Цикъл лекции на Валентина Фава (Valentina Fava)

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Катедра „Приложна и институционална социология”

Център „Наука, технологии, иновации”

 

Цикъл лекции на Валентина Фава (Valentina Fava)

PhD in Business History, University Luidgi Bocconi, Milano, Italy

Fellow at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Finland

 

Петък, 17 Май – Зала „Компас, Новото крило зад Ректора

Technology and Innovation through the Lenses of Business History

  1.  What is Business History? From Chandler to the “New” Organizational Sinthesis
  2. Business History and Innovation: Cases from Capitalism and Socialism

Readings:

  • Lou Galambos and Jeff Sturchio (1998) “Pharmaceutical Firms and the Transition to Biotechnology: a Study in Strategic Innovation”, Business History Review, 72/2: 250-278
  • Karen Freeze, „Innovation & Technology Transfer during the Cold War. The case of the Open-End Spinning Machine from Communist Czechoslovakia“ in Technology and Culture, 48 (2007),249-285

Suggested reading but not compulsory:

  • Margaret Graham, “Technology and Innovation” in Geoffrey Jones, Jonathan Zeitlin, The Oxford Handbook of Business History, OUP, 2007, 347-373

 

Събота, 18 май – 38 семинарна зала, 5 етаж, ул. Костаки Пеев №21

Business History and the Historical Sociology of Socialism: a Fruitful Dialogue?

  1. The US origines of Business History and the Need to Globalize
  2. Rethinking Chandlerian „Capabilities“
  3. From the Socialist Enterprise to the Post Socialist Firm: Discussion on Corporate Case Studies

Readings:

  • B. Kogut and U. Zander, “Did Socialism fail to innovate? A natural experiment of the two Zeiss companies”, American Sociological Review, vol. 65, n.2 (Apr. 2000), pp 169-190
  • M. W. Peng, P. S. Heath, “The growth of the firm in Planned economies in transition: institutions, organizations and strategic choice”, Academy of Management Review, 1996, vol. 21, n.2, pp 492-529.

The students are kindly asked to reflect on a corporate case study.  In order to do so:

a) Visit the website of a firm. It can be headquartered anywhere in one of the former socialist countries or be a major brand of a multinational corporation (for example Skoda)

b) Introduce the firm – describe the firm’s key products/services and industry

c) Describe briefly the process by which this firm went private and describe the changes it went through during the transition in terms of products/services, markets and industry.

d) Try to explain why and how the firm has survived the transition.