Complex Innovation Processes Research Articles

Knowledge Sourcing, Knowledge Bases, and the Spatial Organisation of Car Design

This paper analyses the geographical implications of having different types of knowledge bases—synthetic and symbolic—involved in one single but complex innovation process: car design. To do so, we investigated three contrasting car design strategies (Audi, Renault, and SAIC-GM) with the aim of exploring empirical regularities and the reasons underlying the links between knowledge bases, knowledge sourcing mechanisms, and resulting spatial configurations. Evidence suggests that when the synthetic knowledge base is dominant, formal collaboration and mobility are prime knowledge sourcing mechanisms. Moreover, knowledge creation and exchange is likely to occur between actors permanently located within the same region or through the temporary colocation of globally spread innovation partners. On the other hand, when symbolic knowledge is dominant, mobility, monitoring, and buzz turn to be the most relevant sourcing mechanisms, and knowledge creation and exchange are likely to occur within a more strictly local dimension (eg, in cities), through temporary colocation configurations (eg, presence in fairs and via temporary staff exchange), and by global scanning of competitors and trends.

Biofortification: lessons from the Golden Rice project

Biofortification is an umbrella term for a diverse range of projects and possibilities. It is best understood on three levels: as a range of technologies for developing micronutrient-dense crops; a development intervention to improve public health; and an idea that links agriculture, nutrition, and health in a particular way. This paper focuses on the Golden Rice project as a well-known example of biofortification. It show how two sets of questions – concerning effectiveness of Golden Rice as a delivery mechanism for vitamin A to malnourished populations and its acceptance by those populations as a rice variety and staple food item – have been narrowed down to parameters set by an increasingly polarized GM crop debate. It is not too late for these trends to be reversed, however. The Golden Rice project is a case study in the non-linearity of complex innovation processes, which exposes limitations of binaries such as ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’. Recent developments point to the possibility of a more open debate about outstanding uncertainties and how they might be resolved.

Digital Science and Knowledge Boundaries in Complex Innovation

Drug discovery is a complex innovation process in which scientists need to make sense of ambiguous findings and grapple with numerous unpredictable interdependencies over many years of product development. Digitalization has combined with expanding science to address this complexity, creating new ways to measure, analyze, and model chemical compounds, diseases, and human biology. We interviewed 85 scientists and managers working on drug discovery to understand how they deal with complexity. We find a major knowledge fault line between digital scientists, who use computers as laboratories and manipulate signs, and therapy scientists, who use conventional laboratories and manipulate physical material. We build on research on epistemic cultures and knowing in practice to develop empirically grounded theory for the role of digital science in complex innovation. We propose that digitalization creates a new form of knowledge that provides essential complementary insights for complex innovation that cannot exist otherwise. However, digitalization also creates new knowledge boundaries that concern central activities of innovation. These boundaries highlight challenges of complex innovation that digital sciences can help address, but only if the innovation activities are transformed so that digital and therapy sciences can integrate their complementary knowledge.

Research on Multi-level Design Method of Collaboration Innovation Based on Rough Sets Theory

Customer collaborative design is a complex innovation process, with participation of many innovation main bodies with different innovation knowledge and motivation. To solve the problem that their multi-level innovation demands being satisfied difficultly, based on Rough Sets Theory, a multi-level design method of product collaboration innovation has being proposed. The method can transform knowledge of innovation main bodies into multi-level product innovation design schemes, which can be helpful to satisfy the multi-level innovation demands. An example has being given to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Capturing Contemporary Innovation: Studying IDF Innovation against Hamas and Hizballah

The question of what enables some militaries to innovate effectively is of great interest to both scholars and commanders. However, the traditional models of military innovation fail to capture the complex innovation process. This study develops a new analytical framework that examines the pressures on and incentives for military innovation in the international, civil/military, organizational, and cultural planes and uses it to evaluate Israel Defense Forces (IDF) innovation between 2000 and 2009. Based on interviews with Israeli commanders and extensive research in Israel, this work finds that the IDF struggled to innovate before the 2006 war against Hizballah, but innovated effectively after the conflict once military and civilian leaders understood threats similarly. New models are needed to analyze the contemporary multi-dimensional innovative process.

