Innovation Hubs Research Articles

Analysis of research related to the experience of creating innovative airports focusing on multimodal passenger transportation

Multimodal transportation is becoming the new norm. The center of providing the transportation process is changing from the vehicle to the passenger experience and related services provided. Multimodal transportation is becoming an important player in transportation systems because it can facilitate high-quality intermodal transportation. However, these innovative transportations are not yet widespread enough. The paper is devoted to the analysis of the experience of using theoretical and practical aspects of the use of multimodal transportation in innovative airport hubs, the search for means of integrating multimodality into the transport hub, the evaluation and selection of new alternative ways of determining the level of integration of various participants in the transport process. The study is aimed at studying the previous experience of using hub airports as multimodal transport hubs. The experience of combining several transport modes into one large transport hub with a diverse range of services indicates unconditional competitive advantages. However, hub airports have some features that create difficulties when transitioning to multimodal transport complexes. The paper examines the theoretical foundations of the use and integration of alternative airport hubs at hub airports. In particular, how to evaluate and select new alternative methods, how to determine the appropriate level of participation at different stages and how to integrate new methods into airport hubs in future studies. The proposed approach to the organization of airport hubs, overcoming obstacles on the way to the creation of a multimodal transport complex and solving a scientific and applied problem that will successfully contribute to innovations in the transport modality. In particular, a growing demand among passengers at airports to facilitate the transfer process from one type of transport to another has been revealed. Which leads to benefits and rapid adoption of innovations in airports. The importance of theoretical research lies in identifying the growing demand for multimodal transport complexes, infrastructure development and customer service at airports.

GREEN CAMPUS IMPLEMENTATION IN THE MALAYSIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

Green initiatives had been taken seriously by all parties including higher education institutions. Many researchers believed that university is an essential institution to find solutions to the complexities of current global environment issues. Indeed, university should be the key hubs for innovation and environmental education, as well as the execution of human behavioural change towards sustainability. Most universities worldwide nowadays including Malaysia starts to implement various green campus initiatives to combat global warming and fostering sustainable campus growth. However, there are several challenges encountered throughout the implementation. Thus, this research attempts to examine on the current green campus implementation practices in the Malaysian public universities. Three Malaysian public universities participating in the UI GreenMetric 2021 World University Ranking had been chosen as the case study. Each university is represented by a senior representative to participate in the semi-structured interview conducted. The interview questions were constructed based on the most common and relevant chosen indicators from all six categories of UI GreenMetric. The research findings revealed that although most Malaysian public universities had implemented green initiatives as outlined in the UI GreenMetric, numerous challenges occurred. But there are solutions to push green campus initiatives to the forefront. The university management and the communities should play major roles towards realizing Sustainable Development Goals, as well as assuring more sustainable practices in the future.

Une ouverture favorable : l’Hôpital Henri-Rousselle dans les années soixante-dix. Entretien avec Jean-Michel Gentizon

ObjectivesThis interview aims to identify the specific advances of Henri-Rousselle Hospital at the time of its direction by Doctor Georges Daumézon, during the 1970s. MethodThe testimony of Jean-Michel Gentizon, Assistant at Henri-Rousselle Hospital between 1972 and 1976, which situates the historical context through the influential works of this period, allows us to progressively identify the stakes and the consequences of Georges Daumézon's action on French psychiatry. ResultsThe policy of opening up to the different fields of psychiatry advocated by Georges Daumézon at Henri-Rousselle Hospital allows us to identify its essential function for French psychiatry in the 1970s. This institution proved to be a particularly innovative hub, soliciting the interventions of the great figures of psychiatry of this period. Its influence concerns the policy of the sector, the institutional psychotherapy movement, the field of clinical research, and the general political consequences of this action. DiscussionThe interview in its conclusion questions the current evolution of psychiatry, the less favorable opening modalities in the following decades, a lesser dialogue between the different currents, and the risks of a more recent narrowing of the current fields of research to the neurosciences alone. ConclusionsThe experience of Henri-Rousselle Hospital, as developed by Dr. Georges Daumézon, proves to be a particularly favorable illustration of a policy of opening up psychiatry to the different currents of its time as well as to the different registers of the human sciences.

Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs – Building resilience in Australian farming systems

Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs – Building resilience in Australian farming systems

DIGITALIZATION OF UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT FOR EMPOWERMENT IN THE ERA OF THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC IN NIGERIA

The study investigated the digitalization of university management for empowerment in the era of the covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 252 lecturers from the Department of Educational Management in four public and private universities in Anambra State. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire which was developed by the researchers. The questionnaire was validated by three experts in the Faculty of Education in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The reliability of the instrument was determined through a pilot test. The application of the Cronbach Alpha Method on the data collected through the pilot test yielded coefficient values of 0.88 and 0.86 for clusters A and B respectively with an overall reliability co-efficient of 0.87. Mean, standard deviation and t-test were used to analyze data collected for the study. Findings revealed that the challenges hindering the digitalization of university management for empowerment in the covid-19 era include poor leadership, lack of government commitment to full digitalization of universities, poor funding, lack of ICT skilled personnel, poor collaboration between school and industry among others. Findings revealed that the establishment of ICT innovation hubs across all publicly and privately owned universities in Nigeria and engaging industry experts in the development of ICT frameworks for university management among others were some strategies for digitalizing university management for empowerment in the era of the covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria. Based on these findings, the researchers recommended that university should collaborate with ICT industry specialists in the integration of emerging technologies that would improve the management capacity of university staff and as well serve as a source of empowerment for students in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Black Skin, Red Masques: Reading Frantz Fanon and Audre Lorde in Tension with Edgar Allan Poe

If we read Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “Masque of the Red Death” as an allegory of the coronavirus crisis, how can we account for the resurgence of Black Lives Matter during this time? Scholars now agree that Poe held deeply racist beliefs about Black people: his Philadelphia was both a hub for scientific innovation and scientific racism coeval with being a site for a vibrant free Black community. I pair Frantz Fanon and Audre Lorde to juxtapose with Poe in order to read the tensions between Poe’s racism versus Fanon’s anticolonial critique and Lorde’s Black feminism. Poe’s story offers us a tale of privileged indulgence as a selfish refuge during broader social crisis, which can be troubled by Fanon’s discussion of Black ontology and the “Prospero complex”. In contrast, Lorde’s Burst of Light presents an analysis for how self-care can be “an act of political warfare”, with her battles against cancer amidst her global activism for social justice focused on Black, Indigenous, and other women of colour. In my essay I use the dynamic anachronistic convergence of their writings as an occasion to consider questions of the racial politics of self and collective care in the face of crises of pandemic and police brutality that disproportionately impact Black people.

European Bridge Organizations in Global Innovation Hubs – Geography and Typology of Internationalization Support for Technology Companies

The paper’s goal was to look beyond Silicon Valley to explore forms and modalities of support for technology firms in other leading global innovation hubs. Following European Bridge Organizations, 20 ecosystems have been identified in which support for internationalization of companies appeared to be the most intense. Through desk research, more than 300 governmental organizations supporting international expansion of European tech firms have been identified and analyzed. 
 The research clearly shows that the participation of countries in helping companies in their expansion on international markets varies considerably. The most common way for governments is to establish diplomatic or non-profit entity tasked to support their own companies to export to foreign markets. As governments chose to advance for sophisticated forms of the internationalization support, more resources including intangible ones like knowledge and related experience on global markets are needed. Another phase in the learning curve of government support of companies’ international expansion is the establishment of a dedicated Bridge Organization which is – in a majority of cases – an effect of the advanced collaboration between government, academia, and business organizations.

Implementing Mission-oriented Experiments: Recommendations on Epistemic Inclusion for City Stakeholders Working in Climate Change Initiatives

Policy institutions have been increasingly investing in demonstrators, pilots, living labs, testbeds, and so forth, that focus on novel experimental approaches to dealing with climate change. In particular, cities have been advocated as ideal innovation sites for such experiments. However, we argue that insufficient attention has been given to accommodating the different forms of knowledge included and produced through the design, implementation, and evaluation of these city experiments (i.e., epistemic inclusion). This article presents 10 recommendations for city policy officers and other stakeholders involved in delivering mission-oriented programmes of work to achieve epistemic inclusion in their attempts to drive innovation in cities. In illustrating our arguments, we engage with the EU Horizon Europe Mission of Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities as one example of such a programme. 100 European Cities have been selected as front-runners in this Mission. The Mission will support these 100 cities in becoming “experimentation and innovation hubs” ( European Commission, 2021b , p. 13) on route to all 100 cities becoming climate-neutral by 2030. These cities are only now starting their journeys and would greatly benefit from strategically considering epistemic inclusion issues. Establishing dialogues that are more open to controversies and paradoxes, failures, and a diversity of knowledge frameworks increases the chances for these cities to successfully address the complex and ramified challenges they face.

