Ideas For New Products Research Articles

Building more entrepreneurial organizations through external innovation contests

AbstractFirms are increasingly adopting innovation contests to obtain ideas for new products and services from external parties, but many firms may not be sufficiently entrepreneurial to benefit from those ideas. Using an inductive longitudinal case study of three financial service firms, we explore the value of external innovation contests for less entrepreneurial and stagnant firms. Our findings indicate that stagnant firms indeed struggle to benefit from ideas generated through external innovation contests. However, we also show that firms undergo a structural change process toward higher entrepreneurial orientation through such contests. In particular, they become aware of an organizational readiness gap and act on it by (i) developing entrepreneurial skills, (ii) collaborating with external partners, and (iii) adapting organizational design and governance. Based on our findings, we propose an original framework for a corporate entrepreneurial learning process triggered by the innovation contest experience.

Evaluation of Consumer Perception of New Aquaculture Products through Applying Focus Group and Check-All-That-Apply Methodologies.

A growing interest in healthy diets has increased demand for fish and seafood, with aquaculture playing a crucial role in meeting this need. Developing new aquaculture products can enhance their commercial value and address consumer demand, but it is unclear which products will be well-received. This study aimed to generate ideas for new products derived from sea bream and prawns, and to gather consumer opinions on these ideas, segmented by gender and age. Two methodologies were used: focus groups and Check-All-That-Apply (CATA). In the focus groups, with two sessions per species and 10 participants each, ideas for aquaculture products were generated and categorized as fresh, dehydrated, fermented, marinated, and canned. The CATA technique, applied to 387 individuals, assessed the acceptability of fresh species, yielding average scores of 6.6 for sea bream and 6.8 for prawns. Sea bream was associated with products like fillets and long-shelf-life loins, while prawns were linked to snacks and toppings. In conclusion, the use of tools like focus groups has shown promising results for developing new aquaculture products. CATA analysis indicated that sea bream should be minimally processed with a long shelf life, and prawns should be processed into dehydrated products. Women preferred traditional products, while men favoured innovative options.

Creative Entrepreneurship and the McKinsey 7S Framework: Utilizing a Servant Leadership Style

The origination of business ideas for new products or services occurs through the creative process. For example, an entrepreneur initially has a business idea for a new product or service that begins in mind. However, the idea needs to be successfully and strategically executed to become a sustainable reality. This research provides a variety of examples concerning conceptualizations of creativity that entrepreneurs can tap into further to enhance their creative abilities for business ideation generation. Further highlights include the psychological impediments entrepreneurs must be aware of and avoid that can stall the entrepreneurial process and the business from successfully launching and sustaining life long-term. Lastly, the authors demonstrate the similarities between the McKinsey 7s framework (Peters & Waterman, 2004) and the servant leadership style (Greenleaf, 1977), revealing how adopting a more formidable entrepreneurial approach involves “putting the people first” rather than solely focusing on strategy and complex numbers.

Idea crowdsourcing platforms for new product development: A study of idea quality and the number of submitted ideas

Organizational innovation communities for new product development (NPD) have become an integral part of organizations' strategy to find innovative ideas for new products with the help of their consumers. The success of these communities largely depends on users' idea submission and idea quality. While more ideas will increase the chance of finding novel ideas, more low-quality ideas will increase the costs of finding novel ideas. Although the idea crowdsourcing literature has grown significantly, it is relatively new and focused on idea crowdsourcing platforms for product improvement ideas where individuals submit ideas to fix software bugs or to request new features. By examining idea quality (measured by vote) and idea submission in idea crowdsourcing platforms for NPD, we aim to enrich our understanding of these contexts. Furthermore, we review the literature from two perspectives: individuals' own experiences (past performance) and the experiences of others (interaction with peers' ideas) and identify several key gaps in the literature. Using data from a pioneer innovation community for NPD, we find an inverted U-shape association between users' past performance (in terms of average quality of past ideas) and idea quality and idea submission. Additionally, interaction with peers' ideas (in terms of quantity and intensity) positively influences idea submission but does not impact idea quality. A complementary relationship between own experience and others' experiences was also not found. The findings provide new insights into idea crowdsourcing platforms for NPD and the determinants of individuals' idea submission behavior and idea quality on these platforms which have several implications for practice.

