Past conferences
Sumantra Ghoshal Conference 2011, London Business School
Sunday 15 May
11:00 - 12:00 Registration in Sainsbury Reception
12:00 - 13:00 Welcome Lunch in the Garden Room
Conference Sessions in LT10
13:00 - 13:15 Opening
Freek Vermeulen; Michael Hay
13:15 - 14:15 Keynote speakers
Michael L. Tushman
(Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942, Professor of Business
Administration, Harvard Business School)
Anand Pillai
(Sr. Vice President and Global Head - Quality, Talent
Transformation & Intrapreneurship Development,
HCL Technologies)
14:15 - 14:30 Coffee Break in S1 Lounge
14:30 - 16:00 Academic paper track: Technology, Innovation
and Entrepreneurship
Track chair: Kevin Boudreau
Co-organiser: Lourdes Sosa
Presentations:
Katharine Anderson (Carnegie Mellon University)** : Skill
Specialization and the Formation of Collaboration Networks
Sharon Belenzon (Duke University)**, Ashish Arora
(Duke University & NBER) and Luis Rios (Duke University):
The organization of R&D within firms:
Measures, characteristics and consequences
Emily Cox (Foster School of Business)** and
Riitta Katila (Stanford University):
The Impact of Funding Sources on Innovation in New Firm
Thomas Åstebro (HEC Paris)** and Carlos Serrano
(University of Toronto & NBER):
Business Partnerships and the Commercialization
of Inventions
Discussant: Jason Crusan (Chief Technologist
for Space Operations, NASA)
16:00 - 16:30 Coffee Break in S1 Lounge
16:30 - 18:00 Managerial paper track
Track chair: Michael G Jacobides
Co-organiser: Phanish Puranam
Presentations:
Aneel Karnani (University of Michigan)**:
Doing Well by Doing Good:
The Grand Illusion
Prashant Kale (University of Michigan)** Overseas
Acquisitions by Emerging Multinationals:
Creating Value through a Partnering Approach
Discussants:
Venia Zafolia
(Marketing Services Manager and
Sustainability Coordinator, Frigoglass)
Manuel Costescu
(Vice President, JPMorganChase)
Maurizio Zollo
(Bocconi University)
Takis Georgakopoulos
(Chief Financial Officer, JPMorganChase)
18:00 - 19:00 Drinks and Debate in the Garden Room
Progress in strategic management research is being
hampered by a lack of ambition: You cannot solve
big problems in small steps
For - Subramanian Rangan (INSEAD)
Against - Gautam Ahuja (University of Michigan)
19:30 - 23:00 Dinner in the Garden Room
Monday 16 May
Conference Sessions in LT10
09:00 - 10:30 Academic paper track: People and Strategy
Track chair: Isabel Fernandez
Co-organisers: Gary Dushnitsky, Don Sull
Presentations:
Andrew Shipilov (INSEAD)**, Frederic Godart (INSEAD)
and Kim Claes (INSEAD): Performance Implications
of Outward Personnel Mobility in Creative Industries
Andrew Hess (University of Virginia)**
and Frank Rothaermel (Georgia Institute of Technology):
Does Desperation lead to Opportunity? Star Employees
and the Micro-foundations of Strategic Renewal
Waverly Ding (Haas School of Business)**,
Victor Cui (University of Winnipeg) and
Yoshio Yanadori (University of British Columbia):
Compensation Structure and the Creation
of Exploratory Knowledge in Technology Firms
Discussant: Brian Dickie (Advisory Director, Investcorp)
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee Break in S1 Lounge
11:00 - 12:30 Topical panel: Strategy and
Corporate Social Responsibility
Track chair: Ioannis Ioannou
Co-organiser: Donal Crilly, Yiorgos Mylonadis
Panellists:
P. (Tima) Bansal
(Richard Ivey School of Business)
Peter Lacy
(Managing Director, Sustainability Services Group
(Europe, Africa, Middle East and Latin America, Accenture)
Christopher Marquis
(Harvard Business School)
Gerry O'Hagan
(Technical Director, Global Supply, DIAGEO)
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch in the Garden Room
13:30 - 15:00 Topical panel: New Market Creation
Track chair: Brandon Lee
Co-organisers: Michael Hay, Costas Markides
Panellists:
Tim Brooks (Executive in Residence,
London Business School)
Patrick Newton (Chief Executive Officer, Helveta)
Filipe Santos (INSEAD)
Wesley Sine (Cornell University)
