Seminar in presence

Building BL26 – Room 1.25 (first floor)
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Via R. Lambruschini 4/B, 20156 Milano

Abhijit Sengupta
University of Surrey, UK

Abstract:

The project addresses the long-standing and critical question of whether the widespread promotion of interdisciplinary research (IDR) in universities genuinely translates into tangible societal impact, specifically through enhanced engagement with industry and society. Results from a large-scale longitudinal analysis of British universities reveal that a university’s success in generating societal impact depends not simply on the presence of interdisciplinary projects alone, but is critically determined by how widely and evenly this interdisciplinarity is distributed across its entire research portfolio and knowledge domains. The impact it generates varies quite significantly on the engagement pathways undertaken, with both commercialization (through patenting and spinouts) and regional development being largely being unaffected. However, industry contracted research, consultancies and large collaborative projects involving do get affected by the degree of interdisciplinarity, at least at the organizational level. Ongoing research continues to examine whether interdisciplinarity as a paradigm is a critical mediator between the nature of research collaborations and its eventual societal impact.

Dr Abhijit Sengupta is an Associate Professor (Reader) in Business Analytics at Surrey Business School, University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. Abhijit’s research interests are in the areas of innovation and technology management, science of science, and in complex systems and networks. His research examines the interplay between research and research impact, with focus on the higher education sector. His current work revolves on the issues of complex dynamics within collaborative research networks, and their impact on science and society. He specializes in the use of advanced quantitative methods, including econometrics, machine learning and agent based simulations, and has experience of research in both academic and industrial settings. He has published in leading journals such as Research Policy, British Journal of Management, Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Research, Technovation, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, among others. His projects have been funded by the ESRC, British Academy and the Society for Research in Higher Education. He holds a Visiting position at the InnoLab in University of Vaasa (Finland) and is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Innovation Management Research (CIMR), Birkbeck, London.

Please click here to register.