A Swedish municipality implemented a digital service innovation project as part of a digital transformation of the function. This to better answer the needs of the citizens by improving their youth council. A prototype of a digital service innovation for youths in elementary and upper secondary school was developed as a result of the project, as well as a transformation of the whole process of the youth council. This case study aims to examine aspects of the project that might be of importance for the municipality to keep in mind while continuing their digital transformation. This project was analyzed by applying the outcome of the project in comparison to a service innovation framework. Furthermore the project was complemented with theoretical research within the digital service innovation field and interviews with informants that has experience in these kinds of projects. Our interpretation of the outcome show that the municipality seem to have decided to create a digital service innovation as a solution for their defined issue prior to the project even beginning. We argue that a problematic factor for the outcome of the project was that they focused on solving and creating a prototype for two different problems. One for the actual digital service innovation, and another for developing the whole process of the youth council. Furthermore, we present propositions of how the challenges can be handled proactively in future digital service innovation projects carried out by the municipality. We argue that the main objective and purpose of the project should to be clearly defined beforehand. Also, the selected method for the purpose of creating a digital service innovation needs to be opted with consideration of the municipality’s resources and conditions. We conclude that the strategies and leadership need to support digital transformation and the following sub projects.

Regeringens    ambition    är    att    Sveriges    myndigheter,    kommuner    och    regioner    ska    vara    bäst    i    världen    på    att    använda    digitaliseringens    möjligheter.    Något    som    står    i    vägen    för    detta    mål    är    det    digitala    arvet    i    form    av    föråldrade    system    som    inte    kan    bytas    ut    på    grund    av    begränsade    ekonomiska    möjligheter.    Ett    sätt    att    hantera    det    digitala    arvet    kan    vara    innovation, som    exempelvis    kan    innefatta    RPA    (Robotic    Process    Automation).    Denna    digitala    innovation    tvingar    inte    organisationer    att    byta    ut    redan    existerande    mjukvarusystem    vilket    gör    att    det    kan    ses    som    en    enkel    lösning    för    offentlig    sektor.    För    att    underlätta    effektiviseringen    av    projekt    för    digital    innovation    kan    samverkan    mellan    verksamhet    och    IT    (Business    IT    Alignment:    BITA)    vara    avgörande.    Då    intressentgrupperna    medborgare    och    myndighet    oftast    involveras    i    studier    inom    den    offentliga    kontexten    upplever    vi    att    ytterligare    studier    behöver    göras    om    samverkan    mellan    interna    intressenter.    Litteraturen    kopplat    till    digital    innovation    inom    offentlig    sektor    fokuserar    främst    på    utmaningar som    byråkrati    och    lagar    vilka    är    svåra    att    förändra    och    mindre    på    interna    sociala    utmaningar.    Därför    behöver    fler    studier    utforska    utmaningar    kopplat    till    båda    dessa    faktorer.I    vår    kvalitativa    fallstudie    vill    vi    bidra    med    kunskap    om    olika    intressenters upplevelse    av    projekt    för    digital    innovation    inom    den    offentliga    sektorn.    Baserat    på    intressenternas    upplevelser    utforskar    studien    vilka    faktorer    som    kan    påverka    ett    sådant    projekts    fortgående    vilket    gör    att    vi    utgår    från    frågeställningarna;    Vad    finns    det för    utmaningar    i    projekt    för    digital    innovation    inom    offentlig    sektor? och    Vilken    betydelse    har    Business    IT    Alignment    i    ett    projekt    för    digital    innovation    inom    offentlig    sektor?. Det    studerade    fallet    är    en    svensk    myndighet    som    arbetar    med    att    införa    RPA    för    en    intern    process    vilket    vi    valt    att    kalla    för    ett    projekt    för    digital    innovation.    Datainsamlingen    har    gjorts    genom    semistrukturerade    intervjuer    med    intressenter    på    både    verksamhets- och    ITsidan    i    myndigheten.    Denna    data    har    sedan    analyserats    och    tolkats    genom    tematisk    analys    där    vi    tagit    fram    teman    utifrån    empirin    och    studiens    teoretiska    referensram.    De    slutsatser    vi    kunnat    dra    gällande    den    första    frågeställningen    är    att    de    utmaningar    som    finns    i    projekt    för    digital    innovation    inom    den    offentliga    sektorn    är    val    av    arbetsform,    riskavvisande    kultur och    bristande    Business    IT    Alignment. Slutsatsen    gällande    den    andra    frågeställningen    är    att    Business    IT    Alignment    har    stor    betydelse    i    projekt    för    digital    innovation    inom    offentlig    sektor.    Bristande    BITA    är    tillika    den    främsta    utmaningen    att    ta    hänsyn    till    när    det    kommer    till    att    lyckas    med    sådana    projekt.Studien    bidrar    med    insikter    kring    vilka    utmaningar    som    kan    finnas    för    projekt    för    digital    innovation    inom    offentlig    sektor    samt    vilken    betydelse    BITA    har    för sådana    projekt.    En    viktig    insikt    är    att    utmaningarna    Val    av    arbetsform och    Riskavvisande    kultur    leder    till    utmaningen    Bristande    BITA,    vilket    belyser    att    det    kan    finnas    relationer    mellan    olika    utmaningar.    Med    dessa    insikter    är    studiens    kunskapsbidrag    att    skapa    diskussion    och    väcka    nya    tankar    som    kan    hjälpa berörda verksamhetsaktiva    att    bättre    förstå    och    planera    liknande    projekt    som    involverar    digital    innovation.