15:00 - 15:15 Coffee Break in S1 Lounge
15:15 - 16:45 Academic paper track: Global and Corporate Strategy
Track chair: Louise Mors
Co-organiser: Julian Birkinshaw
Presentations:
Emilie Feldman (The Wharton School)** and Cynthia
Montgomery (Harvard Business School): Taking a Seat
at the Table: Director Experience and Share Ownership
in Fortune 500 Boardrooms
Witold Henisz (The Wharton School)**, Sinziana Dorobantu
(The Wharton School and The Lauder Institute), and
Lite Nartey (The Wharton School):
Spinning Gold: The Financial and Operational Returns
to External Stakeholder Engagement
Vibha Gaba (INSEAD) and John Joseph (Duke University)**:
Corporate Structure, Performance Feedback and
Innovation: Failure-Induced Change and Threat-Rigidity
Effects in Multi-divisional Firms
Discussant: Clive Ansell (Group Managing Director,
Technology, Tribal Group Plc)
16:45 - 17:00 Conclusion
Anita McGahan
(University of Toronto/AIM Visiting International Fellow)
17:00 - 19:30 Drinks and Snacks in the Garden Room
** Presenting
Download the programme here.
Download Call for Papers 2011 here.
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Programme - Sumantra Ghoshal Conference 2010
Sunday 16th May
11:00 - 12:00 Registration in Sainsbury Reception
12:00 - 13:00 Welcome Lunch in the Garden Room
Conference Sessions in LT1
13:00 - 13:15 Opening
Freek Vermeulen; Julian Birkinshaw
13:15 - 14:15 Keynote speaker: Kathleen Eisenhardt
Professor of Strategy & Organization, Stanford Warren
Ascherman Professorship in the School Engineering,
Stanford University
Q&A
14:15 - 14:30 Coffee Break in S1 Lounge
14:30 - 16:00 Academic paper track I: Strategy and Change
Track chair: Lourdes Sosa
Co-organisers: Julian Birkinshaw, Ioannis Ioannou
Presentations:
Erica Fuchs (Carnegie Mellon University)** and
Randolph Kirchain (MIT) Design for Location?
The Impact of Manufacturing Offshore on Technology
Competitiveness in the Optoelectronics Industry
Adam Bock (Imperial College), Tore Opsahl
(Imperial College) and Gerard George (Imperial College)**
Business Mode Innovation and Strategic Flexibility:
A Study of the Effects of Informal and Formal Organization
Pinar Ozcan (IESE Business School)** and
Filipe Santos (INSEAD)
The Market that never was: failed market coalitions in
mobile payment services
Discussant: Dan Levinthal (The Wharton School)
16:00 - 16:30 Coffee Break in S1 Lounge
16:30 - 18:00 Topical track I: Phenomenon:
Changing Organization and Organization Change
Track chair: Phanish Puranam
Panellists:
Julian Birkinshaw (London Business School)
Jonathan Day (Heidrick and Struggles)
Martine Haas (The Wharton School)
Charles Williams (Duke University)
18:00 - 19:00 Drinks and Debate in the Garden Room
Virtually all strategy research published over the
past three decades has been all but irrelevant
for the practice of management
Michael G. Jacobides (London Business School) - For
Melissa Schilling (NYU) - Against
19:00 - 22:00 Dinner in the Garden Room
Monday 17th May
Conference Sessions in LT1
09:00 - 10:30 Academic paper track II:
Strategy and Entrepreneurship
Track chair: Brandon Lee
Co-organisers: Kevin Boudreau, Gary Dushnitsky
Presentations:
Charles Eesley (Stanford University)**,
David Hsu (The Wharton School) and Edward Roberts (MIT)
Bringing Entrepreneurial Ideas to Life
Benjamin Hallen** (Robert Smith School of Business)
and Kathleen Eisenhardt (Stanford University)
Catalyzing Strategies and Efficient Network
Tie Formation: How Entrepreneurs Obtain Venture Capital
Ramana Nanda** (Harvard Business School)
and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf (Harvard Business School)
Financing Risk and Innovation Waves
Henry Sauermann (Georgia Institute of Technology)**
Wesley Cohen (Duke University) and
Paula Stephen (Georgia State University)
Complementing Merton: The Motives, Incentives and
Commercial Activities of Academic Scientists and Engineers
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee Break in S1 Lounge
11:00 - 12:30 Topical track II: Practical question:
When does innovation hurt?
