Institute for Business Innovation
Trends & Highlights in Technology Development and Management
The Institute’s programs in Technology Development and Management are expanding with the renewed business and student interest in technology and maintaining leadership by addressing globalization, disruptive technologies, and other new perspectives and issues in technology. Please see below for highlights, or visit the Research and Programs in Technology Development and Management page.
The Management of Technology Program (MOT) is the most popular interdisciplinary program at UC Berkeley, with classes and fellowship programs in the Haas School of Business and the College of Engineering. MOT continues to grow in enrollment and is breaking new ground in the study of technology in emerging economies.
MOT has been chosen by Japan's largest business publisher, Nikkei, as the exclusive academic contributor to its new magazine focused on technology business, Nikkei BizTech/MOT. The first three issues of the new magazine include articles written by Paul Wright on advances in manufacturing, Jihong Sanderson on management of technology in China, and Henry Chesbrough on open innovation. The MOT Program regularly advises Japanese universities on how to create Management of Technology centers.
Now it its 5th year, the MOT-CRC China Fellowship Program was created for MBA and graduate engineering students with an interest in technology, business, and the rapid development of China's high tech economy. Eight graduate students from the Haas School of Business and the College of Engineering were selected as MOT-China Fellows for 2007-2008. Fellows enroll in the MOT course MOT - Doing Business in China in the Fall 2007 semester to build knowledge and learn about Chinese business customs in preparation for the trip.
The fellowship includes an MOT and CRC organized trip to China, taking place in January 2008. The Fellows will travel to Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing to meet with high tech executives, business leaders, researchers and government officials, and meet their counterparts at Chinese universities.
The Fisher Center for the Management of Information Technology is enjoying a revival supported by the renewed business interest in technology. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Institute has named a new leadership team for the Center. Jim Spitze serves as executive director of the Fisher Center, and Dr. Terrence Hendershott of the Haas School to serves as faculty director. The Fisher Center, guided by a 12-member advisory board, continues to support the development of IT-related research, instruction, and corporate outreach on behalf of faculty and students at the Haas School of Business and other Berkeley departments.
The Fisher Center also supports >play: the Berkeley Digital Media Conference, the successful new media conference organized by Haas students.
Acknowledging the rise of handheld mobile devices as a dominant computing platform both in the United States and abroad, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of California at Berkeley sponsored “The Mobile Future: Technology Revolutionizing Our Lives.” a conference gathering leading academics, researchers, pundits and industry experts to discuss their visions of this mobile future, along with technology and business models for achieving them. The conference was held on April 22 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California, and attracted widespread press and blog coverage.
2008 Conference Overview
2008 Conference Presentations
2008 Conference Highlights/News and Blog Coverage
2007 Conference
The Fisher Center has become a founding member and sponsor of the new Software Business Community web site (http://www.swbcommunity.org/swbc/index.php/Main_Page ).
The Software Business Community is dedicated to uncovering the unique challenges of the business of software, including software suppliers, service providers and product companies heavily dependent on software, major users of software, firms providing services to all these participants, and the software industry as a whole. It provides a forum where individuals and organizations with various complementary perspectives, such as suppliers, service providers, and end-users can come together to create and archive a relevant body of knowledge. The community takes various perspectives, including relevant academic disciplines (economics, management, software engineering, the social sciences, and others), the expertise and experience of managers and practitioners, empirical and field research, and theory. The ultimate goal is to make software businesses of all types, and the software industry as a whole, more successful, and the successful use of these services more attainable.
In October 2004 the Center for Telecommunications and Digital Convergence and the Center for Research on Telecommunications Policy, affiliates of the Fisher Center, sponsored a timely conference on business and technology with the VoIP Volcano Workshop. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a true “disruptive technology,” capable of delivering mass market communications over the nation’s existing infrastructure at lower cost and with greatly expanded capabilities relative to traditional circuit-switched services. The workshop identified fundamental technological and economic properties of this technology, the implications for business strategy and technology policy, and the perspectives and opportunities for incumbents and startups, for business and residential users, and for service providers and equipment vendors.