Open Innovation: Organizational Challenges of a New Paradigm of Innovation Management

1. Statement of the Problem Open innovation is a term coined by Professor Henry Chesbrough in his book, Open Innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology (2003, HBS press) that relates with the management of innovation processes. Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that valuable ideas can come from inside or out of the company and can go to the market from inside or outside the company as well. This approach places external ideas and external paths to market on the same level of importance as that reserved for internal ideas and paths to market during the Closed Innovation era. At the heart of the open paradigm is the assumption that enterprises cannot conduct all RD Lichtenthaler, 2008) present two main general organizational problems for firms (3) named coordination and incentive problems. In this paper we analyze and describe several problems related with coordination and incentives. 2. Organizational Challenges of Open Innovation: Coordination and Incentives Organizational design encompasses two key elements; one is the design of coordination mechanisms between activities and tasks and the other is the design of an incentives system that serves as reward system and to avoid opportunistic behaviour (Lopez et al, 2010). In this sense and using this essential framework of organizational design we apply it to analyze different problems that raise the management of open innovation related with coordination and incentives. 2.1 Coordination Problems Coordination implies not only the design of mechanisms of interrelation between activities/firms/organizations for innovation (coordination post-contractual) but also the searching and selection of ideas, knowledge/collaborators for carry out the innovation activities (coordination pre-contractual). In this sense when firms implement an open system to innovation they face several problems. Some of these problems related with the coordination tasks are, the searching valuable ideas and knowledge outside, networking and divergence. The problem of searching valuable ideas outside One of the first coordination problems that face open innovation is the searching of external sources of ideas and knowledge to enhance current technological developments (coordination pre-contractual). This problem arise searching or information costs (of competitive intelligence). The importance of theses costs are very variable depending on the type and nature of innovation process. For example, these costs can be very high for a very complex innovation process and less costless for a more simple innovation development. Also, the searching costs include not only the production of information about suppliers but the own needs of the firm which not always are known clearly. The problem of networking When open innovation is operationalized through the collaboration of multiple partners the coordination tasks became more complex because of the increasing number of participants. Greenstein (1996) points out that openness increases costs because it requires the cooperation of multiple suppliers and /or complementors. …

Software innovativeness. A comparison between proprietary and Free/Open Source solutions offered by Italian SMEs

Innovation processes taking place in the software sector are already widely debated. The widespread success of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) raises new research issues, dealing with whether and how the free circulation of ideas championed by the movement and its collective management of intellectual property rights fosters innovation. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature by addressing the following research questions: are programs based on FOSS solutions more innovative than proprietary ones, and, if so, which innovation dimensions are typical of the FOSS production mode? Based on a sample of 134 software solutions produced by Italian Small and Medium Enterprises and using a methodology frequently applied in technology management to evaluate innovativeness of products and services, this exploratory study provides initial insights into what happens when alternative metrics are used to observe complex innovation processes in the software market.

Benefits of co‐operation on innovative performance: evidence from integrated circuits and biotechnology firms in the UK and Taiwan

The increase of strategic alliance and national or pan‐national government collaborative programmes has highlighted the shifting management and policy focus from inducing in‐house R&D to promoting a joint partnership between firms and knowledge‐generating organisations in the increasingly complex and costly innovation process. Both the ‘dynamic capability’ school and the ‘innovation network’ theorists demonstrate that inter‐organisational co‐operation has become a crucial mechanism for ‘collective innovation’. However, little attempt has been undertaken to examine the relationship between inter‐organisational co‐operation and innovative performance at the firm level. The innovative activities and inter‐organisational co‐operation of integrated circuits and biotechnology sectors across Taiwan and the UK are investigated via a postal questionnaire survey. Multiple logistic regression models are deployed. The result reveals that the types of inter‐organisational co‐operation enhancing a firm's innovative performance vary across sectors and countries. Despite the variation, this paper argues that a firm's networking ability to co‐operate with buyer firms, supplier firms and external organisations is becoming imperative for enhancing innovation in the increasingly distributed innovation process.

