Case Studies in Innovation For Researchers, Teachers and Students Edited by
Heather Fulford
Case Studies in Innovation Volume One First published: June 2012 ISBN: 978‐1‐908272‐37‐9 Copyright © 2012 The authors All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of critical review, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6‐10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright holder’s written permis‐ sion to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publish‐ ers. Disclaimer: While every effort has been made by the editor, authors and the pub‐ lishers to ensure that all the material in this book is accurate and correct at the time of going to press, any error made by readers as a result of any of the material, formulae or other information in this book is the sole responsibility of the reader. Readers should be aware that the URLs quoted in the book may change or be dam‐ aged by malware between the time of publishing and accessing by readers.
Note to readers. Some papers have been written by authors who use the American form of spelling and some use the British. These two different approaches have been left unchanged. Published by: Academic Publishing International Limited, Reading, RG4 9AY, United Kingdom, info@academic‐publishing.org Printed by Good News Digital Books Available from www.academic‐bookshop.com
Contents List of Contributors ....................................................................................... ii Introduction to Case Studies in Innovation .................................................. iii From Technological Innovation to Innovation in Management Practices: The Case of Episkin® ..................................................................................... 1 Claire Auplat A Case Study of Entrepreneuring: Redesigning Technologies for a Commercially Viable Cancer Detection Product ......................................... 13 Lynne Baxter and Cathie Wright New Product Development and Commercialisation Process in the SME Fashion Design Houses ............................................................................... 29 Shuyu Lin and Dr Niall Piercy Regional Innovation and Competitiveness: Analysis of the Thessaloniki Metropolitan Region ................................................................................... 47 Panayiotis Ketikidis, Sotiris Zigiaris and Nikos Zaharis The Steps of an Organisational Routine’s Transformation: The Case of the Employee Driven Innovation Routine at the French National Railways Company (SNCF) ......................................................................................... 65 Carine Deslee Academic Intrepreneurship: Transition Strategies for Commercialisation of High Volume Electronics Products in a South African University ............... 85 Jonathan Youngleson and S Jacobs A Method for Monetizing Technology Innovations .................................. 106 Arcot Desai Narasimhalu The Importance of Social Innovation in the Dutch Manufacturing Industry: Innovation as a Joint Effort Between Research, Education and Business. ............................................................................................ 124 Saskia Harkema Intermediaries in the Management Process of Innovation: The Case of Danish and German SMEs ......................................................................... 142 Susanne Gretzinger, Holger Hinz and Wenzel Matiaske Knowledge Management and Open Innovation in a Bioengineering Research Case ........................................................................................... 158 Manel González‐Piñero, Elena López Cano, Miguel Ángel Mañanas Villanueva, Juan Ramos Castro and Pere Caminal Magrans i
List of Contributors Claire Auplat, Advancia School of Entrepreneurship, Paris, France Lynne Baxter, The York Management School, University of York, York, UK Pere Caminal Magrans, Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain Carine Deslee, Université de Lille 2, France Manel González‐Piñero, Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain Susanne Gretzinger, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark Saskia Harkema, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Nether‐ lands Holger Hinz, University of Flensburg, Germany S Jacobs, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa Panayiotis Ketikidis, CITY College – International Faculty of the University of Sheffield, Thessaloniki, Greece Elena López Cano, Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain Miguel Ángel Mañanas Villanueva, Technical University of Catalonia, Bar‐ celona, Spain Wenzel Matiaske, Helmut‐Schmidt‐University Hamburg, Germany Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Singapore Management University, Singapore Juan Ramos Castro, Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain Cathie Wright, School of Management and Languages, Heriot Watt Uni‐ versity, Edinburgh, UK Jonathan Youngleson, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa Nikos Zaharis, South East European Research Centre (SEERC), Thessaloniki, Greece Sotiris Zigiaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
