Valuing value in innovation ecosystems:How cross-sector actors overcome tensions in collaborative sustainable business model development

This article aims to uncover the processes of developing sustainable business models in innovation ecosystems. Innovation ecosystems with sustainability goals often consist of cross-sector partners and need to manage three tensions: the tension of value creation versus value capture, the tension of mutual value versus individual value, and the tension of gaining value versus losing value. The fact that these tensions affect all actors differently makes the process of developing a sustainable business model challenging. Based on a study of four sustainably innovative cross-sector collaborations, we propose that innovation ecosystems that develop a sustainable business model engage in a process of valuing value in which they search for a result that satisfies all actors. We find two different patterns of valuing value: collective orchestration and continuous search. We describe these patterns and the conditions that give rise to them. The identification of the two patterns opens up a research agenda that can shed further light on the conditions that need to be in place in order for an innovation ecosystem to develop effective sustainable business models. For practice, our findings show how cross-sector actors in innovation ecosystems may collaborate when developing a business model around emerging sustainability-oriented innovations

A framework for digital transformation and business model innovation

With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, businesses are adapting to the use of digitalisation which requires the digital transformation of their existing business models. However, there is limited empirical research on this phenomenon. The purpose of this study is twofold: (i) to develop a framework for businesses to digitally transform their business models and (ii) to examine literature in order to identify and analyse the constructs underlying the three concepts of Digitalisation, Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation. The study is qualitative in nature and is based on a narrative review. Relevant articles were identified by using international bibliographic databases and scrutinised using thematic analysis. The findings reveal that the first two constructs require digital capabilities and a digital strategy. The third construct requires digital transformation in the realm of customer-centricity, resources, processes and profit. A set of propositions was formulated and the commonalities were mapped. Based upon this map, a conceptual framework was developed. The findings will assist in the development of future instruments that can guide businesses to digitally transform existing business model elements. This study aims to fill the gap on how business model innovation should be pursued through digital transformation by developing a conceptual framework

Servant Leadership and Innovative Work Behavior in Chinese High-Tech Firms: A Moderated Mediation Model of Meaningful Work and Job Autonomy

Scholars acknowledge the critical role of employee innovative work behavior (IWB) in facilitating organizational innovation in high-tech industries. However, the current knowledge is far from complete to paint a clear picture of how to evoke employee IWB in the Chinese high-tech industry. Many Chinese high-tech firms face a challenge moving from hierarchy-based leadership toward more employee-centered leadership styles, as the styles have different effects on employees’ IWB. This perspective may complement and sharpen the incomplete picture. Drawing on a dynamic componential model of creativity and innovation, this study proposes and tests a moderated mediation model that examines the hypothesized positive influence of servant leadership on employee IWB via meaningful work as well as the moderating role of job autonomy in this process. We collected data (N = 288) from three Chinese high-tech firms and found that employees’ perceptions of meaningful work mediate the relationship between servant leaders and IWB. We also found that this mediating relationship is conditional on the moderating role of job autonomy in the path from servant leadership to meaningful work. The results further show that the indirect effect of servant leadership on employee IWB via meaningful work exists only when job autonomy is high

Learning strategies in sustainable energy demonstration projects:What organizations learn from sustainable energy demonstrations

This literature review study presents and discusses the learning strategies of organizations participating in sustainable energy demonstration projects. It finds that academic, commercial, and governmental organizations build on six major learning strategies. The first learning strategy is to capture intellectual property and benefit from knowledge spillovers. The second learning strategy comprises the building of a series of prototypes that are technically and commercially fit for purpose. The third learning strategy aims at operating production plants that produce the prototypes on a large scale. The fourth learning strategy concentrates on exploiting learning curves in these production plants. The fifth learning strategy focuses on creating supply-demand networks that serve increasing markets. Finally, the sixth learning strategy is to develop governmental regulation and funding schemes that support the emergence of an industrial and societal institutional infrastructure for sustainable energy technology, based on the lessons learned from the demonstration projects. This study also finds that the six learning strategies are facilitated by four key behaviors of participants in demonstration projects, which are mutual trust-building, decision-making in favor of sustainable energy technology, learning-network building, and demonstration program development. To academics, this study provides a comprehensive insight into organizations’ learning strategies in sustainable energy demonstration projects, regarding learning directions and outcomes. Its contribution to practice is that it supports academic, commercial, and governmental organizations in managing their portfolio of learning strategies in new sustainable energy demonstration projects

