Public lecture series goes virtual for 2020-21

Public lecture series goes virtual for 2020-21

Nov. 5, 2020 LA GRANDE, Ore. – Eastern Oregon is reintroducing Colloquium—virtually. Starting Nov. 12, campus and community members can tune in via Zoom on the second Thursday of each month at 4 p.m. to hear about research EOU professors have been conducting. 

Professors Kelly McNeil and Jessica Coughlin are the coordinators of the Colloquium this year, a series of public lectures from EOU faculty that showcase their recent scholarly work. Their hope is that community members will be more apt to attend.

“My goal would be to reach out more to the community and let other people in the community know that these research projects are going on…so now that they’re on Zoom, we might have the ability to provide more access to these things for people,” said Rice, who presented her Colloquium at Side A Brewing last year.

Faculty coordinators have been working to achieve greater community involvement for years, and this modality change means more people will have access to the presentations in real time or any time. Recordings of each presentation will be posted on EOU’s Youtube page.

The first Colloquium presentation is Nov. 12 with a presentation by business professor Wilson Zehr. For three years, Zehr has researched how organizations use different forms of innovation to establish market leadership. 

Organizations tend to focus on product innovation early on and then shift to technological or process innovation as markets mature. This allows organizations to increase production efficiency and reduce costs in response to more intense competition. Recent studies have found that innovation can take more forms than the two traditional areas of product and process innovation. Zehr set out to learn more about the role other forms of innovation can play in establishing market leadership.

The focal point for this research was the 45-year history of the PC industry. The study used an expert panel and a new form of decision model.

He discovered that market leaders focused on product innovation early in the lifecycle and then shifted to process innovation over time. However, the results also show that marketing innovation became more critical for market leaders as the transition from product innovation tapered. Organizational innovation increased in importance toward the end of the lifecycle.

Zehr has been involved with eight technology startups, advised or assisted dozens more, and guided students through 50+ consulting projects since coming to EOU. He presented his new findings at a Walden research conference in October, and is scheduled to publish a book on entrepreneurship next spring.

Zehr will present his Colloquium talk at 4 p.m. on Nov. 12 via Zoom with a Meeting I.D. of 969 6251 8972. For more information about EOU Colloquium, visit eou.edu/colloquium.  

By PR Intern Emily Andrews