In this thesis I show how various theories and methodologies borrowed from complexity science, organisation science, and network science can be suitably integrated to provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to the study of innovation processes. I study the network foundations of success in innovation ecosystems and I conduct several empirical investigations to identify those network characteristics that are expected to correlate with positive outcomes and success. I assess the extent to which the diversity and the strength in the networks of relationships boost the performance and success of scientists and early-stage firms. To this end I analyse two large-scale data sets about scientific publishing and start-up firms by making use of already existing topological network measures and by proposing novel measures to characterise the degree of interdisciplinarity and access to diverse pools of knowledge in scientific collaborations. Results provide empirical support to the idea that collaboration sustains innovation and performance by facilitating knowledge diffusion, acquisition and creation. First, results indicate that the networks of interaction between start-ups have a strong impact on the firms' longterm success. Second I find that, while abandoning specialisation in favour of moderate degrees of interdisciplinarity deteriorates scientific performance, very interdisciplinary scientists tend to outperform specialised ones. Additionally, I address the computational challenges related to the size of the data sets used and their time-varying nature. In particular I focus on the scalability challenges of incremental graph algorithms. The thesis contributes in this direction by proposing new efficient algorithms and data structures to handle and to analyse large graphs whose nodes and edges change rapidly over time. These efforts have been collected and made available to the public in the form of a web platform (http://lab.startup-network.org/) and an open-source python package, NetworkL (https://networkl.github.io/).

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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.

Background: Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) are the main contributors of innovation. However, there are challenges that organizations face even if they foster innovation. These constraints are often external or internal and dependent on organizations resources and capabilities. It is often based on financial limits, the market, technology, human resources, skilled labor and information being limited. Even though there is research available about these factors separately, there is limited understanding of their influences on innovation ventures. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand what hinders companies in their innovation processes and if there are influencing reasons that forces Small and Medium Enterprises to give up on their innovation ventures. Methodology: This study is qualitative and took an inductive exploratory approach where the data was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Six SMEs were interviewed based on a convenience judgmental sample and analyzed through the use of content analysis.  Conclusion: This study concludes that, management, finance, marketing and shortcomings are the main influences that can hinder innovation processes but also lead SMEs to give up on innovation ventures as well.

Today, new technologies are introduced to the market every day, and constantly changing our way of living. Especially in the healthcare sector, the change process is approaching a point where doctors can benefit from the use of, for example, connected portable reading devices instead of paper-based medical record systems. The information and communication technology is promoting the evolution of a new pathway of care delivery, a paradigm shift that alters the fundamental relationship between a doctor and its patient. The concept is defined as telehealth and formulates the provision of care at a distance and provides the possibility to treat patients in their home environment instead of at the hospital. This master’s thesis has been performed on the request of Cenvigo AB, a company active in the implementation of new IT-solutions into the healthcare and eldercare. Cenvigo AB are the owners of the Parkinson’s Digital Assessment (PANDA) application. The application has been developed through research at Dalarna University and Uppsala University Hospital.  This project will initiate the launch of PANDA and also create a model for implementation of innovative IT-solutions into the healthcare systems. The model is founded in a theoretical framework and shaped with interviews related to the implementation of technology with a focus on telehealth applications. Interviews has been performed with healthcare professionals, technology developers and users to acquire a complete picture and opinions regarding the introduction of innovation in healthcare today. From the acquired information, a model is formulated as a stepwise and chronological linear process were identified key activities are included to promote a successful implementation process. The model is connected to the practice through the implementation of PANDA. In the process of implementing PANDA into the Swedish healthcare system, a collaboration with the innovation centre at Uppsala University Hospital as a healthcare organization stakeholder, has been initiated. The model consists of five phases; Assessment, Dissemination, Adoption, Implementation and Continuation. The phases are seen as transitional steps in the innovation process, critical barriers to overcome towards a successfully implementation in a mainstream routine setting. Each phase includes a number of activities and to achieve progression in each phase, these activities must be performed in order to advance to the next phase. In the case of PANDA, the process of progression has passed assessment and are currently involved in activities related to the dissemination phase. The purpose of the model is to be used both for existing and future applications in the segment of medicine technology sector. The structure of the model is designed to promote a co-design or a common value principle of development and practice regarding an innovation. By connecting actors from both technology and healthcare in close relationships the actual needs of healthcare professionals could more effectively be identified and developed into a solution, a result from the amplification of a two-way engagement. The outmost aim is to serve as a catalysing factor, complementing the implementation models of healthcare in Sweden today. Through this study, a need for facilitating the implementation process of new technology into the healthcare systems has been identified. This model offers the necessary input that many technology companies lack. The recommendation to Cenvigo AB is to continue to develop the model during the last step in the process of launching PANDA, and parallel use this model as a business model mainly for technology start-ups and larger foreign companies that has not yet established pathways into the Swedish healthcare system. / <p>TVE 14 036</p>

