With support from the Ander Foundation, the Service Research Center (CTF) is happy to welcome Pascal Le Masson as a visiting professor. Pascal Le Masson is a professor at the Mines de Paris Research University, and has a distinguished background in design-oriented management and innovation.
Pascal Le Masson is an engineer and a professor at MINES ParisTech – PSL Research University. His research focuses on design theory and methods for innovation.
“My research interest lies in design-oriented management and the management of the unknown,” says Pascal Le Masson. “This topic relates to two main disciplines: management science, more specifically innovation management; and engineering design, more specifically design theory and methods. I’m particularly proud to have contributed to developments in C-K theory, for a better understanding of generativity processes, with impact in many research areas.”
Can you tell us about your current research?
“With my colleagues, we are currently focusing on ‘creative preservation’ – how it is possible to innovate in order to preserve. This logic of creative preservation is expected and explored in many situations today: innovating to preserve natural resources, ways of communal living, employment, and industrial sovereignty, among others. Being clearly non-Schumpeterian, this approach raises unique research questions within the fields of innovation management, design theory and management science. Our initial findings are promising and provide a solid foundation to delve into the contemporary concept of generativity associated with grand challenges and transitions. These findings have prompted my colleagues and me to recently launch a research programme called ‘Bauhaus for Transitions’.”
What do you hope to contribute to CTF?
“I’m so happy to have the opportunity to delve deeper into the research of the renowned CTF and to get to know the researchers. As an Ander Visiting Professor, I have the chance to give in-depth seminars on key research topics such as double impact research or the generativity of generative AI. I appreciate the scientific discussions on work in progress and the progressive elaboration of joint research projects. In recent years, I have had the great pleasure of regularly collaborating with CTF researchers, particularly Peter Magnusson and Alexander Sukhov. This collaboration has led to solid scientific results. The Ander Visiting Professorship presents a great opportunity to explore in more depth how to combine expertise in design theory and expertise in ideation, user involvement and idea refinement processes.”
Peter Magnusson, professor of Business Administration at CTF, has been collaborating with Pascal Le Masson for some time.
"Having Pascal Le Masson as a guest professor will contribute greatly to both CTF and Karlstad University," says Peter Magnusson. "Pascal and his colleagues are engaged in a lot of interesting theoretical development at the intersection of innovation, design, and management. His research lab is also very successful in collaborative research with prominent external industrial partners, where their theories are put into action and further developed. This aligns well with our research philosophy."
The visiting professorship is funded by Anne-Marie and Gustaf Ander Foundation for Media Research during 2024–2026.
Pascal Le Masson is a professor at Mines Paris – PSL Research University, and chair of Bauhaus for Transitions. He is a member of the National Academy of Technology of France. He co-chairs (with Eswaran Subrahmanian, Carnegie Mellon Univ.) the Design Theory Special Interest Group of the Design Society. Together with Benoit Weil and Armand Hatchuel, he has published the books "Strategic Management of Innovation and Design" (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and "Design Theory" (Springer, 2017), as well as several papers in international top-level journals. He is area-editor in design theory for Research in Engineering Design and editor of the European Management Review.
