Esteve Almirall

Education

• Ph. D. in Management Sciences. FUNDACION ESADE
• Master of Research in Management Sciences.
• DEA in Artificial Intelligence. UPC-UB-URV
• Master Internacional de Gestió Empresarial. La Salle Bonanova - Manhattan College
• Enginyer Tècnic en Informàtica de Sistemes. UOC
• Master of Science in Computer Information Systems. University of Phoenix

Areas of interest

Open Innovation - Innovation - A.I. - Tech Disruption - Computational Social Science - Data Science - Smart Cities - Complexity

Esteve Almirall serves as Associated Professor at Esade and Dtr. of the Center for Innovation in Cities. He lectured at various universities, including UC Berkeley, Purdue, UPF, UPC and EPFL. He has a mixed background in both AI and Management Sciences, particularly in Innovation.

However, Esteve spent a previous life in the business IT sector with a career in consulting and banking where for many years Esteve was the youngest CTO in the Spanish banking industry, being the 1st in offering online transactions and the 2nd in online banking. As an entrepreneur he founded several companies and participated in tech startups.

In academics he has been involved in multiple programs and created a Smart Cities program together with the World Bank that was well attended. His last contribution was the creation of the Esade's Master in Business Analytics (ranked #5 in the world in 2018.

Esteve is passionate about the intersection between Digital Technologies and Innovation, in particular Smart Cities where he participated in multiple projects and congresses. He was one of the founders of the European Networks of Living Labs with +400 Living Labs around the world and coordinated several high-impact European Projects such as Open Cities or Commons for Europe and participated as principal researcher in many others totaling a budget of more than €29M. Esteve also worked for the World Bank and the European Commission as an expert. He has been deeply involved in the Smart Cities movement and in Smart City Expo since its inception.

His research has been published in leading scientific journals such as Academy of Management Review, MISQ, Government Information Quarterly, HBR, CACM or California Management Review among others, totaling +80 publications. He is also a frequent contributor to the general press such as Forbes, La Vanguardia, Via Empresa or El nacional among others, and a well-known public speaker.

As a recovering geek he prides himself on teaching Python, Julia, Machine Learning, Cloud Planforms and AWS as well as Competing with AI & Cloud, Smart Cities, Innovation and Management.

