January 6, 2023
We are very excited to highlight Professor Jing Chen, who teaches two courses this year for the MS in Organization Management and Strategy (MSOMS) program: Managing Innovation and the Capstone Project. She recently talked to us about her two courses and how she helped the MSOMS students become successful learners and leaders.
- Tell us a bit about your background.
I was trained as an economist in Florida International University. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, I was a tenured associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. Now I am a Professor of Practice in Management and Strategy at NYU Shanghai. It has always been my academic passion to discover the economic causes of development challenges faced by startups, and then develop theoretical foundations for solving these issues. As a strategy and entrepreneurship scholar, I’ve traveled around the world to present my research at academic seminars and conferences. In the meantime, I was actively involved in college entrepreneurial initiatives and engaging with industries. I provided strategic advice to student entrepreneurs, conducted interviews with established Danish and Chinese entrepreneurs, and turned their war stories into business cases to inspire more students in class.
- Tell us a bit about your fall semester course.
I currently teach Managing Innovation, which exposes students to various challenges that companies face in the innovation process, from initiating an innovation project to deploying new products in the market. Students also learn some basic innovation frameworks and strategies that companies use to address these challenges effectively. For example, battling for the industry standard is one big challenge faced by companies in the process of managing innovation. By looking into the history of China’s mobile payment war, students learn about the causes of industry standard, its strategic relevance for firms, and most importantly how to compete and survive in industries with a dominant design.
Professor Jing Chen lecturing during her MSOMS class
- How do you integrate Western and Eastern perspectives given the joint nature of the program between NYU Stern and NYU Shanghai?
The course’s theoretical concepts and frameworks are deeply rooted in the Western research on innovation and are further illustrated in case studies of both Chinese and Western companies. Students are encouraged to apply or test Western theories within a Chinese context while analytically comparing Chinese and Western competitors’ strategic approach to managing innovation. Exploring the topic of collaboration strategy, for example, students conduct an extensive discussion on why Tesla and NIO, two leading EV companies in the US and China with seemingly similar innovative objectives, have made distinct strategic choices in how much they use collaboration.
- How is the curriculum tailored to pre-experience (students straight out of undergrad without work experience) Master’s students?
Most students are recent college graduates with limited working experience. I took this into consideration when designing the course materials and activities. I also curated a set of cases that suit their interests in innovation and entrepreneurship. Rather than focusing on the technical and operational aspects that require years of working experience, I make an effort to help students discover their market intuition and understand the economic principles behind each innovative strategic decision in the class discussion. For instance, on the topic of protecting innovation, the students were presented with a case that entails a choice of whether or not to patent a process innovation. Considering the complexity of the technology, I showed them a video which helps visualize how the technology is being utilized in the process of making LEGO bricks. Even without any experience in the manufacturing sector, students immediately understood how important this innovation was for increasing efficiency in production, and realized the strategic relevance of protecting such an innovation.
- What are your impressions of the MSOMS students so far?
This is a very diverse cohort coming from a wide range of academic backgrounds, from social sciences and humanities to computer science and game design. Despite their academic diversity, they share two common goals. The first is to develop a systematic understanding of how the science of strategy, the art of management, and the design of organization shape the trajectory of a firm’s development while influencing its competitive outcome. Second, all students want to heavily leverage their knowledge and training in the strategy and management domain to succeed professionally, whether that means running their own entrepreneurial ventures, working in the consulting sector, or taking leadership roles in established entities. While they share these goals, each student has their own set of traits, skills and thoughts. In many ways, they complement each other, which makes for great teamwork on projects in and outside the classroom.
- How do you help students achieve the learning objectives of the course?
I encourage them to actively participate in class discussions, challenging them to present arguments clearly as a way to demonstrate how well they have mastered the learning objectives for each topic. I also encourage students to constantly relate our lessons to what is currently happening in the business world. At the end of each topic, I present students with a well-known company and its recent challenge, whether it is about Xiaomi, Zara or Walmart. Students are encouraged to demonstrate their learning outcome by addressing these challenges based on the knowledge immediately acquired from the specific topics. Furthermore, the final essay asks students to identify a company’s innovation challenge and conduct an independent strategic analysis while making recommendations.
- In addition to the Managing Innovation course, this year you are also teaching the Capstone course. What are you most looking forward to about teaching the capstone course?
Sharing the interesting and strategic challenges that companies face in various industries with students. We are so fortunate to have a very diverse group of sponsors coming from different industries, such as consumer goods, digital technology, internet platforms, and venture capital investment. I am also excited to guide students through the problem solving process and see them come up with insightful solutions that can have a valuable impact.
Thank you to Professor Chen. We appreciate learning more about her background and approach to teaching. Students also appreciated her effort to bring in Capstone sponsors from different industries. As Senhu Zheng (MSOMS CO’23) said: “I am very excited about the capstone project. Directly communicating with the senior management of the company will be a valuable experience for me to start my own business in the future. In addition, the company is willing to share its internal case analysis, which will speed up our learning pace and allow us to dive deeply into their business.”