Biography
The focus of my work over the past 35 years has been studying corporate strategies and government policies for technology and innovation. I am Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland Business School, Visiting Professor at Imperial College Business School, Executive in Residence, Said Business School, University of Oxford, and Broman Scholar, University of Gothenburg.
I have been an advisor and consultant to numerous private-sector companies, and to UK, US, Australian and Asian government departments and agencies. I have researched and lectured widely throughout Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and Latin America and have been an invited participant at international conferences in over 60 countries. I have travelled extensively throughout most regions of Africa.
I have been a Director of the Think Play Do Group, a London-based innovation consulting, training and software company, Non-Executive Director of Nestle Australia Ltd. and Behaviour Innovation Pty, and a member of the Advisory Board of Thiess Pty Ltd.
Previously I have worked as a Research Fellow at the Technical Change Centre, London (1983-85). I was Senior Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex (1985-93), and was Professor of Management at the Australian National University (1993-2002). I was co-Founder of the National Graduate School of Management at the ANU and was its Executive Director from 1995-97 and 1999-2001. I was Director of the Technology and Innovation Management Centre and Professor of Innovation Studies at the University of Queensland from 2003 to 2021.
Prior to my academic career, I was a Marketing Manager for a major hotel chain, a lorry driver and drayman in London for 2 years, and have worked on the shop floor for a variety of manufacturing companies producing goods as diverse as animal feeds to sound equipment for rock bands.
My PhD on innovation in small firms is from Imperial College London, and I have an MA in Industrial Relations from Warwick University and a BSc in Society and Technology from Middlesex Polytechnic. I am a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2019 I was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to the nation in the field of innovation.
I have published over 100 articles, chapters and reports, and written or edited 19 books, on innovation. Recent books include: The Oxford Handbook of Innovation Management (ed. with David Gann and Nelson Phillips), and Innovation Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management, four volumes. (ed.). I wrote a short companion book to these four volumes, entitled Innovation Management: A Research Overview. I have a book on work in an age of constant change and disruption (with David Gann), entitled: The Playful Entrepreneur: How to adapt and thrive in an uncertain world published by Yale University Press. My latest books are Philanthropy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (with David Gann), and Demystifying China’s Innovation Machine (with Marina Zhang and David Gann)..
My World Economic Forum blogs on innovation, entrepreneurship and universities can be found here: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/mark-dodgson/.
I have been awarded the Eureka Prize, Australia's most prestigious science award, for Leadership in Business Innovation.
In 2019, I was extremely honoured to be appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) “for distinguished service to education in the field of business innovation strategy, as a researcher, advisor and author.”
I teach courses for executives and MBAs on "Innovation Leadership".
I have three adult children, Jack, Kate and Rosie, and two grandsons, Max and Noah, of whom I am inordinately proud.
Here's some stories about my work with my colleague, David Gann:
https://www.business.uq.edu.au/news/how-30-year-partnership-made-professors-world-leaders-innovation
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/185072/david-gann-mark-dodgson-celebrate-30/