ALFONSO GAMBARDELLA

Courses a.y. 2023/2024
20595 BUSINESS ANALYTICS
20869 STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING
40050 APPLIED BUSINESS STUDIES
Courses previous a.y.
I teach three Master courses on innovation management and decision-making. Under different angles and technicalities, they show why and how a scientific approach, based on theoretical framing of problems and tests using data, help managers and entrepreneurs to make better decisions. I also teach two executive courses on the topic, adapted to this audience. Finally, I teach a PhD course that tries to help students to use econometrics for business analysis.
Biographical note
I am a Professor of Corporate Management. I obtained my PhD in 1991 from the Department of Economics of Stanford University. My work focuses on the economics and management of technological innovations and the technology strategies of firms.
About
I am Department Editor of Business Strategy at Management Science. I am also a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society (SMS), and a Research Fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
In 2021 I was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants 2021 entitled A Scientific Approach to Innovation Management (SAIM) (2021-2026)
Research interests
I am interested in the implications of innovation activities in firms for strategy, market structure and economic growth more generally. Since innovation plays such an important role in firms and our economies, in recent years I have focused on how firms and entrepreneurs can make better decisions under uncertainty. Through a series of randomized control trials, with Arnaldo Camuffo and other colleagues we have shown that decision-makers who use a scientific approach (theory and tests) make better decisions. I think that this is an important micro-foundation of management and strategy especially in light of the current digital revolution.
Selected Publications
Framing strategic decisions in the digital world
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT REVIEW, Forthcoming
Value lab: a tool for entrepreneurial strategy
MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS REVIEW, 2021
Profiting from enabling technologies?
STRATEGY SCIENCE, 2021
Lean startup and the business model: experimentation revisited
LONG RANGE PLANNING, 2020
Managing autonomy in industrial Research and Development: a project-level investigation
ORGANIZATION SCIENCE, 2020
A scientific approach to entrepreneurial decision making: evidence from a randomized control trial
MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, 2020
Open sourcing as a profit-maximizing strategy for downstream firms
STRATEGY SCIENCE, 2019
Specializing in generality: firm strategies when intermediate markets work
ORGANIZATION SCIENCE, 2019
The user innovation paradigm: impacts on markets and welfare
MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, 2017