Mixing methods in innovation research: studying the process-culture-link in innovation management

"Der Literatur zum Innovationsmanagement kann man unschwer zwei populäre Trends entnehmen. Der eine beruht auf der Annahme, dass Innovation ein linearer Prozess sei, der entsprechend gemanagt werden könne. Der zweite Trend unterstreicht, dass eine entsprechende Kultur die Innovationsfähigkeit von Unternehmen beflügelt. Diese beiden Ansätze widersprechen sich zum Teil. Der konkrete Zusammenhang zwischen Innovationskultur und Innovationsprozess wird in der Literatur jedoch kaum beschrieben, so bereits eine Studie von Shona Brown und Kathleen Eisenhardt (1995). Daher untersuchten wir diese Schnittstelle anhand einer Einzelfallstudie zu einem Innovationsprojekt in einer Schweizer Unternehmung aus der Telekommunikationsindustrie. Die Datenerhebung beruhte auf einem Methodenmix aus problemzentrierten Interviews, Strukturanalysen und Inhaltsanalysen und dauerte etwa ein Jahr. Dies ergab eine Themenlandschaft zur Innovationsdynamik innerhalb des Unternehmens. Unter anderem zeigen unsere Ergebnisse, dass Innovationsmanager/innen sich mit einem dynamischen Rollenmodell arrangieren müssen, um Innovationen nicht nur aus der Traufe zu heben, sondern auch durchzusetzen und an den Markt zu bringen." (Autorenreferat)"Two trends in innovation management have influenced the basic idea of this paper. The first trend shows increased attempts by managers to utilize linear innovation processes derived from literature and from practice. The second trend is an increasing acceptance of the dynamics created in an 'innovation culture', as being one of the key drivers of innovation. Both approaches partially contrast each other. Researching the literature in more detail, the authors found that studies explaining the link between innovation culture and innovation project management are rare. Indeed there is a study by Shona Brown and Kathleen Eisenhardt (1995) which gives an excellent overview of innovation management research, but again the issue of 'culture' was lacking. This missing link between innovation process design and innovation culture at the firm-level provides the theoretical framework of this paper. Behind the scenes of innovation management studies, the authors realized a methodological gap existed between the research of innovation cultures and their impact upon an organization's innovation processes. Thus, they applied a methodological mix of problem-centered interviews, structural analyses, and context analyses to study the phenomenon. They conducted an interview-based single case study in a Swiss telecommunications company. From these methodologies we created a themed landscape comprising relational topics of the innovation dynamics within an innovation project in the company (one year duration) and briefly described each topic. The main finding in our study is the dynamic role-model that innovation managers in large service firms have to apply to succeed in their innovation management work. Thus, their methodological mix proved to be helpful, although some weaknesses remain to be solved in the future." (author's abstract

Mixing Methods in Innovation Research: Studying the Process-Culture-Link in Innovation Management

Dos tendencias sobre la gestión de la innovación han influido este artículo. La primera muestra los intentos crecientes de los gerentes para utilizar procesos de innovación lineal derivados de la literatura y de la práctica. La segunda tendencia es una aceptación creciente de las dinámicas creadas en una "cultura de innovación", como uno de los principales conductores de la innovación. Cada enfoque contrasta parcialmente con el otro. Investigando la literatura con mayor detenimiento, encontramos que son pocos los estudios que explican el vínculo entre cultura innovadora y gestión de proyectos innovadores. Sin embargo, hay un estudio desarrollado por Shona BROWN and Kathleen EISENHARDT (1995) que ofrece una excelente visión general sobre la investigación en gestión de la innovación, pero nuevamente, el tema de la "cultura" está ausente. La carencia de vínculo entre el diseño del proceso de innovación y la cultura de la innovación a nivel empresa provee el marco teórico para este artículo. Detrás de la escena de los estudios de gestión de la innovación, encontramos que existía un salto metodológico entre la investigación de culturas de innovación y su impacto sobre los procesos de innovación organizacional. Así, aplicamos una combinación metodológica de entrevistas centradas en el problema, análisis estructurales, y análisis del contexto para estudiar el fenómeno. Realizamos un estudio de caso, basado en entrevistas, en una empresa suiza de telecomunicaciones. Desde estas metodologías creamos un entorno temático abarcando temas relacionados a las dinámicas de innovación, al interior de un proyecto de innovación en la compañía (de un año de duración), y describimos brevemente cada tema. El principal hallazgo de nuestro trabajo es el modelo de rol dinámico que los gerentes de la innovación de grandes empresas de servicios deben aplicar para tener éxito en su trabajo de gestión de la innovación. De esta manera, nuestra combinación metodológica probó ser útil, aunque algunas debilidades han de ser resueltas en el futuro. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1003134Der Literatur zum Innovationsmanagement kann man unschwer zwei populäre Trends entnehmen. Der eine beruht auf der Annahme, dass Innovation ein linearer Prozess sei, der entsprechend gemanagt werden könne. Der zweite Trend unterstreicht, dass eine entsprechende Kultur die Innovationsfähigkeit von Unternehmen beflügelt. Diese beiden Ansätze widersprechen sich zum Teil. Der konkrete Zusammenhang zwischen Innovationskultur und Innovationsprozess wird in der Literatur jedoch kaum beschrieben, so bereits eine Studie von Shona BROWN und Kathleen EISENHARDT (1995). Daher untersuchten wir diese Schnittstelle anhand einer Einzelfallstudie zu einem Innovationsprojekt in einer Schweizer Unternehmung aus der Telekommunikationsindustrie. Die Datenerhebung beruhte auf einem Methodenmix aus problemzentrierten Interviews, Strukturanalysen und Inhaltsanalysen und dauerte etwa ein Jahr. Dies ergab eine Themenlandschaft zur Innovationsdynamik innerhalb des Unternehmens. Unter anderem zeigen unsere Ergebnisse, dass Innovationsmanager/innen sich mit einem dynamischen Rollenmodell arrangieren müssen, um Innovationen nicht nur aus der Traufe zu heben, sondern auch durchzusetzen und an den Markt zu bringen. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1003134Two trends in innovation management have influenced the basic idea of this paper. The first trend shows increased attempts by managers to utilize linear innovation processes derived from literature and from practice. The second trend is an increasing acceptance of the dynamics created in an "innovation culture," as being one of the key drivers of innovation. Both approaches partially contrast each other. Researching the literature in more detail, we found that studies explaining the link between innovation culture and innovation project management are rare. Indeed there is a study by Shona BROWN and Kathleen EISENHARDT (1995) which gives an excellent overview of innovation management research, but again the issue of "culture" was lacking. This missing link between innovation process design and innovation culture at the firm-level provides the theoretical framework of this paper. Behind the scenes of innovation management studies, we realized a methodological gap existed between the research of innovation cultures and their impact upon an organization's innovation processes. Thus, we applied a methodological mix of problem-centered interviews, structural analyses, and context analyses to study the phenomenon. We conducted an interview-based single case study in a Swiss telecommunications company. From these methodologies we created a themed landscape comprising relational topics of the innovation dynamics within an innovation project in the company (one year duration) and briefly described each topic. The main finding in our study is the dynamic role-model that innovation managers in large service firms have to apply to succeed in their innovation management work. Thus, our methodological mix proved to be helpful, although some weaknesses remain to be solved in the future. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100313

