
Buganza Tommaso
Full Professor
Buganza Tommaso
Full Professor
Tommaso Buganza is Professor of Leadership & Innovation at Politecnico di Milano. His research sits at the intersection of technology, innovation, and leadership—with platforms as the missing link that connects them. He teaches Platform Thinking, Innovation Management, Leadership, and Project Management to managers and executives, and advises domestic and international firms on business model transformation. He is co-founder and Scientific Director of LEADIN’Lab (Leadership, Design & Innovation Lab) at the School of Management, engaging 30+ researchers and affiliates across research, teaching, and corporate services. He co-founded Symplatform, a symposium on digital platforms for scholars and practitioners. He serves as Chair of the Board of the International Product Development Management Conference (IPDMC) promoted by EIASM—European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management. He is co-founder and Scientific Director of Platform Thinking HUB, an innovation leaders’ community envisioning platform-based digital transformations, and co-founder and Scientific Director of IDeaLs, a research platform on innovation and design as levers for leadership at the School of Management.
Career
PHD
Management Economics and Industrial Engineering
Politecnico di Milano
Research
His research sits at the intersection of Platform Thinking, Leadership, and Project Management. At the core is Platform Thinking: how incumbent firms design internal and external platforms to activate ecosystems, data, and network effects, reconfiguring processes, offerings, and business models with a sustainability lens. In parallel, he examines the Leadership that enables these shifts—purpose, psychological safety, growth mindset, and feedback practices that help teams experiment, learn, and scale. Completing the picture, Project Management focuses on hybrid (traditional–agile) models, governance, and metrics that link portfolios, platforms, and outcomes. The goal is to provide rigorous yet practical tools to steer innovation in complex contexts, delivering measurable impact on performance and stakeholder value.
Selected Publications
- Trabucchi D. & Buganza T., 2025. "The Digital Phoenix Effect - How Legacy companies can lead the platform revolution without burning everything down", PTP
- Trabucchi D. Falcone C. Gastaldi L. Buganza T. Corso M. , 2023. "Platform enhancers: Collaborating in the early stages of transactional platform development", Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 70
- Gastaldi D. Appio F. Trabucchi D. Buganza T. Corso M. , 2024. "From mutualism to commensalism: Assessing the evolving relationship between complementors and digital platforms.", Information Systems Journal
- Trabucchi D., Patrucco A., Buganza T., & Marzi G., 2023. "Is transparency the new green? How business model transparency influences digital service adoption.", Technovation
- Trabucchi D. & Buganza T., 2023. "Platform Thinking - Read the past. Write the future.", BEP
Grants, awards and Honours
- Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award - Shortlisted for the Digital Thinking Award - With Daniel Trabucchi
- Thinkers50 Radar List 2024 – With Daniel Trabucchi
- Marketplace50 Thought Leader 2024
- Christer Karlsson Best paper Award Runner Up @ EIASM IPDMC 2019
Community service
Chair of the Board of the International Product Development Management Conference (IPDMC)
Editorial Board Member @ Creativity and Innovation Management
Editorial Board Member @ European Journal of Innovation Management
Magazine articles