Facilitating practice-led co-innovation for the improvement in animal welfare

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this recordUsing the egg-laying-hen sector as a case study, the European Union-funded ‘Hennovation’ thematic network has been testing mechanisms to enable practice-led innovation through the establishment of 19 innovation networks of farmers and within the laying-hen processing industry, supported by existing science and market-driven actors. These networks were facilitated to proactively search for, share and use new ideas to improve hen welfare, efficiency and sustainability. This article provides insights into the tools used, including a framework for the facilitation of practice-led collaborative innovation processes. This framework was developed through participatory action research to monitor network performance and self-reflection by facilitators. Practice-led innovation processes are network specific and evolve as the actors within the network come together to share common problems, experiment with possible solutions and learn. The participatory and iterative nature of this process leads to uncertainty in process and end results. This raises methodological challenges in the management of such processes and requires a flexible and adaptive management approach focusing on learning and reflection.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The article draws upon research and discussions conducted under the HENNOVATION project, a H2020 EU collaborative research project with six academic partners funded under the topic ‘Innovative, Sustainable and Inclusive Bioeconomy’ ISIB-2-2014/ 2015: Closing the research and innovation divide: the crucial role of innovation support services and knowledge exchange. Grant agreement no 652638

Can policy design help organizations improve their networking capabilities? An empirical analysis on a regional policy

In parallel with the interest in networks of innovation on the part of the academic literature, policymakers are increasingly recognizing the important systemic nature of innovation processes, involving many agents often engaged in networks of relationships (OECD, 1997; Mytelka and Smith, 2002; European Commission, 2003; Nauwelaers and Wintjes, 2008), and they are increasingly supporting the creation of networks among firms and other types of organizations. Examples are the EU Framework Programmes (Breschi and Malerba, 2009; Tindemans, 2009) as well as the many national and regional policies launched in the past decade or so (Branstetter and Sakakibara, 2002; Caloghirou et al, 2004; Russo and Rossi, 2009; Bellandi and Caloffi, 2010; Cunningham and Ramlogan, 2012). Policies for innovation networks usually aim to support joint R&D, technological development or technology transfer projects or even, sometimes, networking per se (with a view to create a “critical mass” of experts or users in a certain technology). At the same time, these policy interventions may also help the participants improve their ability to perform collaborative innovation, by allowing them to gain experience in working with external partners on a specific activity. Such behavioural outcomes, while not generally considered the main objective of these policies, have the potential to generate long-lasting beneficial changes in the participants’ competences and abilities (Gök and Edler, 2012). An important question for policy design is what kind of networks should be supported, if the objective of the policy is not just to fund “successful” innovation projects, but also to increase the participants’ ability to engage in collaborative innovation. Should policies simply provide funding to innovation networks on the basis of an assessment of the project they intend to realize, or should they promote the setup of networks with specific features, in order to increase the agents’ innovative potential through networking

A Holistic Algorithm for Materials Requirement Planning in Collaborative Networks

[EN] Collaboration has increasingly been considered a key topic within the small and medium-sized enterprises, allowing dealing with the intense competitiveness of today¿s globalised markets. The European H2020 Cloud Collaborative Manufacturing Networks Project proposes mechanisms to encourage collaboration among enterprises, through the computation of collaborative plans. Particularly, this paper focuses on the proposal of a holistic algorithm to deal with the automated and collaborative calculation of the Materials Requirement Plan. The proposed algorithm is validated in a collaborative network belonging to the automotive industry.The research leading to these results is in the frame of the “Cloud Collaborative Manufacturing Networks” (C2NET) project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 636909.Andres, B.; Poler, R.; Sanchis, R. (2017). A Holistic Algorithm for Materials Requirement Planning in Collaborative Networks. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. 560:41-50. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65151-4_4S4150560CORDIS Europa: Factories of the Future. H2020-EU.2.1.5.1. - Technologies for Factories of the Future (2014)H2020 Project C2NET (2015). http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/193440_en.htmlAndres, B., Sanchis, R., Poler, R.: A cloud platform to support collaboration in supply networks. Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. 4(1), 5–13 (2016)Andres, B., Sanchis, R., Lamothe, J., Saari, L., Hauser, F.: Integrated production-distribution planning optimization models: a review in collaborative networks context. Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng. 5(1), 31–38 (2017)Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Afsarmanesh, H.: Collaborative networks: a new scientific discipline. J. Intell. Manuf. 16(4–5), 439–452 (2005)Andres, B., Poler, R.: Models, guidelines and tools for the integration of collaborative processes in non-hierarchical manufacturing networks: a review. Int. J. Comput. Integr. Manuf. 2(29), 166–201 (2016)Sanchis, R., Poler, R., Lario, F.C.: Identification and analysis of Disruptions: the first step to understand and measure Enterprise Resilience. In: International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, pp. 424–431 (2012)Andres, B., Saari, L., Lauras, M., Eizaguirre, F.: Optimization algorithms for collaborative manufacturing and logistics processes. In: Zelm, M., Doumeingts, G., Mendonça, J.P. (eds.) Enterprise Interoperability in the Digitized and Netwroked Factory of the Future, iSTE 2016, pp. 167–173 (2016)Orbegozo, A., Andres, B., Mula, J., Lauras, M., Monteiro, C., Malheiro, M.: An overview of optimization models for integrated replenishment and production planning decisions. In: Building Bridges Between Researchers and Practitioners. Book of Abstracts of the International Joint Conference CIO-ICIEOM-IISE-AIM (IJC 2016), p. 68 (2016

