A New Measurement Conception for the ‘Doing-Using-Interacting’ Mode of Innovation

The ‘doing-using-interacting’ (DUI) mode of innovation describes informal innovative activities and it can be juxtaposed with the ‘science-technology-innovation’ (STI) mode based on deliberate research and development. While both modes contribute substantially but differently to technological progress, our empirical understanding of DUI mode innovative activity suffers from the lack of a comprehensive measurement approach. While empirical measurement of the STI mode is well established, empirical indicators for DUI activities are scarce and no consensus has emerged concerning its constituting learning processes. We propose a new measurement conception for innovative activity and based on 81 in-depth interviews with German firms and regional innovation consultants. We derive fifteen categories of DUI mode learning processes and a comprehensive set of 47 indicators comprising both established and new DUI indicators for empirical measurement. This new measurement conception and the respective indicators provide a holistic perspective and their application can be used to increase our understanding of the importance of DUI mode innovative activity, as well as guiding policy-makers

The Making-Of: Innovation. Understanding and Designing the Environment for Non-R&D Innovation

Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, Innovationen außerhalb von F&E zu beleuchten und zu einer breiteren und tieferen Wertschätzung von Lern- und Wissensschaffungsprozessen beizutragen, die für mitarbeiter- und individuumsgesteuerte Innovationen entscheidend sind. In mehreren Papern wird gezeigt, dass niedrigschwellige Veränderungen in der Organisationsstruktur dazu beitragen können, einen Mangel an expliziten, formalisierten F&E-Ressourcen zu kompensieren, indem sie die Mitarbeiter ermutigen, ihr innovatives Potenzial zu entfalten. Die Dissertation zeigt, dass das Setzen eines Lernziels Menschen dazu motiviert, nach Mustern und Strukturen zu suchen, um ihre Input-Ressourcen effizienter zu organisieren, indem die Sichtbarkeit innovativer Fähigkeiten erhöht wird. Organisationen sollten jedoch greifbare und klar definierte Ziele in Betracht ziehen, die es den Mitarbeitern ermöglichen, ihre Fortschritte zu messen, da diese ein höheres Potenzial für innovative Lösungen aufweisen. Außerdem sammeln Menschen bei DUI-ähnlichen Routineaufgaben Erfahrungswissen, was sie anfälliger dafür macht, Optionen mit geringem Risiko und geringer Belohnung anstelle von Optionen mit hohem Risiko und hoher Belohnung zu wählen (oft eine notwendige Voraussetzung für Innovation). Dies ist besonders wichtig, wenn erfahrene Belohnungen selten sind und relativ spät im Suchprozess auftreten. Daher kann die Festlegung eines spezifischen, anspruchsvollen Lernziels Menschen helfen, vergleichsweise schlechte Erfahrungen zu überwinden und die schwierige Suche nach Innovationen durchzustehen. Andere Instrumente, wie z.B. monetäre Anreize und die Delegation der Vergütungsentscheidung, sollten sorgfältig in die gegebenen sozialen Strukturen eingebettet werden. Erstens können je nach Grad der Gruppenidentität und des Zusammenhalts proportionale oder leistungsbezogene Vergütungen, die ein Gruppenziel konterkarieren oder die kooperative Struktur einer Aufgabe beeinträchtigen, eine hemmende Wirkung haben. Daher sollten wirksame Anreizsysteme soziale Strukturen und Konflikte auf mehreren Ebenen berücksichtigen, die sich aus der Teamarbeit ergeben. Zweitens sollte die Delegierung der Vergütungsentscheidung an das Aufgabenumfeld angepasst werden. Wenn die Aufgabe unbekannt ist, wie es bei Innovationen der Fall ist, bevorzugen Menschen eine risikoarme, leistungsunabhängige Bezahlung. Diese Vorliebe für sichere Zahlungen sollte als Grundlage für (innovative) Leistung betrachtet werden, könnte aber durch leistungsbezogene Elemente für bestimmte Teilaufgaben ergänzt werden, da monetäre Anreize die intrinsische Motivation und damit die Innovation an sich nicht verdrängen. Schließlich sind die in dieser Arbeit untersuchten Lern- und Wissensschaffungsprozesse besonders wichtig für den Nicht-F&E-Output, aber nicht ausschließlich. Lernen aus Erfahrung, also die Ausführung einer Aufgabe, oder Lernen durch Suchen und Interagieren sind universelle Verhaltensmuster. So können die im Rahmen des Lernens durch "doing-using-interacting" diskutierten und erprobten Instrumente in F&E-Strukturen transferiert, implementiert und erprobt werden, zumal sie niedrigschwellige Interventionen darstellen.This thesis aims to highlight non-R&D innovation and contribute to a broader and more profound appreciation of learning and knowledge creation processes crucial for employee and individual-driven innovation attainment. Across multiple articles, it shows that low-threshold changes in the organizational design can help compensate a lack of explicit, formalized R&D resources by encouraging employees to unfold their innovative potential. The thesis shows, setting a learning goal motivates people to search for patterns and structures to organize their input resources more efficiently by increasing the visibility of innovative capabilities. However, organizations should consider tangible and clearly defined targets that allow people to measure their progress, as they create higher potential to achieve innovative solutions. Besides, in DUI-like routine tasks, people accumulate experiential knowledge, making them more susceptible for choosing low-risk, low-reward options instead of high-risk, high-reward options (often a necessary pre-requisite for innovation). This is particularly important when experienced rewards are rare and occur relatively late in the search process. Thus, setting a specific, challenging learning goal can help people to overcome comparably bad experiences and endure the difficult and rocky search for innovations. Other tools, such as monetary incentives and delegating the compensation decision process, should be carefully embedded into given social structures. First, depending on the level of group identity and cohesion, proportional or performance-based compensations that conflicts a group target or interfere with the cooperative structure of a task can have a hampering effect. Thus, effective incentives schemes should consider social structures and multi-level conflicts that emerge from teamwork. Second, delegating the compensation decision should fit the task environment. When the subsequent task is ambiguous, as it is the case for innovation, people prefer a low-risk, performance independent payment. This preference for sure and fixed payments should be considered as a basis for (innovative) performance, but could be complemented with pay-for-performance elements for certain sub-tasks, as monetary incentives do not crowd-out intrinsic motivation, and subsequently innovation, per se. Finally, the learning and knowledge creation processes examined in this thesis are especially crucial for non-R&D output, but not exclusively so. Learning from experience, by conducting a task or using tools, or learning by searching and interacting, are universal behavioral patterns. Thus, tools discussed and tested in the specific framework of learning by "doing-using-interacting" can be transferred, implemented and tested within R&D-structures, particularly as they illustrate low-threshold interventions.2022-03-0

