Scientific studies on the advantages of environmental management and futures research integration have been increasingly published during the last years. WEMAG, a traditional German energy provider, aims to benefit from the energy market transition by offering innovative and sustainable energy solutions. However, the whole industry lacks experience with innovation management and beyond that also lacks knowledge on how to integrate eco-design and strategic foresight. Currently, theoretical contributions do not provide practice-relevant and interdisciplinary solutions due to a research gap on integrative perspectives of innovation, environmental and futures research streams and applied research approaches. This thesis is a first attempt to bridge the research gap and to provide a practice-relevant concept by introducing an integrative innovation process model, which benefits from eco-design and strategic foresight. Following an applied design theory methodology, requirements for the new process model-building are derived from literature review and qualitative insights from company material scanning, interviews and a workshop. The results show that integrating eco-design and strategic foresight into innovation management on a strategy and process level offers major advantages for managerial practice, especially in uncertain environments. It provides the opportunity to explore future developments while having normative guidance towards environmentally-friendly solutions, which also provide unique advantages for market positioning and succesful competition.

This research project was begun during the financial crisis of 2009 with the objective of increasing the competiveness of SMEs’ (Small and Medium sized Enterprises) by developing their innovation-management capabilities. The research presented in this licentiate thesis (thesis) is a part of the project in which newly-formed innovation groups at two SMEs in Eskilstuna, Sweden have been studied before they began innovation work. Prior research has indicated a need to observe processes within on-going innovation projects. My overall hypothesis that reaches beyond this thesis, is that an innovation group that improves its innovation-related knowledge, reduces knowledge gaps and increases innovation-related awareness, generates positive additional values such as motivation or enthusiasm above the results such as patents or project costs that are traditional measurements within innovation projects. The first study in the iterative research process focused on the innovation-related knowledge of newly-formed innovation groups. The results led to further immersed studies, in total five case studies, in which 21 respondents participated. A theoretical framework consisting of theories from Knowledge management and System theory was used to analyze the results and the research question of this licentiate thesis emerged as: “What would a model that describes a newly-formed innovation group’s innovation-related knowledge, knowledge gaps, information flow and awareness look like?” Four sub-questions, one per each aspect of the research question, have been used to analyze prior research, theories and the conducted case studies. A model, Innovation Group Model (IGM), was created according to the research question and goal for this thesis. A one-sentence-explanation could be: “The organization, the innovation group and the individuals must have the opportunity to be motivated to learn innovation management in theory and practice to achieve innovation-readiness and awareness to detect and utilize innovation-related information available within the internal and external information flow.” This thesis contributes to the research area of Innovation and design with knowledge concerning newly-formed innovation groups. Three practical applications of the research results are suggested; (1) IGM can be used in organizations to understand the complex situation when an innovation group is created. (2) IGM can be used when planning for physical or virtual environments in which an innovation group consisting of professionals and customers is intended to develop or generate ideas. (3) IGM can be used when developing innovation-related audits intended to provide a deeper understanding of a respondent’s knowledge. On the basis of the results from this licentiate thesis, I suggest further research according to the overall hypothesis. With IGM as a starting point, one could study the progress of innovation groups and where necessary, provide support in specific areas.

The restaurant industry is the second largest employee workforce in the United States. However, less than 35% of independently owned restaurants succeed beyond the first three years of operation. Some restaurant managers do not use innovation strategies to succeed beyond three years. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore innovation strategies that some independent nonfranchise restaurant owners in Omaha, Nebraska used to succeed beyond 3 years. The conceptual framework utilized in this study was dynamic capabilities. Dynamic capabilities create avenues of innovation to restaurant owners who do not have quick access to resources, such as an innovation team or a (R&D) department. The restaurant owners have to collaborate with their employees, suppliers, and consumers to be members of their innovation team to determine the innovation strategies needed to sustain competitive advantage as they apply to dynamic capabilities. Formal semistructured interviews were conducted with 4 independently owned nonfranchise restaurant owners. Triangulation linked the transcribed interviews with secondary and tertiary data to gather enough information to saturate the key themes discovered in the research described by the dynamic capabilities framework. Secondary data included atmospherics, service innovations, menus, social media, and websites. Tertiary data comprised newspaper and magazine articles. The 3 themes were marketing innovations, restaurant innovations, and innovation measurement. The implications for positive social change include the potential to boost the local community's economy by encouraging more independent nonfranchise restaurant owners to enter the market that may increase the employees' wellbeing, strengthen their family economics, and benefit the independently owned nonfranchise restaurant market in Omaha, Nebraska.

