The study at hand investigates innovation systems at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) focusing on innovation culture, organization and company goals at the early stages of innovation process. Past research studies suggest the early stages of innovation process are critical for the overall innovation ability, however, there is a lack of literature on the specifics of innovation systems at SMEs. Case studies of 3 companies provide an overview of characteristics of innovation systems at a typical SME as well as a solid basis for drawing business implications relevant for establishing or improving its innovation system. Furthermore, the findings reveal that people management at the early stages of innovation process is missing, and that a foreign subsidiary of an international SME is relevant for an effective corporate innovation process. Implications for further research on the topic are also discussed.

Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit dem Thema Innovationsökonomik. In einer allgemeinen Einführung werden wettbewerbspolitische Gesichtspunkte, die Innovationsanreize von Firmen beeinflussen, dargestellt. In drei einzelnen Arbeiten werden dann spezielle Fragestellungen intensiver analysiert. Die erste Arbeit behandelt die Wechselwirkungen von Firmenzusammenschlüssen und Innovationen, zwei zentrale Elemente der Wettbewerbsstrategie von Unternehmen. Der Schwerpunkt der Arbeit liegt dabei auf dem Einfluss von Firmenzusammenschlüssen auf die Innovationsaktivitäten und den Wettbewerb im Produktmarkt. Dabei werden auch mögliche Ineffizienzen, die sich durch Probleme bei der Integration der Firmen nach dem Zusammenschluss ergeben, untersucht. Es wird gezeigt, dass die optimale Investitionsaktivität sehr stark von der sich ergebenden Marktstruktur abhängt und es signifikante Unterschiede zwischen Insider und Outsider des Firmenzusammenschlusses gibt. In dem Modell mit linearer Nachfragefunktion und konstanten Grenzkosten steigern Zusammenschlüsse die soziale Wohlfahrt. Die zweite Arbeit betrachtet die unterschiedlichen Vorteile von kleinen und großen Firmen im Innovationswettbewerb. Während große Firmen typischerweise über einen besseren Zugang zu Produktmärkten verfügen, weisen kleine Firmen häufig eine bessere Forschungseffizienz auf. Diese verschiedenen Vorteile werfen unmittelbar die Frage nach Kooperationen auf. Im dargestellten Modell mit vier Unternehmen haben große Firmen die Möglichkeit kleine Firmen zu kaufen. Innovationen werden mittels Patentwettbewerb modelliert. Sequentielles Bieten ermöglicht es der ersten großen Firma strategisch zu handeln um eine Reaktion der zweiten großen Firma hervorzurufen. Ergeben sich hohe Effizienzen durch den Firmenzusammenschluss, so bevorzugen die großen Firmen eine unmittelbare Akquisition und es entsteht eine symmetrische Marktstruktur. Bei geringen Effizienzen wartet die erste Firma dagegen ab und zwingt die zweite Firma dadurch zum Kauf. Somit entsteht trotz symmetrischer Ausgangssituation eine asymmetrische Marktstruktur. Weiterhin wird gezeigt, dass Akquisitionen die Chancen für eine erfolgreiche Innovation erhöhen. Die dritte Arbeit befasst sich mit Forschungssubventionen. Dabei wird neben dem eigentlichen Ziel der Subvention -- der Förderung sozial erwünschter Projekte, die nicht genügend private Anreize zur Durchführung bieten -- die Signalwirkung einer Subvention betrachtet. Eine Staatsbehörde untersucht dabei die Projekte auf Risiken und Wohlfahrtswirkungen und entscheidet daraufhin über eine Förderung. Dies wird in einem einfachen Signalisierungsspiel mit zwei Risikoklassen von Forschungsprojekten modelliert. Die Staatsbehörde bevorzugt dabei riskante Projekte, die hohe erwartete soziale Gewinne versprechen, während Banken wenig riskante Projekte mit hohen privaten Gewinnen bevorzugen. Ermöglicht die Subvention lediglich die Unterscheidung von riskanten und weniger riskanten Projekten, so ist das Signal der Behörde wenig hilfreich für die Investitionsenscheidung der Banken. Bietet das Signal jedoch zusätzlich einen Hinweis auf die Qualität der Projekte, so können sich erhöhte, bzw. effizienter ausgewählte, private Investitionen ergeben. Im letzten Kapitel werden die wichtigsten Aussagen zusammengefasst sowie in abschließenden Bemerkungen der Zusammenhang der Ergebnisse erläutert. / This thesis deals with the economics of innovation. In a general introduction we illustrate how several aspects of competition policy are linked to firms' innovation incentives. In three individual essays we analyze more specific issues. The first essay deals with interdependencies of mergers and innovation incentives. This is particularly relevant as both topics are central elements of a firm's competitive strategy. The essay focuses on the impact of mergers on innovative activity and competition in the product market. Possible inefficiencies due to organizational problems of mergers are accounted for. We show that optimal investment strategies depend on the resulting market structure and differ significantly from insider to outsider. In our linear model mergers turn out to increase social surplus. The second essay analyzes the different competitive advantages of large and small firms in innovation competition. While large firms typically have a better access to product markets, small firms often have a superior research efficiency. These distinct advantages immediately lead to the question of cooperations between firms. In our model we allow large firms to acquire small firms. In a pre-contest acquisition game large firms bid sequentially for small firms in order to combine respective advantages. Innovation competition is modeled as a patent contest. Sequential bidding allows the first large firms to bid strategically to induce a reaction of its competitor. For high efficiencies large firms prefer to acquire immediately, leading to a symmetric market structure. For low efficiencies strategic waiting of the first large firm leads to an asymmetric market structure even though the initial situation is symmetric. Furthermore, acquisitions increase the chances for successful innovation. The third essay deals with government subsidies to innovation. Government subsidies for research and development are intended to promote projects with high returns to society but too little private returns to be beneficial for private investors. Apart from the direct funding of these projects, government grants may serve as a signal of good investments for private investors. We use a simple signaling model to capture this phenomenon and allow for two types of risk classes. The agency has a preference for high risk projects as they promise high expected social returns, whereas banks prefer low risk projects with high private returns. In a setup where the subsidy can only be used to distinguish between high and low risk projects, government agency's signal is not very helpful for banks' investment decision. However, if the subsidy is accompanied by a quality signal, it may lead to increased or better selected private investments. The last chapter summarizes the main findings and presents some concluding remarks on the results of the essays.

