The Space Economy (SE) is emerging as a distinctive context for advancing research in technology and innovation management. Once shaped primarily by state-led programs, it is now increasingly defined by venture-backed firms, public–private collaborations, and interdependent innovation ecosystems spanning technological, institutional, and geographical boundaries.
What makes the SE especially relevant for TIM is that it is characterized by extreme uncertainty, capital intensity, long development horizons, dual-use constraints, and deep interdependence between public and private actors. These conditions create a powerful setting for examining how organizations move technologies from early-stage innovation to commercialization, how they orchestrate innovation across organizational boundaries, and how they adapt business models under frontier conditions.
This PDW will explore how organizations in the SE navigate technological uncertainty, alliance formation, ecosystem governance, and sustainability challenges, while also shedding light on broader questions of resource mobilization, innovation orchestration, and institutional evolution. For TIM scholars, the SE offers an opportunity not only to study an emerging sector, but also to refine and extend theory by examining mechanisms that are often less visible in terrestrial settings.
PDW at AOM 2026: Space Economy: Consolidating a Research Agenda
August 1, 2026 | 2:00–5:30 PM
Loews Hotel, Philadelphia, USA
Register (open until sold out): https://lnkd.in/e3czZT4R
Questions: Mehdi.montakhabi@said.oxford.edu
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Mehdi Montakhabi
Associate Scholar
University of Oxford | Saïd Business School
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