Enhancing SWOT Analysis with TRIZ-based Tools to Integrate Systematic Innovation in Early Task Design

AbstractSWOT analysis is the classical tool for framing the key elements towards problem design/development in various fields of activity and at various levels of interest (e.g. leadership, strategy, production process, marketing, product development, distribution, business model, operational management, etc.). Revealing the major strengths, weaknesses, threads and opportunities does not necessarily lead to an effective project formulation. Key pieces of information are usually missing in the classical SWOT analysis, like the relevance of each strength, weakness, thread and opportunity in meeting the intended vision and targets, as well as compatibility of the elements. A structured framework for setting up a comprehensive SWOT analysis is introduced in this paper. TRIZ-based tools are part of this framework for defining reliable solutions to various barriers and conflicting problems emerging from SWOT elements. This framework brings innovation in the early phase of the planning process of the envisaged system, thus minimizing the risk to define low effective areas of intervention. A case study on process improvement demonstrates the relevance of the proposed approach

Using Valuation-Based Decision Making to Increase the Efficiency of China\u27s Patent Subsidy Strategies

[Excerpt] “The Chinese government has grown concerned that its patent fee subsidy programs have not funded the most deserving patents, and thus they no longer wish to spend public resources to promote low-value patents. Instead, the government would prefer subsidy programs that encourage the most deserving patents. The Patent Strategy reflects this desire, as the fourth strategic focus of the Patent Strategy recognizes the need to “[o]ptimize [China’s] patent subsidy policy and further define the orientation to enhance patent quality.”19 This Article explains how a disciplined and transparent valuation-based decision making process can help the Chinese government design patent fee subsidy programs that allocate funds more consistently to deserving patents. In addition, this Article offers the outline of a practical valuation model the Chinese government could use to filter patent fee subsidy requests.

Multinational firms, global value chains and the organization of technology transfer

This paper combines insights from different streams of literature to develop a more comprehensive framework for the analysis of technology transfer via value chain relationships. We integrate the existing literature in three ways. First, we consider value chain relationships as a multi-facet process of interaction between buyers and suppliers, involving different degrees of knowledge transmission and development. Second, we assess whether and to what extent value chain relationships are associated with the presence of multinationals and with their embeddedness in the host economy. Third, we take into account the capabilities of local firms to handle the technology as a factor influencing knowledge transfer through value chain relationships. Using data on 1385 firms active in Thailand in 2001-2003, we apply a multinomial logit model to test how the nature and intensity of multinational presence and the competencies of local firms affect the organisation of international technology transfer. We find that knowledge intensive relationships, which are characterized by a significant transmission of technology along the value chains, are positively associated with the presence of global buyers in the local market, with the efforts of MNCs to adapt technology to local contexts, and with the technical capabilities of domestic firms. By contrast, the age of subsidiaries and the share of inputs purchased locally appear to increase the likelihood of value chain relationships with a lower technological profile. Key words: Global value chain, multinationals, technology transfer, knowledge spilloversGlobal value chain, multinationals, technology transfer, knowledge spillovers

Management of «Systematic Innovation»: A kind of quest for the Holy Grail!

In this paper, authors propose a contribution for improving the open innovation processes. It shows the necessity to get an efficient methodology for open innovation in order to build a computer aided tool for inventive design in Process Systems Engineering (PSE). The proposed methodology will be evocated to be fully used in the context of the “revolutionary” concepts around the so-called factory for the future, also called integrated digital factory, innovative factory… As a result the main contribution of this paper is to propose a software prototype for an Open Computer Aided Innovation 2.0. By definition this open innovation relies on collaboration. This collaboration should enable a community, with a very broad spectrum of skills, to share data, information, knowledge and ideas. As a consequence, a first sub objective is to create a methodological framework that takes advantages of collaboration and collective intelligence (with its capacity to join intelligence and knowledge). Furthermore, the raise of the digital company and more particularly the breakthroughs in information technologies is a powerful enabler to extend and improve the potential of collective intelligence. The second sub objective is to propose a problem resolution process to impel creativity of expert but also to develop, validate and select innovative solutions. After dealing with the importance of Process Innovation and Problem solving investigation in PSE, the proposed approach originally based on an extension of the TRIZ theory (Russian acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem Solving), has been improved by using approach such as case-based reasoning, in order to tackle and revisit problems encountered in the PSE. A case study on biomass is used to illustrate the capabilities of the methodology and the tool