This thesis aims to provide clarity on which factors within an organization positively affect its performance in terms of innovation.  Innovation is seen as a critical component of a company’s strategy in achieving market differentiation and profitability, yet for many, it remains a frustrating pursuit.  This study aims to empirically model the relationship between a firm’s investment in innovation and the effect of this investment on its performance.  The method used is Structural Equation Modeling with data gathered from our online survey of 128 respondents from firms within the EU.  This work addresses two research questions, the first being to confirm that a firm’s innovation performance is influenced by both a commitment to human factors focusing on softer values in combination with strong R&D and technical capability.  Secondly, whether the presence of innovation inhibitors influences this relationship.  The findings showed that a firm’s innovation performance is improved when it prioritizes creating an environment and culture that nurtures innovation only when activated through a strong commitment to technical and R&D excellence, but not without this technical capacity.  Secondly, the introduction of innovation inhibitors reconfirmed the first finding, and the relationship between both the human factors within a company and its technical capability, as well as the relationship between this technical capability and its performance was stronger in their presence.

Given the increasing complexity of global ecological and social problems, innovation plays a key role in solutions for sustainable development. Within innovation ecosystems, intermediaries such as innovation hubs play an important part in influencing other actors like startups, investors and policymakers to create solutions for change. Therefore, it is essential that innovation hubs incorporate sustainability into their practices, if they are to contribute to addressing the Global Sustainability Challenge (GSC).   To see how this could be done, this study examines the case of the Venture Café Global Network (VCGN) a type of sector agnostic innovation hub. The study used a multi-method qualitative approach. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with different players in the innovation ecosystem, as well as with actors from within VCGN, and through a documentary analysis.   The results and discussion are presented according to certain overarching themes that emerged from the interviews and answer the research questions. Along with a longer list of recommendations, this study concludes that the adoption of a shared organisational definition of sustainability is the bedrock for any sustainability integration and vital for innovation hubs to impact other actors in their innovation ecosystems, to address the GSC.

