Scott Swan
Professor of International Business, Design, and Marketing at The College of William & Mary, Raymond A. Mason School of Business (USA)

Abstract:

“An evolutionary model of technological change is proposed in which a technological breakthrough, or discontinuity, initiates an era of intense technical variation and selection, culminating in a single dominant design. Discontinuities never become dominant designs, and dominant designs lag behind the industry’s technical frontier” (Anderson and Tushman p.604).
A critical question is how the discontinuity affects existing capabilities during eras of foment…and can the same capabilities be effective in eras of incremental change?
We explore dynamic design capabilities to see if they allow firms to manage both critical eras in the life cycle of technological change.
Dynamic capabilities allow the firm to adapt to its changing environment critical to achieving superior performance (Teece, Pisano, Shuen, 1997).
Specifically, we ask the question, “Can dynamic design capabilities drive discontinuous innovation and also be harnessed to extend the length of product life cycle when dominant designs emerge?” A research model is a validated and preliminary analysis and fit statistics were obtained with structural equations. The structural variables suggest non intuitive ways that firms dynamically emphasize capabilities and organize for success.

K. Scott Swan, Ph.D. is a Professor of International Business, Design, and Marketing at The College of William & Mary, Raymond A. Mason School of Business. He serves as Head of Marketing and is on the Advisory Board for the Alan B. Miller Entrepreneurship Center. He teaches classes related to export management, international marketing, entrepreneurship, design thinking, and strategy. Prof. Swan was instrumental in the start of the Innovation and Design Studio that helped lift the Marketing Area to a #1 rating for undergraduate programs in BusinessWeek’s 2013 ranking of U.S. universities. He has developed an Innovation & Entrepreneurship minor to serve students in the new Engineering and Design Area across the W&M campus as well as an online Masters in Marketing.

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Venue
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Building B26/B – Room 0.2 – ground floor
Via Lambruschini 4/B, Milano