A participative method for knowledge elicitation in collaborative innovation projects

A collaborative school innovation project is explored as a pivot for the professional development of the teachers involved. The Second Chance School (SCS) of Acharnes in Greece constitutes such a collaborative innovative project, regarding the underlying theory of multiliteracies, its decentralised character, respect for student individuality, and collaborative orientation. The programme is examined both regarding its role in the development of innovation in school and in terms of teachers' development, empowerment and active involvement. Thanks to the educational and supportive role of the scientific advisers, not only did the teachers get actively involved supporting the development of innovation, but they were also able to deal successfully with thorny issues, including school‐based curriculum development, the production of learning material, alternative teaching and assessment methods, and combining research and teaching (through action research and student and teacher portfolios). Despite the difficulties faced (variety of stakeholders, time limits, demand for tangible results, research versus teaching), it seems that teachers learned to value implicit theory, adult education theory was enriched with practical knowledge, and new theory was produced on gaining teacher support for top‐down innovations.

ABSTRACTProximity and power in collaborative innovation projects. Regional Studies. The proximity literature has so far paid little attention to power relations in collaborative innovation projects. This paper draws on contributions from international business to examine if power constellations between collaborators in innovation projects influence the effects of proximity. An analysis of two cases of collaborations between headquarters and subsidiaries of multinational companies highlights that specific power constellations indeed influence the effects of proximity. While some forms of proximity allow subsidiary-specific capabilities to diffuse throughout the organization and pose a threat to the powerful subsidiary, the weaker subsidiary considers proximity as a possibility to learn from the headquarters.

Supply chain integration (SCI) is crucial for the success of innovation projects led by focal firms in collaboration with customers and suppliers. However, prior research offers limited insights into how SCI configurations may vary according to project characteristics and project management (PM) methods. As alternatives to the traditional stage‐gate PM approach have emerged, SCI has become increasingly complex. Drawing on project complexity theory, we seek to understand how different SCI configurations and PM methods intersect in 15 cases of collaborative innovation projects across 11 multinational firms. Our findings reveal that projects with varying levels of supply, customization, and technological complexity require distinct arcs of integration, paired with appropriate PM methods. The implementation of these strategies hinges on the PM capabilities of the focal firm and its supply chain partners. This study contributes to the SCI literature by theorizing how different sources of project complexity shape choices regarding PM methods and the arcs of integration that focal firms adopt.

The application of information communications technologies (ICTs) in higher education institutions has created opportunities for improving teaching and learning. One such avenue is innovation. However, in the Tanzanian HEIs environment little is known on the extent ICTs tools are utilized for innovative teaching and learning. The aim of this study was to find the extent ICT infrastructure, teachers’ skills, and readiness influence innovative teaching and learning. Guided by the Activity Theory, the sample for the study was 80 teachers and Information Technology (IT) staff from three HEIs. Data was collected through an administered survey questionnaire and interviews. The results indicate that the infrastructure is adequate and teachers have skills and are ready to use ICT tools in classrooms. However, wireless technology is inadequate in all the three HEIs. Furthermore, the results show that innovative curriculums and collaborative innovation projects among the different HEIs are factors for improving innovative teaching and learning.

<p>Design has always played a role in the process of production, transformations in society and the economy, shifts in technology and impacts on the environment. The nature of the changes created by our post-industrial era is challenging the character of design and its role in society. The post-industrial era is creating complex projects for technology, service, systems, strategy and products. Clients are even becoming undefined stakeholders, and this can be extended to the entire community and the environment.</p><p> The rise of digital technology and the knowledge society are introducing a new culture, which can be open, participatory, shared and collaborative. Here the designer is acting as a researcher, always questioning the character of the project, its outcomes and process. Open access, co-design, crowdfunding, digital manufacturing, open-source, DIY, enabling systems and networking can be included in the toolbox of the designer and can create opportunities to drive the change towards sustainability, equity and democracy. Social innovation is leveraging forms of collaboration and co-production in which designers, innovators, users and communities co-create knowledge and solutions for a wide range of social needs, exploiting the networking technologies.</p><p> This book explores a number of areas where design can contribute to face the contemporary transformations in our society with real-life collaborative research and innovation projects. Through a number of Canadian social innovation case studies collected in social, environmental and technological fields, we recognize how the role of the designer cannot be limited to the production of finished objects; rather, designers can create tools and platforms to help users and citizens participate in projects, even allowing forms of personalization.</p>