Regie over Innovatie

Regie over innovatie demystificeert innovatie, maakt het behapbaar en stelt de haalbaarheid van innovatiedoelen centraal, zonder voorbij te gaan aan de complexiteit ervan. Het uitgangspunt is dat innovatie bestuurbaar, organiseerbaar en realiseerbaar is. Vernieuwing is geen toeval en kan door iedereen en in elke organisatie gerealiseerd worden. Over de manieren waarop innovatiesucces kan worden bereikt, gaat HET boek. Het gebruikt hierbij het beeld van een regisseerbaar speelveld, waarin zes posities centraal staan en waarbij de opstelling van deze posities het innovatiesucces bepaalt. Juist bij innovatieprojecten is het de uitdaging om doelen zo concreet mogelijk te verwoorden en vast te leggen. De doelen moeten aansluiten bij de innovatiestrategie van de onderneming die als richtinggever voor het innovatieproject fungeert. Innovatieteams moeten leren nieuwe, innovatieve ideeën kritisch op realiteitszin te screenen. Dit betekent dat je ideeën moet kunnen zeven, moet kunnen laten vallen en je moet kunnen concentreren op het waarmaken van de ideeën met de meeste potentie. Een positieve, daadkrachtige aanpak staat daarbij centraal: Succesvolle innovatieteams leren door vallen en opstaan. Een succesvol innovatieteam bestaat uit specialisten en professionals met verschillende achtergronden. Alleen samen zijn zij in staat tot het creëren van het nieuwe, en daarom is het belangrijk dat iedereen zich veilig kan voelen om bij te dragen aan het succes van de organisatie door te innoveren, heel concreet en tastbaar, heel down-to-earth. Het boek reikt veel instrumenten en aanpakken aan die hun waarde in de praktijk hebben bewezen en waarmee je je kunt ontwikkelen tot regisseur van het innovatiespeelveld en daadwerkelijk de Regie over innovatie kunt nemen

The influence of knowledge flow on sustainable innovation in a project-based industry: From demonstration to limited adoption of eco-innovations

The effect of the flow of knowledge on sustainable innovation in project-based firms in project-based industries is the subject of in-depth research in this paper. It studies the simultaneous functioning and effects of knowledge flow mechanisms on sustainable innovation in project-based firms in project-based industries; industries like the construction-, film-, game-, consultancy-, and IT-industry. To this end, a retrospective case study, covering 20 years (1989–2008) of sustainable innovation in the Dutch house-building industry, is conducted. This study finds that bundles of knowledge flow mechanisms stimulate both sustainable innovation creation by small networks of innovative firms that cooperate in demonstration projects, as well as stimulates a limited adoption of some of these created sustainable innovations by networks of larger incumbent firms outside these demonstration projects. Based on this finding the paper proposes a model and related propositions. To scholars it can serve as a basis for future research that further explores and tests the effect of the flow of knowledge on the eco-innovativeness of industries that heavily rely on projects. The findings can also be of benefit for policy and business practitioners in and around project-based industries. To them it can provide a route for getting sustainable innovations applied on a larger scale, from demonstration projects to regular projects

Demonstrating sustainable energy: A review-based model of sustainable energy demonstration projects

This article develops a model of sustainable energy demonstration projects, based on a review of 229 scientific publications on demonstrations in renewable and sustainable energy. The model addresses the basic organizational characteristics (aim, cooperative form, and physical location) and learning effects (technical, organizational, policy and market learning) of sustainable energy demonstration projects (prototyping, organizing, and market demonstrations). This article concludes that a main effect of the reviewed demonstrations is that these projects enable people to learn to further develop, apply and commercialize sustainable, renewable and clean energy technologies. They provide four specific learning opportunities; they 1) enable scientists and technicians to learn how to technically develop sustainable energy prototypes; 2) facilitate technicians and managers to learn to build an organization that produces these sustainable energy prototypes on a large(r) scale; 3) help public policy officers to learn to develop public policy that stimulates the commercialization process of these sustainable energy prototypes; and 4) support commercial professionals to learn how to bring sustainable energy prototypes to the market