Maria Roche

Maria Roche is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. She teaches Strategy in the MBA required curriculum. Her research focuses on the production and diffusion of knowledge, which she examines in various contexts including cities, co-working spaces, and universities. Her work, forthcoming at The Review of Economics and Statistics, Organization Science and Research Policy, has been featured in The Atlantic.

Professor Roche earned her PhD in Management (Strategy and Innovation) at the Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology, where she was a recipient of a NSF Science of Science and Innovation Policy Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant. She earned an MS in Business Administration and a BA in International Cultural and Business Studies at the University of Passau, Germany. A native of Canada and Germany, Professor Roche has lived and worked in five countries gathering professional experience in various industries such as venture capital and film.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

• Conti, Annamaria, and Maria P. Roche. "Lowering the Bar? External Conditions, Opportunity Costs, and High-Tech Startup Outcomes." Organization Science 32, no. 4 (July–August 2021): 965–986.

• Roche, Maria P., Annamaria Conti, and Frank T. Rothaermel. "Different Founders, Different Firms: A Comparative Analysis of Academic and Non-academic Startups." Special Issue on Innovative Start-Ups and Policy Initiatives. Research Policy 49, no. 10 (December 2020).

• Roche, Maria P. "Taking Innovation to the Streets: Micro-geography, Physical Structure and Innovation." Review of Economics and Statistics 102, no. 5 (December 2020): 912–928.

WORKING PAPERS

• Conti, Annamaria, Christian Peukert, and Maria Roche. "Beefing IT Up for Your Investor? Open Sourcing and Startup Funding: Evidence from GitHub." (pdf) Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-001, July 2021. (Revised September 2021.)
  

• Thursby, Jerry, Marie Thursby, Karim R. Lakhani, Kyle R. Myers, Nina Cohodes, Sarah Bratt, Dennis Byrski, Hannah Cohoon, and Maria Roche. "Scientific Production: An Exploration into Organization, Resource Allocation, and Funding." Working Paper, May 2020.

• Roche, Maria P., Alexander Oettl, and Christian Catalini. "Entrepreneurs (Co-) Working in Close Proximity: Impacts on Technology Adoption and Startup Performance Outcomes." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-024, May 2020.

AWARDS & HONORS

• Winner of the 2021 Grigor McClelland Doctoral Dissertation Award from the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and the Journal of Management Studies.
  
• Winner of the 2021 Best Dissertation Award from the Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) Division of the Academy of Management.
  
• Winner of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Best Student Paper Award at the 19th Annual Roundtable for Engineering Entrepreneurship Research (REER) Conference in 2019.
  
• Winner of the 2019 Ashford Watson Stalnaker Memorial Award from the Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.
  
• Recipient of an Impact of Academic Entrepreneurship on Doctoral Student Innovation grant from the National Science Foundation, 2019–2021.