How do we educate future innovation managers? Insights on innovation education in MBA syllabi

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Innovation education is regarded as a critical area in most business schools. This growing importance is partly a strategic response to managing in a knowledge-driven competitive environment. Given the expansion in popularity of innovation courses, it is surprising that little is known about the content and process of innovation education. This paper reports on the results of an exploratory study aiming to establish what is taught and how it is taught in innovation courses. This involves analysis of course syllabi of 29 innovation courses at 20 top-ranked business schools. Results revealed that although there is a consensus on the process of innovation education, shying away from traditional didactic approaches toward a more explorative and experiential mode, there exists substantial variation in course content. While this is not indicative of the quality of individual courses, it suggests that members of the innovation community run very dissimilar courses in their teaching practices. A common motif was found around multidisciplinarity and balanced coverage of static and dynamic components of innovation. Implications of findings for innovation teaching, pedagogy and curriculum development are discussed and benchmarks developed for evaluating existing curricula by instructors

Myelin imaging:past, present, and beyond

In multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, the myelin sheath, which is the protective layer covering nerves, gets damaged. For monitoring of the progression of myelin damage and its repair an accurate direct measurement of myelin density is needed. In this thesis, we show the performances, pitfalls, and practical applications of myelin imaging methods for objectively measuring myelin density. [11C]MeDAS PET scanning is such a method. We demonstrated that [11C]MeDAS PET is a promising method for measuring myelin density as its signal in the brain, spinal cord, and MS lesions corresponded well with the physiological distribution of myelin. Furthermore, with [11C]MeDAS PET a decrease in myelin density within white matter lesions in MS patients over time could be detected. In addition, we used advanced diffusion MRI techniques and showed it enabled MS lesion characterization beyond traditional measures. Advanced analysis of brain networks with diagnostic MRI revealed some deterioration of brain regions involved in motor function. We also found that advanced statistical analyses applied to MRI data could be used to discriminate different MS subtypes

The Cultural Landscape & Heritage Paradox; Protection and Development of the Dutch Archeological-Historical Landscape and its European Dimension

To what extent can we know past and mainly invisible landscapes, and how we can use this still hidden knowledge for actual sustainable management of landscape’s cultural and historical values. It has also been acknowledged that heritage management is increasingly about ‘the management of future change rather than simply protection’. This presents us with a paradox: to preserve our historic environment, we have to collaborate with those who wish to transform it and, in order to apply our expert knowledge, we have to make it suitable for policy and society. The answer presented by the Protection and Development of the Dutch Archaeological-Historical Landscape programme (pdl/bbo) is an integrative landscape approach which applies inter- and transdisciplinarity, establishing links between archaeological-historical heritage and planning, and between research and policy. This is supported by two unifying concepts: ‘biography of landscape’ and ‘action research’. This approach focuses upon the interaction between knowledge, policy and an imagination centered on the public. The European perspective makes us aware of the resourcefulness of the diversity of landscapes, of social and institutional structures, of various sorts of problems, approaches and ways forward. In addition, two related issues stand out: the management of knowledge creation for landscape research and management, and the prospects for the near future. Underlying them is the imperative that we learn from the past ‘through landscape’