Contemporary Strategic Management Research on Technology and Innovation
Prof. Haiyang LI
Joe Nelson III Professor of Management
Rice University
Date: 6 November 2025 (Thursday)
Time: 11:30-12:30
Venue: E22-G008
Host: Prof. Linda CHEN, Associate Professor in Management
Abstract
The platform literature has shown conflicting findings regarding how a platform owner’s entry into its complementors’ market affects complementors’ innovation. To reconcile these mixed findings, we present a dynamic perspective on platform evolution within and across technology generations. We argue that in the early stage of a platform’s technology generation, the platform owner’s entry provides vicarious learning opportunities for complementors to understand and reduce their technology and demand uncertainties, thus encouraging their innovation. However, in the late stage, the platform owner’s entry increases competitive pressure on complementors, thus discouraging their innovation. We further explore how technology gaps between two successive generations and complementors’ product portfolios’ attributes moderate these relationships. Our findings, using data from the game console industry (2000–2020), strongly support these arguments.
Speaker
Dr. Haiyang Li is the H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Strategic Management and Innovation at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Renmin University of China and obtained his Ph.D. from City University of Hong Kong. Before joining Rice University, he served on the faculty of the Department of Management at Texas A&M University and Lingnan University of Hong Kong.
His research focuses on technology entrepreneurship and innovation, strategic alliances, multinational firms’ innovation in emerging markets, and the development of China’s technology clusters. His work has appeared in leading journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Marketing, Organization Science, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, and Research Policy. He is also the co-founding editor of the Quarterly Journal of Management, a premier management journal in Chinese. At Rice University, Professor Li teaches courses in Strategic Management, Strategic Innovation Management, and Digital Transformation across the MBA/EMBA programs. Dr. Li’s research and teaching have been recognized with multiple awards. He received the Best Paper Award in the Selling and Sales Management Track at the American Marketing Association’s Winter Marketing Educators’ Conference (2001) and the Grief Research Impact Award (2016). His teaching case, “GE China Technology Center: Evolving Role in Global Innovation,” won the EFMD Case Writing Competition Award in the Bringing Technology to Market category. He was honored with the Teaching Excellence Award for the Professional MBA Program at the Jones School of Business.
All are welcome!
