Media Contacts:

Dr. Al Bean, 919/513-0166 or a.s.bean@worldnet.att.net
Sara Frisch, College of Management, 919/513-4479 or sara_frisch@ncsu.edu

Nov. 3, 2000

Center Focused on Innovation Management Moves to NC State

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

In this age of technological change, researchers of all types are striving for the next big breakthrough, new product, standard practice or state-of-the-art technological advancement. Corporate and academic researchers alike know the process of innovation can be long, complex and full of hurdles.

For 15 years, the Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS) has focused on improving the process of technological innovation, from generating new ideas to developing and commercializing technologies. Transferring from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, CIMS has found a new home at North Carolina State University's College of Management, where it can build on the university's strengths in research, innovation and technology transfer.

Bringing research and development (R&D) academics and industrial practitioners together, CIMS is discovering how to better prepare the next generation of technology managers to meet the challenges of innovation, says Dr. Al Bean, executive director of the center. The center's theoretical and practical research addresses issues such as the fuzzy front-end of innovation, product renewal cycles, globalization of R&D, and management of knowledge and intellectual capital.

CIMS has been a high-profile research partnership among academia, government and industry since its founding in 1985 as an Industry-University Cooperative Research Center funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). In its new role at NC State, the center is supported by the NSF; the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science at NC State; the College of Management; and industrial partners ABB, Armstrong World Industries Inc., Exxon Chemical Co. and The Procter & Gamble Co.

The College of Management, with a mission to focus on the management of technology, is a good fit for CIMS, Bean says. The structure of CIMS incorporates public-private partnerships and encourages collaboration among diverse academic and industrial fields. These characteristics fall in line with the NC State's longstanding support of partnerships, interdisciplinary collaboration and the Centennial Campus model.

Technological innovation, by nature, is interdisciplinary, Bean says. "It requires people with training in engineering, science and technology to understand and appreciate the technical side. But the innovation part has to do with converting the technical knowledge to practice and commercializing it, which requires people with an appreciation for commercial development and business."

Each year, CIMS funds research projects at universities nationwide and encourages academic researchers to work with corporate sponsors to apply the results to organizations. Bean says one of the center's goals is to package research results in formats useful to the industrial R&D community, which has supported CIMS research from the beginning.

The research collaborations can also influence the growing academic focus on innovation and technology commercialization. "In the last 15 years, the academic and educational field of technology management has emerged as a recognized specialty within management education," Bean says. "The redesigned Master of Science in Management program at NC State’s College of Management is an excellent case in point."

The college's programs in Technology Education and Commercialization (TEC) and New Product Development also incorporate innovation management concepts. A number of NC State faculty are actively doing research in this field, and some have received CIMS funding in the past.

Dr. Steve Markham, professor of business management and creator of the TEC program, will serve as the director of CIMS. Assistant professor Dr. Lynda Aiman-Smith will be its associate director. Michelle Grainger will be program director. Dr. Theodore Schlie, an associate professor at Lehigh, will continue to serve as assistant director for research.

Later this month, CIMS will select and fund the next set of research projects focused on the effects of information technology, globalization, and mergers and acquisitions on R&D and innovation. The center also will host a workshop on intellectual property, at which participants will explore how universities and industrial partners can collaborate on research and treat the resulting intellectual property in a mutually beneficial way.

--frisch--

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