Rangapriya (Priya) Kannan is Professor of Entrepreneurship at University of Exeter Business School. She is an Associate Professor and the Founding Director of The Entrepreneurship & Innovation Catalyzer at University of San Diego’s School of Business. At USD, Priya is also an Affiliate Faculty at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, the first stand-alone school of peace and justice in the United States. Priya received her Ph.D. from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. She was also a visiting Research Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School over her sabbatical.
Priya’s primary research stream focuses on how innovators and entrepreneurs negotiate constraints in their environmental contexts by engaging in creative resourcing to accomplish their innovations. She has papers published in several business and management journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Organization Studies, and Journal of Business Ethics. Priya has earned several awards recognizing her dual excellence in teaching and research and for her contributions to institution building including the prestigious Steber Professorship, a distinguished university award at the University of San Diego.
To continue to bring real world perspectives into her research and teaching, Priya continues to be affiliated as a Senior Associate Consultant with Management Systems Consulting Corporation, a niche strategy consulting firm with Fortune 100 clients, as well as high potential entrepreneurial firms.
Nationality: American
Qualifications
Research interests
- Entrepreneurs, Founders & Innovators
- Resourcing
- Reframing
- Strategy-as-Practice
- Entrepreneurship-as-Practice
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Publications by category
Journal articles
Kannan‐Narasimhan RP, Lawrence BS (2018). How innovators reframe resources in the strategy‐making process to gain innovation adoption.
Strategic Management Journal,
39(3), 720-758.
Full text.
DOI.
Obal M, Kannan-Narasimhan R, Ko G (2016). Whom Should We Talk to? Investigating the Varying Roles of Internal and External Relationship Quality on Radical and Incremental Innovation Performance.
Journal of Product Innovation Management,
33, 136-147.
Full text.
DOI.
Chen RR, Kannan-Narasimhan RP (2014). Formal integration archetypes in ambidextrous organizations.
R&D Management,
45(3), 267-286.
Full text.
DOI.
Kannan-Narasimhan RP (2014). Organizational Ingenuity in Nascent Innovations: Gaining Resources and Legitimacy through Unconventional Actions.
Organization Studies,
35(4), 483-509.
Abstract:
Organizational Ingenuity in Nascent Innovations: Gaining Resources and Legitimacy through Unconventional Actions
How do innovators in large organizations acquire resources for their early-stage, untested, unproven innovations? Multiple established projects compete for scarce resources in large organizations. Innovators pursuing early-stage, untested innovations face considerable constraints in accessing scarce resources. Literature enumerates various sanctioned and unsanctioned methods by which innovators acquire resources, such as borrowing, begging, scavenging, amplifying, bootlegging, and finagling – defined as obtaining resources through deceitful or underhanded methods. However, few theories explain how innovators act unconventionally, elude constraints to acquire resources, and yet gain acceptance for their innovations. To address this question, this study uses field data from nine organizations based primarily in Silicon Valley. Successful innovators employ organizational ingenuity or creative solutions to gain resources in the face of constraints. They employ two types of ingenuity: material ingenuity, creatively re-imagining the use of resources; and process ingenuity, using creative processes to gain resources. In the early stages, innovators focus on managing their innovation’s legitimacy and use managerial attention as a key lever. They maximize managerial attention when employing material ingenuity and minimize managerial attention when utilizing process ingenuity. Theories highlighting the relationship between legitimacy and resource acquisition suggest that individuals gain resources when they establish legitimacy. Conversely, study results indicate that the process of gaining resources can lend legitimacy to early-stage innovations.
Abstract.
DOI.
Publications by year
2018
Kannan‐Narasimhan RP, Lawrence BS (2018). How innovators reframe resources in the strategy‐making process to gain innovation adoption.
Strategic Management Journal,
39(3), 720-758.
Full text.
DOI.
2016
Obal M, Kannan-Narasimhan R, Ko G (2016). Whom Should We Talk to? Investigating the Varying Roles of Internal and External Relationship Quality on Radical and Incremental Innovation Performance.
Journal of Product Innovation Management,
33, 136-147.
Full text.
DOI.
2014
Chen RR, Kannan-Narasimhan RP (2014). Formal integration archetypes in ambidextrous organizations.
R&D Management,
45(3), 267-286.
Full text.
DOI.
Kannan-Narasimhan RP (2014). Organizational Ingenuity in Nascent Innovations: Gaining Resources and Legitimacy through Unconventional Actions.
Organization Studies,
35(4), 483-509.
Abstract:
Organizational Ingenuity in Nascent Innovations: Gaining Resources and Legitimacy through Unconventional Actions
How do innovators in large organizations acquire resources for their early-stage, untested, unproven innovations? Multiple established projects compete for scarce resources in large organizations. Innovators pursuing early-stage, untested innovations face considerable constraints in accessing scarce resources. Literature enumerates various sanctioned and unsanctioned methods by which innovators acquire resources, such as borrowing, begging, scavenging, amplifying, bootlegging, and finagling – defined as obtaining resources through deceitful or underhanded methods. However, few theories explain how innovators act unconventionally, elude constraints to acquire resources, and yet gain acceptance for their innovations. To address this question, this study uses field data from nine organizations based primarily in Silicon Valley. Successful innovators employ organizational ingenuity or creative solutions to gain resources in the face of constraints. They employ two types of ingenuity: material ingenuity, creatively re-imagining the use of resources; and process ingenuity, using creative processes to gain resources. In the early stages, innovators focus on managing their innovation’s legitimacy and use managerial attention as a key lever. They maximize managerial attention when employing material ingenuity and minimize managerial attention when utilizing process ingenuity. Theories highlighting the relationship between legitimacy and resource acquisition suggest that individuals gain resources when they establish legitimacy. Conversely, study results indicate that the process of gaining resources can lend legitimacy to early-stage innovations.
Abstract.
DOI.
- Strategic Management
- Sustainable Business Models
- Innovation & Entrepreneurship