Future Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) development

Ecotourism is an alternative form of tourism and is usually confused with natural and cultural tourism.CBET is fast becoming a popular biodiversity conservation tool that develops and benefits the local community. Based on the context of conservation theory and practice, Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) is a form of community-based natural resource management. However, a sustainable CBET development through Community Capacity Building (CCB)programs is not something that it easily achievable. Local community’s capacity varies from one culture to another. It takes a high level of community participation, in order for it to come to a level where the community members themselves are motivated to participate and contribute to the development of the program. This fully qualitative research involved 15 respondents from the community of Kg. Selai, Bekok in Johor, Malaysia. The result show there are five factors that sustained the ecotourism development based for Orang Asli Community in Kg. Selai, namely, existing CBET development, past CBET development, local community participation in planning stage of tourism, local participation in implementation stage of tourism and participation in nature conservation

System failures and regional innovation policy

Although many recent contributions have directly analysed the different types of failures that might affect the systems of innovation it is still quite unclear how the system-failures framework can be applied at the regional level. This paper tries to fill this gap and in particular it investigates whether and how the system-failures framework, based on evolutionary and system perspectives, can guide the regional policy-maker intervention. The paper shows that the reach of the regional level of policy-making depends on the characteristics of the regional innovation system in terms of financial autonomy, institutional competences and knowledge base.

Inspired Design: Using Interdisciplinarity And Biomimicry For Software Innovation

This thesis presents research and proposes a framework for increasing the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary knowledge in the field of computer science. The intent is to address an increasing problem of complexity in software and computing systems. The approach is to equip software developers and computer scientists with a contextual perspective and a set of strategies for injecting innovation and creativity into the solutions they design by leveraging knowledge and models outside the traditional realm of computer science. A review of current and historical forms of interdisciplinarity and biomimicry are presented to build that context. The strategies presented include interdisciplinary education, interdisciplinary collaboration, interdisciplinary tools, biomimetic design, and the creation of new pattern languages based on nature\u27s design solutions. Each of these strategies stems from and leads to an open exchange of knowledge across disciplinary boundaries. When taken together, the knowledge and strategies presented are intended to inspire and foster a paradigm that recognizes the value of human and natural diversity as a source of innovation

Prospect patents, data markets, and the commons in data-driven medicine : openness and the political economy of intellectual property rights

Scholars who point to political influences and the regulatory function of patent courts in the USA have long questioned the courts’ subjective interpretation of what ‘things’ can be claimed as inventions. The present article sheds light on a different but related facet: the role of the courts in regulating knowledge production. I argue that the recent cases decided by the US Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit, which made diagnostics and software very difficult to patent and which attracted criticism for a wealth of different reasons, are fine case studies of the current debate over the proper role of the state in regulating the marketplace and knowledge production in the emerging information economy. The article explains that these patents are prospect patents that may be used by a monopolist to collect data that everybody else needs in order to compete effectively. As such, they raise familiar concerns about failure of coordination emerging as a result of a monopolist controlling a resource such as datasets that others need and cannot replicate. In effect, the courts regulated the market, primarily focusing on ensuring the free flow of data in the emerging marketplace very much in the spirit of the ‘free the data’ language in various policy initiatives, yet at the same time with an eye to boost downstream innovation. In doing so, these decisions essentially endorse practices of personal information processing which constitute a new type of public domain: a source of raw materials which are there for the taking and which have become most important inputs to commercial activity. From this vantage point of view, the legal interpretation of the private and the shared legitimizes a model of data extraction from individuals, the raw material of information capitalism, that will fuel the next generation of data-intensive therapeutics in the field of data-driven medicine