This course looks at the role of innovation in the modern economy. The main goal of the course is to understand how firms’ innovation strategies affect (and are affected by) the economic, technological and social context which surrounds them. To achieve this goal students are required to write (in small groups) a business case which focuses on defining an appropriate innovation strategy for an existing or start-up firm depending on four different hypothetical scenarios which might characterize the Netherlands’ economy and society in 2040.

This course looks at innovation from within the firm, and investigates how innovation processes contribute to economic growth. Firms do not act in isolation: they need to confront themselves with the changing conditions of the economy and society of which they are part. The proposed literature covers notions of knowledge, innovation, and technology (innovation systems, general purpose technologies), their Organisational patterns (networks, clusters, and global value chains), and firms’ innovation strategies in modern contexts (dispersed R&D, markets for technology).
In order to develop theoretically grounded innovation strategies, the course combines a theoretical perspective with practical elements on innovation processes in firms. Each tutorial is divided in two parts: in the first the assigned literature is reviewed and discussed, in the second theoretical insights are applied to the business cases on which students (in groups) work during the course. The business case addresses one of the four scenarios outlined in the CPB report (reference below), is guided by a set of questions and discussed during the tutorials.
This course provides business students with the dual opportunity to develop their understanding of innovation processes within firms and understand how managerial decisions shape and are shaped by economic, social, and technological conditions.

ter Weel, B., van der Horst, A., and Gelauff, G. (2010), The Netherlands of 2040, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
Journal articles

an advanced level of English