Innovation Management

Jan van den Ende is professor of management of technology and innovation at RSM. His expertise is in the development process of new products, new services and new business models in firms – a process that is key to every company’s performance. His research focuses on organising the process of creating ideas, selecting projects, developing products and commercialising them. He studied innovation in firms such as ING, ASML, Philips and Unilever, and also in smaller project-based companies and firms in the horticulture sector. Jan teaches methodologies for scenario development, business model innovation, design thinking, strategic assessment, disruptive innovation and lean innovation..

Daan Stam holds the endowed chair of Leadership for Innovation in the department of technology and operations management at RSM, where he leads the innovation management group. Daan’s research focuses on leading innovation and change, and he is particularly interested in understanding why some people are able to gather strong support for innovation and change while many others struggle to do so. He has searched for answers by studying the behaviours of leaders making plans using a psychological perspective, and found that identity issues are key to solving this mystery. Daan Stam is a member of the Erasmus Centre for Leadership Studies and the Erasmus Centre for Innovation Management.

Vareska van de Vrande is professor of collaborative innovation and business venturing, and academic director of the part-time PhD Programme in Management at RSM. Her expertise is in corporate venturing and collaborative innovation, including external technology sourcing, corporate venture capital investments, strategic alliances, and collaborations for corporate start-ups. She teaches strategic management and corporate venturing. Other research interests include corporate entrepreneurship, patents, and venture capital. Vareska is also a visiting professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, and a certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator. 

Murat Tarakci is an associate professor of innovation management, and academic director of the MSc in Management of Innovation programme at RSM. He specialises in disruptive innovations, strategy implementation, and leadership, combining his business experience from Unilever and academic experience to research what motivates managers’ search for new strategic initiatives, and how managerial power and leadership affect the generation of novel ideas. Now, his research focuses on creating innovative organisations by taking a behavioural approach. His research has been published in leading management journals as well as international media including the Financial Times and Harvard Business Review.

Dirk Deichmann is associate professor of innovation management at RSM. His research into the management of ideas addresses how managers can support the continuous and sustained generation of new ideas. Dirk identifies criteria for evaluating and selecting ideas, and tells firms about conditions that facilitate the use of high quality ideas. His research has been published in highly-rated scientific journals such as Strategic Management Journal and Organization Science as well as in the widely read Harvard Business Review. Dirk teaches creativity, design thinking, and innovation management.

Stefano Tasselli is an associate professor in RSM’s department of technology and operations management. His research and teaching focus on organisational social networks, organisational behaviour, leadership and new business development, with specific empirical focus on the healthcare industry. He was a consultant for McKinsey & Company, and has held teaching and research positions at the University of Cambridge UK; and at the University of Lugano and at Bocconi University in Italy. Stefano has received several academic awards, and in 2018 was one of the 40 ‘Best Business Professors under 40’ according to Poets & Quants, and ‘Best Italian Business Professor under 40’ according to ASFOR.

Helge Klapper is an assistant professor at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He joined RSM in 2017 after completing his PhD at the University of Vienna, Austria. His research interests include organizational decision making and novel forms of organizing and innovating. More specifically, his work examines information exchange in organizations as part of the strategic decision making process and how authority affects coordination and cooperation conflicts.