Wharton Impact Conference

Innovation
Networks
New Insights, Open Questions and Management Fashions

This event was hosted at Wharton on Friday, June 5, 2009
The conference report summarizing insights from this event will be available to our industry partners in mid-August 2009.

Organized by Professor Harbir Singh (shown at left)
Co-Director of the Mack Center for Technological Innovation and Vice Dean for Global Initiatives and Mack Professor of Management at the Wharton School

Pictured above are (top, left to right): Harbir Singh, Dwayne Spradlin, Ranjay Gulati, Karen Sussman Horgan, Mervyn Turner, Larry Huston, Patia McGrath and Michael Langman.

Innovation networks are being lauded for giving firms the ability to reach outside their walls to find new sources of innovation, and access the development capability of others.  Best practice studies and rigorous academic research are yielding new insights into how these networks should be managed, and when they are most effective.

Many open questions remain: How can firms build the right capabilities to manage complex and expanding webs of partners?  How is trust sustained? What metrics reveal the health of the network?  What is the potential for developments in knowledge sharing systems and social networks to improve the coordination of innovation networks?  What happens when the open innovation market becomes crowded with competitors sourcing the same pool of ideas and technology? How can the risks of failure and disappointment be contained?

These open questions, plus the mounting enthusiasm for the concept, raise the specter of open innovation behaving like other management fashions.  Think of reengineering, knowledge management, CRM and other panaceas.  Typically, the first mover successfully applies the concept because they have the will and vision to make it work.  The imitators and followers are disappointed because they lack the right conditions or use it inappropriately.

CONFERENCE THEMES

In this Wharton Impact Conference, the Mack Center for Technological Innovation brought together a distinguished group of more than 100 academics and practitioners to assess current practices, and share the most recent research.  Our objective was to assess where we are now in the evolution of innovation networks, isolate gaps in our knowledge, and identify next practices in the management of innovation networks. The themes and insights from this conference are summarized in a printed conference report that will be available to our industry partners in August.  To learn more about becoming a partner in the Mack Center so you can attend our insight-building events and receive our industry partner reports, contact us at 215-573-7722.

PROGRAM CREATING INNOVATION NETWORKS "Setting the Stage" Harbir Singh, Co-Director, Mack Center for Technological Innovation, Vice Dean for Global Initiatives; Mack Professor of Management, The Wharton School "Crowd Sourcing Innovation:  A Fundamentally Better Approach?" Dwayne Spradlin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Innocentive ECOSYSTEMS AND THEIR IMPACT ON  INNOVATION "Driving Innovation Through Strategic Licensing Relationships" Mervyn Turner, Chief Strategy Officer and Senior VP of Worldwide Licensing and External Research, Merck" Pictured above: Prof. Saikat Chaudhuri Ecosystems and Strategy"  (Session Leader: Prof. Saikat Chaudhuri, Asst. Prof. of Management, The Wharton School) Karen Sussman Horgan, Director, Keystone Strategy "Role of Networks and Innovation in the Aerospace Industry" Michael Langman, Aerospace & Defense Lead Banker, PCE Investment Bankers PUTTING INNOVATION NETWORKS TO WORK "Leveraging Innovation Networks to Support Billion Dollar New Growth Platforms" Larry Huston, Founder, 4INNO; formerly Senior Vice President of Innovation, Procter and Gamble "Network Action Workouts" Patia McGrath, Global Director Innovation and Strategic Connections, GE ACCESSING NETWORK-BASED RESOURCES "Reconfiguring Firm Boundaries: Shrinking the Core and Expanding the Periphery" Ranjay Gulati, Jaime and Josefina Chua Tiampo Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School) "University-Firm Partnerships in the Life Sciences" Terry Fadem, Managing Director, Corporate Alliances, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (pictured below)