Managing innovation in oil and gas companies: A proposed framework for the management of innovation at Ecopetrol S.A.

Actually, the term innovation seems to be one of the most used in any kind of business practices. However, in order to get value from it, companies need to define a systematic and structured way to manage innovation. This process can be difficult and very risky since it is associated with the development of firm´s capabilities which involves human and technical challenges according to the context of a firm. Additionally, it seems not to exist a magic formula to manage innovation and what may work in a company may not work in another, even though in the same type of industry. In this sense, the purpose of this research is to identify how the oil and gas companies can manage innovation and what are the main elements, their interrelations and structure, required for managing innovation effectively in this critical sector for the world economy. The study follows a holistic single case study in a National Oil Company (NOC) of a developing country to explore how innovation performs in the industry, what are the main elements regarding innovation management and their interactions according to the nature of the industry. Contributory literature and qualitative data from the case study company (with the use of non-standardized interviews) is collected and analyzed. The research confirms the relevance and importance of the definition and implementation of an innovation framework in order to ensure the generation of value and organize as well as guide the efforts in innovation done by a firm. In this way based on the theoretical background, research´s findings, and in the company´s innovation environment and conditions, a framework for managing innovation at the case study company is suggested. This study is one of the few, if not only one, that has reviewed the way as oil and gas companies manage innovation and its practical implementation in a company from a developing country. Both researchers and practitioners will get a photograph of understanding innovation management in the oil and gas industry and its growing necessity in the business world. Some issues have been highlighted, so that future study can be focused in those directions. In fact, even though research on innovation management has significantly grown, there are still many issues that need to be addressed to get insight about managing innovation in various contexts and industries. Studies are mostly performed in the context of large firms and in developed countries, so then research in the context of developing countries is still almost an untouched area, especially in the oil and gas industry. Finally, from the research it seems crucial to explore the effect of some innovation-related variables such as: open innovation in third world economies and in state-own companies; the impact of mergers and acquisitions in innovation performance in oil and gas companies; value measurement in the first stages of the innovation process; and, development of innovation capabilities in companies from developing nations.

POP UP & LEAN START UP - yrittäjyyden opetusmallin kehittämishanke toisen asteen koulutuksessa

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tarkastella ammatillisen koulutuksen yrittäjyyskasvatuksen käytännön opetuksen toteutusmahdollisuuksia. Tarkasteluun vaikuttaa vuonna 2015 voimaan astuva ammatillisen perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelmauudistus. Käytännön opetuksen toteutuksen viitekehykseksi valittiin synteesi pop up ja lean startup liiketoimintamallien viitekehyksistä. Tutkimuksen kohteena olivat viralliset opetussuunnitelmauudistuksen asiakirjat ja liiketoimintamalleja käsittelevä kirjallisuus. Tutkimusmenetelmänä käytettiin integoivaa narratiivista kirjallisuusanalyysiä. Aineiston analyysissä käytettiin Atlas-ti ohjelmistoa. Tutkimuksen tuloksena muodostui kuva työelämälähtöisistä uudistuvista opetussuunnitelmista, missä yrittäjyyskasvatuksen rakenteet eivät todellisuudessa muutu entisestä merkittävästi. Sen sijaan, uutta tulevat olemaan opetuksen toteutukselle asetetut haasteet: yksilöllistetyt opintopolut ja opiskelumallien monipuolistamisen merkittävä kasvu. Yrittäjyyskasvatukselle asetetaan Suomessa yhteiskunnallisesti korkeita tavoitteita. Se, miten niihin päästään ja millaisella pedagogiikalla, jää eri ammatillisten oppilaitosten ratkaistavaksi paikallisesti. Pop up ja lean startup liiketoimintamallit tarjoavat tulevaisuuden kannalta merkittäviä mahdollisuuksia yrittäjyyden käytännön opetuksen viitekehyksiksi. Lisäksi ne sopivat nopeatempoiseen ja ajallisesti tiukkarajaiseen opetuksen viitekehykseen hyvin uudenaikaisina asiakaslähtöisinä innovaatio- ja liiketoimintamalleina.