Normal metal tunnel junction-based superconducting quantum interference proximity transistor: the N-SQUIPT

We report the fabrication and characterization of an alternative design for a superconducting quantum interference proximity transistor (SQUIPT) based on a normal metal (N) probe. The absence of direct Josephson coupling between the proximized metal nanowire and the N probe allows us to observe the full modulation of the wire density of states around zero voltage and current \textit{via} the application of an external magnetic field. This results into a drastic suppression of power dissipation which can be as low as a few $\sim 10^{-17}$ W. In this context the interferometer allows an improvement of up to four orders of magnitude with respect to earlier SQUIPT designs, and makes it ideal for extra-low power cryogenic applications. In addition, the N-SQUIPT has been recently predicted to be the enabling candidate for the implementation of coherent caloritronic devices based on proximity effect.Comment: 5 pages, 4 color figure

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Cosmological perturbations across a curvature bounce

String-inspired cosmologies, whereby a non-singular curvature bounce is induced by a general-covariant, $T$-duality-invariant, non-local dilaton potential, are used to study numerically how inhomogeneities evolve and to compare the outcome with analytic expressions obtained through different matching conditions across the bounce. Good agreement is found if continuity across the bounce is assumed to hold for $\cal{R}$, the curvature perturbation on comoving hypersurfaces, rather than for the Bardeen potential.Comment: 36 pages, 5 included figure

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As first Virtual Reality (VR) shopping environments have begun to appear on the market, the question arises whether users will adopt them for doing their shopping. However, the evaluation of systems that have not yet diffused the market is potentially challenging because it requires bringing larger samples of respondents into a VR laboratory. Therefore, by conducting two experimental studies we shed light on the research question of whether evaluating the acceptance requires that respondents experience the immersive and interactive shopping environment. Our results reveal that particularly the hedonic variable perceived enjoyment as well as the VR specific variable perceived telepresence are underestimated when participants only imagine (based on a video) being in a VR shopping environment while there is no difference with respect to the behavioral intention to use the system. In addition, we show that particularly the hedonic variable perceived enjoyment and the utilitarian variable perceived usefulness influence the intention to use the shopping environment in the future. Overall, we conclude that experiencing the VR shopping environment is essential for users to be able to evaluate the respective technology

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Non perturbative chiral approach to s-wave \bar{K}N interactions

The s-wave meson-nucleon interaction in the $S = -1$ sector is studied by means of coupled-channel Lippmann Schwinger equations, using the lowest order chiral Lagrangian and a cut off to regularize the loop integrals. The method reproduces succesfully the $\Lambda (1405)$ resonance and the $K^- p \to K^- p, \bar{K}^0 n, \pi^0 \Lambda, \pi^0 \Sigma, \pi^+ \Sigma^-, \pi^- \Sigma^+$ cross sections at low energies. The inclusion of the $\eta \Lambda, \eta \Sigma^0$ channels in the coupled system is found very important and allows a solution in terms of only the lowest order Lagrangian.Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures, uses epsf.sty, submitted to Nucl.Phys.