Understanding idea advancement efforts in innovation through proactive behavior

Purpose– Innovations lie at the heart of both entrepreneurship and marketing. While research has long focused on the idea generation phase at the beginning of the innovation process, ideas need to subsequently be realized through efforts in idea development and implementation. This paper aims to study the antecedents and practices of idea advancement behavior. Design/methodology/approach– Seven product developers of an international company were interviewed in-depth based on a critical incident technique. Findings– Idea advancement behavior was found to be distributed in time and between people, pervasive in the development process. Antecedents for efforts were identified at personal, interpersonal and work organization levels. Although personal antecedents were most numerous, interpersonal and work organization antecedents distinguished successful and unsuccessful efforts. Key idea advancement behaviors were centered on the inclusion of others and communication channel choices. Research limitations/implications– The current study offers a complementary micro-level point-of-view to championship literature, illustrating the situated and dispersed nature of everyday advancement efforts as opposed to the dominant depictions of heroic relentless championing individuals. However, as the study was conducted in a single company, the findings still need to be validated in more varied settings. Practical implications– The results highlight the need for supporting idea advancement behavior across organizational levels and function, instead of focusing on identifying individual champions. Time management, supporting switches in the driving force, and communicating value are necessary for sustaining advancement efforts. Originality/value– Idea advancement practices have been largely ignored in previous innovation literature, with the exception of systematic processes and championing. This paper explores idea advancement as a commonplace proactive behavior, revealing several levels of key antecedents for successfully advancing ideas into innovations.Peer reviewe

Framing activities and the co-evolvement of products and operations in new ventures

New ventures need to simultaneously develop both their first offering and the operations of the venture itself. This paper extends the notion of problem-solution co-evolvement from product design to venture design, presenting results from four new Finnish ventures in the midst of creating their first offering market-ready. Based on qualitative analysis of interviews of the entrepreneur teams of these ventures, it is suggested that differences in how the venture idea is initially approached translates into different types of co-evolvement between the offering and the operations of the new ventures. In two of the companies, the product frame had been collaboratively created and remained relatively stable. Development activities within product, business model and working practices did not require large changes in the other arenas. In contrast, the product frame was shifting in the two other ventures, and the co- evolvement of the product problem and solutions had major implications for the business model and operations, and vice versa. The entrepreneurs in these companies would have seemingly benefited from having more structured systematic micro-level working practices to balance the variance in the offering and operations. By conceptually linking venture formation to co-evolvement resulting from the initial frame of development efforts, the study serves to strengthen the link between product development and entrepreneurship research.Peer reviewe

Passion-based co-creation

As our world is getting evermore interconnected and entwined across professional, organizational and national boundaries, challenges rarely fall neatly into the realm of single functions, departments or disciplines any more. While it is uncertain what the world will look like in a few decades, and many of the needed skills and approaches are unknown, we do know we need a way of creating the future together. Counting on a few heroic innovation champions will not suffice in transforming our organizations. Passion-based co-creation describes the approach to tackling these issues that has led to the creation of Aalto Design Factory and the Global Design Factory Network of 20 co-creation platforms around the globe. Our approach, in a nutshell, is a way of creating something new together, sprinkled with a hefty dose of intrinsic motivation. Sound too hype-y? Worry not, we aren’t preaching the adoption of yet another ‘’perfect’ tool, licensed process, or turnkey solution. Rather, we want to share some principles we have found effective, offer a look into the scientific backbone of our approach, and provide tangible examples on how to bring the mindset and ways of working into your organization. Mix, match, and adapt these elements to create your own personalized stack of building blocks for passion-based co-creation in your unique context

Let me do my job - Industrial Designer's Experiences of Client Collaboration

In the reported study, we explore the relationship of industrial designers and their clients in the co-design process from the designer’s perspective. We look into the conceptual design phases, in which the most critical decisions concerning the product are made. Our primary interest was in how designers perceive decision making as a part of the design process. In our empirical work, we performed artifact-based interviews with seven practicing, professional designers based in Finland. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the transcribed interviews in order to reveal the central themes in designers’ perception towards design decisions. The analysis surfaced four themes: the backdrop of the industrial design process, the fundamentals of designer identity, and the defense reactions and coping in response to identity threats. We found that while designers perceive the client relationship essential, it often seemed more destructive than constructive for their creative process. Overall, our study suggests, that by improving the communication and collaboration in the client-designer relationship, the innovativeness of industrial design commissions could be improved

