DOC 2014-05 Student Run-Business on Campus Policy

Consultation Art II. B.3.e A working group made up of representatives from units across campus, both academic and non-academic, propose a new policy to govern the regulation of student-run businesses on campus. The policy covers current students who wish to operate a business on University property. The policy is attached

Enhancing diffusion of consumer innovations on knowledge sharing platforms

In the past decade, studies showed that many consumers innovate for themselves. Sometimes their innovations are useful to others and potentially enhance social welfare. Unfortunately, diffusion fails as consumers lack incentives to inform others. Online knowledge sharing platforms (OKSPs), which can be stimulated with government support, may alleviate this problem. Platform communication may trigger passive consumers into active knowledge contributors. It is however uncertain if and how platform communication affects consumers who never shared designs before. We conducted a randomised controlled experiment with 715 members of an OKSP in 3D printing. Our intervention included a series of general and personal messages, tailored to various motives to share knowledge: altruism, status, ideology, learning and community. Platform members who never uploaded designs before are positively influenced by our intervention. Specifically, messages tailored to altruism, ideology and learning made platform members upload more designs. Hence, platform communication can improve the availability of innovative designs to potential adopters, and is a useful step to alleviate diffusion failure of consumer innovations

Outbound knowledge transfer in high-tech small firms: The role of process innovation and development cost

Innovation-related knowledge can be voluntarily transferred to other organizations for direct or indirect benefits, but firms can also suffer from involuntary transfer when their knowledge leaks and gets stolen. Despite its relevance to managers, outbound knowledge transfer has been understudied. Previous theoretical perspectives suggest that the primary reason why firms innovate—to conquer markets with product innovation or to improve internal processes with process innovation—matters for how outbound knowledge transfer takes shape. Also, higher stakes represented by innovation development cost can be expected to moderate the relationship between innovation type and outbound transfer. We analyse survey data of 176 high-tech small firms to find that, indeed, process innovations are much more likely shared voluntarily, although product innovations leak away without the firm's consent. Development cost moderates voluntary transfer: Low-cost process innovations are barely shared, reflecting a lack of adopter interest, whereas high-cost process innovations are more likely to leak away to similar levels as product innovations. Overall, high-tech small firms are more inclined to voluntary transfer their process innovations

Work-process related lead userness as an antecedent of innovative behavior and uses innovation in organizations

Recent studies have identified that employees can be lead users of their employing firm's products, and valuable sources of product innovation, residing within organizational boundaries. We extend this line of thought by recognizing that employees can be lead users with regard to internal work processes. We define work process-related lead userness (WPLU) as the extent to which employees experience unsatisfied process-related needs ahead of others, and expect high benefits from solutions to these needs. We hypothesize a positive association with user innovation in the workplace, evidenced by the development of tools, equipment, materials and methods. We test a moderated mediation model delineating how and when WPLU is related to user innovation within organizational boundaries. Drawing on survey data from 104 employees and 13 supervisors in a forensic services organization, we find that WPLU contributes to user innovation via engagement in innovative work behavior, especially when employees have higher self-efficacy (perceived capability to overcome obstacles) and lower job autonomy (situational constraints on the job)

Technology-enabled personalization: Impact of smart technology choice on consumer shopping behavior

Smart technologies promise to enhance customer experience to new levels in next-generation retail stores. Offline retailers increasingly employ technology-enabled personalization (TEP) strategies to digitally enhance in-store customer experience. To send personalized messages to in-store customers, retailers can choose from two types of smart devices: customer-owned smartphones or retailer-owned immersive screens. Although these smart devices may largely determine customers’ experiences in future retail, research rarely addresses device-related determinants of the effectiveness of personalized messages in stores. Building on assemblage theory, the authors consider the role of these devices in influencing customer experience and eventually consumer shopping behavior. Through two experiments and a mediated moderation analysis, they investigate the interplay of personalized content and device technology in customers’ response to TEP. The results illustrate that consumers react differently to message content depending on the device through which it is conveyed; that is, personalized (standardized) messages are more effective on customer-owned smartphones (retailer-owned screens) because they become integrated into (remain separate from) the customer's extended self. Relational customer experiences, or the extent to which a customer feels positively connected to store assemblages, mediate the effect on shopping behavior. To build TEP strategies, retailers should therefore use smart devices integrated into customers’ extended selves

