The Core Interaction of Platforms: How Startups Connect Users and Producers

The platform economy is disrupting innovation while presenting both opportunities and challenges for startups. Platforms support value creation between multiple participant groups, and this operationalization of an ecosystem's value co-creation represents the "core interaction" of a platform. This article focuses on that core interaction and studies how startups connect producers and users in value-creating core interaction through digital platforms. The study is based on an analysis of 29 cases of platform startups interviewed at a leading European startup event. The studied startups were envisioning even millions of users and hundreds or thousands of producers co-creating value on their platforms. In such platform businesses, our results highlight the importance of attracting a large user pool, providing novel services to those users, offering a new market for producers, supporting the core interaction in various ways, and utilizing elements of the platform canvas - an adaptation of the business model canvas, which we have accommodated for platform-based business models - to accomplish these goals

Collaborating for Innovation: the socialised management of knowledge

Although the importance of diverse knowledge is widely recognised for open innovation, there may be a gap in our understanding of the social processes that shape how collaborators engage in knowledge exchange. This social gap may be significant because of the powerful, but largely unexplained, role attributed to trust as a social artefact. Moreover, we see trust as a process and that different types of trust are involved in the collaborative process. Thus, this paper uses a qualitative methodology to capture the experiences of innovation collaborators. As explanation of the dynamic interplays of knowledge and trust, we offer a description of phases in the process. Our analysis finds that the relationship moves from transactional to social. The early phases are characterised by technical knowledge, but the later and mature phases are identified with knowledge of the person and by personal trust. The success of innovation is a result of relationships with augmented trust. We found that a fabric of trust is woven from the weft of professional knowledge and the warp of personal knowledge to support innovation. We propose that this developing of relationships might be conceived as becoming more open in the sense of sharing with one another. If so, we seem to have described and offered a social dimension of open innovation

Towards Sustainable Manufacturing Through Collaborative Circular Economy Strategies

The principles of a circular economy (CE)—social, economic and environmental—could enhance the sustainability of the manufacturing sector, but radical transitions and collaboration are required in order to fully engage with this paradigm change. This study is based on the assumption that, through collaborative strategies, a CE could transform the inefficiencies of linear value chains into novel competitive advantages for manufacturing companies. This conceptual paper presents a framework that integrates the identified inefficiencies of linear manufacturing value chains and an assessment model describing the five maturity levels of CE. At the lowest level—linearity—there is no collaboration; at the next—industrial piloting—experiments are conducted with discrete pilot projects within supply-chain partners. The third level—systemic material management—cannot be achieved without close collaboration and fair data exchange, while the next level—CE thinking—envisages a closed-loop supply chain. The highest level—full circularity—contributes not only to environmental, but also to economic and social sustainability. This paper argues that the identification of novel value circles and the co-creation of value with a variety of partners are crucial aspects for enabling the CE transition

Road-mapping the business potential of sustainability within the European manufacturing industry

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the required changes, outline business potential and envisage the key steps that a networked manufacturing industry needs to take to reach more sustainably performing manufacturing in the future. Design/methodology/approach – The paper utilises a visionary road-mapping approach to study the required changes and the business potential related to sustainable development in the manufacturing industry. Findings – The results were summarised in three sub-roadmaps empowerment of stakeholders, increase efficiency and creation of new performance criteria. On the basis of the summary of the sub-roadmaps, the framework was configured to describe the opportunities and challenges of sustainable business development in the European manufacturing industry. Research limitations/implications – A clear implication of this study is that a more system-oriented approach, new models for collaboration between network actors and transparently shared network-level KPIs are required before further steps towards a sustainable manufacturing industry can be taken. In addition, sustainability-driven business models are required to specify these changes concretely. Practical implications – The presented sub-roadmaps and framework summarising them could provide new insights to business practitioners exploring business potential of sustainability. Social implications – Understanding about the road-mapping process as tool that enables interaction and envisioning between different stakeholders could also have social implications supporting shared industry-level learning processes. Originality/value – Studies of sustainability within the manufacturing industry have focused mainly on green issues in supply-chain management or corporation-level governance models and reporting practices. The paper presents a broader view of sustainable development and recognises networked business as part of the solution

Building Business Impacts of an Industry 4.0 Ecosystem Through Collaborative Network Settings Between IT and Forest Companies

Part 13: Collaboration ImpactsInternational audienceThe paper provides on empirical example of co-innovation process within an Industry 4.0 ecosystem between Finnish IT sector, service designers, researchers and the forest industry companies. Based on empirical evidence the paper summarizes some of key challenges in building business impact from digitalization