... More Technology Management Strategy

• General discussion of role of leadership and management (2)
  • Robbins-Roth, Cynthia "From Alchemy to IPO: The Business of Biotechnology", Chapter 2 (Genentech), pp. 13-30.
  • readings from "peopleware"?
  • importance of movitation / rewards / measuring results in large org/ (2)
  • understand difference between small organizations and large orgs (2)
  • Shapero, Albert "Managing Creative Professionals", Chapter 5 in The Human Side of Managing Technological Innovation, Ralph Katz, Ed., Oxford University Press, pp. 39-46.
  • Allen, T. "Distinguishing Scientists from Engineers", Chapter 3 of Managing the Flow of Technology, pp. 35-57.
  • Stern, S. "Do Scientists Pay to be Scientists?" NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research?) Working Paper W7410, pp. 1-10, 28-31.
• Risk and value (1.3)
• Organizational culture (1.3)
  • Cohen and Levinthal "Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation", Administrative Science Quarterly.
  • Kwanghui Lim "The Many Faces of Absorptive Capacity: Spillovers of Copper Interconnect Technology for Semiconductor Chips".
• Managing research
  • for companies -- how to guide research in labs (1.7) [readings from books on how to do research; what to do with Ph.D.]
  • IBM's approach to fostering technology (1.7)
    • IBM nurtures talent up the career ladder, Kirk Ladendorf, Austin American Statesman, July 13, 2003.
  • Books on creativity / idea-generation (1.7)
• Different time horizons for R&D (2)
• What makes a good company?
  • in search of excellence, etc. (1.3)
• How are large organizations managed and motivated? (1.3)
  • Importance of quantitative metrics, and their impact (1.3)
  • different metrics used in industry and academia (1.3)
  • Discussion of how pure research productivity is measured (1.3)
    • count papers, patents, funding, paper references, etc. (2)
    • different *kinds* of research: systems, theory, ... (2)
    • fame... (1.7)
    • what works? (1.7)
  • Courtney, Hugh, Jane Kirkland and Patrick Viguerie "Strategy under Uncertainty"
  • Anderson, Philip C. and Michael L. Tushman "Managing through Cycles of Technological Change", pp. 45-52.
  • Evans, Philip and Thomas S. Wurster, Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy, Chapter 2 "Information and Things" (pp. 9-15) and Chapter 3 "Richness and Reach" (pp. 23-30).
  • Tushman, Michael L. and Philip Anderson "Marketing and Discontinuous Innovation: The Probe and Learn Process", Managing Strategic Innovation and Change, pp. 355-356, 358-363, 372.
  • Mitchell, Graham R. and William F. Hamilton "Managing R&D as a Strategic Option" in Tushman and Anderson, Managing Strategic Innovation and Change: A Collection of Readings, New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 307-316.
  • Burgelman, Robert, Modesto Maidique and Steven C. Wheelwright, "Development Strategy and Preproject Management" from "Creating and Implementing a Development Strategy", Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, pp. 658-662, 672-673.
  • Pascale, Richard T. "The Honda Effect" from "Perspectives on Strategy: The Real Story behind Honda's Success", California Management Review, vol 36, 1984, pp. 191-192.

Technology Management Tactics

• Team organization (e.g. SW teams) (1.3)
  • Roberts, E. and A. Fusfeld "Staffing the Innovative Technology-based Organization", Sloan Management Review, Spring 1981, pp. 19-34.
  • Clark, Kim B. and Steven C. Wheelwright "Organizing and Leading 'Heavyweight' Development Teams", California Management Review, vol. 34, no. 3 (Spring 1992), pp. 9-28.
  • Ancona, D.G. and D.F. Caldwell "Making Teamwork Work: Boundary Management in Product Development Teams", Managing Strategic Innovation and Change: A Collection of Readings, eds. Tushman and Anderson, New York, Oxford University Press.
• Importance of communication (1.7)
• "Academic" approaches to problems vs. what people actually use: importance of K.I.S.S. (1.3)
• Actual software development (1.3)
  • formal methods not used widely... why? (1.3)
  • importance of incremental system building - get something working quickly (1.3)
  • How do large SW development projects work? Partitioning of design and implementation effort. (1.7) (maybe a reading or two about how Microsoft structures its software projects; a different reading about how Boeing or some other more correctness-oriented company does)
  • SW engineering disasters: thorac, .... more than one thing going (1.3) wrong
  • Facts on failure rates for large SW/technology projects (1.7)
  • Wheelwright and Clark "Creating Project Plans to Focus Product Development", Harvard Business Review, 1992.
  • Krubasic "Customize Your Product Development" Harvard Business Review, November 1988.
  • von Hippel "Lead Users: A Source of Novel Product Concepts", Management Science, vol. 32, no. 7 (Jul) pp. 791-805
  • Nichols "Scientific Management at Merck: An Interview with CFO Judy Lewent", Harvard Business Review, 1994.
  • Nonaka and Takeuchi "Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation", Chapter 3 in The Knowledge Creating Company, Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 56-94.
  • Bohn "Measuring and Managing Technological Knowledge", Sloan Management Review, August 2002, vol. 80, no. 8, pp. 18-20.
  • Amabile, Teresa M, Hadley, Constance N., Kramer, Steven J. "Creativity under the Gun", Harvard Business Review, Aug 2002, vol. 80, no. 8, pp. 52-60.
  • Schein, E. "Three Cultures of Management: the Key to Organizational Learning", Sloan Management Review, 38(1), 9-20.
  • Chesbrough and Teece "When is Virtual Virtuous? Organizing for Innovation", Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb 1996, pp. 65-74.

