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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Taran Thune and Liv Anne Støren
The purpose of this paper is to present an empirically based discussion of how cooperation between higher education institutions and work organisations (WOs) can increase graduate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an empirically based discussion of how cooperation between higher education institutions and work organisations (WOs) can increase graduate learning experiences and employability.
Design/methodology/approach
Data are based on an electronic and mail-based graduate survey among Norwegian master’s degree graduates six months after graduation. 2,232 master degree graduates responded to the survey, giving a 54 per cent response rate. All subject fields were represented.
Findings
77 per cent of the graduates have some forms of interactions with WOs during their studies. The level and mode of participation differ, however, very much, and the benefits of participating differ by mode of interaction. Project-based interaction is positively and significantly associated with completing studies on time. Further, graduates who have participated in either project-based interactions or practice periods have better labour market situation after graduation than their peers. The results hold also when controlling of subject field differences and students’ abilities.
Research limitations/implications
The study indicates that it is important to look at a wide range of interaction activities and look at the benefits from these activities both in terms of effects on the quality of the learning experience, as well as benefits realised in the transition to work. The data on learning benefits of interaction with WO during higher education are, however, limited, and further studies are needed on this issue in particular.
Practical implications
The study indicates that only certain forms of interactions between students and WOs have benefits for students; namely the ones that involve a certain degree of time and commitment. Programme officers in higher education should target more committed interaction forms, because the added value is significantly higher for the students.
Originality/value
The study contributes new knowledge about the external networks of higher education institutions, by looking at the role of students in such networks and by measuring the benefits by using a representative sample of students.
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Mari Elken and Martina Vukasovic
The term “loose coupling” has been widely employed in higher education research. Building partly on the “garbage can model” of decision-making, it proposed an alternative to…
Abstract
The term “loose coupling” has been widely employed in higher education research. Building partly on the “garbage can model” of decision-making, it proposed an alternative to rational and linear views on organizing and governing, emphasizing instead ambiguity and complexity. The review of higher education research literature presented in this chapter demonstrates that the concept of loose coupling has frequently been used as a background concept, often taken for-granted either as a point of departure for studies of organizational processes in higher education or as a diagnosis of the complexity of higher education organization that inhibits implementation of reforms. This chapter provides systematization and critical examination of how the term “loose coupling”/“loosely coupled systems” has been employed in journal articles focusing on higher education in the last 40 years. It presents a broad mapping of 209 articles and a more detailed qualitative review of 22 articles, which employed loose coupling as more than a background concept.
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Raissa Pershina and Birthe Soppe
This study explores how organizations deal with divergent institutional logics when designing new products. Specifically, we investigate how organizations approach and embody…
Abstract
This study explores how organizations deal with divergent institutional logics when designing new products. Specifically, we investigate how organizations approach and embody institutional complexity in their product design. Through a multimodal study of serious games, we identify two design strategies, the proximity and the amplification strategies, which organizations employ to balance multiple institutional logics and design novel products that meet competing institutional expectations. Our study makes an important theoretical contribution by showing how institutional complexity can be a source of innovation. We also make a methodological contribution by developing a new, multimodal research design that allows for the in-depth study of organizational artifacts. Altogether, we complement our understanding of how institutional complexity is substantiated in organizational artifacts and highlight the role that multimodality plays in analyzing such situations.
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Louise B. Kringelum, Lucia Mortensen and Jens Holmgren
This chapter explores how industrial PhD students are engaged in authentic leadership processes while coping with challenges through self-leadership. The authors illustrate how…
Abstract
This chapter explores how industrial PhD students are engaged in authentic leadership processes while coping with challenges through self-leadership. The authors illustrate how self-leadership can be a helpful approach to managing the leading-and-being-led dilemma. They argue that self-leadership is a process of goal achievement in collaboration with key stakeholders and, therefore, an important aspect of authentic leadership. The authors identify four aspects of self-leadership that influence authenticity: roles, resources, relations and results. Kringelum, Mortensen and Holmgren call for research into the emergence of self-leadership and authentic leadership, the leadership capabilities required and the double-sidedness and dilemmas inherent in such emergences across different contexts.
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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.