Sveinung Grimsby and Magnus Gulbrandsen
The purpose of this paper was to study how public regulation promotes or hinders openness in the food industry, specifically how European novel food regulation has affected…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to study how public regulation promotes or hinders openness in the food industry, specifically how European novel food regulation has affected external ties among novel food pioneers seen through patents and their inventors.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiphase mixed-methods design was used to combine data as follows: Worldwide patents originating from Norwegian novel food pioneers 2004–2019, downloaded through the European Patent Office database. Application data and interviews were analysed together with substantial information on 88 patents.
Findings
Firms use patenting and novel food applications as part of a wider intellectual property rights strategy to guard against unintended spillovers and to shape external collaboration. Examinations of patents indicate a pattern of selective partnership with research and development (R&D) providers.
Practical implications
Food industry actors can combine property rights strategies to maintain a pattern of openness and external collaboration. R&D providers should consider the food industry's flag-planting strategies by integrating these into contractual regulations.
Originality/value
Little is known earlier about how novel food pioneers collaborate with suppliers, research actors, governmental actors, distributors and customers regarding new product development.
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Taran Thune and Magnus Gulbrandsen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a combination of diverse sources of knowledge is important for generation of new ideas and address how institutional…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a combination of diverse sources of knowledge is important for generation of new ideas and address how institutional infrastructures and practices support integration of knowledge across organizations in medicine and life sciences.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper investigates new product ideas that emerge from hospital and university employees, and looks at the extent of interaction between clinical and scientific environments in the idea generation process. The paper utilizes data about all new product ideas within life science that were reported in South-Eastern Norway in 2009-2011, as well as information about the individuals and teams that had been involved in disclosing these ideas. Interviews with inventors have also been carried out.
Findings
Interaction and integration across scientific and clinical domains are common and important for generating new product ideas. More than half of the disclosed life science ideas in the database come from groups representing multiple institutions with both scientific and clinical units or from individuals with multiple institutional affiliations. The interviews indicate that the infrastructure for cross-domain interaction is well-developed, particularly for research activities, which has a positive effect on invention.
Originality/value
The paper uses an original data set of invention disclosures and investigates the hospital-science interface, which is a novel setting for studies of inventive activities.
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Marina Dabic, Carsten Nico Hjortsø, Giacomo Marzi and Božidar Vlačić
The subject of the paper is innovative information services. The purpose of this paper is to identify the potential sources of innovation in library information services and point…
Abstract
Purpose
The subject of the paper is innovative information services. The purpose of this paper is to identify the potential sources of innovation in library information services and point out how they can be used to improve the overall service quality.
Design/methodology/approach
In the first stage, literature analysis and critique was used to establish the state of research in the field of innovative solutions and select the main sources of innovation in services. Next, a systematic search of the subject literature and network resources was carried out according to the selected criteria to find the examples of innovative commercial services, particularly in the information sector.
Findings
Libraries, like all customer-oriented service organizations, must innovate and continually evolve to better meet the needs of their audience. It seems that in libraries, the basis of innovation and building a competitive advantage over other institutions may primarily be the thoughtful design of services in the spirit of the assumptions of the experience economy. Innovative ideas based on in-depth knowledge of user needs are less dependent on financial conditions and more on the creativity and enthusiasm of library staff.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is a conceptual work presenting the issue of innovation from the perspective adopted by the author. The paper does not aim to fulfill the subject but to show some interesting aspects of this issue and help initiate discussions on innovation in libraries from the perspective of phenomena present on the commercial information services market. This approach, which has not yet been adapted in library science, may show some new aspects and lead to new conclusions. This is a literature review type of paper that is not based on empirical research and it has not yet been tested in practice; however, the author believes that it can provide a valuable framework for designing and implementing innovative services in libraries. The presented process is a preliminary proposal that can and should be modified in the future based on further scientific reflection and examples of implementations in libraries.
Practical implications
The results can be widely used in practice as a framework for designing innovative services in libraries. The paper, based on subject literature, proposes a process of designing innovative information services that can and should be tested in practice.
Social implications
The paper can help initiate the debate on the need to implement innovative solutions in library services.
Originality/value
The issue of innovation in library services has not yet been widely discussed in library and information science journals from the perspective proposed by the author. This paper presents a specific approach to library innovation based on the observation of the certain phenomena on the commercial market, which opens the door to new reflections.
