Conference Space Economy | Doing Business in Space

We report the "Doing Business in Space” Conference, related to a forthcoming special issue in the Academy of Management Discoveries, organised by professors Federico Caviggioli and Giuseppe Scellato and the researcher Elettra D'Amico of the Department of Management and Production Engineering-DIGEP of Politecnico di Torino.

The event will be held on Monday 26 May 2025 in Incubatore I3P, in the Campus del Politecnico di Torino, Corso Castelfidardo 30/a,

Program:
- Morning Session
09:15am - Welcome and Registration
09:30am - Introduction to the workshop

• Giuseppe Scellato, professor of the Department of Management and Production Engineering-DIGEP of Politecnico di Torino and ESA Business Incubation Centre
• Prithviraj Chattopadhyay, professor of Cambridge Judge Business School, Editor Academy of Management Discoveries

09:45am - 11:10am – Session 1 | Innovating for the Space Economy

• Chair: Maksim Belitski, professor of University of Reading and Loyola University of New Orleans
• Wadid Lamine, University of Ottawa | Locked Out of Lift-OZ: How Institutional Complexity Grounds Entrepreneurship in the Space Economy
• Matteo Landoni, Università degli Studi di Brescia | How do space enterprises interact with public sources of innovation? Implementing strategies in the Italian Space Agency procurement
• Nina Walker, Zurich University of Applied Sciences | The Swiss New Space Industry - Between Innovation and Barriers to Growth: An Examination of the Ecosystem
• Luca Giraldi, Università di Torino | An Empirical Analysis of Start-up Entry Dynamics and Innovation Capacity within the Italian ESA-BIC Ecosystem (2018–2022)

11:30am - 1:00pm – Session 2 | Governance and Strategy in the Space Economy

• Chair: Elettra D’Amico, researcher of the Department of Management and Production Engineering-DIGEP of Politecnico di Torino
• Nobuo Kanai, Design for ALL Co., Ltd | Government venture capital funds as strategic investors in promoting space business ventures – Case for INCJ and Astroscale in Japan
• Sara Di Diego, University of Warwick, UK | Legitimating Autonomy: How Narratives of Intelligent Systems Shape the Space Economy
• Aveline Cloitre, Toulouse School of Management | Balancing Innovation and Sustainability through Coopetition Governance in the Space Ecosystem: A Triple Helix Twin Perspective
• Angelo Cavallo, Politecnico di Milano | Business model pivots in dual-use markets: how space firms adapt to enter the defense sector
• Bartosz Sawik, AGH University of Krakow, University of California at Berkeley, Public University of Navarre | Analysis and Optimization of Social Factors Impacting the Socio-Political Perception of Investments in the Space Industry: A Case Study of Data from an EU Country and the USA

- Afternoon Session
2:30pm - 4:00pm – Session 3 | Entrepreneurial Dynamics in the New Space Economy

• Chair: Federico Caviggioli, professor of the Department of Management and Production Engineering-DIGEP of Politecnico di Torino
• Ntorina Antoni, Eindhoven University of Technology | Navigating the New Space Economy at the European Space Agency: A Mechanism for Balancing Stability and Change
• Clelia Iacomino, SDA Bocconi School of Management | The transformative role of the entrepreneurial state: evidence from the space economy
• Jacopo Manotti, Politecnico di Milano | Waiting for the Market: Actualizing Pivots in New Space Economy Startups
• Rita Biswas, University at Albany, USA | Rocketing Returns? Space-Related Discourse in Earnings Calls and Firm Valuations
• Angelina Frolova, EPFL | Who gets to build the future? Exploring Identity-Driven Entrepreneurial Entry into the Space Industry

4:15pm – 5:15pm – Session 4 | Institutional Change and Strategic Entry into Space

• Chair: Elettra D’Amico, researcher of the Department of Management and Production Engineering-DIGEP of Politecnico di Torino
• Valeria Logiudice, Politecnico di Bari | From earth to orbit: how incumbents can innovate their business model to enter the space economy
• Daniel Vrankar, Dresden University of Technology | Space funding and geopolitical competition: how information shapes public support
• Roy Suddaby, University of Victoria | Mining the Moon: The role of professions and their “institutional imaginaries” in the reconfiguration of institutional voids

5:20pm – 6:30pm – Round Table: Future Perspectives on Space Business

• Chair: Giuseppe Scellato, professor of the Department of Management and Production Engineering-DIGEP of Politecnico di Torino and ESA Business Incubation Centre
• Alessia Gloder, Director of Space Application, Adaptronics
• Volodymiyr Usov, CEO, Kurs Orbital Cesare Lobascio, Thales Alenia Space
• Sabrina Corpino, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino