Brain for Business

• Series 3, Episode 9: How should firms balance exploration and exploitation? with Dr Axel Zeijen, ETH Zurich

  Balancing exploration and exploitation is a fundamental strategic challenge for organizations operating in dynamic environments. Managers must decide how often and when to search for new technologies and products, weighing the costs of exploration against the risk of missing trends that could render their business models obsoleteTo dig deep into this topic I am delighted to be speaking today to Professor Axel Zeijen.About our guest…Axel Zeijen is a Lecturer at the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.With a background in industrial engineering and innovation sciences, Axel is broadly interested in technological change and its organizational implications. In particular, he attempts to understand where and how technological forces and firm strategy interact, and how this process plays out. His research projects cover industries where new technologies change the capabilities of firms, create new opportunities for change, and affect how competition plays out. The articles discussed in the podcast area as follows (both open access):Zeijen, A., Romagnoli, M., & Marengo, L. (2025). Signposts for problemistic search: Reference points and adaptation in rugged landscapes. Strategy Science. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/full/10.1287/stsc.2023.0072Denrell, J., Zeijen, A., Romagnoli, M., & Marengo, L. (2025). Absolute, average‐based, and rank‐based aspirations. Strategic Management Journal. https://sms.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smj.3715Websites for Axel and each of his co-authors are as follows:Axel Zeijen - https://timgroup.ethz.ch/people/senior-researchers/dr-axel-zeijen.htmlJerker Denrell - https://www.wbs.ac.uk/about/person/jerker-denrell/Manuel Romagnoli - https://www.wiwi.uni-jena.de/en/11462/dr-manuel-romagnoliLuigi Marengo - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OKWSBtQAAAAJ&hl=en Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Season 3 Episode 8: Why and how does founder age perception influence funding outcomes? With Dr Michael Matthews, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

  A recent article in the Journal of Business Venturing sought to address the question of: Why and how does founder age perception influence funding outcomes?To discuss the importance of this question and the key findings of the paper I am delighted to be joined by Dr Michael Matthews, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. About our guest...Michael Matthews, Ph.D., studies leadership and the intersection between work and life. Michael received his B.S. (Brigham Young University) and M.S. (The University of Oklahoma) in information systems. Later, he received his Ph.D. in Business Administration (University of Oklahoma) with a particular focus on organizational behavior. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His writing has been featured in outlets such as the Journal of Management, Leadership Quarterly, and Harvard Business Review. Prior to entering academia, Michael worked as a computer programmer for several technology companies. In particular, Michael has coded for organizations such as ExxonMobil and Proofpoint.More information:Just a number? Using artificial intelligence to explore perceived founder age in entrepreneurial fundraising (from Journal of Business Venturing): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0883902623000757Research Powered by AI Shows Age Discrimination in Entrepreneurial Fundraising (from California Management Review): https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2024/03/research-powered-by-ai-shows-age-discrimination-in-entrepreneurial-fundraising/Two other papers mentioned in our conversation: Eren, O., & Mocan, N. (2018). Emotional judges and unlucky juveniles. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 10(3), 171-205.Nault, K. A., Pitesa, M., & Thau, S. (2020). The attractiveness advantage at work: A cross-disciplinary integrative review. Academy of Management Annals, 14(2), 1103-1139. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Series 3, Episode 7: The importance of Learning to See with Professor Keith Sawyer, University of North Carolina

  In a new book – Learning to See: Inside the world's leading art and design schools, published by MIT Press – our guest today, Professor Keith Sawyer explores the way that people see and learn to see, offering an engaging and profound account of how professional artists and designers create and how they teach others to do it. In the interview we explore the key insights from Keith's research and their significance for anyone working in any role or organisation.About our guest…Keith Sawyer is Morgan Distinguished Professor of Educational Innovations at the University of North Carolina. Keith has dedicated his career to the study of creativity and learning. His research helps us answer questions such as: Which teams are more creative? What team processes result in greater creativity? Which groups are more likely to contribute to more effective learning of the participants? Which organizations and classrooms are most likely to foster effective group interactions?Learning to See: Inside the world's leading art and design schools by Keith Sawyer is available to purchase here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262551649/learning-to-see/You can find out more about Keith's work via his Substack and Podcat:The Science of Creativity Podcast is available here: https://sawyerpodcast.com/The Science of Creativity Substack can be accessed here: https://keithsawyer.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Series 3, Episode 6: The Creativity Choice, with Dr Zorana Ivcevic Pringle

  Creative work in itself is stressful and riddled with anxiety-provoking uncertainties. It takes resilience to persist through these challenges. It takes willingness to endure and overcome obstacles, from the internal voices of doubt and self-criticism to scarce material resources to difficulties in getting support for ideas. How are creative people able to do what others cannot? How do they transform the challenges and difficulties that original ideas are riddled with into actions and achievements?It is just these questions that our guest today, Dr Zorana Ivcevic Pringle explores in her new book, The Creativity Choice, published by Hachette.About our guest…Zorana Ivcevic Pringle is a Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence where she currently serves as the Director of the Creativity and Emotions Lab. Zorana studies the role of emotion and emotional intelligence in creativity and well-being, as well as how to use the arts (and art-related institutions) to promote emotion and creativity skills.Find out more about Zorana’s work and order her book, The Creativity Choice, here: https://www.zorana-ivcevic-pringle.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Series 3, Episode 5: Are generations a useful concept? With Professor David Costanza, University of Virginia

  If all the noise in the popular media and online is anything to go by, differences between various generations including Gen Z, Gen X, Boomers and so on are not just real but are something that leaders and organisations need to take seriously in order to ensure their effectiveness into the future. But is that really the case? Is there really a scientific basis to support arguments and assertions about generational differences and their impact on organisations?To explore these questions, I am delighted to welcome to Brain for Business Professor David Costanza.David Costanza is a professor at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.About our guest...Professor Costanza’s research focuses on generational differences; adaptive leadership; high potential; organizational culture, decline, and death; as well as statistics and research methods. He has published in Journal of Business and Psychology; Journal of Vocational Behavior; Personnel Psychology; and Work, Aging and Retirement. He has authored for Slate and has been interviewed by The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, TIME magazine, VOX, and Yahoo! Finance. He is a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Academy of Management and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Business and Psychology and Work, Aging and Retirement.The 2023 article from the journal Acta Psychologica – Are generations a useful concept? – can be accessed here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691823002354The Slate article referred to – Can We Please Stop Talking About Generations as if They Are a Thing? – to is available here: https://slate.com/technology/2018/04/the-evidence-behind-generations-is-lacking.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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