Networking Innovation in the European Car Industry : Does the Open Innovation Model Fit?

The automobile industry is has entered an innovation race. Uncertain technological trends, long development cycles, highly capital intensive product development, saturated markets, and environmental and safety regulations have subjected the sector to major transformations. The technological and organizational innovations related to these transformations necessitate research that can enhance our understanding of the characteristics of the new systems and extrapolate the implications for companies as well as for the wider economy. Is the industry ready to change and accelerate the pace of its innovation and adaptability? Have the traditional supply chains transformed into supply networks and regional automobile ecosystems? The study investigates the applicability of the Open Innovation concept to a mature capital-intensive asset-based industry, which is preparing for a radical technological discontinuity - the European automobile industry - through interviewing purposely selected knowledgeable respondents across seven European countries. The findings contribute to the understanding of the OI concept by identifying key obstacles to the wider adoption of the OI model, and signalling the importance of intermediaries and large incumbents for driving network development and OI practices as well as the need of new competencies to be developed by all players.Peer reviewe

Plugging the gap – can planned infrastructure address resistance to adoption of electric vehicles?

Non peer reviewe

Motion Hub, the implementation of an integrated end-to-end journey planner

© AET 2018 and contributorsThe term “eMobility” and been brought into use partly to encourage use of electric vehicles but more especially to focus on the transformation from electric vehicles as products to electrified personal transport as a service. Under the wider umbrella of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) this has accompanied the growth of car clubs in general. The Motion Hub project has taken this concept a step further to include not just the car journey but the end-to-end journey. The booking of multifaceted journeys is well established in the leisure and business travel industries, where flights, car hire and hotels are regularly booked with a single transaction on a website. To complete an end-to-end scenario Motion Hub provides integration of public transport with electric vehicle and electric bike use. Building on a previous InnovateUK funded project that reviewed the feasibility of an integrated journey management system, the Motion Hub project has brought together a Car Club, a University, and EV infrastructure company, a bicycle hire company with electric bicycle capabilities and a municipality to implement a scheme and test it on the ground. At the heart of the project has been the development of a website that integrates the public transport booking with the hire of electric vehicles or bicycles. Taking the implementation to a fully working system accessible to members of the public presents a number of significant challenges. This paper identifies those challenges, details the progress and success of the Motion Hub and sets out the lessons learnt about end-to-end travel. The project was fortunate to have as its municipal partner the Council of a sizeable South East England town, Southend-on-Sea. With a population of 174,800 residents with good road, rail and air links there is considerable traffic in and out of the town. The Council has already shown its commitment to sustainable transport. In the previous six years it had installed a number of electric vehicle charging points for use by the public and latterly had trialled car club activity. An early challenge in the project was the location of physical infrastructure in an already crowded municipal space in order to provide the local ‘spokes’ of the system. In addition to its existing charging points, Southend now has four locations where electric cars can be hired, five where electric bikes are available and the local resources to maintain these assets. Combining a number of web-based services and amalgamating their financial transactions is relatively straightforward. However, introducing the potential for public transport ticketing as well raises additional security, scale and financial constraints. The project has engaged with major players and regulators across the public transport industry.Peer reviewe

Networking innovation in the European car industry: does the open innovation model fit?

The demands of transportation have driven the automobile industry into an innovation race. Uncertain technological trends, long development cycles, highly capital-intensive product development, saturated markets, and environmental and safety regulations have subjected the sector to major transformations. The technological and organisational innovations related to these transformations necessitate research that can enhance our understanding of the characteristics of the new systems. The study investigates the applicability of the Open Innovation concept to a mature capital-intensive asset-based industry - the European automobile industry, which is preparing for a radical technological discontinuity. Purposely selected knowledgeable respondents were interviewed across seven European countries. The findings contribute to the understanding of the OI concept by identifying key obstacles to the wider adoption of the OI model in the European car industry, and signalling the importance of intermediaries and large incumbents for driving network development and OI practices as well as the need of new competencies to be developed by all players

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Developing a model of sustainable learning appropriate to SMEs in the automotive supply sector

Evidence from national surveys conducted in 1995, 2002 and 2006 shows that, despite a variety of specific Government training initiatives, the UK automotive supply sector lags behind international competition and suffers from severe skills shortages. Long term recovery from this position will require improvements in education, careers guidance, recruitment and work related training. The aim of this research has been to design a model of work related training for the sector to help ensure that the learning involved delivers sustained changes in behaviour and skills. A series of case studies have been reviewed to provide a context of work related training in the sector. Separate surveys were used · to benchmark training performance in a World Class manufacturer to understand realistic norms of training output, to sample the sustainability of learning amongst SMEs engaged on similar training programmes and to determine the range of training needs across the automotive supply sector. In total data was obtained from 833 individuals in 389 companies. The initial conclusions that defined the requirements for the model were that The outcomes of training across SMEs in the automotive supply sector were mostly unknown, unmeasured and often unpredictable. For reference, even in large organisations it is estimated that 60% of training budgets lack quantifiable targets. Learners themselves are unpredictable, Training initiatives, deriving from recommendations of the Leitch report and which are „employer led‟ focus on “World Class Manufacturing” which, coming largely from the perspective of Automotive OEMs, means Lean Manufacturing. For smaller SMEs a constrained training offer can be an impediment to growth. Their needs are the more diverse. The model was synthesised from the survey results and its concept tested and refined by a further survey of sixteen predominately automotive companies. Tamkin‟s IES model from Human Resources was also used as a reference comparator. On the input side the new model stresses company readiness and relevance of training. On the output side it adds organisational impact to the accepted but often overlooked measurable outputs. Beneath each of the ten elements of the model there are quantifiable indicators for use with diagnostic tools in either a company‟s HR plan, a training provider‟s delivery planning or a funding agency‟s grant criteria. The companies most likely to meet these quantifiable criteria will be the competitive and innovative companies that operate as learning organisations. It is argued that training targeted on these companies will be cost effective to implement, provide measurable performance benefits and deliver sustainable learning.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

How does the British snowman work? The disruptive characteristic of British snow

Output of a German research project ‘International Monitoring’, sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the European Social FundPeer reviewe

The role of social dialogue in skills initiatives: a case study approach

Original article can be found at: http://www.inderscience.com/ Copyright InderscienceWith an automotive industry racked by uncertainty and continuing competition, the stability of companies and the risk of job losses have been tackled differently across a number of European regions. In each scenario, governments, employers and the workforce, represented by the unions, have had to work together in what is termed European social dialogue. Using case studies this paper samples the approaches taken to social dialogue on the issue of skills, highlighting both positive and negative scenarios. The lessons drawn are about speed, communication and cooperation. SMEs, engaged in the supply chain projects, became involved and embraced the opportunities, with measureable training outcomes. The factory run-down scenarios demonstrate the importance of the social partners working together at the local level and acting with speed as the situation develops. Policy makers can and must react quickly to changing circumstances. Training strategies need to adapt to the life cycle of companies.Peer reviewe