1,720,969 research outputs found
The role of design thinking in Big Data innovations
Full text linkDigital technologies are disrupting the way companies manage business. In today’s society, where a plethora of different digital solutions are booming and the attention of both practitioners and scholars is growing, little is known about how to make the most of such technologies. Given the complexity of the phenomenon, this paper refers to a single digital technology, Big Data. It is commonly recognised that Big Data can represent a competitive advantage source for companies. However, there is still a lack of literature on how to exploit the opportunities provided by this technology, while the amount of data is so vast that their interpretation is complex. The focus on human centricity, iteration, and prototyping of Design Thinking brought the academic world towards the recognition that this approach could be valuable in steering and managing this technology. Thus, the paper investigates how Design Thinking can foster innovation based on Big Data technologies. It leverages three explicative case studies to shed light on a new set of hybrid practices. By comparing and contrasting cases, the four practices of (i) Cropping Big Data Landscapes, (ii) Reframing Big Data applications, (iii) Unveiling Big Data Opportunities, and (iv) Proving Big Data Releases are proposed. These hybrid sets of practices support both practitioners and academics in opening up the black box to interpret and value Big Data
Look for New Opportunities in Existing Technologies
Full text linkSeveral approaches to developing new technologies are available to companies, but few studies explore how the development process can reveal hidden opportunities in existing technologies. This paper investigates the technology development process to consider how they can discover opportunities that generate higher value for users. Implementing a five-step framework in the discovery process can help identify new opportunities and reveal new application fields for existing technologies.
Entrepreneurship and human capital in professional sport : a longitudinal analysis of the Italian soccer league
Full text linkThe discovery and deployment of human capital are overlooked topics in entrepreneurship research. Professional sport can illuminate these phenomena as sport directors take huge risks in innovating rosters. Our longitudinal analysis of the Italian Serie A investigated if sport directors with greater entrepreneurial orientations toward the acquisition of new players outperformed rivals. While soccer organizations with better roster quality and accomplished managers achieved superior rankings, the acquisition of new players had non-significant effects and was moderated negatively by accomplished managers. We argue that entrepreneurs risk with ‘too many’ talents while conformity mechanisms attenuate the entrepreneurial opportunities offered by human capital
Developing radically new meanings through the collaboration with radical circles: Slow Food as a platform for envisioning innovative meanings
Full text linkPurpose
The importance and complexity of proposing radically-new meanings are well established in the literature. However, a limited number of contributions have analyzed how they can be developed. In this work, we analyze the development of radically-new meanings at the basis of the Slow Food movement to contribute to the topic.
Design approach
In order to better understand how social movements can propose radically-new meanings and how companies can take inspiration and build a competitive advantage by leveraging the proposed meanings, we deeply analyzed the genealogy of Slow Food, interpreted as an inspiring case study; we adopt a narrative approach.
Findings
The analysis of how Slow Food emerged and evolved into an international movement reveals an alternative way to develop innovative meanings in collaboration with groups of radicals. We identify three main phases in the evolution of innovative meanings: generation, institutionalization and development.
Practical implications
In terms of managerial implications we contribute highlighting the importance of a new type of collaborative innovation: the collaboration with radical circles and social movements in their early stage.
Social implications
From a societal point of view, if we acknowledge the importance of social movements in contesting and actively changing institutions, we can see the importance for policy makers to create loci and opportunities for the emergence of radical circles and their experimentations.
