IESE’s Alumni Association recognizes top research for 2021

Professors Sampsa Samila, Jordi Canals, Adrian Caldart and Christoph Zott received Research Excellence Awards from IESE’s Alumni Association, for their work on gender and innovation, on a case strategy and on business model innovation.

The awards ceremony took place during the association’s annual Governing Board meeting, and recognized the best research by IESE faculty members over the past year.

The prizes were awarded in three categories:

• Best Paper. Sampsa Samila for his article “Who do we invent for? Patents by women focus more on women’s health, but few women get to invent“. Published in Science magazine.

The paper examined all U.S. biomedical patents filed from 1976 through 2010, and found that patents with all-female inventor teams were 35% more likely than all-male teams to focus on women’s health. This effect held over decades and across research areas. The authors also found that female researchers are more likely to discover female-focused ideas.

These findings suggest that the inventor gender gap is partially responsible for thousands of missing female-focused inventions since 1976. More generally, the findings suggest that who benefits from innovation depends on who gets to invent.

• Best Case. Jordi Canals and Adrian Caldart for their case study Almirall: Guiding the Future of the Company. Published by IESE Publishing.

This case focuses on Almirall pharmaceutical company, and its decision to reduce the number of business areas in which it operates, possibly selling its respiratory products area and in order to focus on dermatology. The case provides information for discussing Almirall’s positioning and its resources and capabilities, as well as the various strategic options, which may be viewed from the perspective of the CEO, the Board of Directors or the majority shareholders.

• Best Book. Christoph Zott for his book Business Model Innovation Strategy: Transformational Concepts and Tools for Entrepreneurial Leaders, coauthored with Raphael Amit. Published by Wiley.

The book centers on a timely, mission-critical strategic issue that both founders of new firms and senior managers of incumbent firms globally need to address as they reimagine their firms in the post COVID-19 world. Drawing on over 20 years of the authors’ collaborative theoretical and rigorous empirical research, the book is filled with examples and illustrations from around the world.

This action-oriented book provides leaders with a rigorous and detailed guide to the design and implementation of innovative, and scalable business models for their companies.