Using modeling and computer simulation, this research focuses on studying two different views to organizational design and their implications for performance in the context of academic institutions. One view represents the manifest structure that includes resources (students, faculty, administration, facilities, finances, partners, donors, etc.); the other view represents the latent structure that focuses on dissent. The dissertation addresses the following two questions; 1. What are the tangible dynamic interdependencies constituting the manifest structure within academic institutions and their impact on performance? 2. What is the impact of the latent structures composed of intangible organizational processes, especially dissent, on performance? The dissertation proposes generic system dynamics simulation models untangling the complexity of the topic by tackling various slices of the problem in separate papers. The models are based on three different theoretical frameworks addressing resources and their composition, dissent, and stakeholder engagement. It is observed that while both the manifest and the latent parts of the university organization impact its performance, the latent part, being invisible, is often ignored. In the long run, the influence of the latent part of the organization can slowly but seriously compromise intangible performances components like quality, reputation, and attractiveness. When the manifest part of the organization is dysfunctional, its tangible performance rapidly suffers. The damage control policies will often impact the latent organizational performance leading the institution into a vicious cycle. The presence of time delays in this framework may create an oscillatory behavior that might modulate a growth or decline trend. Performance measures addressing intangible performance components must be factored into the organizational design since faculty, students, and other stakeholders are not only driven by financial rewards, but also by the organizational environment. The research, besides addressing the important question of the role of latent elements in organization design and demonstrating this can be done using system dynamics modeling and computer simulation, should also be of value to the design and management of higher education institutions.

Insbesondere für kleine und mittlere Softwareunternehmen stellen die Erhöhung der eigenen Innovationskraft und -geschwindigkeit entscheidende Überlebensfragen dar. Der heute als hierfür wichtig hervorgehobene Ansatz der „Open Innovation“ hat sich in der Softwareentwicklungsbrache bislang jedoch kaum durchgesetzt, obwohl den Kunden bzw. Anwendern von Softwareprodukten wegen ihres im Umgang mit den Softwareprodukten gewonnenen Erfahrungswissens ein großes Innovationspotenzial nachgesagt werden kann. Die Durchführung von Ideenwettbewerben stellt in diesem Zusammenhang eine leicht adaptierbare und kostengünstige Methode der Kundenintegration dar. Ziel dieses Beitrages ist, IT-gestützte Ideenwettbewerbe als ein vielversprechendes theoretisches Konzept zur Integration von Kunden in das Innovationsmanagement von Softwareunternehmen vorzustellen.

Die Nutzbarmachung des in den Köpfen von Mitarbeitern und Kunden schlummernden, disruptiven Ideenpotenzials stellt Unternehmen weiterhin vor eine große Herausforderung. Der Ansatz des Idea Mirrors verfolgt in diesem Zusammenhang das Ziel, die Möglichkeiten großer Wandbildschirme zu nutzen, um das kreative Ideenpotenzial von Unternehmen insbesondere in den frühen Phasen des Innovationsprozesses besser sichtbar zu machen und so die Motivation zur Ideengenerierung, zur kommunikativen Ideenvernetzung und zur späteren gemeinschaftlichen Ideennutzung zu fördern. Die Einbettung der Benutzungsschnittstelle in den normalen Geschäftsalltag an halböffentlichen Orten wie Empfangshallen, Cafeterien oder in Gruppenräumen soll die Hemmschwelle zur Interaktion herabsetzen und gleichzeitig die Wahrnehmung der dargestellten Inhalte durch eine breite Nutzerbasis garantieren.

Open Innovation bezeichnet Innovationsprozesse, die nicht an den Grenzen von Unternehmen oder deren Innovationsabteilungen enden, sondern Akteure unabhängig von deren institutioneller Zugehörigkeit als Ideengeber, Konzeptentwickler oder auch Innovationsumsetzer in die Gestaltung von Innovationen einbinden. Dieser Beitrag skizziert Grundlagen der Open Innovation, stellt die einzubindenden Akteure und ihre Rollen im Innovationsgeschehen vor und führt ein in die fünf zentralen Werkzeugklassen, auf die Unternehmen zur Implementierung von Open Innovation heute zurückgreifen können. Herausforderungen und Spannungsfelder, die sich bei der Nutzung von Open Innovation zeigen, werden abschließend aufgezeigt.

