IE University Research Initiative on Policy & Management in the Digital Economy.
Online Symposium:
Balancing ecosystem governance between public and private benefits in the digitization era
November 8, 2021 – 17.00-20.00 (CEST)
IE University – Madrid
This symposium seeks to convene the top scholars in the area of Ecosystem Governance in Europe and industry experts to provide insights and help direct the conversation. We will have the privilege to count with Carmelo Cennamo (CBS Copenhagen), Jacques Crémer (Toulouse School of Economics), Juanjo Ganuza (UPF), Tobias Kretschmer (LMU), Christina Kyprianou (IE), Mareike Möhlmann (Bentley University), Joost Rietveld (UCL), Carsten Sorensen (LSE) and Nils Wernerfelt (Facebook) as keynote speakers while Juan Santaló (IE) will be the moderator.
The objective of the symposium is to contribute to the conversation regarding the optimal design of ecosystem governance by bringing top scholars and industry experts together to identify research gaps in the area, and more specifically the data we need to compile to fill our knowledge gaps. This convention is going to produce a high level of discussion regarding the implications for the research area, as well as both its managerial and regulatory implications.
The symposium also provides the participants with an opportunity to network. The networking activities present a chance to exchange ideas with scholars, policymakers, and industry experts who are interested in topics related to ecosystem governance, the digital economy, the new digital environment, as well as others related to the area.
The IE University Research Initiative on Policy and Management in the Digital Economy is gratefully funded by a two year unrestricted gift from Meta.
To register for this workshop, please click here.
INVITED SCHOLARS
Jacques Crémer
Jacques Crémer received his PhD from MIT in 1977 and has held appointments at the University of Pennsylvania and Virginia Tech University. Since 1991 he has been Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics, where he has held many administrative appointments, most recently being the first director of its Digital Centre. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and of the European Economic Association. He has done fundamental work on planning theory, auctions, incentive theory, organization economics, and more recently the digital economy. From April 2018 to March 2019, he was a Special Adviser to European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager, and in that capacity co-authored the report “Competition Policy for the Digital Era”. He is an active participant in the debates on the regulation of “Big Tech”.
Carsten Sorensen
Dr Carsten Sorensen holds a BSc in Mathematics, an MSc in computer science and a PhD. in Information Systems from Aalborg University, Denmark. Carsten has since 1989 been affiliated with a number of Danish, Swedish and British institutions, and LSE since 1999. Dr Sorensen has multi-decade experience in both the study of the digital transformation of enterprises, and the further extension to understand how digital platforms and -infrastructures forms the foundation of contemporary business operating and innovation arrangements. In particular, he has the past years related the general theoretical insights into digital infrastructure innovation to the context of infrastructures based on distributed ledger technologies providing collectively agreed means of digital value exchange. Dr Sorensen convened the first LSE course dedicated to distributed ledger technology — an online certificate course in cryptocurrency disruption. Dr Sorensen has published widely within Information Systems since 1989. He has extensive experience as a Principal Investigator on a number of national, EU, and industry research grants in the UK and Sweden. Dr Sorensen has since 1991 consulted and conducted executive teaching with a range of large international firms and public organizations, such as Microsoft, Google, PA Consulting Group, IMF, Orange, Intel, Vodafone to name a few.
Carmelo Cennamo
Carmelo Cennamo is Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Copenhagen Business School, Affiliate Professor at SDA Bocconi School of Management, and has been a faculty member at Bocconi University, visiting research fellow at Harvard University and visiting professor at IE Business School. A frequent keynote speaker in academic and corporate events, as well as in broad-appeal events such as World Economic Forum, TEDx, Competition Policy International, Concurrences, he is a leading expert on competition in digital platform markets, and on business ecosystems. His research aims at understanding how the peculiarities of multi-sided platforms affect competitive dynamics in digital markets, traditional sectors, and the strategies for managing platform ecosystems. His ongoing projects concern the role of market design and ecosystem orchestration by platform firms and the implications for digital transformation of sectors and competition policy. On policy competition, he launched the Digital Market Competition Forum, an initiative to bridge academic research and practice on the ways digital platforms create value in the digital economy and promote a progressive agenda on the pressing challenges for competition regulation in digital markets.
