Innovation, learning and sensing: The case of the Supermarine Spitfire

Professor Thomas Hellmann, Academic Director, Entrepreneurship Centre, gives a talk for the Dean's Seminar Series. The financing of entrepreneurial finance is typically associated with venture capital. Over the last two decades researchers have made significant advances in understanding the complex role of venture capitalists, and their impact on the entrepreneurial process. Yet the last few years have also seen significant changes in the financial landscape of entrepreneurial companies. Particularly noteworthy is the rise of angel investors, as well as the associated growth of crowdfunding and accelerators.

We discuss the role business plays in society, and the expectations about the role business should play, having shifted dramatically in recent years. Yet, declining tenure rates and levels of public trust suggest that CEO leadership has not kept pace with increased expectations. The question, then, is this: How do senior executives develop the competence to lead in a changing world? With Dr Michael Smets, Associate Professor in Management and Organisation Studies; Dr Amanda Moss Cowan, Research Associate

Dr Timothy Hannigan, Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Corporate Reputation, discusses his research of measuring meaning across a collection of texts and its applications in management research.

Matthias Holweg explained his research on innovation in the context of comparing patterns of innovation in industry today, ranging from smartphones to automotive, with the patterns of innovation in fighter aircraft during World War II. Matthias Holweg is Professor of Operations Management,

Professor John Deighton identifies emerging market characteristics when dealing with personal data as a collective ecosystem, which supports data applications. John Deighton is L’Oreal Visiting Professor in Marketing and Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Dr Rafael Ramirez, Director of the Oxford Scenarios Programme at Saïd Business School, discusses using scenarios as a research method and presents his current research in scenario planning practices.