Vinnova
Ett forskningsprojekt som bland annat innebar arbete tillsammans med ett designteam bestående av kvinnor (yrkesaktiva inom industrin) för att utforma modeller för framtidens industriarbete – både organisation och arbetsplatser. Projektet pågick 2008-2011 med finansiering från AFA (2,7 milj. kr), FAS (2,4 milj. kr) samt EUs regionala utvecklingsfond. I projektet medverkade även Jan Johansson, Bo Johansson och Kjell Rask. Doktorander: Åsa Wikberg-Nilsson (Industriell design) och Stina Johansson (IPM).
En studie av företagande, ledarskap och genus i hästbranschen. Projektet pågick 2009-2011 med finansiering från Stiftelsen Lantbruksforskning (2,5 milj kr). I projektet medverkade Lena Abrahamsson, Mats Westerberg och doktorand Lena Forsberg.
The maintenance of railway infrastructure has in several instances been changed from government-based to being based on public procurement, with varying degrees of flexibility for the contractor to design their maintenance work. The purpose of-giving contractors a larger freedom of choice of how to perform maintenance is to stimulate them to innovate and develop their maintenance processes. Since the contracts differ in between and there are changes in government policies over time that affects both existing and new contracts, a comparison between different contracts becomes challenging. A literature review has been conducted to understand the change in procurement strategy and how to encourage contractors to innovate. The research questions include: What procurement strategies are there? How is maintenance evaluated? How does procurement affect the innovation opportunities for entrepreneurs? The literature review focuses on railway maintenance and contract design between client and contractor. In total, 17 articles matched the search criteria and were selected for the review. To have successful maintenance service, five articles suggested partnering as a strategy with common goals in combination with good communication during the entirety of the contract. When selecting incentive plan, four articles mentions that a focus on performance-based incentives in combination with risk management is better rather than actual payment schemes. The reason being that payment is often the main cause of conflicts between client and contractor. The scientific literature suggests that improvement in incentives improves quality of maintenance, decreases delays and technical failures. The conclusion from the literature review is that partnering in railway maintenance is considered successful. With accurate knowledge about railway assets the incentive plan becomes accurate which reduces costs. The literature review is a part of a research project with an overall goal to develop a model to guide the selection of appropriate type of procurement strategy, contract and control of maintenance for a more sustainable railway system.
The maintenance of railway infrastructure has in several instances been changed from government-based to being based on public procurement, with varying degrees of flexibility for the contractor to design their maintenance work. The purpose of-giving contractors a larger freedom of choice of how to perform maintenance is to stimulate them to innovate and develop their maintenance processes. Since the contracts differ in between and there are changes in government policies over time that affects both existing and new contracts, a comparison between different contracts becomes challenging. A literature review has been conducted to understand the change in procurement strategy and how to encourage contractors to innovate. The research questions include: What procurement strategies are there? How is maintenance evaluated? How does procurement affect the innovation opportunities for entrepreneurs?
The literature review focuses on railway maintenance and contract design between client and contractor. In total, 17 articles matched the search criteria and were selected for the review. To have successful maintenance service, five articles suggested partnering as a strategy with common goals in combination with good communication during the entirety of the contract. When selecting incentive plan, four articles mentions that a focus on performance-based incentives in combination with riskmanagement is better rather than actual payment schemes. The reason being that payment is often themain cause of conflicts between client and contractor. The scientific literature suggests that improvement in incentives improves quality of maintenance, decreases delays and technical failures. The conclusion from the literature review is that partnering in railway maintenance is considered successful. With accurate knowledge about railway assets the incentive plan becomes accurate which reduces costs.
The literature review is a part of a research project with an overall goal to develop a model to guide the selection of appropriate type of procurement strategy, contract and control of maintenance for a moresustainable railway system.
Alla är sig själv närmast. Och vi gör oftast som vi är vana att göra. Vi styrs av de normer och värderingar som har format oss - även om vi tror att vi är innovativa. Resultatet riskerar att bli lösningar som diskriminerar och begränsar. En stor utmaning är att förstå andra människors behov. Om vi kan använda ett normkritiskt perspektiv och se bortom våra egna ramar kan vi nå en större potential inom innovation. Men att förverkliga den potentialen är lättare sagt än gjort. Det krävs vad vi kallar normkreativitet. Normkreativitet bygger på en medvetenhet om att normer och värderingar kan begränsa och diskriminera. Men den kräver också ett analytiskt arbete att undersöka människors verkliga situation och djupliggande behov - och samtidigt ett kreativt arbete att omsätta kritik och kunskap i nya lösningar. NOVA innehåller konkreta verktyg och handfasta metoder för alla som vill skapa sådana normkreativa lösningar. Materialet är baserat på praktiskt erfarenhet och forskning från en mängd olika projekt och studier. Formatet är valt för att gynna kreativitet och samverkan. Fokus är på normer som diskriminerar, men egentligen är innehållet användbart i alla innovationssammanhang. All innovation handlar ju om att utmana normer.
