Impact of climate discourse on national scientific networks in energy technologies: the case of Estonian science and industry linkages

2019 ◽  
pp. 20-45
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
National Level ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Global Discourse ◽  
Research Agendas

This article examines how the global climate change discourse influences the implementation of national science policy in the area of energy technology, with a focus on industry and science collaborations and networks. We develop a set of theoretical propositions about how the issues in the global discourse are likely to influence research agendas and networks, the nature of industry-science linkages and the direction of innovation. The plausibility of these propositions is examined, using Estonia as a case study. We find that the global climate discourse has indeed led to the diversification of research agendas and networks, but the shifts in research strategies often tend to be rhetorical and opportunistic. The ambiguity of the global climate change discourse has also facilitated incremental innovation towards energy efficiency and the potentially sub-optimal lock-in of technologies. In sum, the Estonian case illustrates how the introduction of policy narratives from the global climate change discourse to the national level can shape the actual policy practices and also networks of actors in a complex and non-linear fashion, with unintended effects.

scholarly journals HealthTEC Innovation Design - a proposal for a novel Master degree program based on Unmet Clinical Need, global Healthcare Challenges, and 21st century skills

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-603
Author(s):  
Michael Friebe
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
21St Century ◽  
21St Century Skills ◽  
Data Analytics ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Healthcare Systems ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Healthcare Provision

AbstractThe effectiveness, efficiency, availability, agility, and equality of global healthcare systems are in question. The COVID-19 pandemic have further highlighted some of these issues and also shown that healthcare provision is in many parts of the world paternalistic, nimble, and often governed too extensively by revenue and profit motivations. The 4th industrial revolution - the machine learning age - with data gathering, analysis, optimisation, and delivery changes has not yet reached Healthcare / Health provision. We are still treating patients when they are sick rather then to use advanced sensors, data analytics, machine learning, genetic information, and other exponential technologies to prevent people from becoming patients or to help and support a clinicians decision. We are trying to optimise and improve traditional medicine (incremental innovation) rather than to use technologies to find new medical and clinical approaches (disruptive innovation). Education of future stakeholders from the clinical and from the technology side has not been updated to Health 4.0 demands and the needed 21st century skills. This paper presents a novel proposal for a university and innovation lab based interdisciplinary Master education of HealthTEC innovation designers.

scholarly journals Innovation and cross-functional teams

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 84-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Marasquini Stipp ◽  
Márcio Lopes Pimenta ◽  
Daniel Jugend
Keyword(s):  
Single Case ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Tax Management ◽  
Functional Teams ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The aim of this paper is to characterize how innovation may happen through cross-functional teams (CFT) in an organization of the public sector. Design/methodology/approach A case study helped to characterize several behavior patterns, team structures and respective links with generating innovation in internal processes and public answering contexts. Findings The results highlight that formal-temporary teams present a higher capacity to generate incremental innovation in products, whereas permanent-informal teams have a higher capacity to generate innovation in the internal processes and public answering contexts. Research limitations/implications The limitations of this research relate to the fact that this is a single case study, and although it is an important case to examine innovation and CFTs, by its very nature, it is not possible to extend and generalize the obtained data to other organizations. The evaluation of its propositions was merely qualitative, and future research is needed to validate its characteristics. Practical implications Several settings of CFTs are presented, as well as their ability to generate different types of innovation, such as the computerization of documents, petitions and papers, which decreases the time to answer the taxpayer. Moreover, CFTs can help to create products, such as computer programs that can be used not only locally but also in several public organizations related to tax management. Originality/value The field research provides the perceptions of the respondents regarding CFT characteristics that can lead to specific types of innovation, as well as the types of products or services that can be generated by these processes.

Cultivating product innovation performance through creativity: the impact of organizational agility and flexibility under technological turbulence

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilert Puriwat ◽  
Danupol Hoonsopon
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
Product Innovation ◽  
New Product ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Organizational Agility ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Technological Turbulence ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis study is to compare the impact of organizational agility and flexibility on performance of each type of product innovation (radical vs incremental innovation). Additionally, the moderating effect of technological turbulence on the relationship between the two types of organization is examined.Design/methodology/approachBased on gaps in the existing literature, the survey data are collected from managers who are in charge of developing new products in three industries: food and beverage, chemical and machinery (N = 431). Confirmatory factory analysis is used to verify measurement items and regression analysis is used to test hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that organizational agility increases performance in radical innovation both in a certain situation and an environment with technological turbulence. In contrast, the impact of organizational flexibility is limited to increasing performance in both radical and incremental innovation performance in a certain situation.Originality/valueOur study extends the knowledge of organizational agility and flexibility in the domain of product innovation. Adaptation of organization to respond the technological turbulence will stimulate creativity of new product development teams to produce new useful ideas and transform these ideas to product innovation. The different types of organizing a new product development team to handle technological turbulence will provide different results in product innovation performance. In addition, the findings provide a recommendation on how the organization of a new product development team can improve performance in each type of product innovation under technological turbulence.