La thèse a pour objet d'étudier les immeubles d'habitation parisiens construits entre 1919 et 1939. Il s'agit, pour cette période sacrifiée par l'historiographie contemporaine, de mettre en évidence une "strate architecturale originale de l'habitat", terme qui illustre l'ensemble des caractéristiques des édifices : situation dans la parcelle, plan des étages, toiture, système constructif, décoration externe, équipement des appartements. La diversité de cette strate s'exprime grâce à des catégories spécifiques, sans référence aux termes de Modernité, Modernisme et Modernisation, déjà préemptés par les historiens de l'architecture, en préférant ceux d'Art déco (affirmé ou dépouillé), Innovation (affirmée ou tempérée), Éclectisme post-haussmannien, permettant de prendre en compte l'ensemble du corpus, immeubles de rapport ou logements sociaux. La méthode utilisée, à la fois quantitative et qualitative, consiste à travailler sur un corpus quasiment exhaustif de deux mille quatre cent-trente opérations immobilières correspondant à 6000 immeubles, garantissant ainsi la pertinence des résultats obtenus quant aux caractéristiques externes de la strate et à étudier en détail un sous-ensemble du corpus, tirant parti des éléments contenus dans les archives, les revues et les ouvrages de la période, et permettant d'obtenir des données sur les architectes, les commanditaires et les immeubles et des analyses plus complètes sur l'habitat. Cette thèse constitue une source qui devrait aider les chercheurs à explorer en détail les œuvres d'architectes méconnus, les matériaux utilisés et les liens entre architectes et commanditaires, ou entre architectes et entreprises de construction / The subject matter of this thesis is to study the Parisian buildings, built between 1919 and 1939. In this period, played down by the contemporary histography, this work aims to highlight an "original architectural layer of housing", a phrase which illustrates the feature sets of buildings : location in the plot (alignment or open courtyard), floor plans (traditional or duplex), roof (attic or terrace), building system, outer decoration, modern conveniences. The diversity of this layer is expressed by specific categories which are not labelled modernity, modernism and modernization, as historians are used to doing, but Art deco (full or partial), Innovation (full or moderate), Post-haussmannian eclecticism, so as to consider the whole corpus, residential rental accommodation or social housing. The approach used, both quantitative and qualitative, consists, on the one hand, in working on an almost exhaustive corpus of two thousand four hundred real estate transactions corresponding to six thousand buildings, thereby ensuring the relevance of the results obtained from the "visible" characteristics of the layer and, on the other hand, in closely studying a subset of the corpus in order to use the information found in the archives, in the Architecture reviews and in the works published in that period so as to obtain data about architects, clients, buildings and deeper analyses on housing.This thesis establishes a resource that could help future researchers to explore the works by underestimated architects, building materials and links between architects and clients or between architects and construction firms

O ambiente de negócios está sob severa mudança ultimamente, requerendo das empresas não apenas a diferenciação da concorrência, mas também o desenvolvimento da capacidade de adaptação a novos cenários como uma forma de manter a competitividade e até mesmo sobreviver. Esta não é uma tarefa fácil, especialmente para grandes corporações, onde as políticas, regras, burocracia, comportamentos ortodoxos, para listar alguns, conspiram para dificultar a inovação. É ainda mais difícil quando estas empresas operam em mercados bem estabelecidos, com produtos maduros e até padronizados. Não fosse isso o suficiente, no Brasil tais corporações também precisam enfrentar desafios adicionais em relação à economia do país e à burocracia, bem como um sistema nacional de inovação ainda emergente. A literatura sobre inovação é vasta, e inovação em si é um tema cercado por vários aspectos diferentes. No entanto, até onde sabemos, não existem artigos que tratam da questão de como projetar e implantar um framework de gestão da inovação para uma corporação como as características descritas acima. O objetivo deste trabalho é ajudar essas empresas neste esforço, descrevendo e analisando a concepção e implementação de um framework de gestão da inovação em uma grande empresa brasileira de aço, bem como gerar conhecimento para apoiar futuras pesquisas acadêmicas no campo. O objetivo foi atingido através de uma pesquisa-ação e os resultados não só confirmaram a importância dos fatores de influência para inovação, como estratégia, liderança, cultura, recursos e sistemas de gestão, mas também apresentaram maneiras de combinar esses fatores de forma inter-relacionada para criar uma capacidade de inovação sustentável. / The business environment has been under severe change lately, requiring firms not only to differentiate themselves from competition, but also to develop capabilities to adapt to new scenarios as a way to keep competitiveness and even to survive. This is not an easy task, especially for large corporations, where polices, rules, bureaucracy, orthodox behaviors, to list a few,, collude to hinder innovation. Even more difficult when these corporations operate in well established markets, with mature and even standardized products. Would that not be enough, in Brazil such corporations also need to face additional challenges regarding the country`s economy and bureaucracy as well as facing an emergent national innovation system. The literature on innovation is vast and innovation itself is a topic surrounded by several different aspects. However, to our knowledge, there are no articles dealing with the question of how to design and implement and innovation management model for a corporation such as those described above. The objective of this work is to help these companies on this endeavor by describing and analyzing the design and implementation of an innovation management model in a large Brazilian steel company, as well as to generate knowledge to support further academic research on the field. The objective was accomplished through an action research and the results not only confirmed the importance of innovation drives such as strategy, leadership, culture, resources and management systems, but also presented ways of combining these drives in an intertwined fashion to create a sustainable innovation capability.

