The Mack Center was pleased to host presenters, panelists and academic
participants to the fifth annual Tech Mini-Conference on April
1-2. The agenda with downloadable papers presented
is included below, along with some pictures of the conference.
5th
Annual Technology Mini-Conference - April 1-2 - 2005
Presenters came from leading business
schools in many countries. Faculty presenters described
their research in progress and presented their findings in slide
presentations and working papers (see the agenda below).
Following the presentations, senior faculty "discussants"
commented on the papers, offering suggestions to improve the
research methodology and approaches - which was valuable not
only for the presenters, but for all attendees who attend this
event to gain insights into management research in general, as
well as specific topics and industry studies.
First Row: Presenters Jeffrey Macher and Steven
Postrel. Second Row: Michael Lapre (left) discussed service
failures in the airline industry.
Marco Ceccagnoli discussed his research
(with Ashish Arora) on patents and licensing. George Day, Co-Director of the Mack Center,
was a senior faculty discussant.
Senior faculty discussants were often animated during
their commentaries on the presentations, as exemplified by Profs. Brian
Silverman, Shane Greenstein and Will Mitchell. Some of the most
valuable conference time was spent discussing research projects, ideas and
methodologies with faculty colleagues. Bottom row: Mary Benner
(Wharton) and Anita Tucker (Wharton) were facilitators during the conference
AGENDA - 2005 Wharton
Technology Miniconference
240 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
Please click on the titles of the
papers to view/download
Friday, April 1st
12:00 Registration and lunch (MBA
Café, Huntsman Hall, 2nd Floor)
12:45 Opening remarks
Daniel Levinthal, Chairman,
Management Department, Wharton
Harbir Singh, Co-Director, Mack
Center for Technological Innovation
1:00 Panel 1: Information Flows
(Moderator: Mary Benner)
“Death hurts, but it isn’t fatal: The postexit diffusion of
knowledge created by innovative companies” (Glenn Hoetker,
Rajshree Agarwal)
“Structural responses to strategic change: Flexibility and
inertia after market entry” (Charles Williams, Will Mitchell)
Panel 1
Discussants: Andrew Van de Ven (Minnesota),
Daniel Levinthal (Wharton)
3:00 Break
3:30 Panel 2: Open Source
Software (Moderator: Mary Benner)
“Exploring the structure of complex software designs: An
empirical study of open source and proprietary code” (Alan
MacCormak, John Rusnak, Carliss Baldwin)
“Attracting and retaining volunteer software developers” (Sonali
Shah)
Panel 2
Discussants: Sid Winter (Wharton), Karl Ulrich (Wharton)
5:30 Free time
7:00 Dinner at Faculty Club (Inn at
Penn, 2nd Floor, 36th and Walnut)
Saturday, April 2nd
8:30 Continental breakfast (MBA Café,
Huntsman Hall, 2nd Floor)
9:00 Panel 3: Patents
(Moderator: Nicolaj Siggelkow)
“Patent protection, complementary assets, and firms’ incentives
for technology licensing” (Ashish Arora, Marco Ceccagnoli)
“Patently wrong? Firm strategy and the decision to disband
technological assets” (Robert Lowe, Francisco Veloso)
Panel 3 Discussants: Shane
Greenstein (Kellogg), Will Mitchell (Duke)
11:00 Break
11:30 Panel 4: Service
(Moderator: Nicolaj Siggelkow)
“Managing customer
outrage: Focus organizational learning efforts on service
failure or recovery?” (Michael Lapré)
Panel 4 Discussant: George Day
(Wharton)
12:30 Lunch
1:30 Panel 5: Capabilities
(Moderator: Anita Tucker)
“Alliance organization and technological performance:
Integrating RBV and TCE explanations” (Michael Leiblein, Jeffrey
Macher)
“Strategic coherence and capabilities: Goal congruence in a
science-based start-up” (David Hoopes, Steven Postrel)
Panel 5
Discussants: Brian Silverman (Toronto), Harbir Singh (Wharton)
4:00 Farewell Reception