Bridging University-Firm relationships and Open Innovation literature: a critical synthesis

Open Innovation is understood as a flow of incoming and outgoing knowledge and technology which allows, at the level of a firm, the acceleration of the innovation process, as well as a faster establishment and access to new markets, for external use of that same innovation. This type of innovation includes technological innovation, which comes from internal and external sources, as well as different modalities of accessing the market and, therefore, commercializing the innovation. Resorting to a bibliometric analysis, using Open Innovation as the search keyword, we found that the majority of the existing studies on OI is of conceptual character. On the one hand, from the scarce existing empirical studies, the issue of the relation University – Enterprise (U-E), one of the components of the open innovation model, is analyzed in a relatively superficial way neglecting, or not referring in the most appropriated way, the mechanisms by which companies could obtain (via innovation) competitive advantage through the exploration of a more open model of innovation based on the relationships with universities. On the other hand, the existing studies on U-E relations do not highlight, at least in an explicit way, the question of the open innovation model. Such studies are still highly directed to a unidirectional profit optic, that is, are too centred on the advantages which the enterprises will be able to obtain from the relation with the universities, failing taking into account the value that potentially goes to universities from such links.Open Innovation; U-E relations; Emergency; Sustainability; Benefits

The process of emergency, evolution, and sustainability of University-Firm relations in a context of open innovation

Existing studies on University-Firm (U-F) relations do not highlight, at least in an explicit way, the issue of open innovation. Such studies are still too centred on the advantages which the Firms are able to obtain from the relation with the Universities, failing taking into account the value that potentially goes to Universities from such links. The present paper intends to fill in this gap by empirically studying the process of emergency, evolution, and sustainability of the U-F relations in an open innovation context. Resorting to the case study methodology, we empirically demonstrate how the relations of a firm (Brisa) with the Universities (namely, ISEL) emerged, how they evolved and became sustained through time, giving special emphasis to the issue of mutual benefits derived from these relationships. Face-to-face interviews with the key-players at Brisa and ISEL, complemented with an extensive analysis of secondary sources, allowed us to conclude that the establishment of a connection between the two entities is a more complex and time consuming process (requiring a large relational and resources investment on both parts) than what the existing literature assumes. Besides the recognized gains for firms from adopting a more open-led perspective of innovation, namely based on U-F relations, our work (also) highlights the benefit deriving to the Universities from the link to companies. It is mainly due to the existence of mutual benefits that U-F relations are preserved in the long term; in other words, are sustainable.Open Innovation; University-Firm relations; Emergency; Sustainability; Benefits

Models for increasing retention in regular sports services: predictive analysis and loyalty actions

As instalações desportivas que oferecem serviços desportivos regulares têm vindo a adotar sistemas ERP e CRM, existindo atualmente bases de dados com dados históricos de grande valia. Neste trabalho demonstramos que aplicando modelos preditivos a estes dados é possível identificar perfis de abandono. Com base nos perfis encontrados é realizado um planeamento de experiências, com grupos de teste e controlo, com vista a encontrar ações concretas de fidelização.The sports facilities that offer regular sports services have been adopting ERP and CRM systems and there are now databases with historical data of great value. In this work, we demonstrate that by applying predictive models to these data it is possible to identify abandonment profiles. Based on the profiles found, experience planning is carried out, with test and control groups, in order to find concrete actions of loyalty.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Determinação de padrões de desistência em ginásios

O problema da retenção e das causas que levam à desistência da frequência do ginásio é uma questão que os ginásios e academias de fitness tentam há muito entender e consequentemente evitar. Tendo em atenção que a indústria do Fitness tem apostado na instalação massificada de sistemas avançados de Customer Relationship Management (CRM) existem atualmente bases de dados com dados históricos de grande valia. Este projeto tem por objetivo aplicar técnicas de classificação a estas bases de dados de forma a encontrar um método adequado para determinar padrões que permitam prever quais os utentes que irão abandonar ou cancelar a sua inscrição num período próximo, atendendo ao padrão do perfil de comportamento dos utentes que desistiram nos últimos meses, e criar uma ferramenta que forneça informação que permita aos gestores desses ginásios tomar medidas que permitam prolongar a duração da frequência dos utentes.The retention problem and consequent causes that lead gym and fitness clubs users to cancel their membership is an issue to understand and consequently avoid. Bearing in mind that the fitness industry has focused on mass installation of Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM) there are currently databases with valuable historical data that allow us to study users’ behavior. This project aims to apply classification techniques to those databases in order to find a suitable algorithm that will identify patterns allowing us to predict which users will abandon or cancel their membership in a short term, given the profile and behavior patterns of users that have quit in the last months, and create a tool that provides information that allows gym managers to take measures to extend users’ membership