European Works Councils and `Flexible Regulation': The Politics of Intervention

Much literature on European Works Councils (EWCs) is pessimistic, stressing their limited formal powers and the risks of isolation from broader mechanisms of worker solidarity and of `capture' by management. This article questions such dismissive conclusions. EWOs must be studied as an element in a more general and complex process of regulatory innovation within the EU. Three specific developments create `windows of opportunity' for a more optimistic scenario: the internal inconsistencies of managerial control, the new strategic importance of information flows, and the evolution of new bases for supranational trade union cooperation.

Bandello's "Timbreo and Fenicia" and The Winter's Tale

Several critics have noticed the similarities in theme, character, and setting between Much Ado About Nothing and The Winter's Tale,(1) and since novella of Timbreo and Fenicia (I, 22) has been accepted as one of the sources of Much Ado, they have intimated a link between this same novella and The Winter's Tale. Yet not until Martin Mueller's recent study has tale been clearly signaled as the imaginative tissue binding the two plays together. Focusing his analysis on the theme of the persecuted and resurrected heroine, Mueller argues that Shakespeare's contact with the Bandellian text was decisive, as it triggered an interest that was reiterated throughout the playwright's career, for Bandello's Fenicia turns tip as Hero, Desdemona, Cordelia, and Hermione.(2) He concludes that these repetitions show that Shakespeare was involved in a of imaginative and economic revision of earlier themes and that The Winter's Tale results from Shakespeare reading Greene's Pandosto with a strong sense of unfinished business in story(3) Mueller gives a general account of several of the striking parallels between the Bandello story and The Winter's Tale: the prominent image of the accused woman as statue in both, the prominence of the theme of time felt both in Hermione's aging and Fenicia's development, and the cathartic and confessional actions of the penitent Leontes and Timbreo. Yet because he is primarily interested in tracing the trajectory of Shakespeare's career, Mueller only nods to these parallels, barely spending three pages on their implications. My purpose is to show with more specificity and depth the nature of Shakespeare's return to Bandello in writing The Winter's Tale. In order to do this, I examine The Winter's Tale in comparison with its four primary source texts: Timbreo-Fenicia tale (1554), Belleforest's translation of tale (1571), Robert Greene's Pandosto (1588), and Much Ado About Nothing (1598-1600).(4) This comparison reveals that, in re-exploring the situation of Much Ado, Shakespeare draws from treatment of important themes in The Winter's Tale like rivalry, honor, repentance, regeneration, and forgiveness more often than from Belleforest's or Greene's handling of these themes. It also suggests the ways in which Shakespeare forged new ideas on these themes through a complex process of imitation and innovation. Since the Bandello tale is much less known to the general reader than the others, let me summarize it. The tale is set in Messina, Italy, in roughly the fourteenth century. Timbreo, a soldier, woos Fenicia, the daughter of Lionato, a poor nobleman tied to the court of Messina. When he finds that he cannot possess Fenicia outside of marriage, he asks for her hand. When Girondo, another soldier and Timbreo's friend, hears of their engagement, he despairs because he secretly loves Fenicia. Therefore, he devises a plot to destroy their relationship. Girondo arranges for Timbreo to witness a man disguised as Fenicia's secret lover climb through her window one night. Enraged at her supposed infidelity, Timbreo calls off the marriage and publicly accuses Fenicia of immoral behavior. Fenicia faints at the harsh accusation, revives to defend herself, but then wastes away until she dies. While her mother and aunt wash her presumably dead body, it is discovered that she is not really dead. Rather than announcing the news, Lionato has her sent off secretly to her aunt and uncle's country home where she remains until she is older and no longer recognizable. Her sister, Belfine, is sent away with her. After Fenicia's public (feigned) funeral, both Timbreo and Girondo begin to repent their separate actions. Girondo confesses his plot to Timbreo, and Timbreo forgives him. They go together to confess to Lionato and pledge their servitude toward him. Lionato accepts and asks Timbreo if he would marry a woman of his choosing, and Timbreo willfully agrees. …

Regulating “Caller ID:” Emulation and learning in US state-level telecommunication policy processes