Basierend auf den Erfahrungen der Mitarbeiter der confuture Innovationssysteme GmbH auf den Gebieten der Entwicklung von internetbasierten Anwendungssystemen und Groupware-Anwendungen sowie den Mitarbeitern des Instituts für Wirtschaftsinformatik der Universität Leipzig (IWi) bei der Entwicklung, Einführung und Betrieb von e-Learning-Systemen im Projekt „Winfoline“ wurde im Jahre 2003 der Prototyp eines modularen, frei konfigurierbaren e-Learning Systems entwickelt.

Purpose - Innovation management as a profession is gaining importance. Personal certification within the field has become a newly developing trend, however, this aspect has not been studied much. Therefore, our master thesis explores the individual level motivations and de-motivation to enter the professional certification within innovation management. In addition, the work aimed at identifying the perceived effects of having an innovation management professional certification on individuals and organizations. Finally, our master thesis discusses whether professionalization and IMP certification can contribute to innovation capabilities and innovation performance.   Design/methodology - The study uses a comparative research design that includes semi-structured interviews of eighteen innovation management professionals (12 certified and 6 non-certified). The responses of the innovation professionals were thematically analyzed and categorized into nine final themes answering the research questions. Findings/result -Several motivations were identified, out of which the frequent were personal interest, knowledge enhancement, quality mark and innovation management terminology, the motivators to take up certification. While indifference, in-house certification and aversion for standardization are found to be strong de-motivators to not take up the certifications. After identifying the motivations, the perceived effects from taking up certification on an individual level are confirmation of knowledge, network expansion and pioneers in certification, and assignment of new tasks, effective communication was spotted as the perceived effects to the organization. It is however too early to arrive at a consensus whether professionalization and innovation management certification contributes to innovation capabilities and innovation performance. Conclusion - The certification process as a whole is considered as an attempt in terms of professionalizing the field of innovation management that showed some potential benefits as well as contradictions. It might take a few years more for innovation management to fully blossom into a developed profession through certifications. Limitations - If the professionalization of innovation management was more mature, providing an established theoretical framework and concept testing would have been beneficial to include in our study.

Sharing economy businesses have increasingly began to inhibit the competitive landscape of many different industries. Their growth can be primary connected to general digitalization developments. At its core, the sharing economy concept is built around efficiently using excess resources. In this thesis, it is argued that sharing economy businesses should be considered disruptive innovations, partly because they present incumbent firms with significant challenges. While the sharing economy business concept facilitates effective peer-to-peer exchange, and in the process provides new possibilities of employment, customer-centric innovation and market development, it can also be tied to a decreasing demand for goods and services offered by incumbents in the same marketplace. Examples of businesses built around the sharing economy concept include – but are not limited to – Airbnb, Vrbo, Uber, Lyft, Zilok, and Hygglo. Prior to the beginning of this research project, very little research regarding potential strategic countermeasures for incumbent firms to employ against sharing economy competitors had been conducted. As a result, this thesis serves the purpose of investigating the impact of sharing economy businesses from the perspective of incumbents and theorizing about potential responses. In order to facilitate this purpose, the hospitality industry was chosen as a representative of an industry that has experienced sharing economy business entrances and sharing economy business competition to a researchable extent. Through this thesis and its accompanying qualitative data collection process, several challenges that are presented to incumbents as a result of sharing economy business entrances were identified. Additionally, a focus was placed on evaluating both tried and prospective strategic measures, using existing theory and insights from the data collection to discover the key aspects needed for the development of potential responses to sharing economy businesses. A similar process was undertaken regarding business models, as the crucial and core elements of a perceived successful business model needed to be identified. The findings generated by the data collection process were then analyzed using a thematic analysis, centered on the themes of: Strategic Management in the Hospitality Industry; Current Trends in the Hospitality Sector; Fundamentals of a Successful Hotel Business; and Future Strategy Suggestions and Industry Prospects. After conducting the three identification and analyzation stages, the findings were discussed in the penultimate chapter of the thesis, where the findings’ relation to existing theory was explored. Following the discussion, the possibility to answer the main research question of this thesis appeared. After discussing our findings, our analysis, and the connection to existing theory, we were able to conclude that incumbent firms can successfully compete with sharing economy businesses. Specifically, they could ensure this through strategic changes and business model innovations built around efficiently exploiting the incumbents’ internal strengths and advantages that are currently not easily imitable by sharing economy businesses. As such, they should look to create, deliver, and communicate unique value to its customers, and suggestions on how this could be achieved by both incumbent hospitality managers and others are provided.

