Technology, R&D management

Speaker: Rachel Empey, Chief Financial and Strategy Officer (CFO) of Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG Moderator: Kevin P. Hoffmann, Der Tagesspiegel, Head of the Business Section In this ESMT Open Lecture, Telefónica Deutschland CFO Rachel Empey described how Telefónica is using the integration process for its digital transformation to become the Leading Digital Onlife Telco. Thereby Empey used the example of O2 and E-Plus, one of the biggest mergers in the European telecommunications sector. Digitization is not only changing the way we do business, it is also becoming a major driver for M&A. At the same time, M&A processes boost the change dynamics within companies as structures and work flows are scrutinized. Hence, acquisitions can turn out to be an opportunity for a successful digital transformation.

Patent-based measures are frequently used as indicators in empirical research on innovation and technological change. Currently, there is little evidence as to what extent patent-based indicators relate to product market outcomes. Using a unique dataset that links outcomes from product commercialization in the pharmaceutical industry with detailed patent data, we relate patent-based indicators that capture either an invention’s value or the uncertainty surrounding the patenting process to the outcomes of the product development process. Our findings suggest that the speed of commercialization increases with value but reduces with uncertainty. Using a variety of alternative indicators we derive implications for the use and the proper interpretation of individual measures. Moreover, our study has broader implications as it highlights the detrimental effect of uncertainty on the speed of innovation.

Christoph Burger is a member of the faculty at ESMT and managing director of ESMT Customized Solutions GmbH. He studied business administration and economics at the University of Saarbrücken (Germany), the Hochschule St. Gallen (Switzerland), and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA). Christoph has taught microeconomics at the University of Ann Arbor, was project leader at Otto Versand, worked as a strategy consultant at Arthur D. Little and as an independent consultant, and was vice president at the Bertelsmann Buch AG. Christoph has professional experience in strategy, post-merger integration, equity financing as well as customer and supplier management. He has solid international experience, spanning Northern and Eastern Europe and the United States.

The importance of obtaining intellectual property (IP) rights for commercializing innovation is well established. Separate streams of literature have shown a positive relationship between IP rights and both product licensing and third‐party (especially VC) financing. However, since raising third‐party finance enables an innovating firm to continue commercializing its innovation alone, product licensing and raising third-party finance may be considered substitutes and the impact of obtaining IP rights on commercialization mode is unclear. This paper attempts to reconcile these two competing effects of obtaining IP rights. The paper empirically examines the relationship between the status of the primary patent covering an innovation and whether the innovating firm’s licenses its innovation or raises external finance. The results show that patent filing significantly increases the likelihood of raising finance, while patent allowance has a positive effect on licensing. These results suggest that patent filings may act signals to financial investors but when it comes to licensing IP rights matter most as appropriability mechanisms.

4th ESMT Annual Forum 2011 "The Global Race for Competitve Edge" The ESMT Annual Forum is organized by ESMT European School of Management and Technology in Berlin. The international business school was founded in 2002 by 25 leading global companies and institutions. ESMT offers full-time MBA and executive MBA programs, executive education, and research-based consulting in competition policy and regulation. The Annual Forum is ESMT's premier event and platform for dialogue bringing together 300 guests and over 30 international, high-caliber business leaders, academics, and policymakers every year. Past topics included "Corporate Russia on the Rise," "Navigating in Turbulent Times," and "People, Planet, Profit."

Associate Professor Stefan Wagner joined ESMT European School of Management and Technology in February 2011 as an assistant professor. Previously he was an assistant professor in the Institute of Innovation Research, Technology Management, and Entrepreneurship (INNO-tec) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität LMU in Munich, Germany. Stefan received his Habilitation in 2010 and his Doctorate in Economics (summa cum laude) in 2005 from LMU.

Review of the 4th ESMT Annual Forum 2011 "The Global Race for Competitve Edge" The Annual Forum is ESMT's premier event and platform for dialogue bringing together 300 guests and over 30 international, high-caliber business leaders, academics, and policymakers every year. Past topics included "Corporate Russia on the Rise," "Navigating in Turbulent Times," and "People, Planet, Profit."

In this special ESMTcast episode of "90 seconds with...", Michel Gardel, Vice-president, Communication, External & Environmental Affairs, Toyota Motor Europe, attends the 4rd ESMT Annual Forum in Berlin. He discusses the acceptance and development of E-mobility in today's complex World. And also the importance of continuous improvement, which is helped by maintaining close relationships with Universities.

The number of patent applications filed at the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office SIPO grew tremendously over the last decades and the SIPO has become the world's third largest patent office by 2009. In this paper, we provide an overview of the institutional background of patent examination in China. Moreover, we empirically analyze the determinants of the grant lags applicants have to expect at the SIPO. The multivariate duration analysis is based on the population of 443,533 patent applications filed at the SIPO between 1990 and 2002. The average grant lag is 4.71 years with considerable variation across 30 different technology areas. Interestingly, we find that Chinese applicants are able to achieve faster patent grants than their non-Chinese counterparts (even after controlling for various other determinants of grant lags). This might be an indication of a differential treatment of Chinese applicants which would be in violation of Art. 3 (National Treatment) and Art. 4 (Most-favored Nation Treatment) of TRIPS that has been signed by China in 2001.

Professor Olaf Plötner is the dean of ESMT executive education. He joined ESMT as one of the first faculty members and managing director of ESMT Customized Solutions GmbH in 2002. Olaf’s current research and teaching focus on strategic management, industrial market management, and sales management in global B2B markets. His work is reflected in his most recent book Counter Strategies in Global Markets, published by Palgrave Macmillan, Springer, and SDX Shanghai. His research has been portrayed in journals such as Industrial Marketing Management and Journal of Business and Industrial Marking as well as in leading international media such as Wall Street Journal, Times of India, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, China Daily Europe, and Financial Times. Olaf is a visiting professor at Darden School of Business and a regular guest lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin and ESCP Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris. Olaf also worked as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in Frankfurt and as a director at Siemens AG in Boston.

The purpose of this report can be summarized as follows: 1. Update our awareness of the issues and challenges facing European firms in terms of technology management. 2. Understand the future of ESMT's sponsors and clients in terms of their R&D and technology organizations. 3. Develop our understanding of the need for skills and capabilities development of the current and future managers and executives in the areas of Research, Development and Engineering (i.e. all those making technology decisions). 4. Seek input for R&D/technology program portfolio that ESMT could offer in the future.

Hans W. Friederiszick, ESMT faculty member and Managing Director of ESMT Competition Analysis, describes his research and consulting activities.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for the monitoring of new technology introduction in a B2B environment. We focus on B2B environments, i.e. on projects where a new technological solution is implemented (and often jointly developed) with a client being either a company or an organization. In such a situation, where a supplier and its client agree to implement a new technology, both are exposed to a risk. The management of these risks can be handled through a couple of approaches: control or trust. The management literature has put a lot of attention on these two modes that play an important role because they drive the quality of the relationship between partners. We will explore their respective roles and build a methodology to monitor them along the life of a buyer-supplier relationship aiming at implementing new technology.

In this episode of ESMTcast 90 seconds with, Dr Henning Kagermann, President of the German Academy of Technical Science, and former CEO SAP AG, visits the ESMT MBA Masterclass and addresses the management of innovation, or converting ideas in to money, as he likes to put it. Kagermann believes it is time to rethink what young professionals should learn in order to lead a company, identifying responsible leadership as a key component of business education as a growing public awareness calls for change.

In this special Annual Forum episode of ESMTcast "90 seconds with...", Daimler AG CEO Dr. Dieter Zetsche states his belief that Daimler is positioned to lead the automotive industry out of the current financial crisis. Because sustainability in the automotive industry means heading towards two main goals, emission-free driving and accident-free driving, Daimler also continue to invest heavily in research and development of future technologies despite shrinking consumer demand in the sector. Navigating through the current financial crisis, Dr Zetsche seeks strong future leaders and maintains that Daimlers success will depend on its personnel and the result of the team. On recruiting from ESMT, he says that the programs offer a good balance of high-level business and economic understanding, as well as personal management skills with focus on responsibility for sustainability.

Francis Bidault is a professor emeritus at ESMT European School of Management and Technology. He is the founding director of ESMT's Full-time MBA Program, which he directed from September 2005 to January 2010. Before joining ESMT he was a professor of strategy and innovation management at Theseus Institute and EDHEC Business School and the dean of the Theseus MBA program. His special area of expertise covers industry analysis, the management of alliances and the management of innovation.