This paper examines the influence of boundary-spanning knowledge search on cooperative innovation performance and explores the moderating role of innovation passion in Chinese firms. We collected 229 valid responses from Chinese firms participating in collaborative innovation projects and applied confirmatory factor analysis to test the reliability and validity of the constructs, multiple stepwise regressions to verify the direct effect, and the PROCESS macro to test the moderating effect. The results show that all three dimensions of boundary-spanning knowledge search (i.e. network capability, IT capability, and absorptive capacity) positively affect cooperative innovation performance. Harmonious innovation passion positively moderates the relationship between network capability and cooperative innovation performance. In contrast, compulsive innovation passion plays a negative moderating role in the relationship between absorptive capacity and cooperative innovation performance. This study further enriches and extends the theoretical framework of cooperative innovation performance by emphasizing the impact of the three dimensions of boundary-spanning knowledge search.

This paper explores the emergence of micro-level creative tensions and their interplay within collaborative innovation projects. Our findings demonstrate how, at the microlevel, an evolving set of actors, activities and artifacts support collaborative innovation in science-based SMEs. Our analysis highlights how activities and artifacts are linked through creative tensions emerging from situations of close interaction between diverse actors. We demonstrate how a mutually constitutive duality captures the paradoxical nature of creative tensions. Furthermore, our findings show how actors employ ambidexterity in navigating and harnessing creative tensions and develop artifacts that create value. We propose a framework that captures micro-level value creation in collaborative innovation. We suggest three research propositions that explore interconnectedness between actors from diverse backgrounds, diversity of knowledge and skills in contributing to innovation activities, and ambidexterity in navigating creative tensions in developing artifacts in the form of innovative products, services and processes.

A firm's search strategy is to use innovation inputs from external sources such as suppliers, clients, competitors, universities and research transfer offices (RTOs) to complement their in-house knowledge. Thus, a firm needs to be capable of identifying and valuing the potential value of certain external knowledge, i.e. absorptive capacity. Most of the studies regarding search patterns are reduced mostly to medium–high- and high-tech industries in which only the level of investment in R&D activities as determinant of a firm's search strategy is considered. In addition, when the flows of external knowledge arise from firm–university interactions, the evidence is still inconclusive, specifically for SMEs and low–medium-tech environments. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to explore the pattern of a firm's search strategy through its absorptive capacity to acquire external flows of knowledge from universities and RTOs. The paper draws especially on the role of non-R&D innovation activities in low–medium-tech sectors. Seven hundred and forty three innovative firms from the Spanish Ministry of Industry are analysed. Results suggest that human resources and other non-R&D activities are the core drivers explaining the cooperation agreements to access external knowledge from universities and RTOs. Surprisingly, R&D expenditures do not contribute to the explanation. This paper presents important implications for policy-makers beyond the classic R&D policies.

PurposeThis research analyzes the roles of users in innovative digital health collaborative projects from the perspective of the user by considering three dimensions: their motivation, project activities and the support of the partnership for their effective involvement.Design/methodology/approachThe authors unraveled profiles of users by using a Q-methodological analysis of 24 statements and 44 service users. The statements for the three dimensions were designed according to previous models of stakeholder identification and customer participation in new product management.FindingsThe authors obtained two profiles that advocate active participation of users, though with a different degree of involvement. One of them supports the role of users as “advisors” of users' preferences and needs, and the other indicates a higher involvement of users as “cocreators” of the innovation, with the same contribution and responsibility as the other partners.Originality/valuePrevious research has analyzed user involvement in digital health, as part of wider research on factors leading to the success and adoption of innovations. Moreover, previous research has analyzed user involvement in innovation projects, but without differentiating between projects carried out by an individual organization and those conducted by a partnership. This research contributes to filling this gap by revealing users' expectations about their involvement and how they think they will fit in with the dynamics of collaborative projects.

More is not always better: Effects of collaboration breadth and depth on radical and incremental innovation performance at the project level

This document is part of a doctoral article defended in 2022, being a theoretical discussion about the Absorptive Capacity and Sustainable Performance of organizations and their relationships. The discussion focuses on questions such as: “which organizational routines allow the acquisition of external green knowledge?” or “which mental models allow the acquisition of green knowledge in organizations”? Does the theoretical discussion propose hypotheses regarding the relationship between: sustainable mental models (MMS) and organizational routines (OR) as drivers of green absorptive capacity and the sustainable performance of organizations? Provided by a content analysis, based on articles indexed in SCOPUS and WEB of SCIENCE.

