Description
This IRI PILOT Research project is a collaboration between IRI and Babson College with two components – best practices and next practices. For the best practices side, IRI conducts benchmarking surveys and holds roundtables throughout the year looking at key issues popping up since the start of the pandemic – worker safety, remote working policies, the Great Recession, safety protocols, etc. Simultaneously, Babson College is conducting a longitudinal study looking at the changes to R&D practices over time by holding interviews with individuals from a cross-section of companies. This session will serve as an update on the longitudinal study.
Contributors
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Gina O'Connor, Professor of Innovation Management, Babson College
Gina joined Babson in January 2019 as a Professor of Innovation Management. She conducts research and develops curricula that facilitates learning for graduate students and executives based on her findings on Breakthrough Innovation capabilities in large mature companies.
Before joining Babson Gina spent 29 years at the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she held the roles of Professor of Marketing and Innovation Management, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Director of the MBA program, Director of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and Director of the Radical Innovation Research Program. Prior to earning her PhD in Marketing and Corporate Strategy at NYU, she worked as a contract administrator for McDonnell Douglas Corporation and as a research analyst for Monsanto's Department of Social Responsibility in St. Louis, Missouri. -
Sebastian Fixson, Professor & Associate Dean, Babson College
Sebastian Fixson is Associate Dean of Innovation at the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business, and Professor of Innovation & Design, at Babson College. As Associate Dean, he oversees the management of current graduate programs and is also responsible for the initiation and launch of new initiatives.
Dr. Fixson concentrates his work on helping people and organizations build innovation capabilities. In his research, he investigates how factors such as structure and governance of innovation processes, practices like design thinking, and use of digital design tools affect the nature and outcome of innovation work.
Dr. Fixson teaches innovation, design, and operations management related courses and executive education programs at Babson College, USA, and Universities and Companies in Europe and Asia. In addition to his teaching, Dr. Fixson served also as the founding Faculty Director of Babson’s Master of Science in Management in Entrepreneurial Leadership (MSEL) program. He also works with industrial clients and partners in industries ranging from health care, manufacturing, and software.
Dr. Fixson’s work has appeared in books and journals such as Concurrent Engineering, Creativity and Innovation Management, Design Management Review, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, MIT Sloan Management Review, Research Policy, Research-Technology Management, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, as well as online outlets such as Harvard Business Review online. His latest book “The Innovation Navigator,” co-authored with Tucker Marion, provides guidance for executives on how to organize for innovation (published by University of Toronto Press in November 2018).
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Alia Crocker
Dr. Alia Crocker is an Assistant Professor of Strategy at Babson College. She holds a Ph.D. from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and earned an MA in International Relations from Boston University and a BS in Computer Information Systems from Bentley University. She is a member of the Academy of Management and the Strategic Management Society. Her research has been published in the Journal of Management, Strategic Organization, Academy of Management Learning & Education, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, and Harvard Business Review. She regularly presents research and organizes professional development workshops at the annual meetings of the Academy of Management and the Strategic Management Society. Broad research interests include strategic human capital, social networks, multilevel theory, microfoundations of strategy, and behavioral theory. Other areas of interest include global health, social responsibility, and mentorship.
Professor Crocker's teaching interests include strategic management, organizational theory, and international business. At Isenberg, she taught the undergraduate Business Policy and Strategy course as well as the MBA Organizational Planning and Strategy class. At Babson, she teaches Strategic Problem Solving, serves as Faculty Advisor for the MBA Consulting Experience, and works with executive education clients on strategic development.
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Jonathan Sims
Dr. Jonathan Sims is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management at Babson College, where he teaches business strategy courses at the undergraduate and MBA levels. He holds a Ph.D. in Management from the University of Texas at Austin, an MBA from the University of Maryland, and a BA in Political Science and Economics from Emory University.
Jonathan's research and teaching programs lie at the intersection of strategy, entrepreneurship, and open innovation. Broadly, he is interested in how entrepreneurial companies develop and implement technology strategies in cooperation with external communities. His work has been published in journals including Strategic Organization, Industrial and Corporate Change, Innovation Organization & Management, R&D Management, Industry and Innovation, and MIT Sloan Management Review.