In today’s highly digital world a great undertaking for organizations is the transformation of value processes from the classical analog to the modern digital. How and when does this transformation unfold and could digital innovations within sales processes be a driving force for this transformation. For companies striving to achieve such change how and when transformation is possible is an important question to answer. Drawing on extent research through Vial (2019) and Skog (2019) on digital transformation, we aim to answer this question with a multiple case study design covering five different organizations with ties to a consulting firm that provides digital innovation in the form of Search Engine Optimization, web-site development and sales process development. Using the assumption that the disruption has already happened and that companies need to be ambidextrous we analyze our empirical material through key constructs in Vial’s (2019) process model of digital transformation to get a broader understanding of how and when these innovation processes facilitates responses to environmental change by resulting in digital transformation. We find that within some of these organizations a digital transformation has happened through the innovation process, but we also find that some companies are hindered in the transformation by external variables

The digital landscape of the modern age is frequently disrupted by new and innovative technologies, causing traditional industries to become calcified. This study examines how organizations within a traditional setting are confronted with numerous challenges when undertaking the challenge of remaining relevant in a digital age. The growing interconnectivity across multiple business landscapes demands new and innovative forms of managing a business. Nevertheless, the related research on how traditional industries are adapting to the digitalization of society is limited. Therefore, the study aims to illustrate the phenomena of emerging organizational barriers caused by an ever-changing digital market through incorporating a multiple case study of two traditional organizations and asking the research question: “What barriers emerge as traditional firms seek to actively engage in the digitalization of society?” The study defines two such barriers, (1) The internal stress of an expanding organization and (2) the underlying silos of Sigma. The separate barriers illustrate an insight into the importance of understanding and mastering the internal process of continuous transformation.