Websites constitute one category of official records and as such should be preserved for the long term in compliance with Swedish legislation. Collaborative Archiving Services Testbed (CAST) supports actors involved in the selective web archiving process, from harvesting to the creation of an information package ready for transfer to a long-term archive at National Archives of Sweden. CAST is developed in compliance with the ISO standards Open Archival Information System (OAIS) and Producer-Archive Interface Methodology Abstract Standard (PAIMAS), and do also consider other well-known and established standards and recommendations in digital preservation area. CAST promotes cooperation, knowledge acquisition and sharing among users in an experimental step-by-step workflow, encouraging a proactive approach resulting in authority websites better adapted to digital preservation recommendations. CAST is developed at LDP Centre, a national competence centre in Sweden, within the digital preservation area.
I debatten om Sveriges prestationer när det gäller innovation och entreprenörskap blandas lovord med domedagsprofetior. Det pratas bland annat om svenska paradoxer och entreprenöriella klimatförändringar, men utifrån en rad olika källor och definitioner. I denna rapport reder nio forskare, från de tre ledande innovationsforskningscentrumen CESIS, CiiR och CIRCLE, ut begreppen. De levererar en nyanserad bild av Sverige som innovations- och kunskapsnation.• Hur står sig ”det nya Sverige” i en internationell jämförelse?• Existerar den svenska paradoxen?• I vilket land får en investerad FoU-krona störst effekt?• Och är sambandet mellan nyföretagande och innovation alltid positivt?Detta är några av de frågor som får svar. Rapporten har produceratsi samarbete mellan VINNOVA och ESBRI.
Today's manufacturing industry faces hard competition, both in the form of competitor's low cost outsourcing and to reduce labour cost. Increased public consciousness for environmental pollution and stricter government legislation are also drivers for a more efficient product development process and companies competing on the global market must continue to improve there methods and tools to gain an advantage. The company's intellectual properties and the ability to capitalize on experience from earlier projects becomes a key factor when competing on the global market. This thesis work explores the mechanisms for knowledge reuse and suggests methods and tools involved in the product development process to improve the use of manufacturing experience in order to prevent manufacturing flaws to reoccur in new product development programs. The research is carried out in a project funded by the Swedish research agency VINNOVA together with the industry, through the MERA program. The project aims to improve the Digitally Linked Process and has a focus on Experience reuse. An initial research question was formulated to address the problem and guide the research towards a better understanding; "How can experience from manufacturing processes be tied and reused to impact the definition of governing product and process definition?" A study was set up to investigate the current practices and to aid the research in formulating an approach to improve methods and tools for Reuse of Manufacturing Experience (RoME). The study was conducted at two companies, one in the aerospace industry and one in the automobile industry. The "How" and "Why" questions supported a case study approach The study provided a better understanding of the problem and pointed at a number of opportunities to increase the use of manufacturing experience. One of the findings pointed out in the survey was the lack of a working process for preventing recurrence of a bad design in manufacturing. Furthermore, the study revealed a potential improvement in the use of capability data and problem reports that are captured and stored in databases, today more or less solely used in manufacturing. A new research question was formulized as the improvement of the RoME process where set in focus; "How can the process of experience reuse from manufacturing phases be improved to better impact earlier phases in product development?" The current process for finding and accessing process capability data from a Design Engineering perspective were investigated and described as well as the process to retrieve problem report notifications regarding specific design features of a component. The process where found to be both time consuming and tedious, and as a result of that, seldom used by design engineers. Key enablers having a significant impact on the RoME process where identified. The ability to find and access experience captured in the manufacturing phase. The ability to provide data in a context familiar for the receiver in order to facilitate the learning process. An improved process for reuse of manufacturing experience is proposed and includes methods and techniques to target system integration for search and access. A service oriented product life cycle management (PLM) architecture is proposed as a mean to address the topic of finding and accessing manufacturing data. The standard for PLM Services 2.0 provided by the Object Management Group (OMG) and the increased maturity of web service technology provide the possibility to integrate knowledge rich engineering application in a dispersed heterogeneous system environment. The ability to provide data in a context that is familiar to the receiver is addressed by developing a web based graphical user interface (GUI). The web based GUI presents the manufacturing data in a design context where manufacturing process capability data and problem report notifications are presented in a component view. This supports the design engineer when searching for relevant experience from earlier projects by associating the process capability data and problem reports to a specific design feature, e.g. a flange, and how it relate to the manufacturing process. A web based application is developed to demonstrate the concept. The application presents the product assembly (bill of material) together with the manufacturing process activities and corresponding process capability data in the same view, providing a contextual environment that is tailored for the receiver.
