Innovation Trajectories Research Articles

Duration of playing bursts and redundancy of melodic jazz improvisation in John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”

Studying musical improvisation is methodologically difficult because improvisations are hardly reproducible, and no established theory exists regarding their formation. In particular it is unclear when and if jazz musicians invent new (innovative) melodic patterns or rely on previously overlearned (redundant) phrases. Other similar goal-directed activities with high complexity are production tasks such as driving a car (Tanida & Pöppel, 2006) or producing spoken language (Fenk-Oczlon & Fenk, 2009). Trade-offs between deliberate cognitive processes and automatized execution can be expected under extreme time pressure in high speed improvisation, and pauses in the musical flow could be used by musicians to engage in generative cognitive activity. Using transcriptions of John Coltrane’s improvisation of “Giant Steps” we analyzed redundancy and innovation in melodic improvisation. Half-bar units were coded for types of melodic variants. We found motor-output units (playing bursts) of around 3 seconds’ duration with a slightly higher probability of innovative patterns appearing after longer (0.5 s) pauses. Also, a systematic curvilinear trajectory of innovation was found across the piece with a peak after three-fourths of the chorus. The discussion establishes a parallel between improvisation and conversational language production with regard to the length of utterances which seem to take into account the listener’s psychological present. The possibilities of expert improvisers to engage in deliberate problem-solving during performance are also addressed.

Service regime and innovation clusters: An empirical study from service firms in Taiwan

The paper extends a notion of service regime framework as a synthesis approach to understand the diversity of innovation patterns in service firms. The service regime framework consists of three dimensions: innovation trajectories, appropriability, and user involvement. A dataset of leading top 311 Taiwanese service firms is collected through the postal questionnaire survey. The results reveal three newly stylized patterns of innovation in service firms: coupling innovation trajectories, joint use of formal and informal appropriability, and intimate user involvement. Moreover, four clusters following the firm-specific assumption to characterize heterogeneous compositions of the service regime are identified. The paper concludes that the service regime framework plays a major role in distinguishing specific service innovation clusters among firms and sectors. Finally, some policy implications for promoting service innovations are provided.

Limits to responsible innovation

ABSTRACTResponsible Innovation (RI) is a young field of research that has nevertheless had remarkable successes in dissemination within academic and political circles. However, there is relatively little awareness of its limits, blind spots and situations in which it cannot be used for actual innovation trajectories. Without such awareness, there is a risk that RI may get hollowed out and turned into a tool for ‘greenwashing’. To examine RI’s limits, we present a case study on biofuel innovation in Hassan, South India. This case study demonstrates that there are important barriers that may make it difficult to conduct innovation according to RI values. In particular, we highlight the following factors that emerge from our case study and need more attention in order to be included and adequately theorised in the RI literature: material barriers to innovation, engagement with abandoning or reducing existing practices as a consequence of innovation, power differences and dependencies, (un)clear demarcation of responsibilities, strategic behaviour and, lastly, different, diverging and even contradictory interests. We demonstrate that such factors may obstruct the possibility to innovate in a responsible way, leading us to our core observation that RI should be about innovating responsibly – or not innovating at all.

Hospitals as innovators in the health-care system: A literature review and research agenda

This paper aims to improve the understanding of the role of hospitals in the generation of innovations. It presents a systematic and critical review of the interdisciplinary literature that addresses the links between the activities of hospitals and medical innovation. It identifies three major research streams: studies of the contribution of medical research and clinical staff to innovation, analyses of novel practices developed and diffused in hospitals, and evolutionary studies of technical change in the context of human health care. This is a highly heterogeneous body of literature, in which comprehensive theoretical frameworks are rare, and empirical studies have tended to focus on a narrow range of hospitals’ innovation activities. The paper introduces and discusses a framework integrating different perspectives that can be used to analyze the functions performed by hospitals at the intersection with different partners in the health innovation system and at different stages of innovation trajectories. On the basis of current gaps in the literature, a research agenda is discussed for a relational and co-evolutionary approach to the study of hospitals as innovators.

The EPSRC's Policy of Responsible Innovation from a Trading Zones Perspective.

