Uncertainty Management in Innovation Activities. Seminar on Thursday, October 17th, 2024

Mario Sergio Salerno - Professor at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil. The seminar is reserved to Department of Management.

  • Date: 17 October 2024 from 14:00 to 15:00

  • Event location: On line (Teams) and live in Aula Seminari 1, via Capo di Lucca 34, Bologna

From a common reference framework on uncertainties, the project articulates:

1) uncertainty management in radical innovation activities in established companies, and the emergence of a radical innovation function (a networked function), portfolio management of innovation projects, relationships among the RI function and other organizational function in the company, and HR policies for RI;

2) entrepreneurial action in startups focused on uncertainty recognition and management in the innovation ecosystem of value co-creation. Additionally, how social innovation occurs and uncertainties in agroforestry production in the Amazon region (preserving the forest).

The project uses quantitative but mainly qualitative methodologies, including comparative analysis (QCA, CNA), process tracking/ESA – event-structure analysis, phenomenological approaches/Gioia template, and Eisenhardt-like case studies.

Senior Full Professor at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil, Production Engineering Department.  Head of the Innovation Management Laboratory (sites.usp.br/lgi), focused on the organization and management of strategic innovation.

Graduated (1979) and Ph.D. in Production Engineering (USP, 1991, with a stage at Milan Polytechnic, Italy),  specialization in new technologies and development at the University of Sussex (UK, 1986), and post-doctoral research periods at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris, 1996) and at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA, 2014-5).

He has published several papers in scientific journals and books and chapters in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, UK, and the USA.

Currently, heads a research program on uncertainty management in innovation activities, involving radical innovation in startups and incumbent companies (highlighting RI as a networked function) and themes such as social innovation, RI projects developed in decentralized networks in the Brazilian Federal Police, and agroforestry production with local communities in the Amazon region (preserving the original forest).

Former Director of the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI, 2005-6); Director of Ipea – The Institute of Applied Economic Research (2003-4); Member of the Strategic Council of The Institute of Technological Research of the São Paulo State (IPT, 2010-9); Technical-Scientific Council, The National Institute of Technology (INT, 2008-2015).

Full CV available at http://lattes.cnpq.br/3276012121928233 (Portuguese/English).

The seminar will be held in English.

Major Information: Elisa Villani (e.villani@unibo.it).