Romel Mostafa joined the Business, Economics, and Public Policy group in July 2011. Prior to coming to the Western University, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Strategy at Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis. He received his Ph.D. in Strategy, Entrepreneurship & Technological Change from Carnegie Mellon University.
Professor Mostafa's primary area of research investigates the mechanisms that foster birth and growth of competitive industries. A recipient of Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship, Mostafa focuses on the processes by which entrants build their new-firm capabilities, the channels that allow valuable knowledge to diffuse across firm boundaries, and the impact of institutional environments and their changes on entrepreneurial activities. His secondary area of research explores how behavioural biases affect financial decision making. His published and on-going research has been featured in various international media, including the BusinessWeek and the National Public Radio.
A native of Bangladesh, Professor Mostafa enjoys various sports (cricket and soccer, above all) and music (especially 60's and 70's Bengali and English music), and loves cooking and travelling.
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Jahanbakht, M.; Mostafa, R.,
2020, "Coevolution of policy and strategy in the development of the mobile telecommunications industry in Africa", Telecommunications Policy, December 44(4).
Abstract: This paper explores how regulatory policy and firm strategy have shaped the development of the mobile telecommunications industry across Africa to date. Our historical analysis shows that during the industry's formative years, firms had different strategies for developing African markets in a relatively lax regulatory environment, with some local firms leading the way in generating innovations for adapting to inherent market and institutional challenges as well as in expanding their operations to multiple countries across Africa. While many firms exited over time, some, including a few multinationals, reoriented their strategy from targeting high-income consumers to serving the masses, and the industry benefited from the widespread diffusion of innovations, the establishment of allied industries, and low prices of handsets. However, as the industry matured, competition became mostly price-based, leading to consolidation. Authorities responded by increasing monitoring activities, taking a more “hands-on” regulatory approach. This study demonstrates that both policy and strategy coevolved in a path-dependent way as the industry gradually transitioned from the introductory phase into the growth and maturity phases. It also provides new insight into the development of the African mobile telecommunications industry, and extends and bridges the literatures on telecommunications policy and strategy, which evolved in insolation.
Link(s) to publication:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2019.101906
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Mostafa, R.; Klepper, S.,
2018, "Industrial Development through Tacit Knowledge Seeding: Evidence from the Bangladesh Garment Industry", Management Science, February 64(2): 613 - 632.
Abstract: We explore how the establishment of an industry pioneer through foreign seeding of industry knowledge can subsequently catalyze the growth of a developing country’s industry by involuntarily propagating the knowledge to subsequent entrants. As industry knowledge has tacit elements, we focus on mechanisms that enable experienced workers from the pioneer to seed the knowledge to new entrants. We examine the relationship between entrants’ characteristics and the mechanisms exploited to access the industry knowledge, and the impact of the mechanisms exploited on firm performance. Empirical findings from two historical episodes in the Bangladesh garment industry suggest that industry knowledge seeding was essential for the initial establishment and subsequent expansion of the industry. Our paper highlights the role of experienced workers’ mobility in building new firm capabilities and provides novel insights into industrialization in developing economies.
Link(s) to publication:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2619
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Argyes, N.; Mostafa, R.,
2016, "Knowledge Inheritance, Vertical Integration, and Entrant Survival in the Early U.S. Auto Industry", Academy of Management Journal, August 59(4): 1474 - 1492.
Abstract: A key finding in the literature on industry evolution and strategy is that knowledge inherited from the founder’s previous employer can be an important source of a new firm’s capabilities. We analyze the conditions under which knowledge that is useful for carrying out a key value chain activity is inherited, and explore the mechanism through which such an inheritance shapes an entrant’s strategies and, in the process, influences its performance. Evidence from the early U.S. auto industry indicates that employee spinoffs generated from incumbents that had integrated a key value chain activity were also more likely to integrate that activity than other entrants, which, we suggest, reflects the application of knowledge inheritance relative to that activity. Moreover, we find that the integration of this key activity, stimulated by knowledge inheritance, contributed to the establishment of defensible strategic positioning, thereby enhancing the survival duration of inheriting spinoffs. We thus link together the phenomena of knowledge inheritance, vertical integration, and strategic positioning to explain entrant performance. These three phenomena tend to be treated disparately in the literature, rather than in combination.
Link(s) to publication:
http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0180
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Haisley, E.; Mostafa, R.; Loewenstein, G.,
2008, "Myopic Risk-seeking: The Impact of Narrow Decision Bracketing on Lottery Play", Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, August 37(1): 57 - 75.
Abstract: In two experiments conducted with low-income participants, we find that individuals are more likely to buy state lottery tickets when they make several purchase decisions one-at-a-time, i.e. myopically, than when they make one decision about how many tickets to purchase. These results extend earlier findings showing that broad bracketing of decisions encourages behavior consistent with expected value maximization. Additionally, the results suggest that the combination of myopic decision making and the peanuts effectgreater risk seeking for low stakes than high stakes gamblescan help explain the popularity of state lotteries.
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Haisley, E.; Mostafa, R.; Loewenstein, G.,
2008, "Subjective Relative Income and Lottery Ticket Purchases", Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, July 21(3): 283 - 295.
Abstract: Despite a return of only .53 on the dollar, state lotteries are extremely popular, especially among the poor, who play the most but can least afford to play. In two experiments conducted with low-income participants, we examine how implicit comparisons with other income classes increase low-income individuals' desire to play the lottery. In Experiment 1, participants were more likely to purchase lottery tickets when they were primed to perceive that their own income was low relative to an implicit standard. In Experiment 2, participants purchased more tickets when they considered situations in which rich people or poor people receive advantages, implicitly highlighting the fact that everyone has an equal chance of winning the lottery.
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