• develop a capacity to think strategically about a company's technology decisions related to how much to invest in R&D, how to protect and commercialize innovations, and how to improve and sustain a firm's performance through the generation and adoption of technological innovations
• build skills in conducting strategic analyses about technology commercialization in a variety of industries and competitive situations, with a particular focus on high-tech industries
• craft a technology strategy that is integrated with the overall strategy of the company, reasoning carefully about strategic options, using analytical frameworks to evaluate action alternatives, and making sound strategic decisions
• reflect on academic literature about innovation management, entrepreneurship, economics, finance, and organization

Just like financial and human resources, technology has critical importance in organizations, and the management of technology is a basic business function. Just as we need financial or human resource strategies, organizations need to develop a technology strategy, which serves as a basis for the overall company strategy.

In this course, technology strategy will be studied by analyzing the economic and strategic factors that guide – or should guide - firms' decisions regarding the generation, commercialization, protection, and adoption of technological innovations. The emphasis is on the development and application of economic and strategy tools which are critical for insightful long-term planning when deciding the sources of innovation (internal vs. external), how much to invest in internal R&D, whether to seek intellectual property protection, whether to develop and commercialize an invention in-house or sell it through arm's-length licensing contracts, or other cooperative strategies such as joint ventures or the sale of a technology-based firm's equity. Topics including platforms and digitalization, economies of agglomeration, AI tools, university-industry collaborations will also be discussed.

Technology markets are analyzed from both a seller's and buyer's perspective. Internal technology commercialization may entail the exploitation of first-mover advantages or specialized downstream capabilities. Other topics covered include the analysis of situations, increasingly observed in several high-tech industries, where firms create and accumulate technological innovations without exploiting them directly, using them instead for technological negotiations with other firms or for preempting potential rivals from entering an industry.

3-week course that cannot be combined with any other courses.

Preliminary Assignment: The course coordinator uploads Preliminary Assignment on Canvas at the end of May. It is expected that students participate as it will be included in the final exam, but the assignment is without independent assessment and grading.

Core reading:

Kuratko, D. F., & Hoskinson, S. (2016). Technological innovation: Generating economic results. Emerald Group Publishing. (eBook available on CBS library)

Schilling, Melissa A. (2019). Strategic Management of technological innovation (6th edition), McGraw-Hill, New York.

 Additional literature:

Arora, A., & Ceccagnoli, M. (2006). Patent protection, complementary assets, and firms’ incentives for technology licensing. Management science, 52(2), 293-308.

Boudreau, K. J., & Hagiu, A. (2009). Platform rules: Multi-sided platforms as regulators. Platforms, markets and innovation, 1, 163-191.

Ceccagnoli, M., & Rothaermel, F. T. (2016). Appropriability strategies to capture value from innovation. In Technological innovation: Generating economic results (pp. 3-31). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Fisher III, W. W., & Oberholzer-Gee, F. (2013). Strategic management of intellectual property: an integrated approach. California management review, 55(4), 157-183.

Gassmann, O., Enkel, E., & Chesbrough, H. (2010). The future of open innovation. R&d Management, 40(3), 213-221.

Gawer, A., & Cusumano, M. A. (2014). Industry platforms and ecosystem innovation. Journal of product innovation management, 31(3), 417-433.

Gompers, P., & Lerner, J. (2001). The venture capital revolution. Journal of economic perspectives, 15(2), 145-168.

Graebner, M. E., Eisenhardt, K. M., & Roundy, P. T. (2010). Success and failure in technology acquisitions: Lessons for buyers and sellers. Academy of management perspectives, 24(3), 73-92.

Hagiu, A., & Wright, J. (2015). Multi-sided platforms. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 43, 162-174.

McIntyre, D. P., & Srinivasan, A. (2017). Networks, platforms, and strategy: Emerging views and next steps. Strategic management journal, 38(1), 141-160.

Pisano, G. P. (2015). You need an innovation strategy. Harvard business review, 93(6), 44-54..

Teece, D. J. (1986). Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy. Research policy, 15(6), 285-305.

For the purpose of in-class discussion, other readings, such as cases, press articles, and short exercises will be indicated before and during the course.