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Maximilian Forsell

12th Scandinavian Conference on Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM)

We are pleased to welcome you to the 12th Scandinavian Conference on Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM), hosted by the Department of Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers tekniska högskola on December 4-6. See slides below for a sneak peek of some conference highlights, and follow this link for the full program and to register at a discounted rate before October 31: www.chalmers.se/scaiem2024

Local organizers: Joakim Björkdahl, Henrik Berglund, Anna Bergek, Magnus Persson, Ruth Woie-Svensson, Marcus Holgersson

Keynote speakers: Dennis Nobelius, Eero Eloranta

With contributions from: Siri Jagstedt, Mats Lundqvist, Frida Lind, Anna Yström, Lars Uppvall, Mahmoud A., Johan Frishammar, Anna Uhlin, Karl Palmås, and many others!

ScAIEM board members: Mats Engwall, Christine Ipsen, Gudmundur Valur Oddsson, Tuomas Ahola, Eskil Le Bruyn Goldeng, Arild Aspelund, Mathias Henningsson, Lovisa Annerwall

Winning Student Team in Innovation Economics Course

By Marcus Holgersson

Today, Malin Petrén and I concluded our Innovation Economics course with the third-year Industrial Engineering and Management students at Chalmers tekniska högskola. This course equips students with microeconomic tools and methods to analyze innovation and make strategic decisions, while also touching on fundamental legal considerations in the innovation process.

It’s always a privilege to teach this course—not only because of the fascinating and impactful subject matter but also because of the incredibly talented and engaged students who bring energy and curiosity to each class.

One of the highlights is our biweekly team competition, where students put their newly acquired analytical skills to the test. This year’s winners truly excelled, demonstrating outstanding analytical abilities and teamwork! Congratulations to the winning team—Hanna Blomström, Olivia Hörnström, Emma Knutsson, Ida Näslund, and Filippa Rejneborg—well deserved!

Looking forward to seeing these bright minds apply their skills in the future!

ScAEIM 2024

By Marcus Holgersson

Colleagues in Scandinavia:

We are pleased to welcome you to the 12th Scandinavian Conference on Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM), hosted by the Department of Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology on December 4-6.

This is an excellent opportunity to meet and interact with colleagues across Scandinavian universities and to discuss current opportunities and challenges in teaching and research.

Personally, I’m together with Johan Frishammar hosting a workshop on writing papers for leading practitioners-oriented journals such as MIT Sloan Management Review and California Management Review. I’m really looking forward to this and hoping to see many of you there!

We will also have a great dinner and tour at the new World of Volvo, plus many other fun and interesting sessions, including a young scholar job market.

If you haven’t already registered, please do so now! Early bird rates until 30 September. Please share with your colleagues!

www.chalmers.se/scaiem2024

Open Innovation in the Age of AI

By Marcus Holgersson

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we work and interact across industries. Its impact is profound and far-reaching, creating both opportunities and challenges for the future of work and human creativity.

Yesterday’s Nobel Prize in Physics (and today’s in chemistry!) reminded us of AI’s significance, awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for their “foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.”

AI is also reshaping innovation processes. Together with Linus Dahlander (ESMT Berlin), Henry Chesbrough (University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business), and Marcel Bogers (Eindhoven University of Technology), I have just published the article “Open Innovation in the Age of AI” in California Management Review. Drawing from various empirical examples and the growing literature on AI and innovation, we explore how AI can enhance existing open innovation practices, enable new ways of opening up innovation processes, and in some cases, even replace open innovation.

Read the full article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00081256241279326

What is digital platform grafting?

By Marcus Holgersson

Together with David Teece and Joakim Björkdahl I have studied platform entry in pre-existing ecosystems, leading to a coevolutionary process of adapting both the platform and the surrounding ecosystem. We call this process platform grafting, a concept inspired by biology and medicine. In nature, grafting merges two plants to leverage their strengths. Medically, engraftment involves the body accepting new cells. Analogously, platform grafting weaves a digital platform into an existing ecosystem.

Platform grafting introduces unique challenges and demands specific managerial responses. We’ve identified hurdles across four key ecosystem dimensions: the actors, tasks, assets, and governance mechanisms. Successful grafting requires integration across these dimensions.

I’m very happy to now see our article that introduces the concept and outlines managerial implications published in the recent issue of

California Management Review.

Available as open access here: https://doi.org/10.1177/00081256241238453