Measuring the "doing-using-interacting mode" of innovation in SMEs - A qualitative approach

The 'doing-using-interacting mode' of innovation (DUI) is considered an important component of innovative activity. It describes informal innovative activities and thus complements the 'science-technology-innovation mode' (STI) based on research and development. While empirical measurement of the STI mode is well established, proxies for measuring DUI activities are still underdeveloped and no consensus has emerged concerning which intra- and extra-firm processes primarily constitute the DUI mode and how they should be measured. Based upon 81 in-depth interviews with German SMEs and regional innovation consultants, we propose a comprehensive set of 47 indicators comprising both established and new DUI processes for future empirical measurement. We argue that this measurement approach can lead to a more holistic understanding and ultimately quantifiable measurement of DUI innovativeness, which can guide further research and policymaking

Research data services in European academic research libraries

Research data is an essential part of the scholarly record, and management of research data is increasingly seen as an important role for academic libraries. This article presents the results of a survey of directors of the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER) academic member libraries to discover what types of research data services (RDS) are being offered by European academic research libraries and what services are planned for the future. Overall, the survey found that library directors strongly agree on the importance of RDS. As was found in earlier studies of academic libraries in North America, more European libraries are currently offering or are planning to offer consultative or reference RDS than technical or hands-on RDS. The majority of libraries provide support for training in skills related to RDS for their staff members. Almost all libraries collaborate with other organizations inside their institutions or with outside institutions in order to offer or develop policy related to RDS. We discuss the implications of the current state of RDS in European academic research libraries, and offer directions for future research

Cooperation in Public Goods Games: Enhancing Effects of Group Identity and Competition

A lot of economic and social situations can be described as contests in which agents need to distribute scare resources. Individual behavior plays an important role within these situations, while identity strongly impacts on behavior. This paper asks how group identity impacts the provision of a public good in a contest situation with different prize sharing rules. We show that group identity significantly increases contributions. Moreover, it turns out that identity affects how subjects react to different prize sharing rules. Our findings contribute to an increased understanding of the nature of group identity and its impact on economic behavior