The role of resources in recombinations and the degree of novelty of products

Objective of the study: To explain the characteristics and dynamics of resources and recombinations associated with developing products with low and high novelty.Methodology/Approach: The method was an integrative review of the literature on recombinant innovation. It included a creative synthesis that resulted in a theoretical model. Originality/Relevance: The research addresses topics the literature neglects, like explaining which resources and recombinations and why could relate to high or low product novelty.Main results: Certain features of resources (i.e., heterogeneity, specificity, accessibility) with high and low levels may differently influence costs, variety, and frequency of recombinations and, in turn, product novelty. To develop highly novel products, tangible resources, and internally produced new resources may be essential, as knowledge by itself may not be sufficient.Theoretical contributions: Different resource characteristics and their influence on recombinations may help explain whether a product will have low or high novelty. By going beyond the novel recombinations, the research expands the literature's understanding of recombinations and product novelty.Managerial contributions: Companies could assess ex ante which degree of product novelty besides types and costs of recombinations would result from their pools of resources. This assessment would make innovation more efficient for companies with fewer resources, like may occur in emerging markets.

The dynamics of regional collaborations on firms’ ability to innovate: a business innovation modes approach

Purpose The literature stresses the importance of collaboration patterns and the role of public funding in regional competitiveness. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of this subject by focusing on two key dynamics of technological cooperation. First, the authors focus on the ability of public funding to support regional technological demand through the promotion of science and technology-based innovation (STI) and innovation based on learning-by-doing, learning-by-using, learning-by-interacting (DUI) cooperation. Second, the authors investigate whether such cooperation patterns influence the companies’ ability to support the development of novel products through the effective transfer of knowledge. Design/methodology/approach The data used in this longitudinal study are taken from the Basque statistics agency’s (EUSTAT) technological innovation survey, which compiles activities, personnel, funding sources, support institutions and other innovation-related aspects of businesses in the Basque region. The survey was carried out following the methodology of the community innovation survey (CIS). CIS data are used to generate official innovation statistics for the EU and its member countries and have been used extensively for analysis in economics. The sample included an unbalanced panel of 17,431 companies that reported research and development expenditure for the period 2013‐2017. Findings The results of the analysis confirm that the relationship between STI cooperation and regional funding is positive (Piñeiro-Antelo and Lois-González, 2019), but regional DUI cooperation will have a greater impact than STI cooperation on a company’s ability to generate novel products. The authors can, therefore, say that public funding is successful at supporting cooperation between science and technology agents and firms but fails to promote the transfer of knowledge and subsequent development of novel products in companies in the region. Practical implications Following a quadruple helix approach, it is important to underline the need for public policies to strengthen the connections between all the key agents in the ecosystem (where the research community, industry, public sector and citizens are all active actors), promoting technology transfer and dissemination, as well as trust among the parties, absorptive capacity and business access to resources and financing. Thus, the design of public policies should be oriented to support a firm’s innovation, balancing the exploration and exploitation of STI and DUI regional cooperation. Originality/value The contribution of this research is threefold. First, it serves to emphasize the importance of the impact of regional innovation systems on business innovation modes and their performance. Second, it takes the study of innovation systems and their impact on companies a step further by examining the impact of public funding on the companies’ ability to explore and exploit regional innovation modes. Thirdly, the authors offer a dynamic view of the region’s ability to support its own demand for technology and study the impact of regional business modes on the firms’ ability to support novel products.

‘No-Barriers’ tobacco product? Selling smokeless tobacco to women, people of colour and the LGBTQ+ community in the USA

BackgroundIn both Sweden and the USA, smokeless tobacco (ST) is legal and used predominantly by men. Starting in the 1970s, US tobacco companies attempted to expand the ST market to women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other sexual orientation (LGBTQ+) people.DesignWe analysed industry documents from the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Library triangulating findings with recent ST advertising and publicly available literature.FindingsWe found tobacco companies used design innovations such as pouched moist snuff, snus and dissolvable products to expand the market. In addition, diverse advertising campaigns targeted women, people of colour (Hispanic, African American) and LGBTQ+ communities with identity-targeted messages emphasising novelty, convenience, cleanliness and use in smoke-free environments. However, stereotypes of ST users as rural white males endured, perpetuated by continued marketing aimed at this customer base, which created cognitive dissonance and stymied marketer’s hopes that pouch products would ‘democratize’ ST.ConclusionThese failed campaigns suggest novel products such as nicotine pouch products may provide a ‘clean slate’ to similarly target women and other low-ST-using groups. Based on this history, the risk of new tobacco and nicotine products to increase health disparities should be closely monitored.

Using real-world cases, innovation and rhetorical tools to teach social pharmacy

Background: Innovation refers to the process in which individuals or organisations transform ideas into novel products, services or processes. Pharmacy graduates are increasingly expected to have the competencies necessary to find innovative solutions to medicine-related challenges, particularly solutions addressing patient´s need and societal aspects of medicine use. Objective: To describe and discusses the rationale, development, implementation and evaluation of the pharmacy course ‘Contemporary Social Pharmacy’ (CONSOC), and to summarise lessons learned. Methods: Several methods and models were used to develop, run and evaluate the course. The course examination consisted of a written report and an oral presentation and defence of the report. The course was evaluated through a student assessment questionnaire and oral and written feedback from case providers and the teachers. Results: Three selected case reports representing particularly innovative solutions are described. The student evaluations revealed that nine out of 14 course learning objectives were either fully or partly fulfilled, and that what students liked best from the course were the teamwork, the open discussions, the real-world cases and the innovation features. The teachers and case providers also found the course rewarding and extremely positive. Conclusion: Teaching innovation opens up new possibilities for educators and researchers. The CONSOC course introduced several novel components, but the increased complexity of the course also presented challenges to students and faculty alike.

