Observing Dark Innovation


Book Description

Why does scholarship on innovation tend to fixate on particular classes of technology while neglecting others? This book shows how common methodological tools and techniques of innovation carry neoliberal market biases that dominate the field. It is a resounding call for critical scholars to rethink the organisation of the discipline.




The Dark Side of Innovation


Book Description

This book is a reaction to popular assumptions that innovation is always a force for good. While the popular press and politicians often take the view that "the more innovation, the better", the chapters in this edited volume reflect on the harmful effects of innovation on society and the environment. The book begins with a broad discussion of the dark side of innovation, followed by contributions by various experts in the area. It is a critical reply to the innovation optimists, complementing the list of indicators that show steady human progress with a list of indicators that show sustained deterioration (largely due to innovation). The volume outlines some relevant dimensions of harmful innovation, before distinguishing between the types of harm brought on by innovation. The various contributed chapters focus on the following themes: a bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature on the harmful consequences of innovation; harmful side-effects from solar photovoltaic waste; harmful consequences of process innovations on working practices in areas such as accountancy; the difficulties of transferring innovations from research to practice in clinical healthcare; and the harmful consequences of social innovations. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Industry and Innovation.




Gender Inequalities in Tech-driven Research and Innovation


Book Description

ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. The Nordic countries are regarded as frontrunners in promoting equality, yet women’s experiences on the ground are in many ways at odds with this rhetoric. Putting the spotlight on the lived experiences of women working in tech-driven research and innovation areas in the Nordic countries, this volume explores why, despite numerous programmes, women continue to constitute a minority in these sectors. Contributors flesh out the differences and similarities across different Nordic countries and explore how the shifts in labour market conditions have impacted on women in research and innovation. This is an invaluable contribution to global debates around the mechanisms that maintain gendered structures in research and innovation, from academia to biotechnology and IT.




New Movements in Academic Entrepreneurship


Book Description

Focusing on academic entrepreneurship in the university context, the authors explore how researchers, teachers, students, academic managers and administrators make sense of entrepreneurship and of the paradoxes and contradictions involved. The book investigates how these diverse entrepreneurial actors and their stakeholders interpret and analyse entrepreneurial activities within the university ecosystem. New Movements in Academic Entrepreneurship covers research commercialisation, academic start-up companies and entrepreneurship education, as well as university-society relationships more widely. With contributions from Europe, North America and Asia, this book helps to broaden our understanding of academic entrepreneurship using original theoretical insights and rich empirical data. Essential reading for students and researchers of entrepreneurial universities and ecosystems, this book provides fresh theoretical frameworks and an inclusive understanding of academic entrepreneurship.




Observing Dark Innovation


Book Description

Why does scholarship on innovation fixate on certain classes of technology? Could our research tools and techniques be concealing as much as they reveal? Ryan T. MacNeil shows how the common instrumentalities of innovation research carry neoliberal market biases. He calls for critical scholars to examine how we observe and understand innovation, offering ways forward to deconstruct and reform disciplinary conventions. This book makes a valuable contribution to critical management and science and technology studies by shedding light on the ‘dark matter’ of innovation. This will be an important resource for scholars and practitioners interested in disruptive ideas about innovation.




Democratizing Innovation


Book Description

The process of user-centered innovation: how it can benefit both users and manufacturers and how its emergence will bring changes in business models and in public policy. Innovation is rapidly becoming democratized. Users, aided by improvements in computer and communications technology, increasingly can develop their own new products and services. These innovating users—both individuals and firms—often freely share their innovations with others, creating user-innovation communities and a rich intellectual commons. In Democratizing Innovation, Eric von Hippel looks closely at this emerging system of user-centered innovation. He explains why and when users find it profitable to develop new products and services for themselves, and why it often pays users to reveal their innovations freely for the use of all.The trend toward democratized innovation can be seen in software and information products—most notably in the free and open-source software movement—but also in physical products. Von Hippel's many examples of user innovation in action range from surgical equipment to surfboards to software security features. He shows that product and service development is concentrated among "lead users," who are ahead on marketplace trends and whose innovations are often commercially attractive. Von Hippel argues that manufacturers should redesign their innovation processes and that they should systematically seek out innovations developed by users. He points to businesses—the custom semiconductor industry is one example—that have learned to assist user-innovators by providing them with toolkits for developing new products. User innovation has a positive impact on social welfare, and von Hippel proposes that government policies, including R&D subsidies and tax credits, should be realigned to eliminate biases against it. The goal of a democratized user-centered innovation system, says von Hippel, is well worth striving for. An electronic version of this book is available under a Creative Commons license.




