An integrated model of innovation drivers for smaller software firms

High-technology innovation is essential for economic development in industrialized societies. However, innovation practice in smaller software companies has received little attention. We derive software innovation drivers and outputs from a fragmented literature and analyze their empirical relevance using qualitative data from 25 in-depth interviews with software executives in the Silicon Fen. Repeating patterns in the data set revealed through content analysis show that the most important innovation drivers for smaller software firms are external knowledge, leadership and team processes. Specialized innovation tools and techniques are hardly used. We develop a model of software innovation drivers, together with explorative theoretical propositions.This research work is supported by the Danish Research Council: grant no. 12-133180. Many thanks to the interviewees and the participating companies

New product development methods : a study of open design

Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-75).This thesis explores the application of open design to the process of developing physical products. Open design is a type of decentralized innovation that is derived from applying principles of open source software and crowdsourcing to product development. Crowdsourcing has gained popularity in the last decade, ranging from translation services, to marketing concepts, and new product funding. However, it is only in the past few years that open design has been considered as a method to create more innovative products in less time and for less money. While truly open design requires participants to collaborate and make contributions at each stage of the product development process, applications of open design to physical product development have been limited to accepting external contributions at only certain, less technical phases of design, such as planning, idea generation, or obtaining idea feedback. This thesis seeks to explore two questions related to creating a tool for open design in physical product development: what kind of tool can be developed to support crowdsourcing the full development of a physical product, and what types of design environments can benefit from this tool? Through a collaboration with GE Global Research for DARPA's Adaptive Vehicle Make (AVM) program, this thesis presents an early prototype of an online tool that allows for the open design of an entire product development process, in application to the development of a vehicle. Then, a framework is developed in order to identify the tool's applicability to other product development industries. Interviews with potential lead users in a number of different industrial sectors were conducted to better understand how this open design environment might be used and adapted for applications outside of a DARPA-driven vehicle design domain. Though the sensitive nature of projects in the defense and medical device industries prohibits this tool from used for its intended crowdsourcing purposes, there is promise for further development of the tool for uses in academic and education environments, and as an internal project management tool in other product development industries, such as aviation and consumer product design.by Ariadne G. Smith.S.M.S.M.in Technology and Polic