Performance management through innovation capability in SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are assuredly important to maintain strong economic growth. How to manage and maintain SMEs’ performance is a sizable challenge, and requires an understanding of the drivers of performance. Innovation capability has been suggested to be one of these key drivers. In order to manage innovation capability– performance relationship, it has to be measured. SMEs may have distinct characteristics that separate them being just smaller versions of large firms. Performance measurement and management of innovation capability is challenging, because SMEs usually have some drawbacks compared to large firms. Thus, it is unclear whether theories developed to understand large firms apply to SMEs. This research contributes to the existing discussion on performance management through innovation capability in the SME context. First, it aims at increasing understanding of the role of innovation capability in performance management. Second, it aims at clarifying the role of performance measurement in developing innovation capability. Thus, the main objective of the research is to study how to manage performance through measuring and managing innovation capability. The thesis is based on five research articles that follow a positivist approach. From a methodological point of view, quantitative and complementing conceptual methods of data collection are utilized. This research indicates that the performance management and measurement play a significant role in innovation capability in SMEs. This research makes three main contributions. First, it gives empirical evidence on the connection between innovation capability and SME performance. Second, it illustrates the connection between performance measurement and innovation capability. Thirdly, it clarifies how to measure the relationship between innovation capability and performance.

Building the ‘Digital’ Library: Routes to Managing our Institutional Digital Learning, Teaching and Research Assets Together

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

The Russian National Innovation System - an International Perspective

Russia inherited a large research and development (R&D) sector from the Soviet times, and has retained a substantial R&D sector today, compared with other emerging economies. However, Russia is falling behind in all indicators measuring innovative output in comparison with most developed countries. Russia’s innovation performance is disappointing, despite the available stock of human capital and overall investment in R&D. The communist legacy still influences the main actors of the innovation system. The federal state is still the most important funding source for R&D. Private companies are not investing in innovative activities, preferring to “import” innovations embedded in foreign technologies. Universities are outsiders in the innovation system, only a few universities carry out research activities. Nowadays, Russia is a resource-depended country. The economy depends on energy and metals for growth. The Russian economy faces the challenge of diversification and should embrace innovation, and shift to a knowledge economy to remain competitive in the long run. Therefore, Russia has to tackle the challenge of developing an efficient innovation system with its huge potential in science expertise and engineering know-how.

Waste Management in Commercial Activity: State-of-the-Art and the Potential Innovation in the Urban Areas of Hanoi, Vietnam

As the rapid development of the society as well as the lifestyle, the generation of commercial waste is getting more complicated to control. The situation of packaging waste and food waste – the main fractions of commercial waste in different countries in Europe and Asia is analyzed in order to evaluate and suggest necessary improvements for the existing waste management system in the city of Hanoi, Vietnam. From all waste generation sources of the city, a total amount of approximately 4000 tons of mixed waste is transported to the composting facility and the disposal site, which emits a huge amount of 1,6Mt of GHG emission to the environment. Recycling activity is taking place spontaneously by the informal pickers, leads to the difficulty in managing the whole system and uncertainty of the overall data. With a relative calculation, resulting in only approximately 0,17Mt CO2 equivalent emission, incinerator is suggested to be the solution of the problem with overloaded landfill and raising energy demand within the inhabitants.

Open innovation model for a large company in the ICT industry: Case Ericsson LMF

Open innovation paradigm states that the boundaries of the firm have become permeable, allowing knowledge to flow inwards and outwards to accelerate internal innovations and take unused knowledge to the external environment; respectively. The successful implementation of open innovation practices in firms like Procter & Gamble, IBM, and Xerox, among others; suggest that it is a sustainable trend which could provide basis for achieving competitive advantage. However, implementing open innovation could be a complex process which involves several domains of management; and whose term, classification, and practices have not totally been agreed upon. Thus, with many possible ways to address open innovation, the following research question was formulated: How could Ericsson LMF assess which open innovation mode to select depending on the attributes of the project at hand? The research followed the constructive research approach which has the following steps: find a practical relevant problem, obtain general understanding of the topic, innovate the solution, demonstrate the solution works, show theoretical contributions, and examine the scope of applicability of the solution. The research involved three phases of data collection and analysis: Extensive literature review of open innovation, strategy, business model, innovation, and knowledge management; direct observation of the environment of the case company through participative observation; and semi-structured interviews based of six cases involving multiple and heterogeneous open innovation initiatives. Results from the cases suggest that the selection of modes depend on multiple reasons, with a stronger influence of factors related to strategy, business models, and resources gaps. Based on these and others factors found in the literature review and observations; it was possible to construct a model that supports approaching open innovation. The model integrates perspectives from multiple domains of the literature review, observations inside the case company, and factors from the six open innovation cases. It provides steps, guidelines, and tools to approach open innovation and assess the selection of modes. Measuring the impact of open innovation could take years; thus, implementing and testing entirely the model was not possible due time limitation. Nevertheless, it was possible to validate the core elements of the model with empirical data gathered from the cases. In addition to constructing the model, this research contributed to the literature by increasing the understanding of open innovation, providing suggestions to the case company, and proposing future steps.

