Professor Chris Pitelis at The Annual Conference of the ECSSR
Professor Chris Pitelis, Dean of the College of Business, gave a presentation at the 24th Annual Conference of the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies & Research (ECSSR). This year’s conference was entitled ‘Abu Dhabi Dialogue: Challenges and Opportunities for Change in the 21st Century’ and Professor Pitelis spoke about business education and industrial strategy for sustainable prosperity.
Professor Chris Pitelis, Dean of the College of Business, gave a presentation at the 24th Annual Conference of the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies & Research (ECSSR). This year’s conference was entitled ‘Abu Dhabi Dialogue: Challenges and Opportunities for Change in the 21st Century’ and Professor Pitelis spoke about business education and industrial strategy for sustainable prosperity.
The theme of the panel, co-organized by ECSSR and ADU’s College of Business, was ‘Industrial Strategy for Sustainable Competitiveness and the Role of Business Education’.
Professor Pitelis’ presentation critically assessed debates, practices, and international experiences on developmental industrial strategy (DIS) and explored the role of business education in enriching these. It also assessed the relevance, applicability, and potential of a business strategy-informed DIS to contribute to the UAE Vision 2030 and its place-based industrial strategy.
Other high profile speakers proposed and invited by Professor Pitelis were Professor Dominique Foray, Chair in Economics and Management of Innovation, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, and Professor David Bailey, Professor of Industrial Strategy, Aston Business School, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Below is a summary of Professor Pitelis' presentation.
Industrial strategy alongside related and supporting international trade policies are key determinants of sustainable international competitiveness and are currently at the top of most nations policy agendas. Historically, debates on these topics were informed by economists. More recently the potential to cross-fertilize business strategy and industrial strategy has led to significant contributions by business school scholars and strategists. A key contribution by business scholars is the focus not just on how to create value-enhance productivity, but to also capture value by devising strategies and mechanisms that help regions and nations achieve this. The presentation revisited these issues and debates, explored their relevance and applicability to the UAE, and proposed key tenets of a business strategy-informed, place-based, developmental industrial strategy for the diversified, balanced, and sustainable performance and prosperity of the UAE.