Globalization, public environmental concern and government legislation are challenging the Swedish industry to be more efficient and increase its efforts in research and in the development of methods and tools for product development and production. Furthermore, the manufacturing industry is changing from producing solely hardware products towards the inclusion of services or soft offers to add more value for the customer. As a result, there are an increased number of stakeholders involved in the early phases of product development that has an interest in the products design and performance during its life cycle. This challenges the way we manage and share experience internally as well as between companies.The intellectual property of a company is a key asset when competing on the global market; hence, the ability to capitalize on experiences from a company’s development processes as well as products in use becomes increasingly important. Also, the European manufacturing industry and the EU commission conclude that the industry has to move from being "Resource-based" to "Knowledge based" to add more value and avoid competing solely on low-cost. It is recognized that an expensive manufacturing solution has a negative effect on a products total life cycle cost and the ability to earn profit. Hence, manufacturing processes is constantly a target for improvement efforts and experience gained in manufacturing has a potentially high impact on design decisions in new projects.The aim of the research presented here is to improve manufacturability and avoid reoccurrence of design flaws in ongoing or new projects. The research has provided a better understanding of the mechanisms for experience re-use and developed methods and tools for feedback of experience from the manufacturing phase back to the earlier phases in the products life cycle. The work has been carried out within two projects funded by the Swedish governmental agency for Innovation Systems and industry. The first project was DLP-E, Digitally Linked Processes with a focus on Experience re-use and the second project was Robust Machining, aiming for more robust machining processes within manufacturing.The research approach has been to combine the design research methodology and participatory action research. These methodologies together with an initial research question have guided the work:RQ: “How can experience from manufacturing processes be tied and reused to impact the governing product and process definition?”Branches within engineering research committed to his area are concurrent engineering and design for manufacturing although this has usually been limited to general rules of thumb and qualitative methods for designers. Recently however, statistical methods such as Design for Six Sigma and other methods for Robust Design are introduced to affect earlier phases of PD to achieve improved manufacturability.Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE), represents a technology that provide the means to capture and automatically re-use engineering knowledge in an engineering design environment. Methods and tools from this area have been used as an initial approach in this research. A functional product perspective puts a focus on the activity where the product is used rather than on the tangible product itself. From an experience feedback perspective, experience is gained during these activities and possibly re-used if there is a learning process.This thesis presents an initial descriptive case study at two manufacturing companies that provided a better understanding of current practices for experience re-use and identified factors that influenced the feedback of manufacturing experience in product development. Based on initial assumptions and the results from the first descriptive study, a theory on the mechanism for experience feedback and requirements on a manufacturing system was formulated in a prescriptive study. A second descriptive study utilized a prototype to identify if the theory was applicable in an industrial environment and if it addressed the factors it was supposed to address. The research has been an iterative process, whereas results from the descriptive studies have influenced new prescriptive studies, delivering methods and tools, which in turn have influenced the ongoing work at the company where the research was conducted.The main contribution from the research is a framework to support re-use of manufacturing experience. The framework decompose the multifaceted task of experience re-use by identifying typical activities involved in the feedback process and categorizing the “elements of experience” in terms of knowledge, information and data. Combined with an engineering process improvement approach, processes are streamlined and value is added to the product. KBE techniques are used to capture and re-use product and process knowledge in an integrated manner. The applicability of the result has been validated in descriptive studies as well as within company improvement efforts.The research supports a frontloading approach in product development by enabling manufacturing experience to have an impact on the design definition in the early phases of product development. As a consequence, the risk for costly re-design later on in a project is reduced.
The ability to capitalize on company knowledge and experience earned in various projects is recognized as key assets in the competition on the growing global market. Methods and tools are constantly evolving, still there is a frustration over repeated design flaws and design engineers has a difficult task to find and use manufacturing experience from earlier projects. This paper outlines a process improvement approach where the engineering process is described andanalysed to find bottlenecks. Examples from other engineering processes are presented along with a prototype of a knowledge application to resolve identified issues with the manufacturing feedback process.Experience and knowledge are closely related, hence a knowledge life cycle explain the different stepswith a "capturing" and "deploying" side.The feedback processes for manufacturing experience is analysed where search & find together with contextualisation of experience data are recognised as key mechanisms. A knowledge application is presented that presents experience data from different repositories in a way that is logic for the receiver. This reduces the lead-time and increase the quality of the feedback process.
