Joel West, PhD
Professor, Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Focus Track Champion – Business of BioscienceOpen Innovation, Intellectual Property, Technology Policy, Renewable Energy
Dr. West combines a high-tech entrepreneurial background with more than a decade of leadership in graduate business education. He received an SB degree in Interdisciplinary Sciences from M.I.T. with a concentration in Meteorology, and has worked more than 20 years in the software industry as an engineer, manager and entrepreneur. He was co-founder and president of Palomar Software as well as co-author of the Modsim programming language.
Dr. West has earned a PhD in Management from the University of California, Irvine and taught at Temple University Japan, Pepperdine and UC Irvine before joining the San Jose State University College of Business. At SJSU, he taught innovation, strategy and entrepreneurship classes, and was co-founder of the SJSU Solar Workforce Project and Silicon Valley Open Source Research Project. Dr. West is known as a researcher, public speaker, and blogger on the topic of open innovation, including editing (with Henry Chesbrough and Wim Vanhaverbeke) the book Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm (Oxford, 2006). His research has been published in Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Studies, R&D Management, Research Policy, and Telecommunications Policy, among other journals.
The successful management of technological innovation is essential to the success of many life science businesses, whether in human therapeutics, medical devices or biofuels. This course examines firm strategies for creating sustainable competitive advantage in technology-based industries.
West J. Open Innovation. In Wiley International Encyclopedia of Marketing. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2010
West J, Mace M. "Browsing as the Killer App: Explaining the Rapid Success of Apple's iPhone". Telecommunications Policy 2010;34(5-6):270-286
Gallagher S, West J. "Reconceptualizing and Expanding the Positive Feedback Network Effects Model: A Case Study". Journal of Engineering and Technology Management 2009;26(3):131-147
West J. "Before Qualcomm: Linkabit and the Origins of the San Diego Telecom Industry". Journal of San Diego History 2009(Winter/Spring);55(1-2):1-20
Bekkers R, West J. The Limits to IPR Standardization Policies as Evidenced by Strategic Patenting in UMTS. Telecommunications Policy 2009;33(1-2):80-97
West J. "Commercializing Open Science: Deep Space Communications as the Lead Market for Shannon Theory, 1960-73". Journal of Management Studies 2008;45(8):1506-1532
West J, O'Mahony S. "The Role of Participation Architecture in Growing Sponsored Open Source Communities". Industry and Innovation 2008;15(2):145-168
West J, Lakhani KR. "Getting Clear About Communities in Open Innovation". Industry and Innovation 2008;15(2):223-231
West J. "The Economic Realities of Open Standards: Black, White and Many Shades of Gray". In: Greenstein S, Stango V, editors. Standards and Public Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2007. p. 87-122
Chesbrough H, Vanhaverbeke W, and West J, eds., Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2006
West J, Vanhaverbeke W, Chesbrough H. "Open Innovation: A Research Agenda". In: Chesbrough H, Vanhaverbeke W, West J, editors. Open Innovation: Researching A New Paradigm. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2006. p. 285-307.
West J, Gallagher S. "Challenges of Open Innovation: The Paradox of Firm Investment in Open Source Software". R & D Management 2006;36(3):315-328
West J. "The fall of a Silicon Valley icon: Was Apple really Betamax redux?" In: Bettis RA, editor. Strategy in Transition. Oxford: Blackwell; 2005. p. 274-301
West J. "How Open is Open Enough? Melding Proprietary and Open Source Platform Strategies". Research Policy 2003;32(7):1259-1285
West J, Dedrick J. "Innovation and Control in Standards Architectures: The Rise and Fall of Japan's PC-98". Information Systems Research 2000;11(2):197-216
Research Synopsis
Dr. West focuses on how firms selectively use openness for competitive advantage by providing enough openness to attract external stakeholders while not enough to prevent an ability to appropriate value. This has included research on open source software, open standardization, IP business models and technology-based startup firms.
Current Research Projects
External Sources of Innovation: Professor West is developing a comprehensive review of existing research on external sources of innovation, integrating streams from open innovation, user innovation and community innovation.
California's Renewable Energy Industries: In the 20th century, California was the world leader in the creation and deployment of renewable energy, with solar hot water heaters at the beginning of the century, space-oriented silicon photocells at the middle of the century and utility-scale concentrated solar power and wind turbines in the 1980s and early 1990s. This project compares the industry development and policy of California with other key regions of the world, and examines how California startups are conquering a new segment of renewable energy, the engineering, cultivation and processing of new crops to produce biofuels.
Future Research Projects
Dr. West will collaborate with Dr. Steven Casper of KGI to compare and contrast entrepreneurial mechanisms of the telecommunications, biotech and biofuels clusters in the San Diego region.
Contact Information
| Joel West, PhD | ||
| Location: | Building 535, Room 156D | |
| Phone: | (909) 607-0130 | |
| joel_west[at symbol]kgi.edu | ||