Innovation is crucial for higher education to ensure high-quality curricula that address the changing needs of students, labor markets, and society as a whole. Substantial amounts of resources and enthusiasm are devoted to innovations, but often they do not yield the desired changes. This may be due to unworkable goals, too much complexity, and a lack of resources to institutionalize the innovation. In many cases, innovations end up being less sustainable than expected or hoped for. In the long term, the disappointing revenues of innovations hamper the ability of higher education to remain future proof. Against the background of this need to increase the success of educational innovations, our colleague Klaartje van Genugten has explored the literature on innovations to reveal mechanisms that contribute to the sustainability of innovations. Her findings are synthesized in this report. They are particularly meaningful for directors of education programs, curriculum committees, educational consultants, and policy makers, who are generally in charge of defining the scope and set up of innovations. Her report offers a comprehensive view and provides food for thought on how we can strive for future-proof and sustainable innovations. I therefore recommend reading this report.
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Expectations are high for digital technologies to address sustainability related challenges. While research into such applications and the twin transformation is growing rapidly, insights in the actual daily practices of digital sustainability within organizations is lacking. This is problematic as the contributions of digital tools to sustainability goals gain shape in organizational practices. To bridge this gap, we develop a theoretical perspective on digital sustainability practices based on practice theory, with an emphasis on the concept of sociomateriality. We argue that connecting meanings related to sustainability with digital technologies is essential to establish beneficial practices. Next, we contend that the meaning of sustainability is contextspecific, which calls for a local meaning making process. Based on our theoretical exploration we develop an empirical research agenda.
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Within health education, many innovations are introduced, but are often not successful or sustainable. It is generally acknowledged that the quality of an educational system mainly depends on the quality of the teachers. Innovations will only succeed if teachers experience a climate that stimulates innovation and if they possess a sufficient level of innovative work behaviour. The current concept of innovative work behaviour (IWB) consists of three different behavioural dimensions: Idea generation, promotion and realization. However, the concept lacks attention for idea sustainability, which is necessary to embed the innovation deeply in daily practice. The limited attention for improving and continuation of an implemented idea is an often-mentioned explanation for the lack of the long-term success of innovations. Aim: This study aims at the development and validation of an instrument for innovative work behaviour that also includes the dimension idea sustainability, which has been overlooked by other researchers. Method: A questionnaire is developed, based on the questionnaire of Messmann (2012). Additional items are added to measure the new dimension idea sustainability. This new dimension contains the following concepts: Improving and optimising the innovation, disseminating the innovation in depth in the system of the organization and disseminating on a larger scale, and finally visualization of the benefits for stakeholders. The questionnaire is send to 400 teachers of a University for applied sciences in the South of The Netherlands. Results: 179 questionnaires were completed. It can be concluded that the scales to measure innovative work behaviour are strongly interrelated. There are significant correlations between the original dimensions and the added dimensions. The results for individual characteristics indicated that age and tenure did not correlate with any of the scales. Work experience, gender and also the faculty to which teachers belong did make some difference with regard to IWB. The results for job characteristics showed that the number of working hours, job position and the participation in research groups did make a difference with regard to IWB. In general, job characteristics showed more links with the various scales to measure innovative work behavior compared to the individual characteristics.
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A stream of literature is emerging where network development and business modeling intersect. Various authors emphasize that networks influence business models. This paper extends this stream of literature by studying two cases in which we analyze how business modeling and networking interact over time. We propose the concept ‘value shaping’ to describe this interaction. Value shaping refers to the mutually constitutive process in which on the one hand networking helps to refine and improve the overall business model and on the other hand an improved business model spurs expansion of the network. We identify five micro-level processes through which value shaping occurs. Value shaping is particularly relevant for sustainability-oriented innovations, to help clarify all the types of financial, social and environmental value to which a business model may contribute.
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Traditionally, the construction industry in New Zealand and in other countries has seen a low productivity and a low track record for successful innovations (Fairweather, 2010). The industry also lags in sustainability (e.g. Nemry, 2008) when seen from a broader or lifecycle perspective. This has a negative impact on private and government spending, on quality and health/wellbeing, and on the environment.This paper posits that the construction industry needs non-incremental (disruptive or discontinuous, i.e. modular, architectural, system or radical) sustainable technology innovations to make drastic improvements in sustainability. Such innovations are often procured (acquired) and (co-) developed by small entrepreneurial firms thus introducing such innovations into the construction and building industry. However it is unclear exactly how entrepreneurial small firms procure non-incremental sustainable technology innovations.