Revealing the importance of international and domestic cooperation by using artificial neural networks: case of European radical and incremental innovators

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktor Prokop ◽  
Jan Stejskal ◽  
Beata Mikusova Merickova ◽  
Samuel Amponsah Odei
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Artificial Neural Networks ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
Artificial Neural ◽  
The One ◽  
Innovation Processes

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to introduce innovative ideas into the treatment of the radical and incremental innovations and to fill the research gap by using: (1) methods that can perform complicated tasks and solve complex problems leading in creation of radical and incremental innovation and (2) a broad sample of firms across countries. The authors’ ambition is to contribute to the scientific knowledge by producing evidence about the novel usage of artificial neural network techniques for measuring European firms' innovation activities appearing in black boxes of innovation processes.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the authors incorporate an international context into Chesbrough's open innovation (OI) theory and, on the one hand, support the hypothesis that European radical innovators benefit more from foreign cooperation than incremental innovators. On the other hand, the results of the analyses show that European incremental innovators rely on domestic cooperation supported by cooperation with foreign public research institutes. Moreover, the use of decision trees (DT) allows the authors to reveal specific patterns of successful innovators emerging within the hidden layers of neural networks.FindingsThe authors prove that radical European innovators using either internal or external R&D strategies, while the combinations of these strategies do not bring successful innovation outputs. In contrast, European incremental innovators benefit from various internal R&D processes in which engagement in design activities plays a crucial role.Originality/valueThe authors introduce innovative ideas into the treatment of hidden innovation processes and measuring the innovation performance (affected by domestic or international cooperation) of European firms. The approach places emphasis on the novelty of innovation and the issue of international cooperation in the era of OI by designing the framework using a combination of artificial neural networks and DT.

A discriminant analysis of high and low-innovative firms: the role of IT, human resources, innovation strategy, intellectual capital and environmental dynamism

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Popa ◽  
Pedro Soto-Acosta ◽  
Daniel Palacios-Marqués
Keyword(s):  
Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Organizational Capital ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovative Firms ◽  
It Knowledge ◽  
Innovation Outcomes ◽  
Selection Practices

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of technological, organizational and environmental factors on the level of innovation outcomes in manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the technology-organization-environment theory this paper conducts a discriminant analysis of firms’ innovation level based on a data set of manufacturing SMEs. Findings The results show that low- and high-innovative firms can be distinguished in terms of information technology (IT) knowledge and infrastructure, commitment-based human resources (HR) selection practices, exploitative innovation and organizational capital. Practical implications The study findings support the idea that innovation is a complex phenomenon explained by multiple factors. As a consequence, firms need to devote extra efforts to develop IT knowledge and infrastructure, commitment-based HR selection practices and organizational capital because these are crucial for obtaining greater innovation outcomes. In addition, the identification of exploitative innovation as a strong discriminant variable highlights that the most effective way to be a highly innovative SME is through incremental innovation, which permits the firm to capitalize as much as possible on previous exploratory efforts. Originality/value Although many studies have highlighted that innovation is more challenging for SMEs than for their larger counterparts, the vast majority of studies has been conducted in large companies. This paper extends prior literature by analyzing the discriminant variables that may distinguish between low- and high-innovative manufacturing SMEs.

The impact of intellectual capital and knowledge flows on incremental and radical innovation

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 149-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duy Quoc Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Intellectual Capital ◽  
Radical Innovation ◽  
Knowledge Flows ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Radical Innovations ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical and empirical exploration of link between organization intellectual capital and knowledge flows with its incremental and radical innovation performance.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts relevant literature of social capital and organizational learning to examine the impact of intellectual capital and knowledge flows on incremental and radical innovation based on surveying 95 firms. To test the research hypotheses, regression analysis is used.FindingsResults of the study show that human capital and top-down knowledge flows significantly and positively influence both incremental and radical innovations. Social capital and bottom-up knowledge flows do not have any significant impact on incremental or/and radical innovation. Organizational capital has a positive impact on incremental innovation as expected.Practical implicationsThe results offer several practical implications for business managers to harvest its knowledge bases resident in the firm’s different forms appropriately to make innovation successful. Particularly, knowledge resident in human capital and organizational capital is useful for making incremental innovation. Especially, new knowledge, new skills and new perspectives resident in human capital are crucial important for making radical innovation. Both incremental and radical innovations are positively influenced by dynamic managerial capabilities.Originality/valueThis study contributes to literature by providing new evidence linking organization intellectual capital and knowledge flows with its innovation performance. Especially, the missing link between top-down knowledge flows and radical innovation is empirically examined. Value of this study is that social capital and bottom-up knowledge flows are not universally beneficial for enhancing innovation and their impacts on innovation performance are context dependent and more sophisticated than it is recognized in the literature.

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