INTERNET MARKETING BASED ON A DATA ECOSYSTEM

This report examines the first step towards the implementation of Marketing 5.0, namely the use of data sets for informed decision-making by business organizations. The goal is to be able to predict the type of next product that their users will be interested in purchasing. Geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral segmentation methods are applied to build a picture of the next buyer and what they will buy. Based on the analysis, guidelines are prepared for what and how to offer, ideas for new products and services are highlighted, user experience is personalized, a reasonable price for new products is calculated through dynamic pricing. The problem facing modern marketers of management and effective use of the analyzed data is considered, and for this purpose one must start with narrowly defined goals and use only the data relevant to their achievement.

Ambidextrous Innovation in Project Management: A Systematic Literature Review

Organizations increasingly rely on innovation to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and ensure longer-run market performance. Ambidextrous innovation is a critical strategic framework that guides managers to channel their innovation into exploring new ideas for products, services, and processes and exploiting ideas for improving existing ones. Ambidextrous innovation is one of the key frameworks that the projects can use to build innovation that best satisfies the stakeholder demands of higher performance at the lower resources. Ambidextrous innovation is becoming the most preferred framework for organizations to undertake innovations due to its ability to balance both the development of new and the improvement of existing products. However, research on ambidextrous innovation in the context of project management is widely lacking.

Idea Generation in New Product Development

It is imperative for companies to focus on innovation and new product development. Companies require generating effective ideas for new products. The objective of the study is to understand the various aspects related to idea generation in new product development. The methodology adopted is a conceptual analysis of the various aspects of idea generation. Companies adopt two approaches viz. top-down idea generation and bottom-up idea generation. They validate the ideas generated and employ different market research tools viz. observation of customers; conducting interviews of customers, employees, and experts; analysis of the competition; and crowdsourcing for idea generation and usage of multiple methods for idea generation. Academicians may suggest approaches, market research tools, and multiple methods which are effective in idea generation and validation. Practicing managers will understand the importance of generating new ideas for products. They may apply different approaches and tools which are effective in generating and validating effective ideas.

The Potential of Sequential Fermentations in Converting C1 Substrates to Higher-Value Products.

Today production of (bulk) chemicals and fuels almost exclusively relies on petroleum-based sources, which are connected to greenhouse gas release, fueling climate change. This increases the urgence to develop alternative bio-based technologies and processes. Gaseous and liquid C1 compounds are available at low cost and often occur as waste streams. Acetogenic bacteria can directly use C1 compounds like CO, CO2, formate or methanol anaerobically, converting them into acetate and ethanol for higher-value biotechnological products. However, these microorganisms possess strict energetic limitations, which in turn pose limitations to their potential for biotechnological applications. Moreover, efficient genetic tools for strain improvement are often missing. However, focusing on the metabolic abilities acetogens provide, they can prodigiously ease these technological disadvantages. Producing acetate and ethanol from C1 compounds can fuel via bio-based intermediates conversion into more energy-demanding, higher-value products, by deploying aerobic organisms that are able to grow with acetate/ethanol as carbon and energy source. Promising new approaches have become available combining these two fermentation steps in sequential approaches, either as separate fermentations or as integrated two-stage fermentation processes. This review aims at introducing, comparing, and evaluating the published approaches of sequential C1 fermentations, delivering a list of promising organisms for the individual fermentation steps and giving an overview of the existing broad spectrum of products based on acetate and ethanol. Understanding of these pioneering approaches allows collecting ideas for new products and may open avenues toward making full use of the technological potential of these concepts for establishment of a sustainable biotechnology.

THE INFLUENCE OF GLOBALIZATION PROCESSES ON MODERN ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

The article examines the features of the globalization process and reveals its essential characteristics. The positive and negative impact of globalization processes on the development of national economies is analyzed. It is pointed out that globalization, from the economic point of view, is characterized by increasing influence of external economic factors, where a single world market is formed, which dictates equal conditions for all its participants. It is emphasized that competition, which increases due to the introduction of advances in science and technology, accelerates production, generates new ideas for products and services, the formation of knowledge about the effective functioning of capital markets and technology. It is proved that the functioning of the national economy in the context of global world relations is largely reflected through international trade. Today, world trade is the most active form of international economic relations. It is pointed out that in the conditions of intensification of globalization processes the state economic policy should be formed in the direction of transition from export-oriented development strategy, where raw materials are dominant, to strategy of intra-oriented development with saturation of domestic consumer market. It is generalized that globalization as an objective process has a direct impact on the development of the national economy in general and the domestic consumer market in particular. It is emphasized that the essence of economic globalization is to strengthen the role of investment, industry, individuals and information. It is stated that international competition leads to contradictions between the national economies of different states. It is concluded that globalization and increasing international competition require new approaches to the development of national economies. The study of the essence of globalization was further developed and the need to develop appropriate concepts for the functioning of national economies in these conditions.