Innovation is one of the most important elements concerning higher performance in company efficiency. This methodical definition takes a look at the main benefits of on innovation on efficiency and hence on the efficiency and performance on the company as a whole, presenting the possibility of measurement of innovation efficiency and establishing defined methods for its improvement exploiting the development of innovation potential This particular issue is topical not only by reason of competitiveness of our companies but also maintaining share market and surviving the current economic crisis. Well managed and successfully introduced innovation into the market represents the tool for the companies, by means of which they can reach competitive advantages, enabling their prosperity in this slump. Every company has a certain innovation potential which should be explored, supported, utilized and systematically developed. The doctoral thesis focuses on the achievement of two basic goals, the cognitional and the inventive goal as well as confirmation or disconfirmation of set hypothesis. The first cognitional goal analyzes the present situation of solved questions, where current opinions and theories of our local and foreign experts are presented concerning innovation and company development. Basic definitions dealing with solved problems are described here as well. Various factors of innovation performance development are being carried out with the help of secondary and finally also primary research in Czech companies. The second related inventive goal is focused on design of methodical approach of increasing innovation performance that can be used in Czech companies. Contributions of the academic dissertation for theory and its contribution for corporation development and managerial practice are emphasized in the end part thesis.

This master thesis aims to enhance the understanding of innovation processes at the early stages of development and grant praxeological perspective on exploratory projects. Firstly, it provides a bibliographic overview of the previously conducted research within the Innovation Studies field. It discusses innovation systems, institutions and networks, examines the linkage between innovation and knowledge and defines the specificities of the Natural Resource-Based Industries, which constitutes the context of the present study. Then, an analysis on the most popular, within academia and industry, innovation tracking methodologies, their strengths and weaknesses is carried out. The output seeks to contribute with knowledge and assess the available systems. The thesis is anchored in an embedded case study at an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of heavy machinery for NRBIs and aims to identify the company’s challenges and activities in relation to innovation, as well as possible correlation between them. For this purpose, the research bridges theoretical models on exploratory projects, ambidexterity, Design Thinking (DT) and conceptualization of entrepreneurial management. Findings show that (i) Stevenson’s model of conceptualization of Entrepreneurial Management can be adapted and applied effectively to Innovation Management, (ii) the relationship between exploratory and New Product Development (NPD) projects is more of a parallel, interdependent and overlapping nature rather than linear and sequential and (iii) there is a linkage between the identified challenges and activities. The latter shall (a) serve as a starting point for scholars to carry out further research in the field of Innovation Studies and (b) navigate practitioners through tracking and accelerating innovation at the early stages of development. / Denna masteruppsats syftar till att förbättra för innovationsprocesser i de tidiga utvecklingsstadierna och ge en praxeologisk synvinkel på utforskande projekt. Först ges en bibliografisk översikt över tidigare forskning inom innovationsstudier. Den diskuterar innovationsystem, institutioner och nätverk, undersöker kopplingen mellan innovation och kunskap och definierar särdragen för naturresursbaserade industrier, vilket utgör kontexten för den aktuella studien. Därefter genomförs en analys av de mest populära innovationsuppföljningsmetoderna inom både akademi och industri, deras styrkor och svagheter. Resultatet syftar till att bidra med kunskap och utvärdera tillgängliga system. Uppsatsen är förankrad i en ingående fallstudie hos en originalutrustningstillverkare (OEM) av tunga maskiner för naturresursbaserade industrier och syftar till att identifiera företagets utmaningar och aktiviteter i relation till innovation, samt eventuella samband mellan dem. För detta ändamål kopplar forskningen samman teoretiska modeller om utforskande projekt, ambidextri, Design Thinking (DT) och konceptualisering av entreprenöriellt ledarskap. Resultaten visar att (i) Stevensons modell för konceptualisering av entreprenöriellt ledarskap kan anpassas och tillämpas effektivt på innovationsledning, (ii) relationen mellan utforskande projekt och utveckling av nya produkter (NPD) är mer av en parallell, ömsesidigt beroende och överlappande karaktär snarare än linjär och sekventiell, och (iii) det finns ett samband mellan de identifierade utmaningarna och aktiviteterna. Det senare ska (a) utgöra en utgångspunkt för forskare att genomföra ytterligare forskning inom innovationsstudier och (b) hjälpa praktiker att följa och påskynda innovation i de tidiga utvecklingsstadierna.