Track chair: Michael G. Jacobides
Panellists:
Peter Cheese (Executive Fellow, London Business School)
Anne Marie Knott (Washington University in St. Louis)
Costas Markides (London Business School)
Thanos Papadimitriou (Bocconi University)
Luc Soete (University of Maastricht)
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch in the Garden Room
13:30 - 15:00 Managerial paper track
Track chair: Don Sull
Co-organiser: Costas Markides
Presentations:
Hind Benbya (GSCM - Montpellier Business School)
and Marshall Van Alstyne (Boston University & MIT)**
Knowledge Market Design From The Outside In
Freek Vermeulen (London Business School)**
Phanish Puranam (London Business School) and
Ranjay Gulati (Harvard Business School)
Change for change's sake
Discussants: Matt McEvoy (Head of Strategy, Burberry)
and Allen Webb (Editor-in-Chief, McKinsey Quarterly)
15:00 - 15:15 Coffee Break in S1 Lounge
15:15 - 16:45 Academic paper track III: Strategy and Organisation
Track chair: Isabel Fernandez-Mateo
Co-organisers: Louise Mors, Yiorgos Mylonadis
Presentations:
Anita Woolley (Carnegie Mellon University)**
Why is it easier to be the bad guys?
The effects of strategic orientation on
team process in competitive environments
Melissa Schilling (New York University) and
Christina Fang** (New York University)
When Hubs Forget, Lie, and Play Favorites:
Interpersonal Network Structure,
Information Distortion, and Organizational Learning
Discussant: Mike Ryall (University of Toronto)
16:45 - 17:00 Conclusion
17:00 - 19:30 Drinks and Snacks in the Garden Room
** Presenting
Download the programme here.
Download Call for Papers 2010 here.
_________________________________________
Programme - Sumantra Ghoshal Conference 2009
Sunday 17 May
11:00 - 12:00 Registration at Sainsbury Reception
12:00 - 13:00 Welcome Lunch in the Garden Room
Conference Sessions in LT10
13:15 - 13:30 Welcome & Introductions
(Phanish Puranam & Costas Markides)
13:30 - 14:15 Julian Birkinshaw, Paddy Barwise and Anu Sah: Which Academic Research do Managers Find Useful?
Discussant: Duane Ireland (Texas A&M)
14:15 - 15:45 Strategy and Innovation
Session Chairs: Kevin Boudreau & Lourdes Sosa
Aaron Chatterji and Kira Fabrizio (Duke) How Do Firms "Use" Users? Collaborative innovation in the medical device industry
Vibha Gaba and Shantanu Bhattacharya (INSEAD) Adoption and Retention of External R&D Activities and their Relationship to the Firm's Innovation Performance
Discussants: Will Mitchell (Duke) & Alpheus Bingham (InnoCentive)
15:45 - 16:15 Coffee Break in S1 Lounge
16:15 - 18:00 Panel: Vision, Categories and Representations in Strategy (Michael G Jacobides)
Discussants: Massimo Warglien (Venice), Joe Porac (NYU), Sarah Kaplan (Wharton) and Trish Clifford (McKinsey)
18:00 - 18:30 Drinks, Debate & Discussion in the Garden Room
Business schools must radically transform their curriculum as they are responsible for the culture behind today's economic problems.