Responsible innovation (RI) is gathering momentum as an academic and policy debate linking science and society. Advocates of RI in research policy argue that scientific research should be opened up at an early stage so that many actors and issues can steer innovation trajectories. If this is done, they suggest, new technologies will be more responsible in different ways, better aligned with what society wants, and mistakes of the past will be avoided. This paper analyses the dynamics of RI in policy and practice and makes recommendations for future development. More specifically, we draw on the theory of ‘trading zones’ developed by Peter Galison and use it to analyse two related processes: (i) the development and inclusion of RI in research policy at the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); (ii) the implementation of RI in relation to the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) project. Our analysis reveals an RI trading zone comprised of three quasi-autonomous traditions of the research domain – applied science, social science and research policy. It also shows how language and expertise are linking and coordinating these traditions in ways shaped by local conditions and the wider context of research. Building on such insights, we argue that a sensible goal for RI policy and practice at this stage is better local coordination of those involved and we suggest ways how this might be achieved.

Towards a balanced view of innovations

Purpose– Based on theoretical input from punctuated equilibrium theory and the exploration vs exploitation paradigm, a set of innovation drivers and propositions is developed. The purpose of this paper is to present a starting point for a more comprehensive investigation of companies’ innovation trajectories towards balance.Design/methodology/approach– The paper builds on a thorough analysis of the literature and suggests the notion of “strategic inflection points” (SIPs). These points are supposed to mark the transgression between innovation types as reflected in respective performance enhancements.Findings– The propositions developed in this paper serve as a basis for further understanding and for subsequent empirical research.Practical implications– Managerial implications relate to the understanding that companies need to balance innovation types in order to increase performance.Originality/value– This paper discusses a variety of innovation types and suggests the notion of SIPs.

The Cultural Dimension of Design Driven Innovation. A Perspective from the Fashion Industry

Design, as discipline and practice, is referred to as the interpretation of contemporary culture, both in its tangible and intangible expressions. The design practice acts as an agent that can detect cultural evolutions, identify their drivers and patterns of change, and then design a possible new cultural environment, which can embed the newly-found meanings and drive the innovation of products and services. Through a literature review, the paper introduces the notions of ‘contemporary cultures’ and ‘culture intensive goods’, investigating the paradigmatic shift from technology- and market-driven innovation to design- and culture-driven innovation. Within this theoretical framework, the paper will focus on fashion, one of the most advanced culture intensive industries, as a peculiar case which has built methodologies and tools to draw innovation trajectories, starting from the reading of socio-cultural and economical contexts. In particular, the paper will discuss how cultural contents are embedded into fashion artefacts, how cultural exchange is becoming part of the relationship between contemporary users and producers and how fashion has become an eminent provider of cultural diversity and authenticity in contemporary markets.

Stakeholder roles for fostering ambidexterity in Sub-Saharan African agricultural netchains for the emergence of multi-stakeholder cooperatives

Abstract The Sub-Saharan African smallholder agricultural sector faces multiple and usually complex challenges, which can potentially be overcome by collective action. Smallholder farmers and other value chain stakeholders can tackle temporal, structural and contextual challenges by joining multi-level innovation networks to benefit collectively from shared information, knowledge, improved capacities and economies of scale in a process of innovation. Ambidexterity is a capability of innovation networks to balance exploration and exploitation dynamics in an innovation process, and is applicable at multiple levels: individuals, leaders, champions, teams and clusters. In the paradigm of open innovation, these levels become intertwined in hybrid social structures of innovation netchains. The objective of this paper is to describe the roles and identify the stakeholders that play those roles in an innovation process. We present case studies on farmer groups who participate in collective action and we compare multi-stakeholder platforms with other configurations of actors that tackle challenges in potato netchains in three Sub-Saharan African countries. We track and analyse innovation trajectories for six cases adapting netchain analysis techniques linking roles with the challenges faced at particular stages of each innovation trajectory. We find three management designs for fostering exploration and exploitation: (1) exploratory or exploitative management designs for small innovation networks; (2) exploitative management designs for larger networks; and (3) ambidextrous management designs for multi-stakeholder networks. Traditional roles played by managers are identified to manage exploration and exploitation in an ambidextrous way, but also evidence of roles of civil society actors facilitating collective action for the emergence of multi-stakeholder cooperatives. Since ambidexterity is about dynamism, we identified three types of mobility to be fostered when tackling challenges in an innovation process: (1) mobility-dynamism of the innovation process over time; (2) structural-knowledge mobility in innovation networks; and (3) boundary mobility.

Learning while (re)configuring: Business model innovation processes in established firms.

