Investments in Emerging Technologies

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Investments in emerging technologies are particularly risky, since, apart from economic uncertainty, firms must consider not only uncertainty in the arrival of innovations but also the presence of potential rivals. Photo:pxhere.com
PhD Defense

11 September 2018 14:06

Investments in Emerging Technologies

On Tuesday 25 September 2018 Lars H Sendstad will hold a trial lecture on a prescribed topic and defend his thesis for the PhD degree at NHH.

lars h sendstad
Lars H Sendstad, PhD Candidate at the Department of Business and Management  Science, NHH. Photo: Helge Skodvin

Prescribed topic for the trial lecture:

Management of Technology Research and Development (R&D): Strategic Aspects of Innovation

Trial lecture:

10:15 in Jebsen Centre, NHH

Title of the thesis:

Essays on Investments in Emerging Technologies: A Real Options Approach

Summary:

Investments in emerging technologies are particularly risky, since, apart from economic uncertainty, firms must consider not only uncertainty in the arrival of innovations but also the presence of potential rivals.

In chapter 1 Lars H Sendstad discusses how the interaction between policy risk and technological uncertainty may impact investment decisions. More specifically, the chapter investigates a support scheme that takes the form of a fixed percentage of the output price, and among other results, the thesis shows that greater likelihood of subsidy retraction lowers the incentive to invest, yet greater likelihood of subsidy provision facilitates investment.

The presence of a rival and attitudes towards risk further complicate the problem of sequential technology adoption under uncertainty, which is the topic considered in Chapter 2. More specifically, duopolistic competition to adopt improved technology versions necessitates a more nuanced analysis of the rival's best response. Also, since investment opportunities typically involve technical risk that cannot be diversified, it is appropriate to consider risk aversion.

In order to shed further light on the investment decision under technological uncertainty, Sendstad also analyses how disruptive technologies create incentives to abandon existing technologies in Chapter 3.

Chapter 4 also focuses on disruptive innovations, but rather from the perspective of business cycles. This is especially relevant for investments in emerging technologies that depend on innovations. Furthermore, indicators of economic conditions are likely to be time-varying causing the likelihood for an economic expansion or recession to change over time.

Defense:

12:15 in Jebsen Centre, NHH

Members of the evaluation committee:

Professor Gunnar Stensland (leader of the committee), Department of Business and Management Science, NHH

Associate Professor Verena Hagspiel, NTNU

Professor Afzal S. Siddiqui, UCL

Supervisors:

Professor Petter Bjerksund (main supervisor), Department of Business and Management Science, NHH

Senior Lecturer Dr Michail Chronopoulos (co-supervisor), Faculty of Actuarial Science & Insurance, Cass Business School

 

 

The trial lecture and thesis defence will be open to the public. Copies of the thesis will be available from presse@nhh.no.