Roles of Information Technology in Distributed and Open Innovation Process

In the era of open and distributed innovation, Information Technology (IT) must be leveraged by organizations to reach, record and review ideas from internal (eg. employees) and external sources (eg. business partners). IT can support and enable this process, but only when its roles are understood and when properly deployed. Existing research has inadequately established these roles. Using the processvalue- of-IT lens, we apply a two-step exploratory research. First, the integration process is uncovered; second, the roles and potential of IT are discussed. Three distinct conceptual roles have been identified from the literature review and from interviews in 30 US and European companies that successfully collaborate with externals: Understanding and managing sources, Documenting idea history and source interactions, and Distribution and sharing of ideas. Some of the existing and emerging approaches to support cooperative activities (tool kits, idea management software, wikis) have been considered in context to outline opportunities and trends in the era of open, distributed, and IT-enabled innovation.</p

An Exploration of the Relationship between Boundary Spanning and Organizational Performance

Technology ManagementIn this paper, we present a study that examines how individuals who take the role of boundary spanner affect organizational innovativeness inside the team. Recently, there has been growing attention from burgeoning interests in open innovation and interdisciplinary R&D on boundary spanning and its impact on innovative culture or the capability of organizations. Boundary spanning is concerned with detecting internal or external information and then creating networks that connect between the environment and the organization. Such informational boundary spanners successfully translate acquired information and knowledge across communication boundaries. Therefore, they are considered key players of open innovation in many cases. To fill this role, they are usually aware of contextual conditions on both sides of the boundary and able to control the situation inside the firm. For organizational innovativeness, we consider ambidexterity and absorptive capacity as theoretical foundations of our research. Ambidexterity refers to an organizational characteristic that pursues the balance between exploration of new knowledge and exploitation of existing knowledge. It is not counterintuitive that boundary spanning is associated with the activities of exploration as they are intended for tapping into diverse expertise and insights. Our research model posits associations among vertical and horizontal boundary spanning within an organization, organizational combinative capabilities, and ambidexterity. We expect that this study can provide a better understanding on the dynamic mechanism of boundary spanning and the role of innovation leaders and also an insight into the questions: what is the bottleneck in the innovation process of our company? And how can we overcome the obstacles? Specifically, we will examine the relation among (1) Boundary spanning, (2) Diversity inside the unit, (3) Empowerment, (4) Ambidexterity, (5) Organizational performance. Thus, the main goal of this research is to examine whether the organizational performance varies as a results of boundary spanning roles which could be influenced by the diversity of the unit and empowerment. The main method of our study was survey of professionals working in R&D departments. After reviewing relevant literature and selecting a pool of items, we conducted a survey. The questionnaire distributed randomly, and we mainly used survey instruments adopted from prior works. All components inside construct were measured with multi-item scales. Boundary spanners, ambidexterity, power relation, diversity, and performance were the latent variables. To remove the common method bias, we used Modern MTMM technique and Harman’s single-factor test. Also we examined differences between non-response biases. After checking the construct and content validity, and the reliability of the instruments, we employed PLS (partial least squares regression) analysis to find out the relations among variables.ope

Innovation brokers and their roles in value chain-network innovation: preliminary findings and a research agenda

Intervention approaches have been implemented in developing countries to enhance farmer's livelihoods through improving their linkages to markets and inclusiveness in agricultural value chains. Such interventions are aimed at facilitating the inclusion of small farmers not just in the vertical activities of the value chain (coordination of the chain) but also in the horizontal activities (cooperation in the chain). Therefore value addition is made by not just innovating products and services, but also by innovating social processes, which we define as Value Chain-Network Innovation. In Value Chain-Network Innovation, linkage formation among networks and optimisation is one of the main objectives of innovation enhancing interventions. Here some important roles for innovation brokers are envisaged as crucial to dynamise this process, connecting different actors of the innovation system, paying special attention to the weaker ones. However, little attention has been given to identify different innovation brokering roles in those approaches, and to the need that they facilitate innovation processes and open safe spaces for innovation and social learning at different organisational settings and levels, to have more effective and sustainable impacts. This paper offers some preliminary empirical evidence of the roles of innovation brokers in a developing country setting, recognising the context-sensitive nature of innovations. Two cases from work experience with intervention approaches are analysed in light of the theories of innovation brokering, presenting some empirical evidence of different types of arrangements made by innovation brokers. A third case was taken from the literature. Data from questionnaires, key informant interviews, participant observations of different types of activities and processes carried out in those approaches, SWOT analysis and project reports were used for the analysis of different types of brokering roles and to draw some lessons. One important outcome of this preliminary analysis was that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in integration with other media facilitate new ways of social organisation and interaction of innovation networks, which offer more possibilities for processes of innovation, aggregating value to the production and sharing of knowledge. There is already a transition of paradigm for approaching agricultural innovation to more participative and open approaches, which offers a promissory landscape for organising the value chain actors in a way that is more favourable for small farmers

