CONFERENCES

DRUID Conferences 1995-2024

For programs and papers, select the individual conference. You can also see DRUID award winners, hi-res videos of DRUID Debates and keynotes, as well as photos from all conferences.
DRUID25,  Toronto, June 25-27, 2025  [Carbon neutral conference]
DRUID24, Nice, June 13-15, 2024 [Carbon neutral conference]
DRUID23, Lisbon, June 10-12, 2023  [Carbon neutral conference]
DRUID22, Copenhagen, June 13-15, 2022     [Carbon neutral conference]
DRUID21, Copenhagen, October 18-20, 2021     [Carbon neutral conference]
DRUID SILVER ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE, Copenhagen, June 15-17, 2020
[CANCELLED DUE TO THE GLOBAL HEALTH CRISIS]
DRUID19, Copenhagen, June 19-21, 2019          [Carbon neutral conference]
DRUID18, Copenhagen, June 11-13, 2018          [Carbon neutral conference]
DRUID17, New York, June 13-15, 2017
DRUID16, Copenhagen, June 13-15, 2016
DRUID-Asia16, Singapore, February 23-26, 2016
DRUID15 “The Relevance of Innovation”, Rome, June 15-17, 2016
DRUID14 “Entrepreneurship – Organization – Innovation”, Copenhagen
DRUID13 35th Celebration Conference, Barcelona
DRUID12 “Innovation and Competitiveness: Dynamics of organizations, industries, systems and regions”, Copenhagen
DRUID11, Copenhagen
DRUID10 “Opening Up Innovation: Strategy, Organization and Technology”, London
DRUID09 “Innovation, Strategy and Knowledge”, Copenhagen
DRUID08 25th Celebration Conference “Entrepreneurship and Innovation”, Copenhagen
DRUID07 “Appropriability, Proximity, Routines and Innovation”, Copenhagen
DRUID06 “Knowledge, Innovation and Competitiveness: Dynamics of Firms, Networks, Regions and Institutions”, Copenhagen
DRUID05 Tenth Anniversary Conference “Dynamics of Industry and Innovation: Organizations, Networks and Systems”, Copenhagen
DRUID04 “Industrial Dynamics, Innovation and Development”, Elsinore
DRUID03 “Creating, Sharing and Transferring Knowledge: The Role of Geography”, Elsinore
DRUID02 “Industrial Dynamics of the New and Old Economy – who is embracing whom?”, Elsinore
DRUID01 Nelson and Winter Conference, Aalborg
DRUID00 “The Learning Economy: Firms, Regions And Nation Specific Institutions”, Rebild
DRUID99 “National Innovation Systems, Industrial Dynamics and Innovation Policy”, Rebild
DRUID98 “Competence, Governance, and Entrepreneurship”, Bornholm
DRUID97, Skagen
DRUID96 “The Nature of Knowledge”, Rungsted
DRUID95 Start-up Workshop

PHD ACADEMY

DRUID Academy events and PhD courses 1997-2023

For programs and papers, select the individual Academy event/course. You can also see DRUID award winners as well as photos from all Academy events.
DRUIDphd25 Academy, Aalborg, January 15-17, 2025
DRUIDphd24 Academy, Odense, January 17-19, 2024
DRUIDphd23 Academy, Aalborg, January 11-13, 2023
DRUIDphd22 Academy, Aalborg, January 12-14, 2022
[CANCELLED DUE TO THE GLOBAL HEALTH CRISIS]
DRUIDphd21 Academy, Aalborg, January 20-22, 2021
[CANCELLED DUE TO THE GLOBAL HEALTH CRISIS]
DRUIDphd20 Academy and PhD course, Odense, January 16-17 and 13-15, 2020
DRUIDphd19 Academy, Aalborg, January 16-18, 2019
DRUIDphd18 Academy and PhD course, Odense, January 17-19 and 14-17, 2018
DRUIDphd17 Academy and PhD course, Odense
DRUIDphd16 Academy, Bordeaux
DRUIDphd15 Academy, Rebild
DRUIDphd14 Academy, Rebild
DRUIDphd13 Academy, Rebild
DRUIDphd12 Academy “Economics and Management of Innovation, Technology and Organizations”, Cambridge
DRUIDphd11 DRUID-DIME Academy “Economics and Management of Innovation, Technology and Organizations”, Rebild
DRUIDphd10 DRUID-DIME Academy  “Innovation, Knowledge and Entrepreneurship”, Rebild
DRUIDphd09 DRUID-DIME Academy “Economics and Management of Innovation, Technology and Organizational Change”, Rebild
DRUIDphd08 DRUID-DIME Academy  “Economics and Management of Innovation and Organizational Change”, Rebild
DRUIDphd07 DRUID-DIME Academy “Geography, Innovation and Industrial Dynamics”, Rebild
DRUIDphd06 DRUID-DIME Academy “The Evolution of Capabilities and Industrial Dynamics”, Rebild
DRUIDphd05 Academy “Industrial Evolution and Dynamics”, Rebild
DRUIDphd04 Academy “Innovation, Growth and Industrial Dynamics”, Rebild
DRUIDphd03 Academy, Rebild
DRUIDphd02 Academy “Industry Evolution and Analysis”, Rebild
DRUIDphd01 Academy “External Organisation of the Firm”, Korsør
DRUIDphd00 Academy, Hillerød
DRUIDphd99 Academy, Holte
DRUIDphd98 Academy, Middelfart
DRUIDphd97 Academy, Aalborg

