Collaboration between housebuilding firms and suppliers for the implementation of innovation strategies: a strategy-as-practice approach

Establishing long-term relationships, collaborating and making decisions with suppliers has become a major requisite for firms’ competitiveness and for implementing innovation. In a relatively unbounded context, such as the construction industry, innovation takes place across a network of loosely coupled organisations. Thus, cooperation and efficient communication must transcend organisational boundaries in order for successful innovation to occur. This paper adopts a strategyas- practice (S-A-P) approach to understand how innovation “strategizing” takes place between firms and suppliers and how power relations influence its implementation. This is used to examine how social practices, such as strategic meetings and workshops, bring about the coproduction of innovations between firms. The paper sets out a novel theoretical approach comprising targeted ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews. These are used as a framework for identifying how innovation takes place by analysing how collaborative innovation between the firms and their suppliers is executed, and in particular how power is distributed between and across those actors. It is argued that this approach offers a novel theoretical contribution towards understanding of how innovation takes place across interorganisational boundaries and the collaborative mechanisms that might support it

Design Thinking Innovation Within the Quadruple Helix Approach: a Proposed Framework to Enhance Student Engagement Through Active Learning in Digital Marketing Pedagogy

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for enhancing student engagement through active learning and design thinking workshops online. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need for digital engagement exponentially, yet the important experiences of collaborative and active learning (AL) have become more challenging to facilitate and support in circumstances of remote access during classes. As such, design thinking (DT) online presented a unique opportunity to explore this collaborative approach to engaging in user-centred design and design innovation. To explore a specific curriculum design dilemma and validate the methodology adopted, online DT workshops were conducted with two different cohorts of students toward co-creating more student-centred forms of learning in two digital marketing (DM) courses. The approach was guided by the POLARIS active learning framework to embed the framework’s seven perspectives (Purpose, Objectives, Learning landscape, Activities and assessment, Resources, Inter-relation with stakeholders, and Student engagement) which were considered to better enhance student engagement in an online learning environment. Using the framework proposed, which additionally integrates Quadruple Helix Model (QHM) actors, would facilitate further DT innovation towards co-creating new value in digital marketing pedagogy, curriculum design, and beyond

Integration in the European Research Area by means of the European Framework Programmes. Findings from Eigenvector filtered spatial interaction models

One of the main goals of the European Research Area (ERA) concept is to improve coherence and integration across the European research landscape by removing barriers for collaborative knowledge production in a European system of innovation. The cornerstone of policy instruments in this context is the European Framework Programme (FP) that supports pre-competitive collaborative R&D projects, creating a pan-European network of actors performing joint R&D. However, we know only little about the contribution of the FPs to the realisation of ERA. The objective of this study is to monitor progress towards ERA by identifying the evolution of separation effects, such as spatial, institutional, cultural or technological barriers, which influence cross-region R&D collaboration intensities between 255 European NUTS-2 regions in the FPs over the time period 1999-2006. By this, the study builds on recent work by Scherngell and Barber (2009) that addresses this question from a static perspective. We employ Poisson spatial interaction models taking into account spatial autocorrelation among residual flows by using Eigenvector spatial filtering methods. The results show that geographical distance and country border effects gradually decrease over time when correcting for spatial autocorrelation among flows. Thus, the study provides evidence for the contribution of the FPs to the realisation of ERA.

UIG Collaboration in Malaysia: The Significance of Intermediary Organization

In recent years, there has been a huge debate among researchers in identifying the best University- Industry-Government (UIG) partnership model which could drive innovation. The problems with UIG collaboration are due to differences in objectives, functions, and mechanisms among stakeholders, therefore such collaboration is difficult to form and sustain. A review of relevant literature and critical insights related to the topics from various management theories/ models are discussed in this paper. Some researchers suggested the concept of Triple Helix Model (TH) where UIG should work together as a team to create innovative and successful outcomes. Innovation is one of the national agendas in increasing the quality and productivity of our economic growth through strategic partnership. The government has introduced intermediary organization to harness the collaboration amongst UIG where it plays a crucial role in facilitating the TH. Therefore, this paper aims to further elaborate the significance of intermediary organizations in stimulating the TH. It also incorporates the concept of strategic partnership and innovation which become crucial tasks for intermediary organization in promoting synergic collaboration. Moreover, it analyses the correlation between the development phase of TH and innovation process by identifying the blockages or gaps in the existing system. This paper contributes towards a sustainable partnership framework and provides a solution for innovation creation especially in managing stakeholders’ involvement by explaining why and how collaborative intermediary organizations can facilitate the dynamic and synergy of collaboration, hence moving towards innovation

