Eco-Innovation Drivers in Value-Creating Networks : A Case Study of Ship Retrofitting Services

Previous studies discuss how regulatory, technological, and market drivers increasingly challenge manufacturing industries to adopt eco-innovations. However, the understanding of the process by which eco-innovations are developed and commercialized as a result of these drivers is not yet well-established, in particular because these drivers are perceived differently by the end-users and their suppliers. In this paper, we address the following research question: How do eco-innovation drivers shape processes in value-creating networks? To answer this question, we carried out a case study purposely selected to understand how eco-innovation drivers such as regulation, market pull, and technology interact and affect the eco-innovation decisions in a given industry. We analyzed the processes in an eco-innovation initiative about retrofitting old ships, contextualized in the maritime equipment and supply industry. The paper makes two novel contributions: First, we develop a framework that can support supply-network eco-innovation initiatives to deal with changes at regulatory, market, and technology levels. The framework includes elements such as value co-creation to explore technological opportunities emerging from the interaction of the drivers, or value-proposition development to align multiple actors’ interests in the network and agree on shared expectations to exploit the opportunities. Second, we contribute to the emerging research area on eco-innovation processes by highlighting the lesser-known role of value-creating network dynamics. Value-creating networks can be a platform for the development of more radical eco-innovations if actors in the networks can align their value creation and capture objectives.publishedVersio

Bringing an entrepreneurial focus to sustainability education : A teaching framework based on content analysis

Author's accepted version (postprint).This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Elsevier in Journal of Cleaner Production on 31/10/2019.Available online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652619339083?via%3DihubResearch on sustainability education has neglected to integrate entrepreneurial skills into other relevant competences such as foresight, complex problem-solving, and interdisciplinarity. Previous research highlights possible convergences between sustainability education and entrepreneurship education; however, it does not address how to achieve this integration in practice. To address the gap between the literature and practice, this paper tackles the question: How can entrepreneurial competences be taught in sustainability education programs in higher education? We introduce a teaching framework based on a bibliometric method that combines topic-modeling with a content-analysis of selected articles. The focus of the analysis is the commonalities of both educational fields. Our results introduce a program for entrepreneurial-oriented sustainability education, providing a description of the educational focus, teaching-learning approaches, main themes, and external collaboration. The framework proposes educational for sustainable development across educational programs while implicitly addressing complex community problems through the development of solutions that can change the ways business and consumers relate with sustainability issues. These results contribute to the sustainability education literature by integrating the development of entrepreneurship competences into interdisciplinary programs. The framework could also be used as a practical guide for designing courses, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, that integrate both sustainability and entrepreneurship.Bringing an Entrepreneurial Focus to Sustainability Education: A Teaching Framework Based on Content AnalysisacceptedVersio

Adopting different wind-assisted ship propulsion technologies as fleet retrofit : An agent-based modeling approach

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Challenges of creating and capturing value in open eco-innovation : Evidence from the maritime industry in Denmark

Author's accepted version (post-print).Available from 08/02/2021.Developing eco-innovations using open innovation comes with a distinct set of challenges as the dual goals of economic and environmental value creation produce tension that is not easily overcome in a multi-stakeholder network. These incongruent goals are inherent in an open eco-innovation network and potentially involve governmental agencies, regulators, and non-governmental organizations along with suppliers and other partners. Consequently, they add a layer of complexity to the creation and capture of value throughout the innovation network. Thus, in this study, we ask: What are the challenges in creating and capturing value in open eco-innovation networks? Based on an embedded case study of a network developing eco-innovation over a six-year period in the maritime industry in Denmark, this paper identifies challenges and links them to their impact on value creation and value capture. Our findings indicate that firms and partners are less innovative and more conservative in their approaches to innovation than has previously been observed in open-innovation partnerships. This research contributes to the eco-innovation knowledge base by demonstrating how extracting value from open eco-innovation is complicated as value is created at the micro and meso levels of the network, yet, a major goal of value capture is at the environment and social macro level. Thus, our results indicate that firms are less willing to commit resources and knowledge to co-creation, thereby negatively impacting value capture for the entire network, the society and/or the environment. Using open innovation to address “grand” societal challenges requires understanding value creation and value capture within this micro-meso-macro systemic framework of competing goals.acceptedVersio

