New Technology Ventures
This course provides a systematic overview to science and engineering students about the process of building technology-based start-ups, drawn from the theories of economics, management, and finance. We will examine the entrepreneurial process of identifying high-potential, technology-intensive commercial opportunities, gathering resources such as talent and capital, and managing rapid growth and significant risks using principled decision-making skills. Special attention will be paid to challenges and opportunities that new technology ventures face in emerging markets. The course objective is to help students from research and science background develop their business analytical skills and achieve their entrepreneurial ambition.
Economics of Innovation
What is innovation? What drives innovation? Why is innovation so hard? What is the link between innovation and economic growth? How are innovations disseminate within and across firms, industries, and nations? Do intellectual property rights spur or discourage innovation? What role do universities and governments play in the innovation ecosystem? What can we learn from the history of technological change? How can policymakers promote innovation? This course provides an overview of important issues underlying the economics of innovation. Students should expect by the end of the class to have developed a richer understanding of the economic determinants and consequences of innovation. The course structure will combine lectures, student presentations, and discussion sections.
Business Strategy and Technological Innovation
This course is designed to provide a broad understanding of firm strategies that lead to technological innovation and firm growth. It introduces both academic research and business cases to help students apply this knowledge to practical cases. Students will get involved in searching relevant case studies and leading interactive group discussion throughout the class. This course will discuss important aspects of business strategy, including how firms recognize business opportunities, how they define and compete with potential rivals, and how they deal with a variety of stakeholders including upstream suppliers, downstream vendors, and regulatory agencies to sustain long-term growth. While the discuss strategies apply both to big firms and small startups, we will adopt a lens of high-tech startup founders to better understand how the strategies of entrepreneurs differ from big firms and how the strategies of different-sized firms can be harmonized. These discussions include how to deal with incumbent competitors, how to attract funds from investors, and how/when to contract with alliances so as to protect one’s own intellectual property and to avoid conflict of interests.
Psychological Approach to Business Decisions
This course provides an overview of the topics in judgment and decision making under conditions of uncertainty. I am particularly interested in examining with you the scientific study of mental processes underlying human judgments and decisions from seemingly simple processes such as memory, knowledge, reasoning, as well as their interplay with emotions and human motives. By the end of this course, you should be able to demonstrate a deep understanding of the psychological processes involved in judgment and decision making and understand when and why those processes lead to (more or less) accurate and inaccurate judgments.