Innovative users’ diffusion channel selection: effects of lead userness and tacit need knowledge

ABSTRACT Innovative users can not only generate ideas for new products, but also self-select whether to share their ideas with peers or producers. Different innovative users have different degree of lead userness, and their ideas are usually rooted in tacit need-related knowledge. Because it has been well established that the characteristics of innovators and their innovations can influence the diffusion of an innovation, there is a conjecture that lead userness and tacit need knowledge can associate with innovative users’ diffusion channel selection. In this paper, we report the first empirical exploration. Based on survey data from 414 innovative users in Japan, we found that lead userness increases their likelihood of commercial diffusion versus peer diffusion and that this relationship is stronger when their needs-related knowledge is relatively explicit. We discuss the implications and limitations of these findings.

Improving the company's product policy based on digital technologies

Subject. In the marketing activities of enterprises in the manufacturing sector of the economy, a special place is occupied by the formation of a product policy. Its development is associated with the research of the possibilities and directions of digitalization of product development processes, product lifecycle management and product range optimization. Purpose. Analysis of the possibilities of applying digital methods in the main directions of a product policy, identification of prob-lems of accessibility of digital technologies for companies of various scales of economic activity and search for ways to solve them. Methodology. A systematic approach, general logical and empirical methods were used. The analysis of scien-tific and practical materials and experience of enterprises was carried out. Results. Тhe effectiveness of the product policy of a modern enterprise depends largely on the degree of use of digital technologies at all stages of the creation and market support of products. Their practical application is constrained by a number of fac-tors: management's underestimation of the role of marketing and marketing infor-mation; insufficient level of "digital" competence of employees engaged in infor-mation support and analytics; lack of resources to purchase expensive software products or pay for outsourcing of marketing research. Today, the most popular is the web analytics of the company's website, which mainly covers the area of prod-uct/service promotion. In the field of the product policy, the degree of digitalization of processes and methods of obtaining information is significantly lower. Digitalization of the processes of selecting ideas for new products and improving existing ones, developing a marketing concept for the product, segmenting the market and positioning the product, optimizing the production nomenclature and assortment is still an insufficiently developed area of product policy and in the fu-ture can ensure the effectiveness of the "customer value delivery system". Conclusions. The market orientation of the business involves a strategic approach to the formation of the product range, the development of new products and their introduction to the market. The use of digital technologies at all stages of the for-mation of product policy makes it possible to increase the competitiveness of products and realize the goal of marketing with lower costs. The development of a commodity policy based on digital technologies is hindered by a number of prob-lems related to the insufficient level of information systems, the lack of qualified specialists and the unavailability of technologies due to limited resources.

Deriving new anticipation-based policy instruments for attracting research and development and innovation in global value chains to Europe

In this paper, we discuss new anticipation-based policy instruments to improve the attractiveness of Europe for innovative activities in a world of accelerating innovation. The case studies and interviews with company representatives which we collected in relation to developments in Global Value Chains (GVC) show a high level of interest in these new anticipatory policy instruments. Since the companies analysed are active in different sectors and Research and Development and Innovation (R&D&I) Global Value Chains, we suggest that the policy instruments and options discussed be linked with current and future sectoral initiatives organised within the framework of the Smart Specialisation Strategy. This gives numerous established and new stakeholders from business, politics, science and society across Member States, regions and cities, and from outside the EU, the chance to develop bright ideas for new products, services, processes and employment, and to work in a well-structured and open-minded environment. In addition, this participatory, foresight-based approach helps regions to approach their development systematically in new fields of innovation and industry which are appropriate for the region's innovation ecosystem and for their stakeholders. This approach fits very well with the new innovation and foresight labs which are currently extremely popular in companies highly active in R&D&I. These labs have a highly experimental character and lots potential for game-changing innovations. The same approach might be necessary for an ambitious policy to upgrade European industry and R&D&I capabilities in order to tap into transnational corporations' GVCs by creating a process for engaging, anticipating, assessing and responding on an ongoing basis.

