Laurent Simon Awarded a Gutenberg Chair

The Université de Strasbourg supports research by HEC Montréal professor

MONTREAL, Feb. 15 /CNW Telbec/ - Laurent Simon, Associate Professor of Management at HEC Montréal, was awarded one of the three Gutenberg Chairs granted by the Cercle Gutenberg of the Université de Strasbourg, at a ceremony on that university's campus on January 29. The Gutenberg Chairs, created three years ago, are intended to improve the welcome offered to international-level researchers invited by institutions of higher education and research in the Alsace region.

The Gutenberg Chair granted to Professor Simon, worth 60,000 Euros over two years, will allow him to pursue his research into the production of creativity and an analysis of territorialized networks of heterogeneous players. More specifically, he will be attempting to identify the true sources of value creation at the definition, design and development stages of new products and services within the "creative ecosystem" of Strasbourg and the Alsace region. This work will also make it possible to make comparisons with other "creative" areas around the world, like Montréal and Barcelona, which have already been analyzed in depth by the HEC Montréal MosaiC Centre.

Another important aspect of this Gutenberg Chair is that it will serve as a springboard for the creation of a research centre on creative economies and entrepreneurship. It will bring together three key players in this vibrant sector.

"Consolidating links between the Bureau d'économie théorique et appliquée (BETA) at the Université de Strasbourg, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the MosaiC commercialization, research and transfer centre at HEC Montréal will make it possible to pool our efforts on the topic of the creative economy and managing creativity," says Professor Laurent Simon. "MosaiC is already benefiting from BETA's expertise, as it has been a partner in the Summer School on Management of Creativity in an Innovation Society at HEC Montréal since the summer school was founded in 2009. Patrick Cohendet, the co-founder of MosaiC and former co-Director of BETA, is currently a visiting professor at HEC Montréal."

Aside from the seminars organized at the Université de Strasbourg and different projects specifically in Alsace, this new partnership will lead to a first week-long symposium in Strasbourg in fall 2010. This event will be in addition to the two-week summer school, which is intended for managers and decision makers, and will explore issues of managing creativity from a more academic angle, drawing on the expertise of all three research centres. The first week of the summer school will be held in Montreal, from July 2 to 9, and the second in Barcelona, from July 10 to 17.

Laurent Simon created and teaches the course on managing innovation as part of the MSc program in management. He also teaches and co-ordinates different programs in Romania and France. He co-ordinates the HEC Montréal Intensive Management Program for executives and the Ubisoft-HEC Montréal training program for managers. In 2005, he received the Award for Teaching Excellence. His research focuses mainly on the study of innovation, knowledge management and managing creativity in different settings. He is the co-founder and co-Director, with Patrick Cohendet, of the MosaiC Centre at HEC Montréal.

For further information: Céline Poissant, Media Relations, HEC Montréal, [phone], [email protected]