Strategic and cultural contexts of real options reasoning in innovation portfolios – Options thinking is something I’ve heard a lot recently. From what I understand, it’s about maximizing a company’s flexibility in making decisions, trying to delay committing into something as much as possible. This article is a good introduction to what it is about. They explain that it includes three main aspects:
- Approval of project budgets per phase instead of the entire project
- Setting of project goals is based on demonstrating feasibility to inform whether opportunity is worth committing
- New and ongoing projects should compete for resources
Trials and Terminations: Learning from Competitors’ R&D Failures – firms can integrate outside information to avoid making the same mistakes that other firms are doing. As the study finds: “competitor failure news from within the same market and same technology area [leads to ] more than doubling their propensity to terminate drug development projects in the wake of this type of information”
Avi Loeb podcast interview on Skeptic Michael Schermer’s show – Avi Loeb recently published a book on Oumuamua, hypothesizing that it’s evidence for alien life. Therefore, he argues that more resources should be allocated to fund this type of research. This interview is witnessing science as a process live. Michael and Avi are debating his claims in the context of the Sagan standard – extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Economic inequality – Is entrepreneurship the cause or the solution? A review and research agenda for emerging economies – Entrepreneurship has been pushed by many policymakers as the solution to societal challenges. However, it is important to also stop and reflect whether entrepreneurship can also cause new problems previously unanticipated. This review finds for instance that:
“Within emerging markets, entrepreneurship within the formal sector tends to benefit those who are already advantaged, while exclusionary institutions prevent those in the informal sector from participation.”