clarity on the relationships involving R&D and CVC in the presence of contingencies by integrating insights of absorptive capacity and real options reasoning.
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A. Sahaym, K. Steensma and Jeffrey Barden "The influence of R&D investment on the use of corporate venture capital: An industry-level analysis" Journal of Business Venturing 376-388 pages 2010 View on: Google Scholar

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Academic Journal
Strategy & Entrepreneurship

“The evolution and internalization of international joint ventures in a transitioning economy”

Although international joint ventures (IJVs) may mature over time and develop competitive viability, they maintain some risk of instability owing to their shared ownership. Such instability can ultimately lead to their internalization by one of the partners. In this study, we consider factors that influence (1) whether IJVs evolve toward becoming a wholly owned subsidiary, and (2) which parent (foreign or local) gains ownership of the venture. We use a sample of Hungarian joint ventures, and find that only when there is both a power imbalance between the parents and high levels of conflict is the likelihood that the joint venture converts to a wholly owned subsidiary enhanced. The extent to which the joint venture has learned from the foreign parent indirectly determines which parent gains full ownership. Extensive knowledge transfer to a joint venture in a transitioning economy combined with high levels of conflict increases the likelihood of the foreign parent gaining full ownership. In contrast, when there is extensive knowledge transfer and low conflict between the parents, the local parent is more likely to internalize the venture. Our results suggest that the relationship between partner power and outcomes in ventures is more complex than originally believed, and is contingent upon the level of conflict between the parents of the IJV.
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K. Steensma, Jeffrey Barden, C. Dhanaraj, M Lyles and L Tihanyi "The evolution and internalization of international joint ventures in a transitioning economy" Journal of International Business Studies 491-507 pages 2008 View on: Google Scholar

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