Don Sull (LBS) - For
Anita McGahan (Toronto) - Against
18:30 - 23:00 Drinks reception and Dinner in the Garden Room
Monday 18 May
Conference Sessions in LT10
09:00 - 10:30 Strategy & Globalization
Session Chairs: Louise Mors & Julian Birkinshaw
Martine Haas (Wharton) and Jonathan Cummings (Duke) Does nationality matter in transnational teams?
J. Muir Macpherson (Georgetown) Spanning the Global Network: Value Capture in Cross-Border Acquisitions
Discussants: Gabriel Szulanski (INSEAD) and Keith Johnson (Rio Tinto)
10:30 - 10:45 Coffee Break in S1 Lounge
10:45 - 12:15 Strategy and Organization
Session Chairs: Isabel Fernandez-Mateo & Phanish Puranam
Anita McGahan (Toronto) Outsourcing War: Private Military Companies and Command-and-Control Capabilities after the Cold War
Dan Elfenbein and Todd Zenger (Washington) The economic value of social capital in de-socialized exchange
Discussants: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell (Harvard Business School) and Suzanne Heywood (McKinsey)
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch in the Garden Room
13:45 - 15:15 Strategy & Industry Evolution
Session Chairs: Michael G Jacobides & Brandon Lee
Jeroen Struben (McGill) Coevolving technologies: Critical dynamics in industry transformation
Michael Christensen, Thorbjørn Knudsen, Nils Stieglitz (SDU-Denmark) Resource learning and the dynamics of strategic factor markets
Discussants: Anita McGahan (Toronto), Jonathan Day (Heidrick & Struggles)
15:15 - 15:45 Coffee Break in S1 Lounge
15:45 - 17:15 Panel: Models of Boundary Spanning Research: The case of M&A (Freek Vermeulen and Costas Markides)
Discussants: Tomi Laamanen (Helsinki), Melissa Graebner (UT-Austin), Laurence Capron (INSEAD)
17:15 - 17:45 Conclusions
18:00 - 19:30 Drinks & Snacks in the Garden Room
You can download the 2009 programme here.
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Programme - Sumantra Ghoshal Conference 2008
Sunday 18 May
11:00 - 12:00 Registration at Sainsbury Reception
12:00 - 13:00 Welcome Lunch at Park Restaurant Suite 2
Conference Sessions in LT10
13:00 - 13:15 Welcome & Introductions
(Phanish Puranam & Costas Markides)
13:15 - 13:45 Results from survey of "What should be on the agenda of strategy research?" (Freek Vermeulen & Don Sull)
13:45 - 15:45 Strategy & Industry Evolution
Session Chairs: Michael G Jacobides & Brandon Lee
• Mark Kennedy (University of Southern California)
"How Cognitive Embedding Shapes Market Dynamics"
• Fabrizio Ferraro (IESE Business School)
"Building Architectural Advantage in the US Motion Picture Industry: Lew Wasserman and the Music Corporation of America"
• Antoaneta Petkova (San Francisco State University)
"The Smart and the Outspoken in the Spotlight: The Effects of New Venture Resources and Sensegiving Activities on Media Coverage and Venture Capital Funding"
Discussant panel: Sidney Winter (The Wharton School), Richard Hytner (Deputy Chairman, Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi), Ezra Zuckerman (MIT)
15:45 - 16:00 Coffee Break at S1 Lounge
16:00 - 18:00 Strategy & Organization
Session Chairs: Louise Mors & Lourdes Sosa
• Joanne Oxley (Rotman School of Management)
"Working together and working it out: Dispute Resolution in Repeated Vertical Exchange Relationships"
• Sarah Kaplan (The Wharton School)
"Using strategy tools in practice: an exploration of "technologies of rationality" in use"
• Heather Berry (The Wharton School)
"Intra-firm Coordination"
Discussant panel: Ranjay Gulati (Harvard Business School), Mark Spelman (Head of Global Strategy - Accenture), Gabriel Szulanski (INSEAD)
18:30 - 21:30 Drinks Reception and Dinner at Park Restaurant Suites 1 and 2
Monday 19 May
Conference Sessions in LT10
09:00 - 10:45 Strategy and Public Policy
Session Chairs: Margaret Kyle & Markus Reitzig
• Olivier Bertrand (St. Petersburg & Toulouse)
"Effects of foreign acquisitions on R&D activity: some evidence from firm-level data"
• Timothy Simcoe (Rotman School of Management)
"Competing on Standards? Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property and the Platform Paradox"
Discussant panel: Iain Cockburn (Boston University), Anita Sands (Head of Global Tech & Operations - RBC), Dennis Yao (Harvard Business School)
10:45 - 11:00 Coffee Break at S1 Lounge
11:00 - 13:00 "Doing relevant research is difficult, or is it?"
