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.

This project investigates shaping the design practice of a trans-disciplinary creative agency through engagement with research and prototyping. The intention has been to identify and test prototyping processes that permit the generation of novel technological and design solutions that are then recognised as valuable to the project clients. The project research explores a central question in the prototyping of new design solutions. That of who is given access to the prototyping processes and how this affects the efficacy and relevance of the processes and the acceptance of the results. The project research describes three successive modes of engaging complex client bodies in innovative designs encompassing customer service in new spatial configurations. The first mode takes client representations at face value, the second engages the wider client in workshops, and the third involves the wider client in the inclusive design of full-scale prototypes. The findings su ggest that the tangible outcomes of a prototyping process can act as uniquely valuable bridges for introducing and testing new design solutions for clients. These processes help reduce the perceived risk of innovation and promote conversation and dialogue among the diverse and often non-aligned project participants. The project describes ways in which this setting up of the prototyping processes can also contribute significantly to the nature and value of the design outcomes. The prototyping process can begin to act as an idea generator and catalyst. The processes can focus all those involved in contemplating the value of innovation rather than the expressing of concern over the risks involved in addressing change.

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<p>In order to investigate Haier's successful internationalprocess in the international market and to find out how Haier be internationalized intoa large multinational enterprise with its value of innovation, which facilitates thegrowth of Haier Group, the main purpose of the research is to explore how innovationwithin the organization supports the internationalization process of Haier Group.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title Cashews by SMS – an implementation in Mozambique</p><p>Problem</p><p>Innovation is described by Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt (2005) as the core</p><p>process within organisations associated with renewal and as generic</p><p>activity associated with survival and growth. Yet many organisations</p><p>fail to realise the benefits of adopting an innovation. Which the theory will show this is most likely due to a problem with one certain phase in the innovation process: the implementation.</p><p>Purpose</p><p>The purpose with this academic paper is by a practical example</p><p>illustrate the risks and problems one can come across in an</p><p>implementation and the consequences of this. We also intend to give</p><p>suggestion on how it is possible to restart an implementation process</p><p>when the process once has failed.</p><p>Research questions</p><p>Why has marketAlerts failed to be implemented in Mozambique?</p><p>How should IPEX resume the implementation of marketAlerts?</p><p>Methodology</p><p>Ethnographical approach.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Our conclusion is that the Institute for Export Promotion (IPEX) has</p><p>managed to adopt marketAlerts but has failed to implement it in their</p><p>daily work mainly due to the fact that they only completed the</p><p>acquiring phase. The failure is due to a combination of hierarchy, lack of interest and absents of routines for sending marketAlerts. In order for IPEX to make the best use of marketAlerts we believe that they have to go back and start from the executing phase and implement the service once again.</p>

<p>Ledningsgrupper har mycket att vinna på att etablera ett breddat tänkande i olika frågor. Det kan skapas med enkla medel som förbättrad kommunikation, delgivande av kunskap, andra rubriker för möten, där en annan förväntan skapas och ett ökat fokus uppnås.I resultatet från empirin påtalas dessa faktorer som en förbättringspotential inom det aktuella företaget.Idégenereringsprinciper är användbara och stimulerar till fler perspektiv i diskussioner samtidigt som fler individer involveras.Ju fler idéer som genereras, desto större möjlighet att finna bra idéer. Empirin påvisar ett exempel där en ny affärsmöjlighet genereras genom en ny form av arbetssätt inom ledningsgruppen.Således kan slutsatsen dras att breddat tänkande bör uppmuntrasoch tränas av alla medlemmar i gruppen. Kommunikation och interagerande är centrala begrepp inom innovations-och kreativitetsaspekten och bör i hög grad beaktas av organisationer.</p>

<p>Culture has covered several areas which related to human beings’ life, it was manifested in process of doing, value judge, communication manners, education issues, historical events, economic situation and so on in communities. So, the culture would impact the operation ways of a corporation. Through the prevalent theory of Hofstede’s culture division, we understood that Chinese culture has its characteristics which could be portrayed as long power distance, collectivism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation. The Chinese enterprise has long been the epitome of the massive collective, where employees usually treated their organization as their family. Additionally, these large organizations and government related enterprises had a multitude of standardized procedures and regulations, numerous managerial levels, and promotions based on knowledge of and obedience to these procedures and policies, exemplifying the hierarchy culture (A.Ralson, Jane, H. Terpstra, Wang, C.Egri, 2006). And this study, we will review some literatures at first sector and get comprehensive insight of Chinese corporate culture, and discuss the relationship between corporate culture and innovation capability through interview with some corporations’ leaders in second sector. Through this work, we are trying to provide some successful experiences to Chinese corporations.</p> / <p>文化反映在人类生活中的很多方面，诸如做事情方式，沟通的礼节，教育，历史事件，经济状况等等方面。在很大方面，一个国家的文化会影响到企业的经营方式。通过当前比较流行的霍夫特德的文化区分理论，我们了解到中国的文化特点体现为比较长的权利距离，集体主义倾向，更男性化，强调风险规避以及考虑长期目标。因此，中国的企业也长期处在中国文化的影响中，表现起来就是中国的企业更强调集体文化，以及把企业当作家的思想。企业中存在许多的规章制度以及等级观念，员工的晋升与个人的成就和服从相关联。通过这篇文章，我们在一系列文献整理的基础上，更好的了解中国文化和中国企业文化，并进而讨论文化与创新之间的联系。并且最后我们将举出一些取得成功的中国本土企业的例子，并探讨他们成功的经验。</p>

