Virtual gardening: Identifying problems and potential directions for ‘ecological awareness’ through soil management and plant recognition gaming

Gardening and farming are relatively common themes for videogames. Farmville (Zynga, 2009), Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe, 2016) and Caesar III (Impressions Games, 1998) are examples of successful games with a strong concern for (prominent theme of?) nature. From farming and life simulators to survival games to management games, a large variety of games about nature are available to players. Nevertheless, it is extremely rare that video games would take an approach that could be (is?) beneficial for environmental education. As noted by Alenda Chang, video games “exert an important influence on how millions of players conceptualize country life, food production, and right relations (Is this phrase in the original quote?) between humans, animals, and the environment. Contemporary farm games represent an array of missed opportunities to model more meaningful game ecologies” (Chang 2012: 251)

Broadcast search via open innovation intermediaries : multi-method research on organizational success factors

Open Innovation is the practice of solving technical needs by accessing networks of solution providers external to the innovating organization as part of the innovation process. Many organizations use “Open Innovation Intermediaries” to gain access to such external networks. Some “Innovation Seekers” are more successful than others in working with Intermediaries to use the knowledge and solutions found through a process of broadcasting a technical need to a network of solution providers who respond with solution proposals (this process is known as “Broadcast Search”). There is a research gap in identifying the specific organizational capabilities, and particularly their sequence of adoption at the innovation seeking company when going from “no open innovation” to “intensive use of open innovation”. There is also a clear gap in the research on intermediaries and their role in the overall success of broadcast search. The goal of this thesis is to close this gap by identifying the variables of success and by providing a framework to implement open innovation, more specifically, the intermediated broadcast search method, with higher rates of success. To that end, we carry out multi-method research in three parts, whereby in part 1 we identify specific actions that innovating companies that are using intermediated broadcast search take in order to improve their success, This is done through a survey and interviews with clients of NineSigma, an open innovation intermediary. In part 2 we analyze the impact business model changes at NineSigma had on their two-sided market model. This is done through deep case studies. And in part 3 we conduct an empirical analysis, adopting a change management framework, in order to determine which capabilities companies build and in which sequence when going from no open innovation to successful use of open innovation

Broadcast search via open innovation intermediaries : multi-method research on organizational success factors

Open Innovation is the practice of solving technical needs by accessing networks of solution providers external to the innovating organization as part of the innovation process. Many organizations use “Open Innovation Intermediaries” to gain access to such external networks. Some “Innovation Seekers” are more successful than others in working with Intermediaries to use the knowledge and solutions found through a process of broadcasting a technical need to a network of solution providers who respond with solution proposals (this process is known as “Broadcast Search”). There is a research gap in identifying the specific organizational capabilities, and particularly their sequence of adoption at the innovation seeking company when going from “no open innovation” to “intensive use of open innovation”. There is also a clear gap in the research on intermediaries and their role in the overall success of broadcast search. The goal of this thesis is to close this gap by identifying the variables of success and by providing a framework to implement open innovation, more specifically, the intermediated broadcast search method, with higher rates of success. To that end, we carry out multi-method research in three parts, whereby in part 1 we identify specific actions that innovating companies that are using intermediated broadcast search take in order to improve their success, This is done through a survey and interviews with clients of NineSigma, an open innovation intermediary. In part 2 we analyze the impact business model changes at NineSigma had on their two-sided market model. This is done through deep case studies. And in part 3 we conduct an empirical analysis, adopting a change management framework, in order to determine which capabilities companies build and in which sequence when going from no open innovation to successful use of open innovation