Session Chair: Yiorgos Mylonadis
• Anita McGahan (Rotman School of Management)
• Rita Gunther McGrath (Columbia Business School)
• Rajshree Agarwal (University of Illinois - UC)
• Costas Markides (London Business School)
13:00 - 14:30 Lunch at Garden Room
14:30 - 16:30 Strategy and Innovation
Session Chairs: Costas Markides, Julian Birkinshaw & Lourdes Sosa
• Kevin Boudreau (HEC Paris School of Management)
"Incentives versus diversity: Re-examining the link between competition and innovation"
• April Franco (Rotman School of Management)
"Swift and Smart: The Moderating Effects of Technological Capabilities on the Market Pioneering - Firm Survival Relationship"
• Ithai Stern (Kellogg School of Management)
"Reputation, Self-Efficacy, and Alliance Formation between Biotechnology Companies and Pharmaceutical Firms"
Discussant panel: Connie Helfat (Tuck School of Business), Paul Nakagaki (Head of R&D Reorganization - Hoffmann-La Roche), Jim Utterback (MIT)
16:30 - 16:45 Final words
16:45 - 18:30 Coffee and Tea available at S1 Lounge
18:40 1st pick-up: Bus departs from London Business School, outside Laing House on the Outer Circle (next stop: Melia White House Hotel)
19:00 2nd pick-up: from Melia White House Hotel. Bus departs for downtown London restaurant
19:30 - 22:30 Drinks Reception and Dinner at Central London restaurant Beach Blanket Babylon, Notting Hill
You can download the 2008 programme here.
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Programme - Sumantra Ghoshal Conference 2007
Sunday, May 6th
11.30-12.30 Registration at Sainsbury Reception (London Business School Main Reception)
11.30-12.30 Coffee at S1 Lounge
12.30-13.30: Welcome Lunch at the Dining Hall
Conference Sessions in LT1
13.30-13.45: Introductory Comments: Costas Markides and Yiorgos Mylonadis
13.45-14.15: Chris Bartlett: Managerial Relevance and Academic Research
14.15-15.45: Session by Freek Vermeulen on the Production of Managerially Relevant Research
"Speaking to managers about rigorous research"
This session showcases three academics in the field of (strategic) management who are currently active in publishing in top academic journals but who, concurrently, also have a proven ability to speak to managers (e.g. through practitioner publications, exceptional executive education, etc.) on broadly the same topic. The speakers will present an academic paper as well as a managerial paper (or other form of communication) specifically aimed at a practitioner audience.
Presenters:
Margarethe Wiersema (Rice University)
Gabriel Szulanski (Insead)
Prashant Kale (University of Michigan)
15.45-16.00: Coffee Break at S1 Lounge
16.00-17.30: Session by Costas Markides on the Production of Managerially Relevant Research
Research presentations to highlight a production model which is different from the one that Freek's session is showcasing. This should allow us to have an interesting panel discussion at the end of the day.
Presenters:
Yves Doz (Insead)
Lynda Gratton (LBS)
Nirmalya Kumar (LBS)
Costas Markides (LBS)
17.30-17.45: Coffee Break at S1 Lounge
17.45-18.45: Panel Discussion by Yiorgos Mylonadis on Varieties of Normative Scholarship
This session will debate what constitutes managerially-relevant research, how academics could produce such research, the advantages and disadvantages of the different "production models" highlighted in the first two sessions of the conference, and the implications for academics that are in the early stages of their career.
