Krithika Randhawa is Associate Professor of Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Business School at the University of Sydney, Australia. She specialises in open innovation, a novel way for organizations to innovate by collaborating with external stakeholders. She has a particular interest in contemporary forms of open innovation such as digital platforms, ecosystems, crowdsourcing, communities and collaborative business models. Krithika's research explores how such organizational forms may be utilized to improve innovation outcomes, and ultimately create business and societal benefits.
Research
Set at the interface of open innovation, digital ecosystems and managerial decision-making, Krithika's research examines how corporates and start-ups can make strategic choices about adopting and scaling innovation and digital technologies. Her work has uncovered how organizations can leverage open innovation to innovate their offerings and business models particularly in the manufacturing, healthcare and public policy contexts.
Through her research, Krithika has delivered solutions addressing industry and policy challenges for the private and public sector, including corporates (e.g., Stryker), SMEs and start-ups (e.g., Bang the Table), industry consortia (e.g., IoT Alliance Australia), and government departments (e.g., the Australian Department of Industry and Science, the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development, New South Wales Health, Queensland Health, and Australian & Austrian local governments).
As a researcher and author, Krithika is widely published and much cited (> 1700 Google Scholar citations; an h-index of 15 and i10-index of 17), with articles in leading journals (e.g., the Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Business Research, Technovation, Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Production Economics, Industrial and Corporate Change and California Management Review), book chapters, industry reports, media articles and podcasts (e.g., R&D Today, The Mandarin and Government News).
Krithika has received nearly $850,000 in competitive grants including the prestigious Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2024 for research on "Governing Industrial Data Ecosystems: Open Innovation in a Digital Economy", and has been recognised with multiple awards (e.g., 2020 Research Impact Award by the University of Technology Sydney, Best Paper Awards at the 2022 European Academy of Management, 2016 & 2017 World Open Innovation Conference, and 2015 Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management).
Krithika is Associate Editor of the Journal of Business Research and R&D Management journal, Associate Program Chair of the World Open Innovation Conference, and member on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Product Innovation Management. She is a regular presenter, panellist, and session chair at international conferences such as the Academy of Management, DRUID Society, European Group for Organizational Studies and Strategic Management Society.
Teaching
Krithika is an award-winning educator (2021 Innovation Award for initiatives in integrating teaching and research with real-world practice), whose approach to teaching sits at the nexus of research and practice. She brings her research focus to the classroom and introduces students to contemporary topics and current research in the field. Krithika's teaching is also practice-oriented in that she exposes students to a variety of authentic, real-world learning experiences designed to shape them into innovative thinkers and problem-solvers.
Krithika's approach to teaching and learning is reflected in all the courses she designs and delivers across undergraduate, postgraduate, MBA and executive education programs in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship, design thinking and strategy.
Background
A recipient of the UTS Business School Scholarship, Krithika completed her PhD at the University of Technology Sydney and holds an MBA from Macquarie University. Prior to joining academia, she gained management experience for eight years in the global hotel industry, with a track record of launching two luxury hotels and driving several award-winning strategic innovation projects.
