Satish Nambisan, PhD, is the Nancy and Joseph Keithley Professor of Technology Management at the Weatherhead School of Management. An award-winning author and researcher, Nambisan’s research interests lie in the broad areas of innovation management, entrepreneurship, and technology management. His current work focuses on how digital technologies shape innovation and value creation in global business.
Dr. Nambisan is the author of several notable books including The Global Brain: Your Roadmap for Innovating Faster and Smarter in a Networked World (Wharton School Publishing, 2008). His latest book, The Digital Multinational: Navigating the New Normal in Global Business (MIT Press, 2022), won the Axiom 2023 Business Book Award (Gold Medal) in the International Business/Globalization category.
His research has been published in a wide range of journals including Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Management Science, Organization Science, Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, MIS Quarterly, Research Policy, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, and Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Reflecting the significant and broad influence of his publications over the last decade or so, Dr. Nambisan has been recognized with the Web of Science-Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher distinction—for cross-field impact (2022) and for economics & business (2023).
He serves on the editorial board of several journals including Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and Academy of Marketing Science Review. He is a Field Editor at the Journal of Business Venturing and a Department Editor at Management and Business Review.
Prior to joining Weatherhead, Nambisan held faculty positions at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has held visiting faculty appointments at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and at the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna, Austria.
In 2006, Nambisan was honored by his alma mater Syracuse University with the Martin J. Whitman Distinguished Ph.D. Alumni Award.
He speaks globally on topics related to innovation management and digital transformation strategies, with a particular focus on multinational companies. He has advised and consulted with a broad range of organizations including Microsoft, 3M, P&G, SAP, Sharp Laboratories, Singapore Telecom, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, ASAE, and the Philadelphia Science Center.
Prior to joining the academia, Nambisan held executive positions at consumer-products conglomerate, Unilever.
Initially Appointed: 2017
Teaching Information
Teaching Interests
- Innovation Management
- Entrepreneurship
- Technology Management & Strategy
Courses Taught
Office Hours
By Appointment Only
Research Information
Research Interests
- Innovation management
- Innovation Ecosystems
- Digital Entrepreneurship
- Digital Innovation
- Digital Globalization
- Technology Commercialization
- Customer Value Co-creation
Publications
- Nambisan, S. , Luo, Y.
Managing risks in digital globalization Management and Business Review - Nambisan, S.
Digital strategies for managing global operations in the new normal Management and Business Review - Nambisan, S. , Marianni, M. , Machado, I. (2023).
Types of innovation and artificial intelligence: A systematic quantitative literature review and research agenda (vol. 155, issue January 2023) Journal of Business Research - Nambisan, S. , W, Y. , J, X. , K, X. (2022).
Consumer resource integration and service innovation in social commerce: The role of social media influencers Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science - Uzuegbunam, I. , Ofem, B. , Fox, J. , Nambisan, S. (2022).
The angels’ share hypothesis in new firms Small Business Economics - Nambisan, S. , Luo, Y. (2022).
Think Globally, Innovate Locally MIT Sloan Management Review - Nambisan, S. , Luo, Y. (2022).
The Digital Multinational: Navigating the New Normal in Global Business (vol. Management on the Cutting Edge Series (MIT Press and MIT Sloan Management Review)) Boston, MA: MIT Press - Nambisan, S. (2022).
Digital Innovation and International Business Innovation - Mariani, M. , Nambisan, S. (2021).
Innovation analytics and digital innovation experimentation: the rise of research-driven online review platforms (vol. 172, ) Technological Forecasting and Social Change, - Nambisan, S. , Luo, Y. (2021).
Toward a loose coupling view of digital globalization (vol. 52, pp. 1646–1663) Journal of International Business Studies - Singh, J. , Nambisan, S. , Bridge, G. , Brock, J. (2021).
- One-Voice Strategy for Customer Engagement (vol. 24, issue 1, pp. 42-65) Journal of Service Research
- Nambisan, S. , Baron, R. (2021).
On the Costs of Digital Entrepreneurship: Role Conflict, Stress, and Venture Performance in Digital Platform-based Ecosystems (vol. 125, pp. 520-532) Journal of Business Research - Nambisan, S. , Zahra, S. , Luo, Y. (2019).
Global Platforms and Ecosystems: Implications for International Business Theories (vol. 50, issue 9, pp. 1464-1486) Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) - Uzuegbunam, I. , Ofem, B. , Nambisan, S. (2019).
Do corporate investors affect entrepreneurs’ IP portfolio? Entrepreneurial finance and intellectual property in new firms (vol. 43, issue 4, pp. 673-696) Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice - Nambisan, S. , Wright, M. , Feldman, M. (2019).
The digital transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship: Progress, challenges and key themes (vol. 48, issue 8) Research Policy - Nambisan, S. (2018).
Architecture vs. Ecosystem perspectives: Reflections on digital innovation (vol. 28, issue 2, pp. 104-106) Information and Organization - Nambisan, S. , Siegel, D. , Kenney, M. (2018).
On Open Innovation, Platforms, and Entrepreneurship (vol. 12, issue 3, pp. 354-368) Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal - Autio, E. , Nambisan, S. , Thomas, L. , Wright, M. (2018).
Digital affordances, spatial affordances, and the genesis of entrepreneurial ecosystems (vol. 12, issue 1, pp. 72-95) Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal - Nambisan, S. (2018).
Open Innovation, Ecosystems and Entrepreneurship: Issues and Perspectives World Scientific Publishers - Nambisan, S. (2017).
Digital entrepreneurship: Toward a digital technology perspective of entrepreneurship (vol. 41, issue 6, pp. 1029-1055) Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice - Nambisan, S. , Nambisan, P. (2017).
How should organizations promote equitable distribution of benefits from technological innovation in health care? (vol. 19, issue 11) AMA Journal of Ethics - Nambisan, S. , Lyytinen, K. J., Majchrzak, A. , Song, M. (2017).
Digital innovation management: Reinventing innovation management research in a digital world (vol. 41, issue 1, pp. 223-238) MIS Quarterly - Nambisan, S. , Lyytinen, K. J., Majrczhak, A. , Song, M. (2017).
“Digital Innovation Management: Reinventing Innovation Management Research in a Digital World” (vol. 41, issue 1, pp. 223-238) MIS Quarterly - Nambisan, S. (2015).
Embracing Entrepreneurship Across Disciplines Ideas and Insights from Engineering, Science, Medicine and Arts Edward Elgar - Lusch, R. , Nambisan, S. (2015).
Service innovation: A Service-Dominant (S-D) logic perspective MIS Quarterly - Nambisan, S. , Baron, R. (2013).
Entrepreneurship in innovation ecosystems: Entrepreneur’s self- regulatory processes and their implications for new venture success (vol. 37, issue 5, pp. 1071-1097) Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice - Nambisan, S. (2013).
Industry technical committees, technological distance, and innovation performance (vol. 42, issue 4, pp. 928-940) Research Policy - Nambisan, S. , Baron, R. (2010).
Different roles, different strokes: Organizing virtual customer environments to promote two types of customer contributions (vol. 21, issue 2, pp. 554-572) Organization Science - Nambisan, S. , Sawhney, M. (2007).
The Global Brain: Your Roadmap for Innovating Faster and Smarter in a Networked World Wharton School Publishing (Prentice)