Category: Forum

Date： March 30（Monday), 2026 from 14:00 to 15:30 Topic: “Technoficing: From Idea to Measurement and Beyond” Speaker: Israr Qureshi (Professor of Digital Development and Social Entrepreneurship, Queen’s Business School, Queen’s University Belfast) Abstract: This research seminar traces the journey from ideas to measurement, illustrating how meaningful research emerges when scholars integrate grounded inquiry, rich ethnography, and rigorous measurement development. Using the phenomenon of technoficing—the creative adaptation and repurposing of technology for social good (Qureshi et al., 2021)—as an example, the session highlights how compelling research ideas often originate in the field through close observation, immersion, and engagement with real-world practice. Ethnographic and case-based methods help researchers identify novel concepts and…

Date：February 4（Wednesday), 2026from 10:30 to 12:30 Topic:“Intergenerational transfer of knowledge and skills in a long-lived family business : The Case of MinSokJu AnDong Soju” & “Further Research Proposal” Speaker:LEE Jiman (Professor, Yonsei University, School of Business / Visiting Researcher, Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University) Venue:onsiteIIR Laboratory 2 (Room#219) of the second floor of the IIR building Organizer:Karube, Masaru This forum is jointly organized by MIC (Management Innovation Research Center), Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study. Deadline:9:00, February 4, 2026 For registration, please click on “Innovation Forum” below. Innovation Forum

Date： January 20（Tuesday), 2026 from 13:00 to 15:00 Topic: “Designing research for fit: Research design considerations for qualitative researchers” Abstract: Conducting convincing and impactful qualitative research depends on researchers’ ability to collect rich, meaningful data. This, in turn, requires thoughtful research design. In this lecture, we will explore how qualitative researchers craft designs that achieve “fit” among the core components of a study—phenomenon, context, theory, data, and research question. We will consider how onto-epistemological assumptions and orientations toward variance or process theorizing shape methodological choices, and reflect on the dynamic nature of design, where researchers’ ability to reflexively adjust design elements in situ is essential for ensuring rigor and generating…

Date：November 26（Wednesday), 2025from 16:00 to 17:30 Topic:“The Innovation Puzzle : Banish the Innovation Killers and become an Emerging Champion” Abstract:The following provides a brief introduction to his recent publication, “The Innovation Puzzle: Banish the Innovation Killers and Become an Emerging Champion.”The Innovation Puzzle, banish the innovation killers and become an emerging champion: first forensically dissects the pervasive but hidden biases and behavioural traps that doom to failure the usual formulae for innovation that companies embrace, and then it takes readers on a journey in which they will banish these biases and behaviours for good and turn their companies into world-class innovators. Speaker:Victor Gilsing(Professor, School of Business and Economics, the Vrije…

Date：October 27（Monday), 2025from 14:30 to 16:00 Topic:“Shaping Sustainable Futures: Innovation in Reporting and Zero-Emission Pathways for the Shipping and Energy Sectors” Speaker:Mauricio Latapí(Assistant Professor, Mount Royal University, Canada) Venue:onsiteIIR Laboratory 1 (Room#119) of the first floor of the IIR building Organizer:Karube, Masaru This forum is jointly organized by MIC (Management Innovation Research Center), Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study. Deadline:9:00, October 27, 2025 For registration, please click on “Innovation Forum” below. Innovation Forum

Date： October 15（Wednesday), 2025 from 16:00 to 17:30 Topic: “Business Scholars on Boards and Firm Innovation” Speaker: Cornelia Storz (Professor, Goethe University, Frankfurt) Abstract: Why do business scholars-directors, rather than STEM scholar-directors, drive firm innovation? This paper addresses this unexpected pattern through an abductive research design combining panel data, interviews, and publication analysis. Drawing on a hand-collected dataset of Chinese listed firms (2008–2018), we show that business scholars on corporate boards enhance innovation by contributing strategic knowledge – higher-order, portable insights rooted in frameworks, heuristics, and theories that help firms navigate the uncertainty inherent in innovation across market dynamics, organizational design, and competitive positioning. We theorize strategic knowledge as a distinct asset, whose impact…

Date： June 30（Monday), 2025 from 16:30 to 17:30 Topic: “Rare Diseases, Real Options: Unlocking Strategic Value in Pharmaceutical Innovation” Speaker: SHORT, Cole Evan (Assistant Professor, Pepperdine University／Visiting Associate Professor, Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University) Venue: onsite IIR Laboratory 1 (Room#119) of the first floor of the IIR building Organizer: Padrón-Hernández, Ivar This forum is jointly organized by MIC (Management Innovation Research Center), Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study. Deadline: 9:00, June 30, 2025 For registration, please click on “Innovation Forum” below. Innovation Forum

Date：April 9（Wednesday), 2025from 17:30 to 19:00 Topic:“Unlocking Generality: Resurfacing Uncertainty Across Applications of the Lithium-ion Battery” Speaker:David A. Kirsch(Associate Professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the College of Information Studies (by courtesy) at the University of Maryland) Abstract:Studies of industry emergence have often generated insights from empirical contexts with a one-to-one correspondence between a technology and its application. In parallel, studies of general-purpose technologies (GPTs) have documented the economic impact and versatility of technologies with broad downstream applications, although these studies often abstract away from the endogenous and gradual process through which a single technology underpins multiple downstream markets, in practice assuming that “generality” is an…

Date: February 6 (Thursday), 2025 from 12:40 to 14:00 Topic: “Japan-EU relations in times of changing geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics” Abstract: The economic partnership agreement (EPA) together with the subsequent strategic partnership agreement (SPA) has laid the foundation for both width and depth in the EU-Japan relationship. Collaboration around the rules-based world order is important for both parties in parallel with facilitating frameworks for digitalization and a transition towards a green economy. In the shadow of the complex and difficult US-China relationship, the foundation for a stronger relationship between the economic and political partners of EU-Japan would be possible for the future. This paper aims to discuss these dynamics and…

Date： December 18（Wednesday), 2024 from 16:30 to 18:00 Topic: “The impact of platform business models on the valuations of unicorn companies” Speaker: Michael Cusumano (Sloan Management Review Distinguished Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management / Visiting Professor, Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University) Abstract: Despite the importance of digital platforms in the global economy, there has been little systematic or quantitative analysis of how investors value platforms and the scope of their business models in private or public markets. This paper seeks to fill this gap in part by analyzing how unicorn valuations are affected by “platformness” (the degree to which a firm incorporates at least some elements…