Pyramiding 2.0: Exaptation of the Pyramiding Approach to Recruit New Idea Contributors for a Virtual Ideas Competition

When searching for user innovations, the identification of so called ‘technology lead users’ is one of the most important tasks. However, scientific literature indicates that the present measures to search and to recruit new members imply high spreading losses. As a con-sequence we develop the “Pyramiding 2.0” approach. Building on existing literature we develop a theory-motivated approach for systematically recruiting participants for a crowdsourcing environment with the help of a virtual social network. This paper describes our reasons for using the pyramiding approach and elaborates on the supposed benefits that an adaption of the pyramiding search within an online setting implies. Our findings confirm the assumption that the pyramiding 2.0 approach can be successfully applied to recruit new idea contributors for a virtual ideas competition. Moreover, our results show that pyramiding can be applied within a virtual social network, thereby expanding existing literature within the field of pyramiding

Öppen innovationsmodell för samarbete mellan företag och universitet

Öppen innovation är ett trendord som uppkommit i världen av entreprenörer, denna trend kan spåras till Henry Chesbourgh som ”myntade” begreppet. Innovation är nå-got som driver en organisations forsknings- och utvecklingsavdelning att utveckla produkter eller affärsidéer. Tanken med öppen innovation är att öppna upp organisat-ionen mot relativt okända parter för att tillsammans driva forsknings- och utveckl-ingsprojekt. Genom att öppna upp sitt företag skapas möjligheter att samarbeta med parter som annars inte skulle tillfrågas, och på så vis kunna lösa problem inom den egna organisationen som det annars saknar resurser eller kunskap för att lösa själv. Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur en öppen innovationsmodell för ett företag skulle kunna se ut, i samarbete med jägmästarprogrammet vid Sveriges lantbruksuniversi-tet(SLU), samt se hur andra företag/organisationers nyttjar öppen innovation. Bak-grundsinformationen för modellen samlades in med ett teoretiskt ramverk samt inter-vjustudier. Även redan existerande samarbeten mellan SDC (Skogsdatacentralen) och universitetet nyttjades i modellen. Resultatet visade att andra organisationer nytt-jar öppen innovation som ett komplement till deras interna forskning och utveckling (F&U) genom att söka rätt på potentiella partners genom företag som agerar som intermediärer. Studien visade också att nyttjandet av öppen innovation ger högre chans till framgång än den traditionella stängda innovationsmetoden. Öppen innovat-ion visade sig vara en bra metod att jobba mot studenter för ett företag som strävar efter marknadsföring och utveckling. Studenter är en god källa till innovativa idéer samt att projekt med studenter kräver förhållandevis lite resurser av organisationen.Open innovation is a trend word that emerged in the world of entrepreneurs, this trend can be traced to Henry Chesbourgh who "coined" the term. Innovation drives the organization's research and development departments whose goal is the development of the organization's products or business ideas. The idea behind open innovation is to expose the internal information from the organization to relatively “unknown” par-ties to collectively pursue research and development projects. Exposing the organi-sation’s internal information to the other party creates an opportunity to solve prob-lems which otherwise would demand knowledge which the organisation does not have or cost too much resources. This study purpose was to create an open innovation model for a company which would help the company collaborate with students to develop new ideas for better utilization of the information flow in the forest industry. The second purpose was to study how other corporations used open innovation. The model was created to coop-erate with the student program of Master in science of forestry, in the Swedish Uni-versity of Agriculture Science (SLU). Background information for the model was gathered by interview study and a theoretical framework, the model also used already existing collaboration between a company (SDC) and the university. The result showed that other organizations used open innovation as a complement to their re-search and development departments, who worked by finding potential partner trough companies that work as intermediators. The study shows that projects driven by open innovation methods are more likely to succeed than the more traditional closed inno-vation methods. This study showed that students are a good source for innovative ideas and student projects do not require so many resources from the company

How Can Idea Campaigns Generate Ideas to Trigger Innovation?

