040274 KU Embracing Technological Change (MA) (2024W)

Course Aims
Understanding and mastering technological change is a prerequisite for firms, be it start-ups or established organizations, to differentiate vis-a-vis competitors, penetrate new markets, and achieve higher margins. Technological change, however, often takes the form of a competitive race and, to succeed, firms must run this race with a clear strategy, speed, and precision.
The main goal of this course is to equip you with tools and frameworks that will enable you to understand patterns of technological change to ultimately develop strategies that maximize the chances to benefit from it by turning it into valuable innovations. In this regard, this course provides some key concepts that can be directly applied by analysts and managers to solve real-world challenges that can arise from continuous technological change inside and outside firms. The course will also discuss when technology-driven market dominance of firms requires regulatory intervention to protect the interest of various stakeholders. All these concepts will be discussed using examples from firms that are active in various industries.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, you will be able to:
• Understand the nature of technological change and how new technologies affect the competitive position of firms.
• Master a set of frameworks that allow you to distinguish different patterns of technological change and respond strategically.
• Develop an IP (intellectual property) strategy to maximize the private value of new technologies.
• Recognize challenges in organizing R&D and new product development processes.
• Recognize links between technology and corporate strategy.
• Identify situations in which technology-driven market dominance of firms requires regulatory intervention.
Teaching methods
The course will use several complementary teaching methods:
• Case studies: We will use them to discuss issues in all the areas covered. For each case study, I will indicate a series of questions to be addressed. Participants are expected to come fully prepared, having studied the case thoroughly and knowing its content and issues.
• Group work: I will assign dedicated assignments to groups of students in some of the sessions. Most group work will be based on the cases covered in the lectures and requires you to jointly address a question related to the concepts covered in the case study.
• Lectures: Lectures will either aim to present concepts and frameworks and their applications, or help consolidate the learning following a class discussion, e.g. based on a case study.
• Readings: As a complement to teaching, I will generally provide the class with a series of articles and book abstracts (from different sources) that present the most important concepts and methods. If you wish to have more references, do not hesitate to ask.
This course is built to promote interaction between the students and the faculty, but also between students. For this reason, we will also rely on the use of case studies that I have selected to best illustrate the concepts and frameworks presented in the session concerned. Interaction, however, won’t be limited to case discussions.