Life cycle responsibility for manufacturing companies increases the service content coupled to the product. One consequence is that transferring knowledge gained from all life cycle phases has an even more decisive impact on the definition of the product concept, here referred to as the functional product. The paper focuses on transferring experiences from the manufacturing phase and how to account for these in the design phase. Based on an empirical study at two companies, an automotive and one aeronautical company, current practices were identified. Manufacturing experiences are captured and managed in a manufacturing context whereas the use of experience in the design phase is discussed. Finally a generic approach to support the use life cycle experiences in earlier phases of product development is suggested, where the design and manufacturing case serves as an example.
The ability to learn from ongoing and previous projects is important for companies to become, and maintain, competitive. Hence efficient methods and tools for both capturing and reusing experience in all life cycle phases of the product is a key enabler to keep and gain an advantage in product development companies. By definition, PSS combines "features" applicable to different life cycle phases, e.g. reusability when disposed, serviceability in aftermarket, manufacturability in manufacturing, etc. The "total offer" must take into account all aspects and coherently map these into a receiver context to support the design engineer in his work. In particular - the design phase is important since both the products, its realization and accompanying services are to a large extent decided in the early phases. This paper presents an industrial case demonstrating the mapping and contextualization of manufacturing experience to provide engineers relevant context when defining and designing the PSS
A manufacturing company’s unique intellectual capital is to a largeextent built on experience from its own product development andmanufacturing processes. Thus, methods and tools to utilize and benefit fromthis experience in an efficient way have an impact on a company’s ability tostay competitive and advance on the global market. Knowledge BasedEngineering (KBE) is an engineering methodology to capture engineeringknowledge systematically into the design system. Hence, KBE tools areconsidered to support experience re-use and improve engineering activities.This paper presents the results from a study where the objective was toinvestigate the support for experience re-use in KBE applications in anaerospace company. A proposed framework is presented to analyze thecapturing and use of experience in a company’s processes identifying gaps andpropose improvements. The study revealed weaknesses in the process steps forexperience feedback which can be used to improve KBE applications further.
In this longitudinal case study, the authors integrate the theory on social movement with the entrepreneurship literature on opportunity discovery, evaluation, and exploitation. They construct a model on collaborative entrepreneurial processes in which multiple partners are involved in identifying, forming, and exploiting an opportunity. Three interdependent subprocesses are identified: (1) the opportunity conceptualization dialogue, (2) resource mobilization and, (3) legitimacy building, which significantly contribute to our understanding of how individuals across different organizations become engaged in collaborative entrepreneurial processes. The model of collaborative entrepreneurial processes complements traditional models of the entrepreneurial process, which place the individual entrepreneur at the center of the process and does not consider group mobilization processes in which the actors aim to be creative and innovative in collaborating with actors from other organizations or firms.
Many incumbent corporations make equity investments in young technological start-ups to enhance their innovation effectiveness, and the great majority syndicate at least some of their investments with other incumbents. While syndication is generally held to benefit incumbent corporations, this study demonstrates that it may also be detrimental to corporate innovation, by elaborating the notion of an information exchange paradox - essentially, that information exchanges within CVC networks must, somehow, be both open and closed at the same time. Corporations must try to appropriate the knowledge championed by their investees and fellow-investors, but also protect their own know-how from leaking to competitors. Unlike prior CVC research, we demonstrate that knowledge sharing in open innovation forums may be counterproductive. Using a unique data set of the investment decisions made by 163 corporations over four years we show that, for some, participating in syndicate networks may involve losses that outweigh their gains. Our analysis establishes two key findings. First, corporations need to consider the trade-off between the number of ventures they support and the position they take in their syndication networks. The best strategies appear to be maximizing isolationist (supporting many ventures but staying away from the network centre) or minimizing centralist (supporting few ventures, but occupying a central network position) - the other two options (maximizing centralist and minimizing isolationist strategies) are far less effective in converting CVC investments into corporate innovation. Second, this picture is particularly applicable to highly concentrated industries dominated by several powerful incumbents: in fragmented industries these strategy differences are far less pronounced, so the choice of CVC syndication strategy will depend on other considerations. This supports a contingency view of syndication, implying that ensuring incumbent corporations really benefit from equity investments in start-ups is a not a trivial task for their managers
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study demonstrates that technological laggards and not industry front-runners are most likely to experience high rates of technological advancement in strategic alliances. We further suggest that imitation and not innovation is the primary source of such advancement based on the fact that technological progress by laggards is most visible in industries that lack strong appropriability regimes. Finally, we present empirical evidence suggesting that lagging established corporations prefer to imitate from startups and not from fellow-incumbents. These results are derived from a careful analysis of a longitudinal sample of over 150 incumbents with varying degree of technological prowess who engage in partnerships with both startups and fellow-incumbents across a wide representation of industries. Our paper contributes to technological innovation, strategic alliance, entrepreneurship, and imitation literatures and provides non-trivial implications for startups.
