Time: 13:30-14:30, Monday, Jun. 13, 2025

Location: Room 104, Lidasan Building

Voov Meeting: 180779536; Password: 722722

Topic: Artificial Intelligence, Information, and Organizational Innovation

Speaker: Professor Bowen Lou, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

Host: Professor Xianghua Lu, School of Management, Fudan University

Abstract: This talk explores how artificial intelligence (AI) and enhanced information access shape organizational innovation in the contexts of interfirm collaboration and digital platform. Using rich data on the pharmaceutical industry, we show that AI shifts the boundary of the firms toward R&D alliances: firms with greater AI resources form more R&D alliances and generate more innovative products per alliance. AI plays a critical role in facilitating inter-organizational information flows, enabling firms to better coordinate and leverage external knowledge. In a separate context, using data from a leading e-commerce platform, we examine how improved information access offered through market intelligence tools influences product strategy among over 40,000 sellers. We show that greater access to market information leads to more new product launches and shorter product life cycles. Sellers tend to introduce products with novel attributes outside their existing portfolio, often integrating features observed from peer sellers through the tool. This expands their search space for innovation while driving convergence in customer bases. Together, these findings highlight how AI and information access influence innovation processes—by altering firm boundaries, facilitating coordination, and informing strategic responses to market signals.

Bio: Bowen Lou is an Assistant Professor of Data Sciences and Operations at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. His research primarily lies in artificial intelligence (AI), innovation and entrepreneurship, and the future of work. Linking macro patterns to micro activities, his work leverages a variety of methodologies, including bio/chem-informatics, econometrics, game-theoretic modeling, machine learning, and randomized field experiments. Bowen’s research has been published in premier academic journals including Management Science and Management Information Systems Quarterly. He is the recipient of the INFORMS Information Systems Society Best Dissertation Award (winner) and the ACM SIGMIS Dissertation Award (runner-up). His work has also been recognized as a finalist for best paper awards at Management Science and leading information systems conferences, including CIST, WISE, and CHITA.