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Sveinung Grimsby and Cathrine Finne Kure
How does the cereal industry innovate in selective partnerships? The purpose of this paper is to study the cereal industry and the crispbread success in terms of how different…
Abstract
Purpose
How does the cereal industry innovate in selective partnerships? The purpose of this paper is to study the cereal industry and the crispbread success in terms of how different forms of openness jointly shape new product development (NPD).
Design/methodology/approach
A multiphase mixed methods design was used to combine three sets of data: a case study, sales figures and interviews with ten major actors in the Norwegian cereal industry.
Findings
Transparency and interaction with machinery suppliers appear to result in a more successful type of innovation. In practice, companies are more open than, perhaps, they realise. Factors such as mutual trust, asset control and distribution are positive for openness in innovation processes with suppliers.
Practical implications
Future actors such as suppliers, producers, distributors and policy makers in the food industry will benefit from trust and an open innovation (OI) mind-set during NPD.
Originality/value
Prior to 2011, Norway had no large-scale commercial crispbread production. Six years later, Norwegian production nears the sales figures of the leading Swedish brand Wasa. Is this due to OI? Understanding various forms of selective partnership, collaboration and trust among actors in the food industry is valuable for future growth.
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In this study, we applied the strategy-as-practice (SAP) framework to analyse strategic communication practices. SAP implies approaching strategy as something that organisational…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, we applied the strategy-as-practice (SAP) framework to analyse strategic communication practices. SAP implies approaching strategy as something that organisational members do and is useful for understanding the tensions between emergence and formalisation and between planning and improvisation that characterise the everyday communication work of communication practitioners.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an ethnographic study of a record company and on qualitative interviews with various actors from the music industry.
Findings
Tensions exist between the emergence of inputs from active consumers that require flexibility and attempts to strategically formalise and continuously adapt plans and encourage consumers to act in anticipated ways. The findings revealed five strategic communication practices—meetings, working in the office, gathering and analysing consumer engagement and related data, collaboration and storytelling—that practitioners used to conduct strategic communication and navigate the tensions.
Originality/value
The study contributes to understanding the role of strategic communication practices in contemporary organisations and how practitioners manage the tensions within them. The study shows that an SAP approach can account for improvisation and emergence, as well as planning and formalisation. It also shows how SAP resonates with emergent and agile strategic communication frameworks.
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The purpose of this paper was to study the novel food (NF) industry in Europe and how regulations have affected companies' collaboration and openness towards other actors during…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to study the novel food (NF) industry in Europe and how regulations have affected companies' collaboration and openness towards other actors during new product development. The research question, therefore, was “How do the European NF regulations affect radical innovation in the food industry?”.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiphase mixed-methods design was used to combine three sets of data as follows: the NF applications and copies of these from 1997 to 2018; the applications in the first 18 months of the revised NF regulation period after 2018 and interviews with six NF applicant companies and seven experts on NF.
Findings
Interactions with research and development (R&D) suppliers appear to be common during development of NF products for companies of all sizes. Ownership of knowledge and a conscious intellectual property rights strategy are important for companies' openness during radical innovation and collaboration. The decentralised NF regulations from 1997 to 2017, with reduced possibilities for data protection, prevented innovation. However, both old and new NF regulations facilitate easy routes for second-to-market approach. Companies of all sizes apply for NF-approved products under the new NF regulations, which ensure data protection.
Practical implications
Future NF pioneers, food R&D suppliers and food-industry policymakers will benefit from open innovation and NF insights by gaining an understanding of NF regulations and insight into how a policy with open governance affects collaboration and co-creation.
Originality/value
The NF regulations and their effect on radical food innovation have not previously been studied according to innovation management theory. Understanding various forms of selective partnership and collaboration among actors in the food industry is valuable for future growth.
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Formal and informal interactions in the political elite and between the political elite and other actors have attracted a great deal of research (Petersson, 1996; Munk…
Abstract
Formal and informal interactions in the political elite and between the political elite and other actors have attracted a great deal of research (Petersson, 1996; Munk Christiansen, Möller, & Togeby, 2001; Moore, Sobieraj, Whitt, Mayorova, & Beaulieu, 2002). However, such research has mainly been concerned with the contacts of leading politicians once they have already become part of the elite, not the role that contacts might have played in their recruitment.