To generate collaboration, ideas, insights, and debate, this special conference will include a provocative mix of industry and academic leaders in its keynotes and other conference activities. Attendees are invited to select from the tracks below to immerse themselves in the latest relevant research and industry practice. Attendees will hear about cutting-edge research topics in strategic management and engage in hands-on, team-based activities around design, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Networking opportunities will be sprinkled throughout the conference to ensure cross-pollination of insights, ideas, and ongoing endeavors.
Track A Thinking Strategy, Design, and Technology: Designing Sustainable Advantages
Track Co-Chairs
Kees Dorst, University of Technology Sydney
Eric Knight, University of Sydney
Jochen Schweitzer, University of Technology Sydney
Good design of products, services and customer experiences can raise actual and perceived benefits to customers and increase their willingness to pay, thereby contributing to the competitive advantage of firms. Superior skills associated with the process of design contribute to competitive advantage beyond the creation of new products, services and customer experiences, however. While most of the empirical claims about the value of design have been made based upon product or service successes, fundamental theories and concepts underpinning the field of design have begun to contribute to the major questions associated with competitive strategy such as the basis of firm-level competitive advantage, firm-level capabilities, and resource allocation. To advance the contribution of design theory to central questions in strategy, this trackwill focus on the following issues: formulating and implementing design strategy; implementation of “designerly” and designthinking in organizations; organizational transformation associated with “designerly” and design thinking; measuring thevalue of design to business; and debates on the conceptualization, application and relevance of design to strategy.
Track B Open, Crowd, and Participatory Strategy: Strategy, Technology and Power
Track Co-Chairs
Krsto Pandza, University of Leeds
Julia Hautz, University of Innsbruck
Strategy processes are becoming more open by increasing transparency and inclusion. This openness is even more relevant when managers engage with grand societal challenges and complex, emergent technologies characterized by radical uncertainty. Inclusive strategizing makes more strategic information available and enables more internal and external stakeholders to engage in strategic conversations. Under which conditions is it beneficial for companies to open their strategy process, and when should they opt for more secrecy? What are the intended and unintended consequences of openness along the strategy process? What are potential “side effects?” What is the right balance of “openness” and “closure” in the strategy process? What are the barriers for more openness, and how can they be overcome? Additionally,it is intriguing to investigate how new technologies alter the very process of strategy and, consequently, impact social and organizational structures, power distribution and roles of an organization. This track welcomes all research proposals related to these themes across a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives.
Track C Technology Innovation, Platforms, and Ecosystems in an Autonomous and Connected World