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Purpose: The study that has been conducted is a comparative one, where the group compared different innovation management strategies used by three different globally- known Swedish firms that are in the manufacturing industry. The study is aimed at describing, analyzing and making conclusions of the innovation strategies used during the process of product development in the chosen companies bycomparing their similarities and differences. Method: The Study was carried out using a comparative study drawing on the qualitative data. Conclusion: Volvo CE and ABB CRC have similar strategies in internal idea generation because both firms have formalized systems, by using strong online data bases for idea sharing and evaluation. Volvo CE uses a pronounced forum called “Innovation Jams” for online idea sharing among Volvo Group employees whereas ABB CRC uses a strong data base called “ABB Inside” to evaluate ideas within the group. On the other hand, Scania R&D’s internal idea generation process is more informal as it is based on “person-to-person”. When it comes to external idea generation, Scania R&D has a more established strategy of using suppliers and customers for inspiration of ideas. However, ABB CRC generates inspirations from customers through its business centers, whereas Volvo CE has no customer system in place. But one thing that is common in all the three companies is that they are highly collaborating with universities for idea generation and human resource.

Background: With the Open Innovation paradigm come new hopes for innovating companies. The ability to tap a global network of experts can, at least in theory, have a significant impact on an organization’s competitive strength. Before such a ‘network of experts’ can be used to its full potential however, a number of challenges related to knowledge markets seem to need solutions. About 10 years ago however, we could witness the entry of a new breed of company – calling themselves innovation intermediaries. These companies are built to profit from delivering the usefulness of knowledge networks to client (Seeker) companies. Though the use of such networks and markets have so far been uncommon outside of high-tech fields they are now starting to be seen used by companies in more mature environments.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the collaboration between SCA (a large Swedish corporation) and the innovation intermediary InnoCentive in order to create a better understanding of what kind of benefits can be derived from the use of an innovation intermediary, and how these benefits are best utilized. We also set out to identify relevant limitations of innomediary use and to seek to better understand how using an innomediary can fit a client company’s higher-order activities such as exploration and exploitation.Completion and Results: Our findings include that SCA are using InnoCentive mainly as a tool to solve highly specific problems and/or problems with a low degree of complexity that they encounter in their everyday activities. The challenges related to knowledge markets, we find, are avoided by keeping problem complexity low and problem modularity high for the problems sent out to the network. In addition, InnoCentive’s business model seems to eliminate costly negotiations between Seekers and Solvers. Using this kind of ‘market solution’ however, we argue, will put bounds on the usefulness of the network and makes it mainly suited as a tool for improving an organization’s exploitation capacity.

Background: The term Open Innovation describes a phenomenon where organizations are no longer solely relying on internal R&D to innovate technologies that they then would bring to market. Instead, firms are looking outside for ideas or working with other organizations to develop technologies in order to capitalize on efficiencies of existing knowledge, reduce investment risks and increase speed to market. We identified a need to analyze the existing open innovation adoption frameworks in order to track similarities and differences so that we could create a new framework which is more comprehensive. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to create a framework for the analysis of the open innovation adoption process which is based on organizational change and other relevant streams of research. In order to do this we were to find answers to the following research questions: 1) How can organizational change theory be used to analyze the movement from a closed to open innovation strategy? 2) In addition to organizational change theory, which research streams should be considered when analyzing the open innovation adoption process? 3) To what extent does our new framework provide an adequate foundation for analyzing the open innovation adoption process at SCA Hygiene Products? Results: Our new framework is meant for the analysis of open innovation adoption process. The framework helps researchers to analyze how different organizations have adopted open innovation based on the four research streams that we have analyzed. Our framework includes aspects of organizational change theory, knowledge management, networks and managerial roles. Key Words: open innovation adoption, organizational change, knowledge management, networks, SCA