 

 

NEWS

DRUID23 BEST PAPER AWARD WINNERS

The DRUID23 Steve Klepper Award for Best Young Scholar Paper:

How Scientific Organizations Adapt to Novel Methodological Advances: The Impact of AlphaFold v1” by Gabriel Cavailli

The DRUID23 Best Paper award:

Eight Decades of  Changes in Occupational Tasks, Computerization and the Gender Pay Gap” by Shreyas Gadgin Matha,  Ljubica Nedelkoska, James McNerney, Dario Diodato, Frank Neffke, Andre Assumpcao

___________________

TESTIMONIALS

Said about DRUID

 

“A melting pot. It has been, and still is, a giant network for innovation which also connects to the rest of the world, and it is an institution beyond compare in Denmark within this field. An important driver for national research integration and instrumental in stimulating interaction among the cognitive networks that relate in different ways to innovation research”.
Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, 2015

 

“New thinking and understanding is very much needed on the behavior of firms and industries in today’s rapidly changing economy, and the challenges for public policy. The meetings of DRUID have been and will continue to be one of the most supportive loci for such new thinking.”
Richard Nelson, Columbia University, 2015

 

“DRUID has become an exceptionally valuable well-regarded node in the global network of scholars concerned with innovation, technical change, and related issues of policy and organization.  I have been a regular attendee at the Summer conferences and an occasional participant in the Winter conferences for PhDs. It has been a pleasure to participate as the conferences advanced in every dimension, including intellectual stimulation, research interactions, organization, and opportunities for interaction with scholars from around the world.”
Sidney G. Winter, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2015

 

“The DRUID conferences have now become the preeminent international venue for presenting leading research on innovation and industrial dynamics.  In serving this purpose, DRUID also has come to serve as a critical facilitator in the kinds of intellectual exchanges, discussions and debates that advance knowledge and thinking in this terribly important research domain.”
Wes Cohen, Duke University, 2015

 

“DRUID has become a terribly important catalyst for research efforts in a broad range of areas, including studies of innovation, entrepreneurship, management, industry dynamics, and economic geography.  DRUID plays this role most prominently with respect to its major annual conference, but also via its doctoral student and junior faculty development workshops.  There is not really a parallel to the DRUID conference as it simultaneously has tremendous scale of activity, but at the same time a rather tight topical focus.”
Daniel A. Levinthal, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2015

 “I am a big DRUID fan!! DRUID conferences have long served as a very important venue for academic exchanges on topics at the leading edge of innovation research.”
Eric von Hippel, MIT, 2015 

 

“DRUID as an organization, and especially the summer conference, serves as a critical nexus for European and North American scholars interested in entrepreneurship, innovation, industry evolution, and economic geography. DRUID has played an important role in advancing research on these topics by creating connections across related disciplines. I find the DRUID community welcoming and unusually stimulating intellectually. Many North American scholars hold DRUID in similarly high regard.”
Olav Sorenson, Yale University, 2015

“I think it would be fair to say that increasingly among the elite schools globally DRUID is regarded as the equivalent of the Academy of Management in the European context and many US and Asia based scholars, if they pick a European conference to attend, it is DRUID.”
Gautam Ahuja, University of Michigan 

 

“I would like to make a strong endorsement for DRUID as a leading institution and event with significant visibility and recognition in the international community of strategy and innovation scholars.  DRUID is one of the leading event for many of us, because of the widespread set of scholars, the high-quality level of its symposia and debates, and several other related matters.”
Alfonso Gambardella, Bocconi University, 2015

 

“DRUID is unique in incubating interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary topics. DRUID’s focus on industrial dynamics is a significant topic, which has the ability to evolve and redefine as conditions change. When I attend the summer conference I always learn new concepts and see original ideas.  The winter conference provides an opportunity for younger scholars to get small group feedback on their work.”
Maryann Feldman, University of North Carolina, 2015