Research on corporate venture capital (CVC) has consistently proven its importance for innovation and other strategic goals, yet information on the antecedents of CVC activity is scarce. This study provides theoretical arguments for the role of governance factors including board, CEO, and institutional ownership characteristics. Empirical evidence from an international sample of global CVC investments shows that factors such as having a board with multiple board mandates and institutional ownership are important factors for CVC activity. The conclusion is that the role of governance factors is important, and that subsequent research should not ignore this group of factors.
Entrepreneurs respond to opportunities that come in two basic forms: innovation and arbitrage. This article presents a technique called the minimum performance inefficiency (MPI) estimation method that could be used to estimate arbitrage opportunities. The technique has several advantages over the conceptually similar data envelopment analysis (DEA) and other techniques. The authors validate the technique with a well-known data set and illustrate its use based on secondary data from the publishing industry.
Despite the widespread assumptions of the positive relationship between start-up rates and innovation, the empirical support for this conjecture in the crosscountry context is largely lacking. We draw upon recent advances in the entrepreneurship literature to propose that the relationship between start-up rates and innovation is not uniformly positive, as expected by the early scholars of entrepreneurship, but instead depends on the country's stage of development. The relationship is positive in the developed countries, but negative in countries in early development stages. On balance, there is a weak negative association between start-up rates and innovation. We test our hypotheses on a multi-source dataset that covers 35 countries over the period from 1996 to 2002. The relationships are robust to the choice of three moderators and two dependent variables, as well as a number of post-hoc tests. Our findings indicate that broad-strokes policy efforts that aim at promotion of entrepreneurship as a means to boost country innovativeness may be misguided, and instead suggest a contingency approach.
In this study we investigate the relationship between technological arbitrage opportunities and entry rates in twenty-six industries over the course of five years. Arbitrage opportunities are shown to be a positive and significant predictor of business entry rates. Such positive effect is weakened in industries with strong appropriability regime including effective patents, secrecy, and lead time. Adding arbitrage opportunities to the typical determinants of entrepreneurship such as innovative opportunities significantly increases predictive power of the regression models.
Despite the impressive development of substantive theories in entrepreneurship, without the development of measurement theories, further advancement of the field is problematic. In particular, the notion of opportunities, central to entrepreneurship research, requires adequate macro-level operationalization. We demonstrate how to employ data envelopment analysis (DEA) to operationalize not only innovative opportunities, but also technological arbitrage opportunities. We provide an illustrative example based on a sample of 66 countries during the period of 1993-2002. We include estimates of innovative and arbitrage opportunities for possible use by other scholars, discuss the promise and limitations of such estimates, demonstrate how both innovative and arbitrage opportunities correlate with the rates of entrepreneurial activity, and suggest several possible directions for future research.
The emerging literature on outbound open innovation has highlighted innovation processes, which presuppose active outward technology transfer to increase firm profits. To contribute to this discourse, our paper goes beyond the emphasis on core-related technologies and knowledge that currently dominates the technology management literature and develops the novel concept of misfit technology. This concept captures technologies that are not aligned with a focal firm's current knowledge base and/or business model, but which may still be of great value to the firm if alternative commercialization options are considered. By developing a framework that acknowledges (1) Sources of misfit technology, (2) Environmental uncertainty, (3) Organizational slack, (4) Industry appropriability regime and (5) Technological complexity, we theorize on how different modes of commercialization relate to misfit technology commercialization success. The paper is conceptual and is presented with the purpose to spawn further research on this important topic, but simultaneously touches upon the issues of utmost relevance to R&D management practice
This paper analyzes the strategic effects of corporate venture capital investments. Specifically, by studying the deals of 163 corporations over a four-year period, it documents the effects of driving, emerging, enabling, and passive investments on the pool of innovative opportunities available to incumbents and the scale efficiency gains they experience as a result of these investments. The study suggests that by making driving and enabling investments, incumbents position themselves in the industry to take advantage of increased pools of innovative opportunities and improve scale efficiency yields. At the same time, emerging and passive investments are detrimental for both of the strategic goals considered in this paper.