Novel material for root-end applications for bio-allied sciences

Treating a patient with tooth pain is a multi-factorial process with many factors playing their role to warrant the success of the treatment procedure. One such important factor is to secure the root apex which is important for ensuring good prognosis in endodontics. Also in challenging situations like sealing a fractured root, resorbed apex, or an incompletely formed apex, the need of an intact root apex is much anticipated. Over the years, an array of novel products has been produced for root-end applications to achieve such a favorable condition. The objective of this review is to list and summarize such root-end materials. However, their merits, and claims of superiority over MTA, have to be ascertained via sustained research.

3D-Printable Nanocellulose-Based Functional Materials: Fundamentals and Applications

Nanomaterials obtained from sustainable and natural sources have seen tremendous growth in recent times due to increasing interest in utilizing readily and widely available resources. Nanocellulose materials extracted from renewable biomasses hold great promise for increasing the sustainability of conventional materials in various applications owing to their biocompatibility, mechanical properties, ease of functionalization, and high abundance. Nanocellulose can be used to reinforce mechanical strength, impart antimicrobial activity, provide lighter, biodegradable, and more robust materials for packaging, and produce photochromic and electrochromic devices. While the fabrication and properties of nanocellulose are generally well established, their implementation in novel products and applications requires surface modification, assembly, and manufacturability to enable rapid tooling and scalable production. Additive manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing can improve functionality and enhance the ability to customize products while reducing fabrication time and wastage of materials. This review article provides an overview of nanocellulose as a sustainable material, covering the different properties, preparation methods, printability and strategies to functionalize nanocellulose into 3D-printed constructs. The applications of 3D-printed nanocellulose composites in food, environmental, and energy devices are outlined, and an overview of challenges and opportunities is provided.

Sustainable Development of Apple Snack Formulated with Blueberry Juice and Trehalose

Novel products that carry concrete and relevant health benefits, with texture and flavor not substantially different from already available products, are generally well accepted by consumers. Vacuum impregnation is a non-thermal technology that allows the enrichment of fruit with different ingredients in solution. The characteristic of the resulting product is a combination of both the solid matrix and the impregnation solution. This work aimed at: (i) evaluating the effect of trehalose on anthocyanin retention after drying of apple snacks vacuum impregnated with blueberry juice; (ii) modelling the air-drying kinetic, proposing an image analysis approach to monitor the drying process. Four mathematical models successfully fitted the drying experimental data, obtainingequations that could be used in the implementation of this process at industrial scale. The drying kinetics of samples impregnated with blueberry juice and trehalose were faster when compared to the control sample. Samples impregnated with blueberry juice and 100 g/kg of trehalose retained nearly four times more anthocyanin after drying when compared to the control.

A data-based multi-algorithm system for an end-to-end intelligent manufacturing process

Reducing defects and creating new industrial products are issues addressed in literature, though often separately. This work presents a unique approach combining machine learning and optimization techniques, which could 1) predict and explain ongoing production defects, 2) prescribe solutions to prevent predicted defects, and 3) produce defect predictors for novel products without historical data. By applying it into a melamine-surfaced boards process, task 1) explored SVM, XGBoost and Random Forest algorithms, coupled with an explainable model-agnostic approach. A Powell’s method-based meta-heuristic algorithm handled task 2), while the Hyper-Process Model (HPM) technique was selected in task 3). Defect prediction presented strong results, with a fine-tuned XGBoost with oversampling achieving over 0.8 recall value, and prescriptions significantly reduced prediction scores across most defect scenarios. Although the HPM implementation introduced challenges producing predictors, most generated synthetic data-trained models achieved encouraging performances on recall metrics. Results could serve as baseline for future developments.

Green Aspects in Molecularly Imprinted Polymers by Biomass Waste Utilization

Molecular Imprinting Polymer (MIP) technology is a technique to design artificial receptors with a predetermined selectivity and specificity for a given analyte, which can be used as ideal materials in various application fields. In the last decades, MIP technology has gained much attention from the scientific world as summarized in several reviews with this topic. Furthermore, green synthesis in chemistry is nowadays one of the essential aspects to be taken into consideration in the development of novel products. In accordance with this feature, the MIP community more recently devoted considerable research and development efforts on eco-friendly processes. Among other materials, biomass waste, which is a big environmental problem because most of it is discarded, can represent a potential sustainable alternative source in green synthesis, which can be addressed to the production of high-value carbon-based materials with different applications. This review aims to focus and explore in detail the recent progress in the use of biomass waste for imprinted polymers preparation. Specifically, different types of biomass waste in MIP preparation will be exploited: chitosan, cellulose, activated carbon, carbon dots, cyclodextrins, and waste extracts, describing the approaches used in the synthesis of MIPs combined with biomass waste derivatives.