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Given the increasing importance of sustainability as a part of one’s daily routine and life in countries in the European Union, there is a need to establish a basic understanding of the attitudes, behaviours and culture among older people. This, in turn, should lead to better policies which help alleviate the effects of the current cost-of-living and energy crises and make our societies more sustainable and resilient. Despite the growing awareness of sustainability amongst the general public, a conceptual model of a sustainable lifestyle among older people is missing. The existing reports from the WHOprovide some guidance on how to move along, as they touch upon items that are related to sustainability such as walkability, proximity to transportation stops and emergency preparedness, and highlight the need to improve the fit between people’s needs and the environments in which they live. Any effort to come up with such a conceptual model would have to acknowledge that energy conservation and sustainable behaviours among our older population, as was shown by Bennetts et al., are not an integral part of all older people’s lifestyles and day-to-day choices. Also, following Dikken et al.,many seemingly sustainable choices may be made purely out of financial necessity. New models and policies would have to acknowledge that in times of declining purchase power, the majority of older people living on the edge make sacrifices in terms of energy use in the broadest sense of the word due to financial constraints and not out of concern for the environment.
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Indigenous tourism plays a crucial role in sustainable development, cultural heritage preservation, and social equity. However, the integration of innovation in Indigenous tourism remains fragmented and underexplored. This research employs the Theory, Context, Characteristics, and Methodology (TCCM) framework to systematically review 131 studies from major academic databases, offering the first comprehensive analysis of innovations in Indigenous tourism. The findings highlight China as a leading contributor in this field, emphasizing incremental innovations and their social and economic impacts. Despite progress, critical areas such as well-being, education, community empowerment, and environmental impacts remain underrepresented. To address these shortcomings, the study proposes ten propositions to advance theoretical and practical understanding in the sector. These insights guide future research and policy-making, strengthening Indigenous tourism's capacity to foster sustainable development, protect cultural heritage, and empower communities while addressing existing challenges in implementing innovations.
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This paper focuses on the topical and problematic area of social innovations. The aim of this paper is to develop an original approach to the allocation of social innovations, taking into account characteristics such as the degree of state participation, the scope of application, the type of initiations as well as the degree of novelty, which will be elaborated on further in this article. In order to achieve this goal, the forty-two most successful social innovations were identified and systematized. The results of this study demonstrated that 73.5% of social innovations are privately funded, most of them operating on an international level with a high degree of novelty. Moreover, 81% of all social innovations are civic initiatives. Social innovations play an important role in the growth of both developed and less developed countries alike as highlighted in our extensive analysis
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Regional sustainability networks in the Netherlands are rooted in regionalculture and have an emphasis on social learning and effective collaboration between multiple actors. The national ‘Duurzaam Door’ (Moving Forward Sustainably) Policy Programme regards these networks as generative governance arrangements where new knowledge, actions and relations can co-evolve together with new insights in governance and learning within sustainability transitions. In order to understand the dynamics of the learning in these networks we have monitored emergent properties of social learning between 2014 and 2016. Our focus is particularly on the interrelated role of trust, commitment, reframing and reflexivity. Our aim is to better understand the role and the dynamics of these emergent properties and to see which actors and roles can foster the effectiveness of social learning in regional transitions towards more sustainable ways of living. We used a retrospective analysis with Reflexive Monitoring in Action (RMA), which we combined with the Most Significant Change approach. We found that reflexivity in particularis a critical property at moments that can make or break the process.
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In health care, the use of nursing technological innovations, particularly technological products, is rapidly increasing; however, these innovations do not always align with nursing practice. An explanation for this issue could be that nursing technological innovations are developed and implemented with a top-down approach, which could subsequently limit the positive impact on practice. Cocreation with stakeholders such as nurses can help address this issue. Nowadays, health care centers increasingly encourage stakeholder participation, which is known as a bottom-up cocreation approach. However, little is known about the experience of nurses and their managers with this approach and the innovations it results in within the field of nursing care.
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