On the Economics of Innovation Projects Product Experimentation in the Music Industry

The paper is conceptual, combining project and economic organization literatures in order to explain the organization and management of market-based projects. It dedicates particular focus to projects set up in order to facilitate product innovation through experimentation. It investigates the internal vs. market economies of scale and scope related to projects, as well as the issues of governance, planning and coordination related to reaping such economies. Incorporating transaction cost perspectives as well as considerations of labour markets, the paper explains the management of market-organized innovation projects by virtue of localized project ecologies and local labour markets of leaders and boundary spanners. It illustrates its arguments with a case study of the Recorded Music industry.Project management, product innovation

Embodied Knowledge Transfer Comparing inter-firm labor mobility in the music industry and manufacturing industries

This paper adds new knowledge to the phenomenon of transferring embodied knowledge through labor mobility by means of a comparative study of the entertainment and manufacturing industries. Explorative in nature, the paper takes advantage of unique data on the Danish labor market (i.e. IDA) to investigate labor mobility patterns for the two selected industries and to detect internal differences within industry segments and regarding creative intensive and invention activities in particular. We use the music industry as a proxy for the entertainment industries.Embodied knowledge transfers, labor market dynamics, inter-firm mobility, creative intensive and invention activities, entertainment industries, manufacturing industries

Didactical Positions and Teacher Collaboration: Teamwork between Possibilities and Frustrations

The context of this study is the Danish upper secondary school, which has undergone remarkable changes during the past ten years. Cross-disciplinary activities have been introduced as a teaching principle in order to create new skills for future generations in the knowledge society, while team organization among teachers has become obligatory in order to ensure collaboration regarding a new era of student learning. The reform has been widely discussed among teachers and in the public media as well. Our research shows that the majority of teachers support the idea of teamwork, but also that there are differences in teachers’ attitudes due to the diversity of interpretations of what constitutes good teaching and learning or what we call didactical values. We consider this an important discovery because it reveals that there is much resistance towards teamwork in the heterogeneous ways teachers understand their role as teacher. In this paper, we use data from a longitudinal study carried out in 2006-2009 to show that, in times of radical reforms such as the present, conflicts may be intensified exactly because of different didactical positions among teachers and between teachers and leaders in terms of how to create a viable connection between new structures and new teacher culture with the didactical values and practices that go along with them.Cette étude porte sur l’éducation secondaire au Danemark, qui a connu des changements remarquables dans les dix dernières années. On a intégré au système éducatif des activités interdisciplinaires comme principe d’enseignement afin de développer de nouvelles habiletés chez les générations de l’avenir de la société de la connaissance. De plus, l’organisation par équipes est devenue obligatoire pour les enseignants de sorte à assurer la collaboration face à la nouvelle ère d’apprentissage par les élèves. Cette réforme a été largement discutée par les enseignants et les médias. Notre recherche indique que la majorité des enseignants appuient l’idée du travail en équipe, mais qu’il existe des différences dans leurs attitudes en raison de la diversité d’interprétations de ce qui constitue l’enseignement et l’apprentissage de qualité (ce qu’on nomme les valeurs didactiques). Nous estimons que ces conclusions sont importantes car elles révèlent beaucoup de résistance face au travail en équipe compte tenu des interprétations hétérogènes selon lesquelles les enseignants conçoivent leur rôle en salle de classe. Cet article présente des données d’une étude longitudinale réalisée en 2006-2009 pour démontrer que pendant des périodes marquées par des réformes radicales telles que celle au Danemark, il se peut que les conflits soient intensifiés en raison des positions didactiques différentes d’un enseignant à l’autre et entre les enseignants et les chefs relativement à la création d’un lien viable entre les nouvelles structures d’une part, et la nouvelle culture des enseignants et les valeurs et pratiques didactiques afférentes d’autre part.