Abstract Analysis of the development of Calling Line Identification (CLID) Service (commonly described as “Caller ID”) policy in all 51 state telecommunication regulatory agencies and the Federal Communications Commission over time shows state telecommunication policy to be embedded in complex emulation, learning and innovation processes. Our analysis shows a convergence around specific policy solutions at specific time periods, but the convergence points are shifted when commissions ‘break from the pack’ as a result of learning. CLID number-blocking solutions shift from low-privacy to high-privacy forms over time. The notion of a learning curve, whereby commissions and stakeholders learn about the new service over time utilizing discovery, interrogatory, cross-examination and other procedures, explains the direction of policy development. The likely mechanisms of policy convergence and divergence are discussed. The zigzags of federal policy on number blocking are explained utilizing Noll's external signals theory, the FCC's isolation from state-level policy networks, and federal pre-emption concerns.

Innovation, diffusion, and mechanical engineers in Britain, 1780-1850

In a wide-ranging examination of the role of capital goods' suppliers in stimulating and spreading technical innovation during the nineteenth century, MacLeod focuses attention upon the much neglected mechanical engineering industry.2 Her assessment of that industry's achievements is based on a comparison with innovation and diffusion within user industries, considering mainly textiles and textile machine making. Using evidence extracted from patent records, she goes on to claim that machine makers played little part in developing 'radical inventions', and that commercial exploitation of such inventions ran counter to the interests of the engineering industry.3 While emphasizing the importance of the patent system, MacLeod also stresses the role of secrecy in inhibiting technological diffusion. This interest in the role of engineers, and in the mechanism of innovation, is very welcome, and the questions raised are important ones. But the whole picture is more complex than MacLeod has recognized, with considerable diversity between regions and industries, and a notable shift in attitudes towards secrecy during the course of the century. This comment questions some of MacLeod's assumptions about relationships within textile engineering, and between engineers and their customers, and consequently raises doubts about some of her conclusions concerning the flow of technological information. Secondly, it suggests that as patents were rarely used by textile innovators before i850, patent records cannot be an adequate basis for generalization. Thirdly, it argues that to separate inventions into 'radical' and 'incremental' categories actually impedes an understanding of the complex process of innovation.

G.D.R. patent information system promotes the creation of modern high technologies as well as of complex innovation processes

The article explains the importance attached in the G.D.R. to patent information for formulating and solving R&D tasks. The G.D.R. Office for Inventions and Patents is responsible for the patent information system, which comprises information centres in industries, in various regions of the country and in the Office itself. Specialists engaged in R&D have easy access to patent literature, and the various services provided by the system are described in detail. Building up of the information service is assisted by close co-operation with the U.S.S.R. and other C.M.E.A. member-states. Further development of the system involves the creation of electronic databases containing the bibliographic data and abstracts of the patent documents of the G.D.R. and other major industrialized countries and extension of the network of polytechnic patent libraries with improvement of their services.

The Innovation of Service-Life Effectiveness

Technical innovation in this age of integrated electronics may be viewed as three interrelated ``people processes,'' each aimed at either improving cost, performance, or reliability-three criteria of system effectiveness that allow choice and evaluation of alternate solutions to a problem. These tradeoffs must be chosen on the basis of an overall criterion of system effectiveness, such as service, to be measured by performance per total annual dollar of expense. Materials, devices, and systems are the specialist levels of innovation in integrated electronics. Each level performs four basic functions including 1) formulation of requirements on the entity as a whole, 2) establishment, by analysis, of a design theory based on a hypothesized model, 3) exploration of methods for fabricating structures to meet specified requirements, and 4) development of test methods to measure the actual functions produced. These functions must be iterated for performance, cost, and reliability. When cost and reliability are added to performance as equally important requirements, design, reliability, and manufacturing people all must influence tradeoff decisions. This complexity is illustrated by examining, on only the devices level, the kinds of information that must be generated and combined in the three iterations for performance, cost, and reliability. (A discussion of the development of semiconductor devices for the Telstar® satellite further illustrates some of these points.) It is concluded that the virtue of developing a well-ordered structure for such a complex innovation process lies in calling for the right kinds of information at the right time, and identifying missing knowledge.