The early activities of front end of innovation in oem companies using a new fei platform as a framework for renewal

The main goal of this study is to create a seamless chain of actions and more detailed structure to the front end of innovation to be able to increase the front end performance and finally to influence the renewal of companies. The main goal is achieved through by the new concept of an integrated model of early activities of FEI leading to a discovery of new elements of opportunities and the identification of new business and growth areas. The procedure offers one possible solution to a dynamic strategy formation process in innovation development cycle. In this study the front end of innovation is positioned between a strategy reviews and a concept creation with needed procedures, tools, and frameworks. The starting point of the study is that the origins of innovation are not well enough understood. The study focuses attention on the early activities of FEI. These first activities are conceptualized in order to find out successful innovation initiatives and strategic renewal agendas. A seamless chain of activities resulting in faster and more precise identification of opportunities and growth areas available on markets and inside companies is needed. Three case studies were conducted in order to study company views on available theory doctrine and to identify the first practical experiences and procedures in the beginning of the front end of innovation. Successful innovation requires focus on renewal in both internal and external directions and they should be carefully balanced for best results. Instead of inside-out mode of actions the studied companies have a strong outside-in thinking mode and they mainly co-develop their innovation initiatives in close proximity with customers i.e. successful companies are an integral part of customers business and success. Companies have tailor-made innovation processes combined their way of working linked to their business goals, and priorities of actual needs of transformation. The result of this study is a new modular FEI platform which can be configured by companies against their actual business needs and drivers. This platform includes new elements of FEI documenting an architecture presenting how the system components work together. The system is a conceptual approach from theories of emergent strategy formation, opportunity identification and creation, interpretation-analysis-experimentation triad and the present FEI theories. The platform includes new features compared to actual models of FEI. It allows managers to better understand the importance of FEI in the whole innovation development stage and FEI as a phase and procedure to discover and implement emergent strategy. An adaptable company rethinks and redirects strategy proactively from time to time. Different parts of the business model are changed to remove identified obstacles for growth and renewal which gives them avenues to find right reforms for renewal.

Learning information technology business in a changing industry landscape. Introducing Team Entrepreneurship in Renewing Bachelor Education in Renewing Bachelor Education in Information