Designing a novel virtual collaborative environment to support collaboration in design review meetings

Project review meetings are part of the project management process and are organised to assess progress and resolve any design conflicts to avoid delays in construction. One of the key challenges during a project review meeting is to bring the stakeholders together and use this time effectively to address design issues as quickly as possible. At present, current technology solutions based on BIM or CAD are information-centric and do not allow project teams to collectively explore the design from a range of perspectives and brainstorm ideas when design conflicts are encountered. This paper presents a system architecture that can be used to support multi-functional team collaboration more effectively during such design review meetings. The proposed architecture illustrates how information-centric BIM or CAD systems can be made human- and team-centric to enhance team communication and problem solving. An implementation of the proposed system architecture has been tested for its utility, likability and usefulness during design review meetings. The evaluation results suggest that the collaboration platform has the potential to enhance collaboration among multi-functional teams

Open innovation processes in living lab innovation systems: insights from the LeYLab

Living labs have emerged on the crossroads of the open innovation and user innovation frameworks. As open innovation systems, living labs consist of various actors with each playing their specific role. Within this article, we will take an open innovation perspective by analyzing the knowledge spill-overs between living lab actors through three in-depth innovation case studies taking place within the LeYLab living lab in Kortrijk, Belgium. The results illustrate how living labs foster the three open innovation processes of exploration, exploitation, and retention. From our analysis, we conclude that living labs are particularly useful for exploration and, to a lesser extent, exploitation. In terms of retention, living labs seem to hold a large potential; however, the success and the nature of the innovation processes depend on the sustainability of living labs, the number of innovation cases, and the alignment of these cases with the living lab infrastructure. Based on these findings, a concrete set of guidelines is proposed for innovating in living labs and for setting up a living lab constellation. - See more at: http://timreview.ca/article/743#sthash.1DkRkCxW.dpu

Innovation and identity in distance language learning and teaching

doi: 10.2167/illt45.0Innovation in distance language learning and teaching has largely focused on developments in technology and the increased opportunities they provide for negotiation and control of learning experiences, for participating in collaborative learning environments and the development of interactive competence in the target language. Much less attention has been paid to pedagogical innovation and still less to how congruence develops between particular pedagogical approaches, various technologies and the skills, practices, actions and identities of language learners and teachers. In this article I explore the process of innovation in distance language teaching from the point of view of key participants in the process, the teachers, and the ways in which their identities are disrupted and challenged as they enter new distance teaching environments. Innovative approaches to distance language teaching are analysed for the insights they provide into the sites of conflict and struggle experienced by teachers, experiences which have a major impact on their selves as distance teachers and on the course of innovation. To conclude I argue that attention to issues of identity can deepen our understanding of innovation, of the tensions that are played out in the experiences and responses of teachers, and of the ways they accept or resist the identity shifts required of them

EGI: anOpen e-Infrastructure Ecosystem for the Digital European Research Area

Bringing the digital European Research Area (ERA) online means modernising Europe’s research infrastructure by promoting open science through the availability, accessibility and reuse of scientific data and results, the use of web- based tools that facilitate scientific collaboration and ensuring public access to research. As the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) is the largest European distributed computing infrastructure providing 24/7 access to large scale computing, storage and data resources through a federation of national resource providers, it allows scientists from all disciplines to make the most out of the latest computing technologies for the benefit of their research. This paper describes the methodology and approach for defining EGI’s role in bringing this digital ERA online. The work presented defines the roles and functions of EGI as an open ICT ecosystem, required service redesign, the added value of EGI for the European research communities and demonstrates the role that EGI plays in contributing to the Europe 2020 strategy for social-economic impact