Firms operate in an increasingly complex, unpredictable and fast-moving environment. Understand the business ecosystem in which an innovative company operates is a major leadership stake. Indeed, know how the various possibilities to interact with the actors present in the business ecosystem of an organization are part of the leadership role. In order to survive facing competitive organizations, and to get a sustainable competitive advantage, an innovative organization must be able to combine with various partners on its business ecosystem in order to share knowledge and competencies, and therefor implement open innovation processes may be a key success factor that should not be sidelined. To do so, an oganization must understand innovation to adopt open innovation processes, must also take into account various elements of its business ecosystem to settle competitive dynamics with stakeholders and be able to interact with these different actors, and to finish an innovative organization must be able to set open innovation processes to find a key success factor and perform a sustainable competetive advanage.

In recent years, with the advance of liquid crystal display technology, the LCD monitors have been gradually replacing the traditional CRT monitors. From the display of desktop computers to the general home TV screen, the LCD screens become bigger and thinner. It is not only utilized in television and computers but also advertising billboards. It also helps the expansion of digital signage market. In response to the Chi Mei group¡¦s strategy to expand LCD panel development, Chi Lin Technology, a company with 40 years of experience in traditional plastic materials processing are transferring into the electronics manufacturer. Chi Lin Technology is constantly looking for the applicable areas of LCD technology and wants to bring the growth momentum for the company. They believe that the market of the digital signage in the convenience stores is white space. In order to seize this opportunity, Chi Lin Technology starts a series of internal innovation and integrates external resources to come out with a solution of the digital signage market development. This solution integrates the four major components, including hardware, software, services, and content. In addition, it consolidates subsidiary¡¦s advertising agency, content production, and channel management capabilities. This study is to analyze our strategy, which utilizes the existing core R&D strength to develop a complete digital signage solution. We will also research the advantages of Chi Lin Technology and the business model of advertising network operating system of digital signage.

This study presents a conceptual model, based on absorptive capacity and affordance theory, for investigating the e-Top facilitation and knowledge representation required by the e-Top platform and the impact of such functions in enhancing knowledge assimilation and then knowledge exploitation. A scale that measures above constructs is developed and validated. Survey data from e-Top platform members is tested. The partial least squares (PLS) method is empirically used to test the conceptual model and hypotheses using the collected survey data. The empirical results support the proposed model. The analysis provides evidence that the e-Top facilitation and knowledge representation positively effect on knowledge assimilation; the knowledge assimilation has a positive effect on knowledge exploitation. This study provides initial insights into factors that are likely to be significant antecedents of knowledge exploitation for the e-Top platform. Besides, the consultant support positively amplified the effect of e-Top facilitation on knowledge assimilation. The findings are particularly valuable to the e-Top platform development team and administrators. The e-Top platform development team can develop the e-Top platform in accordance with these findings to ensure better knowledge assimilation and exploitation through the exploitation of e-Top platform. Thereby, with this platform the effectiveness of industry-university collaboration will be enhanced.

Resources limitation in corporation renders the need for open innovation to advance their competence. Open innovation suggests utilization of outside resources can improve internal innovation and the internal IP¡¦s shall extend their usage beyond the boundary of firm to reach maximum benefit. The most remarkable open innovation paradigm in the history was IBM¡¦s release of its PC core software to give impetus to information revolution. Recently, Proctor and Gamble adapts the open innovation model and seek for external ideas which account for more than 50% of innovation of the company. Despite its phenomenal success in several cases, open innovation is not rooted in many industries. This study would investigate on the feasibility of the application of open innovation model to the electrical steel (ES) industry chain. Electrical steel is one of the most dedicated products in the steel industry. It¡¦s the crucial material in motors and transformers. China Steel holds more than 7% of the market share of ES of the world and influences the local motor markets greatly. Taiwan was once recognized the most important manufacturing base of small motors in the world. Nevertheless, motor industries in Taiwan have suffered huge decline in the past 20 years due to migrating to China whose economy reform provides much more attractive investment environment by lower wages and other operation costs. Until recently, soaring energy prices and tighter environment protection measures recently create growing worldwide need of high efficiency motors and provide new opportunity for the motor industry in Taiwan. Being the sole supplier of high quality ES in Taiwan, how China Steel takes advantage of this opportunity and enhances its competiveness is the main interest of this study. This study focuses on the industry chain of ES in Taiwan by systematic survey on its market, technology, and man power to understand its strength, weakness, facing threat and opportunity. An open innovation model is proposed and implemented in the ES industry chain by establishing a new platform, introducing new management paradigm and creating new efficacy indices. The model potentially allows continuous technology support to the chain and creates a sustainable business environment. Its feasibility is further discussed as to forming a healthy industry chain. The fast growing trend of global production volume of ES indicates the ever-increasing demand in the motor industry. The consumption rate of ES in Taiwan however did not appear the same order of growing rate as the rest of the world. This may imply the motor industry in Taiwan still faces tough challenge from China. Advancing and upgrading in design and analytical capability along with the competitive manufacturing bandwidth is the only solution to regain the competiveness. The proposed open innovation model is anticipated to promote the value of the ES industry chain, which in turn will increase China Steel¡¦s domestic market share for high quality ES.