South Asia and societal challenges : a regional perspective

This paper is a summary of the South Asian region’s status and interests concerning the seven thematic societal challenges identified under the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme: Health, demographic change and wellbeing; Food security, sustainable agricultures, marine and maritime research and the bio-based economy; Clean and efficient energy; Smart, green and integrated transport; Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials; A changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective societies; and, Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of the country and its citizens. This paper considers the position of seven countries in South Asia: Afghanistan; Bangladesh; Bhutan; Maldives; Nepal; Pakistan; and, Sri Lanka1. It also identifies national and regional priorities for the seven themes under consideration. This paper is an output of the CASCADE project (Collaborative Action towards Societal Challenges through Awareness, Development, and Education) that aims to provide the foundation for a future International Cooperation Network programme targeting South Asian Countries, which will promote bi-regional coordination of Science & Technology cooperation. The EU recognise a need to strengthen internationalisation through strategic policy action. The need for linkages with Asian countries has been highlighted given the region’s rapidly growing research and innovation capacities and the urgency to address global challenges. The project coincides with the launch of Horizon 2020, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness. Running from 2014 to 2020 with a budget of just over €80 billion, the EU’s new programme for research and innovation is part of the drive to tackle global societal challenges, and create new growth and jobs. International cooperation in research and innovation is an essential element for meeting the objectives of Europe 2020. Recognising the global nature of producing and using knowledge, Horizon 2020 builds on the success of international cooperation in previous framework programmes and is fully open to participation from third countries

Collaboratory Digital Libraries for Humanities in the Italian context

The study investigates the approach to collaboration in Humanities, within the Italian context, to test the possibility of collaborative digital library for scholars. The research hypothesis is that collaboration can foster innovation and scienti c development: therefore, within Humanities, digital libraries can be the collaborative laboratory for research. Thus, understanding perception of scholars towards collaboration, especially online, and comprehending if wiki systems could be the framework of collaboration were the objectives of the study. A qualitative approach has been adopted, using case study as research method: in-depth, semi-structured interviews to Digital Humanities scholars provide data integrated with interviews with two key informants (one of which is prof. Umberto Eco). The results of the study show that Humanities, within Italian context, do appreciate collaboration and the concept of a collaboratory digital library, though several issues need to be solved. In fact, Humanities are still tied with individual work and collaboration is not easy to pursue, for cultural, technical and political reasons. Great e ort needs to be done at many different levels to eliminate obstacles and facilitate online collaboration for scholars. The study provides a draft model for a collaborative digital library arisen from gathered data

The territorialisation of the UN Agenda 2030 and crosscutting issues in energy, environment and health: The case of Portugal

Sustainable policy transitions require a shift towards more collaborative societal values coupled with a sustainability supportive fiscal framework. The materialisation of sustainable policies and practices in the field of energy, the environment and health also require the establishment of building blocks for a more empowered, informed and vibrant civil society in addressing sustainable development challenges. Policymaking processes also need to follow participatory, subsidiarity and place-based governance principles (Barca 2009; Stead 2014). Moreover, eco-innovation practices can only succeed if all involved actors (SMEs and large companies, research institutions, consumers, etc.) proactively contribute to this transition towards a more sustainable territorial development pattern (Bontoux and Bengtsson 2015). Finally, the physical renovation of buildings to improve energy efficiency and the production of clean energy renders a tangible platform to materialise these intended sustainable policy transitions (Kanters and Wall 2014).info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio