No / The Leverhulme Trust (UK), the Spanish Psycologists’ Association (Consejo Nacional de Colegios Oficiales de Psicólogos, COP-CV and COP’s Division on Work, Organizations and Personnel Psychology), the Valencian Government (Conselleria de Educación, Generalitat Valenciana), the University of Valencia and the European Association of Work, and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP) for their kind funding contributions

Yes / In an academic field, where does brand new idea come from? To understand how noble ideas emerge, this study elucidates how network brokers and high status actors contribute to the creation of knowledge institutions, by paying a specific attention to the interplay between institutional structure and an individual agency in academia. Although numerous scholars have been attempted to relieve the tensions around the agency versus structure debate, accurate explanations of interactive aspects between them are not well documented. To fill this void, this study suggests a conceptual model to explain the complementary and synergetic effects of network structure and agency on the knowledge innovation. In doing so, this study provide an answer to the question of why some actors often fail to obtain significant advantages from a privileged network position while others succeed.

No

Bakgrund & problem: Traditionell sluten innovation utgör en utmaning för SME som kännetecknas av resursbegränsningar, i synnerhet inom fordonsindustrin. Den öppna innovationen (OI) anammas i större utsträckning av SME på grund av dess kollaborativa karaktär. En framgångsrik tillämpning av öppen innovation kräver en utveckling av ekonomistyrsystem (MCS). Styrsystemen måste anpassas för att främja samarbete, synkronisera insatser och säkerställa att innovations initiativen är i linje med organisationens mål. Följaktligen blir förmågan att utforma och implementera MCS som stödjer öppen innovation allt viktigare för företag att upprätthålla konkurrenskraft och driva innovation i dagens dynamiska affärsmiljö. Syftet: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur ett SME inom fordonsindustrin tillämpar och styr öppen innovation. Metod: Denna studie tillämpades en kvalitativ ansats med semistrukturerade intervjuer för att analysera hur fallföretaget tillämpar och styr OI. Med hänsyn till studiens beskrivande och förklarande karaktär ansågs denna metod vara lämplig. Empiriska data samlades in från anställda med olika hierarkiska positioner inom företaget. Slutsats: Resultat visar att SMEs tillämpar både ingående och utgående kunskapsflöden för att åtgärda inneboende hinder. Dock råder det gap ett gap i definitionen av OI samt bristande empiriska studier för somliga OI aktiviter. Styrmedel, främst kulturella normer och styrsystem, spelar en central roll för att främja innovation i SMEs. Det finns däremot utmaningar med att styra interorganisatorisk innovation på grund av komplexiteten med interorganisatoriska relationer (IOR) och avsaknaden av litteratur som bemött och utforskat styrning av dessa aktiviteter. Implementering av gränssättande styrsystem förespråkas för att motverka opportunistiskt beteende, förbättra interorganisatoriska samarbeten och på så sätt främja utbytet av OI. / Background & problem: Traditional closed innovation constitutes a challenge for SMEs characterized by resource constraints, particularly in the automotive industry. As a result, Open innovation (OI) is increasingly embraced by SMEs due to its collaborative nature. However, the successful application of open innovation requires the development of management control systems (MCS). Management Control Systems need to be adapted to foster collaboration, synchronize efforts and ensure that innovation initiatives are in alignment with the organization's objectives. Consequently, the ability to design and implement MCS that support open innovation is becoming increasingly important for companies to maintain competitiveness and drive innovation in the current dynamic business environment. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze how an SME in the automotive industry applies and manages open innovation. Method: This study employed a qualitative methodology, employing semi-structured interviews, to analyze how the case company applies and manages OI. Given the descriptive and explanatory nature of the study, this method was deemed suitable. Empirical data were gathered from employees occupying various hierarchical positions within the company. Conclusion: The results indicate that SMEs use both in-bound and out-bound knowledge flows to address inherent barriers. However, there is a gap in the definition of OI and a lack of empirical studies on some OI activities. Policy instruments, mainly cultural norms and management systems, play an essential role in fostering innovation in SMEs. However, there are challenges in managing interorganizational innovation due to the complexity of interorganisational relationships (IOR) and the lack of literature addressing and exploring the governance of these activities. The implementation of boundary systems is advocated to counter opportunistic behavior, improve interorganizational collaborations and thus promote the exchange of IOR.

Nowadays, firms increasingly rely on strategic alliances to reach out for unique technological knowledge that firms cannot develop internally. However, in previous literature, we find inconsistent findings regarding the drivers and outcomes of a firm's leverage of alliance partners' technological knowledge. In this dissertation, I consider opposite propositions in prior studies simultaneously and examine two research questions: 1) what motivates a firm to search technological knowledge from alliance partners? And 2) how configurations of alliance knowledge and alliance network affect firm innovation? I argue that alliance knowledge search motivation is determined by the allocation of managerial attention to local domains and distant domains. While distant attention motives alliance knowledge search, local attention suppresses the motivation. I hypothesize that innovation performance below the aspiration level intensifies both local and distant attentions and has an inverted U-shaped relationship with alliance knowledge search intensity. This curvilinear relationship is moderated by the focal firm's knowledge stock size since firms with large knowledge stock are more likely to develop distant attention in the presence of poor innovation performance. I further argue that exploration and exploitation play key roles in the configurations of both alliance knowledge and alliance network. Alliance knowledge leveraging can contribute more to firm innovation, if the firm can establish a balance between exploration and exploitation. I propose that balancing exploration and exploitation within a single domain (e.g., search moderately explorative alliance knowledge) generates great managerial costs. However, firms can balance exploration and exploitation across domains: they can leverage explorative knowledge through exploitative alliances, such as repeated partnerships and strong ties. I test related hypotheses using longitudinal data from the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry. Results show that: 1) innovation performance below the aspiration level has an inverted U-shaped relationship with alliance knowledge search, demonstrating that both distant and local attention play important roles in developing the motivation for alliance knowledge search; 2) increasing knowledge stock size increases both positive and negative effects of innovation performance below aspiration; 3) technological distance of searched alliance knowledge has a linear negative effect on firm innovation; and 4) leveraging explorative knowledge from repeated partnership, but not strong ties, leads to superior innovation performance, supporting the idea of establishing the balance across domains. The findings make important contributions to alliance knowledge leveraging, aspiration, and exploration-exploitation literatures. The managerial implications of the study are also discussed. / Ph. D. / Nowadays, firms increasingly rely on strategic alliances to reach out for unique technological knowledge that firms cannot develop internally. By absorbing and utilizing these unique technologies, firms leverage alliance knowledge for their own technological innovation. However, in previous literature, we find inconsistent findings regarding the drivers and outcomes of alliance knowledge leverage. In this dissertation, I consider opposite propositions in prior studies simultaneously and examine the motivations and outcomes of a firm’s alliance knowledge leverage. First, I propose that the firm’s poor innovation performance is an important antecedent of alliance knowledge leverage. I hypothesize that, when a firm’s innovation performance is below the aspiration level, <i>i.e.</i>, below the firm’s past innovation performance and/or the average innovation performance of peer firms, further innovation performance decrease would first increase and then decrease the firm’s alliance knowledge search intensity. Moreover, a firm with a larger knowledge stock would conduct more alliance knowledge search to respond to innovation performance decrease than a firm with a smaller knowledge stock. Second, I examine how alliance knowledge leverage influence firm innovation. I argue that alliance knowledge leveraging can contribute more to firm innovation, if the firm can establish a balance between exploration, which is captured by terms such as search, variation, risk-taking, and experimentation, and exploitation, which is defined as items regarding experiential refinement and reusing existing knowledge. I propose that balancing exploration and exploitation within a single domain (e.g., search moderately explorative alliance knowledge) generates great managerial costs. However, firms can balance exploration and exploitation across domains: they can leverage explorative knowledge through exploitative alliances, such as repeated partnerships and strong ties. I test related hypotheses using longitudinal data from the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry. Results of data analysis generally support the hypotheses.

LAUNCH is a multi-organizational initiative led by NASA, Nike, USAID, and Department of State to seek and accelerate disruptive innovations to address intractable sustainability issues. The focus of this embedded case study is the evolution of the idea of LAUNCH through the lens of group practice. The empirical evidence includes detailed documentation of artifacts, group practice constructs, interaction and process maps for the five embedded cases, sentiment analysis of 25,000 email interactions, as well as a unique contribution of insights from a LAUNCH co-founder and participant-observer that were continually woven back into the conduct of LAUNCH group practice. The study looks at the conduct of group practice in a continual pull and tug across four construct continuums: tall-flat governance, expedite-explore deliberations, control-create idea generation, and electron-proton behaviors. Process maps of the group activities and artifacts demonstrate the continual tension along these continuums, which is supported by sentiment analysis of email interactions among group members. Plotted over time, sentiment analysis illustrates successive waves of positive and negative interactions during deliberation around development and implementation of ideas and processes. These findings are described using scientific metaphors from atomic physics and quantum mechanics. The behaviors of individuals within the LAUNCH core group resemble subatomic particle behaviors, while the group interactions sentiments resemble quantum theory wave behaviors, such as light waves. The quantum revolution resolved the scientific dilemma of wave and particle behaviors of matter and energy" which is much like the duality of the conduct and behavior of individuals and the interconnected interactions in group practice, and its effect on the rise and fall (wave) of ideas. The particle-wave duality in quantum theory sparked the big idea for a quantum theory of social dynamics, proposed in this study. The proposed theory applies to the conduct of group practice, behaviors exhibited by individuals and groups of individuals, and the generation of ideas evoked by disruption through social interactions. The proposed theoretical tenets may shed light on the broader understanding of the social dynamics embedded in group practice: 1) group practice is convened around and bound by a shared goal " the strong force; 2) individual actions influence the conduct of group practice in positive and negative ways; 3) individuals convened in group practice interact with one another through interconnected wave patterns of sentiment that affect the rise and fall of ideas; 4) individual behaviors and group interactions fluctuate in dynamic patterns of interference that disrupt the conduct of group practice; 5) individuals and groups of individuals mutually reinforce one another and amplify ideas with in-phase behaviors, while obstructing people and progress with out-of-phase behaviors; 6) disruptive thinking is a discomfort factor necessary for idea generation in a socially constructed world; and 7) creativity that arises in response to disruption can evoke idea-generation, new knowledge, and new ways of knowing. / Ph. D. / LAUNCH is a multi-organizational initiative led by NASA, Nike, USAID, and Department of State to seek and accelerate disruptive innovations to address intractable sustainability issues. This study looks at how tension and conflict generated by team collaboration can lead to innovative outcomes. The study maps individual and group interactions, processes, and products over a five-year period as the LAUNCH team conducted innovation events around the topics of water, health, energy, waste, and materials. The findings are described using scientific metaphors from atomic physics and quantum mechanics, which sparked the proposed quantum theory of social dynamics that applies to collaborative behaviors exhibited in teams, and creativity evoked by disruptive social interactions.

No / Innovation is growing in significance for business leaders, communities, governments, and nations due to its essential role in ensuring survival, competitiveness, growth, and marketplace dominance. Despite its growing prominence, innovation often falls short of delivering better efficiency and improved services. Therefore, this article aims to identify innovation in the public sector, and highlights the barriers to organizational innovation, leadership qualities, and organizational climates that foster innovation cultures. While interpretations of innovation vary, a recurring theme in the literature is that innovation primarily hinges on creativity (Houtgraaf, Kruyen & Van Thiel, 2023) and leadership, including competence rather than solely the effort and experimentation that creativity or invention demands (Chapman 2006). Given the ambiguity surrounding public sector innovation and the lack of managerial tools to navigate it, this article provides insights to understanding the dynamics of innovation in governmental settings.

Innovation and technological change is the major factor of production, renewal, and competitiveness of firms and nations in the contemporary “knowledge economy”. The overall purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the innovative behavior of firms in various sectors and regions. In particular, I have analyzed the determinants (driving forces) of firms’ innovation on the one hand (in paper 1 and 2), and the effect of firms’ innovation on the other hand (in paper 3 and 4). In addition, a central concern in this dissertation is that context, in which firms operate and innovate, matters for innovation. I take into account several contexts in the analyses of both the determinants and effects of innovation. These contexts are: the regions in which firms are located, the dynamics of industries, and the dynamics of cluster in which firms belong to. This dissertation consists of four separate papers plus an introductory chapter. Each paper can be read independently, but all of them deal with either determinants or effects of the innovation of firms. The first paper analyzes the effect of various firm-specific determinants on firms’ innovation output. It also considers the stages of the Industry Life Cycle (ILC) as a context in which firms operate and innovate. Using the Community Innovation Survey data for manufacturing and service sectors in Sweden during 2002-2004, I find that the importance of various determinants of firms’ innovation depends on the stages of the ILC in which they operate. The second paper is again investigates the determinants of innovation, but this time incorporates another context that affect the innovation, i.e. the regions that firms belong to. Using the patent applications data as a measure of innovation in all functional regions in Sweden during 2002-2007, we find that both the internal knowledge generated within the region and the inflow of external knowledge matter for innovation of firms located in the regions. Moreover, the extent of related variety of knowledge in the region has the superior role to promote innovation. The third paper examines the effect of a firm’s innovation output on firm’s performance. Export behavior of firms is chosen as a performance indicator. Particular attention is devoted to distinguishing between innovation input and innovation output and to isolate their effects on export behavior of firms. Using two waves of Swedish Community Innovation Survey data during 2002-2006 merged with registered firm-level data, I find that what really matters for enhancing the export behavior of firms is the innovation output of firms, rather than the innovation input (mere efforts in investing in innovation activities). The fourth paper also analyzes the effect of innovation on performance measures but this time incorporates another context, i.e. the life cycle of the regional cluster that firms belong to. This paper delves into a particular cluster, i.e. Linköping ICT cluster. Using data collected through interviews during 2009 and 2012 on key cluster actors, we find that innovation is among the factors that are always highly important at any given stage of the cluster’s evolution, however, it has slightly greater importance during the “growing” stage.

The concept of open innovation is about outsourcing part of the innovation process to external actors and to make use of other resources and knowledge than your own. This is one possible way to meet the challenges that today’s competitive and fast market places on companies. Open innovation has created conditions for open events such as hackathons and through these kind of events, ideas can be generated that companies can use in their business. Outside-in is a perspective of open innovation as a means to integrate external knowledge and ideas into its own operations, and this study takes place in the context of open innovation with an outside-in perspective. The study aims to find how the methods, techniques and tools affects the transition from an idea to an internal project, which results in new products and services. The study is qualitative and data has been collected through interviews with companies which have extensive knowledge of working with innovation. The result of the study shows there is a gap in the transformation of ideas and internal projects, and that there are no systematic approach to the methods, techniques and tools used to facilitate the transformation.

Frågeställning:   Hur kan DHL Freight i Eskilstuna genom inkrementella innovativa lösningar leverera ett högre kundvärde samt bättre kundupplevelse i den del av logistikprocessen som skapar kundvärde för privatpersoner? Syfte: Syftet med denna undersökning är att undersöka och ge förslag på hur DHL Freight i Eskilstuna kan generera kundvärde och kundupplevelse för DHLs privata kunder genom innovationstänk. Metod: En kvalitativ metod har använts genom studien som också är en samproduktion med DHL Freight i Eskilstuna. Det empiriska materialet samlades in genom semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer, deltagare för intervjuerna var två respondenter på DHL i Eskilstuna med befattningarna platschef och administratör, samt intervjuades åtta kunder som fått leveranser från DHL. Ansatsen har varit induktiv. Slutsatser: För att ett logistikföretag som DHL Freight i Eskilstuna ska generera högre kundvärde och bättre kundupplevelser behöver företaget öka möjligheterna till inkrementell innovation. I dagsläget är innovationsgraden lokalt nästan obefintlig. Det är nödvändigt för ett företag att vara förberedda på att identifiera kunders efterfrågan och behov som ligger till grund för de innovativa lösningarna. Aktiviteter behöver utvecklas för att detta ska vara möjligt. För att kunna skapa tjänsteinnovation finns fyra viktiga punkter att ta hänsyn till. Att ändra kunders uppfattning om företaget är svårt men inte omöjligt, dock behöver företaget ta fram en verklighetsbild för att kunna utgå från denna. Kundens roll är den väsentligaste att utgå ifrån och därför är den realistiska verklighetsbilden viktig. / Research question: How can DHL Freight in Eskilstuna, by applying incremental innovations generate a higher customer value and customer experience in the part where the logistics process creates customer value for individuals? Purpose: The purpose with this study is to do a research and generate suggestions to as how DHL Freight in Eskilstuna can generate, by using innovation customer value and customer experience for DHL’s private customers. Method: A qualitative method has been used in this study, this study is also a co-production with DHL Freight in Eskilstuna. The empirical material has been collected by doing semi-structured qualitative interviews, the individuals who have participated in the interviews are two respondents from DHL in Eskilstuna. These two has the roles of ‘Site manager’ and ‘administrator’. Eight individuals, who’s affiliated with DHL as customers have also participated in the interviews. The study has used an inductive method. Conclusions: If a logistics company such as DHL Freight in Eskilstuna wants to generate a higher customer value and customer experience, the company has to increase the possibilities for incremental innovations. The levels of innnovation within the local sites are almost non existent. It is neccessary for for a company to be prepared to identify customers’ demands and needs which can be used as a base for innovative solutions, activities needs to be developed in order to make it possible. In order to be able to create service innovation, four important factors has to be considered and adapted to. To change customers’ perceptions regarding the company is challenging but not impossible, the company has to acquire a reality based picture in order to be able to utilize and proceed with it. The customer’s role is the most suitable factor to proceed from. Therefore, the realistic picture of reality is important.