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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The shift towards a more sustainable circular economy will require innovations. While SMEs can contribute to this development, financing innovations within SMEs is difficult. Various authors have not ed moreover that the concept of the circular economy has further increased the complexity of investment decisions concerning sustainable innovations, due to the multiple value creation and new business models involved . On the other hand
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The Fociss (Focussing Innovation for a Sustainable Strategy) approach is a structured method to define core business related issues within sustainable development that require main attention in a specific company. In theory, Fociss has the ability for all kinds of innovations, but the implementation of radical sustainable innovations is often lagging because of complexity. Such innovation problems have often been discussed in the literature of (Knowledge) Management Studies. The 'ambidextrous' organization provides a solutions to develop a repository of challenging, disruptive innovations. A communities-of-practice (COP) is such a solution which is based on the competences and ownership of workers, motivating them to apply their creativity and support the subsequent implementation. A Fociss scan, performed by students of Avans Hogeschool at IHC Merwede resulted in incremental innovations at which the company was already working and radical sustainable innovations, which were not further developed. However, at the same time knowledge workers were active with different sustainable innovations around 'greening' materials while using virtual communities. We suggest to depend the initiation and further application of Fociss of the presence of work floor communities. If virtual communities are present, management may invite them to apply Fociss for their own account. This increases the repository of a variety of sustainable innovative ideas that the company can implement directly or when the situation asks for it so that it will strengthen the company's future basis. This integration results in a synthesis by which we can instruct companies and students to attain success in their future 'sustainable business management'.
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Recent economic crises, environmental problems and social challenges have urged us to drastically change our consumption and production patterns and transform organisations to contribute to socio-technical transitions that positively impact these challenges. Therefore, sustainable development and the transition towards a circular economy are gaining increased attention from academics and are being widely adopted by national and local governments, companies and other organisations and institutions. Since the implementation of more sustainable solutions lags behind expectations and technological possibilities, scholars and practitioners are increasingly seeing sustainable business model innovation as the key pathway to show the value potential of new sustainable technology and stress the importance of integrating the interests of multiple stakeholders and their economic, environmental and social value goals in the business model’s development. However, there is limited research that elucidates which stakeholders are actively involved, how they interact and what the effect is on the collaborative business modelling process for sustainability. This thesis addresses this research gap by building on the notion of business models as boundary-spanning activity-systems and studies stakeholder interaction from the level of a focal firm, as well as from the level of cross-sector actors collaborating in innovation ecosystems. Through four independent studies, three empirical studies and a design science study, this thesis aims to provide a better understanding of how stakeholder interaction affects collaborative business modelling for sustainability.The first study (Chapter 2) took a process perspective on interaction with network ties from the perspective of a focal firm. Based on two case studies of SMEs successfully introducing sustainable technology in the market, value shaping was identified as the operative mechanism describing the relation between networking and business modelling, from ideation to growth of the business. A stage model with five successive forms of value shaping describes how, in each stage, interaction with network ties help firms to clarify the types of economic, environmental and social value that a sustainable technology can deliver and who possible beneficiaries are. In return, changes in the business model clarify what other network ties are needed, demonstrating how the boundary-spanning function of business models spurs firms to expand and strengthen the value network.The second study (Chapter 3) focused on the commercialisation stage, in which a cognitive change in the manager’s mind was found during the development of a sustainable business model. Based on three empirical cases of business model innovations for sustainability, the study explored how stakeholder interaction may trigger and support managerial cognitive change and hence business model innovation. The findings suggest that the influence of stakeholders on the manager’s understanding of the business runs via three interrelated shaping processes: market approach shaping, product and/or service offering shaping and credibility shaping. In these shaping processes, new or latent stakeholders are found to have a bigger impact than existing ones. A research agenda is presented to further unravel the role of stakeholders affecting managerial cognition around business model innovation for sustainability.The third study (Chapter 4) examined innovation ecosystems’ processes of developing a collaborative business model for sustainability. Based on a study of four sustainably innovative cross-sector collaborations, this chapter studied how innovation ecosystems resolve the tensions that emerge from the collaborating actors’ divergent goals and interests. This study finds that innovation ecosystems engage in a process of valuing value that helps the actors to manage the tensions and find a balance of environmental, social and economic value creation and capture that satisfies all involved actors. The findings reveal that valuing value occurs in two different patterns – collective orchestration and continuous search – that open up a research agenda that can shed further light on the conditions that need to be in place in order for an innovation ecosystem to develop effective sustainable business models. The final study (Chapter 5) used a design science approach, developing a tool for innovation ecosystems’ actors to manage the degree to which stakeholders are involved throughout the process of collaborative business modelling for sustainability. The resulting ‘degree of engagement diagram’ and accompanying stepwise approach makes it possible to identify stakeholders from six cross-sector stakeholder groups that represent economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable value and visualise their roles. By discriminating between four concentric and permeable circles of engagement, the tool integrates different degrees of involvement of stakeholders and enables users of the DoE diagram to accommodate changes that may occur in the evolving business model and its context. The tool enables innovation ecosystems’ actors to keep the collaboration manageable during the development of a joint and viable sustainable business model. Overall, this thesis extends the understanding of the dynamics of collaborative business modelling for sustainability and the role of stakeholder interaction therein. The research makes three key contributions to the sustainable business model innovation literature. First, it extends the literature by exploring the interplay between stakeholder interaction and business modelling over time. It establishes that stakeholder interaction and business modelling have a reciprocal relationship and contributes with two frameworks – value shaping and valuing value – that explain this reciprocal relationship for firms and innovation ecosystems. Second, the thesis unravels the micro-processes and mechanisms that elucidate how stakeholder interaction actually influences the direction into which the sustainable business model develops. Third, this thesis enriches the scholarly understanding of stakeholder interaction by identifying the main contributors to business model innovation for sustainability, by differentiating between stakeholders and their roles and by providing a tool that accommodates this. The research contributes to practice by offering practitioners useful insights on how they can increase, improve and effectuate stakeholder interaction in order to develop viable business models for sustainability and hence contribute to the desired socio-technical transitions.