Lenses on the post-oil economy : integrating entrepreneurship into sustainability education through problem-based learning

In the context of enormous global challenges such as climate change, poverty, and the unequal distribution of wealth, sustainability education within higher education has gained momentum as a tool to train a new generation of change agents. In practice, previous research has examined the relationship between sustainability education and entrepreneurship education. Both educational domains share similar teaching and learning frameworks as they both seek to train action-oriented professionals. Yet despite these similarities, there is a knowledge gap regarding course development strategies that can integrate entrepreneurship competencies into sustainability education. Following a classroom action research (AR) approach, we developed a three-week graduate course aimed at an interdisciplinary cohort of students in the social sciences from partner universities in Brazil and Norway. The course integrated a problem-based learning (PBL) framework. As part of the methodology, teachers introduced real-world challenges in the context of a post-extractive economic transition. Working in groups of four to five members, the students provided business solutions framed in a post-oil development context. The results indicate tension points in the integration of the learning principles of PBL along the different phases of PBL, namely during the group formation and problem analysis phases. To tackle these tensions, we propose that this type of course should facilitate early group formation and integrate formative feedback and progressive problem analysis. Our framework contributes to the debate on competence-based frameworks within the sustainability education literature. The framework can also serve as an inspiration for course designers in higher education.acceptedVersio

Integrating problem-based learning with international internships in business education

The literature on international business teaching has contributed to the development of international internships as a learning pedagogy through three key areas: making sense of the students’ developed competences and prospective added employment value following their participation in international internships, the role of support structures in the organization of internships abroad, and more recently the pedagogical design of internships abroad. Thus, more recent research has taken a critical stance toward internships as a learning form, as serious gaps exist in the pedagogical elements required to connect internships with the broader theoretical elements of international business programs. The present study addresses these gaps through two research questions: i) How can educators design and implement problem-based international internships in business education? ii) What adjustments does the combination of these two active learning experiences in business education demand for small business schools, partner universities, and hosting organizations? The paper presents pedagogical action research that was conducted over two courses for international business internships in a Norwegian-Brazilian context for bachelor’s and master’s students. It contributes to the international business teaching literature in the following ways: First, the validated teaching framework argues for international internships that are linked to loosely defined problems at the host organization, which the student self-scopes and connects based on their theoretical knowledge from other courses. Second, by providing an in-depth discussion of problem-based learning and its applicability in international business practicums, we address the existing gap in the field regarding the pedagogical foundations of how students connect theory to practice during international internships. Third, the framework serves as a practical guideline for teaching and administrative staff who wish to develop international internship programs at home universities, supporting their ability to connect the practical aspects established in the literature with the additional organizational requirements arising from working with hosting organizations overseas.publishedVersio

Institucionalidad para la gestión del agua en Nicaragua

El estudio del marco institucional para la gestión del agua en Nicaragua es el inicio del programa de investigación comparativa: “Competencia por el agua: entendiendo el conflicto y la cooperación en la gestión local del agua”, en la que colaboran cinco países: Vietnam, Zambia, Malí, Bolivia y Nicaragua. En Nicaragua, el programa se enfoca geográficamente en Condega. Esta investigación se desarrollará en un período de tres años, y finalizará con la presentación de resultados en el V Foro Mundial del Agua que se realizará en Estambul, Turquía, en 2009. El programa de investigación en su conjunto tiene como objetivo “contribuir a la gestión local sostenible del agua, en apoyo a los pobres rurales y a otros grupos en desventaja en los países en desarrollo, a través del conocimiento sobre la extensión y la intensidad de los conflictos, y de la cooperación local por el agua, así como sobre sus impactos políticos, económicos y sociales, y cómo esto puede cambiar con el incremento de la competencia por el agua.” (www.diis.dk/water). El objetivo de este informe es hacer una revisión de la institucionalidad existente en torno al agua, para poder entender la política y el contexto legal-administrativo tanto a nivel nacional como local. En otras palabras, se pretende conocer las reglas para acceder al uso del agua y controlarlo, y señalar cuáles son los límites de lo que se puede hacer o no en el país y en las comunidades con respecto a este recurso clave