This dissertation theoretically develops and empirically tests a model of interactive firm engagement with an open source software community. An inductive pilot study and subsequent interview analysis suggest that the nature of the relationship between a firm and an open source community varies in the degree by which a firm both "takes from" and "gives to" the community. I propose that a firm will experience direct effects from both giving to and taking from the community, and further propose that the interaction of these two behaviors, which I call interactive engagement, will lead to three firm-level consequences: an increase in the number of new products, higher levels of incremental (as opposed to radical) innovation, and shortened development and debug time. I test these hypotheses using regression analysis of questionnaire responses collected from 250 organizations that work with a popular open source software community. / text

The digital sector is often described as rapidly evolving, hence organisations within it need to remain innovative in order to cope with the changes. However, the traditionally closed approach towards innovation has been increasingly criticized. Inbound innovation is an alternative approach described as the purposive pursuit of gaining external knowledge for product enhancement and new product development. This knowledge can be gained by using tools such as innovation contests and creating innovation communities. Through a multiple case study focusing on three companies within the digital sector, this thesis explores a potential connection between how these companies use inbound innovation in regard to the different phases in the organizational life cycle. The data was collected using both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques, and analysed using a cross-case analysis method. This thesis found that the examined organisations, each specified in different phases of the organisational life cycle, uses inbound innovation differently. Furthermore, as the examined organizations progress through the organisational life cycle a shift, from using inbound innovation to optimize execution towards using it to find new growth options, was found. / Den digitala sektorn beskrivs ofta som snabbt föränderlig och organisationer i den behöver förbli innovativa för att klara av förändringarna. Samtidigt har traditionella innovationsstrategier, som beskrivits som slutna, blivit allt mer kritiserade. ”Inbound” innovation är ett alternativ till tidigare innovationsstrategier. Strategin beskrivs som ändamålsenlig strävan efter att ta in extern kunskap för produktförbättring och gynna utvecklingen av nya produkter. Denna kunskap kan fångas upp genom användandet av verktyg som innovationstävlingar och innovationssamhällen. Genom en multipel fallstudie med fokus på tre organisationer inom den digitala sektorn utforskar denna avhandling det möjliga sambandet mellan hur dessa företag använder sig av ”inbound” innovation genom organisationens utveckling i organisations-livscykeln. Information kring ämnet har samlats in med hjälp av kvalitativa och kvantitativa datainsamlingstekniker och analyserats med hjälp av en tväranalys. Avhandling fann att de studerade företagen befinner sig i olika faser inom organisationslivscykeln och använder ”inbound” innovation på olika sätt. Dessutom påträffades ett samband, nämligen, när de studerade organisationerna fortskrider genom organisationslivscykeln ändrar de sitt användande av ”inbound” innovation från att optimera organisationens genomförande till att använda strategin för att hitta nya tillväxtmöjligheter.