Technology and Society

• How does technological change fundamentally change businesses? (2)
  • maximum impact is by completely changing how the other business is run; or by creating a new business. (2.3) [Andy Grove's ~August 2003 Fortune article????]
  • influential technologies: communications, transport, information mgmt.
  • examples such as amazon.com, yahoo.com, and older ones too. (2.7)
  • The military's use of technology to change how war is fought? [Germans figured out how to use tanks; US figured out how to use smart weapons; ...]
  • Network-centric warfare - computing and communication technologies as defense industries (David Brant, guest speaker?)
• Technology's impact on productivity [covered earlier] (3)
• Government sponsorship of technology (2.7)
  • Role of government sponsorship of technology, and transferring it from theory to practice:
    • WW2, Manthattan project, NASA, etc. (SDI as a failure?) (2)
    • how should research be funded and directed? (2.7)
    • Nelson, R. "The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research", Journal of Political Economy, vol. 67, no. 3 pp. 297-306.
    • Teece, D. "Profiting from Technological Innovation: Implications for Integration, Collaboration, Licensing and Public Policy", The Competitive Challenge, 1987.
    • Buderi, Robert "U.S. R&D as Percent of GNP" and "U.S. R&D Funding by Source", Engines of Tomorrow, pp. 376, 377.
  • Law of unintended consequences
    • technology-induced cost changes: SPAM, junk mail, etc. (2)
    • need to combine organization change w/technological change (2.7)
    • Volti, Rudy "Technology as a Subversive Force" from Chapter 2 "Winners and Losers: The Differential Effects of Technological Change" in Society and Technological Change, Third Edition, pp. 16-20.
  • Interaction w/goals of privacy, etc.: Lawrence Lessig (1.7)
    • Lawrence Lessig - book: code and other laws of cyberspace
    • Palladium and "trusted computing" [MPR June 2003] (2)
    • study of .NET, MS Passport, etc. (2)
  • "The Promise in Selling Stem Cells", The New York Times, August 26, 2001.
  • "Ethical Concerns Block Widespread Patenting of Embryonic Advances", The Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2001.

Additional Readings and Resources

• Joel Spolsky's articles (Joel on Software), listed here.
• Bresnahan, Timothy F., Research Papers
• Progress and Freedom Foundation
• Consumer Project on Technology
• Greenstein, Shane, Research Papers
• Computer & Communications Industry Association
• Kardas links
• Economics Teachers' Society of South Australia
• Entrepreneurial Classes at UT
• The incredible shrinking IT industry
• Book, "Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution"
• Advantages of open source software
• Betting your future on Linux IBM White Paper
• The Magic Cauldron
• The Economics of Open Source Software for a Competitive Firm
• Lots of online references at opensource.mit.edu
• W.B. Arthur, Competing technologies, increasing returns and lock-in by historical events [unnecessarily mathematical - doesn't provide much insight].
• NBER Working Papers
• NBER Home Page
• Another class with the same name! (CS405 at the University of Greece)
• An online book titled "The Economics of Technology", by Vincent H. Smith
• Levin, R.C., A.K. Klevorick, R.R. Nelson and S.G. Winter, "Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development", Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, vol. 3, pp. 783-831. [fairly dry study; not a good class reading]