Engaging stakeholders in traditional food products through dissemination of knowledge and innovation based in digital platforms

The agrofood sector has a great sectorial and business dispersion, constituting, in parallel, a relevant space of the European and national economy. In addition to the economic and social impact, the growth of the sector is also an opportunity for the development of rural areas and agriculture, particularly in view of Europe's shortages in food raw materials. The need for continuous improvement, and market developments of this sector, require that innovation processes occur. This process has been facilitated by the development of information and communication technologies, and by the emergence of social networks that facilitate knowledge sharing. The NEWFOOD - Food Technologies Valorization Project is framed in the field of Knowledge and Technology Transfer and is oriented towards innovation in traditional food products. One of its objectives is to actively disseminate knowledge, skills and resources to the entities involved including stakeholders from the relevant economic sectors. This paper aims to identify and describe the role of social networks and other digital platforms used to meet this goal and the impact achieved. Following a single exploratory case study, the methodological procedures included a design of the digital communication plan, structure, and contents, and the assessment of its impact. Several digital content were developed and distributed to bring innovators and researchers to promote innovations in traditional food products and to raise sector stakeholder’s awareness about potential of exploitation. Social media support tools associated with the project (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube), and the platforms (Knowledge Portfolio, innovation platform) reaching some 6000 followers/shareholders like students, entrepreneurs and other professionals in the sector. Our results supported by the dissemination materials developed and by the social networks used contributed to promote technological innovation and for the generation of new ideas for products and services in this sector, and the alignment between stakeholders.

A Novel Framework for Identifying Customers’ Unmet Needs on Online Social Media Using Context Tree

Customer needs and user contexts play an important role in generating ideas for new products or new functions. This study proposes a novel framework for identifying customers’ unmet needs on online social media using the Context Tree through the Hierarchical Search of Concept Spaces (HSCS) algorithm. The Context Tree represents the hierarchical structure of nodes associated with related keywords and corresponding concept spaces. Unlike other methods, the Context Tree focuses on finding the unmet needs of customers from online social media. The proposed framework is applied to extract customer needs for home appliances. Identified customer needs are used to make user scenarios, which are used to develop new functions of home appliances.

Special economic zones: world practice, experience and alternative concept for Ukraine

The absence of progressive structural changes in the Ukrainian economy during the independence period has led to a significant lag in socio-economic, industrial and technological development. Ukraine is lagging behind advanced countries, as well as many developing ones. In order to change this situation, public policy should focus on the application of tools that will facilitate investment inflows and revitalize the economy. The paper deals with special economic zones as such tools. The objective of the paper is to substantiate the alternative concept of special economic zones in Ukraine as a tool for unlocking the innovation capabilities of regions, considering mistakes in the introduction of this tool in previous years and lessons from international experience in accordance with the strategic national goals under emergence of new industries. Methods of analysis and synthesis, comparative analysis and system approach have been used for this research. Scientific reports by international organizations, Ukrainian legislation, foreign and Ukrainian academic literature on this issue have been used as references. Special economic zones have been analyzed from the standpoint of three approaches: an orthodox, heterodox, and two approaches of evolutionary economics: vertical-specialized industrialization and agglomeration. Theoretical basis of the study is guidelines of new institutional economy and endogenous growth theory. According to them, SEZs have a positive influence on the investment climate and can change trends of the country's movement towards the advanced innovative growth. But it requires effective institutions, including competent government, appropriate and consistent state policy, which provides, first of all, investment in human capital, research and development, and knowledge-based industry. The sixty-year world practice of economic zones has been compiled. The Ukrainian experience in this field has been systematized. Reasons of Ukrainian SEZs’ failures, which consist in their initial perception as sources of political rent and abuse of power, are defined, which has caused significant gaps in legislation, the removal of the state from the arrangement of zones with the appropriate infrastructure and the provision of broad economically unjustified preferences to certain producers. The alternative concept of special economic zones in Ukraine is suggested as a tool for unlocking the innovation capabilities of regions in the form of stimulating regulatory regime, encouraging innovative investments, combining the system of incentives and privileges, obligatory control and restrictions to keep balance between interests of businesses and the state. Stimulating regulatory regime of economic zones is described as follows: {Goals of introducing the regime; Entities, subject to the regime; Limits of regime; Fiscal and non-fiscal preferences of the regime; Management structure of the zone to achieve the goals of the regime; Operation period of the regime}. The introduction of the regime will catalyze the generation of ideas for new products and services, development of knowledge-intensive activities, technological (sectoral) diversification of the regional economy, their integration into the global value chains on a more beneficial basis.