Presenters:
Chris Bartlett (Harvard Business School)
Sara Rynes (University of Iowa)
Harbir Singh (The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania)
19.00-19.45: Drinks at the Dining Hall
19.45-22.00: Dinner at the Dining Hall
Monday, May 7th
Conference Sessions in LT10
09.00-10.30: Session by Phanish Puranam on the Production of Managerially Relevant Research
"Organization as Strategy"
Effective organization can itself be a successful strategy, and provides a set of powerful levers for managers to influence performance. Recent years have seen a renaissance of interest in organization design, after a significant hiatus following the advances made in the 1960's and 1970's. Sumantra Ghoshal's work on the internal organization of the MNC did much to sustain and renew interest in organization design during the intervening period.
The current agenda of research in this area features an exciting set of issues that hold the promise of simultaneously advancing theory while informing practice. These include the organization (as opposed to the governance) of inter-firm relationships, the interactions between formal and informal organization, designing for dualities (such as efficiency and adaptiveness), the firm as a coordination system, and the use of formal models to derive insights about organization and performance.
The panelists will present recent research that touches on some of these themes, how these insights can influence practice, and will also discuss opportunities for deepening research in this area going forward.
Speakers:
Sendil Ethiraj (Michigan)
Robert Grant (Georgetown)
Ranjay Gulati (Kellogg)
Michael Tushman (HBS)
10.30-11.00: Coffee Break at S1 Lounge
11.00-12.30: Session by Michael Jacobides on the Production of Managerially Relevant Research
"Managerially Relevant Research in the Intersection of Firm and Industry Structure"
One of the areas of recent interest has been how profits shift from one part of the industry to the next, and also how firms shape the strategic dynamics in their sector. This session will feature research that has aspired to shed some light both to the theoretical / analytical issues around these evolutionary dynamics, and also has tried to provide new insights for practitioners and policy makers.
Presenters:
M.G. Jacobides (Setting the stage: industry architectures and the shifting locus of competitive advantage)
Anita McGahan (Strategy over the industry life cycles)
Ramon Casadesus-Masanell (Co-opetion and industry dominance)
Kathy Eisenhardt (Managing firm boundaries and competitive edge)
Sidney G Winter (Promise of managerially relevant research on industry dynamics-and academics' viewpoint)
12.30-13.30: Lunch at the Garden Room
13.30-15.00: Panel Discussion by Julian Birkinshaw on the Diffusion of Managerially Relevant Research
This session will examine the different ways that academic research gets diffused to managers, and in particular the role of different media such as books, newspapers, journals, and consultancies in facilitating the process. Panellists are: Julian Birkinshaw; Duane Ireland, incoming editor of Academy of Management Journal; and Richard Stagg, Commissioning Editor for Financial Times Prentice Hall books.
15.00-15.30: Coffee Break at S1 Lounge
15.30-17.00: Panel Discussion by Don Sull on the Diffusion of Managerially Relevant Research
This session, moderated by Don Sull, will focus on managerial journals as a means to disseminate ideas to practicing executives. The panel will include Sarah Cliffe, Senior Editor of Harvard Business Review, Gita Piramal, Founding Editor of Smart Manager, India's pre-eminent managerial journal, and Stuart Crainer, Editor in Chief of the Business Strategy Review.
17.00-17.15: Coffee Break at S1 Lounge
17.15-18.30: Panel discussion by Julian and Don on the Consumption of Managerially Relevant Research by Managers
In this final session we will hear the point of view of senior business executives - what sort of academic research they are attracted to, how they access it, where they get their new ideas from, and the roles that academics play in helping them address their business challenges. Confirmed speakers are Nick Allen, chief executive of Unilever Ventures, and Leo Roodhart, Corporate Director of Shell Gamechanger.
19.00: Bus departs for downtown London for dinner
19.30-23.00: Dinner in downtown restaurant, The Crypt
You can download the 2007 programme here.
