Management, as we know it today, has been the subject of study and practice roughly for the last 100 years. Some people think that a good manager can manage anything, regardless of its technological base. But there is strong evidence that the ability to evaluate alternative technologies and their investment requirements, the capacity to envision how scientific and technical knowledge find their way to the market, and the knowledge about how to manage complex innovation and production processes, all require a distinctive set of skills.
In this course, we will look at what these skills are. Many cases will be studied of both successful and failed technology-based projects and enterprises. By the end of the course students are expected to have developed their own criteria about how to manage R+D or Innovation Projects, always in a business context.
Titular Professors
Basic finance and marketing concepts
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
· Understanding the role of R+D+I in the Knowledge Economy.
· Managing Research and Development and Innovation as a Business Process.
· Managing in Large Organizations vs. Managing in Small Organizations
· Reviewing all the Sources of Innovation (in addition to R+D)
· How to take decisions regarding Innovation projects (accepting or rejecting projects)
· Distinguishing between Idea Generation vs. Idea Application
· Understanding the role of Open Innovation
· Understanding the Technology Diffusion processes. The Three Horizons model.
· Learning about Technology Readiness Levels
· Organizing R+D+I teams, and their relationship with the company’s organization
· Understanding the basic Intellectual Property concepts: copyright, patents, industrial secret
· Understanding National and Regional Innovation Systems
· Understanding how Technology Transfer takes place in the Digital Economy
- Definitions. What is Management? What is R+D? What is Innovation?
- What is a Business Process? R+D management. The Innovation Process.
- Reviewing all the Sources of Innovation (in addition to R+D), two sessions.
- Diffusion of New Technologies
- Project Evaluation and Selection .
- Open Innovation.
- R+D+I Policies
- Managing Human Resources in High Technology Enterprises
- Intellectual Property (Two sessions)
- Learning about Technology Readiness Levels.
The course is divided in the study of 10 different topics, each covering a different viewpoint of how Technology Intense Organizations may be managed. For each topic, a combination of the following will be used:
- Lectures. There will be 12 lectures, from February to May. At each lecture a topic will be introduced. In addition there will be two review sessions, one beffore the midterm exam, the other before the final exam.
- Quizzes. Students will tak a quiz during each session
- Weekly Assignments. Assignments will be given BEFORE each topic is presented. Therefore, students are not expected to provide a right or wrong answer for each assignment, but are expected to think about the main issues of each topic.
- Class discussions - Many cases will be discussed through the course. Maximum benefit for the student will be obtained only if each case has been prepared by previously doing the corresponding weekly assignment.
- Readings. A list of recommended books and papers will be provided. In addition, other sources may be referred during the course.
- Videos. When available, relevant videos will also be viewed, as additional materials for the class discussions.
Curse evaluation will be based on attendance, class participation, submitted assignments and exams.
Exams will be a combination of multiple choice, true/false, and essay questions.
Assignments need only to study the subject to debate in class.
RECOMMENDED TEXTS
Schilling, M.A., Strategic Management of Technological Innovation, 7th edition, Mc-Graw-Hill, 2022
Tidd, J., and Bessant, J. Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change, 7th Ed. Wiley 2020
SPECIFIC INNOVATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION REFERENCES
- Moore, G.A., Inside The Tornado, Capstone Publishing Ltd., 2001
- Christensen, C.M., The Innovator's Dilema, Harvard Business School Press, 1997
- Christensen, C.M, Raynor, M.E., The Innovator's Solution, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, 2003
- Geroski, P., The Evolution of New Markets, Oxford University Press, 2003
- Chesbrough, H.W., Open Innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology, Harvard Business School Press, 2003
INNOVATION EXAMPLES
- Battelle, J., The Search, Penguin Group, 2006
- Smith, D.K., Alexander, R.C., Fumbling the Future, William Morrow & Co. 1988
OTHER REFERENCES
- Surowiecki, J., The Wisdom of Crowds, Random House, 2004
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