Key aspects of establishing research, knowledge, and innovation‐based hubs as part of the local innovation ecosystem

The purpose of this research is to increase the understanding of the principles of forming different types of hubs as spaces for collaborative R&D and innovation. This article offers valuable new knowledge regarding the establishment of hubs as part of the local innovation ecosystem. The paper will, through a qualitative multiple case study, shed light on the research issue of the establishment of hubs through an analysis of empirical data collected from three different types of hubs: a research hub, knowledge hub, and innovation hub. As a result, we introduce new building blocks of hubs to support managers and practitioners in forming collaborative hub structures.

Design for Meaningful Impact in the Airport Context

The airport environment is a complex and interconnected ecosystem with many stakeholders, both local and global. Schiphol Amsterdam Airport’s Innovation Hub aims to change aviation’s status quo. Our way-of-working is built upon Design Thinking. In this article, we introduce two project cases that have successfully gone from vision and ideation through to implementation: ‘Timeslots for Security’ and ‘CoBro’.

Elicitation of Key Factors to Support Information Technology Outsourcing in Technological Innovation Hubs: Applying a Multicriteria Analytical Framework

This work presents an analytical framework for eliciting key factors for successful relationships between parties in information technology outsourcing (ITO) projects. The proposal was based on a multicriteria analysis to identify key factors within the literature that were essential for the success of projects involving IT outsourcing. Using the multicriteria analysis method PROMETHEE II, the most important key factors were ranked according to the judgment of the managers of the companies in the innovation ecosystem of Alagoas, Brazil. The study was based on thirty-one judgment criteria that, in this case, were formed by the interviewed managers and twenty-one alternatives that were the key factors identified in the literature. This work contributes to composing a reference for the analysis of ITO projects and information governance, informing which factors should be prioritized according to the desired objective of the manager within the project. From the local perspective, the survey pointed to “quality production” as the most important factor, followed by “contract”, “top management engagement”, “risk management”, and “communication” as the most relevant factors for IT outsourcing success in the technological innovation hubs of Alagoas.

Innovation on Wings: Nonstop Flights and Firm Innovation in the Global Context

We study whether, when, and how better connectivity through nonstop flights leads to positive innovation outcomes for firms in the global context. Using unique data of all flights emanating from 5,015 airports around the globe from 2005 to 2015 and exploiting a regression discontinuity framework, we report that a 10% increase in nonstop flights between two locations leads to a 3.4% increase in citations and a 1.4% increase in the production of collaborative patents between those locations. This effect is driven primarily by firms as opposed to academic institutions. We further study the characteristics of firms and firm locations that are salient to the relation between nonstop flights and innovation outcomes across countries. Using a gravity model, we posit and find that the positive effect of nonstop flights on innovation is stronger for firms and subsidiaries with greater innovation mass (e.g., stocks of inventors and R&D spending), located in innovation hubs or countries that are deemed technology leaders, and that are separated by large cultural or temporal distance. This paper was accepted by Alfonso Gambardella, business strategy. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4682 .

The Changi-Marina Bay Corridor: green strategies for Singapore’s soft power

Singapore’s city-making strategies are seen by many Asia Pacific cities as a model to achieve today’s desired ‘world-class city’ status. They represent a source of innovation to design alternative configurations and rethink established norms of urban and social standards. This article looks at the urban landscape of the city of Singapore through infrastructural systems instead of individual design masterpieces, focusing on the urban corridor defined by the connection of Changi Airport, East Coast Parkway (ECP), and Marina Bay as a single urban entity, unified by a visual and experiential choreography. At a time of intense global competition in the aviation industry, Changi has deployed new strategies to sustain its reputation as an innovative transportation hub. The leg between Changi Airport and Marina Bay is an integral part of Singapore, experienced by the majority of its annual visitors arriving in the city-state. The 19-kilometre route, a major infrastructural project begun in the 1970s and still in progress, is a highly landscaped and scenic artery of the island, through which the airport has injected its hyper-urbanism into the city. While conveying the history of the developments of the Corridor, we consider the soft power strategies used by the city state to develop a form of transnational elite urbanism based on leisure and recreation, where urban planning, design, and green infrastructure play a key role. We reflect on the global and local dimension of Singapore, discussing how the ECP corridor reveals only one side of the city’s double character.On the one hand, this article critically analyses the rhetorical use of landscaping ingrained in the Corridor to attract foreign investment and tourism, where the artificialisation of green interventions has overwritten the presence of the native vegetation and morphology. On the other hand, we reflect on the less evident but nonetheless split that the Corridor has generated between the city’s southern residential areas and foreshore. While cutting through the urban tissue of part of the island seamlessly and without interruption, the Corridor does in fact separate out substantial residential areas, turning Singapore successful green strategies into a form of urban injustice. The twofold nature of the corridor – at the same time, that of the ‘connector’ and ‘divider’ – thus reflects Singapore’s intrinsic ambiguity: its manifestation of global ambitions set against its local realities. This article unpacks the planning mechanisms used to design this development, including the land reclamation powers of the state and the government land sales programme. It also discusses the strategies and choices underpinning the urban sequence of the ECP’s infrastructural nodes, from the Jewel (2019) to the Conservatories (2012). Drawing on official documentation from Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), field research, and using a multidisciplinary lens, this article interpolates architectural and planning studies with insights gleaned by onsite investigation.

