Role of regional policies in promoting networking and innovation activity of firms

The success of firms and regions is increasingly defined by their innovation and learning capabilities. It has been emphasized in several studies that a local operational environment may have a positive impact on innovation activity of firms. From policy point of view, the relationship between firms and their local environment is an important research topic. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether there is a demand for regional policy makers in promoting innovative and networking activity of firms, and what are the appropriate strategies in this regard. The concept of innovative milieu provides a theoretical base for this study. The data used is based on personal interviews representing 30 high tech firms located in Jyväskylä Science Park in Finland. The results show that the firms appreciate an individual-level approach by policy makers which enables them to take the real needs of firms into consideration. A developed service structure, that is planned to meet the demand of new and established firms as well as possible, is an essential part of the well functioning operational environment. Supporting contacts with service providers and experts from different fields and organizing collective meetings for firms are important targets for the policy makers. In the innovation process, a commercial view of external part is considered very crucial. The small advances which alternate between the development of the innovation process and networks among firms and their interest groups could form a favourable path towards an operational environment with efficient innovative networks.

Evaluating the public value of social innovation

Services that were traditionally delivered by the public sector are now proving difficult for the state to afford due to economic and socio-political challenges faced by society. In this context, social innovation plays an important role as it encourages civil society, private, public and third sector organisations to work together to find alternative ways of delivering services. This paper evaluates the influence of social innovation in creating public value through services offered to the community at both local and national levels in the UK. Three diverse cases are used from the UK context and analysed through a public value lens to examine the role of community, private, public and third sector organisations in driving social innovation. The findings highlight how social innovation contributes to addressing civil society needs while simultaneously contributing to the political and economic agendas of a country and the exploitation of science for the benefit of communities

Mapping and Developing Service Design Research in the UK.

This report is the outcome of the Service Design Research UK (SDR UK) Network with Lancaster University as primary investigator and London College of Communication, UAL as co-investigator. This project was funded as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council Network grant. Service Design Research UK (SDR UK), funded by an AHRC Network Grant, aims to create a UK research network in an emerging field in Design that is Service Design. This field has a recent history and a growing, but still small and dispersed, research community that strongly needs support and visibility to consolidate its knowledge base and enhance its potential impact. Services represent a significant part of the UK economy and can have a transformational role in our society as they affect the way we organize, move, work, study or take care of our health and family. Design introduces a more human centred and creative approach to service innovation; this is critical to delivering more effective and novel solutions that have the potential to tackle contemporary challenges. Service Design Research UK reviewed and consolidated the emergence of Service Design within the estalished field of Design

Designing Scalable Business Models

Digital business models are often designed for rapid growth, and some relatively young companies have indeed achieved global scale. However despite the visibility and importance of this phenomenon, analysis of scale and scalability remains underdeveloped in management literature. When it is addressed, analysis of this phenomenon is often over-influenced by arguments about economies of scale in production and distribution. To redress this omission, this paper draws on economic, organization and technology management literature to provide a detailed examination of the sources of scaling in digital businesses. We propose three mechanisms by which digital business models attempt to gain scale: engaging both non- paying users and paying customers; organizing customer engagement to allow self- customization; and orchestrating networked value chains, such as platforms or multi-sided business models. Scaling conditions are discussed, and propositions developed and illustrated with examples of big data entrepreneurial firms

Sustainable business models: integrating employees, customers and technology

This Special Issue of the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing has the same title as the 23rd International Conference CBIM 2018 (June 18-20, 2018, Madrid, Spain) “Sustainable Business Models: Integrating Employees, Customers and Technology”. In this edition of International Conference, following a competitive blind review process, papers from 126 authors and 25 countries were ultimately accepted. The best papers of the Conference were invited to submit to this Special Issue and we were also open to direct submissions from other authors. We present here the 17 accepted papers for publication in this Special Issue

Are Business Incubators helping? The role of BIs in facilitating tenants’ development

