Mila Davids

Mila Davids is an Assistant Professor in the History of Technology research group that is part of the section Technology Innovation and Society in the TU/e School of Innovation Sciences. Her areas of expertise include modern and contemporary history, history of technology and business history, social history and transitions, knowledge infrastructure and circulation and innovation.   

The central focus of her research is the development and spread of knowledge, which explains the rise of our global knowledge society. Knowledge is crucial for companies to innovate. A large number of her research projects focus on knowledge acquisition strategies in various companies. Her current research investigates two important features of technological change; innovative companies and the development and circulation of knowledge. She focuses on international knowledge transfer and the interplay between global knowledge circulation and societal and technological transitions. Further topics include the role of Research R&D within multinational companies, the role of knowledge transfer and circulation in economic, technical and social transformation in less developed countries and how within Dutch small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) innovations come into being.  

Mila Davids wrote her PhD on the Denationalization of the Dutch Post and Telecom Office. She has written a number of articles and books on the development and dissemination of knowledge in a range of journals, including Technology Analysis and Strategic Management (TASM), Regional Studies, Journal of Modern European History, History of Technology and Business History Review. She has been an editor of a volume in the series ‘History of Technology in the 20th century (TiN20)’ on Industrial Production and a volume on Innovation in the series ‘Dutch Business in The Netherlands’.  

Davids has initiated and managed various research projects, funded by the Dutch research foundation (NWO) as well as research funded by amongst others the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Unilever, and Philips. She participates in the research program Globalization, technological change and economic development of the Dutch-Flemish N.W. Posthumus Institute for economic and social history and is also board member of the N.W. Posthumus Institute. She also participates in The Cultural Politics of Sustainable Urban Mobility program, where she is responsible for the International Circulation of Knowledge project.