Issue of study: The starting point for innovation is ideas, which can be seen as fuel to the innovation process as it supplies the innovation funnel with new or improved concepts that finally may spark innovation. There is a vast literature on the success of a few radical ideation methods and the use of creativity tools, while few have dealt with the use and effects of ideation approaches in practice. The idea for this master's thesis initially came from E.ON, a large utility company, which expressed a need to address the problem of internal ideation and how to take advantage of employees’ ideas to trigger innovation. Tapping into the creativity of employees and collecting their ideas is, in fact, a general desire of companies. However, managing ideation is a common challenge for large organisations. This is because ideation is often done autonomously in smaller organisations, whereas in large organisations a more structured approach towards idea management is needed in order to attain employees’ ideas. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of how large organisations in general, and E.ON in particular, can conduct an idea campaign successfully in the front end of innovation Methodology: Based on the purpose of this study, a qualitative case study with a deductive approach was chosen for this thesis. The data collection mainly includes responses gathered from surveys and interviews with representatives at pre-study companies, as well as with E.ON employees. Conclusions: Six key factors for managing ideation, namely communication, collaboration, incentives, innovation climate, management support, and idea management, have been identified during the course of this master’s thesis. These factors have been studied in literature and then been validated as important in a pre-study including six large Swedish companies, as well as in a case study conducted at E.ON. All of the key factors are considered to be important for managing ideation successfully in large organisations. Based on the identified key factors, an Idea Campaign Framework for how to conduct an idea campaign successfully was developed in this thesis. The framework as a whole includes three phases of ideation: ideation planning, ideation execution and ideation follow up. The main focus in this thesis has been on the execution phase, which was developed to help large organisations to conduct an idea campaign successfully. The execution phase illustrates how key factors should be addressed in order to trigger certain features, which in turn would lead to desired effects of a successful idea campaign. The Idea Campaign Framework has been empirically tested at E.ON in Malmö, through the launch of an idea competition called ‘Bright Ideas’. The idea competition was launched during two weeks in the spring of 2013 and resulted in 160 ideas. The empirical evidence from the test at the case company conclude that the elements in the Idea Campaign Framework are important to consider in attaining employees’ ideas in large organisations. To conclude, the framework may be used as a guide for how to conduct an idea campaign successfully in order to attain employees’ ideas and feed the innovation funnel

Práticas para melhoria da participação de uma empresa em uma interação universidade-empresa

