Kwanghui Lim

Assistant Professor
NUS Business School BIZ1-04-27
National University of Singapore
Singapore 117592
Republic of Singapore.

Sarah Cheah

Adjunct Senior Fellow
NUS Entrepreneurship Center
National University of Singapore
Republic of Singapore.

Email: neccly@nus.edu.sg
Biography: click here

CONTENTS:

• Introduction
• Who Should Take this Course
• Requirements and Grading
• Ground Rules and What To Do If You Miss a Class
• Textbooks, Course Pack, References
• Online Resources
• Detailed Syllabus and Class Plan

This course aims to equip students with a strong conceptual foundation for understanding the dynamic process of technological innovation and its socio-economic impacts. Students will be introduced to the importance of technological innovation as a driver for value creation and economic growth.

The dynamics of technological change will be analyzed through the concepts such as technology life-cycles, dominant design, disruptive technologies, network externalities and aggregate project plans. The key technology commercialization processes through which an innovative idea is transformed into a successful product or service in the marketplace will be studied, and the key organizational/management factors and socio-economic/competitive environmental factors that influence the effectiveness of these processes will be highlighted.

Students will be exposed to the challenges in technological innovation, including encouraging risk-taking and inventive creativity, discovering market opportunities, protection of intellectual property, attracting resources, entrepreneurial leadership and team building, overcoming resistance to change, etc. Technological innovation within existing organizations as well as through new start-ups will be examined. Case studies of real world examples of technological innovation, together with guest speakers, will be used to illustrate the concepts discussed in class.

This course is for undergraduate students. If you are a graduate student, you may be interested in MBA5251/MMT5002/TR5201(Management of Technology) or MBA5252/MMT6008 (Technology Strategy).

This course is designed for undergraduate students, to be taken as part of the Minor in Technopreneurship program offered by the NUS Entrepreneurship Center.

• This course is a prerequisite for the New Venture Creation course.
• This is not a "practical" course, where you get a "how to" guide. This is a conceptual course to get you thinking about fundamental ideas. However, being conceptual doesn't mean this class is boring: We covers many real-life industries and cases (e.g. disk drives, Palmpilot, Sony, Pharmaceuticals, NTT, Dell, etc). Previous students have said they learnt many useful lessons from TR2202.
• As an analogy, people who learn to play a musical instrument need to learn both the Theory of Music as well as to practice regularly. Practice is essential and some people are born gifted, but even they can push even further with a strong theoretical foundation. TR2202 is similar to the Theory of Music class -- it will give you a deeper understand that will help you in the more "practical" courses such as New Product Development and New Venture Creation.

You don't have to be a "techy" to take this class and do well. In a recent semester, a high percentage of students from non-technical faculties got an "A", "A+" or "A-". On average across the last 3 semesters, students from Arts, Business and SDE did about as well as those from Engineering, Science and Computer Science. The top student in 2004 was from a non-technical faculty.

Module Information:

• Modular Credits: 4 MCs
• Classroom hours per week: 3
• No of hours of preparation per week: 4 (includes time for group projects)

1. Individual Participation (20%):

• Attendance (10%): Attendance will be recorded each week by the TA, except during week 1. If you are absent for a valid reason, please email the instructor and provide documentary evidence. In such situations, your absence will not be used in computing your participation score. It is up to you to catch up on the materials you missed.

• In-class Participation Bonus (5%): The TA will identify exceptional contributors during in-class participations. These individuals will earn up to 5% bonus

  • "Valid" reasons for absence include being certified medically unfit by a doctor, death in the immediate family, and serious accidents. It does not include sports trainings, cultural events, job talks, and other situations where you chose to attend those events instead of being in class.
• IVLE Bonus (5%): Up to 5% of participation score will be awarded for thoughtful comments and analysis posted on IVLE.
  
• More about class participation:
  • Students are expected to analyze the readings and cases and contribute to class discussions. Preparing for class should take around 2-3 hours per week. Please do not come to class unprepared. The first week does not count towards class participation as it is an introduction.
  • No marks are subtracted if you say something "wrong". This helps other students clarify their misconceptions. However, you will be penalized for keeping your mouth shut! According to our guest speaker Yuan Lu from 3M, "If you don't ask questions, you don't have ideas". If you have something to say, no matter how silly, raise your hand.
  • Class participation is crucial because it helps you build self-confidence. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you must be able to articulate your case convincingly to venture capitalists and others. And you must think quickly on your feet.