[pt] O objetivo desta dissertação é propor e aplicar um modelo conceitual para monitorar e avaliar projetos de pesquisa, desenvolvimento e inovação (PDeI) de novos produtos e sistemas complexos (CoPS), mediante o emprego de uma abordagem metodológica, que integra a escala Technology Readiness Level (TRL) à ferramenta Stage-Gate e emprega dois métodos multicritério de apoio à decisão. A metodologia compreende: (i) pesquisa bibliográfica e documental sobre os temas centrais da pesquisa; (ii) construção do modelo conceitual de monitoramento e avaliação (MA) de projetos de PD(e)I de CoPS de defesa, baseado na ferramenta Stage-Gate e na escala TRL; (iii) emprego do método Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) em dois momentos, sendo o primeiro para definir os pesos dos critérios para validação da qualidade dos indicadores de desempenho referentes a projetos de PD(e)I e o segundo para atribuir pesos aos critérios de avaliação dos referidos projetos no portões de decisão (gates); (iv) emprego do método TOPSIS para validação da qualidade dos indicadores de desempenho; e (v) aplicação do modelo proposto, tendo como foco um projeto de PD(e)I de CoPS em andamento no Centro Tecnológico do Exército (CTEx), visando evidenciar seu potencial de replicabilidade para os demais projetos de PD(e)I de CoPS daquele Centro. Destaca-se como resultado principal um modelo inovador de monitoramento e avaliação de projetos de PD(e)I de CoPS de defesa, que poderá ser aplicado no CTEx e em outras instituições de CT(e)I, que buscam a excelência em gestão da inovação, particularmente quando enfrentam os desafios do desenvolvimento de PD(e)I de CoPS. Os resultados do estudo empírico conduzido neste contexto organizacional mostraram que é possível empregar, de forma integrada e efetiva, a ferramenta Stage-Gate e a escala TRL para monitorar e avaliar projetos de PD(e)I de CoPS de defesa ao longo de seu desenvolvimento. / [en] The objective of this dissertation is to propose and apply a conceptual model for monitoring and evaluating research, development, and innovation (RDandI) projects of new complex products and systems (CoPS), using a methodological approach that integrates the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale with the Stage-Gate tool and employs two multicriteria decision support methods. The methodology comprises: (i) bibliographic and documentary research on the central themes of the research; (ii) development of the conceptual model for monitoring and evaluation RD(and)I projects of CoPS for the defense area, based on the Stage-Gate tool and the TRL scale; (iii) use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in two moments, the first to define the weights of the criteria for validation of the quality of performance indicators related to RD(and)I projects; and the second to assign weights to the evaluation criteria for the mentioned projects at decision gates; (iv) use of the TOPSIS method to validate the quality of the performance indicators; and (v) application of the proposed model, focusing on an RD(and)I project underway at the Army Technological Center (CTEx), aiming to show its potential for replicability to other RD(and)I projects of CoPS at that Center. The main result is an innovative model for monitoring and evaluating RD(and)I projects of CoPS for the defense area, which can be applied at CTEx and other Science and Technology Institutions seeking excellence in innovation management, particularly when facing the challenges of CoPS development. The results of the empirical study conducted in this organizational context showed that it is possible to use the Stage-Gate tool and the TRL scale in an integrated and effective manner to monitor and evaluate RD(and)I projects of CoPS for the defense area throughout their development.