Originality
We propose that new meanings are frequently the result of small groups of individuals gathering in radical circles. The core attribute of such circles is group validation. The group supports the Slow Food leader in refining the meaning and confronting the dominant paradigm
Design thinking: Critical analysis and future evolution
Full text linkThe importance of design as a source of value creation has been studied for decades. In the late 90s, however, a specific approach in the practice of design achieved a rapid diffusion across organizations: Design Thinking. This is a formal method for creative problem solving characterized by user-centeredness, ideation, and iterative prototyping. The rapid diffusion of Design Thinking in practice has not been coupled with similarly rapid and robust development of its theoretical underpinnings. Most contributions have been inward-oriented toward a confined community of scholars; therefore, the scientific discourse on Design Thinking has unfolded in a vacuum—often independently from other innovation management theories. The consequence has been that Design Thinking is often confused (especially among those new to the field) with the entire practice of design. Subsequently, we still lack an understanding on whether, why, and when Design Thinking contributes to innovation. In this editorial, we discuss the journey to the Special Issue “Design Thinking and Innovation Management: Matches, Mismatches and Future Avenues” that intends to critically reflect and enrich the scientific debate around Design Thinking. First, we aim at clarifying the distinction between “design” and “Design Thinking.” The former is a practice, to be studied; the latter is a paradigm, that is, a set of specific principles, methods, and tools to practice design. Second, we offer a brief overview of the community that has been investigating Design Thinking, a synthesis of the ten papers included in the Special Issue (distributed across this and the next issue), and show how they contribute to close the theoretical and empirical gaps with innovation studies. Finally, we suggest that the paradigm of Design Thinking is significantly contingent: its diffusion and success have been favored by the emergence of specific contextual conditions (substantially by the ubiquitous diffusion of digital technologies in direct interaction with users). As the context is dramatically shifting again, we wonder whether Design Thinking will keep its relevance and ability to support organizations in addressing the new challenges ahead? We address this question with the support of a contingent framework to position several design paradigms and suggest that the context ahead, where problems have multiple stakeholders and are undefined, will require the emergence of new paradigms characterized by a systemic (rather than user-centered) and reflective (rather than ideative) practice. We therefore propose a few research questions that will hopefully encourage and shape future scholarly efforts into the study of the design practice for innovation in organizations
The microfoundations of design sprint: how Johnson & Johnson cultivates innovation in a highly regulated market
Full text linkPurpose: Mastering innovation in highly regulated markets might require companies to overcome significant barriers. Rules, laws and limitations on social, economic and institutional dimensions can hinder the ability of a company to transfer knowledge within and across organizational boundaries. However, as recent research in innovation management increasingly advocates user involvement and early understanding of user needs as best practices, the inability to freely interact with customers due to highly regulated market restrictions can hinder the company’s capability to innovate. Hence, this paper aims to shed light on how an emerging managerial approach, such as Design Sprint, can support companies operating in highly regulated markets to overcome user involvement limitations and boost human-centered innovation. Design/methodology/approach: This paper sheds light on how to boost innovation in a highly regulated market by leveraging an in-depth case study. The study investigates the use of the Design Sprint approach adopted by the pharmaceutical multinational Johnson & Johnson to revise the way its R&D department orchestrates the new product development process, overcoming the user involvement challenges of highly regulated markets. Findings: In analyzing six different projects undertaken in the past two years, the findings illustrate three microfoundational dimensions of the Design Sprint approach in highly regulated markets, the so-called 3T model: team, time and tools. Indeed, deploying the Design Sprint in a highly regulated market has proven that being able to experiment in the early stages, building rough prototypes in real-time and openly collaborating with partners is crucial to boost innovation and anticipate constraints. Originality/value: The paper sheds light on the Design Sprint approach by initially grounding an emerging managerial approach on organizational and management theory, leveraging the lens of microfoundations. In doing so, this study suggests how Design Sprint is based on the pillars of experimentation, knowledge transfer and co-creation usually neglected in highly regulated markets where user involvement is challenging. Finally, this study discloses the importance of using a design-based methodology in fostering innovation in highly regulated markets
Framing the multifaceted nature of design thinking in addressing different innovation purposes
Full text linkScholars and practitioners acknowledge the role of design, and specifically design thinking, as a driver of innovation and change. Design thinking is gaining attention in the business community beyond the traditional product innovation realm and is increasingly promoted as an engine for the creation of novel user experiences, new businesses, strategic transformation, organizational and cultural change. Is it reasonable to assume that the same set of practices fits such a broad range of applications equally well? This study addresses how design thinking applications are differently framed when addressing diverse innovation purposes. Specifically, we compare two purposes: innovation of solutions, encompassing traditional product and service development projects, and innovation of direction, encompassing strategic and organizational renewal projects. Based on data collected from 146 design thinking projects conducted by European consulting firms we investigate the relationships between the design thinking practices adopted and the value generated by the projects. We then analyze how these relationships vary depending on the purpose of the innovation project, namely whether focused on innovating solutions or direction. The results show that different purposes indeed call for different practices. In projects aimed at innovating solutions, market value is positively related to capturing current user needs and envisioning future society. Conversely, in projects aimed at innovating direction, market value is positively related to challenging current assumptions
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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