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Ricardo Mendes JuniorDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Gestão da Informação. Defesa : Curitiba, 18/06/2020Inclui referências: p. 116-127Resumo: A interação universidade-empresa no âmbito da inovação é uma questão importante. Para a comunidade científica é relevante pelo intercâmbio de conhecimento e referência para futuros projetos. Para as empresas, contribui para o desenvolvimento do setor produtivo, que por sua vez tem como principal objetivo atender às demandas do mercado consumidor a partir do fornecimento de produtos e serviços que atendam às necessidades da sociedade. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo identificar quais práticas podem melhorar a participação de uma empresa em uma interação universidade-empresa. A pesquisa inclui a busca de referências relacionadas à inovação aberta, à interação universidade-empresa e às práticas de colaboração e inovação. E se baseia em um estudo de caso na Universidade Federal do Paraná - UFPR para a definição dos principais motivos que uma empresa procura uma instituição de ensino para participar de uma interação universidade-empresa visando a inovação de seus processos. O estudo fundamenta-se em entrevistas e documentos, nos quais se busca identificar as formas de interação, os motivadores, as barreiras e os facilitadores de um processo de interação universidade-empresa. No contexto desta pesquisa verifica-se que a maioria das práticas de inovação aberta não são comuns, encontrando-se alguma prática de relação entre empresas e o sistema de Ciência e Tecnologia e desenvolvimento de produtos por licenciamento de patentes desenvolvidas na universidade. Embora os regramentos da UFPR estimulem a inovação interna e as parcerias estas interações são reduzidas e não se verifica processos identificados como inovadores na literatura, como o design thinking. Entre as práticas relatadas as principais são: o contato direto entre pesquisador e colaboradores das empresas e o desenvolvimento de patentes. A maioria dos entrevistados considera a participação de entidades facilitadoras bastante relevantes, como é o caso da Agência de Inovação na UFPR, mas também núcleos de inovação tecnológica e fundações de fomento. O perfil do pesquisador é a característica mais relevante como fator motivador de interações universidade-empresa. E entre as barreiras, a burocracia do processo é a mais citada. Outras duas barreiras são o desconhecimento das regras do processo e as linguagens diferentes entre os atores participantes. Todas confirmadas pela literatura. Entre os fatores facilitadores, os processos empresariais foram os mais citados, seguido dos processos dentro da universidade e da rede de contatos que os profissionais e pesquisadores possuem. Os resultados indicam a importância e a possibilidade de utilização de técnicas de colaboração e de inovação para a geração de ideias entre universidades e empresas. Sem poder generalizar os resultados, no universo pesquisado as práticas mais promissoras para melhorar a participação de uma empresa em uma interação universidade-empresa são as relacionadas a alterações de processos dentro da universidade, que devem estar alinhados à preparação do perfil do pesquisador, à divulgação ampla e à participação da Agência de Inovação da UFPR. E seguida de novas formas de gerenciamento e divulgação da rede de pesquisadores para as empresas interessadas. Palavras-chave: Inovação aberta. Fatores influenciadores. Colaboração.Abstract: University-enterprise interaction in the innovation scope is an important issue. For the scientific community, it is relevant the knowledge exchange and reference for future projects. For companies, it contributes to the productive sector development, which in its turn has as main objective to meet the of the consumer market demands through the products and services supply that meet the society needs. This research aims to identify which practices can improve the enterprise participation in a universityenterprise interaction. The research includes the search for references related to open innovation, university-enterprise interaction and collaboration and innovation practices. And it is based on a case study at the Federal University of Paraná - UFPR to define the main reasons that an enterprise seeks an educational institution to participate in a university-enterprise interaction aimed at innovating its processes. The study is based on interviews and documents, in which it seeks to identify the interaction forms, the motivators, the barriers and the university-enterprise interaction process facilitators. In the context of this research, it appears that the open innovation practices majority are not common, with some relation practice between enterprise and the Science and Technology system and product development through patent licensing developed at the university. Although UFPR rules encourage internal innovation and partnerships, these interactions are reduced and there are no processes identified as innovative in the literature, such as design thinking. Among the practices reported, the main ones are direct contact between researchers and enterprise collaborators and the patents development. Most of the interviewees consider the facilitating entities participation to be very relevant, as is the Innovation Agency at UFPR case, but also centers for technological innovation and foundations for promotion. The researcher's profile is the most relevant characteristic as a motivating factor for university-enterprise interactions. And among the barriers, the process bureaucracy is the most cited. Two other barriers are the process rules ignorance and the different languages between the participating actors. All confirmed by the literature. Among the facilitating factors, business processes were the most cited, followed by university internal processes and the professionals and researchers contacts network. The results indicate the collaboration and innovation techniques importance and their use possibility to generate ideas between universities and companies. Without being able to generalize the results, in the universe researched the most promising practices to improve the enterprise participation in a university-enterprise interaction are related to changes in university internal processes, which must be prepared for the researcher's profile elaboration, for disclosure broad and Innovation Agency at UFPR participation. And followed by new managing and disseminating ways the researchers' network to interested enterprise. Keywords: Open innovation. Motivational Factors. Collaboration