A Century of Innovation


Book Description

A compilation of 3M voices, memories, facts and experiences from the company's first 100 years.




Fearless Innovation


Book Description

Is Innovation just an overused buzzword? A waste of time? A mere marketing ploy? Author Alex Goryachev has a simple, resounding response to such questions: No! The Fourth Industrial Revolution is driving change at an unprecedented pace, level, and intensity that is impacting businesses across industries, not to mention our everyday lives. We are rapidly blurring the physical and the digital, transforming the way we live and, in some sense, what it even means to be human. Whether we run a startup or multinational, a nonprofit or academic institution, a city or a whole country, we need to embrace this change to not just survive but thrive under these new realities. In Fearless Innovation, Cisco’s Managing Director of Innovation Strategy and Programs explores how, no matter their function, leaders and managers can cut through the noise to understand change and deliver real results. Goryachev’s actionable, consistent, and timeless innovation principles offer a blueprint to driving growth, enacting change, increasing the bottom line, and creating clear measurable value. Featuring diverse case studies of some of today’s most innovative organizations, historical observations, first-hand experience, and a look at where innovation is thriving, and why, this down-to-earth guide provides advice and clear steps on how to: Get teams to embrace innovation beyond empty slogans Focus on execution of innovation through leadership and strategy Measure the real effects of innovation to showcase ROI and attract investment Break down org silos by empowering effective, diverse, and inclusive teams Drive co-innovation through win-win ecosystem-wide partnerships Organize innovation teams and orchestrate outcomes by leveraging organizational DNA Communicate the value of innovation to differentiate ourselves from competition Written for any organization that wants to stay relevant in the 21st Century, and even beyond, Fearless Innovation offers a step-by-step guide for getting past the confusion, overcoming fear, and getting down to business to create an environment of true innovation.







Creative Genius


Book Description

Time and space. Genetics and robotics. Education and fashion. Possibilities limited only by our imaginations. The future is yours to create. Could you be the Leonardo da Vinci of our times? Most ideas are incremental, quickly copied and suffocated by conventions. "Future back" thinking starts with stretching possibilities then makes them a reality "now forward". The best ideas emerge by seeing what everyone has seen, and thinking like nobody else. Newness occurs in the margins not the mainstream. Solutions emerge through powerful fusions of the best ideas into practical, useful concepts. Creative people rise up. Visionaries, border crossers and game changers. Engage your right brain, open your eyes, think more holistically... intuition rules. From Apple to Blackberry, GE to Google, innovative companies stand out from the crowd not so much for their exceptional products, despite what one might assume, but for the way they challenge conventions, redefine markets, and change consumer expectations. Apple didn't just create the iPod; it envisioned the future of music and then made a product to service that future. And the same holds true for every highly innovative company. In Creative Genius, Peter Fisk presents ten tracks for innovation and provides business blueprints for making that innovation happen. Creative Genius is inspired by the imagination and perspective of Leonardo da Vinci, in order to drive creativity, design and innovation in more radical and powerful ways. It includes practical tools ranging from scenario planning and context reframing to accelerated innovation and market entry, plus 50 tracks, 25 tools, and 50 inspiring case studies. Creative Genius is "the best and last" in the Genius series by bestselling author Peter Fisk. Others include Business Genius, Marketing Genius and Customer Genius.