DRUID PDW: Grand Innovation Challenges

For decades, scholars have conceived innovation as an engine of economic progress and an essential driver of competitiveness for organizations, industries, and regions. But in a world disrupted by the digital revolution, pressing health threats, new sources of conflict and social distress, and a growing risk of environmental disasters, innovation research needs a paradigmatical shift to acknowledge the dual role that innovation can play in addressing urgent and complex problems on the one hand, and magnifying environmental and societal challenges on the other hand.

Many journals and scholarly communities have called for more research in this realm. Industry and Innovation has recently engaged with this debate by promoting three new focus themes revolving around the grand innovation challenges of our time.

This PDW aims to contribute to this debate, bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives on the role that innovation may play in a world increasingly exposed to urgent imperatives dealing with the environmental, social, and digital challenges.

DETAILED PROGRAM

09:00 – 09:05 Welcome and Introduction

Vera Rocha (Copenhagen Business School)

PART 1: Paper presentations

Moderator: Alessandra Perri (Luiss University)

9:05 – 9:30 Business model innovation to deliver on net-zero. Jonatan Pinkse (University of Manchester)

Discussant: Pelin Demirel (Imperial College London)

9:30 – 9:55 The Perks of Being Unknown: Implied Costs of Knowledge Seeking on Organizational Platforms. Tobias Kretschmer (LMU Munich) – co-authored with Maren Mickeler, Pooyan Khashabi and Marco Kleine

Discussant: Sofia Ranchordas (University of Groningen and LUISS University)

10:10 – 10:35 Zooming into the heart of patents: Methodological steps to examine their potential harms. Elisa Giuliani (University of Pisa) – co-authored with Gianluca Biggi and Arianna Martinelli

Discussant: Gaétan de Rassenfosse (EPFL)

10:35 – 10:45 Coffee break

PART 2: Collective discussion

Moderator: Alba Marino (University of Messina)

10:45 – 11:20 Tackling grand innovation challenges through creative collaboration: a hybrid brainstorming session

11:20 – 11:30 Coffee Break

Moderator: Emilio Castilla (MIT Sloan)

11:30 – 12:00 Grand Innovation Challenges: What have we learned and what’s next for scholars in different disciplines?