Biography

Ammon Salter is a Professor of Technology and Innovation Management. His research focuses on open and distributed models of innovation, R&D decision-making, social networks and innovation, AI and new ventures, and university-industry collaboration. His research has been published widely, in journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Research Policy, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and California Management Review. His research has been highly cited, receiving over 40k Google Citations, and received numerous awards, including Strategic Management Journal 2021 Dan and Mary Lou Schendel Best Paper Prize. He was a co-editor of Research Policy from 2019 to 2025 and an associate editor at Industrial and Corporate Change. He has also been a PI or CI on several million pounds of external research funding, from the ESRC, EPSRC and European Commission.

He holds an honorary position as a Research Associate at the Centre for Business Research at the University of Cambridge and is a member of the Expert Council for the Innovation and Research Caucus. His research typically involves engagement with policy and practice through collaborative projects with industrial and governmental partners. He has collaborated on projects with the BEIS/DSIT, Innovate UK, Research England, HM Treasury, and the European Commission. His industry partners have included Arup, WS Atkins, IBM, CiteAb, and a range of other organisations. His personal website is ammonsalter.org.

He has developed educational innovation and entrepreneurship games and simulations, all freely available and open source, gathered as the I&E Playbook with their educator’s pack.

• The Disruptor - An innovation management and corporate entrepreneurship simulation. You arrive at Vélox Dynamics, a Belgian fitness-equipment company trying to reinvent itself, as its new Chief Innovation Officer, and run innovation there for three years across five modes of play.
• The Slingshot - An AI startup simulation. Found an AI venture in the UK, raise money, hire a leadership team, pick your markets and race rivals through sixteen quarters, with two AI companions who help before play and debrief afterwards.
• Build, Bin, Boost - An R&D portfolio simulation. Head of R&D at ShieldTech India, with two years, eight quarters and a substantial budget: what to build, what to bin and what to boost.

He has also developed some mini-games and other tools for teaching. Please see his Substack to follow developments. 

Research Interests

Innovation management, open innovation, R&D project selection, meta-science, innovation policy, innovation and social networks, AI and new ventures, and university-industry collaboration.