Speed, uncertainty and complexity are increasing in the business world all the time. When knowledge and skills become quickly irrelevant, new challenges are set for information technology (IT) education. Meta-learning skills – learning how to learn rapidly - and innovation skills have become more essential than single technologies or other specific issues. The drastic changes in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector have caused a need to reconsider how IT Bachelor education in Universities of Applied Sciences should be organized and employed to cope with the change. The objective of the study was to evaluate how a new approach to IT Bachelor education, the ICT entrepreneurship study path (ICT-ESP) fits IT Bachelor education in a Finnish University of Applied Sciences. This kind of educational arrangement has not been employed elsewhere in the context of IT Bachelor education. The study presents the results of a four-year period during which IT Bachelor education was renewed in a Finnish University of Applied Sciences. The learning environment was organized into an ICT-ESP based on Nonaka’s knowledge theory and Kolb’s experiental learning. The IT students who studied in the ICT-ESP established a cooperative and learned ICT by running their cooperative at the University of Applied Sciences. The students (called team entrepreneurs) studied by reading theory in books and other sources of explicit information, doing projects for their customers, and reflecting in training sessions on what was learnt by doing and by studying the literature. Action research was used as the research strategy in this study. Empirical data was collected via theme-based interviews, direct observation, and participative observation. Grounded theory method was utilized in the data analysis and the theoretical sampling was used to guide the data collection. The context of the University of Applied Sciences provided a good basis for fostering team entrepreneurship. However, the results showed that the employment of the ICT-ESP did not fit into the IT Bachelor education well enough. The ICT-ESP was cognitively too tough for the team entrepreneurs because they had two different set of rules to follow in their studies. The conventional courses engaged lot of energy which should have been spent for professional development in the ICT-ESP. The amount of competencies needed in the ICT-ESP for professional development was greater than those needed for any other ways of studying. The team entrepreneurs needed to develop skills in ICT, leadership and self-leadership, team development and entrepreneurship skills. The entrepreneurship skills included skills on marketing and sales, brand development, productization, and business administration. Considering the three-year time the team entrepreneurs spent in the ICT-ESP, the challenges were remarkable. Changes to the organization of IT Bachelor education are also suggested in the study. At first, it should be admitted that the ICT-ESP produces IT Bachelors with a different set of competencies compared to the conventional way of educating IT Bachelors. Secondly, the number of courses on general topics in mathematics, physics, and languages for team entrepreneurs studying in the ICTESP should be reconsidered and the conventional course-based teaching of the topics should be reorganized to support the team coaching process of the team entrepreneurs with their practiceoriented projects. Third, the upcoming team entrepreneurs should be equipped with relevant information about the ICT-ESP and what it would require in practice to study as a team entrepreneur. Finally, the upcoming team entrepreneurs should be carefully selected before they start in the ICT-ESP to have a possibility to eliminate solo players and those who have a too romantic view of being a team entrepreneur. The results gained in the study provided answers to the original research questions and the objectives of the study were met. Even though the IT degree programme was terminated during the research process, the amount of qualitative data gathered made it possible to justify the interpretations done.

Lean Innovation in Large Companies: a Case of Implementation in R&D

The main objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of Lean Innovation management philosophy on the creativity potential of the large multinational enterprise. A theory of Lean Innovation indicates that the modern company in any industry can successfully combine both waste-decreasing approach and innovative potential promotion through creativity cultivation or, at least, preservation. The theoretical part of the work covers the main factors, pros and cons of Lean thinking and Innovation management separately, along with generalized new product development overview. While the modern international market becomes more accessible for entrepreneural initiatives, small enterprises and start-ups, large international corporations are more subject to adopt the Lean Innovation approach in both operational and product development sectors due to extended resources and capabilities. Moreover, a multinational enterprise is a highly probable pioneer in Lean innovation implementation. The empirical part of the thesis refers to a case of large European enterprise, operating in many markets around the globe, that currently undergoes innovation management adjustments and implementations in product development while already have related themselves with operational process optimization process through Lean thinking. A goal of the work is to understand what kind of difficulties and consequences a large international firm faces when dealing with Lean Innovation to improve own performance, if they can be sealed for generalized approach.

The impact of industrial context and institutional factors on innovation and internationalization of Russian companies

Innovation and internationalization nowadays play significant role in formation of the competitive advantage for the companies and it is important to explore these processes deeply and use their potential. Such parameters, as industrial context and institutional factors, are essential parts of the business life and their influence may be crucial for the company’s performance. The Master’s Thesis explores impact of industrial context and institutional factors on innovation and internationalization of Russian companies. This research is quantitative and based on the analysis of the relevant scientific literature and results of the survey, conducted among Russian manufacturing companies. Findings show positive influence of industrial context factor “international threat” and institutional environment factor “lack of resources and the market imperfections” on internationalization of innovative Russian companies.

Innovation process development and business process integration - a multiple case study

The main objective of this study was to find out the bases for innovation model formulation in an existing organization based on cases. Innovation processes can be analyzed based on their needs and based on their emphasis on the business model development or R&D. The research was conducted in energy sector within one company by utilizing its projects as cases for the study. It is typical for the field of business that development is slow, although the case company has put emphasis on its innovation efforts. Analysis was done by identifying the cases’ needs and comparing them. The results were that because of the variances in the needs of the cases, the applicability of innovation process models varies. It was discovered that by dividing the process into two phases, a uniform model could be composed. This model would fulfill the needs of the cases and potential future projects as well.