Increasing socio-technological complexity and ongoing environmental and social changes make it difficult to choose suitable approaches in today's innovation endeavors. Explorative and agile methods are increasingly used to reach out for disruptive innovations under uncertainty. However, feasibility of pioneering projects in business-critical contexts faces limitations in regulated branches. This doctoral thesis aims at contributing to service innovation research using a mixed-methods approach, being applied to several domains. Strategic Service Innovation (SSI) aspires to create novel digital service concepts ranging from radical technical innovations to business model pivoting.

Titel: Ökad innovationsledningsförmåga genom partnerskap i offentlig sektor.-En studie om hur partnerskapet LOFT kan stödja kommunledningar i deras utveckling mot ökadinnovationsförmåga och tillämpning av innovationsledning.Forskningsfrågor: F1. Hur fungerar innovationspedagogiken inom ramarna för LOFT?F2. Vilka eventuella möjligheter och utmaningar finns med att utöka partnerskapet LOFT för att ökainnovationsförmågan inom offentlig sektor i Sverige?Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka eventuella möjligheter och utmaningar med att användapartnerskapet LOFTs innovationspedagogik i samtliga 290 kommuner i Sverige, för att på så sätt kunnaåstadkomma innovationsförmåga och tillämpning av innovationsledning i Sveriges alla kommuner.Metod: Studiens riktning, forskningsfrågor och syfte har tagits fram genom samproduktion med studiensuppdragsgivare RISE. Med utgångspunkt i forskningsfrågorna antogs sedan en fallstudiedesign för attstudera partnerskapet LOFT. Den kvalitativa metoden föll sig således naturligt och en abduktiv ansats hartillämpats. Data har samlats in genom observationer, semistrukturerade intervjuer och reflekterandeprojektdagbok. Triangulering har tillämpats för att kontrollera resultat och därmed höja trovärdigheten förstudien och dess resultat.Slutsats: Innovationspedagogiken inom ramarna för LOFT utgår från partnerskapskommunerna och derasbehov. Innovationspedagogiken och partnerskapet utgör en struktur som ger kommuner möjlighet arbetalångsiktigt med innovationsledning. Innovationspedagogiken omfattar stödjande insatser, nätverk,kunskapshöjande insatser, kreativt klimat och bidrar till lärande i den egna organisationen.Innovationspedagogiken bygger även på en grundtanke om att skapa en psykologiskt tillåtande och tryggmiljö, där partnerskapskommunerna vågar testa, dela med sig av utmaningar tillsammans med andra ochdra lärdomar för att utvecklas.Innovationspedagogiken inom ramarna för LOFT utgör ett väl utvecklat koncept. Möjligheter att designaoch paketera detta koncept för att på så sätt tillgängliggöra det för flera kommuner har identifierats. Enutmaning som identifierats kopplat till uppskalning av partnerskapet är att det kommer ställas krav på attutöka det team som idag utgör ledningen av LOFT med fler personer för att kunna ha kvar den stödjandefunktionen och fortsätta leverera värde. Vid en uppskalning innebär det att en ny testbädd bör utvecklas iform av “LOFT 2.0”, där den successiva uppskalningen kommer kunna ske. Att ta fram läromedel skullekunna möjliggöra för att nå ut till fler kommuner samt få igång arbetet i den egna organisationen tidigare,då det inte ställer samma typ av krav på resurser från LOFT.Även en rad olika utmaningar har identifierats kopplat till uppskalningen. Hur bibehålls delarna av detrelationella och stödjande partnerskapet som finns idag? Pedagogiken tar idag sin utgångspunkt i denpsykologiskt tillåtande och trygga miljön, vilket är något som inte får gå förlorat. Även utmaningar kringden finansiella delen, både ur ett partnerskapskommun- och projektägarperspektiv. Också det egna arbetetpå hemmaplan, som ställer krav på kommunens vilja, driv och passion för förändring. En uppskalningkräver att samtliga kommuner besitter förmåga och vilja att implementera ett innovationsledningssystem.Stödet som LOFT ger respektive partnerskapskommun grundar sig i genomlysningar gjorda i den enskildakommunen. Ett omfattande arbete som kräver resurser om det ska kunna genomföras på samma sätt i ett större partnerskap. Något som bör undersökas vidare. Vilken typ av organisering kan stötta och bibehålladessa viktiga pusselbitar av innovationspedagogiken som LOFT utvecklat? / Title: Increased innovation management through partnerships in the public sector.-A study about how the partnership LOFT can support municipal management in their developmenttowards increased innovation capacity and application of innovation management.Research questions: RQ1. How does innovation pedagogy work within the framework of LOFT?RQ2. What possible opportunities and challenges are there in expanding the LOFT partnership to increaseinnovation capacity within the public sector in Sweden?Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate possible opportunities and challenges with using thepartnership LOFT's innovation pedagogy in all 290 municipalities in Sweden, in order to be able to achieveinnovation capacity and application of innovation management in all of Sweden's municipalities.Method: The study's direction, research questions and purpose have been developed through co-production with the study's client, RISE. Based on the research questions, a case study design was thenadopted to study the partnership LOFT. The qualitative method thus came naturally, and an abductiveapproach has been applied. Data has been collected through observations, semi-structured interviews, andreflective project diaries. Triangulation has been applied to check results and thereby increase thecredibility of the study and its results.Conclusion: The innovation pedagogy within the framework of LOFT is based on the partnershipmunicipalities and their needs. The innovation pedagogy and the partnership form a structure that givesmunicipalities the opportunity to work long-term with innovation management. The innovation pedagogyincludes supporting efforts, networks, knowledge-raising efforts, creative climate and contributes tolearning in the own organization. The innovation pedagogy is also based on a basic idea of creating apsychologically permissive and safe environment, where the partnership municipalities dare to test, sharechallenges together with others and learn lessons to develop.The innovation pedagogy within the framework of LOFT is a well-developed concept. Opportunities todesign and package this concept in order to make it available to several municipalities have beenidentified. A challenge identified in connection with scaling up the partnership is that there will bedemands to expand the team that currently makes up the management of LOFT with more people to retainthe supporting function and continue to deliver value. In the case of a scale-up, this means that a new testbed should be developed in the form of "LOFT 2.0", where the successive scale-up will be able to takeplace. Developing teaching materials could make it possible to reach out to more municipalities and getwork started in the own organization earlier, as it does not place the same type of demands on resourcesfrom LOFT.Several different challenges have also been identified linked to the scale-up. How are the elements of therelational and supportive partnership that exist today maintained? Pedagogy today takes its starting pointin the psychologically permissive and safe environment, which is something that must not be lost. Alsochallenges around the financial part, both from a partnership municipality and project owner perspective.Also, the own work at home, which places demands on the municipality's will, drive and passion forchange. Scaling up requires that all municipalities possess the ability and willingness to implement aninnovation management system. The support that LOFT provides to the respective partnership  municipality is based on reviews carried out in the individual municipality. Extensive work that requiresresources if it is to be carried out in the same way in a larger partnership. Something that should beinvestigated further. What type of organization can support and maintain these important puzzle pieces ofthe innovation pedagogy that LOFT developed?