2. Groupwork (30%):

• Group Project (20%): Each group will be assigned a project by the instructors. The group is responsible for investigating the topic assigned and writing a report. Each student's project grade is a composite of the overall score for the report (by the instructor), and a peer evaluation done by the rest of the team.
• In-Class Group Activities (10%). Students will be divided into groups and will remain in those groups throughout the semester. Each group will be graded on activites conducted DURING class.
• Once or twice during the semester, your group will get a chance to present a case analysis or participate in a debate in front of the class. This counts for 5% of the in-class group grade. If you miss class when your group presents, arrange with the TA to join a separate group on another date.
• Each week, your group will submit a discussion sheet that is graded. This constitute the other 5% of the in-class group grade. If you miss a class, you forfeit this component of your group grade for that week. 

3. Final Exam, compulsory (50%):

• Two hours. Two questions. Answer all parts of both questions.
• Open book. Bring along the case studies you discussed this semester.
• Previous exams (we knew you'd ask!): 2005-Apr, 2004-Nov, 2004-Apr, 2003-Nov, 2003-Apr, 2002-Nov.
• You are not allowed to bring "any palm-top PC, electronic organizers/digital diaries/dictionaries and notebook computers" [Registrar]
• Read these for good exam tips: MIT, Chicago.

CLASS ADMINISTRATION

Ground rules in class

• Turn off your handphone/pager.
• You may bring drinks. Given the timing of this class, you may bring food provided it does not have a strong aroma.
• Be pro-active. Class participation matters!

What to do if you missed class:

• If you cannot make it to class, read the class slides and spend 10 minutes with a classmate to learn what you missed. View the webcast.
• As mentioned above, the first week does not count towards class participation.
• If you missed a session during which your group presented, you will not earn points for in-class group activites (sorry, but we have to be fair to your group members). If you missed class for a valid reason, you can request the chance to join another group temporarily for the in-class presentation.

Guidelines for Assignments:

• For written assignments, 1" margins on all sides, 10 or 12 point fonts, 1.5-line spacing.
• No late assignment will be graded.
• IMPORTANT: Please read this important warning on plagiarism. [Plagiarism F AQ]

Textbook: you are not required to purchase a textbook.

IVLE eLibrary: The main readings are available in digital format via IVLE. The NUS Library has obtained copyright permission for you to download and view them. Please follow the terms of use stipulated on IVLE. This service is provided free of charge.

Xanedu Coursepack: Students will be required to purchase an online courespack from http://www.xanedu.com.

• It contains material that is copyrighted and for which a fee is required by the copyright holder.
• The estimated price of this coursepack is USD20
• The Xanedu coursepack looks like this (don't panic - it taks awhile to load...).
• Please pay us cash (Singapore Dollars) in week 3. NUS will forward your payment to Xanedu. NUS does not earn anything from this transaction.

Supplementary (on reserve at library):

• Managing strategic innovation and change : a collection of readings / [edited by] Michael L. Tushman, Philip Anderson, New York : Oxford University Press, 1997. [Library RBR].
• Managing Innovation: Integrating technological, market and organizational change, 2nd edition, by Joe Tidd, John Bessant and Keith Pavitt (2001), John Wiley and Sons.
• Innovation management : Strategies, implementation and profits / by Allan Afuah, New York : Oxford University Press, 1997.

Further exploration: http://mot.kwanghui.net

Glossaries of Business Terms:

• New York Times [www].
• Washingtonpost [www].

ONLINE RESOURCES

IVLE: Please subscribe to course TR2202 on the NUS Integrated Virtual Learning Environment. It contains class slides, an online discussion forum and course videos. This is where you will submit assisgnments and group projects.

Webcast: Each session is recorded. You can access these recordings from the IVLE multimedia section for this course, or here. They are useful if you missed class and want to catch up, or just for you to review/revise materials you might have missed during class time.