Purpose: Currently, there is no outlined process for the front end of innovation suited for digital innovation. Thus, incumbent manufacturers face challenges when striving to execute their digital innovation initiatives and tend to invest in unfeasible initiatives. Therefore, the purpose of this master thesis is to bridge identified research gaps in order to enhance digital innovation through creating a front-end innovation process. Method: In order to fulfill the purpose of this master thesis, an abductive, qualitative research approach has been adopted. We build on a case study of an incumbent manufacturer within the aerospace industry. Specifically, we leverage 20 explorative and semi-structured interviews with various roles involved in digital innovation initiatives. To derive findings through the interviews in combination with previous research, a thematic analysis was conducted. Findings: Through this master thesis, three key barriers to digital innovation in incumbent manufacturers were identified; difficulties in securing appropriate data, constrained digital development resources, and uncertainties in the value digital innovation may generate. Furthermore, a front-end innovation process with three phases has been constructed in order for firms to better handle the early phases of digital innovation. The phases included in the process are; digital idea generation, digital feasibility recognition, and evaluation. Theoretical contributions: This study extends the current research within front end innovation and digital innovation and thus bridges the gap among these research fields. Specifically, we add to the literature by illustrating principles and key activities for a revised front end process for digital innovation and provide novel decision criteria and principles for evaluating and prioritizing digital innovation initiatives. Managerial implications: The managerial implication of this study is that we provide practical guidelines for leveraging digital innovations in early stages of development. Firms tend to invest in ideas with low feasibility, however, our process framework enables decision–makers to minimize uncertainty and streamline their front-end innovation process for digital innovation. The framework further forces decision-makers to understand the foremost determinants of feasibility and further embrace decreased investment costs in failing innovation. Limitations and future research: To make the process framework as intuitive and easy-to-follow as possible, we sought to simplify the process by reducing the number of steps required. Furthermore, we sought to simplify any technical aspects that have been brought up during interviews with certain respondents, to further make the process framework easy to follow for any manager working within innovation. For the future, we hope other researchers further validate our process framework within other industries, especially within industries driven by digitalization. Moreover, future research pinpointing who is responsible for making decisions throughout the process framework would be of relevance to further extend the knowledge regarding front end innovation for digital innovation. / Syfte: För närvarande finns det ingen process för att hantera de tidiga stadierna av digital innovation. Följaktligen uppstår utmaningar då bolag ska exekvera digital innovation vilket ofta leder till att bolag investerar resurser i digitala initiativ som inte är genomförbara. Därav ämnar denna studie överbrygga gapet mellan digital innovation och innovation i tidiga skeden i syfte att förbättra digital innovation. Metod: För att uppfylla syftet med studien har en abduktiv och kvalitativ forskningsansats använts. Mer specifikt bygger studien på 20 explorativa och semi-strukturerade intervjuer med respondenter som har erfarenhet inom digital innovation. Vidare analyserades insamlad data genom en tematisk analys och genom det kunde slutsatser dras. Resultat: Studien resulterade i tre barriärer för digital innovation; svårigheter i att anskaffa lämplig data, begränsade resurser för digital innovation och svårigheter i att fastställa värdet av digital innovation. Vidare skapades ett processramverk innehållande tre faser som ska möjliggöra att bolag på ett mer adekvat sätt kan hantera digital innovation. De tre faserna är digital idégenerering, digital genomförbarhet och utvärdering. Teoretiskt bidrag: Studien adderar till nuvarande forskning inom digital innovation och innovation i tidiga faser genom att överbrygga gapet mellan de olika områdena. Mer specifikt bidrar vi genom att illustrera principer och nyckelaktiviteter för digital innovation i tidiga skeden och genom att fastställa beslutskriterier och principer för att prioritera och utvärdera digital innovation. Praktiskt bidrag: Studiens praktiska bidrag är vägledning för att utveckla digital innovation i tidiga skeden. Bolag tenderar att investera i digital innovation som inte är möjlig att genomföra och därav möjliggör vårt processramverk att beslutsfattare kan minska osäkerheten och effektivisera deras process för digital innovation. Vidare skapar ramverket en förståelse för de viktigaste aspekterna av genomförbarhet kopplat till digital innovation, vilket möjliggör att bolag inte behöver investera resurser i digital innovation som inte är genomförbar. Begränsningar och vidare forskning: För att öka användbarheten av vårt processramverk, förenklade och reducerade vi antalet steg i ramverket. I syfte att öka läsbarheten av rapporten har vi även förenklat tekniska aspekter, då rapporten ska kunna förstås av alla anställda som arbetar med digital innovation, utan krav på teknisk kunnighet. För att vidareutveckla vårt ramverk och den teori vi skapat inom FEI, önskar vi som ett nästa steg att ramverket kan valideras i andra industrier och kontexter, särskilt i de industrier som huvudsakligen är drivna av digitalisering. Bortsett från det önskar vi att framtida forskning kommer utreda vidare kring ansvarighet inom beslutsfattande om digital innovation, exempelvis vem som bör ansvara för att gå igenom ramverket, för att ytterligare skapa förståelse över hur bolag bör arbeta med tidiga skeden av digital innovation.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) holds great potential for fostering innovation across various industries. This study explores the role of boundary resources (BR) in catalyzing this potential, specifically focusing on the experiences and challenges faced by data scientists within IIoT platforms. In a qualitative research approach, semi- structured interviews were conducted with eight data scientists that uncovered how specific BR related to metadata management, tool integration, business models, and API design might impact their work and the innovative environment. The analysis reveals that these BR are essential in shaping the effectiveness of IIoT platforms but often fall short in meeting the unique needs of data scientists, thereby inhibiting innovation. The findings suggest that an actor-centric redesign of BR, emphasizing the specialized workflows and technical demands of data scientists, might enhance the flexibility and functionality of IIoT platforms. Platform owners are encouraged to adopt adaptable and dynamic BR designs to leverage data scientists' diverse capabilities and insights, especially in business-to-business (B2B) environments.

