K. Scott Swan

Biography

Scott Swan, Ph.D. is the David L. Peebles Professor of Business Chair and served as the President of the W&M Faculty Assembly (2023-2024). He is currently serving as the faculty representative to the W&M Board of Visitors. He teaches Innovation Strategy in the Marketing Area at the William & Mary, Raymond A. Mason School of Business. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the Alan B. Miller Entrepreneurship Center.

Professor Swan has worked in engineering project management for Flour-Daniel, marketing management for Foremost Corporation of America, as well as founding several small businesses related to design. He has accomplished five economic impact studies for the Virginia Port Authority and four for Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, two for Virginia Maritime Association, along with others including Union Mission, Governor’s Report for Virginia’s Housing Policy Advisory Board, two for Jefferson Labs, and currently for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce/VEDP. Dr. Swan has presented at conferences across Europe, Asia, and South America. He has lectured internationally at University of Applied Science Upper Austria (Wels), Corvinus University in Budapest, MCI in Innsbruck, Tsinghua University in Beijing, Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, WHU in Koblenz, Germany, The University of Bratislava in Slovakia, and the Vienna Business School (WU) in Austria.

Prof. Swan is guest editing a special issue of The Design Journal entitled: “What could innovative product design research be doing in 2053?” due out in Dec. 2024 (Vol. 26, Issue 5). He wrote Global Marketing (5th) Routledge: New York and London (with Kate Gillespie) in 2022. He has published widely and serves on the editorial review board of two journals related to product development, management, and design: The Design Journal and the Journal of Product Innovation Management along with authoring three books on these subjects. One book, Innovation and Product Management: A Holistic and Practical Approach to Uncertainty Reduction (with Kurt Gaubinger, Michael Rabi, and Thomas Werani - Springer Science & Business Media 2015), has experienced over 70,000 chapter downloads.

Areas of Interest/Expertise

• Innovation Strategy
• Product Development & Design
• Global Marketing & Strategy
• Export Management
• Global Sourcing Strategy
• Cooperative Strategies

Honors

• Awarded Senior Fulbright for 2015-2016
• The Kathryn and Craig Hall Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship in Central Europe at WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) and the University of Bratislava, Slovakia

Publications

• Research Gate: Access to Articles

• “Re-thinking Design Thinking: The Transformative Role of Design Thinking in New Product Development” April 8 2023 in The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development - 4th Edition (with Marina Candi, Claudio, Stefano Magistretti and Roberto) Ludwig Bstieler (Editor), Charles H. Noble (Editor)

• “Green Exploration and Exploitation: Capabilities, Product Advantage, and Policy Considerations” (with Jie Xue). Creativity and Innovation Management. Accepted October 4, 2022; online access November 7, 2022.

• “Design Thinking: Critical Analysis and Future Evolution,” (with Roberto Verganti and Claudio Dell'Era) Journal of Product Innovation Management. Accepted Nov. 2021; online access Dec. 2021.  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jpim.12610

• “An Investigation of the Complementary Effects of Technology, Market and Design Capabilities on Exploratory and Exploitative Innovations: Evidence from Micro and Small-sized Tech-enterprises in China” (with Jie Xue) Creativity and Innovation Management, April 2020, 29(4).    Top cited article in 2021.

• “Review - Design Roots: Culturally Significant Designs, Products, and Practices,” The Design Journal, 2018, 21(6).  (available at https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2018.1525831).

• “The Power of Design Thinking: How Historical Design Movements’ Helped Shape Organizations’ Design Identities” Issue 2, 2016, pages 6-9, Visions (a JPIM publication). Accepted June 2016, Published August 2016. Best Paper Award 2016. 

•  “A Review of Marketing Research on Product Design with Directions for Future Research,” (with Michael Luchs & Marielle Creusen) Journal of Product Innovation Management. May 2016. 33(3), p. 320–341.

• “Process Technology Sourcing and the Innovation Context,” (with Brent Allred) Journal of Product Innovation Management. 31(6), November 2014, 1146–1166.

• “The Emergence of Product Design as a Field of Marketing Inquiry,” Journal of Product Innovation Management, Issue 28(3), May 2011, pp.327-345 (with Michael Luchs).

  Albert L. Page Best Paper Award 2011.

• “Personality-and-Culture: The Case of National Extraversion and Word-Of-Mouth,” (with Todd Mooradian) Journal of Business Research 2006, vol. 59, issue 6, pp. 778-785.

• "Exploring Robust Design Capabilities, Their Role in Creating Global Products, and Their Relationship to Firm Performance," Journal of Product Innovation Management, 22 (2) 2005, pp.144-64 (with Masaaki Kotabe & Brent Allred)

• "The Role of Strategic Alliances in High Technology New Product Development," Strategic Management Journal, November 1995 (with Masaaki Kotabe).