 

“The kinds of presentations one hears at DRUID are unique on the international stage, with its blend of economists, industrial economists, management studies professors, and strategy people. It is a great place to meet people interested in questions of organizational learning and process, and I particularly find attention to mechanisms refreshing in a field that otherwise spends a lot of time on descriptive results.”
Howard E. Aldrich, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2015

 

“In an era of sound bites, bubbles and fashionable trends in academia as in the rest of the world, DRUID stands out in its thoughtful, contemplative, yet relevant approach to some of the most urgent topics, issues and fields of our time. It has become the gold standard for bringing together a broad spectrum of scholars, spanning a number of diverse academic backgrounds for meaningful and thoughtful conversations.”
David Audretsch, Indiana University, 2015

 

“DRUID has been a vital gathering place for the study of industrial dynamics, innovation, and management since its inception 20 years ago.  Some of the best scholars in these fields have attended and debated at DRUID meetings, resulting in a wonderful intellectual community that is worthy of continued support.”
Henry Chesbrough, UC Berkeley, 2015

 

“DRUID has been the most successful European research organization in business and management or the past two decades. It has acted not only as a source of valuable research, but even more important as forum for scholars of business and social sciences from across the globe–both junior researchers and established leaders in their fields. Most important, DRUID has done a remarkable job of encouraging the interchange of ideas across different fields through a focus on important current phenomenon.”
Robert Grant, Bocconi University, 2015

“DRUID has become one of the go-to networks and conference events where North American scholars meet their European counterparts in a sustained trans-Atlantic dialogue on innovation and innovation policy.  It is an essential bridge between the two continents. DRUID has been the key international and interdisciplinary forum for scholarship on innovation for 20 years now.  DRUID is unique in its combination of scholarly rigor, policy relevance and the building of bridges between economics, business, organizational studies, geography and sociology for a comprehensive and border-crossing look at the rapidly-moving world of innovation.”
Michael Storper, UCLA and LSE

“From its inception 25 years ago, DRUID has grown to be the go-to conference for innovation and entrepreneurship scholars from a range of disciplines, especially from my field of urbanism and economic geography. DRUID has impact, it has helped to develop and shape an important field not just for academia but for creating more innovative economies and more prosperous societies.”
Richard Florida, University of Toronto and NYU, 2015

 

“Thank you for the continued excellence of the DRUID conference and the service that DRUID provides to the academic and scientific community.  I must say that the consistently high quality, and the hallmark debates make it one of my favorite conferences. Every year’s conference is better than the year before.”
Rajshree Argarwal, University of Maryland, 2015

 

“DRUID is known as the premiere conference for business and management scholars working at the intersection of innovation, technology, economics, history and management.”
Anita McGahan, University of Toronto, 2015

 

“DRUID is recognized internationally as one of the premier conferences on innovation and entrepreneurship, attracting leading researchers and experts in these fields year after year.”
Simon C. Parker, Ivey Business School at Western University, 2015

 

“I have been going to DRUID conferences nearly since its inception.  When I think of the academic leaders such as Dick Nelson, Nate Rosenberg, Sid Winter, Dave Mowery, Charles Edquist, Bengt-Ake Lundvall, and so many more that I met at DRUID and how those connections helped my career, it is difficult to think of another and better conference.”
Martin Kenney, University of California, Davis, 2015 

 

“DRUID has become a leading international community and conference in the area of innovation management and strategy. It is well known on both sides of the Atlantic. Even though it has grown dramatically over the years that I have attended, it retains a unique identity and “personality”. DRUID is always a part of summer I look forward to, both to reconnect with friends and colleagues and hear about their latest work, but also to be stimulated by the always-topical debates. DRUID is never boring, which cannot be said of most academic conferences. Indeed, from my viewpoint, DRUID is the top European management conference.”
Aija Leiponen, Cornell University, 2015

“DRUID is the preeminent innovation conference in all of Europe. I think the fact that it has the top names in the field in attendance is an indication of its importance for the profession.”
David Robinson, Duke University and NBER, 2015

 

“DRUID has become one of the most important international gatherings of scholars concerned with industrial dynamics, innovation and entrepreneurship. Its unique blend of debates, critical and detailed discussions of new research, and its capacity-building efforts for early career scholars have encouraged not only the formation of a richer and broader academic community, but it has also lifted the research ambitions of that community.”
Ammon Salter, University of Bath, 2015

RESEARCH

The mission of DRUID is to establish itself as a hub for premier research and doctoral education in innovation and the dynamics of structural, institutional and geographic change.

