Celebrating Steven Klepper

The late Steven Klepper, The Arthur Arton Hammerschlag Professor of Economics and Social Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University until his death on May 27, 2013, was an internationally recognized and honored scholar who made fundamental contributions to the study of entrepreneurship, innovation, and industry evolution.  The author of more than a hundred peer-reviewed articles that have garnered more than 10,000 citations in the scholarly literature, Steven was also a master teacher and a program builder.  He taught generations of CMU undergraduates the principles of economics; was the principal architect of CMU’s interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (SETChange; was the creator of and long-time force behind the Consortium for Competitiveness and Collaboration’s Doctoral Conference (CCC Doctoral Conference); and was Doktorvater to numerous graduate students who now carry on the Klepper tradition of scholarship.  Steven received Dietrich College’s Ryan Teaching Award; was granted an honorary Ph.D. at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany; and won the Swedish 2011 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research.  

The Department of Social and Decision Sciences (Steven’s academic home for more than three decades) and Carnegie Mellon’s SETChange Program invite you to view the academic conference and memorial on the links below.  We are especially grateful to Steven’s family—Florence Rouzier, Steven’s “princess” of 22 years; his children, Arielle and Julian; and his beloved mother-in-law Betty—for their steadfast encouragement and support.  

Academic Conference and Memorial in honor of Steven Klepper

Welcome by Richard Scheines, Dean, Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Session 1:  Industrial Evolution

• Constance Helfat, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth University:  “Vertical Integration and Industry Evolution”
• Sidney Winter, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania:  “The Keystone of Economic Growth:  Seeing Industry Evolution in Its Larger Contexts”
• Rajshree Agarwal, Robert Smith School of Business, University of Maryland:  “Incubation of an Industry and Heterogeneous Biotechnology”
• Serguey Braguinsky, SDS Department, Carnegie Mellon University:  “Knowledge Diffusion and Industry Growth”

Session 2:  Industrial Evolution 2

• Kenneth Simons, Economics, RPI: “Shakeouts and Industry-Technology Evolution”
• Ajay Bhaskarabhhatla, Erasmus University:  “How Does Product Customization Affect Firm Survival: The Role of Market Pioneering and entry Deterrence”
• Ashish Arora and Wesley Cohen, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University:  “Public Support and Technical Advance:  The Role of market Structure”

Mark Kamlet (SDS faculty member and former Provost) will deliver remarks about Steven’s early work in econometrics

Session 3:  Employee Entrepreneurship and Submarkets

• Romel Mustafa, Ivy Business School, University of Western Ontario:  “Knowledge Inheritance, Vertical Integration, and Entrant Survivial in the Early U.S. Auto Industry”
• Cristobal Cheyre, Umiversidad Católica de chile; Jon Kowalski, McKinsey & Co.; Francisco Veloso, Carnegie Mellon University and Universidada Católica Portuguesa, with Steven Klepper:  “Spinoffs and the Ascension of Silicon Valley”
• Guido Buensdorf, Economics, University of Kassel:  “Towards a Nanoeconomic Approach to Regional Innovation Systems”

Session 4:  Firm Heritage and Regional Economics

• Ron Boschma, URU, Utrecht University and CIRCLE, Lund University:  “Do Spinoff Dynamics or Agglomeration Externalities Drive Industry Clustering?  A Reappraisal of Steven Klepper’s Work”
• Rui Baptista, Brunel University, London; and Carla Costa, Maastricht University:  “Entrepreneurial Clusters and the Coagglomeration of Related Industries:  Spinouts in Portuguese Plastics and Molds”
• Russell Golman, SDS Carnegie Mellon University:  “Spinoffs and Clusterng”
  

Klepper Memorial

Steven Klepper, Scholar:
Serguey Braguinsky, SDS, Carnegie Mellon University

Steven Klepper, Teacher and Mentor:
Ashish Thakrar, University of Pennsylvania Medical School
Shreepal Shah, Senior, Carnegie Mellon University
Charles Jacobson, Morgan-Angel Associates, Washington, D.C.
Daniel Holbrook, Marshall University
Sally Sleeper, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
Kenneth Simons, Rensselear Polytechnic Institute
Guido Buenstorf, Kassel University
Atsushi Ohyama, Hokkaido University
Arielle Klepper, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY

Steven Klepper, Program Builder:
Rashree Agarwal, University of Maryland
Francisco Veloso, Universidade Católica Portuguesa and Carnegie Mellon University

Steven Klepper, Colleague:
Joel Tarr, History & Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University
Wesley Cohen, Duke University
Peter Roberts, Emory University
Peter Thompson, Georgia Tech
Kiron Skinner, SDS, Carnegie Mellon University

Reflecting and Closing:
Richard Scheines, Dean, Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University