Collaborative wellness through dynamic role alignment

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.The pressures to solve the complex social problems of our modern interconnected society have placed an emphasis on the use of knowledge creation collaborations to devise process and design innovations for tackling complex social problems. Despite extensive discussion in the literature, a theory for collaboration in meta-organisations that would inform improving product and process innovation has yet to emerge. To address this situation I treated a knowledge creation collaboration as a human centric, complex, adaptable social system that organisations use to solve problems in product or process innovation. Progress is monitored by assessing the gap between the current state and the state if the purpose of the collaboration was fulfilled. I call this gap “Collaborative wellness (CW)”. Collaborative processes are characterised by communications in social networks created by the interactions of knowledge creators. A knowledge creator will only participate in such a collaboration if they have the confidence to meet their assigned responsibilities. In deciding to participate, a knowledge creator interprets their responsibilities to create and perform a role-in-use which they dynamically adapt and align to the collaboration’s purpose as circumstances change. In collaboration, knowledge creators negotiate compatibility between their roles-in-use and thereby form a shared sense of purpose to fulfil the collaboration’s responsibilities. The concept of role-in-use alignment is central to my research. I devised the “Collaborative Wellness System (CWS)” as a theory informed system of collaborative relationships in a framework with measures to support the evaluation and application of improvement strategies to existing collaborations. CWS may also inform the design of new collaborations. CWS is deployed as a customised architecture to suit a particular collaboration using perspectives developed from my practical experience. Improvement has the goal of enhancing both sustainability (doing more with less) and the value derived from using the created knowledge in process and product innovation. The measures of CWS form a tree structure that provides a detailed assessment across selected perspectives of a collaboration at a particular point in time. CWS relates measures to structures, processes and relationships. Four case studies validated CWS and provided a basis for a collaborative wellness scale to compare collaborations and their processes. The research has application in business process restructuring, logistics and disaster relief

Networked by design: can policy constraints support the development of capabilities for collaborative innovation?

While there has been some recent interest in the behavioural effects of policies in support of innovation networks, this research field is still relatively new. In particular, an important but under-researched question for policy design is “what kind of networks” should be supported, if the objective of the policy is not just to fund successful innovation projects, but also to stimulate behavioural changes in the participants, such as increasing their ability to engage in collaborative innovation. By studying the case of the innovation policy programmes implemented by the regional government of Tuscany, in Italy, between 2002 and 2008, we assess whether the imposition of constraints on the design of innovation networks has enhanced the participants’ collaborative innovation capabilities, and we draw some general implications for policy

Innovation, generative relationships and scaffolding structures: implications of a complexity perspective to innovation for public and private interventions