L’objectif de ce travail de recherche est de contribuer à l’analyse des réseaux de santé, et plus particulièrement des réseaux gérontologiques en tant que dispositifs organisationnels prometteurs et de répondre à la question suivante : En quoi les logiques d’action et les stratégies des dirigeants des réseaux gérontologiques peuvent-elles répondre aux attentes des politiques publiques (global) et aux besoins de proximité (local) dans le but de favoriser l’innovation sociale et de servir les usagers ? Selon nous, le réseau gérontologique est considéré, non pas comme une boite à outils, mais comme un corps vivant ; et tout comme chaque corps humain, les réseaux se distinguent par leurs éléments morphologiques (anatomiques), physiologiques (Partie I) et leur comportement (Partie II). Nous avons fait le choix, un peu osé, d’accompagner de façon caricaturale le texte par des illustrations visuelles associées à des verbatim des acteurs interviewés. Ainsi, le réseau se présente comme une personne âgée, marionnette des pouvoirs publics, un robot – signe de créativité et d’originalité – ou même un clone – symbole d’un idéal type organisationnel. Dans la même perspective, les logiques d’action innovantes seraient celles qui respectent le « rythme biologique » du réseau pour ne pas dégrader son efficacité et celles qui adoptent des stratégies adaptées à son environnement spatio-temporel. Afin d’examiner certains cas des réseaux gérontologiques innovants en France, en Suisse et en Grèce (Partie III) nous avons créé un modèle basé sur l’articulation des modes de régulation et de proximité. Les réseaux de santé se positionnent sur ce modèle, et des critères tels que leur capacité organisationnelle d’immixtion et d’arrangement dans le temps, leur positionnement dans le cycle de vie, leur choix de mixage des proximités et leurs modes de régulation leur permettent de créer de l’innovation sociale au profit des usagers. / The objective of this research is to contribute to the analysis of health care networks, and particularly of gerontology networks as promising organizational arrangements. This research tries to answer the following question: How can the logics of action and gerontology strategies of deciders meet the needs of (global) public policies and local needs (local) in order to foster social innovation and serve users ? Gerontology network is considered not as a toolbox, but as a living body, and just like every human body, these networks are characterized by their morphological (anatomical) and physiological features (Part I), and by their behavior (Part II). We have chosen to accompany the text of caricatured illustrations associated with some verbatim from interviewed stakeholders. Thus, the network is as a person, a puppet of the government, a robot - reflecting creativity and originality - or even a clone - symbolizing an ideal organizational type. In the same perspective, the innovative logics of action would be those that meet the "biorhythm" of network in order not to degrade its effectiveness and those adopting appropriate strategies to its spatiotemporal environment. Willing to analyze some innovative cases of gerontology networks in France, Switzerland and Greece (Part III) we have created a model based on the articulation of regulation and proximity. Health networks are positioned on this model, and criteria such as their organizational capacity of interference and arrangement in time, their position in the life cycle, their choice of proximity and control allow them to be more innovative.

There is increasing consensus among practitioners and academics alike that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift from producer-centered and internal innovation processes toward user-centered and open innovation processes. This paradigm shift induces significant changes to the design of organizations. Even though the research field of user innovation has been developing over a period of more than four decades, there have been only occasional intersections with the research field of organizational design. In this article, we aim to provide an integrated perspective of the two fields. We first identify major user innovation strategies. We then derive the implications for each user innovation strategy on key dimensions of organizational design.