This study addresses the question of how established organizations develop new business models over time, using a process research approach to trace how four business model innovation trajectories unfold. With organizational learning as analytical lens, we discern two process patterns: “drifting” starts with an emphasis on experiential learning and shifts later to cognitive search; “leaping,” in contrast, starts with an emphasis on cognitive search and shifts later to experiential learning. Both drifting and leaping can result in radical business model innovations, while their occurrence depends on whether a new business model takes off from an existing model and when it goes into operation. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory on business models and organizational learning.

Navigating the innovation trajectories of technology by combining specialization score analyses for publications and patents: graphene and nano-enabled drug delivery

In this study, we combine the specialization scores for publications and patents (the latter is a new indicator of cross-disciplinary engagement) to achieve more comprehensive navigation of the innovation trajectory of a technology. The patent specialization score draws upon counterpart research publication indicator concepts to measure patent diversity. Two nano-based technologies--Nano-enabled drug delivery (NEDD) and Graphene--provide contrasting explorations of the behavior of this indicator, alongside research publication indicators. Results show distinctive patterns of the two technologies and for the respective publication and patent indicators. NEDD research, as evidenced by publication and citation patterns, engages highly diverse research fields. In contrast, NEDD development, as reflected in patent International Patent Classifications (IPCs), concentrates on relatively closely associated fields. Graphene presents the opposite picture, with closely linked disciplines contributing to research, but much more diverse fields of application for its patents. We suggest that analyzing the field diversity of research publications and patents together, employing both specialization scores, can offer fruitful insights into innovation trajectories. Such information can contribute to technology and innovation management and policy for such emerging technologies.

Evaluating post-acquisition technological performance by measuring absorption-related invention

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) form a strategic response to the increasing rapidity of technological change, enabling firms to exploit the potential embodied in external sources of knowledge and rapidly adapt to changing market conditions. However, the success of this strategy critically depends on acquirers' absorptive capacity. Even if there is common agreement on the role of absorptive capacity, only a few researchers have attempted to investigate how it works in an M&A. To this purpose, we introduce the concept of absorption-related invention as a way to evaluate how, and the extent to which, the knowledge acquired in an M&A is assimilated and transformed into new sources of innovation. Our analysis shows that absorption-related invention positively affects invention performance post-M&A. This effect is stronger in the case of novelty rather than quantity. Furthermore, the roles of technological complementarity, technological similarity, and managerial experience have been tested in relation to both invention performance and absorption-related invention. Our findings confirm the relevance of these factors and suggest that the assimilation of similar technological assets might be important to support the development of novel trajectories of innovation through absorption-related invention.

Digital Technologies for Social Innovation: An Empirical Recognition on the New Enablers

Even though scholars’ attention has been placed on Social Innovation (SI), little evidence has been provided with regards to which tools are actually used to address social needs and foster Social Innovation initiatives. The purpose of the article is twofold. Firstly, the article offers empirical recognition to SI by investigating, on a large-scale, social and innovative activities conducted by start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the world between 2001 and 2014. Secondly, the article intends to capture SI core businesses and underlying complementarities between products, markets, and technologies and show in which way digital media and IT are essentially tracing innovation trajectories over a multitude of industries, leading the current industrial patterns of SI, and continually fostering its cross-industry nature.

An assessment method for system innovation and transition (AMSIT)<SUP align="right">1</SUP>

To address comprehensive system innovations that may occur in a future transition, a suitable ex ante assessment method is required. The technological innovation system approach is useful for the retrospective study of the conditions for success or failure of innovation trajectories, and the multilevel framework helps to understand transition dynamics. Drawing on these concepts and on the hypercube of innovation, we suggest, as an ex ante approach, the assessment method for system innovation and transition (AMSIT). This method not only helps to anticipate the requirements for a system innovation and transition, but it also provides an indication if these requirements are being met. The method helps to assess innovation system initiatives that not only face technological challenges in the niche in which it operates, but also challenging factors related to the sociotechnical regime and the political and societal landscape in which the niche is located. This paper describes the construction of the anticipatory AMSIT and illustrates its application in a case linked to the Dutch railway network involving a transition to a system operating at an increased voltage.

Eco-efficient biorefineries: Techno-fix for resource constraints?