The linear model of innovation has been superseded by a variety of theoretical models that view the innovation process as systemic, complex, multi-level, multi-temporal, involving a plurality of heterogeneous economic agents. Accordingly, the emphasis of the policy discourse has changed over time. The focus has shifted from the direct public funding of basic research as an engine of innovation, to the creation of markets for knowledge goods, to, eventually, the acknowledgement that knowledge transfer very often requires direct interactions among innovating actors. In most cases, policy interventions attempt to facilitate the match between “demand” and “supply” of the knowledge needed to innovate. A complexity perspective calls for a different framing, one focused on the fostering of processes characterized by multiple agency levels, multiple temporal scales, ontological uncertainty and emergent outcomes. This contribution explores what it means to design interventions in support of innovation processes inspired by a complex systems perspective. It does so by analyzing two examples of coordinated interventions: a public policy funding innovating networks (with SMEs, research centers and university), and a private initiative, promoted by a network of medium-sized mechanical engineering firms, that supports innovation by means of technology brokerage. Relying on two unique datasets recording the interactions of the organizations involved in these interventions, social network analysis and qualitative research are combined in order to investigate network dynamics and the roles of specific actors in fostering innovation processes. Then, some general implications for the design of coordinated interventions supporting innovation in a complexity perspective are drawn

The balanced scorecard logic in the management control and reporting of small business company networks: a case study

The purpose of this paper is to assess and integrate the application of the balance scorecard (BSC) logic into business networks identifying functions and use that such performance measuring tool may undertake for SME’s collaborative development. Thus, the paper analyses a successful case study regarding an Italian network of small companies, evaluating how the multidimensional perspective of BSC can support strategic and operational network management as well as communication of financial and extra financial performance to stakeholders. The study consists of a qualitative method, proposing the application of BSC model for business networks from international literature. Several meetings and interviews as well as triangulation with primary and secondary documents have been conducted. The case study allows to recognize how BSC network logic can play a fundamental role on defining network mission, supporting management control as well as measuring and reporting the intangible assets formation along the network development lifecycle. This is the first time application of a BSC integrated framework for business networks composed of SMEs. The case study demonstrates operational value of BSC for SME’s collaborative development and success

Local Nodes in Global Networks: The Geography of Knowledge Flows in Biotechnology Innovation

The literature on innovation and interactive learning has tended to emphasize the importance of local networks, inter-firm collaboration and knowledge flows as the principal source of technological dynamism. More recently, however, this view has come to be challenged by other perspectives that argue for the importance of non-local knowledge flows. According to this alternative approach, truly dynamic economic regions are characterized both by dense local social interaction and knowledge circulation, as well as strong inter-regional and international connections to outside knowledge sources and partners. This paper offers an empirical examination of these issues by examining the geography of knowledge flows associated with innovation in biotechnology. We begin by reviewing the growing literature on the nature and geography of innovation in biotechnology research and the commercialization process. Then, focusing on the Canadian biotech industry, we examine the determinants of innovation (measured through patenting activity), paying particular attention to internal resources and capabilities of the firm, as well as local and global flows of knowledge and capital. Our study is based on the analysis of Statistics Canada’s 1999 Survey of Biotechnology Use and Development, which covers 358 core biotechnology firms. Our findings highlight the importance of in-house technological capability and absorptive capacity as determinants of successful innovation in biotechnology firms. Furthermore, our results document the precise ways in which knowledge circulates, in both embodied and disembodied forms, both locally and globally. We also highlight the role of formal intellectual property transactions (domestic and international) in promoting knowledge flows. Although we document the importance of global networks in our findings, our results also reveal the value of local networks and specific forms of embedding. Local relational linkages are especially important when raising capital—and the expertise that comes with it—to support innovation. Nevertheless, our empirical results raise some troubling questions about the alleged pre-eminence of the local in fostering innovation

The role of urban living labs in a smart city

In a rapidly changing socio-technical environment cities are increasingly seen as main drivers for change. Against this backdrop, this paper studies the emerging Urban Living Lab and Smart City concepts from a project based perspective, by assessing a series of five Smart City initiatives within one local city ecosystem. A conceptual and analytical framework is used to analyse the architecture, nature and outcomes of the Smart City Ghent and the role of Urban Living Labs. The results of our analysis highlight the potential for social value creation and urban transition. However, current Smart City initiatives face the challenge of evolving from demonstrators towards real sustainable value. Furthermore, Smart Cities often have a technological deterministic, project-based approach, which forecloses a sustainable, permanent and growing future for the project outcomes. ‘City-governed’ Urban Living Labs have an interesting potential to overcome some of the identified challenges