<p> The purpose of this study is to identify the suppliers’ involvement in innovation and New Product Development (NPD) of wind turbine manufacturing. In this thesis we analysed the sources of innovation and also explored the benefits that the companies derive when they involve the suppliers in the process of innovation and NPD. We present results from the study of 31 wind turbine producers across the globe including, small, medium and large companies. The conclusions are that most of the companies claimed that they involve suppliers in innovation and NPD. In the theory chapter, we have presented different techniques of suppliers’ involvement in innovation: <strong><em>to</em></strong>, <strong><em>with</em></strong> and <strong><em>by</em></strong> (Wintelism) the suppliers. Most of the companies use ‘’<strong><em>to</em></strong>’’ the suppliers technique when they involve suppliers in innovation. Improved quality, lower cost and utilising the suppliers’ knowledge & expertise are the main benefits that companies receive when they involve suppliers in innovation and product development.</p>

A FINEP é uma empresa pública vinculada ao Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia (MCT), que tem a missão de promover e financiar a inovação e a pesquisa científica e tecnológica. A partir de 1999, foram criados os Fundos Setoriais de Ciência e Tecnologia, administrados pela FINEP, que são instrumentos de financiamento de projetos de pesquisa, desenvolvimento e inovação no País. Há 16 Fundos Setoriais, sendo 14 relativos a setores específicos e dois transversais. Dentre esses, há o Fundo Verde Amarelo (FVA), que tem por objetivo promover o desenvolvimento tecnológico a partir da interação universidade-empresa. O presente estudo identificou as contribuições e impactos do FVA sobre as empresas usuárias do fundo, por meio de um levantamento (survey) junto a essas empresas, considerando as que tiveram os projetos finalizados até abril de 2008. Foram identificados os perfis das empresas contempladas pelo FVA e também as vantagens competitivas auferidas pelas empresas em virtude do desenvolvimento de projeto em cooperação com ICTs, por meio do financiamento realizado pelo FVA. O interesse do trabalho é a disseminação dos resultados para incentivo a adesão de um volume maior de empresas em projetos cooperativos para seus produtos e processos voltados para a inovação tecnológica, podendo inclusive fornecer informações adicionais para os gestores do FVA a fim de melhorar a política de gestão do fundo. / FINEP is a Brazilian public company connected to the Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia (Technology and Sciences Ministry), which aims at promoting and financing the innovation and the scientific and technological research. From 1999 on, Science and Technology Sectorial Funds have been created, managed by FINEP, which are instruments of financing of research projects, development and innovation in the Country. There are 16 Sectorial Funds, where 14 are related to specific sectors and two are transversal lines. Of these, one is aimed at the university-company interaction (FVA - Fundo Verde-Amarelo). The present study identified the contributions from FVA over the companies, through a survey together companies that received contributions from FVA, considering those companies that finished their projects before April 2008. It was analyzed the profile of these companies and the competitive advantages got through developed project in cooperation with universities and research institutes, with financial from FVA. The idea of this study is the dissemination of results to incentivate the adhesion by a greater number of companies in cooperative projects for their products and processes on focus to innovation technology. This study hopes to contribute supplying additional information to the managers of FVA, that able to get better the fund management politic.

The purpose of this study is to identify the suppliers’ involvement in innovation and New Product Development (NPD) of wind turbine manufacturing. In this thesis we analysed the sources of innovation and also explored the benefits that the companies derive when they involve the suppliers in the process of innovation and NPD. We present results from the study of 31 wind turbine producers across the globe including, small, medium and large companies. The conclusions are that most of the companies claimed that they involve suppliers in innovation and NPD. In the theory chapter, we have presented different techniques of suppliers’ involvement in innovation: to, with and by (Wintelism) the suppliers. Most of the companies use ‘’to’’ the suppliers technique when they involve suppliers in innovation. Improved quality, lower cost and utilising the suppliers’ knowledge &amp; expertise are the main benefits that companies receive when they involve suppliers in innovation and product development.

The Front End of innovation (FEI) or early innovation presents one of the greatest opportunities for improving an entire innovation process in any firm. The purpose of this thesis is to study how customers can be involved in the early phase of innovation in the IT industry. In this study, we did analyze the customer types, their methods of involvement and key elements within the early innovation process or front end of innovation. In accordance with theoretical concepts, this study shows that all fifteen (15) companies working within the I.T industry in Sweden agreed working with innovation/NPD and, equally involve customers in their front end of innovation (FEI). In the I.T industry, innovation comes mainly from the users (customers) and from within the companies (R&amp;D). To a lesser extend, from technological trends, market and suppliers. Amongst the identified phases (elements) of the front end of innovation, Opportunity Identification was found to be the dominant phase for customer involvement. Normal customers, lead, empathic design customers and virtual customers, proved the most dominant customer types integrated within the front end of innovation in the I.T industry.

