Great Problems, Great Minds Seminar Series: Achilles’ Heel: Architecture Change and Competitive Disadvantage of Geographical Clustering

The Department of Social Sciences presents its Great Problems, Great Minds seminar series featuring guest speaker Pengfei Li, an associate professor of strategy and global management at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, Canada, who will give a talk on “Achilles’ Heel: Architecture Change and Competitive Disadvantage of Geographical Clustering.” This event is open to the public and will take place on October 6 from 3:15–4:30 p.m. over Zoom.

Abstract

Geographical clustering contributes to innovation productivity and competitive advantages of firms. An analysis of the population of mobile handsets in China between 2008 and 2016 shows the opposite results that being in the cluster of Shenzhen decelerates the adoption of a new cellphone architecture as well as the following component innovations. The reason is a cluster firm’s product architecture knowledge, or its understanding of how the product should be designed and how components should be connected, is embedded in its relationship with local suppliers. In the period of architecture change, the vertical interdependence of firms in geographical clustering filters out new architecture information that does not match their common frame of reference on product design and creates misaligned commitments to move collectively to the new product architecture.

Bio

Pengfei Li is an associate professor of strategy and global management at the Haskayne School of Business in the University of Calgary, Canada. Before he worked at the HEC Montreal, the University of Toronto, and East China Normal University. He received his Ph.D. degree in geography from Peking University and a bachelor’s degree in geography from Northwest University. His research interests include economic geography and strategy management with a focus on industrial clusters, innovation ecosystems, and digital platforms. He has published scholarly articles on these research areas in top journals, such as Economic Geography, Journal of Economic Geography, and Journal of International Business Studies. His work has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, The Quebec Research Fund, the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, and the National Science Foundation of China. He has received the Best Paper Awards from the Regional Studies Association and the Academy of International Business and the Best Reviewer Award from the Journal of Economic Geography.

“Achilles’ Heel: Architecture Change and Competitive Disadvantage of Geographical Clustering” is a part of the Department of Social Science’s Great Problems, Great Minds seminar series which explores the major problems facing humanity as we move into the heart of the twenty-first century. To see the full schedule and videos from previous events, visit the seminar series page. For more information, contact Associate Professor of Social Sciences Hao Huang at hhuang48@iit.edu.

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