Selected publications

• Calzada, I. & Almirall, E. (2020). Data ecosystems for protecting European citizens' digital rights. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 14 (2), pp. 133-147.
• Torrens, M., Cortés, U., Valogianni, K., Valor, J., Ruiz Hontangas, A., Almirall, E., Argandoña Rámiz, A. & Guerris, M. (2020). Los retos éticos de la inteligencia artificial. Harvard Deusto Business Review, (296), pp. 34-59.
• Almirall, E. (2019). ¿Cómo sobrevivir al tsunami de la IA?. Harvard Deusto Business Review, (295), pp. 54-62.
• Brunswicker, S., Almirall, E. & Majchrzak, A. (2019). Optimizing and satisficing: The interplay between platform architecture and producers' design strategies for platform performance. MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems, 43 (4), pp. 1249-1277.
• Brunswicker, S., Pujol , L. & Almirall, E. (2019). Transparency in policy making: A complexity view. Government Information Quarterly, 36 (3), pp. 571-591.
• Almirall, E. & Calzada, I. (2019, June). Barcelona's grassroots-led urban experimentation: Deciphering the 'data commons' policy scheme [Paper presentation]. 4th Data for Policy 2019, London.
• Brunswicker, S., Majchrzak, A., Almirall, E. & Tee, R. (2018). Cocreating value from open data: From incentivizing developers to inducing co-creation in open data ecosystems. In S. N. Larsen (Ed.), Open innovation, ecosystems and entrepreneurship: Issues and perspectives, pp. 127-158. World Scientific Publishing.
• Almirall, E., Núñez Letamienda, L., Vives, L. & Oliver, N. (2018). Inteligencia artificial en los negocios. Harvard Deusto Business Review, (274), pp. 42-51.
• Bakici, T. & Almirall, E. (2017). Intervention intermediaries flourish: matching firms with solutions to complex needs. Journal of Business Strategy, 38 (4), pp. 21-29.
• Zobel, A., Almirall, E., Majchrzak, A., Bogers, M., Dahlander, L., Frederiksen, L., Gawer, A., Gruber , M., Haefliger, S., Hagedoorn, J., Hilgers, D., McCarthy, I. P., Moeslein, K. M., Magnusson, M. G., Piller, F. T., Radziwon, A., Rossi-Lamastra, C., Sims, J., Ter Wal, A. L. J., ... Nambisan, S. (2017). The open innovation research landscape: Established perspectives and emerging themes across different levels of analysis. Industry and Innovation, 24 (1), pp. 8-40.
• Almirall, E., Wareham, J., Ratti, C., Conesa, P., Bria, F., Gaviria, A. & Edmondson, A. (2016). Smart Cities at the crossroads: New tensions in city transformations. California Management Review, 59 (1), pp. 141-152.
• Almirall, E., Cohen, B. & Chesbrough, H. (2016). The city as a Lab: Open innovation meets the collaborative economy . California Management Review, 59 (1), pp. 5-13.
• Lee, M., Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2016). Open Data & Civic Apps: 1st Generation Failures, 2nd Generation Improvements. Communications of the ACM, 59 (1), pp. 82-89.
• Bakici, T., Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2015). Innovation platforms: Intentions for participation. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2015 (1), pp. 14255-14255.
• Bakici, T., Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2015, August). Innovation platforms: Intentions for participation [Paper presentation]. 2015 Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Vancouver.
• Almirall, E. (2015, August). Opening governance with a public intent: studying opening gevernance at multiple scales [Paper presentation]. 2015 Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Vancouver.
• Almirall, E. (2015, August). Researching open innovation: theoretical and empirical approaches at different levels of analysis [Paper presentation]. 2015 Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Vancouver.
• Almirall, E. & Brunswicker, S. (2015, July). Transparency design and generative governance of innovation in digital ecosystems [Paper presentation]. 3rd Annual Research Symposium on Complexity and IT, Montpellier 2015, Montpellier.
• Bakici, T. & Almirall, E. (2014, December). The underlying mechanisms of online open innovation intermediaries [Paper presentation]. 1st Annual World Open Innovation Conference (WOIC 2014), Santa Clara.
• Lee, M., Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2014). Open data & civic apps: 1st generation failures - 2nd generation improvements. ESADE working paper (256). ESADE
• Almirall, E. (2014, June). Living labbing: The Southern approach [Paper presentation]. XXV ISPIM Conference 2014, Dublin.
• Almirall, E. (2014, June). An ecological approach to diversity in open participatory strategies [Paper presentation]. The R&D Management Conference 2014, Stuttgart.
• Almirall, E., Lee, M. & Majchrzak, A. (2014). Open innovation requires integrated competition-community ecosystems: Lessons learned from civic open innovation. Business Horizons, 57 (3), pp. 391-400.
• Domingo , A., Bellalta , B., Palacín , M., Oliver , M. & Almirall, E. (2013). Public open sensor data: Revolutionizing smart cities. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 32 (4), pp. 50-56.
• Bakici, T. (2013). Open innovation intermediaries: marketplaces for innovation (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Universitat Ramon Llull (URL). ESADE.
• Bakici, T., Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2013). A Smart City initiative: The case of Barcelona. Journal of the Knowledge Economy , 4 (2), pp. 135-148.
• Bakici, T., Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2013). The role of public open innovation intermediaries in local government and the public sector. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 25 (3), pp. 311-327.
• Almirall, E., Lee, M. & Wareham, J. (2012). Mapping living labs in the landscape of innovation methodologies. Technology Innovation Management Review, (September 2012), pp. 12-18.
• Bakici, T., Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2012). The underlying mechanisms of online open innovation intermediaries. ESADE working paper (237). ESADE
• Lee, M., Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2011, October). Mechanisms of innovation in smart cities [Paper presentation]. eChallenges e-2011, Florence 2011, Florence.
• Bakici, T., Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2011, June). Motives for participation in online open innovation platforms [Paper presentation]. DRUID 2011, Copenhagen 2011, Copenhagen.
• Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2011). Living Labs: Arbiters of mid- and ground-level innovation. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 23 (1), pp. 87-102.
• Bakici, T., Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2010). The underlying mechanisms of open innovation intermediaries. Service innovation yearbook 2010-2011, pp. 56-65. Publications Office of the European Union.
• Wareham, J. & Almirall, E. (2010). The need to innovate: Open innovation in smart cities. Service innovation yearbook 2010-2011, pp. 108-111. Publications Office of the European Union.
• Wareham, J. & Almirall, E. (2010). Innovation: A question of fit - the living labs approach. Service innovation yearbook 2010-2011, pp. 24-37. Publications Office of the European Union.
• Bakici, T., Almirall, E. & Wareham, J. (2010, June). The underlying mechanisms of open innovation intermediaries [Paper presentation]. The R&D Management Conference 2010, Manchester.
• Almirall, E. & Casadesus Masanell , R. (2010). Open vs. closed innovation: A model of discovery and divergence. Academy of Management Review, 35 (1), pp. 27-47.
• Almirall, E. (2009). Understanding innovation as a collaborative, co-evolutionary process (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Universitat Ramon Llull (URL). ESADE.