Joost Rietveld
Joost Rietveld is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at the UCL School of Management, University College London. His research interests are at the intersection of technology strategy and innovation management. His work seeks to understand how inter-organizational dynamics, including platform-complementor relationships, alliances, and mergers and acquisitions, affect product-level outcomes. He is also interested in how digitization facilitates new and innovative ways of doing business including the freemium and platform-based business models. He has done extensive research in the video game industry after having worked as a strategic manager and consultant for several years prior to entering academia. Joost’s PhD dissertation was awarded Finalist in best dissertation competitions organized by INFORMS (TIMES section) and the Academy of Management (TIM division). His research has been published in highly ranked academic journals including Organization Science, Strategy Science, Research Policy, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and the Journal of Management. Joost lives in East Dulwich, London, together with his partner and two Instagram celebrity cats.
Mareike Möhlmann
Mareike Möhlmann is an assistant professor at Bentley University. Previously, she worked as an assistant professor at Warwick Business School, a teaching fellow/visiting assistant professor at the London School of Economics, and a postdoc at New York University. She holds a doctoral degree in Business/Management from the University of Hamburg. Her research focuses on AI and management, digital platforms, trust/reputation, the sharing economy, and the future of work. It has been published in top journal outlets such as the MIS Quarterly, Research Policy, and the Harvard Business Review. Google Scholar reports that her work is cited 500 times per year. Her research and comments have frequently been featured in industry outlets and mainstream media such as The Times, the Financial Times, the BBC, The Telegraph, the World Economic Forum, The Independent, The Conversation, and many more.
Juan José Ganuza
Juan José Ganuza is Professor of Economics and Business at UPF. Previously, he was visiting researcher at the University California Los Angeles, and Institut D’Economie Industrielle (Toulouse). He has published in the main international economics journals in his research field (RAND Journal of Economics, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Industrial Economics, Journal of Economics Management and Strategy, etc) as well as in general interest economics journals (such as Econometrica), law journals (such as the Journal of Legal Studies), and business publications (such as Management Science). Prof. Ganuza has been a consultant on procurement issues for the Spanish government.
Tobias Kretschmer
Tobias Kretschmer is Professor of Management and Director of the Institute for Strategy, Technology and Organization (ISTO) at LMU Munich, and Co-Director of the Organizations Research Group (ORG). From 2010 to 2014 he was Head of the “Center for Industrial Economics and New Technologies” at the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, and held positions at INSEAD and London School of Economics. He holds a PhD in Economics from London Business School and an MSc in Strategy from the University of St. Gallen. His research covers economic and strategic aspects of new technologies, in particular digital platforms, and the link between organization design and firm strategy. His work has been published, among others, in Management Science, American Economic Review, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, and Information Systems Research. He holds editorial positions at International Journal of Industrial Organization and Industry and Innovation, and is the current Chairperson of the Knowledge and Innovation Interest Group at the Strategic Management Society.IE UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS
Christina Kyprianou
Christina Kyprianou is Assistant Professor in the Entrepreneurship Department at IE. Her research examines platform launch and growth strategies as well as platform governance in the sharing economy. She is especially interested in how platform owners shape the behaviors of users, customers and other external stakeholders both formally and informally, and the impact of these activities on building and managing collaborative systems of value creation. She typically studies these topics using mixed methods, which combine traditional approaches to inductive theory building with software-enabled content analysis and text mining techniques. She has published and presented her work in various premier management journals and conferences. Christina also teaches classes on Entrepreneurship and Corporate Entrepreneurship in IE’s graduate programs. She earned her PhD in Strategic Management from the University of Texas at Austin and her MBA from Babson College.META ECONOMISTS
Eliana Garcés
Eliana Garcés is a Director in the Economic Policy group at Meta. She has a long experience in antitrust and regulatory issues in both the public and private sectors. She started her public career as a member of the Competition Chief Economist Team at the European Commission and later served in the Cabinet of European Commission Vice President for Competition Joaquin Almunia. Dr. Garcés also served as Deputy Chief Economist in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Internal Market and Industry where she worked on European industrial competitiveness. From 2016 to 2017, she was a Visiting Senior Fellow at George Mason University, where she taught and researched regulatory aspects of digital innovation both in the United States and Europe. She was a Principal at The Brattle Group until she joined Meta in 2019. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University of California, Los Angeles, a Master’s degree in European Economic Integration from the College of Europe (Bruges), and a Licenciatura in Economics from Universidad Autónoma (Madrid).