An eco-efficient bioeconomy has been widely promoted to alleviate resource constraints of rising global demand. An integrated, diversified biorefinery would convert diverse non-food biomass into valuable products, thus providing input-substitutes for fossil fuels within current infrastructures. This agenda intensifies various resource burdens and market competition to supply cheap biomass. Biorefinery innovation trajectories have the same drivers as the current production-consumption patterns expanding global demand for food, feed, fuel, etc. More efficient, flexible conversion of biomass will strengthen financial incentives to intensify resource extraction, especially by industrialising agri-forestry systems. Such a techno-fix depends on cheapening resource supplies without paying for their societal and environmental costs.

CRISIS-DRIVEN INNOVATION: THE CASE OF HUMANITARIAN INNOVATION

Innovation is often presented as a survival issue and this provides a powerful metaphor to focus attention on the need to manage it effectively. But in the humanitarian context it takes on a very literal meaning. Crises, whether natural or man-made, require rapid problem solving if agencies and aid workers are to avoid the huge negative impacts of such disasters.That makes consideration of how innovation takes place in this sector an urgent challenge. How can the humanitarian sector best organise to enable innovation and what are the roles for key actors — donors, agencies, and most importantly ‘users’? Our paper summarises the nature of the challenge and reviews experience so far in humanitarian innovation (HI).There is a second issue which we also explore. Arguably crisis conditions provide a “laboratory” for exploring alternative approaches and generating novel innovation trajectories which might diffuse more widely — the concept of “reverse innovation.” Are there lessons which could be learned for mainstream innovation management? And if so, what are the mechanisms which might enable such learning and experience exchange to take place?

Drift and shift in the organizing vision career for personal health records: An investigation of innovation discourse dynamics

Organizational information technology innovations develop and diffuse through the efforts of communities of stakeholders working in cooperation and competition to articulate, motivate, and diffuse an innovation. Community members' discourse can reveal competing interests and tensions that influence whether ideas central to the innovation coalesce, drift apart, or dissipate and thus the innovation's trajectory. To investigate these dynamics, we adopted the theoretical lens of the organizing vision framework and historical and discourse analysis methods to study developments with personal health records (PHRs) in the U.S. for over a decade (2003–2013). Our analysis revealed ongoing drift in PHR discourse across the innovation community despite concerted efforts by key stakeholders to promote an overarching vision. Shifts in discourse developed as four competing PHR versions coalesced around different institutional arrangements for health and health data stewardship, health data stores, and innovation community actors. This analysis furthers our understanding of career dynamics of an organizing vision and the implications of these dynamics for innovation diffusion. The study also highlights implications for health IT innovation research and for practice.

Trajectoire d’innovation dans les systèmes laitiers français : une analyse socio-technique de la démarche « Bleu-Blanc-Cœur »

L’approche multi-niveaux des transitions présente les niches d’innovation comme des incubateurs de nouvelles voies productives dont la diffusion auprès du régime conventionnel peut amener ce dernier à évoluer. Nous mobilisons ce cadre d’analyse pour étudier la trajectoire d’innovation de la démarche « Bleu-Blanc-Cœur (BBC) », construite sur un changement de pratiques en alimentation animale pour améliorer la valeur santé des produits. Par l’analyse des interactions entre acteurs des systèmes sociotechniques laitiers en France, nous examinons comment co-évoluent les systèmes en place et la niche d’innovation BBC ; et comment se construisent de nouveaux standards de qualité dans le secteur. Cette étude montre comment des innovations technologiques, organisationnelles et institutionnelles se combinent. Nous proposons de considérer ces changements comme les précurseurs d’une transition du secteur laitier, selon la stratégie future des acteurs face à cette démarche d’innovation. L’analyse de ces interactions révèle la complexité des processus de co-évolution. Codes JEL : B52, D2, L1, O3, Q1, Q5

China's shifting patent landscape and State-led patenting strategy

The extent to which China is an innovative economy is the topic of ongoing contention in scholarly and practitioner circles. The intellectual property component of China’s technological catch-up strategy has been geared towards first focusing on quantity of outputs and then eventually shifting towards ensuring the quality of outputs. Disconcertingly, in recent years this strategy has created negative impacts on patent quality and thus somewhat may have hampered innovation in China.New Chinese intellectual property policies, and the 2014 phenomena of decreasing annual growth rates of domestic invention patent filings and unprecedented negative growth rates of domestic utility model and design filings, shed new light on this debate. They suggest that recent shifts away from the government strategy of stimulating mere numbers of any type of patent application may be having a tangible impact. Even though science & technology development in China will inevitably continue to be a numbers game of sorts, these recent trends may reflect a step towards a healthier Chinese innovation trajectory. Scholars, policymakers, and businesses should consider these shifting dynamics in their intellectual property and innovation forecasting, strategizing, and planning.

