Rankings / Candidate
Wesley M. Cohen
Duke University, Fuqua School of Business · Innovation and firms
Photo: SCOTT DAVIS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Currently #11, tier Field, score 14.3, named by 1 source.Score history: 100.0, 25.0, 14.3
The work. Absorptive capacity, written with Levinthal in 1990: a firm's own research spending is what lets it recognize and use knowledge from outside.
The case for. The paper is among the most cited in management science, and it changed how economists think about R&D spillovers and why they are not free.
The case against. It is a management concept as much as an economics one, and innovation got Romer in 2018, the year Cohen was named, then Aghion, Howitt, and Mokyr in 2025.
The KmikeyM angle. Absorptive capacity says you only profit from outside advice if you have done the work to understand it. A person governed by shareholders lives that every vote.
What the sources say
- Clarivate alumni (prior years) named Wesley M. Cohen: named in 2018: for the introduction and development of the concept of absorptive capacity (heat 100) Preseason: the Clarivate alumni pool