A FINEP é uma empresa pública vinculada ao Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia (MCT), que tem a missão de promover e financiar a inovação e a pesquisa científica e tecnológica. A partir de 1999, foram criados os Fundos Setoriais de Ciência e Tecnologia, administrados pela FINEP, que são instrumentos de financiamento de projetos de pesquisa, desenvolvimento e inovação no País. Há 16 Fundos Setoriais, sendo 14 relativos a setores específicos e dois transversais. Dentre esses, há o Fundo Verde Amarelo (FVA), que tem por objetivo promover o desenvolvimento tecnológico a partir da interação universidade-empresa. O presente estudo identificou as contribuições e impactos do FVA sobre as empresas usuárias do fundo, por meio de um levantamento (survey) junto a essas empresas, considerando as que tiveram os projetos finalizados até abril de 2008. Foram identificados os perfis das empresas contempladas pelo FVA e também as vantagens competitivas auferidas pelas empresas em virtude do desenvolvimento de projeto em cooperação com ICTs, por meio do financiamento realizado pelo FVA. O interesse do trabalho é a disseminação dos resultados para incentivo a adesão de um volume maior de empresas em projetos cooperativos para seus produtos e processos voltados para a inovação tecnológica, podendo inclusive fornecer informações adicionais para os gestores do FVA a fim de melhorar a política de gestão do fundo. / FINEP is a Brazilian public company connected to the Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia (Technology and Sciences Ministry), which aims at promoting and financing the innovation and the scientific and technological research. From 1999 on, Science and Technology Sectorial Funds have been created, managed by FINEP, which are instruments of financing of research projects, development and innovation in the Country. There are 16 Sectorial Funds, where 14 are related to specific sectors and two are transversal lines. Of these, one is aimed at the university-company interaction (FVA - Fundo Verde-Amarelo). The present study identified the contributions from FVA over the companies, through a survey together companies that received contributions from FVA, considering those companies that finished their projects before April 2008. It was analyzed the profile of these companies and the competitive advantages got through developed project in cooperation with universities and research institutes, with financial from FVA. The idea of this study is the dissemination of results to incentivate the adhesion by a greater number of companies in cooperative projects for their products and processes on focus to innovation technology. This study hopes to contribute supplying additional information to the managers of FVA, that able to get better the fund management politic.

Background – Leveraging external sources of innovation (ESI) is found to be vital for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) innovation work as they commonly suffer from a lack of resources to facilitate and execute this work. The interaction with the external environment does, in turn, enable access to knowledge and capabilities that SMEs currently not possess. Moreover, as collaborative software tools (CSTs) have proven to play a critical role in today’s innovation processes and have transformed the way of interacting with the external environment, it becomes obvious that research in this field must account for the usage of these tools. CSTs have a significant impact on communication, cooperation, and coordination and are, therefore, widely used to facilitate collaborations in intra-organizational groups. Thus, these tools can be beneficial for SMEs as it provides them with greater access and availability to the external environment. Purpose – This research aims to understand how SMEs can leverage external sources of innovation with the application of collaborative software tools and develop fruitful insights that can be used to facilitate innovation work for SMEs that typically lack internal resources.  Method – This study approaches the underlying philosophy of a relativist ontology, a social constructionist epistemology, and iterative grounded theory. For the methodology, empirical data was collected through 31 semi-structured interviews with participants from SMEs and their ESI in the region of Jönköping County following a purposive sampling method. The empirical data was further analyzed by conducting a grounded theory strategy for process analysis. Findings – We develop two processes illustrating how SMEs can leverage ESI with the application of CSTs. It was found that the application of CSTs in these processes enables SMEs to explore, acquire, and utilize information and knowledge from ESI in ways that previously have not been possible. By providing new ways of communicating and cooperating, CSTs facilitate the activity of sourcing knowledge and resources from ESI. Consequently, the SMEs are provided with new knowledge and resources that, in turn, improve and enhance the development of innovations. Thereby we contribute to an understanding of how SMEs can leverage ESI in the 21st century.

Background: The needs of the consumers seem to develop at the same rate as the technology advancements and put more pressure on firms to produce new and innovative products at a faster pace. Research has shown that external sources can have a significant effect on the firms’ innovation performance, but the results are partial contradicting and more research is needed. Purpose: Investigate customer and supplier involvement in product innovation in Swedish manufacturing firms. Delimitations: The study was carried out to manufacturing firms in Sweden, as Swedish firms are the most innovative in Europe at this point in time. Only large and medium sized firms were under investigation as larger firms are more eager to innovate than smaller firms. Method: The research had a deductive quantitative approach. The data was collected through a questionnaire sent out by e-mail and 124 firms participated in the study. After assessing validity and reliability, the hypotheses were tested by multiple and single regression analysis. Conclusions: Firms that strives to improve their new product development process should seize their customer’s knowledge and use it to co-develop new products. Another important factor was to use lead users, as these will improve the innovativeness even more than “ordinary” customers. The study found no support for early supplier integration in the new product development process.