Stefano Brusoni

• DPhil, SPRU, University of Sussex
• Professor at ETH Zurich

Organizations use a plethora of methods and tools to help their members solve problems effectively. Yet the specifics of how individuals solve problems remain largely unexplored. We propose and test a cognitive model of problem solving that integrates dual process theories into the attention-based view. The model suggests that diverse problem-solvi...

This OECD Working Paper on Public Governance presents a methodology to help policy makers choose the method they need to generate data. It presents seven methods (ranging from randomized control trials to case studies), discusses their pros and cons, suggests when to use which.

In 2000, Carliss Baldwin and Kim Clark published “Design Rules: The Power of Modularity,” a book that introduced new ways of understanding and explaining the architecture of complex systems This Special Issue of Industrial and Corporate Change celebrates this seminal work, the research it has inspired, and the insights that these collective efforts...

We model the conditions under which firms should enter the market with modular products that support multiple standards instead of an integral product that supports a single standard. Product modularity enables firms to broaden their portfolios and increase their chances of investing in the “right” technologies early in a technology cycle. Entry wi...

This chapter starts with a naïve question: can innovation ever not be social? In other words, doesn’t innovation always have a social element? In seeking to answer it, we sketch the foundations of a simple and appreciative baseline model of innovation grounded in the cognitive and behavioral sciences. Our model of individual decision-making require...

Research Summary Building on the attention‐based view of the firm, we elaborate the concept of dynamic capabilities and identify two constitutive elements: attention control and problem‐solving. We show empirically that the control element of dynamic capabilities regulates how organizations (dis‐)engage attention on operational versus change‐orient...

This paper looks at the different strategies that two of the tire industry’s most prominent players, Pirelli and Michelin, deployed to exploit a radical process innovation: robotized, modular manufacturing. This paper argues that Pirelli, originally the technological follower, could develop a more nuanced, complex and ultimately successful strategy...

We analyze the sectoral and national systems of firms and institutions that collectively engage in Artificial Intelligence (AI). We provide a granular view of the complex interdependency patterns that connect developers, manufacturers, and users of AI. We distinguish between AI enablement, AI production, and AI consumption and analyze the emerging...

We analyze the sectoral and national systems of firms and institutions that collectively engage in artificial intelligence (AI). Moving beyond the analysis of AI as a general-purpose technology or its particular areas of application, we draw on the evolutionary analysis of sectoral systems and ask, “Who does what?” in AI. We provide a granular view...

This study provides a fine-grained analysis of the decision-making process and criteria underling the evaluation and selection of nascent corporate ventures. By integrating a small sample case-based analysis and the examination of a longitudinal dataset comprising 14 years of archival data, it explores the selection and funding process of early-sta...

In this article we argue that in order to understand failure or success in adapting to environmental change, we should better understand why people hesitate to pursue novel choices. This article asks: what forces hinder individuals’ exploration choices of different alternatives, and hence their ability to learn from them? To answer this question, t...

This study builds upon March and Simon's proposition that individual‐level differences must be considered when explaining decision‐making performance. We extend their discussion on the importance of decision‐makers' attention to explain heterogeneous patterns of exploration and exploitation within the same uncertain environment. We develop a model...

This paper studies how a world-leading technology-intensive firm organized to renew its architectural knowledge in order to escape the mirroring trap. On the strength of a longitudinal, in-depth, qualitative study, we develop a process model that identifies the phases, learning modes, and core design decisions that led to new architectural knowledg...

Based on an in-depth single case study of a collaborative product development project, this paper argues that knowledge integration mechanisms change across the different phases of the product development process, reflecting changes in the content and sources of knowledge to be integrated. Our findings imply that managers need to be able to adapt a...

In this study, we investigate how different internal and external stakeholders influence the innovation strategy of a social enterprise to adopt product, process, and partnership innovations that impact either social or commercial performance. Relying on survey data from a sample of work integration social enterprises, we find that in situations of...