We examined 26 industries to estimate the amount of technological arbitrage opportunity available to a typical firm. By presenting a novel way of treating time series data that combine the properties of intertemporal and sequential production frontiers, we analyze 10,650 firm-year observations for the years from 1999 to 2003. We report calculations and our empirical estimates of arbitrage opportunities for possible use by other scholars who would like to utilize arbitrage opportunities in their research and discuss implications
Anokhin S., Wincent J. and Ylinenpää H. Technological expansions, catching-up innovations and technological shifts at the regional level: conceptual considerations and empirical illustration, Regional Studies. Few techniques can capture different types of regional innovations, despite the importance of distinguishing between the innovation types for practitioners and policy-makers. This paper develops and illustrates a methodology based on data envelopment analysis that could be employed to shed light on this critical issue. Different types of regional innovations are analysed based on a longitudinal analysis of all Swedish counties over a five-year period. The approach can be used to analyse and distinguish between expansion-, catching-up- and shift-based types of regional innovation. Regional innovativeness is shown to be related to the regional levels of entrepreneurial activity.
To enhance innovation effectiveness, many incumbent corporations make equity investments in young technological startups. Four out of five corporate investors syndicate at least some of their investments with other incumbents. While syndication practices may be beneficial to incumbent corporations, in this study we elaborate on the notion of information exchange paradox to demonstrate that syndication may be detrimental to corporate innovation. Using a unique data set of investment decisions of 163 corporations over four years, we show that for some corporations the losses of participating in syndicate networks may outweigh the gains. In particular, we demonstrate that syndication network centrality negatively moderates the ability of a corporation to benefit from its investments. We also show that the effect is particularly strong in highly concentrated industries but is virtually non-existent in industries with low concentration. This supports a contingency view of syndication and implies that benefiting from equity investments in startups is a non-trivial task for managers of incumbent corporations.
This article illustrates how opportunities for regional renewal in a peripheral region may be reduced by rigid threat responses undertaken by established firms operating within traditional regional industry. In an inductive case study of new biorefinery industry initiatives in a region where traditional pulp-and-paper and forestry industry was in decline, we used primary and secondary data to outline how a set of new industry players who created innovative ways of using existing regional infrastructures and resources sparked rigid threat responses among established firms from the struggling traditional industry. Established industry firms framed new industry initiatives as threats, and responded by (1) reducing new industry actors' possibilities for new business development, (2) engaging in entrenched resistance, (3) creating collaborative illusions and (4) undermining the fundamentals of the new industry. Consequently, this study contributes to existing literature by proposing the potential of applying the threat-rigidity thesis on a regional level. This is achieved by illustrating that conflicting behaviours between new and established regional industry actors constrain opportunities for regional renewal in a peripheral region. As such, relevant directions for future research and policy implications are outlined
This paper takes an integrative approach towards dialectics and social movement theories in a model of regional industry emergence processes. Based on an inductive qualitative investigation we describe how a new industry emerges in a declining and peripheral region dominated by struggling and traditional local industry. The emanating model of regional industry emergence is based on four main processes; framing processes, movement mobilisation processes, inter-industry relational processes and dialectical processes, which together shape the emerging regional industry. This exemplifies how new regional industry mobilisation efforts provide an ‘anti-thesis' to traditional industry, and how established industry actors respond with contestation to protect their business concepts. Furthermore we illustrate how new industry actors reframe their concepts to complement dominating traditional industry and to overcome tensions and conflicts. Following dialectic interaction between new and traditional industry we noticed signs of acceptance and synthesis between the newly formed and old industry actors; ultimately resulting in a revitalisation of the region's traditional industry. As such, the paper makes a point of accounting for agency and productive conflict when understanding regional industry renewal and emergence.
This paper explores establishment processes of a new industry located in a peripheral region of Sweden that is based upon old traditional industries in decline. Based on a qualitative study, we identify how actors within the new industry interact and intervene with the existing infrastructures and institutions that support the old local industry while trying tobuild new infrastructures. We identify key restricting and supporting mechanisms for the establishment processes, with implications for policy and regional and entrepreneurship research.
