Nicolas van Zeebroeck

- Professor of Digital Economics & Strategy, ULB, Solvay Brussels School
- Advisor of President and Rector for IT and Digital, ULB
- Founding member of iCite
International Centre for Innovation, Technology & Entrepreneurship
- Founding member of FARI
The Artificial Intelligence for the Common Good Institute in Brussels
- Member of Belgium's High Council for Employment
- Senior Fellow at The Conference Board

Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management
50 Avenue F.D. Roosevelt - CP114/4
1050 Brussels, Belgium
Phone: +32 (0)2 650.33.75
E-mail: Nicolas.van.Zeebroeck@ulb.be
Office: R42.5.205
LinkedIn: nvanzeebroeck
View/Download Curriculum Vitae: Short/Summary

Biography

I am a full-time professor at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (SBS-EM) at Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium, and currently serve as Adjunct to the President and Rector of the University for IT and digital matters. I also sit on Belgium's High Council for Employment and serve as Senior Fellow at the Conference Board.

My research and teaching cover the economics and strategy of innovation, knowledge and digitalization. After several years of research on innovation and intellectual property, I now investigate how digital technology affects the performance, organization and value creation processes of firms and industries. My research has appeared in international journals such as Management Science, Research Policy, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Stanford Technology Law Review, Pattern Recognition, or Information Economics and Policy. My teachings cover computer science, management information systems, digital strategy and digital transformation. Next to research and teaching, I am regularly interviewed on digital matters in national media and serve as a consultant and keynote speaker on digital strategy and transformation for private and public organizations. Since 2019, I have been in charge of the IT and digital strategy of the University (ULB). I am responsible for setting the main direction and priorities for digitalization within ULB in all its missions: research, teaching, service and internal administration.

After my Master in Business Engineering (2001) from Solvay (ULB), I started my career as a consultant at Capgemini before coming back to Solvay for my PhD in Economics and Management (obtained in 2008). I then worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at FNRS (from 2009 to 2011) and at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (in 2009). Since I joined Solvay as a Professor in 2011, I have been academic director of its Master in Business Engineering (from 2011 to 2016) and its Advanced Master in Innovation and Strategic Management (from 2014 to 2016), have successfully led the EQUIS re-accreditation process of the School in 2013 and 2016, and served as Deputy Dean for Management Research from 2018 to 2020.

Areas of expertise

Economics of information and digital technology
Knowledge diffusion
Business process innovation
Digital business strategy
Digital transformation

Courses taught

Introduction to computer science
Multidisciplinary seminar of science & technology
The digital firm
Management information systems

Selected publications

van Zeebroeck, N., Kretschmer, T., & Bughin, J. (2021). Digital is Strategy: The Role of Digital Technology Adoption in Strategy Renewal. IEEE transactions on engineering management, 1-15. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Forman, C. C., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2019). Digital technology adoption and knowledge flows within firms: Can the Internet overcome geographic and technological distance? Research policy, 48(8), 1-16. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Venturini, R., Ceccagnoli, M. M., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2019). Knowledge integration in the shadow of tacit spillovers: Empirical evidence from U.S. R&D labs. Research policy, 48(1), 180-205. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). The best response to digital disruption. MIT Sloan management review, 58(4), 58479. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). 6 Digital Strategies, and Why Some Work Better than Others. Harvard business review. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Forman, C. C., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2012). From wires to partners: How the Internet has fostered R&D collaborations within firms. Management science, 58(8), 1549-1568. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]