Forderung und Förderung der Teilnahme Älterer an Innovationsprozessen

Trotz des Demografischen Wandels richten Unternehmen in Deutschland ihr Augenmerk nach wie vor hauptsächlich auf jüngere Konsumentengruppen. Die vorliegende Arbeit hatte zum Ziel, grundlegende Voraussetzungen für die Einbindung älterer Konsumenten in Open Innovation-Prozesse zu erheben und Hinweise zu erarbeiten, wie diese Einbindung realisiert werden kann. Diese Voraussetzungen wurden durch zwei voneinander unabhängige Befragungen der an Open Innovation-Projekten beteiligten Parteien erhoben. Die erste Studie, bei der (n = 111) Entscheider in Unternehmen befragt wurden, sollte erstmals grundsätzliche Voraussetzungen für die Einbindung älterer Konsumenten in offene Innovationsprozesse erheben. Zum Zeitpunkt der Erhebung war eine hohe Bereitschaft zur Implementation von Open Innovation-Prozessen vorhanden, wenngleich erst ein geringer Anteil der Unternehmen derartige Prozesse bereits nutzt. Ältere Konsumenten wurden jedoch im Vergleich zu jüngeren nicht in einem angemessenen Ausmaß als relevante Zielgruppe erkannt. Mit steigendem Alter potenzieller Teilnehmer sinkt die Bereitschaft der Unternehmen deutlich, diese einzubinden. Mit der zweiten Befragung sollten die Voraussetzungen für eine erfolgreiche Partizipation an Open-Innovation-Projekten auf Konsumentenseite umfassend erhoben und mögliche Einflüsse des Lebensalters aufgedeckt werden. Mittels einer bevölkerungsrepräsentativen Befragung (n = 502) wurde erstmals der Anteil von Innovatoren an der deutschen Bevölkerung bestimmt. Zudem wurde erstmals die generelle Bereitschaft zur Teilnahme an Open Innovation-Projekten erfasst, und es wurden umfassend die Faktoren erhoben, die diese Teilnahmebereitschaft beeinflussen. Mithilfe von Faktorenanalysen wurden Einflussfaktoren auf zugrundeliegende Dimensionen verdichtet, um dann mithilfe von bivariaten logistischen Regressionsanalysen förderliche Faktoren für die Teilnahmebereitschaft zu identifizieren. Dem Lebensalter kommt weder ein bedeutsamer Einfluss auf die zur Teilnahme notwendige Innovativität noch auf die generelle Teilnahmebereitschaft zu. Die Herausforderung für die Praxis besteht nach den Ergebnissen beider Studien insbesondere darin, die bei Unternehmensentscheidern vorhandenen Fehlannahmen eines negativen Zusammenhangs zwischen höherem Lebensalter und dem Ausmaß der Innovativität abzubauen, um so die Implikationen des Demografischen Wandels für den Produkt- und Dienstleistungsmarkt als Chance für das Unternehmenswachstum zu erkennen und ihre Wirkung zu verstehen und damit nutzbar machen zu können

WSN based sensing model for smart crowd movement with identification: a conceptual model

With the advancement of IT and increase in world population rate, Crowd Management (CM) has become a subject undergoing intense study among researchers. Technology provides fast and easily available means of transport and, up-to-date information access to the people that causes crowd at public places. This imposes a big challenge for crowd safety and security at public places such as airports, railway stations and check points. For example, the crowd of pilgrims during Hajj and Ummrah while crossing the borders of Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To minimize the risk of such crowd safety and security identification and verification of people is necessary which causes unwanted increment in processing time. It is observed that managing crowd during specific time period (Hajj and Ummrah) with identification and verification is a challenge. At present, many advanced technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) are being used to solve the crowed management problem with minimal processing time. In this paper, we have presented a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based conceptual model for smart crowd movement with minimal processing time for people identification. This handles the crowd by forming groups and provides proactive support to handle them in organized manner. As a result, crowd can be managed to move safely from one place to another with group identification. The group identification minimizes the processing time and move the crowd in smart way