Being innovative allows organizations to be part of the rapid competitive and environmental shifts and requires the development of knowledge as it builds the pathway of innovation. Since most companies find it troublesome to effectively utilize their existing knowledge towards innovations and literature lacks to offer solutions, this study aims to determine factors that contribute to an enhancement of the spiral of knowledge as well as to develop a concept that provides counselling for business and academia on how to overcome this issue. Therefore, this study contributes with new insights to the field of research in knowledge management and innovation management as well as to organizations with a concept on how to operationalize knowledge management towards innovation. Based on literature review on innovation management, knowledge management and organizational agility, a hypothesis was established that claimed that agile feedback loops at the spiral of knowledge would facilitate the utilization of knowledge management towards innovation. Expert interviews allowed the identification of factors that are relevant for tapping the potential of knowledge towards innovation. The analysis of their responses disclosed a common request to include feedback during the knowledge transformation but also revealed that design thinking and an innovative organizational culture are further relevant factors. Thus, the study postulates a concept that refines the spiral of knowledge to the ‘spiral of knowledge and innovation’, which extents the ‘spiral of knowledge’ with agile feedback loops, design thinking as well as an innovative organizational culture.

Due to constant disruption, companies need to embed innovation into their everyday activities in order to cope with competition and be successful. Corporate Entrepreneurship is playing an important role in fostering innovation and is needed to avoid disruption. However, companies have also different motives when handling CE as well as various ways of implementing it in the organization. This study investigated the motives of CE among large companies and the various implementation efforts. Therefore, the research question is: Which are the motives for CE? and the sub-question is: How does that lead to variation in CE implementation? The focus of the study was large companies which headquarter in Nordic countries and belong in different industries. Therefore, nine semi-structured interviews were performed and after, the data from the interviews were analyzed with thematic analysis. The results showed that the companies have different reasonings about their CE efforts and the CE implementation varied depending on the companies’ motives. However, these factors may not affect directly the organizational maturity. Therefore, companies can have their motives and support their CE efforts in different ways without influence negatively the maturity of the organization.