The role of open innovation is becoming increasingly important for organizational competitiveness, while digital technologies provide new opportunities for organizational innovativeness. Regardless of domain and industry, digital technologies have reshaped structure, business logic and organizational dynamics. In that spirit, the forestry industry moves from the traditional model to the open paradigm, embracing the significance of purposive external exploration and internal exploitation of knowledge and technologies. Although the importance of digital technologies has been highlighted by academia, their enabling role in the open innovation process is insufficiently explored. Moreover, little research showcases the systematic way to organize for open innovation in the digital world. This process towards openness creates new opportunities as well as challenges. In order to investigate these emerging challenges and opportunities for open innovation in a digital world, we conducted a qualitative exploratory case study in the Cluster of Forest Technology in northern Sweden. Our results illustrate that challenges such as trust, power asymmetries, knowledge flow and coopetitive activities need to be managed. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing a way to address these challenges, seize more opportunities and bridge the gap between open innovation and digital technologies.

This dissertation explores how people address problems of real human concern in situations of complexity, ambiguity, uniqueness, conflicting values and rapid change. Such circumstances stretch formal and idealistic rules and procedures to the breaking point. And yet, people in a variety of fields work through such difficulties in a pragmatic manner, at times finding ways to assert their humanity. Sensemaking and human- centred design are related activities through which many people approach such work. Through cases in digital innovation, global health care delivery and an unlikely voyage of the Amazon River, this portfolio shows that they are relevant to a wide range of settings. Rather than isolating the components or key variables of such work and taking their measure, this research advances a more holistic view of sensemaking and designing as sociomaterial practices. My research is grounded in performing the phenomenon of study, offering insights from complex practice rather than a spectator’s study of it. This ethnographic approach has yielded theoretical contributions related to designing for the emergence of practices, embodied sensemaking, a more substantive notion of what it means to be ‘human’ centred and more pragmatic ways of investigating sociomaterial practices. By discussing sensemaking and human-centred design as antidotes to failures of imagination in global health and development, this dissertation suggests a distinctive perspective on why these topics matter for the health of poor and marginalized people around the world.

The complexity that digital transformation brings to the business environment requires new knowledge and expertise in different domains. To avoid the extensive costs of acquiring and managing this knowledge internally, organizations frequently collaborate with external consultancies. In this exploratory case study, we investigate what role the consultancy agencies take within client organizations' transformation journey and how this role is affected by the dynamic nature of digital transformation. The study reveals that the notion of digital transformation in the business environment is fuzzy and challenging not only to the client organization but to the consultancy agency itself which leads to the necessity to narrow down the notion of digital transformation and form a new role.

Syfte är att bidra med kunskap kring KPI:ers, efter engelskans Key Performance Indicator, vikt i den digitala transformationen vars mål är att realisera verksamhetens strategi. Hypotesen är att KPI:er kan användas som styrmedel i att påskynda digital transformation och att det därför finns skäl i att studera dess existens och utformning. Frågan man vill få svar på är ifall KPI:er används som styrmedel för att påskynda digital transformation. Baserat på det teoretiska ramverket och det empiriska underlaget kan man konstatera att KPI:er, kopplade till digital förflyttning, har en tydlig relation till organisationens digitala mognad där mognare organisationer har KPI:er kopplade till digital innovation medan de mindre mogna fokuserar främst på intern effektivitet som digitalisering ger upphov till. Vi kan också konstatera att digitala KPI:er förekommer men de traditionella är fortfarande viktigast, då man har svårt att definiera vad som ingår i digital transformation, iallafall för de undersökta organisationerna. Trots faktumet att traditionella KPI:er fortfarande dominerar de undersökta organisationernas ledningsagenda, är KPI:er som förknippas med de nya digitala affärsmodellerna på stark frammarsch.