Nils Wernerfelt
Nils Wernerfelt is a Research Scientist on the Economics and Policy Research team at Meta. His team focuses on collaborating with external researchers on policy-relevant topics of interest to both academia and industry. Prior to coming to Meta, he received his PhD in Economics from MIT and his BA in Mathematics from Harvard.MODERATOR
Juan Santaló
Juan Santaló has a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago and a Master’s in Economics from the Pompeu Fabra University. He is currently Full Professor of Strategic Management at IE University.
He has been a visiting professor at Bocconi University and the Booth Business School of the University of Chicago, director of the Strategy Department at IE University and director of the Observatory on Competition Policy.
In the field of research, Prof. Santaló focuses on the Corporate strategy and on Competitive Dynamics in Platform Markets. His latest academic publications have been published in the most prestigious international journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Management Science or Organization Science.
Conclusions from a Bird’s Eye View
Trends and Issues in Innovation and Digital Transformation
The IE Initiative on Research & Policy of the Digital Economy recently held an online workshop that brought together industry experts and scholars from 40 different public and private universities, all spanning nearly 20 different countries, to discuss innovation in the new digital environment. The following is a review of the points discussed.
Innovation is a complex system, characterized first and foremost by the interplay of various constituents, such as companies and their customers, public agencies and governments, and academic institutions. Most of the time, the different interests and objectives of these various players come together and interact without the presence of an orchestrator. This works well for the most part but it is not without its drawbacks, because it means that there is the possibility that potential synergies and ideas remain unexplored. In this context, digitization could help find a common platform at national and broader regional level that helps coordinate efforts.
Second, innovative trajectories are often fragmented because propriety rights are owned by different constituents. Navigating this fragmentation is difficult because it not only challenges the inventor’s ability to build off of what has already been created and established by peers but it increases the probability of litigation (and not only that, but litigation under the legislation of different countries.) Digitization and machine learning techniques could provide a great advance in this respect, by increasing the ability to better map prior creations and to better position a particular innovation’s claim to novelty. It is still important to be aware and vigilant of those algorithms and procedures that are created by patent trolls just to “play with the system” and take advantage of the digitized process by obtaining patents for the sole purpose of creating artificial barriers to entry for their competitors.
Third, the interplay between collaboration and competition is a common thread between all innovative processes. Companies must balance their R&D between the need to absorb innovative knowledge from outside sources without exposing themselves to potential imitation leaks. Digitization has dramatically increased this tension because, while open innovation approaches are more and more needed to reach innovation targets, it has also increased the company investments in all kinds of firewall procedures to protect sensitive projects. This in turn challenges how well policy makers can interpret what knowledge can circulate freely within the system and what is better left concealed.
Fourth, the R&D issue is particularly relevant in regards to the role that small and entrepreneurial companies play in bringing new ideas to the market, but which suffer from structural problem of lack of co-specialized assets. One of the most important issues in this case is how innovative companies can showcase their potential in order to obtain the funding necessary to survive in the first years, and to prepare for growth. The intangible capital of these companies, especially in the form of patents and trademarks, is thus key in creating credible collateral as a base for financing from venture capitalists and governments alike. Digitization and big data could help by providing a clearer vision of what a new company might bring to the market. Yet, on the other hand, it could also increase the pressure of competition on these young companies and kill good ideas still in their initial stage. Again, a more conscious and active role of the government and the orchestrator platforms would help solve some of this deadlocks.
Lastly, digitization has revolutionized the position of customers and user-driven innovation. On one hand, companies have the possibility of more data from users and customers, with more precision and frequency, thereby increasing the chances of spotting more new investment opportunities. However, users and customers are becoming more passive in their role as innovation sources and take part in the innovative system without any self-awareness. This is an issue because the active role of users has proven key in sparking and promoting successful innovations. Under digitization, crowdsource platforms, for example, could bring users together for more active participation, reliant of course on the implementation of regulations, which are still mostly missing from this scenario. Currently, the role of governments and public policy is primarily focused on the protection of private data. Time will tell, of course, whether the effects of this role will result in a more overarching approach that aims to incentivize and regulate innovation co-creation between customers, university, and companies in those sectors particularly critical for citizen welfare.