Syftet med sessionen är att lyfta upp hur utbildning och forskning inom ämnet företagsekonomi kan bidra till hållbart företagande. Vårt fokus är dels att kartlägga den befintliga situationen och dels att diskutera framtida utmaningar och kunskapsbehov som ytterligare kan stärka det företagsekonomiska bidraget till hållbart företagande. Först kommer vi att diskutera hur hållbarhetsperspektivet (sustainability, CSR, business ethics) idag integreras i företagsekonomisk grund- och forskarutbildning i Sverige. Därefter kommer vi att lyfta upp exempel på svensk hållbarhetsforskning inom ämnet företagsekonomi samt hur denna på olika sätt kan implementeras ute i företag och organisationer och därigenom bidra till hållbart företagande. Forskning som kommer att belysas är bl.a. hållbarhetsredovisning, integrerad rapportering, värdering av hållbarhetsprestationer och väsentlighetsanalyser.
Slack can act as a double-edged sword. While it can buffer against environmental threats to help ensure business continuity, slack canalso be costly and reduce profitability. In this study, we focus on operational slack, the form related to the firm’s production processes. We investigate the role of operational slack on firm survival during its venture stage, when its survival is significantly challenged by environmental threats. Specifically, we explore how change in three types of environmental uncertainty, namely dynamism, complexity and lack of munificence affect the relationship between operational slack and venture survival. Results suggest that with increase inenvironmental uncertainty, operational slack lowers the likelihood of venture failure.
Urbanization and climate change are central challenges for urban development today, why a need for substantial innovation, e.g. systemic innovation, can be identified. The large amount of interdependent actors and their fragmented processes are among the key factors that hamper innovation in the construction industry. Two key actors in the industry, property developers and contractors, can be identified as important when developing innovation, due to their central roles in the construction project process. Therefore, it should be important to make them dedicated towards innovation, i.e. create motivation. This is in line with research on successful innovation development highlighting the importance of commitment and collaboration. A need seems to be present to create motivation towards innovation for key actors in the industry. Based on this, the purpose of this paper is to explore how motivation of key actors can influence development for systemic innovation in the construction industry. To explore this, a case study of the urban development project Stockholm Royal Seaport and its developed building logistic center was analyzed, adopting a model for receptive change context. Tentative findings suggest that actors' motivation for innovation is important for the development. Developers' possibility to influence through procurement strategies, to increase awareness and collaboration, can be used to create motivation for contractors.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to conceptually develop the understanding of co-opetition dynamics and to enhance the conceptual clarity of co-opetition by developing a definition based on previous research efforts. Design/methodology/approach - This conceptual paper integrates various approaches to the concept co-opetition into a definition that holds for co-opetitive interactions across multiple levels. Different co-opetitive interactions and the resulting dynamics are discussed by drawing upon competition and cooperation theories. The paper concludes with an agenda for further research on co-opetition dynamics. Findings - The paper outlines how different types of co-opetitive interactions result in archetypical situations where the dynamics of co-opetition are present as well as where the dynamics of co-opetition are missing due to a lack of balance between cooperation and competition. It notes four co-opetitive forces: over-embedding, distancing, confronting, and colluding. These four forces drive development towards situations without dynamics. Originality/value - This paper provides a conceptual understanding of co-opetition dynamics and will reveal that in order to adequately account for co-opetition dynamics, a definition of co-opetition must analytically separate the cooperative and the competitive interaction inherent in co-opetition.
This longitudinal, qualitative case study examines trust-building processes and learning outcomes among entrepreneurs who participated in formal networks designed to develop competence and knowledge. This study is built on rich data collected through observation and video recordings made during network meetings and get-togethers. Additional data was gleaned from personal interviews with participating entrepreneurs. All data sources reveal on how trust develops and how entrepreneurs can use networks to learn and improve their capacity to exploit business opportunities. Studying how trust is built over time among entrepreneurs who demonstrate a low level of trust when they join the network, this study provides insights into micro-processes and important components of building trust. Findings suggest three processes that build commitment, companionship, and competence trust. Moreover, acknowledging the notion of social learning, the findings suggest that when entrepreneurs build trust with one another they can experience cognitive, emotional, and social changes by participating in a network. This may bring potential consequences for their exploiting opportunies. Implications for academics and managers are discussed.
In efforts to promote better realisation of business opportunities, government support of formal policy led learning networks among entrepreneurs has been a popular approach worldwide. This article uses survey data from 109 entrepreneurs who took part in formal learning networks to examine how trust in network partners influences the capacity to act upon business opportunities for entrepreneurs. Further, we examine how this influence is moderated by the entrepreneurs' own self-efficacy. Our results support a positive relationship between developing trust in other networking entrepreneurs and the capacity to act upon business opportunities. Self-efficacy was found to moderate this relationship. For entrepreneurs with low self-efficacy, results support an inverted U-shaped relationship, with the greatest outcomes reached with an intermediate level of trust. For entrepreneurs with high self-efficacy, a positive linear relationship is supported. We discuss implications for further research on trust and realisation of opportunities, and for learning network policy.
