Meet UBC Sauder’s New Faculty - David Clough

At UBC Sauder, faculty members are more than just ‘professors.’ They conduct impactful research that is changing how society views the world while also inspiring students to pursue their academic passions and become the thoughtful, values-driven leaders the business world needs.

This year, UBC Sauder welcomed 14 new full-time lecturers, tenured and tenure-track faculty to the school. In the second of this series, we introduce you to Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources Assistant Professor David Clough, one of the new faces of UBC Sauder’s faculty.

What brought you to UBC Sauder?

In addition to UBC Sauder’s excellent research environment and collegial culture, I was attracted to this unique position because I’m affiliated with both the OBHR division and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group, which spans multiple divisions. This puts me in a great position to approach challenging research questions with an interdisciplinary lens.

What are your areas of research and how did you get into this field?

My current research examines how firms coordinate big technological shifts using networks of inter-firm partnerships. I also look at topics in the entrepreneurship domain, such as how founding teams form and how entrepreneurs gather resources for their nascent ventures. My research has always been guided by an overarching interest in the interplay between technology and society, which led me to study engineering as an undergraduate degree before moving into strategy consulting and then a PhD in management.

What inspires you to teach?

I’ve been the fortunate beneficiary of world-class teaching, both in my undergraduate years at the University of Cambridge and during my PhD at INSEAD. This has given me great respect for the teacher-student relationship, and an aspiration to help my own students develop to their full potential.

What do you believe is the future of your industry?

My dissertation work studies the historic evolution of the mobile telecoms industry. This is an incredibly fast-moving space, making it tough to predict trends more than three months into the future. But my belief is that we’re just in the early stages of a communications revolution. The smartphone has been around for roughly ten years, and we’re still discovering new uses for it on a daily basis. Moreover, the basic product design has not changed dramatically since the first version of the iPhone. The fact that smartphones are now almost ubiquitous creates huge opportunities for business model innovation across a wide range of industries that at first might seem remote from mobile telecoms. It’s an exciting industry to engage with and I look forward to seeing what innovations in this area might come out of UBC’s active entrepreneurial community in coming years!

What are you most looking forward to doing in Vancouver?

I’m an active person so I’m looking forward to exploring the running, hiking and cycling trails in Vancouver and further afield.