15.912: Strategic Management of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Syllabus pdf)
Spring H1: MWF1-2:30 or MWF2:30-4
3-0-3 H-LEVEL Grad Credit

This course provides a series of strategic frameworks for managing high-technology businesses with a particular focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, especially as it builds upon patterns of technological and market change, prior research on product development and new ventures, and the structure and development of organizational capabilities. The course utilizes lectures, case analyses, and independent reading. The readings are drawn from research in technological innovation, entrepreneurial management, and organizational theory.

The case studies provide an opportunity to integrate and apply these abstract tools in a practical context. Because of the explosion of entrepreneurial innovation in the iPhone and Android smartphone ecosystem, and the fact that I am currently researching it, the class will probably feature examples and guest speakers from application-focused ventures in this space.

This half-term course is only offered once per year. It will be offered again in Spring H1 2013 the 2012-13 academic year. Interested students should bid and register, or email the instructor and plan to show up on the first day and complete an add card to register. Listeners/auditors (those who do not register) are unfotunately not possible. This course is required of E&I track students and open to other MIT students. Non-MBA Sloan students including MSMS, LGO, SDM, and Sloan Fellows often register for the class, and are welcome. Finally, given the mix of technology and management issues in the course, I welcome students from other parts of campus who are interested in innovation and entrepreneurship. Please email me with any questions.

Sample Course Evaluation:

Professor Davis's 15.912 Spring 2013 Rating: 6.4/7

Quotes from Jason's former 15.912 Students:

"This class provides essential concepts and frameworks for understanding interplay between firms within technology based industries.”

“Professor Davis focuses on identifying product development and organizational processes that enable firms to successfully create and capture value, while delivering innovative products and services to their customers.”

“These concepts are reinforced with relevant case discussions based on current challenges found in numerous tech industries.”

“Understanding these concepts is critical for developing strategies for a broad range of industries and I highly recommend this course for anyone considering a career in high tech, bio/pharma, operations or product development after graduation.”

“The concepts we learned in 15.912 were very applicable to the broad range of industries we covered, from IT and Telecommunications, to the Life Sciences. The cases were interesting and class discussions were lively and well managed.”

“As MIT Sloan students, we are expected to know something about technology. Employers take the MIT name seriously and assume that we can speak intelligently about technology and its effects on the business world. Technology Strategy is a great class to help you build your technical vocabulary and sharpen your strategy tool kit. ”

“The class is a mix of great cases, lively discussion and useful frameworks. I enjoyed learning about the key role technology plays in business strategy.”

"15.912 is absolutely fundamental material for anyone coming out of MIT Sloan interested in Entrepreneurship, working at a technology or innovation-driven company, or going into strategy consulting."