ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, IESE Business school
Natalie BurfordI am an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at IESE Business School. My research focusses on platforms and ecosystems, and the impact of technological interdependence on value distribution.
Firms use ecosystems and platforms to expand their firm boundaries. I am interested in understanding the implications of these strategies for users, in particular whether they impact users’ adaptability to new environments and the heterogeneity of choices available to them. Established theories may not be sufficient to explain the dominance of big tech and understand the impact of tech firms’ strategies on competition and choice, freedom and privacy. Inspired by the importance of these cases for our world today and in future, my research focusses on (1) drivers of inter-organizational integration within technological systems and (2) how different forms and degrees of integration impact customers’ experience and organizations’ performance.
I hold a PhD in Management from the Entrepreneurship Department at INSEAD. Prior to my PhD, I worked in business development at the global restaurant online platform Delivery Hero, and as the first employee of the small Insurtech startup Getsurance in Berlin, in portfolio strategy research at Goldman Sachs in London and in consulting at McKinsey&Company in Zurich. I completed my B.A. at St. Gallen university and an MSc in Finance and Economics at the London School of Economics (LSE). I am half English, half German, I lived in six countries (UK, Germany, Switzerland, France, Australia, Singapore) and travelled to many more. In particular, I spent nine months backpacking solo through Asia and North America. I love to ski, play golf, wakeboard, dive and hike.
