| Dear Colleagues We are delighted to invite you to:
Scale, Scope and Firm Boundaries in Technology-Based Industries: Novel Reflections and Directions for Future Research Organizer: Dr. Elena Novelli, Cass Business School, ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellow Event funded by the ESRC Future Research Leaders Grant
25th- 26th February 2016 Cass Business School, City University London
#scaleandscope In the last few decades technological change has led to a substantial reduction in the costs of transacting and to a massive increase in connectivity and reach, stimulating a parallel reconfiguration in the architecture of many industries. Firms have been exhibiting very divergent diversification and integration patterns. Some firms have been expanding their scope considerably (e.g. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple) sometimes in vertical and sometimes in complementary or horizontal directions; others have been expanding in some directions (e.g. horizontal), but contracting in others (e.g. vertical). Some firms have even emerged as "virtual corporations". These patterns raise many questions that revitalize the lively debate on the knowledge and market boundaries of technology-based firms and the trade-offs that different scale and scope configurations impose to them: Is internal innovation still a feasible strategy in today's complex technological and product environment? To what extent can knowledge be effectively acquired through external sources and what are the costs of using this strategy for firms' economic and innovative performance? To what extent has technological change really reduced within-firm coordination costs and hence expanded the optimal scope of the firm? Under what conditions, instead, does technology reduce transaction costs across markets even more than within firms, so that the optimal scope of the firm is now reduced? Which organizational forms and related business models are likely to be the most successful in the current environment and which industry configurations are likely to emerge in equilibrium? This workshop will bring together leading scholars that have contributed to research on knowledge and market boundaries of firms for the purpose of stimulating an interactive discussion on the topic and reflecting on new avenues for future research.
Agenda
Feb 25th. 6pm - 830 pm. Pre-workshop panel event. How Important Are a Company Size and Its Business Scope to Succeed in Today's Business and Technological Environment? Introduced by Professor Marianne Lewis (Cass Business School, Dean and Professor of Management), with Dr. Elena Novelli (chair), Professor Gautam Ahuja (Ross School of Business, University of Michigan), Olivier Garel (Head of Ventures, Unilever Ventures), Keith Hodgkinson, (Deputy Director Innovation Technology, Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, UK Government), Professor Gianvito Lanzolla (Cass Business School), Andy Muldoon (CEO, PowaWeb, Powa Technologies), Ashish Saxena (Global Head of Marketing and Sales, LiquiForm Group, Amcor). Followed by wine reception.
Feb 26th. 9am - 5pm. Research workshop. Scale, Scope and Firm Boundaries in Technology-Based Industries: Novel Reflections and Directions for Future Research. 0915 Welcome and introduction Gianvito Lanzolla, Cass Business School, Head of the Faculty of Management, Project Mentor Gautam Ahuja, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Project Mentor Elena Novelli, Cass Business School, ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellow 0945 Session 1: The knowledge boundaries of firms Chair: Stefan Haefliger, Cass Business School Keld Laursen, Copenhagen Business School Gary Dushnitsky, London Business School Dovev Lavie, Technion Paola Criscuolo, Imperial College Business School Carliss Baldwin, Harvard Business School 1100 Coffee break 1130 Session 2: Firm Scope, competition and performance Chair: Gianvito Lanzolla, Cass Business School Lourdes Sosa, London School of Economics Bart Clarysse, Imperial College Business School Stefano Brusoni, ETH Zurich Jerker Denrell, Warwick Business School 1245 Lunch 1400 Session 3: Organizational structure and firm boundaries Chair: Costas Andriopoulos, Cass Business School Nicholas Argyres, Olin Business School Aseem Kaul, Carlson School of Management Evan Rawley, Columbia Business School Erkko Autio, Imperial College Business School Martin Kilduff, University College London School of Management 1515 Coffee break 1545 Panel debate: Scale, Scope and Firm Boundaries : Reflections and Novel Research directions Chair: Elena Novelli, Cass Business School Gautam Ahuja, Ross School of Business Nicholas Argyres, Olin Business School Carliss Baldwin, Harvard Business School Marianne Lewis, Cass Business School, Dean Wrap-up and Conclusions 1700 Wine reception |