Aalto University Design Factory in the eyes of its community

This report concerns Aalto University Design Factory (ADF), one of the spearhead projects and first physical manifestations of Aalto University. ADF aims to be a platform for integrative interdisciplinary education, research and industrial collaboration, as well as a catalyst for a culture of experimental and problem-based education to promote better learning outcomes. Since opening its doors in November 2008, ADF has strived to achieve these by providing a non-hierarchical, constantly developing collaboration environment for students, teachers, researchers and business practitioners across hierarchical, professional, and disciplinary boundaries. At the time of the study reported here, the ADF platform has existed for three years, making the time ripe for reflection on how the key principles and ideas behind ADF have manifested themselves. The report presents the findings from a series of interviews conducted in order to map the experiences and perceptions of the ADF environment held by its community members. Explicating these experiences and how the key principles and ideas behind ADF have manifested themselves benefits the development of the ADF both within Aalto and with international collaboration projects. The report is mainly based on the in-depth interviews of 51 ADF community members representing all of the different major, regular ADF community groups in terms of background and positions, supplemented by 177 interviews (screened for clear explicit references to ADF) conducted previously in other research projects and a week of observation of interaction initiations at the ADF Kafis, the café-office-kitchen of the ADF building. The interviews explored the experiences of the community members with an open-ended story-based format in order to remove any influence of the possible biases or presumptions of the interviewers. The analysis was based on grouping interview segments according to thematic similarity, resulting in descriptions of the experienced typical characteristics of interaction, action, support and personal work at the ADF, as well as in the perceived characteristics of the ADF entity itself. The results do not offer proof of whether these perceptions are accurate in an objective sense, but they reflect what the community members themselves perceive to be true. The results thus offer insight on what the users of the ADF value in the environment, why they have chosen to act on such a platform and what the costs and benefits have been for them. Interaction: ADF was perceived to offer great potential for collaboration, especially due to the physical proximity and diversity of its community members. The tight community was experienced as a home base, and integration to the community was described as crucial. Getting to know the staff members and actively participating in events lowered the threshold for further interaction, as did the warm and open atmosphere. However, finding the initial entrance to the community, as well as keeping up the community spirit and welcoming atmosphere were described as somewhat challenging issues. Action: Shared characteristics found in the actions pursued by ADF community groups were perceived to shape the ADF as a whole with informal activities and interaction perceived as crucial success factors promoting a fast pace of interaction and implementation, and open sharing within the community. The community members had in general been active in initiating development in their own work and in collaboration with others. Support: Nearly all interviews contained experiences of receiving either intangible, or concrete support from the ADF community members, especially members of the staff. Receiving support often taking the form of small acts of help and positive reactions, along with positive examples, had sparked enthusiasm and courage in interaction, development, and experimentation and seemed to be particularly significant for students. Personal work: Many of the experiences reported by the community members described the content and qualities of the interviewees’ individual work. Commonly shared features included perceiving one’s work as motivating, conductive to learning, and possessing a high degree of freedom, and undertaking development activities. For many ADF community members, spending time and working at the ADF had helped them in discovering and clarifying the role and goals they wanted to pursue in their careers through exposure to new situations and application opportunities. ADF entity: The experiences reported by the ADF community members related to the ADF entity itself could be roughly divided into three types: perceptions and effects of the ADF physical manifestation, perceptions and effects of the ADF structures, and the role and effects of the ADF within the Aalto University. ADF facilities were frequently noted to support and enable a wide range of activities, interaction, experimentation, and the work of students. Lack of bureaucracy and a high degree of flexibility were perceived as key ADF characteristics in enabling development, while as a downside, some negative experiences were described related to e.g. unclarities and lack of overall flow of information. The present results illustrate an abundance of pursued development activities and interaction at the ADF platform by its community members, although there clearly also remains untapped potential for creating and seizing such opportunities. Indeed, the results offer a glimpse on what has made the platform successful in the eyes of its utilizing community, as well as some insights into further developing the ADF and similar platforms. Especially three features seem pervasive across the different experiences and perceived aspects of the ADF platform: taking the smalls things into consideration in conveying a development-promoting message, creating a critical mass to sustain promoting development, and actualizing development collaboration potential

