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  • Management Science

Innovation on Wings: When Do Nonstop Flights Matter for Global Innovation?

By: Dany Bahar, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Do Yoon Kim and Wesley Koo
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Abstract

We study whether, when, and how better connectivity through nonstop flights leads to positive innovation outcomes for firms in the global context. Using unique data of all flights emanating from 5,015 airports around the globe from 2005 to 2015 and exploiting a regression discontinuity framework, we report that a 10% increase in nonstop flights between two locations leads to a 3.4% increase in citations and a 1.4% increase in the production of collaborative patents between those locations. This effect is driven primarily by firms, as opposed to by academic institutions. We further study the characteristics of firms and firm locations that are salient to the relation between nonstop flights and innovation outcomes across countries. Using a gravity model, we posit and find that the positive effect of nonstop flights on innovation is stronger for firms and subsidiaries with greater innovation mass (e.g., stocks of inventors and R&D spending), for firms and subsidiaries located in innovation hubs or in countries that are deemed technology leaders, and for firms and subsidiaries that are separated by large cultural or temporal distance.

Keywords

Nonstop Flights; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Patents; Research and Development; Air Transportation Industry

Citation

Bahar, Dany, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Do Yoon Kim, and Wesley Koo. "Innovation on Wings: When Do Nonstop Flights Matter for Global Innovation?" Management Science (forthcoming).
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About The Author

Prithwiraj Choudhury

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

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More from the Authors
  • Firm-Induced Migration Paths and Strategic Human-Capital Outcomes By: Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Victoria Sevcenko
  • Your Company Needs a Space Strategy. Now. By: Matthew Weinzierl, Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna, Alan MacCormack and Brendan Rosseau
  • Role of Context in Knowledge Flows: Host Country versus Headquarters as Sources of MNC Subsidiary Knowledge Inheritance By: Mike Horia Teodorescu, Prithwiraj Choudhury and Tarun Khanna
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