Telco customer churn analysis: measuring the effect of different contracts

Customer retention is nowadays a challenge that requires concrete and personalized actions. Traditional data mining studies focused on predictive analytics, neglecting the business domain. This work aims to present an actionable knowledge discovery based on specific, actionable attributes and measuring of their effects. It is common to use matching, and propensity score approaches in healthcare to evaluate causality. After performing matching using the actionable attributes in this analysis, the causal effect is quantified. This work concludes that the difference between having a yearly contract versus having a monthly contract affects the churn of around 34%.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Using container-based virtualization on web apps production environment: dipcode development cycle

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia InformáticaWith the fast evolution of the internet over the last years, the top priority on software development has shifted from what? to when?. Reduced time-to-market is now the competitive edge that all companies strive for. The usage of container-based virtualization technologies keep the multiple environments where a development team works similar enough, that their work is made easier when devel oping and testing new features, which in turn results in a significantly faster delivery. The nature of this tecnhology also brings numerous advantages when it comes to management, monitoring and maintaining resources, allowing for an ease of adjustment, based on the client needs. Throughout this dissertation is presented an extended base of knowledge about container technologies, especially Docker, as well as what are the basic techniques to use when building an application inside such infrastructure, from the writing of the Dockerfile to the adaptation of the multiple pipelines responsible to deploy the application.Com a rápida evolução da internet nos últimos anos, a prioridade máxima no desenvolvi-mento de software transformou-se de "o quê?" para "quando?". Disponibilizar rapidamente uma aplicação no mercado é agora a vantagem competitiva que todas as empresas ambi-cionam ter. A utilização de tecnologias de virtualização através de containers uniformizam os vários ambientes em que a equipa de desenvolvimento opera, facilitando assim o seu trabalho no que diz respeito à adição e teste de novas funcionalidades, o que resulta numa entrega significativamente mais rápida. A natureza desta tecnologia trás inúmeras vantagens à gestão, monitorização e manutenção de recursos, permitindo facilmente aumentar ou reduzir os mesmos baseado nas necessidades dos seus clientes. Nesta dissertação é apresentada uma extensa base de conhecimento sobre as tecnologias de containerização, em especial o Docker, bem como quais as técnicas base a utilizar quando se pretende construir uma aplicação com uma infraestrutura deste tipo, desde a escrita do Dockerfile, até à adaptação das várias pipelines responsáveis por disponibilizar a aplicação em ambiente de produção

Regular sports services: dataset of demographic, frequency and service level agreement

This article describes a dataset of different services acquired by users during the period in which they are active in a sports facility as well as their behavior in terms of frequency of the sport facility itself and the type of classes they prefer to attend. Each observation in the dataset corresponds to one user, including the features of subscriptions and frequency. Data were collected between June 1st 2014 and October 31st 2019 from a database of an ERP solution operating in a sports facility in Lisbon, Portugal. From this database, it was possi- ble to perform operations of extraction, transformation and loading into the dataset. The dataset with real data can be useful for research in ar- eas such as customer retention, machine learning, marketing, actionable knowledge and others. Although we present real data from users of a sports facil- ity, in order to comply the GDPR legislation, the attributes that could identify the users were removed making the data anonymized.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Uplift modeling using the transformed outcome approach

EPIA 2022. Conferência Internacional, realizada em Lisboa, Portugal, de 31 de agosto a 2 de setembro de 2022.Churn and how to deal with it is an essential issue in the telecommunications sector. Within the scope of actionable knowledge, we argue that it is crucial to find effective personalized interventions that can lead to a reduction in dropouts and that, at the same time, make it possible to determine the causal effect of these interventions. Considering an intervention that encourages clients to opt for a longer-term contract for benefits, we used Uplift modeling and the Transformed Outcome Approach as a machine learning-based technique for individual-level prediction. The result is actionable profiles of persuadable customers that increase retention and strike the right balance between the campaign budget.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio