1.   The Disruptive Effects of Emerging Technologies on Industries

How do emerging technology-based industries differ from established industries?  How do they emerge and evolve?  What explains patterns of competitive entry, shakeout and survival in these industries?  When and how do new entrants prevail over established companies?

2.   Learning from the Periphery

What processes and methods are used by best practice firms to sense and act on the weak signals of threats and opportunities sooner than their rivals?  How can technology be used to improve the gathering and interpretation of early intelligence from the periphery?

3.   Exploiting Emerging Technologies

How do winning firms bring their innovations to market ahead of their rivals? How do they assess prospects for breatkthrough concepts and manage the development process for speed, while coping with high uncertainties in market potential, customer requirements and  competitive actions?

4.   Strategies for Participation

How do firms decide whether to aggressively pursue an embryonic technology on their own, acquire or license new technologies, participate in a web of alliances, or actively watch and wait?  How should portfolios of options be balanced and managed over time?

How should firms value, select and track their investments in emerging technologies when the payoffs are distant and uncertain?  What can be learned from the investing frameworks and processes used by corporations, government agencies and venture capitalists?

5.   Balancing Risk and Reward in Innovation Activities

How can firms improve their success rate in commercializing technological innovations, while protecting against undesirable outcomes?  What are the best strategies for balancing  internal  and external growth initiatives? How should innovation systems be managed and optimized in multi-project portfolios?

6.   Managing Intellectual Property

How do firms preserve competitive advantage in complex technology systems where intellectual property is influenced by changing laws and regulations, enforcement challenges and global competition?

What is the role of intellectual property in a knowledge economy where information is ubiquitous?  How do firms manage the tension between protecting their knowledge assets and sharing knowledge with partners?

7.   Designing and Managing Alliances

How can established and entrepre-neurial firms ally themselves to capitalize on their core strengths to achieve mutual benefits?  How does the alliance life cycle evolve?  How do single alliances differ from webs of alliances?  What are the best practices for managing alliances and innovation networks?

8.  Managing Innovation Ecosystems

Networks of innovation enable firms to draw on resources far beyond their immediate boundaries.  How are the many partners in this ecosystem selected and coordinated?  What are the interdependencies and coordination costs?  How is value created and shared among the partners?  How do participants learn from the network while protecting their proprietary assets?

9.  New Forms of Organizations

What forms of organization are made possible by advances in technology?  How are traditional forms being recombined to gain competitive advantage, and can a new form itself be a source of advantage?  How can technology be used to improve the speed and quality of decisions in these organizations?

10.  Managing Uncertainty and Complexity

Ambiguity and high levels of uncertainty along many dimensions are inherent in emerging technologies. 

How do best practice firms turn this uncertainty to their advantage?  What biases interfere with managers' ability to understand these uncertainties?  How can tools such as real options and scenario analysis help manage uncertainty?  What strategies and tools can help assess and minimize risk?

These research thrusts represent the major areas of focus for management research projects sponsored by the program. Additional research topics and projects are being added as new issues are identified, and funding support increases.