Research Summary: How can strategic decision makers overcome inertia when dealing with change? In this article we argue that cognitive flexibility (i.e., the ability to match the type of cognitive processing with the type of problem at hand) enables decision makers to achieve significantly higher decision‐making performance. We show that superior d...

We compare data across 24,624 Twitter users to examine differences between entrepreneurs and the general population. Our analyses reveal that entrepreneurs manifest more positive and fewer negative emotions than the general population. Entrepreneurs also communicate more about work, and less about aspects related to personal life. Interestingly, du...

This paper looks at how product development teams balance stability and flexibility. It relies on the analysis of an original, qualitative study of agile software development teams, which operate in an environment characterized by the simultaneous implementation of interdependent organizational routines. We argue that the interdependencies among ro...

This paper explores how organizations dealing with institutional complexity manage internal tensions triggered by environmental turbulence. Based on a longitudinal, comparative study, we extend previous research that has identified collaboration and formalization as possible mechanisms to reconcile organizational tensions in such situations. We sho...

This chapter discusses the practical challenges and opportunities involved in merging the two fields of cognitive neurosciences and strategic management, starting from the premise that the need to marry them is justified by their complementarities, as opposed to the level of analysis on which they both focus. We discuss the potential benefits and d...

This paper explores how organizations manage internal tensions triggered by institutional complexity. The results of our multi- case study show how an organization embodying antithetic logics at the core of its functioning can succeed in solving internal conflicts by developing an overarching, blended logic that integrates them. Based on a longitud...

This paper focuses on the analysis of the antecedents of exploratory decisions. We rely on an fMRI study to analyze the interplay of cognitive and emotional processes underpinning the decision to explore. We manipulate the definition of exploratory choice to observe neural activations in correspondence of choices exhibiting increasing levels of unc...

This article focuses on corporate spinouts as a strategy that can rejuvenate the inventive efforts of inventors with a long tenure in the same company. We rely on an unbalanced panel of 5,604 inventor-year observations to study a matched sample of 431 inventors employed by the Xerox Corporation and find evidence in support of three predictions. Fir...

This paper aims at explaining differences in decision making performance on the basis of choice patterns implemented by a sample of 89 participants while playing a four armed bandit task. We observe the emergence of strategies which differ in terms of content, myopia and ultimately performance. Such choice patterns provide information about search...

This study reports the preliminary results of an inductive, longitudinal study about the micro-level processes of knowledge integration underpinning the emergence of architectural knowledge. We investigated a two-year innovation project of a world leading chemical processing machine developer. A process model is introduced in which knowledge is gen...

This paper studies the cognitive processes that enable decision-makers to switch between exploitation and exploration. We use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a sample of expert decision-makers to make two main contributions. First, we identify and contrast the specific brain regions and cognitive processes associated with exploitati...

Critical firm-level results, such as strategic renewal and sustainable firm performance are recurrently attributed to organizational learning. Yet, many scholars claim that this firm-level phenomenon has not been sufficiently broken down and connected with lower level activities. Consequently, this paper intends to focus on two nascent conceptual b...

An optimal balance between efficient exploitation of available resources and creative exploration of alternatives is critical for adaptation and survival. Previous studies associated these behavioral drives with, respectively, the dopaminergic mesocorticolimbic system and frontopolar-intraparietal networks. We study the activation of these systems...

The idea that evolutionary processes of variation, selection and retention underpin the market outcomes is a cornerstone to strategic approaches to firms’ behaviour. Variation processes entail the generation of new ideas and bodies of knowledge by artificial systems, such as firms, sectors or whole economic environments. Selection refers to the end...

This chapter adopts a problem-solving perspective to analyze the competitive dynamics of innovation ecosystems. We argue that features such as uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, entail different knowledge requirements which explain the varying abilities of focal firms to coordinate the ecosystem and benefit from the activities of their supplie...