Scaling Human Effort in Idea Screening and Content Evaluation

Brands and advertisers often tap into the crowd to generate ideas for new products and ad creatives by hosting ideation contests. Content evaluators then winnow thousands of submitted ideas before a separate stakeholder, such as a manager or client, decides on a small subset to pursue. We demonstrate the information value of data generated by content evaluators in past contests and propose a proof-of-concept machine learning approach to efficiently surface the best submissions in new contests with less human effort. The approach combines ratings by different evaluators based on their correlation with the past stakeholder choices, controlling for submission characteristics and textual content features. Using field data from a crowdsourcing platform, we demonstrate that the approach improves performance by identifying nonlinear transformations and efficiently reweighting evaluator ratings. Implementing the proposed approach can affect the optimal assignment of internal experts to ideation contests. Two evaluators whose votes were a priori equally correlated with sponsor choices may provide substantially different incremental information to improve the model-based idea ranking. We provide additional support for our findings using simulations based on a product design survey.

Effects of lead-usership on the acceptance of media innovations: A mobile augmented reality case

Lead-users are ahead of important trends, which makes them valuable resources when it comes to generate ideas for new products in the early stages of a company's new product development process. In later stages – e.g. just before market entry when prototypes of the new products are available and can be tested – the company's market research usually focuses on average users or representative samples of users since their measured acceptance of the prototypes can be used to predict sales volumes or market shares. However, in the media industry, prototypes of new products are often made publically available as alpha or beta versions and may especially attract high shares of lead-users for testing. In this paper we analyze the potential effects of these biased samples on the prediction of sales volumes or market shares. A sample of lead-users and other users tests the prototype of a mobile augmented reality app. Then, the acceptance of this media innovation is measured applying a lead-usership extended version of the UTAUT2 model. Our results show that behavioral intention and the effects of influencing factors substantially differ between lead-users and other users. We argue that knowing these differences can help to reduce risks of biased prediction of sales volumes or market shares.

CREATION: creativity techniques to generate ideas of new products

This article aims to propose a new creativity technique to generate ideas for new products. The research method is characterized as action research due to the participation of researchers within the problem situation. The proposed technique, which was named CREATION – Clarify and explicit the context of the development, Relate about creativity and innovation, Explain the generation of words and elements, Apply and communicate the first word, Think fast the next words, Interpret and choose the words, Organize the words to construct ideas, Now expose the ideas – was conceived through interventions in organizations that manufacture handicraft products. For the application of the technique a dynamic that takes into account three phases is required to be used: Planning, Implementation and Analysis. During the application of the technique about 30 ideas have been generated, all considered new, in six sessions of the pilot test interventions in artisan communities.

BASF opens start-up incubator

BASF has opened a start-up incubator in Mannheim, Germany. Dubbed the Chemovator, it will house up to 12 new businesses launched by BASF employees. Entrepreneurs in residence are available to coach employees who have ideas for new products and digital businesses. So far, five teams have successfully pitched their ideas and set up shop at the Chemovator. Among them are teams focused on soil additives, smart polymers for tissue culture, and an app-based logistics solution. The teams will have up to 24 months to prove their worth.

The Role of Coopetition on Innovation, Value Creation and Value Capture

Coopetition (simultaneous competition and collaboration between firms) is an important driver for innovation, as competing organizations benefit from pooling resources and ideas for new products, processes and achieving benefits such as collective reputation. However, a key issue facing such relationships is the notion of value creation and capture–how does value get created and distributed amongst competing partners. This issue becomes increasingly salient when the coopetition includes multiple actors and common pool resources such as land and water. In this symposium, we bring together scholars who are investigating coopetition between different actors such as direct competitors, actors from the same industry, and organizations sharing similar collective goals such as sustainable manufacturing. In showcasing this diversity of context we shed light on the notion of value creation and capture in coopetitive relationships. Strategizing coopetition for innovation: The key role of knowledge transparency Presenter: Sea Matilda Bez; UC Berkeley Mechanisms for value creation in coopetition Presenter: Devi R. Gnyawali; Virginia Tech Asymmetric knowledge sharing and learning in coopetition Presenter: Lori Divito De Paauw; Amsterdam U. of Applied Sciences Presenter: Garima Sharma; U. of New Mexico Business cooperation for shared green reputation Presenter: Jorge Rivera; George Washington U.