The personal attributes of innovative users in the case of computer-controlled music

Studies of the sources of innovations have recognized that many innovations are developed by users. However, the fact that firms employ communities of users to strengthen their innovation process has not yet received much attention. In firm-established user communities users freely reveal innovations to a firm’s product platform, which in turn puts the firm in a favorable position (a) because these new product features become available to all users by sharing on a user-to-user basis, or (b) because it allows the firm to pick up the innovations and integrate them in future products and then benefit by selling them to all users. We study the key personal attributes of the individuals responsible for innovations and the creation of value in this organizational context, namely the innovative users, to explain why firm-established user communities work. Analyzing data derived from a web-based questionnaire generating 442 answers we find that innovative users are likely to be (i) hobbyists, an attribute that can be assumed to affect innovators’ willingness to share innovations (positively), and (ii) responsive to "firm-recognition" as a motivating factor for undertaking innovation, which explains their decision to join the firm’s domain. In agreement with earlier studies we also find that innovative users are likely to be "lead users", an attribute that we assume to affect the quality of user innovation. Whether or not a firm-established user community can be turned into an asset for the firm is to a great extent conditioned by the issues studied in this paper. Keywords: Innovation, User community, User Characteristics JEL code(s): L21; L23; O31; O3

Når forskningen ved CBS møder citationsdatabaserne

Internationalisering og publicering er centrale temaer på dagsordenen på CBS i disse år. I denne rapport sættes fokus på nogle aspekter af bibliometriske studier af forskningen ved CBS. Dvs. hvordan man gennem studier af publikationer og citationer til publikationer kan danne sig et billede af forskningen ved CBS og specielt den internationale synlighed af denne forskning. Rapporten kan give svar på - Hvordan publikationsmønstret ved udvalgte enheder på CBS er repræsenteret i de mest benyttede citationsdatabaser. - Hvilke forudsætninger, der skal være til stede for at udføre bibliometriske studier Rapporten kan ikke give svar på - Kvaliteten af publiceringen - Hvilke tidsskrifter der er A-journals Rapporten kan danne udgangspunkt for videre diskussioner - Om A-journals - Prioritering af forskellige output-mål - Udvikling af forskningsregistrering ved CB

Management innovation in complex products and systems: The case of integrated project teams

This paper examines the process of a management innovation in complex products and systems (CoPS). Prior literature offers limited theoretical and empirical insights into how an inter-organizational relationship delivers CoPS by moving towards ‘integrated project teams’ over time. The research is based on an in-depth, longitudinal case study, drawing on 34 semi-structured interviews and secondary data from following a client-contractor relationship in the UK water industry over time. The study draws out the various management innovation development phases. It also provides detailed insights in the developments and benefits of setting up integrated project teams. The study contributes to extant literature and practice by linking previously separate research streams of organizational design and management innovation with the management of CoPS

Product Experimentation in the Music Industry

The paper is conceptual, combining project and economic organization literatures in order to explain the organization and management of market-based projects. It dedicates particular focus to projects set up in order to facilitate product innovation through experimentation. It investigates the internal vs. market economies of scale and scope related to projects, as well as the issues of governance, planning and coordination related to reaping such economies. Incorporating transaction cost perspectives as well as considerations of labour markets, the paper explains the management of market-organized innovation projects by virtue of localized project ecologies and local labour markets of leaders and boundary spanners. It illustrates its arguments with a case study of the Recorded Music industry

Lessons from the Entertainment Industries

The paper analyses management of product innovation in project-based industries, offering a view on management not only of firms, but also of markets. It first argues that projects are prominent in industries where the nature of consumer demand means that product innovation takes place as experimentation. Then, the paper argues that if skills needed for projects are very diverse and projects are complex, there are few internal managerial economies of projects, and the scope for management then transcends the boundaries of firms. In these cases, markets become organized in combinations of people, contracts, and other institutions, in order to facilitate the coordination of market-based projects. While contracts play a role, a continuous, active role of knowledgeable managers (leaders and boundary spanners) is also often necessary. Such managers --- and thus (core parts of) whole industries --- are embedded in project ecologies at particular places, which is why we see geographical clusters in many project-based industries. The paper is mainly conceptual, but develops its argument by drawing examples from the Entertainment industries throughout. Keywords: Project organization, product innovation, portfolio management of projects, entertainment industries JEL Classification: L22, O31, L8