This chapter builds upon and extends the discussion about knowledge management processes in New Product Development (NPD). We refine Nonaka’s (1994) SECI model by focusing on what and — more specifically — who triggers the transition across the different learning modes, i.e., socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. To do so...

submitted for consideration for the DRUID 2002 Summer Conference. “Industrial Dynamics of the New and Old Economy – who is embracing whom?” We would consider the paper relevant to either Theme B (“Production and Use of Knowledge in the Old & New Economy”) or Theme A (“Technical Change, Corporate Dynamics & Innovation”). The current debate of the ‘N...

Economic development is centered around the learning processes of firms, the mastering of knowledge, and the accumulation of capabilities. This article builds upon these core elements by looking at how the knowledge boundaries of firms, the division of innovative and productive labor, and the governance of knowledge have evolved over time in the ad...

Building on the research tradition that understands organizations as problem solving institutions, this paper focuses on the micro processes that underlie problem framing and solving. The paper compares the developmental efforts of the three world's leading aircraft engine manufacturers, and their suppliers, to single out the strategic and organiza...

This paper studies how problem framing by research and development groups, in particular the extent of problem decomposition, impacts knowledge replication processes conducted through the use of virtual simulation tools (VSTs). It presents the results of a comparative study of two research and development groups working on the design of hybrid prop...

What are the origins of the ability to continuously explore novel domains of activity while at the same time exploiting the current knowledge base with increasing efficacy? The conflicting objectives of exploration and exploitation compete for scarce resources, among which managerial attention is possibly the most critical. This paper integrates re...

This essay discusses the strength and weaknesses of the so-called linear model (LM) of innovation. It is a reaction to the habit of criticising it as over simplistic, mechanistic, or simply blatantly wrong. We argue that, while some criticisms are of course well grounded, many others are instead based on loose interpretations and unwarranted assump...

Introduction the central question posed in this chapter is whether there has been a long-term change in the knowledge boundaries of firms. To answer this question, we chose to analyze the whole set of activities in which firms and industries are engaged: innovation, production, and commercialization. Taking a supply and demand perspective, we focus...

This study examines the organizational knowledge creation processes in two highly virtual teams involved in new product development projects in the automotive industry. Using Nonaka's model of knowledge creation, we explore how the virtualization of knowledge-based processes, i.e. the intensive exploitation of information and communication technolo...

A major source of errors in managerial decision-making is that individuals tend to respond to stimuli in a homogeneous way, failing to adapt their cognitive and behavioral patterns to the idiosyncrasies of the context. In this paper, we focus on the micro-processes that explain adaptation by drawing on recent findings in the cognitive neurosciences...

This paper aims to leverage neuroscience and psychology to contribute to the development of a microfoundation for an important managerial dilemma: the organizational ability to continuously explore novel domains of activity and exploit the current knowledge base with increasing efficacy. The dilemma for firms is at how to search for sustained compe...

knowledge creation in two highly virtualized teams, one involved in the design of a small city car and the second in the re-design of a small industrial vehicle. Using Nonaka's model of organizational knowledge creation, we explore how the virtualization of knowledge based processes, i.e. the intensive exploitation of ICTs in support of knowledge-b...

Taking in hand the two sides (i.e. cognitive and risk-bearing) of authority in design and production in complex tasks, this paper aims to give a first look at shifts in the locus of authority in the aviation electronics—or avionics—industry. Relying on patent and joint ventures data, we attempt to trace the evolution of problem-solving 'authority'...

About the book: Development and the ending of mass poverty require a massive increase in productive capabilities and production in developing countries. Some countries, notably in Asia, are achieving this. Yet ‘pro-poor’ aid policies, especially for the least developed countries, operate largely without reference to policy thinking on the promotion...

Based on a survey of the inventors of 9017 European patented inventions, this paper provides new information about the characteristics of European inventors, the sources of their knowledge, the importance of formal and informal collaborations, the motivations to invent, and the actual use and economic value of the patents.

