New recruits: Khuram Shahzad studies next generation digital innovation management

– Next generation digital innovation management is about opportunities created by digitalization as well as developing and implementing new approaches to innovation management. The next generation innovation management helps businesses through digital transformation and provides smart solutions to innovation ecosystems, says Shahzad.

Originally from Pakistan, Shahzad first completed a master's degree and subsequently a doctorate in industrial management at the University of Vaasa. His doctoral thesis was about buyer-supplier relationships. He has lately focused on investigating digital innovation. In addition to being linked with the School of Technology and Innovations, Mr Shahzad's new task is connected with the university's Innovation and Entrepreneurship InnoLab research platform.

– I started to study digital innovations to understand the challenges arising from digitalisation to current business practices that are related to products and services. Digitalisation has become the new impetus for competitiveness and sustainability. The next step is then to discuss what a digital society means and what the implications are for businesses.

Shahzad says he studies digital innovation from different perspectives. His research encompasses, for example, entrepreneurial network solutions, industrial digital transformation, open innovation, the role of disruptive technologies such as blockchain, and business model innovation.

– For example, in our recent InnoDigi project we study how SMEs can operate in a smarter way and become more entrepreneurial in terms of increasing innovative coopetition and collaboration activities with their peers as well as with universities. The goal was to boost regional collaboration and to promote the international presence of SMEs as well as to digitally transform their operations.

In November, Shahzad and his research group received EUR 50,000 funding from the Foundation for Economic Education for blockchain research from the perspective of management. The project examines what type of management skills are required for implementing blockchain technology in private and public organisations. The general public will have heard of blockchains in connection with cryptocurrencies, but blockchains can also change the ways in which organisations are managed.

Shahzad is also participating in two new EU funded research projects. EntRENEW is a Erasmus+ research and education project, which will develop a trans-disciplinary higher education blended-learning course in Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy at the intersection of entrepreneurship and technology (smart, sustainable and renewable energy applied studies). The other project is the Horizon2020 project RIPEET that will support responsible research and innovation policy experimentations for energy transition in three European territories.

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Khuram Shahzad

Assistant Professor in Industrial Management (Tenure track)
School of Technology and Innovations / InnoLab

• Born: 1983, Pakistan
• Place of residence: in Vaasa
• Education: D.Sc.(Econ. & Bus.Adm.) in Industrial Management in 2018 from University of Vaasa
• Family: wife and two children.
• Hobbies: Sports, politics and political history, travel, interested in learning ice skating and skiing.

Read more

• Dr Shahzad's researcher page
• Press release of Khuram Shahzad's doctoral dissertation: Supply chain partners can be closer than they appear by achieving common goals