With the help of a $10 million donation and a new center, the Wharton School has just begun increasing its research on the management of technology industries.
The new William and Phyllis Mack Center for Technological Innovation will also also provide undergraduate and graduate Wharton students with research experience.
The Mack Center, located in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, will oversee all of Wharton's technological initiatives, incorporating both the Mack Program in Technological Innovation and the Wharton Emerging Technologies Management Research program.
The Emerging Technologies program, taught by senior Wharton faculty, was created in 1995 to function as a learning network for business executives.
William Mack, a 1961 Wharton graduate, member of the University Board of Trustees and Wharton's Board of Overseers, donated $10 million to the new center in June.
The Mack Center will also create an interdisciplinary MBA major in Technological Innovation. The Mack Center essentially replaces the former Huntsman Center for Global Competition and Research, carrying on the same function of management research under a new title.
According to Michael Tomczyk, Director of the Mack Center, the center has three main goals -- providing business education, holding in-house events for companies involved with emerging technologies and conducting management research.
"We conduct management research on critical issues of importance and concern to companies that are dealing with rapid technological innovations," Tomczyk said.
The Emerging Technologies Program is guided by a group of 25 senior faculty from Wharton's Marketing, Management and Operations and Information Management departments.
Marketing Professor George Day and Management Professor Harbir Singh will serve as the program's co-directors.
"We are probably the foremost collection of researchers working on management technologies," Day said.
And Day emphasized both the competitiveness and the ingenuity of the new MBA program.
"The interesting thing about our program is that it really cuts across the Wharton School," Day said. "Six to 11 departments are involved at any given time."
Tomczyk also noted the innovative aspect of the emerging technologies program and the new center.
"We are unique in that we pro-actively involve our industry partners, thus combining academic research with current business experience," Tomczyk said.
The emerging technologies program, in conjunction with the new center, is involved in a range of technology-based areas, from genomics to e-commerce to biometrics.
"This constant eruption of emerging industries keeps introducing new risks and uncertainties that managers struggle with," Tomczyk said.
Since its creation, the Emerging Technologies Program has worked with 17 global companies such as Proctor and Gamble, General Motors, Dupont, IBM, Hewlett Packard and Sprint.
"It has involved recruiting companies from various industries to provide a cross section of knowledge and experience in various fields of innovation," Tomczyk added.