La empresa social en España y en Italia durante la crisis ¿un laboratorio de innovación económica y social?

En este artículo analizamos el desarrollo de empresa social en España e Italia en el marco de la crisis económica y social, en términos de difusión y marco jurídico. De esta manera, definimos los confines del “ecosistema” de la empresa social en los dos países e identificamos elementos comunes y especifidades. La hipótesis es que la empresa social representa una herramienta de generación de respuestas proactivas a la crisis, impulsando trayectorias de innovación económica y social, y contribuyendo a un modelo de desarrollo económica y socialmente sostenible. La innovación surge de la capacidad de las empresas sociales de generar respuestas innovativas a demandas emergentes, de su capacidad de crear al mismo tiempo valor social y económico, de satisfacer necesidades individuales y colectivas, de activar dinámicas de cambio de medio y largo plazo, de estimular dinámicas de emprendimiento, de empoderamiento y de valorización en el territorio. Sin embargo, el carácter innovador de la empresa social no surge simplemente de una empresarializacción del Tercer Sector tradicional, y mucho menos como consecuencia de la transferencia de servicios fundamentales del estado a asociaciones, cooperativas y empresas sociales, si con eso se persigue el simple objetivo de reducción de los gastos públicos. Al contrario, detrás de la retórica de la innovación social se puedan esconder proyectos de reducción de los gastos de servicios a través de la reducción de los salarios y de la cualidad de los servicios. El artículo, a partir de la comparación de la difusión del fenómeno y de las perspectivas de desarrollo en España y en Italia, termina con una reflexión crítica sobre las luces y sombras, los riesgos y las oportunidades, relacionados con la difusión de la empresa social, o sea, de la integración de la acción solidaria y la acción económica en prácticas que son al mismo tiempo empresariales y con finalidades sociales.

A Delphi Technology Foresight Study: Mapping Social Construction of Scientific Evidence on Metagenomics Tests for Water Safety.

Access to clean water is a grand challenge in the 21st century. Water safety testing for pathogens currently depends on surrogate measures such as fecal indicator bacteria (e.g., E. coli). Metagenomics concerns high-throughput, culture-independent, unbiased shotgun sequencing of DNA from environmental samples that might transform water safety by detecting waterborne pathogens directly instead of their surrogates. Yet emerging innovations such as metagenomics are often fiercely contested. Innovations are subject to shaping/construction not only by technology but also social systems/values in which they are embedded, such as experts’ attitudes towards new scientific evidence. We conducted a classic three-round Delphi survey, comprised of 107 questions. A multidisciplinary expert panel (n = 24) representing the continuum of discovery scientists and policymakers evaluated the emergence of metagenomics tests. To the best of our knowledge, we report here the first Delphi foresight study of experts’ attitudes on (1) the top 10 priority evidentiary criteria for adoption of metagenomics tests for water safety, (2) the specific issues critical to governance of metagenomics innovation trajectory where there is consensus or dissensus among experts, (3) the anticipated time lapse from discovery to practice of metagenomics tests, and (4) the role and timing of public engagement in development of metagenomics tests. The ability of a test to distinguish between harmful and benign waterborne organisms, analytical/clinical sensitivity, and reproducibility were the top three evidentiary criteria for adoption of metagenomics. Experts agree that metagenomic testing will provide novel information but there is dissensus on whether metagenomics will replace the current water safety testing methods or impact the public health end points (e.g., reduction in boil water advisories). Interestingly, experts view the publics relevant in a “downstream capacity” for adoption of metagenomics rather than a co-productionist role at the “upstream” scientific design stage of metagenomics tests. In summary, these findings offer strategic foresight to govern metagenomics innovations symmetrically: by identifying areas where acceleration (e.g., consensus areas) and deceleration/reconsideration (e.g., dissensus areas) of the innovation trajectory might be warranted. Additionally, we show how scientific evidence is subject to potential social construction by experts’ value systems and the need for greater upstream public engagement on metagenomics innovations.