Technology-enabled personalization in retail stores: Understanding drivers and barriers

Smart technologies grant brick-and-mortar retailers novel opportunities to introduce the amenities of online retailing, such as data-driven personalization, into physical interactions. Research on consumer reactions to the novel phenomenon of technology-enabled personalization (TEP) in retail stores is scarce though, so the current article proposes a conceptualization that demarcates TEP from broader notions of personalization. Qualitative data from 25 in-depth consumer interviews reveal five drivers (utilitarian, hedonic, control, interaction, integration) of and four barriers (exploitation, interaction misfit, privacy, and lack of confidence) to consumers’ acceptance of TEP. The juxtaposition of these drivers and barriers, in combination with insights from prior literature, reveals five success paradoxes for TEP (exploration–limitation, staff presence–absence, humanization–dehumanization, personalization–privacy, personal–retailer devices). The findings provide several theoretical and managerial implications, as well as avenues for further research

Open innovation in nascent ventures: Does openness influence the speed of reaching critical milestones?

Research on open innovation (OI) has demonstrated the benefits of openness for firm innovation processes, but studies have mostly offered cross-sectional insights on incumbent firms. This study offers a more dynamic perspective on the relevance of OI for nascent ventures. Combining entrepreneurship and OI theories, we argue that it is key for resource-scarce nascent ventures to achieve critical venture-creation milestones. While OI can help these ventures to leverage salient external partnerships, we argue that it affects their speed of reaching these milestones. We test our hypotheses on a longitudinal sample focusing on external collaboration practices of nascent ventures in the renewable energy or information and communications technology industries. Our results show that, while engaging in R&D collaborations slows down nascent ventures’ product development and sustainable profit generation activities, joining industry associations does not have a slow-down effect. Our results complement the OI literature by warning about the downsides of openness for nascent ventures, particularly during the venture creation phase, where speed is a high priority

Household sector innovation in China: Impacts of income and motivation

This research note reports upon the first survey of household sector innovation in China. Compared to previous survey studies we add two first-of-kind variables and related findings. First, we include data on individual income, a resource-related antecedent of household sector innovation. We find that higher individual incomes are strongly associated with increased frequency of both household sector innovation and innovation diffusion. When we combine personal income effects with the positive impact of educational levels and technical training (both competence-related antecedents), it appears that increases in national development are associated with increases in household sector innovation - a very useful public policy finding. Second, in this survey we included household sector innovations motivated by personal need and additional motivations related to learning, fun, helping others and selling/commercialization. This has a major impact on estimated household sector innovation frequencies - raising them by a factor of approximately 1.4. Reanalysis of data obtained in two earlier national surveys suggests that similar adjustment factors hold in those nations too. This finding shows that prior surveys have significantly underestimated household innovation. For many research purposes, such as national accounting, the total amount and value of household sector innovation is what is of interest, independent of motivations that may drive the activity

Buying to share: How prosumption promotes purchases in peer-to-peer asset sharing

Advocates of the sharing economy cite sharing as a viable alternative to asset purchases and ownership. However, Peer-to-peer (P2P) asset sharing, as a service innovation in the sharing economy, enables consumers to capitalize on their asset ownership by providing others with access to those assets for a fee. These prosumers acquire and consume the asset but also provide it as a service sold to others. In exploring the connection between prosumers and asset manufacturers, this study particularly notes the implications of prosumption for initial asset acquisition. A review of existing P2P asset sharing initiatives, three focus groups, and two experimental studies illustrate a positive effect of prosumption on willingness to acquire an asset from manufacturers, especially expensive assets. These results challenge the conventional notion that sharing is exclusively an alternative to ownership. A mediation analysis further indicates that reduced burdens of ownership can explain the positive link between prosumption and willingness to purchase assets from manufacturers. As another novel contribution, this study reveals an interdependency between prosumers and P2P service users, such that prosumers consider their own and also other P2P users’ brand preferences when acquiring assets. In summary, and contrary to conventional wisdom, promoting prosumption via P2P asset sharing might increase sales by manufacturers