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Introduction to Case Studies in Innovation “In today’s competitive landscape, the opportunities and threats happen swiftly and are relentless in their fre‐ quency, affecting virtually all parts of an organisation si‐ multaneously. The business environment is filled with am‐ biguity and discontinuity, and the rules of the game are subject to constant revision. The job of management ef‐ fectively becomes one of continual experimentation – ex‐ perimenting with new structures, new reward systems, new technologies, new methods, new products, new mar‐ kets, and much more. The quest remains the same: sus‐ tainable competitive advantage. Innovation and entrepre‐ neurial actions represent the guiding light and motivating force for organisations as they attempt to find their way down this path.” (Kuratko, Goldsby and Hornsby 2012:4). In Leading Issues in Innovation, the companion volume to this book, the editor, Daniele Chauvel, notes that “the concept of innovation has spanned R&D laboratories and organisation boundaries by extending to the whole organisation and its environment, integrating the duality of internal vs ex‐ ternal sources of innovation” (Chauvel 2011:iv). This shift in focus, she comments further, has “a direct impact on actors” with the result that “in the knowledge society, any knowledge worker becomes a potential inno‐ vator”. The ten cases and research studies presented in this volume serve to illus‐ trate the points that Chauvel has made regarding the reach and scope of the innovation function: in today’s knowledge economy, innovation is about interaction and interfaces, collaborations and combinations, and enterprise and education. The studies have been selected from papers presented at the European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and published first in the refereed proceedings of that conference. They have been chosen because they present interesting and topical discussion points for both students and lecturers in the areas of innovation manage‐ iii
ment, types of innovation, sources of innovation, knowledge transfer and exchange, entrepreneurial processes, and commercialisation. Each study is prefaced by some brief editorial commentary, together with some indica‐ tions of specific topics that could be discussed in relation to the study. It is envisaged also that these discussion topics could act as useful points of departure for further research and academic inquiry in these areas. The cases cover a variety of organisational types, including small busi‐ nesses, medium‐sized enterprises, large corporates, and public sector or‐ ganisations. They incorporate discussion of small‐scale R&D laboratories, larger higher educational institutes, through to industrial‐sized research and commercialisation establishments. With regard to geography, the cases are drawn from a range of locations, providing an international focus to the topics and themes under discussion. Despite the diversity that can be seen in the cases and research studies discussed in this volume, many of the challenges associated with successful innovation emerge as being remarkably similar. These include the identifi‐ cation, management and resolution of the tensions between, for example, creativity and commercialisation, education and enterprise, invention and innovation, collaboration and competition, know‐how and knowledge ex‐ change, resources and risks. A common thread running through these di‐ verse studies is that when organisations of different types break down their traditional organisational boundaries, and when individuals of differ‐ ent types work together, then innovation and entrepreneurial processes can succeed, and true knowledge transfer can take place, leading to wealth creation and economic development. A key theme that emerges is the im‐ portant role to be played by universities in the development and commer‐ cialisation of innovations, and in the transfer of knowledge to businesses in order to foster economic and regional development. The studies draw out discussion of topics such as the value of cross‐disciplinary teamwork, lead‐ ership and strategic thinking in innovation management, networking, and partnering with organisations of different types. Taken together, the studies provide an important reminder that innovation is not an isolationist activity: it is relational, and a key to its success is iden‐ tifying the important relationships and ensuring that their quality is main‐ tained and nurtured. So, this is a book of cases and research studies about innovation and entrepreneurial thinking, but underlying each study is not iv
so much a traditional emphasis on innovation processes or the entrepre‐ neurial process, but rather an emphasis on the people involved in innova‐ tion and on innovation partnerships. “[…] innovative thinking is an integrated mind‐set that permeates individuals and organisations in an effective manner” (Kuratko, Goldsby and Hornsby 2012:4).
Heather Fulford, 2012 Centre for Entrepreneurship Aberdeen Business School References Chauvel, D. (2011) Leading issues in innovation research. Volume One. Reading: Academic Publishing International Ltd. Kuratko, D. F., Goldsby, M. G. and Hornsby, J. S. (2012) Innovation accel‐ eration: transforming organisational thinking. New Jersey: Pearson Educa‐ tion, Inc.
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