Pharmaceutical firms frequently engage in preclinical research collaboration with universities. Many of these collaborative preclinical research projects are conducted by firms’ subsidiaries. In this setting, the challenge of transferring knowledge from university–industry collaborations (UICs) to internal research and development (R&D) increases, since knowledge has to be transferred twice: to the subsidiary and to the parent. To benefit from tacit and complex knowledge obtained through collaboration with academic partners, firms need to have a high absorptive capacity. However, existing research on absorptive capacity's effect on the efficacy of UIC has provided mixed results, and the knowledge transfer mechanisms remain unclear, particularly in the case of basic (or preclinical) research and of the complex knowledge transfer process from subsidiaries’ collaborative efforts. Building on the knowledge‐based view and following a multidimensional perspective of absorptive capacity, this study investigates the role a firm's capabilities play in successful university knowledge integration in a firm's internal R&D. Therefore, this paper analyzes both parent firms’ UICs and their subsidiaries’ UICs in basic (preclinical) research. The results of our longitudinal analysis of a unique panel data set of 56 global pharmaceutical firms indicate that firms do successfully exploit valuable knowledge from preclinical research UIC in internal R&D, measured by the number of performed clinical trials. This holds true for the UIC involving the parent firm and its subsidiaries. As transformative learning dimensions of absorptive capacity, high diversity in therapeutic activity and high R&D intensity levels strengthen the positive relationship between parents’ UIC and R&D performance. A high exploration intensity level of the firm and high diversity in therapeutic activity help to transfer the knowledge from subsidiaries’ preclinical research UIC to parents’ innovation projects.

PurposeThis paper aims to focus on how different types of knowledge are exchanged within innovation networks in the German energy industry. External factors such as market pressure through liberalization, de-carbonization and decentralization challenge established actors in the industry. Answers to these challenges cannot be found by single actors but require networks to gather and concentrate innovation activities. This implies a need for knowledge transfer among energy providers. The authors aim at exploring knowledge exchange relations in-depth by treating them as multidimensional flows which can comprise technological, market, managerial or regulatory knowledge. In detail, the authors examine patterns of knowledge exchange on network-, dyad- and firm-level. Furthermore, first, empiric results are provided on how two of these patterns, namely, a firm’s propensity to form multiplex instead of uniplex ties as well as the composition of externally acquired knowledge concerning the four types, influence organizational innovativeness.Design/methodology/approachThe authors address their research questions by conducting an in-depth investigation of the largest network of municipal utilities in Germany. The analysis is based on quantitative data collected via standardized online questionnaires drawing on socio-metric methods to reconstruct knowledge exchange networks as well as traditional approaches from socio-empiric research to evaluate firm innovativeness.FindingsThe findings indicate that while technological, market, managerial and regulatory knowledge represent different types of knowledge with different exchange patterns, these transfers are interdependent. In particular, the analysis reveals non-hierarchical relations of complementarity. The authors furthermore provide evidence for the existence of ideal profiles for attaining different types of innovation. One central tendency across all of these profiles is that outperformers acquire regulatory knowledge to a significantly lesser degree than other firms and focus more on the other types instead.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper solely focusses on the largest network of municipal utilities whereby it is questionable how representative it is for the whole industry. Additionally, due to the cross-sectional design, the paper cannot fully rule out issues of endogeneity in the quantitative analysis.Practical implicationsThis paper delivers valuable insights for managers in the energy sector who seek to either enter and manage inter-organizational networks or apply external knowledge to foster innovation. In particular, the authors reveal benchmark profiles for external knowledge acquisition which may serve as templates for strategic collaboration and innovation management.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this paper presents the first innovation-related network analysis in the energy industry. Rather than operationalizing knowledge transfer as a simplex flow relation, the authors examine different types of knowledge, their patterns of exchange and their distinct effects on process, product and administrative innovations.

Overcoming the false dichotomy between internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition: Absorptive capacity dynamics over time

Enriching strategic variety in new ventures through external knowledge