DRUIDs research agenda is a better understanding of the institutional and organizational dynamics of change, at all levels of analysis: Individuals, teams, firms, projects, networks, industries and national and regional economies. DRUID research is cross-disciplinary, incorporating insights from, for example, economics, sociology, management, and economic geography.

Since the 1990s, DRUID promoted a range of research themes that have become widely influential, such as innovation systems, open innovation, organizational learning, firm capabilities, markets for technology, clusters, and social networks. Currently, research themes that are gaining traction in the DRUID community encompass creativity, entrepreneurship, knowledge search, local and global connectedness, eco-innovation, social innovation and institutional innovation.

Examples of DRUID research can be found below.

DRUID DEBATES 1995-2024
Outstanding scholars exchanging opinions on key themes in a heated and entertaining setting with conference audiences opposing or supporting their standpoints.

DRUID KEYNOTES 1995-2024
Top scholars juxtaposed with up-and-coming contenders present topical research with potential to become tomorrow’s key themes.

DRUID AWARD WINNERS 2006-2024
High-quality papers with particular innovative potential from the DRUID conferences.

PEOPLE

Meet the DRUIDs

At the heart of DRUIDs international activities stands a group of Danish innovation scholars from Aalborg University (AAU), Copenhagen Business School (CBS), and University of Southern Denmark (SDU).

 

DRUID Senior Scholars

Esben Sloth Andersen, Department of Business and Management, AAU
Kristina Vaarst Andersen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, CBS
Poul Houman Andersen, Department of Business and Management, AAU
Oliver Baumann, Department of Marketing and Management, SDU
Markus Becker, Department of Marketing and Management, SDU
Stephan Billinger,  Department of Marketing and Management, SDU
Marcel Bogers, The Mads Clausen Institut, SDU
Jing Chen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, CBS
Jens Frøslev Christensen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, CBS
Jesper Lindgaard Christensen, Department of Business and Management, AAU
Michael Christensen, Department of Marketing and Management, SDU
Jörg Claussen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, CBS
Michael S. Dahl, Department of Business and Management, AAU
Lee Davis, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, CBS
Ina Drejer, Department of Business and Management, AAU
Bo Eriksen, Department of Marketing and Management, SDU
Kirsten Foss Center for Strategic Management and Globalization, CBS
Wolfgang Gerstlberger, Department of Marketing and Management, SDU
Pernille Gjerløv-Juel, Department of Business and Management, AAU
Birgitte Gregersen, Department of Business and Management, AAU
Christoph Grimpe, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, CBS
René Chester Goduscheit, Department of Marketing and Management, SDU
Jacob Rubæk Holm, Department of Business and Management, AAU
Lars Bo Jeppesen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, CBS
Björn Johnson, Department of Business and Management, AAU
Mette Præst Knudsen, Department of Marketing and Management, SDU
Thorbjørn Knudsen, Department of Marketing and Management, SDU
Keld Laursen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, CBS
Rasmus Lema, Department of Business and Management, AAU
Mark Lorenzen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, CBS
Bengt-Åke Lundvall, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Peter Maskell, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Ulrik William Nash, Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark
Kristian Nielsen, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
René Nesgaard Nielsen, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Alex de Mota Pedrosa, Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark
Marion Pötz, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Karsten Boye Rasmussen, Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark
Toke Reichstein, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Thomas Rønde, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Max Rolfstam, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Henrik Sornn-Friese, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Kannan Srikanth, Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark
Nils Stieglitz, Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark
Hans Eibe Sørensen, Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark
Valentina Tartari, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business Schoo
Bram Timmermans, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Romeo V. Turcan, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Finn Valentin, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Per Vejrup-Hansen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Gert Villumsen, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Christian R. Østergaard, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Sangyoon Yi, Department of Marketing of Management, University of Southern Denmark

 

DRUID Doctoral Students

Ahmad Barirani, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Juan Martin Carrequiry, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Marianne Harbo Frederiksen, Department of Technology and Innovation, University of Southern Denmark
Diane Filip, INSERO and Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Cecilie Bryld Fjællegaard, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Daniel S. Hain, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Jacob Jeppesen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Roman Jurowetzki,  Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Milan Miric, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Agnieszka Nowinska, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Leticia A. Nogueira, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Anders Ørding Olsen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
EunKyung Park, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University
Jan Skovgaard, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Stefan Kirkegaard Sløk-Madsen, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Tina Lund Tranekjer, Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark
Jacob Vind, Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark
Theodor Vladasel, Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School
Annemarie Østergaard, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University