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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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Traditionally construction industries in New Zealand and abroad have a low track record for successful sustainable innovations. This has a negative impact on private and government spending, and on quality, society and the environment. This conceptual paper posits that the construction industry needs non-incremental (i.e. architectural, system, radical, modular) sustainable technology innovations to make drastic improvements. Such innovations often come from entrepreneurial (small) firms from other industries or at the beginning of supply chains and must be procured and adopted further into such chains. However, after an extensive literature review it remains unclear how entrepreneurial firms procure non-incremental sustainable technology innovations for the construction industry. The paper focuses on procurement activities of entrepreneurial firms in the New Zealand context. These activities interact with (internal and external) innovation activities for an optimal firm performance. They are affected by clusters of internal and external variables.The paper discusses extant literature, a conceptual framework, main propositions, research aims and the choice for a focus group method. It is part of a doctoral project.Paper, presented at ACERE 2015 in Adelaide Australia.
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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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Complex innovations involve multi-organizational ecologies consisting of a myriad of different actors. This study investigates how innovation activities can be interpreted in the context of multi-organizational ecologies. Taking a project-level perspective, this study proposes a typology of four activity sets that are relevant in this context: strategic predevelopment, engineering, commercialization, and project management. The authors use archival and survey data on government-funded sustainable energy projects in the Netherlands to study the validity and relevance of the typology and show that the typology has discriminant and convergent validity. Results on the prevalence of the activity sets show that all four activity sets occur in sustainable energy projects, but to differing degrees. Furthermore, the typology is relevant because it helps to explain differences in innovation performance for complex innovations. Two activity sets – strategic predevelopment activities and commercialization activities – have significant and positive effects on innovation performance, whereas the two other activity sets – engineering and project management – do not. The data show that for sustainable energy projects, commercialization activities are often insufficient, but important to reach high innovation performance.
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The rapid growth of FinTech (financial technology) companies has brought significant transformation in the global financial landscape (Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), 2021). This disruption is intensifying after the COVID-19 pandemic (International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2022). The decentralized finance (DeFi), as a sub-area of FinTech, can have the ability to transform the structure of contemporary finance and to foster a new environment for innovation and entrepreneurship (Chen & Bellavitis, 2019; Mhlanga, 2023). Many scholars have highlighted the fact that DeFi is a fast-developing field that challenges the traditional financial system by offering financial services without the support of centralized intermediaries (Jensen, 2021; Schueffel, 2021). As technological innovations continue to influence the financial industry, it is becoming increasingly crucial to analyze their impact on sustainable development or contribution to meeting sustainable development goals (SDGs). With regards to Fintech, many recent scientific studies explicate the role of FinTech companies in achieving SDGs, in both developed as well as developing economies (see, Hinson et al., 2019; Hudaefi, 2020; Hoang et al., 2022; Carè et al., 2023). More precisely, various scholars highlighted the major challenges addressing by FinTech companies, such as the reduction of poverty, the advancement of financial inclusion, the facilitation of easy access to healthcare, gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability (see Arner et al., 2020; Moro-Visconti et al., 2020), which ultimately contributes to several SDGs (Carè et al., 2023). While, DeFi has the potential to improve the accessibility, transparency, and efficiency of the financial infrastructure (Schär, 2021). Specifically, Lucian et al. (2022) stated that if DeFi is developed in a safe manner, it can significantly enhance competition and financial inclusion, hence having positive implications for overall financial stability. Despite the fact that many studies have been published, a review of the existing literature shows that the literature on FinTech and DeFi's role in sustainable development is still fragmented. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature on FinTech and DeFi's role in achieving the SDGs, identifying key authors, articles, journals, authors, prominent research streams, and major research fronts for future advancement. To do this, the research study will apply a bibliometric analysis (Zupic & Čater, 2015; Donthu et al., 2021), which includes performance analysis, science mapping, as well as content analysis (van Eck & Waltman, 2010, 2014). The findings aim to enhance academic knowledge and provide valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners navigating the dynamic intersection of FinTech, DeFi, and SDGs.
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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 sustainable innovations. This has a negative impact on private and government spending, on quality and on health and environmental aspects. This research proposal posits that the construction industry needs disruptive (discontinuous, radical) technology innovations to be able to make drastic improvements. Such innovations often come from entrepreneurial small firms from outside the industry or at the beginning of supply chains and must be procured and adopted into such chains. This PhD proposal focuses on procurement activities of such firms in the New Zealand construction industry when they conduct disruptive waste-reducing innovations. These procurement activities must be aligned with (internal and external) innovation activities for an optimal firm performance. This performance is moderated by four clusters of internal and external variables.
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