Using central bank digital currencies across borders: Lessons from practical experiments

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could help to deliver better cross-border payments. With projects InthanonLionRock2, Jura, Dunbar and mBridge, the BIS Innovation Hub has been leading practical experiments to show how CBDCs could make cross-border payments faster, cheaper and more transparent. This paper looks at similarities and differences across these four cross-border CBDC experiments with a view to setting out the insights and lessons learned. These experiments demonstrate that platforms with two or more CBDCs are technically feasible and could lower costs, make settlement faster and increase operational transparency. Nevertheless, policy, legal, governance and advanced feasibility questions remain. Work will continue with future phases of the experimentation.

Agroecological Approaches in the Context of Innovation Hubs

Agroecology is a sustainable alternative to agricultural science, aiming at balancing the environment-plant-animal-man complex in an equitable way. Different players in the food system across the world are engaging in the practice and promotion of agroecology. Their experience serves as input for agroecology innovation hubs, thus assisting and accelerating the adoption of agroecological practices. Based on existing experience in implementation of innovation ecosystems and living labs in Romania, the study discusses critical factors required for a successful transformation of agriculture, with the aim to fill existing research gaps on agroecological techniques. The authors are also emphasizing the role of new business models in this area. The study used an anonymous survey with Likert scale ratings, and structural equation modeling, PLS. The study results were indicative of a certain degree of enthusiasm for agroecological practice adoption, particularly among organic farmers and business owners. The chances that these practices are adopted by farmers can be enhanced provided there is a systematic exchange of knowledge among the farmers. Clusters of farmers based on community of practice could create innovation ecosystems providing this accelerates its adoption. Correlation with the economic and political processes of the country is necessary, as emphasized by the farmers interviewed during the study. Through innovation hubs, agroecology must move from the currently smaller scale to larger scale practices such as agroecosystems and agri-food systems. These forms of organization should also take due account of relevant socio-economic, cultural, and political factors.

Building Inclusive Smart Cities through Innovation Intermediaries

To be inclusive, smart cities should be built on Industry 4.0 technologies within a quadruple helix model involving governments, academia, industry, and citizens. Innovation intermediaries facilitating collaborative innovation could foster this model of smart city. This paper identifies digital innovation hubs (DIHs) as innovation intermediaries that can help build inclusive smart cities. A screening of DIHs in European and extra-European countries through desk research finds 48 DIHs linked to smart city projects or policies, of which 23 are involved in building inclusive smart cities and mostly addressing the areas of smart environment and government. This paper suggests a framework for boosting their functions as transformation leaders, knowledge brokers, and technical mediators to facilitate the use of Industry 4.0 technologies for building inclusive smart cities.

Enabling urban systems transformations: co-developing national and local strategies

Transformative urban development is urgent to achieve future sustainable development and wellbeing. Transformation can benefit from shared and cumulative learning on strategies to guide urban development across local to national scales, while also reflecting the complex emergent nature of urban systems, and the need for context-specific and place-based solutions. The article addresses this challenge, drawing on extensive transdisciplinary engagement and National Strategy co-development processes for Australia. This includes generation of two frameworks as boundary objects to assist such transdisciplinary strategy development. An ‘enabling urban systems transformation’ framework comprises four generic overarching transformation enablers and a set of necessary underpinning urban capacities. This also built cumulatively on other sustainability and urban transformation studies. A complementary ‘knowledge for urban systems transformation’ framework comprises key knowledge themes that can support an integrated systems approach to mission-focused urban transformations, such as decarbonising cities. The article provides insights on the transdisciplinary processes, urban systems frameworks, and scoping of key strategies that may help those developing transformation strategies from local to national scales.Science highlights• Transdisciplinary national urban strategy development is used to distil generic frameworks and strategy scopes with potential international application.• The frameworks also build on other published framings to support convergent, cumulative and transdisciplinary urban science.• The ‘enabling transformations’ and ‘urban knowledge’ frameworks include the perspective of those developing sustainable urban systems strategies.• The enabling framework also informs ‘National Urban Policy’ and ‘Knowledge and Innovation Hub’ strategies, and prevailing power imbalances.• The knowledge framework can help frame urban challenges, missions and knowledge programs.Policy and practice recommendations• An urban ‘transformation imperative’ and ‘strategic response’ can be co-developed from local to national scales.• Local initiative is crucial to drive urban strategies, but sustained national leadership with coherent policy across sectors and scales is also key.• Diversity in engagement participation and processes generates whole-of-urban-systems and local-to-national perspectives.• Urban solutions are context-specific but generic frameworks can help collaborative issue framing and responses.• Collaborative issue framing informed by generic frameworks can bring broader perspectives to context-specific and contested policy and practice issues.