Globalization is spreading worldwide and it is coming together with its norms. These norms are not appreciated worldwide and there are many nations which have significant populations that are opposed to globalization and its norms. Mc Donald’s is a multinational corporation, it is entering and expanding into different markets as a result of globalization. Nevertheless, this should not indicate that it is an easy goal to spread worldwide for Mc Donald’s due to the anti-globalization movements. Hence, Mc Donald’s developed the concept of “think global, act local” which is highly related to glocalization marketing strategy. Mc Donald’s is using local assets, local services, local goods and even the company is producing special products for each country as a results of the glocalization marketing strategy. Turkey has a unique culture between the East and the West and it is one of the countries in which Mc Donald’s have significant growth in the last 15 years. Mc Donald’s has a specific menu for Turkey and there are many products which are actually glocalized. As a matter of fact, this work focuses on the glocalization marketing strategy of Mc Donald’s in Turkey.

Managing innovations is a well studied success factor for companies and organizations. This research focuses on the recently established Lean Startup Methodology (LSM) and the obstacles of implementing it in early- and later-stage business-to-business (B2B) Software as as Service (SaaS) startups. The scarcity of academic research around this framework, in contrast to its popularity, motivated the researchers’ aim to provide a better understanding on how it could be adapted to better fit the needs of these companies.Following an interpretivist paradigm, this qualitative research uses a literature review and semi-structured interviews for its purposes. Interviews were conducted with six individuals at four different early- and late-stage startups. The focus was on understanding the realities of working with innovation management and the different approaches at early and later stage startups. Startups face an abundance of ideas regarding what to do next, a hypothesis confirmed with this study. It is the researchers’ belief that the LSM does not provide sufficient tools for organizations to make an idea selection decision without committing too many resources initially. Lastly, the importance of product ownership for an effective innovation management process was validated.In conclusion, we present the need for an updated Lean Startup Methodology with a dedicated selection step to validate an idea early in the process. This contributes to the theory of innovation management and its practical implementation. The identified gap in academic research around frameworks tailored towards these types of organizations provides a good starting point for future research.

This publication-based dissertation, comprising four unique research papers published in peer-reviewed journals, contributes to innovation management theory and explores how organizations can maximize the value of innovations in the new digital normal. It draws insights from 31 cases, 86 semi-structured interviews, and 804 survey participants (excluding pilot studies), employing a diverse range of qualita-tive and quantitative methodologies. The dissertation investigates how organizations can create and cap-ture value from innovations, focusing on contingent and contextual dimensions, capabilities, and leader-ship styles. As a result, it makes four key theoretical contributions. First, it proposes that innovation performance is equifinal but contingent on the configurational approach for each organization (e.g., combinatorial recipe). Alignment between innovation approaches and performance strategies is essen-tial to gain a competitive advantage. Second, it underscores the vital role of middle managers as the crucial link between top management and employees. This middle-up-down management approach combines distinct leadership and communication capabilities to integrate innovations (e.g., innovative work behaviors, digital technologies) into daily working routines, thus facilitating innovation routiniza-tion (e.g., effective innovation implementation). Third, organizations that possess adequate higher-order business model and process efficiency dynamic capabilities evaluate various dimensions (e.g., value, individual, technological, organizational) in their internal and external contextual periphery to deter-mine their action potential. This enables them to assess, reconfigure, and integrate value creation oppor-tunities into their operational capabilities (e.g., business model, processes), leading to improved per-formance when digitally transforming. Fourth, this dissertation conceptualizes the multidimensional (e.g., individual, team, organizational) digital leadership phenomenon, grounding it in the domain of (strategic) leadership theories. Digital leaders constantly oscillate between leading themselves and oth-ers and leading their organizations to create innovative work environments that foster performance. The combined findings of the dissertation call for novel market approaches and adjusted forms of leadership for organizations to thrive in the new digital business landscape. Avenues for further research to enrich the current academic discourse are also presented. If organizations are to enhance their performance (e.g., increase the likelihood of capturing value from their innovations, or deriving a competitive ad-vantage), understanding the underlying mechanisms outlined in this dissertation should help organiza-tions in this endeavor.