Electric Vehicle (EV) has become an increasingly important topic in recent years due to energy and environmental concerns. Governments started to focus on remedies to the upcoming climate change threat and seek solutions through policies and regulations. The negative impact of carbon emissions along with pressure from governmental and social organizations force automotive manufacturers to shift to alternative energy sources. However, EV transition is a complex problem because its stakeholders are very diverse including governments, policy makers, EV manufacturers, and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). Consequently, the barriers to EV adoption are not only consumer oriented, rather exist under many categories. The literature has yet to offer a comprehensive, quantified list of barriers to EV adoption. Although the enacted policies are known, the effectiveness of these policies in mitigating EV adoption is not known. The objective of this research is to assess policy alternatives for mitigation of EV adoption barriers by developing a comprehensive evaluation model. Barriers are grouped under Social, Technical, Environmental, Economic and Political (STEEP) perspectives that are perceived by decision makers as important for adoption process. The decision model of research links the perspectives to barriers, and policy alternatives. The research implements the hierarchical decision model (HDM) to construct a generalized policy assessment framework. Data for EV adoption barriers were collected from the abovementioned stakeholders. Experts' qualitative judgments were collected and quantified using the pair-wise comparison method. The final rankings and effectiveness of policy alternatives were calculated. This research's results showed that the most important perspective is Economic. The top three most important barriers to EV adoption were identified as Initial Cost, Battery Cost, and Entrenched Technology Resistance, respectively. The most effective policy in mitigating EV adoption barriers is R&D Incentives. The research also extended the policy effectiveness research with Policy Effectiveness Curves by reaching out to additional experts. These curves helped determine the effectiveness of each of the 6 policies at different implementation levels. Based on these results, 25 scenarios were applied by combinations of policies at different implementation levels to investigate how the effectiveness of policies can change compared to today's conditions.

Dans le contexte de la mise en cause d’un modèle de développement territorial exogène, l’innovation sociale territoriale est un sujet qui attire l’attention tant des chercheurs que des professionnels du développement territorial. Selon nous, l’innovation sociale territoriale renvoie à la transformation de la gouvernance territoriale en faveur de la capacitation des initiatives citoyennes. Si l’innovation sociale territoriale se produit le plus souvent de manière spontanée, le débat central aujourd’hui est de modéliser ses processus et d’établir une méthodologie de transformation territoriale afin de pouvoir produire cette innovation de manière proactive. Notre thèse réalisée en contrat CIFRE au sein du cabinet de conseil Le Cinquième Pôle, s’inscrit dans ces réflexions autour de la production des stratégies et des outils d’innovation sociale territoriale. La thèse se focalise sur deux éléments : d’une part l’analyse des processus de l’innovation sociale territoriale et d’autre part l’évaluation du potentiel du web social pour favoriser la dynamique de transformation. Après avoir identifié que l’action collective entre acteurs locaux est un levier prépondérant de l’innovation sociale territoriale, nous avons analysé le rôle du web social dans l’émergence de communautés locales de porteurs d’initiatives citoyennes à l’aide de deux études de cas : le collectif Catalyst à Lille et le service numérique de la Ville de Brest. De nombreux apports du web social ont été révélés : maintien des liens faibles, partage des ressources, sensibilisation et éducation des acteurs, co-création des connaissances etc. Néanmoins, persistent les défis que sont la difficulté d’appropriation des outils numériques ainsi que le manque de culture ou habitudes de collaboration. / While the efficiency of exogenous territorial development is questioned, territorial social innovation has become a rising issue both for researchers and professionals in the field of territorial development. From our point of view, territorial social innovation can be understood as a transformation of territorial governance in favor of citizen initiatives. Though most examples of territorial social innovation occur spontaneously, our concern is to model the innovation process and establish a methodology for territorial transformation in order to make happen this innovation. Our thesis was prepared at the consultancy agency “Le Cinquième Pôle” within the CIFRE industrial research agreement, and aims at elaborating strategies and instruments for territorial innovation. It studies territorial social innovation process and evaluate the potentials of social web for the territorial transformation. Collective action being one of the most important levers for theses transformations, our thesis analyzed the roles of social web in enhancing communities of citizen initiatives leaders and actors at local level. In particular, two cases were studied: Catalyst collective and Brest municipality’s digital strategy. A number of advantages of social web were found, for example, in maintaining weak ties, in sharing resources, in raising awareness and educating actors, in co-creating knowledge etc. However challenges remain, notably the uneasiness of using collaborative Internet devices and the lack of practice in sharing.