Design+ : organizational renewal and innovation through design

The products, services, technologies, ecosystems, and networks of today are much more interconnected and complicated than ever before. As a result, private and public organizations alike are turning to design to find new ways to create value, manage uncertainty and innovate in a sustainable manner. Design can play a variety of roles on different levels in organizations, with different effects. This book offers an overview on how design and design thinking can change our organizations, drawing from academic research and company experiences in different industries. We showcase different perspectives and approaches, and hope to inspire you to explore the opportunities through which design can help to renew your own ways of working

Suunnittelutoimintojen kehittäminen tietointensiivisessä pk-yrityksessä

Pk-yritysten rooli taloudellisen kasvun ja työllisyyden luomisessa on merkittävä, jonka seurauksena niiden ominaispiirteiden ja toiminnan tarkastelun tärkeys on laajalti tiedostettu. Lisäksi pk-yritysten tarjoamien suunnittelupalveluiden kysyntää kasvattaa suurten yritysten lisääntyvä ydinosaamiseen keskittyminen ja siitä seuraava toimintojen ulkoistaminen. Tämä diplomityö tutkii, millä tavoin pienen, suunnitteluprojektien kautta toimivan, tietointensiivisen palveluorganisaation (KIBS) suunnittelutoimintaa voidaan kehittää. Työ pyrkii selvittämään, millaiset ongelmat ovat tyypillisiä pk-yritysten tuotekehitys- ja suunnittelutoiminnassa kirjallisuusselvityksen ja tapaustutkimuksen keinoin. Mielenkiinnon kohteena ovat erityisesti tietointensiiviset palveluyritykset, kuten arkkitehtitoimistot. Kirjallisuustutkimuksessa vertaillaan erilaisia suunnittelun prosessimalleja ja arvioidaan niiden sopivuutta suunnittelupalveluita tarjoaviin pk-yrityksiin ja suunnittelun eri aloille. Erityisesti työssä tarkastellaan insinööri- ja arkkitehtisuunnittelun prosessimallien käyttökelpoisuutta toiminnan kehittämisessä. Tapaustutkimuksessa tutkittiin pienehkön arkkitehtitoimiston suunnittelutoiminnan oleellisimpia kehityskohteita hyödyntämällä työntekijälähtöistä ja osallistavaa 3A-tvöpajamenetelmää. Tutkimuksen toissijaisena tavoitteena oli arvioida kyseisen lähestymistavan soveltuvuutta tietointensiivisten pk-yritysten toiminnan kehittämisprojekteihin. Tapaustutkimus vahvisti, että jopa pienessä suunnitteluyrityksessä, jossa koko henkilökunta toimii tiiviissä yhteistyössä, eksplisiittiset, dokumentoidut ja yhteisesti ymmärretyt sekä hyväksytyt menettelytavat ja käytännöt ovat elintärkeitä. Dokumentoitujen yhteisten toimintatapojen puute vaikuttaa osaltaan merkittävien ylimääräisten kustannusten muodostumiseen yhteensovittamisen, sekä lisä- ja uusintatöiden muodossa. Tapaustutkimusyrityksessä käynnistettiin toiminnan kehittämiseksi projekti, jossa dokumentoidaan toimiston suunnitteluprosessi ja tukiprosessit sekä luodaan selvät toimintaohjeet ja käytännöt oleellisille suunnitteluun liittyville tehtäville. Parannushankkeen vaikutuksia seurataan jatkotutkimuksissa. Kirjallisuusselvityksen ja tapaustutkimuksen löydösten pohjalta tehdään seuraavat suositukset:. 1. Pienten ja keskisuurten tietointensiivisten palveluyritysten tulisi hyödyntää toimintansa kehittämisprojekteissa työntekijälähtöisiä, osallistavia menetelmiä. 2. Pientenkin suunnittelutyötä tekevien tietointensiivisten palveluyritysten tulisi tehdä prosessinsa ja toimintatapansa eksplisiittisiksi hyödyntämällä dokumentointia, toimistostandardeja ja työntekijöiden järjestelmällistä ohjeistamista. Tässä työssä kuvattu tutkimus on vain osa laajempaa tutkimushanketta, joka toteutetaan vertailevana tapaustutkimuksena. hankkeessa haetaan lisäymmärrystä tuotekehitykseen ja -suunnitteluun keskittyneiden pk- yritysten kohtaamista ongelmista tulevilla tapaustutkimuksilla, joiden tuloksia verrataan tässä työssä kuvattuun ja muihin jo suoritettuihin yksittäisiin tapaustutkimuksiin

Facilitating collaboration between individual participants in a university-industry research and development project

Abstract not available