International scientific journals

van Zeebroeck, N., Kretschmer, T., & Bughin, J. (2021). Digital is Strategy: The Role of Digital Technology Adoption in Strategy Renewal. IEEE transactions on engineering management, 1-15. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Forman, C. C., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2019). Digital technology adoption and knowledge flows within firms: Can the Internet overcome geographic and technological distance? Research policy, 48(8), 1-16. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Venturini, R., Ceccagnoli, M. M., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2019). Knowledge integration in the shadow of tacit spillovers: Empirical evidence from U.S. R&D labs. Research policy, 48(1), 180-205. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Cremers, K., Ernicke, M., Gaessler, F., Harhoff, D., Helmers, C., Mc Donagh, L., Schliessler, P., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). Patent litigation in Europe. European journal of law and economics, 44(1), 1-44. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). The best response to digital disruption. MIT Sloan management review, 58(4), 58479. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., Catlin, T., Hall, B., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). Improving your digital intelligence. MIT Sloan management review., 59207. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Graham, S., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2014). Comparing Patent Litigation Across Europe: A First Look. Stanford technology law review, 17, 655-708. [Access: ULB Repository]
Forman, C. C., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2012). From wires to partners: How the Internet has fostered R&D collaborations within firms. Management science, 58(8), 1549-1568. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bersini, H., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2012). Why should an Economy be Competitive? Complex systems, 21(1), 21-36. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2011). Long live patents: the increasing life expectancy of patent applications and its determinants. Review of economics and institutions, 2(3). [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2011). The Puzzle of Patent Value Indicators. Economics of innovation and new technology, 20(1), 33-62. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N., & Van Pottelsberghe, B. (2011). The vulnerability of patent value determinants. Economics of innovation and new technology, 20(3), 283-308. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N., & Van Pottelsberghe, B. (2011). Filing strategies and patent value. Economics of innovation and new technology, 20(6), 539-562. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Mantrach, A., van Zeebroeck, N., Francq, P., Shimbo, M., Bersini, H., & Saerens, M. (2011). Semi-supervised Classification and Betweenness: Centrality Computation on Large, Sparse, Graphs. Pattern recognition, 44(6), 1212-1224. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N., Van Pottelsberghe, B., & Guellec, D. (2009). Claiming more: the increased voluminosity of patent applications and its determinants. Research policy, 38(6), 1006-1020. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2008). Développement et impact des stratégies de dépôt de brevets. Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique, 47(3), 87-100. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N., Van Pottelsberghe, B., & Guellec, D. (2008). Patents and Academic Research: A State of the Art. Journal of intellectual capital, 9(2), 246-263. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Van Pottelsberghe, B., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2008). A brief history of space and time: the scope-year index as a patent value indicator based on families and renewals. Scientometrics, 75(2), 319-338. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N., Van Pottelsberghe, B., Stevnsborg, N., Guellec, D., & Archontopoulos, E. (2008). Patent inflation in Europe. World Patent Information, 30(1), 43-52. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Archontopoulos, E., Guellec, D., Stevnsborg, N., Van Pottelsberghe, B., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2007). When small is beautiful: measuring the evolution and consequences of the voluminosity of patent applications at the EPO. Information Economics and Policy, 19(2), 103-132. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N., Van Pottelsberghe, B., & Han, W. (2006). Issues in measuring the degree of technological specialisation with patent data. Scientometrics, 66(3), 481-492. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]

Books and book chapters

Bersini, H., Spinette, M.-P., Spinette, R., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2014). Les fondements de l'informatique: Du bit au cloud. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Guellec, D., Van Pottelsberghe, B., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2007). Patent as a market instrument. In D. Guellec & B. Van Pottelsberghe (Eds.), The Economics of the European Patent System (pp. 85-113). Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Access: ULB Repository]

Refereed conference proceedings

van Zeebroeck, N. (2019). Actes du 23ème Congrès des Economistes: Commission Digitalisation, Robots et Emploi. [Access: ULB Repository]
Forman, C. C., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2015). Internet Adoption and Knowledge Diffusion. In ECIS 2015 Completed Research Papers. (ECIS2015_CR, 47). AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bersini, H., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2013). A Stylized Software Model to Explore the Free Market Equality/Efficiency Tradeoff. In Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing: Trends in Practical Applications of Agents and Multiagent Systems: Vol. 221 (pp. 1-8) Springer. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2008). Patents only live twice: a patent survival analysis in Europe. PROCEEDINGS OF THE 5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INNOVATION & MANAGEMENT. Vol. 1 (pp. 2831-2876) INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INNOVATION & MANAGEMENT(5: 2008-12-10: Maastricht, Netherlands). [Access: ULB Repository]

Working papers in submission/revision process

Gosse, J., Hoffreumon, C., van Zeebroeck, N., & Bughin, J. (2020). The Value of Platform Strategy It's the Ecosystem, Stupid! (Working Papers iCite No 2020-039). [Access: ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). The case for offensive reactions in response to digital disruption. [Access: ULB Repository]
Graham, S., Marco, A., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2012). Patently Informative: Strategy and Information in Patent Litigation across Countries. [Access: ULB Repository]