This paper reviews the economic literature on the role of fees in patent systems. Two main research questions are usually addressed: the impact of patent fees on the behavior of applicants and the question of optimal fees. Studies in the former group confirm that a range of fees affect the behavior of applicants and suggest that a patent is an inel...

This paper discusses the issue of modularity from a problem‐solving perspective. Modularity is in fact a decomposition heuristic, through which a complex problem is decomposed into independent or quasi‐independent sub‐problems. By means of a model of problem decomposition, this paper studies the trade‐offs of modularity: on the one hand finer modul...

We consider here the governance of learning and the diffusion of technological knowledge in the civil aircraft industry. We describe a systemic process by which specialization in knowledge encourages depth whilst breadth is captured through the integration of contributions by the lead manufacturer, which acts as systems integrator. We explore the b...

Vaccine production is now at the heart of the debate on development. This paper argues that, as well as economic policies to address market failures, development policies aimed at fostering vaccine innovation should also consider the institutional and organisational uncertainties. The International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a product developm...

This paper analyzes the contribution of Virtual Design Tools (VDTs) to the processes of knowledge replication and recombination in the context of product innovation. On the basis of an in depth case study of two automotive firms engaged in two comparable new product development projects, we show that knowledge replication can occur in two distinct...

The literature on long waves gives great emphasis to the process of the diffusion of new pervasive technologies that raise productivity and growth, first in the sectors that generate them, then in those sectors that progressively adopt them. This paper explores this process of diffusion, relying on an ongoing analysis of the diffusion of robotized,...

Innovation has become a major field of study in economics, management, sociology, science and technology, and history. Case studies, empirical models, appreciative analyses and formal theories abound. However, after several decades of study on innovation, and so many different types of contribution, there are still many phenomena we know very littl...

La finalité de notre article est de comprendre la nature et la diversité des relations intervenant dans le processus de diffusion interorganisationnelle des connaissances. Notre questionnement porte dans un premier temps sur la nature des dimensions de ces relations et dans un second temps sur leur diversité. L’intérêt est double : préciser et comp...

The idea that innovation leads to positive economic performance has become a sort of truism in recent years. However, empirical evidence showing that innovating organizations and countries outperform non-innovating ones remains scant and scattered. In many ways, the jury is still out. First of all, there is still little agreement about what ‘perfor...

Based on a survey of the inventors of 9,017 European patented inventions, this paper provides new information about the characteristics of European inventors, the sources of their knowledge, the importance of formal and informal collaborations, the motivations to invent, and the actual use and economic value of the patents.

D esign rules allocate functions to modules, identify operating principles, and set interfaces among modules that deter-mine how organizations evolve. A case study of radical innovation in tire manufacturing illustrates the transition from old to new design rules through the joint adaptation of the manufacturing organization and the product to refl...

This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary effects and distributional consequences of IPR protection a...

This paper builds upon and extends existing studies of scientific and technological specialisation by proposing a broader theoretical framework to compare sectoral knowledge bases across countries. It puts forward the concepts of knowledge persistence and knowledge integration as the relevant dimensions along which knowledge bases can be mapped. Pe...

This paper builds upon current research into the organizational implications of 'modularity'. Advocates of modularity argue that the 'invisible hand' of markets is reaching activities previously controlled through the visible hand of hierarchies. This paper argues that there are cognitive limits to the extent of division of labour: what kinds of pr...

By drawing information from a survey of inventors of 9,017 European patents (PatVal-EU), this paper provides novel and detailed data about the characteristics of the European inventors, the sources of their knowledge, the importance of formal and informal collaborations among researchers and institutions, the motivations to invent, and the actual u...

This paper focuses on niche entry patterns in the LAN equipment industry in the 1990s. We analyze an original data-set of LAN equipment consisting of more than 1,000 hubs and switches marketed between 1990 and 1999. Modularity emerged as a design strategy that supported incumbent firms’ efforts to enter new product niches in the hub segment. Howeve...

This paper explores ongoing debates about the role that codified forms of knowledge play in fostering innovative behaviour. It aims to provide an empirical exploration of the use of codified sources of information for innovation at the firm and sectoral level. Despite considerable interest in David and Foray’s (1995) work on the codification of kno...

This article examines the knowledge bases of the world's largest pharmaceutical groups by sales. It builds upon the concepts of knowledge specialisation and knowledge integration as the relevant dimensions along which knowledge bases can be mapped. The former is studied developing indicators of breadth. Breadth is measured by analysing the evolutio...

This chapter analyses and extends existing studies of how to characterise, trace, and measure knowledge bases of firms, sectors, and countries. The chapter is structured in two main parts. First, we present the concepts of knowledge specialisation and knowledge integration as the relevant dimensions along which knowledge bases can be mapped. The co...

This paper discusses the issue of modularity from a problem-solving perspective. Modularity is in fact a decomposition heuristic, through which a complex problem is decomposed into independent or quasi-independent sub-problems. By means of a model of problem decomposition, this paper studies the trade-offs of modularity: on the one hand finer modul...

This paper focuses on the processes of capability building put in place by firms in the insurance industry in response to developments in genetics. In particular, this paper relies on an original survey of the UK-based life and health insurance industry that focused on how these companies are reacting to the emergence of predictive genetic testing....

This paper builds upon and extends existing studies of scientific and technological specialisation by proposing an analytical framework to compare sectoral knowledge bases across countries. It develops the concepts of knowledge persistence and knowledge integration as the relevant dimensions along which knowledge bases can be compared. Persistence...

This paper builds upon on-going research into the organisational implications of 'modularity'. Advocates of modularity argue that the Invisible Hand of markets is reaching activities previously controlled through the Visible Hand of hierarchies. This paper argues that there are cognitive limits to the extent of division of labour: what kinds of pro...

This paper examines the knowledge bases of the world's largest pharmaceuticals groups by sales. It puts forward the concepts of knowledge breadth and depth as the relevant dimensions along which knowledge bases can be mapped. Breadth is studied by analysing the evolution of specialisation by scientific field over time. It hints at the widening rang...

In the context of increasingly globalized markets, ever more complex supply chains and international manufacturing networks, corporate decision-making processes involve more and more actors, variables and criteria. This is a challenge for corporate head quarters. Many have argued that the role once attributed to the integrated innovative organisati...

This paper uses an analysis of developments in aircraft engine control systems to explore the implications of specialization in knowledge production for the organization and the boundaries of the firm. We argue that the definition of boundaries of the firm in terms of the activities performed in house does not take into account that decisions to o...

The contemporary literature concentrates on 'make or buy' decisions in design and production activities, assuming that decisions about the underlying fields of technological knowledge will automatically be the same. Building on previous research on multitechnology firms and products, this paper argues that firms know more about technology than they...

This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary effects and distributional consequences of IPR protection a...

This paper explores the issues of knowledge and organizational coordination that stem from the adoption of modular product architectures. Modularity is a common characteristic of the products we have studied: aircraft engines and chemical plants. In contrast to much current research on product and organizational design, we argue that knowledge and...

ABSTRACT,ii 1 INTRODUCTION,1 2 CURRENT RESEARCH ON COPS,1 2.1 Quantification of management studies,3 2.2 Historical attempts,4 2.3 SPRU's quantitative tradition,5 3 SURVEY APPROACHES,5 3.1 Survey approach I: inter-industry survey of practices,8 3.2 Survey approach II: the project-life survey,9 3.3 Survey approach III: intra-firm survey,10 3.4 Surve...

This paper looks at the development of radical innovation in the tire manufacturing industry. It looks at the forces that have pushed and pulled the industry to change dramatically. Particular emphasis is given to the interplay between technological and organizational changes. The paper argues that such interplay is fundamental to understand how an...