A month abroad: A visiting professor packs possibilities for studying international competition

A single month of a visiting professorship last spring may yield insights on the increasingly critical topic of digital competition in international markets.

Politecnico Milan School of Management Political Economics Professor Lucia Tajoli became a DLA Piper Visiting Professor at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School after a professional relationship that began several years ago. She met Carey Professor Valerie Suslow at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business when Suslow was on Ross’ faculty and Tajoli was a visiting scholar there. Suslow accepted Tajoli’s invitations to teach in Milan. Two years ago, Suslow wrote to Tajoli: Come to Carey.

“Of course, being a highly renowned university, I was happy to visit there, and I had never been to Baltimore, so I was curious to see it,” said Tajoli, who called the city quite lively. “I was also interested because, for quite some time, Valerie and I thought about working together on some projects or a paper, and we never had a chance to do so. So this was also an occasion to start some work.”

That work included meetings with Suslow to begin merging their respective areas of expertise, international economics and competition policy, so they can study the status and impact of international digital competition.

“The main idea that we have been thinking about is that international markets should be more competitive than national ones because, of course, you have more firms active, more competition in general,” Tajoli said. “Being a broader market and often even with more sophisticated consumers or buyers, firms tend to face a fairly high competition. But in the digital market, apparently, many people tend to say that in fact there isn’t enough competition, in spite of being in many ways very international because the big tech firms are international.” 

According to Tajoli, Europe has not developed big high-tech firms the way the United States has, resulting in a “fairly oligopolistic market” on the continent. The European Union recently enacted regulations on privacy and use of data that can also hinder the market’s competition. On the other hand, common standards could be a boost for the market. Tajoli and Suslow want to find out the extent of the challenge to competition and what reasons there may be for it. 

As they laid out the beginning of their collaboration, they also participated on a panel for DLA Piper’s antitrust-focused podcast in an episode focused on international trade policy and pricing. 

(A)broad opportunities

Tajoli engaged with other faculty and students during her visit at Carey.   She gave a guest lecture in Dr. Christina DePasquale’s undergraduate business minor economics class, , presented a seminar on digital exports, and talked school leadership about the possibility of an exchange program between the Politecnico Milan School of Management and Carey.

“We have a small group at my university in Milan working on management of health care, very close to some of the work done at Carey, so there may be some opportunities for collaboration,” she said. 

The value of a visiting professorship is inherently mutual. For Carey’s DLA Visiting Professorship, the goal is a balance of research collaboration and faculty engagement. 

“In other words, we ideally want to have DLA visiting professor who will interact with others in addition to working on a research project with the host faculty,” said Suslow, who had just finished her role as vice dean for Faculty and Research when she proposed inviting Tajoli.  

“A professorship like this one is an investment,” said Carey Vice Dean for Faculty and Research Goker Aydin, who oversees visiting professorships. “Visiting faculty get to know us, and then go home with exposure and experiences from Carey to share with others. Our junior faculty in specific areas can also benefit, build their networks, and find new opportunities.”

The power of perspective

For her part, Tajoli finds her own value in traveling to engage with researchers and students worldwide. She says it gives her new perspectives, spurs new questions, and stimulates new ideas—like new ways to approach teaching in Milan. 

“Students at Carey on the Homewood campus are more engaged, more actively participating,” she said. “I found that interesting to observe. The type of engagement is totally different. Now I have ideas that something could be done differently somehow.”