This paper studies the productive role of innovation in organisations. Using the post-structuralist insight that innovation is an open concept that can become performative, we shift the emphasis from analysing innovations themselves to analysing how the concept of innovation affects the organisational practices through which it acquires meaning. Deploying this framework, we studied the development of an innovation unit within TUI, a corporate tour operator. We found that actors interpreted innovation in different ways and that initially the innovation unit was considered a failure. The subsequent dramatisation of this failure resulted in a new version of this innovation unit that strengthened established actors and institutions within the organisation. Our study shows how the use of the concept of innovation in an organisation can both stimulate and hamper its innovativeness. Addressing this paradox requires sensitivity to the concept's productive role and evaluations of innovation that look beyond accomplished results.
The world is rapidly transforming. Economic, ecological and technological developments transcend existing boundaries and challenge the way we innovate. The challenge we face is to reinvent innovation as well, changing the way organisations and industries innovate and cooperate. Only with a new approach we can design a better future: an approach where stakeholders from government, organisations, companies and users participate in new ways of collaboration; an approach where solutions are realised that makes our society future-proof. Participatory innovation means that the innovation team changes: expanding beyond the boundaries of the own organisation. For organisations and companies, this is a huge step. Every partner must be willing to think and act beyond their own borders and participate in a joint effort. Participative innovation is a new way of working, where new challenges are encountered. In the field of urban lighting, this transformation is strongly felt. This paper will further explore the challenge and describe a rich case study where participative innovation is used to rethink, redesign and realise the solutions to transform urban lighting from functional lighting to improving social quality.
While literature and practice acknowledge the potential of service innovation as well as digitally enabled innovation processes, the diverse innovation process literature lacks a process model which combines these two aspects. This systematic literature review aims at filling this gap by analysing innovation process theories and approaches with a specific focus on service and digital innovation. 25 conceptualisations of innovation processes were distilled and analysed in detail to present a ‘digital innovation process for services’ model which includes steps on three levels. Consequently, this literature review expands the current state-of-research and acts as the groundwork for further innovation research projects.
Vanwege veranderende onderwijskundige inzichten - 21st century learning - worden schoolgebouwen verbouwd of vervangen door nieuwbouw. Deze 21st century leeromgevingen blijken in de praktijk niet te voldoen aan de verwachting van de gebruikers. Het ontwikkelen en gebruiken van een 21st century leeromgeving stelt blijkbaar specifieke eisen aan de 21st century competenties van alle betrokkenen. Dit roept vragen op ten aanzien van product en proces. De beantwoording van deze vragen vereist kennis van wisselwerking tussen psycho-sociale leeromgeving en fysieke leeromgeving. Het betreft onder andere de benodigde “ruimtelijke competenties” van de betrokkenen om de fysieke leeromgevingen te ontwikkelen en te gebruiken en - andersom - hoe de fysieke leeromgeving de ontwikkeling van 21st century competenties beïnvloedt. De kiem voor dit onderzoeksproject is gelegd toen scholen en vormgevers deze vragen voorlegden aan experts van de NHL Hogeschool en TU Eindhoven. Dit KIEM project wil de probleemstelling in één of meerdere praktijkvragen articuleren door het uitvoeren van een reeks workshops met een focusgroep van stakeholders. De uitkomsten hiervan zullen worden vertaald naar een voorstel voor een langduriger onderzoeksproject. In dit beoogde vervolgproject zullen de gearticuleerde vragen worden vertaald naar één of meer praktijkonderzoeken waarin wetenschappelijke kennis en methodes worden doorontwikkeld en beproefd op het effectief stimuleren van 21st century vaardigheden van docenten en vormgevers in praktijksituaties. Dit project maakt deel uit van de opbouw van een regionaal kennisnetwerk Onderwijs & Ruimte, wat op een duurzame wijze wil bijdragen aan de kennisontwikkeling en -deling betreffende de 21st century leeromgeving. De kern van dit netwerk wordt gevormd door de initiatiefnemers van deze aanvraag; Adema Architecten (MKB), lectoraat Open Innovation van de NHL Hogeschool (Onderzoeksinstelling) en Next Level (Onderwijs).
Currently, many novel innovative materials and manufacturing methods are developed in order to help businesses for improving their performance, developing new products, and also implement more sustainability into their current processes. For this purpose, additive manufacturing (AM) technology has been very successful in the fabrication of complex shape products, that cannot be manufactured by conventional approaches, and also using novel high-performance materials with more sustainable aspects. The application of bioplastics and biopolymers is growing fast in the 3D printing industry. Since they are good alternatives to petrochemical products that have negative impacts on environments, therefore, many research studies have been exploring and developing new biopolymers and 3D printing techniques for the fabrication of fully biobased products. In particular, 3D printing of smart biopolymers has attracted much attention due to the specific functionalities of the fabricated products. They have a unique ability to recover their original shape from a significant plastic deformation when a particular stimulus, like temperature, is applied. Therefore, the application of smart biopolymers in the 3D printing process gives an additional dimension (time) to this technology, called four-dimensional (4D) printing, and it highlights the promise for further development of 4D printing in the design and fabrication of smart structures and products. This performance in combination with specific complex designs, such as sandwich structures, allows the production of for example impact-resistant, stress-absorber panels, lightweight products for sporting goods, automotive, or many other applications. In this study, an experimental approach will be applied to fabricate a suitable biopolymer with a shape memory behavior and also investigate the impact of design and operational parameters on the functionality of 4D printed sandwich structures, especially, stress absorption rate and shape recovery behavior.
The denim industry faces many complex sustainability challenges and has been especially criticized for its polluting and hazardous production practices. Reducing resource use of water, chemicals and energy and changing denim production practices calls for collaboration between various stakeholders, including competing denim brands. There is great benefit in combining denim brands’ resources and knowledge so that commonly defined standards and benchmarks are developed and realized on a scale that matters. Collaboration however, and especially between competitors, is highly complex and prone to fail. This project brings leading denim brands together to collectively take initial steps towards improving the ecological sustainability impact of denim production, particularly by establishing measurements, benchmarks and standards for resource use (e.g. chemicals, water, energy) and creating best practices for effective collaboration. The central research question of our project is: How do denim brands effectively collaborate together to create common, industry standards on resource use and benchmarks for improved ecological sustainability in denim production? To answer this question, we will use a mixed-method, action research approach. The project’s research setting is the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (MRA), which has a strong denim cluster and is home to many international denim brands and start-ups.
