Pengfei Wang obtained his PhD in Strategy from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam. He was a visiting scholar at Ross School of Business at University of Michigan. Pengfei joined BI at 2017. His research covers social status, market categories, technological innovation, and venture capital financing. His studies have been accepted for publication by journals including Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Research Policy, Journal of Business Venturing, Strategic Organization, Industrial and Corporate Change, Long Range Planning, and Journal of International Management.
Publications
Ubisch, Sverre Søyland von & Wang, Pengfei (2022)
Typical Products for Outside Audiences: The Role of Typicality When Products Traverse Countries
While organization theorists have established the importance of typicality, most studies examine situations where producers and audiences dwell within the same category system (e.g., a country, industry, or market). However, much less attention is paid to the role of typicality when products are introduced from one system to another. Since defining what is typical is commonly system-specific, typical products in one category system may be perceived as being atypical in others. It is therefore important to understand how typicality shapes market exchanges when products traverse category systems. To shed light on this, we introduce two key concepts—home typicality and host typicality—and examine specifically how they affect the performance of products distributed across countries. By analyzing a large sample of films, we find that films are more successful in international markets, when they are more typical of their home countries and/or more atypical of their host countries.
Wang, Pengfei (2022)
Looking into the Past: Audience Heterogeneity and the Inconsistency of Market Signals
Prior literature has emphasized that inconsistency of market signals leads to evaluation penalty. However, limited attention has been paid to the heterogeneity of audiences who deal with inconsistency. I argue that audiences differ in the extent to which they process different market signals, which may largely shape the effect of signal inconsistency. When audiences fail to process all signals, they may not perceive signal inconsistency, thereby weakening its effect on product evaluation. It is hence important to investigate audience heterogeneity in theorizing signal inconsistency. In this study, I focus on the distinction between two important audience groups: professional critics and end consumers. Specifically, I argue that signal inconsistency exerts a stronger effect on critics’ evaluations than on consumers’ evaluations, because critics are more likely than consumers to process various market signals. I argue further that critics can act as an important intermediary to bridge the effect of signal inconsistency on consumers, even though consumers may not process all signals themselves. I test these ideas in a sample of video games released between 2001 and 2016 and find general support.
Wang, Pengfei (2021)
Gain initial endorsement from the core: market entry, initial partners, and embeddedness in the venture capital market
This study draws attention to the embedding process of market entrants, by examining the initial and subsequent partnerships of de alio entrants versus de novo entrants. Although de alio entrants have access to superior resources from their parents, they may encounter more resistance from the market as they project impure identity, introduce different logics, and pose greater competitive threats. Analyzing a sample of new entrants in the venture capital market, we find that while de alio entrants are less likely to establish initial partnerships with mainstream incumbents (i.e. receiving an overall initial resistance from the market), they are more likely than de novo entrants to establish ties with high-status incumbents (i.e. gaining more initial endorsement from the core). Results also show that initial network positions allow de alio entrants to sustain gaining prestigious endorsement in the later period, and at the same time to offset the overall resistance from mainstream incumbents. Our findings contribute to the literature on market entry and corporate demography.
Ubisch, Sverre Søyland & Wang, Pengfei (2019)
Spanning Crisp Categories: Primary Category, Complementary Category, and Their Contrasts
This study adds to the product innovation literature by emphasizing the important yet understudied role of price distribution in shaping product demography (i.e. new product introductions and exits). While prior research has focused on market niches in the technological and geographic spaces in order to explain product demography, price space has received very limited attention despite the important role of price in the market. We posit that product dynamics are largely shaped by the existing price distribution. More specifically, we argue that local density in price space determines both the likelihood of existing products exiting the market and the rate of new products entering it. Analyzing product exit and entry in the U.S. workstation industry from 1980 to 1996, we find that while price density increases an existing product’s exit rate, new products are also more likely to enter the niches where the price density is high. We also draw attention to internal price density within multiproduct firms, analyzing a product’s price distance from the other products launched by the same firm. We find that this type of internal price density decreases both existing products’ exit rate and new products’ entry likelihood. Our emphasis on price space contributes to the literature on product innovation and demography.
Wang, Pengfei (2018)
Broadening versus reinforcing investor portfolios: Social structure and the search for venture capital investors
Uncertainty experienced by market audiences is the fundamental premise for status to take effect. Whereas prior research usually assumes that uncertainty is evenly distributed among audiences, this study emphasizes the heterogeneity of audiences. Audiences usually differ in the scope of firms they cover. They acquire more information and confront less uncertainty when evaluating firms under their coverage than those not. Status may thus exert different effects across audiences. My theoretical development is situated in the context of M&A. In particular, I hypothesize that although an acquirer's status is generally beneficial, it is more appealing to investors who do not cover the acquirer, as compared to covering investors. Results of the empirical analysis on the U.S. deals between 1990 and 2014 provide considerable support for my framework.
Wang, Pengfei; Van de Vrande, Vareska & Jansen, Justin (2017)
Balancing exploration and exploitation in inventions: Quality of inventions and team composition