Working papers

Bughin, J., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2021). The Entrepreneurial Returns to Incumbents’ Digital Transformation. (Working Papers iCite No 2021-048). [Access: ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., Kretschmer, T., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2019). From Experimentation to Strategy: The Role of Digital Technologies in Strategy Renewal. (Working Papers iCite No 2019-031). [Access: ULB Repository]
Hoffreumon, C., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2018). Forecasting short-term transaction fees on a smart contracts platform. (Working Papers iCite No 2018-028). [Access: ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N., & Bughin, J. (2017). Platform play among incumbent firms: the wrong focus? (Working Papers iCite No 2017-023). [Access: ULB Repository]
Kapoor, R. R., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2016). The laws of action and reaction: on determinants of patent disputes in European chemical and drug industries. (ICITE No WP 2016-019). [Access: ULB Repository]
Ceccagnoli, M. M., van Zeebroeck, N., & Venturini, R. (2013). Cross-Functional Knowledge Integration, Patenting and Firm Performance. (SSRN Working Paper No 2286693). [Access: ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2009). Filing strategies and the increasing duration of patent applications. (Working papers CEB No 09-005.RS). [Access: ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2009). From patent renewals to applications survival: do portfolio management strategies play a role in patent length? (Working papers CEB No 09-028.RS). [Access: ULB Repository]

Articles in business journals and other industry outlets

van Zeebroeck, N., Gosse, J., & Fitzhenry, J. J. (2023). Digital for Green: Leveraging Digital Technologies to Improve Sustainability. The Conference Board briefing. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N., & Dricot, J.-M. (2022). We are at cyberwar. Here is what firms need to know and do about it. The Conference Board briefing. [Access: ULB Repository]
Gosse, J., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2022). Should semiconductor supply chains brace for more turmoil? The Conference Board briefing. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., Kretschmer, T., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2021). Digital technology adoption drives strategic renewal for successful digital transformation. IEEE engineering management review. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N., & Bughin, J. (2021). The Challenge of Digital Transformation. The European business review., Sep-Oct 2021. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2021). How should a business self-cannibalize during digital transformation? The European business review., Nov-Dec 2021. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2018). Artificial intelligence: Why a digital base is critical. The McKinsey quarterly, 2018(3), 13-16. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2018). The Promise and Pitfalls of AI. Project Syndicate. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). 6 Digital Strategies, and Why Some Work Better than Others. Harvard business review. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). New evidence for the power of digital platforms. The McKinsey quarterly. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bughin, J., LaBerge, L., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). When to shift your digital strategy into a higher gear. The McKinsey quarterly. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]

Policy reports

Dunne, A. A., Gomez Carvajal, M. F. M., Bughin, J., Gosse, J., Hoffreumon, C., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2022). Survey of Businesses on the Data Economy 2022. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Bijwaard, D. D., Gyupchanova, T. T., Dunne, A. A., Gosse, J., Hoffreumon, C., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2021). Survey on the contribution of ICT to the environmental sustainability of actions of EU enterprises. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Kazakova, S. S., Dunne, A. A., Bijwaard, D. D., Gosse, J., Hoffreumon, C., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2020). European enterprise survey on the use of technologies based on artificial intelligence. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]

Media columns and OpEds

Neysen, N., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2021). Media Column: L'herbe est-elle vraiment plus numérique ailleurs? La Libre Belgique. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). Media Column: Le décret Paysage et le mirage informatique. Le Soir. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2016). Media Column: Des souris et des hommes. La Libre Belgique. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2015). Media Column: Sans partage. La Libre Belgique. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
Van Pottelsberghe, B., & van Zeebroeck, N. (2014). Media Column: Ruée vers l'or gris. La Libre Belgique. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]

Blog articles

van Zeebroeck, N. (2021). LinkedIn Blog Post: Uber à Bruxelles: Vive le progrès! [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2021). LinkedIn Blog Post: Can cryptocurrencies avoid the reintermediation trap. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2020). LinkedIn Blog Post: Digital resistance and hesitation in Europe: Beware what you wish for. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2020). LinkedIn Blog Post: Taxons le digital, oui mais comment? [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2019). LinkedIn Blog Post: Digital cluster bombs and market power. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). LinkedIn Blog Post: The digital village. [Access: Source / ULB Repository]
van Zeebroeck, N. (2017). LinkedIn Blog Post: How different is digital technology from earlier industrial revolutions? [Access: Source / ULB Repository]