Complementary currency design as resilient service systems: Transforming limits into strategic innovation opportunities

The socio-economic crisis of 2008 persists in creating a need for structural change and radical transformation by applying systemic thinking and holistic approaches to design solutions. This paper questions those limits with regards to economic failures of income distribution among social entrepreneurs in co-working spaces. The argument focuses on exploring the potential for introducing alternative solutions where design can cut across traditional models and lead to economic transformations through new service models. Complementary currency systems structurally diversify monetary eco-systems and act as a mechanism for territorial and social cohesion. Strategic design is summoned here to focus on a new currency through the development of an integrated and resilient service system, a model for activating idle capabilities of community members into innovative collaboration opportunities. On-field research encompassing interviews, survey and persona design methods have been conducted with members of the Impact HUB social business network. The analysis of existing collaborative service models serves as an enabling action platform for service innovation to take place, driven by bottom-up behaviour changes towards social innovation. This research sets the stage to open up possibilities for empowering professionals and capacity building approaches to be implemented in emerging collaborative economies.Keywords: complementary currency systems, strategic design, service system design, resilient strategy

Complementary currency design as resilient service systems: Transforming limits into strategic innovation opportunities

The socio-economic crisis of 2008 persists in creating a need for structural change and radical transformation by applying systemic thinking and holistic approaches to design solutions. This paper presents a part of a PhD research that questions those limits with regards to economic failures of income distribution among social entrepreneurs in co-working spaces. The argument focuses on exploring the potential for introducing alternative solutions where design can cut across traditional models and lead to economic transformations through new service models. Complementary currency systems structurally diversify monetary eco-systems and act as a mechanism for territorial and social cohesion. Strategic design is summoned here to focus on a new currency through the development of an integrated and resilient service system, a model for activating idle capabilities of community members into innovative collaboration opportunities. On-field research encompassing interviews, survey and persona design methods have been conducted with members of the Impact HUB social business network. The analysis of existing collaborative service models serves as an enabling action platform for service innovation to take place, driven by bottom-up behaviour changes towards social innovation. This research sets the stage to open up possibilities for empowering professionals and capacity building approaches to be implemented in emerging collaborative economies

The Rise of Innovation Districts: A New Geography of Innovation in America

As the United States slowly emerges from the great recession, a remarkable shify is occurring in the spatial geogrpahy of innovation. For the past 50 years, the landscape of innovation has been dominated by places like Silicon Valley - suburban corridors of spatially isolated corporate campuses, accessible only by car, with little emphasis on the quality of life or on integrating work, housing, and recreation. A new complementary urban model is now emerging, giving rise to what we and others are calling "innovation districts." These districts, by our definition, are geographic areas where leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with start-ups, business incubators, and accelerators. They are also physically compact, transit-accessible, and technicall

Innovative Education, President\u27s Progress Report 2017

How can academic leadership create a culture of INNOVATION? How can faculty more effectively convey their KNOWLEDGE? How can students learn the skills, traits, and process to become future INNOVATORS

DESIGN AS A FUNCTIONAL LEADER: A case study of Philips to investigate the potential of design as a leading functional discipline

This research investigates the role of design as a functional leader in multinational industries, to drive innovation successfully at a strategic level. It involved a detailed case study of the innovation process, and practices within Philips Design based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, where design is a key decision making function within the company but not yet recognised as a leading discipline at strategic level. Philips Design wanted to use design research to build an integrated map of its actual practices and correlate these with other corporate innovation practices, to help establish strategic recognition for their value. The doctoral challenge was to explicate the process and determine whether the findings have generic capacity to support the role of design as a functional leading discipline. The investigation integrates an iterative loop of; abductive reasoning of design thinking and inductive reasoning of management thinking in an action research cycle. The case study was part of an empirical enquiry, where the researcher became a participatory observer at Philips Design, conducting one-on-one interviews for data collection and refining their analysis using a Delphi Technique. Three other multinational organisations were explored to take into account how each perceives the contribution of design and the different roles it plays in their organisation. Data triangulation was also used to validate findings with a third party expert. The research contributes to knowledge by confirming the conditions for design to act as a leading functional discipline. It shows that design cannot be the only functional lead for a multinational organisation. It identifies the major reason for this as the difference between thinkers trying to find viable options for the future and practitioners trying to defend the core business in their organisation, resulting in a gap between strategy and operation. The research further elaborates on the reasons for the gap to exist through qualitative conceptual relationships between designer behaviour and organisational culture in the different innovation cycles that exist in the organisation

Open Innovations and Living Labs: Promises or Challenges to Regional Renewal

The paper brings to the foreground modes and strategies of organising purposeful action that may be conductive to local and regional actors’ successful coping in the more and more competitive environment. The paper is pragmatist by its approach in a sense that it emphasises preconditions and possibilities for making ideas work. However, to do this is a difficult task. In the maze of multifaceted information flows and revolutionary technologies for reaching them enterprises and public actors need to find and construct better structured information that really helps them to operate. The paper introduces two sets of case activities that build on open innovation and living lab approaches in their attempts to make the boundaries between organisations and their environment more permeable. Its findings support the structuralist idea that spatial attributes matter more than as a mere venue, platform, or even container of social action. The venues studied in the paper are unique: one of the oldest still remaining factory buildings in the innermost core of the city of Tampere and a re-used loghouse in a peri-urban landscape outside the city. They both serve now as true exploratory spaces with no functional or institutional lock-ins stemming from them to bond their present-day users

Design thinking and innovation: synthesising concepts of knowledge co-creation in spaces of professional development

This paper explores how design thinking connects to concepts of knowledge creation and innovation. A case study of a knowledge sharing network in the social services sector is used to illustrate how design thinking supports Ba, the spaces for knowledge creation. Further exploration of the four enabling conditions for Ba resulted in delineation of two distinct types: relational and structural. Relational enablers support three groups of enabling conditions: interaction, shared values and communication. It is proposed that design thinking aligns well with relational enabling conditions for Ba to create the ideal spaces for knowledge creation. The group of structural enablers can assist or obstruct change and relate to the culture and management approaches of an organization, which may or may not be assisted by design thinking. However, to ensure that design thinking is not undermined, and innovation is achieved, the presence of an appropriate structural enabler is critical for success

New business and economic models in the connected digital economy

This paper discusses business models as a systemic phenomenon as opposed to traditional reductionistic approaches of business disciplines. It presents the ways connectivity change economic models due to the availability of consumption data as an economic resource, markets forming at consumption spaces, and how industries could disrupt one another when connected through consumption technologies. The paper further suggests that the challenges posed by connectivity results in the redrawing of traditional firm and market boundaries. It proposes for more research into modularity, transaction costs, the future role of the firm, and the necessary transformation of businesses to stay agile in a connected digital economy