PIEp (Product Innovation Engineering programme) is a newly established research school in product development engineering with the aim to increase innovation capabilities in the Swedish industries and to promote entrepreneurial behavior. By following a bottom-up approach PIEp has been able to embrace and foster entrepreneurial behavior. As an outcome the young research school has been able to change preexisting mindsets and to encourage the PIEp PhD students to be more proactive, risk-taking and innovative. This paper presents the chain of events that have happened since the establishment of the PIEp research school. In an action research approach the authors additionally state their own perceptions. Providing rich, descriptive examples and explaining certain cases in detail it is outlined how the transformation of the initial idea has been pursued until today. The insights provided are made public for future research, comparison to other research schools, and to policy makers interested in founding new research schools.
A challenge in design education is the grading of students work when the task is based upon the student’s ability to show applied knowledge. Due to this difficulty the grading criteria needs to be and is most often subjectively focused. As previous research has shown the assessments can vary between teachers, thus, increasing the chance for varied and possibly improper scores. Much has to do with the level of experience and knowledge a particular teacher has and the individual preferences to which parameters make a good picture or animation. The Systematic Grading Procedure (SGP) is a method in which an assignment is broken down and the task is graded depending upon the assessment areas. The aim of this paper is to validate the SGP as a grading method for teachers in 3D modeling and 3D-visualisation and further develop the SGP as an assessment tool for lesser-experienced teachers. The SGP has previously shown to be helpful in giving and receiving feedback. Previous work did not show significant differences between SGP and the commonly used methods but this more extensive study did show that the SGP did significantly help reduce the variation in grading for both experienced 3D teachers and inexperienced 3D teachers but not for non-teachers. There seems to be a good potential for the SGP method to help teachers give more consistent grades and at the same time help students through feedback which helps both by helping them with a better understanding of the grading methods and measures.
In Design education there can be a challenge in grading students when the task is based upon the student's ability to learn new knowledge and apply it. Thus the grading criteria needs to be and is most often subjectively focused. For example, one requirement is that, "the object should have realistic lighting". Since there is no way to, with absolute values, measure whether an image has realistic lighting, the teacher's subjective values are the base for assessment and the student's score. An observed result is that these types of assessments can vary between teachers, thus, increasing the chance for varied and possibly improper scores. Much has to do with the level of experience and knowledge a particular teacher has and the individual differences to which parameters make a good picture or animation. It is also true that two different teachers can find separate items in student's work that are praiseworthy. This paper proposes that it is possible to systematize the evaluation process with a weighting method. A Systematic Grading Procedure (SGP) can be used in design projects to separate and weigh design criteria against each other without losing the overall picture of the work. This method will be tested to see if it can help teachers in grading students more accurately.In Design education there can be a challenge in grading students when the task is based upon the student's ability to learn new knowledge and apply it. Thus the grading criteria needs to be and is most often subjectively focused. For example, one requirement is that, "the object should have realistic lighting". Since there is no way to, with absolute values, measure whether an image has realistic lighting, the teacher's subjective values are the base for assessment and the student's score. An observed result is that these types of assessments can vary between teachers, thus, increasing the chance for varied and possibly improper scores. Much has to do with the level of experience and knowledge a particular teacher has and the individual differences to which parameters make a good picture or animation. It is also true that two different teachers can find separate items in student's work that are praiseworthy. This paper proposes that it is possible to systematize the evaluation process with a weighting method. A Systematic Grading Procedure (SGP) can be used in design projects to separate and weigh design criteria against each other without losing the overall picture of the work. This method will be tested to see if it can help teachers in grading students more accurately.
University teachers who start teaching right after graduation have not used and developed their knowledge professionally thus they have never had the opportunity to test their acquired knowledge in practice. This results in teaching that tends to be heavily theoretical because the teacher teaches what he/she has learned in studies, instead of teaching the knowledge gained through professional experience. Unfortunately a teacher can feel insecure when not knowing if their teaching reflects currently used methods and/or appropriate tools. An effect of this can be that teachers who feel insufficient in their role as teachers. The aim of this paper is to see if academic consulting not only increases the practical experience of the teacher, but also helps the teacher in their role and gives them a better understanding of what the state of the art is. While some schools have some cooperation with the business community, both in student projects and research projects, although it is not common with external non-research consultation projects, which are conducted by the university teachers. A questionnaire was sent to both teachers and students’ asking them of their experience of academic consulting’s benefits to the classroom experience. As a follow-up were several interviewed, along with clients to gain more insight. The results showed that teachers, students and the clients benefited from these types of projects.