The ‘localist turn’ in technology studies, exemplified by Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), emphasises the agency of actors in innovation processes while, arguably, neglecting structural influences. They provide rather little guidance regarding methodological choices apart from encouraging rich description and offer only limited capacity to explain the dynamics of technological change. This thesis addresses the need to articulate a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the contextually-shaped, often highly contingent processes of technological innovation. For this purpose a single, in-depth longitudinal case study was conducted of the development, implementation and use of a strategic information system - a strategic network planning tool - in a German car company. It was analysed applying a biographical perspective which argues for extended analytical foci across multiple sites, moments and time frames in technology studies to account for the complexities and uncertainties inherent in technological change processes. A mixed repository of historical and ethnographic data has been collected, drawing on public and internal corporate documents as well as 44 interviews and extended periods of participant observation at multiple sites. The data was coded and analysed aided by simultaneously building an extensive data-rich timeline of the innovation journey. As a result, our empirically detailed focus on a twelve-year period is contextualised by a historical narrative considering corporate historical developments over three decades. An ecology metaphor is articulated to appreciate multiple episodes and moments of innovation dispersed in space and time - a view neglected by common metaphors of systems and networks. The metaphor underpins a loose framework, tentatively entitled the Ecological Shaping of Technology, that draws on concepts from science and technology studies and cognate discussions in the sociology of professions to engage with the intricacies of space and scales of time in studying the ‘Biographies of Artefacts and Practices’ (Pollock and Williams, 2009; Hyysalo, 2010). The framework pursues a dynamic, longitudinal understanding of the evolution of a protracted technology development project which went through significant changes in conception and in the players involved and their configuration. This is conceptualised in terms of the development of a ‘kernel’ (Ribes & Polk, 2015) of resources and services managed by, and made available to, an alliance of players. While alliances can shift, the kernel persists and evolves over time as players try to attract more resources by entering into negotiations in promising ‘arenas of expectation’ (Bakker et al., 2011) or navigating around those that are less amenable. Technology is portrayed as an element of a package of instrumentalities (de Solla Price, 1983) comprising theories, methods and instruments that are spread across a wider ecology of distributed boundary objects (Star & Griesemer, 1989). Technologies crystallise from efforts of adopting, testing and developing packages to solve specific problems (Fujimura, 1995). A specific technology is co-developed, according to the set of local constrains and specifications delineated by a kernel's alliance of ecologies. These are understood in terms of Abbott’s (2005) conception of linked ecologies. The historically shaped and contingent ecological topography of an innovation project is highlighted as a major influence in the social shaping of technological artefacts.

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.

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.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how middle managers attempt to enhance internal innovation processes with digital usages. To do so, this research aims to open up an internal innovation process improvement ‘black box’ by looking not only at issues related to digital delivery but also at elements related to innovation culture and leadership. Design/method/approach To fulfill this purpose, this qualitative research develops a case study employing the lenses of middle managers to generate empirical data based on an interpretative approach and an in-depth semi-structured interview methodology. Findings Middle managers' attempt to enhance internal innovation processes with digital usages involves major elements related to influencing people’s mindset, motivating and embracing ideation, as well as collaboration across units leveraged by digital usages. Nonetheless, the core element of the attempt stands for the ability to root the digital tool usages not only at the individual or team level but also at the innovation process level. Contributions This study mainly contributes to theory extension by putting the individual at the heart of the organization's innovativeness culture and enlightening the leadership role of middle managers to influence innovative behaviors to embrace digital tools in the line of the organization’s strategy with major demands for change management. Originality/value By integrating the perspective of middle managers to the conceptual, this case study brings an additional piece to the puzzle of how digital tools nurture the internal innovation processes.

The purpose of this study is to identify how and why market-oriented big data is integrated and used in the early stages of radical innovation processes. The study was conducted as an inductive case study of exploratory character in which the case company was chosen based on its work with radical innovations and big data. The data collection was conducted in the form of 26 interviews with integrators and users of market-oriented big data. Concepts, themes and nine aggregated dimensions where developed through this study which describes how and why market-oriented big data is integrated and used in early stages of radical innovation processes. The study's results show that market-oriented big data can be used to; create market insights, create market needs, problem development, problem evaluation, idea development and finally idea evaluation. Integration of market-oriented big data has been identified by three dimensions; flowing integration, collecting integration and mapping integration. Finally, a framework was developed to support the implementation of market-oriented big data in radical innovation processes. The framework shows what market-oriented big data can be used for, how it can be integrated, and concretizes the reasons for integration and use being implemented in these phases. / Syfte med denna studie är att identifiera hur och varför marknadsorienterad big data integreras och användas i tidiga faser av radikala innovationsprocesser. Studien har genomförts som en induktiv fall-studie av explorativ karaktär där fallföretag valts utifrån dess arbete med radikala innovationer och big data. Datainsamlingen genomfördes i form av 26 intervjuer med såväl integrerare som användare av marknadsorienterad big data. Utifrån dessa intervjuer utvecklades koncept, teman och nio aggregerade dimensioner som beskriver hur och varför marknadsorienterad big data integreras och används i tidiga faser av radikala innovationsprocesser. Studiens resultat visar att marknadsorienterad big data kan användas för att; skapa marknadsinsikt, skapa marknadsbehov, problemutveckling, problemutvärdering, idéutveckling och slutligen idéutvärdering. Integrering av marknadsorienterad big data har identifierats ske genom tre dimensioner; strömmande integrering, samlande integrering och mappande integrering. Slutligen har ett ramverk utvecklats med syfte att stödja implementering av marknadsorienterad big data i radikala innovationsprocesser. Ramverket visar på vad marknadsorienterade big data kan användas till, hur det kan integreras samt konkretiserar orsakerna till att integrering och användning genomförs i dessa faser.