Satish

     Nambisan

Associate Professor

Lally School of Management

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“IT & Product Development: A Research Agenda”

Call for Chapters

    

Research

I specialize in research at the intersection of innovation management, strategy, and technology management. My current work focuses on three areas:

 

(a) Network-Centric Innovation

Most companies have realized by now that they can innovate faster, better, and cheaper by taking advantage of external networks of individuals, communities, and partners. However, to tap into the power of such network-centric innovation, managers need to understand what types of innovation networks are out there, and what approach to network-centric innovation is best for their company. My research work focuses on bringing clarity to the landscape of network-centric innovation - the emerging models of network-centric innovation and the alternate innovation roles that company can play in such networks. I also focus on how managers can create the capabilities to prepare their organization to implement a network-centric innovation strategy.

My new book on this topic - The Global Brain – was published in October 2007 by the Wharton School Publishing. I have also published related articles in journals such as Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Management Science.

Ongoing projects:

·        The Global Brain

·        The ‘Innovation Capitalist’ & External Innovation Sourcing

·        Transforming Government through Collaborative Innovation

·        Niche firms and Network-centric innovation

 

(b) Virtual Customer Environments (VCEs) and Customer Co-innovation

More and more companies have started partnering with their customers in innovation and value creation by deploying Virtual Customer Environments (VCEs). VCEs are technology-based forums that incorporate discussion forums, wikis/blogs, virtual reality tools, and other such technologies to support customer contributions in product ideation, product design, product testing, and product support activities. My research work has focused on understanding how companies can implement and manage VCE-based initiatives that promote such customer co-innovation. I am particularly interested in studying (a) the strategies and practices to enhance customer participation; (b) the organizational changes needed to capture/appropriate value created by customers; (c) the expected (and the unexpected!!) impact of VCE initiatives on a company’s innovation output as well as on customer relationship management.

I published the first conceptual paper on this topic (in the Academy of Management Review in 2002). I have also published papers on this topic in the MIT Sloan Management Review, the Journal of Interactive Marketing and the Journal of Product Innovation Management. I have made invited presentations on my work in this area at a number of venues among others at Microsoft Research (Redmond, WA), PDMA, University of Maryland, Babson College - Kaufmann Foundation, Georgia Tech, and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland). My work in this area has been supported by research grant from the Center for Innovation Management Studies (Raleigh).

 

(c) Information Technology and Product Development (PD)

I am interested in the application of information technology (IT) based tools to support and enhance the success of new product development activities. The last one decade has seen a rapid infusion of such IT tools – particularly Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools – and, it has become imperative for product development managers to understand how they can benefit from using such tools.

I am working with Gartner Research and my colleagues elsewhere in studying different issues in this area including the impact of IT on PD success. Recently, I wrote a refereed opinion article in MIS Quarterly introducing this broad topic to the IT academic community. I also have related publications in IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and other such journals.

I am currently writing/editing a new book called “Information Technology and Product Development: A Research Agenda” that will be published by Springer in 2008. The Call for Chapters for this book is available here.

 

Technology Management Education: Apart from the above areas, I also have some research interest in the area of technology management (TM) education. My work in this area has been published in several journals including Technovation, International Journal of Technology Management, and Research-Technology Management.    

   

© 2007 Satish Nambisan | nambis@rpi.edu