<p>Väl fungerande undervisning med IT-stöd ger bättre resultat och betygssnitt samt höjer elevers motivation och engagemang. Glosboken är ett av flera CALL-verktyg som används för glosinlärning med hjälp av spel och övningar.Syftet är att identifiera faktorer som bidrar till att elever väljer att adoptera CALL-verktyget Glosboken, samt att bedöma hur dessa faktorer påverkar adoptionsgraden. Bedömningen görs utifrån Rogers (2003) variabler vilka avgör graden av adoption; <em>relativa fördelar</em>, <em>kompatibilitet</em>, <em>komplexitet,</em> <em>testmöjlighet</em> samt<em> observabilitet</em>.En kvalitativ undersökning utfördes, ett kriterieurval bestående av språkelever i årskurs 8 användes för djupgående intervjuer. Resultatet visar att fördelar med CALL-verktyget är att det är enkelt, smidigt och roligt. Ett nytt sätt för glosträning, vilket dock inte upplevs som en betungande förändring.  CALL- verktyget uppfattas som lätt att använda. Testmöjligheten i skolan begränsades av brist på lediga datorer. Hemma är testmöjligheten bättre. Uppfattningen kring CALL-verktyget skapades under lektionen men påverkades även av kompisars positiva kommentarer.Dessa resultat visar att CALL-verktyget har stora relativa fördelar, hög kompatibilitet, goda testmöjligheter och stor observabilitet, i förhållande till låg komplexitet, vilket innebär att Glosboken har en hög grad av adoption hos den undersökta elevgruppen.</p>

Syftet med denna licentiatavhandling är att undersöka samspelet mellan organisation, omvärldssignaler och innovationsförmåga, samt illustrera detta samspel i en sammanfattande modell. Modellbygget följer omvärldssignalens väg genom organisationen, från vilka signaler som uppmärksammas, över hur organisationen skapar mening kring signalerna, till hur tolkning, strategi och beslut kring omvärldssignalen hanteras. Det finns också koppling till innovation och innovationsförmåga. Lite vid sidan i modellen finns "Det oväntade", som med hänvisning till Dewey, är en påminnelse om det riskabla att försöka fånga omvärlden i en modell. Organisationens uppbyggnad beskrivs i modellen med termerna historia, struktur och kultur. Hur den hanterar omvärldssignalerna utrycks i de tre dimensionerna uppmärksamma, skapa mening och lära. Innovationens modellkomponenter är kategori, ursprung, inriktning och karaktär. Modellen kopplar hantering av omvärldssignaler till innovationsförmåga via teorierna Blue Ocean Strategy och First Mover Advantage. Organisationens innovationsförmåga inriktar sig antingen på det kända i form av röda oceaner eller det okända, de blå oceanerna. Innovationsförmågan kan också leda till att organisationen antingen blir en First eller Second Mover. Modellen illustreras med fyra exempel - Google, Apple, Microsoft och Virgin, som alla är kända för sin innovationsförmåga. Resultatet är att modellen har fångat några samspel mellan de undersökta organisationerna, innovationsförmåga och omvärldssignaler. En annan slutsats är att innovationsförmåga bör ses i sitt omvärldssammanhang / There are different opinions about how to link business environment and organization. Some say the outside world is not something the organization should care about, while others on the contrary, argue that the outside world is an important influencing factor for every organization.  The purpose of this licentiate thesis is to investigate the interaction between the organization, external signals from the outside world and innovation, and to illustrate these relationships in a comprehensive model.  The model follows the external signal’s path through the organization, from identifying which signals that at all are observed in the organization, over how the organization creates meaning around these signals, to how it handles interpretation, strategy and decisions concerning the external signals. The model also includes a link to innovation and innovation capacity. Little to the side in the model, there is ”The Unexpected," which, referring to John Dewey, is a reminder about the risk in trying to capture the outside world in a model.  The organization's construction- how it is organized - is described in the model with the terms history, structure and culture. How it handles external signals are expressed in three dimensions: how the organization recognizes external signal, how it creates meaning around this signal, and what conclusions the organization draws in terms of learning. The four components of innovation in the model are category, origin, orientation and character.  The model also includes an attempt to formulate how the management of external signals can be expressed in the capacity for innovation. Used here are the two theories Blue Ocean Strategy and First Mover Advantage as a measure of innovativeness. The capacity for innovation either targets the well-known in the form of red oceans or the unknown in terms of blue oceans. The innovative capacity can also lead the organization either to be a First Mover or a Second Mover. The model is illustrated by four examples - Google, Apple, Microsoft and Virgin. All of them are successful companies and well known for their innovative capacity. The result is that it has been possible to apply the model to the studied companies and then catch some connections between the organization and its capacity for innovation, with particular focus on external signals. Another conclusion is that innovation hardly can be regarded in isolation, detached from the outside world, but must be seen in its outside world context.

In order to investigate Haier's successful internationalprocess in the international market and to find out how Haier be internationalized intoa large multinational enterprise with its value of innovation, which facilitates thegrowth of Haier Group, the main purpose of the research is to explore how innovationwithin the organization supports the internationalization process of Haier Group.