Intergenerational Deliberations for Long Term Sustainability

Grŵp Cynefin, a social housing association in North Wales, United Kingdom (UK) with other partner organisations, had a vision to create a community Hub in the Nantlle Valley to strengthen and support the health and well-being of the local community through the provision of a range of traditional and preventative services. Social prescribing (SP), which is a non-medical support using community assets, would be a part of this new innovative Hub. SP activities would be co-designed and co-produced by current community members. Drawing on the principles of citizens’ assembly deliberations and Future Design, four focus groups (n = 16) were conducted to develop sustainable strategies for SP activities as part of the proposed Hub. Deliberations on the perspectives of future generations were considered along with current community needs. Findings from the focus groups imply that current members of society are open to the concept of taking an inter-generational approach when designing SP activities to address the social and economic needs of the community along with integration of traditional and preventative community health services. Deliberations highlighted that the proposed Hub could strengthen communities and support community health and well-being, by providing a place to socialise and acting as a single point of access for community services, which could promote social cohesion in line with the Well-being for Future Generations (Wales) Act. Applying a long-term thinking approach to citizens’ assembly deliberation design offers a voice to the interests of future generations, providing inter-generational equity.

Transformational climate actions by cities

<strong>Highlights</strong> With their predominantly coastal geographies, rapidly growing populations, and emissions-intensive activities, cities are highly vulnerable and major contributors to climate change. Their role as cultural centers, and commerce and innovation hubs, means they are also promising sources of solutions. Taken together, these factors demand a closer examination of the progress and solutions that cities are making to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts. However, research on the extent and effectiveness of cities’ implementation efforts is underdeveloped. There is a need to better understand if and how cities are rolling out effective implementation measures, what effects (intended and unintended) such measures are having, and whether their implementation efforts are achieving the transformational changes needed to realize a low carbon, climate-resilient future. This editorial introduces the special issue by exploring these issues and reflecting perspectives from a variety of disciplines both within and outside academia, and in relation to diverse cities in the Global North and South. To better understand the practical dimensions of implementation, and the various obstacles and opportunities faced by public and private sector actors in progressing climate action targets and goals, the editors invited submissions reflective of co-produced research. Though not all took this form, some did and helped to foreground the experiences of those actors who arguably have the most power and responsibility to advance implementation measures, and seed the very institutional arrangements needed for deeper, multisectoral climate action. Collectively, the content of the special issue points to a need for significant investment, policy change, social innovation, and cooperation across societal scales.

Towards retail innovation and ambidexterity: insights from a Swedish retailer

PurposeIncumbent retail organisations need to develop new capabilities to adapt with the increasingly competitive retail landscape. Despite the growing relevance of innovation in retail practice, the strategic management of innovation in retailing is still vastly under-researched. This explorative study thus aims to investigate how incumbent retail firms can organise for innovation from an organisational ambidexterity perspective.Design/methodology/approachA single-case study of an established Swedish retail firm was conducted from December 2016 to July 2018 and followed up in June 2021. The authors followed the process of implementation of organisational changes aimed to increase innovation in the company, particularly the introduction of a digital marketing initiative and a corporate innovation hub. Data collection was based on nine semi-structured interviews and participant observations and unstructured interviews from 13 meetings and workshops. An abductive approach to data analysis was followed, iteratively comparing theoretical concepts and empirical data using open, axial and selective coding to distil findings into aggregated themes.FindingsGiven the inherently limited formalisation of innovation processes in most retail organisations, structural ambidexterity appears to be necessary when the aim is radical, strategic retail innovation. Structural mechanisms are able to safeguard the space and resources to focus on long-term research and projects with higher risk and uncertainty; however, integration of innovation activities to the mainstream organisation is critical. Pursuing contextual ambidexterity, wherein instead of structural solutions, employees are empowered to divide employees' time between innovation-related and efficiency-related tasks, is more likely related to retail innovations that are incremental and operational.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the emerging topic of strategic management of innovation in retailing, by explicating how incumbent retailers can organise for innovation depending on the type of innovation that is aimed for, using organisational ambidexterity as a novel perspective.