Business incubators (BI) are among a variety of initiatives to stimulate economic growth by promoting the creation and development of new companies. The rapid growth of BIs in recent years confirms their importance in the economic fabric. In this study, we conceptualize BIs using insights from knowledge based theory of the firm, resource-based view thinking and capabilities literature. BIs will be seen as service providers geared towards helping their tenants in solving developmental problems. The more problems the BI helps to solve the bigger the incubation value for tenants; further, as tenant firms solve problems they develop important capabilities which will yield increase their chances of survival once they graduate. Results show that tenants unequivocally seek support after experiencing problems. Solving those problems is a function of BI support and other external sources part of each tenant firm’s network of contacts. Age and human capital of tenant firms have a negative impact in the total number of the problems solved, suggesting BIs’ deficiencies in helping more experienced and older tenants. Our main contribution is to shed light on the processes of delivering support to young firms within BIs. Importantly, we assess the value of the BIs’ intervention by measuring the amount of developmental problems they help tenants to overcome. Finally, we discuss the implication of our finding to BI managers, prospective tenants and policy makers

How costumers’ way of life influence the value co-creation

Purpose: This article is a contribution to the understanding of how value arises in wellestablished markets, and under which circumstances actors integrate resources from different service ecosystems to generate value. To understand this phenomenon, it is fundamental to consider which practices are performed by customers to co-create value and how they do so. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a qualitative approach, the study provides fresh empirical insight into well-established market processes of value creation. After a literature review an ethnographic approach was chosen in order to understand how co-creation processes occur in the empirical setting of an international restaurant chain. Several observations, conversations and semi-structured interviews were undertaken concerning the analysis of the topic under study. Findings: The results show that even in a well-established market, a provider must consider individual customers’ distinct needs, present in their daily practices, to be able to assist them in the value creation process. It is argued that the practice styles are the building blocks for prevailing ways of life that actors assume, according to the context in which they are, to integrate resources. Practical implications: The study includes implications for service providers of a wellfounded market for facilitating value co-creation along with customers and fulfils the need to better understand this phenomenon. Originality/Value: Recent studies call for empirical evidence on co-creation processes in mature markets, accordingly, this study brings an additional understanding on how actors, depending on the context, adopt different ways of life that require unique resources, which activate to achieve what they want, in order to establish room for co-creation.peer-reviewe

Design Fiction Diegetic Prototyping: A Research Framework for Visualizing Service Innovations

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Purpose: This paper presents a design fiction diegetic prototyping methodology and research framework for investigating service innovations that reflect future uses of new and emerging technologies. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on speculative fiction, we propose a methodology that positions service innovations within a six-stage research development framework. We begin by reviewing and critiquing designerly approaches that have traditionally been associated with service innovations and futures literature. In presenting our framework, we provide an example of its application to the Internet of Things (IoT), illustrating the central tenets proposed and key issues identified. Findings: The research framework advances a methodology for visualizing future experiential service innovations, considering how realism may be integrated into a designerly approach. Research limitations/implications: Design fiction diegetic prototyping enables researchers to express a range of ‘what if’ or ‘what can it be’ research questions within service innovation contexts. However, the process encompasses degrees of subjectivity and relies on knowledge, judgment and projection. Practical implications: The paper presents an approach to devising future service scenarios incorporating new and emergent technologies in service contexts. The proposed framework may be used as part of a range of research designs, including qualitative, quantitative and mixed method investigations. Originality: Operationalizing an approach that generates and visualizes service futures from an experiential perspective contributes to the advancement of techniques that enables the exploration of new possibilities for service innovation research

Governance: public governance to social innovation?

ArticleThis paper reviews governance and public governance related to an emerging area of policy interest – social innovation. The European Commission’s White Paper on European Governance (2001) focused on openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence in public policy as characteristics of good governance. The EC has prioritised social innovation to address policy problems. Yet, the extant literature and research on social innovation is sparse. The paper questions whether it is a new mode of governance which contributes to good governance or a continuum of neoliberal reforms of the state which alters the relationship between the state, market and civil society