Cardmobili: innovation technology in everyday life

The developments of the internet, the proliferation of the use of Web 2.0 tools, and of the technology in general, are leveraging new ways of people to communicate, collaborate, and interact. This new world and new markets, in a daily change, are enabling the emergence of new innovative enterprises and services, taking advantage of the new technologies and of the global network. Cardmobili is a Portuguese start-up company working in the area of mobile services. This company provides a mobile service to manage rewards and membership cards, enabling users to store them in the cloud, while using mobile applications to present them in store, collecting and using the rewards, sharing cards and information with other users and friends in social networks. Cardmobili is linked to merchants’ loyalty management systems, enabling users to access exclusive offers, delivered to their mobile application and web account. The company provides complete services to make any loyalty or membership program mobile: branding, new customer registration, integration of customer account balance, mobile vouchers, coupons and offers, and mobile communication.

Crowdsourcing innovation: a strategy to leverage enterprise innovation

Innovation is recognized by academics and practitioners as an essential competitive enabler for any company to survive, to remain competitive and to grow. Investments in tasks of R&D have not always brought the expected results. But that doesn't mean that the outcomes would not be useful to other companies of the same business area or even from another area. Thus, there is much knowledge already available in the market that can be helpful to some and profitable to others. So, the ideas and expertise can be found outside a company's boundaries and also exported from within. Information, knowledge, experience, wisdom is already available in the millions of the human beings of this planet, the challenge is to use them through a network to produce new ideas and tips that can be useful to a company with less costs. This was the reason for the emergence of the area of crowdsourcing innovation. Crowdsourcing innovation is a way of using the Web 2.0 tools to generate new ideas through the heterogeneous knowledge available in the global network of individuals highly qualified and with easy access to information and technology. So, a crowdsourcing innovation broker is an organization that mediates the communication and relationship between the seekers - companies that aspire to solve some problem or to take advantage of any business opportunity - with a crowd that is prone to give ideas based on their knowledge, experience and wisdom. This paper makes a literature review on models of open innovation, crowdsourcing innovation, and technology and knowledge intermediaries, and discusses this new phenomenon as a way to leverage the innovation capacity of enterprises. Finally, the paper outlines a research design agendafor explaining crowdsourcing innovation brokering phenomenon, exploiting its players, main functions, value creation process, and knowledge creation in order to define a knowledge metamodel of such intermediaries.

The impact of knowledge transfer on innovation in multinational corporations: Exploring the contingent effects

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Decisions of technology innovation: the role of indicators

This work presents research conducted to understand the role of indicators in decisions of technology innovation. A gap was detected in the literature of innovation and technology assessment about the use and influence of indicators in this type of decision. It was important to address this gap because indicators are often frequent elements of innovation and technology assessment studies. The research was designed to determine the extent of the use and influence of indicators in decisions of technology innovation, to characterize the role of indicators in these decisions, and to understand how indicators are used in these decisions. The latter involved the test of four possible explanatory factors: the type and phase of decision, and the context and process of construction of evidence. Furthermore, it focused on three Portuguese innovation groups: public researchers, business R&D&I leaders and policymakers. The research used a combination of methods to collect quantitative and qualitative information, such as surveys, case studies and social network analysis. This research concluded that the use of indicators is different from their influence in decisions of technology innovation. In fact, there is a high use of indicators in these decisions, but lower and differentiated differences in their influence in each innovation group. This suggests that political-behavioural methods are also involved in the decisions to different degrees. The main social influences in the decisions came mostly from hierarchies, knowledge-based contacts and users. Furthermore, the research established that indicators played mostly symbolic roles in decisions of policymakers and business R&D&I leaders, although their role with researchers was more differentiated. Indicators were also described as helpful instruments to conduct a reasonable interpretation of data and to balance options in innovation and technology assessments studies, in particular when contextualised, described in detail and with discussion upon the options made. Results suggest that there are four main explanatory factors for the role of indicators in these decisions: First, the type of decision appears to be a factor to consider when explaining the role of indicators. In fact, each type of decision had different influences on the way indicators are used, and each type of decision used different types of indicators. Results for policy-making were particularly different from decisions of acquisition and development of products/technology. Second, the phase of the decision can help to understand the role indicators play in these decisions. Results distinguished between two phases detected in all decisions – before and after the decision – as well as two other phases that can be used to complement the decision process and where indicators can be involved. Third, the context of decision is an important factor to consider when explaining the way indicators are taken into consideration in policy decisions. In fact, the role of indicators can be influenced by the particular context of the decision maker, in which all types of evidence can be selected or downplayed. More importantly, the use of persuasive analytical evidence appears to be related with the dispute existent in the policy context. Fourth and last, the process of construction of evidence is a factor to consider when explaining the way indicators are involved in these decisions. In fact, indicators and other evidence were brought to the decision processes according to their availability and capacity to support the different arguments and interests of the actors and stakeholders. In one case, an indicator lost much persuasion strength with the controversies that it went through during the decision process. Therefore, it can be argued that the use of indicators is high but not very influential; their role is mostly symbolic to policymakers and business decisions, but varies among researchers. The role of indicators in these decisions depends on the type and phase of the decision and the context and process of construction of evidence. The latter two are related to the particular context of each decision maker, the existence of elements of dispute and controversies that influence the way indicators are introduced in the decision-making process.

The Network Company in Catalonia : ICT, Productivity, Competitiveness, Salaries and Performance in Catalonia's Companies. Research report (synthesis document)

Resum en anglès del projecte de recerca L'empresa xarxa a Catalunya. TIC, productivitat, competitivitat, salaris i beneficis a l'empresa catalana té com a objectiu principal constatar que la consolidació d'un nou model estratègic, organitzatiu i d'activitat empresarial, vinculat amb la inversió i l'ús de les TIC (o empresa xarxa), modifica substancialment els patrons de comportament dels resultats empresarials, en especial la productivitat, la competitivitat, les retribucions dels treballadors i el benefici. La contrastació empírica de les hipòtesis de treball l'hem feta per mitjà de les dades d'una enquesta a una mostra representativa de 2.038 empreses catalanes. Amb la perspectiva de l'impacte de la inversió i l'ús de les TIC no s'aprecia una relació directa entre els processos d'innovació digital i els resultats de l'activitat de l'empresa catalana. En aquest sentit, hem hagut de segmentar el teixit productiu català per a buscar les organitzacions en què el procés de coinnovació tecnològica digital i organitzativa és més present i en què la intensitat de l'ús del coneixement és un recurs molt freqüent per a poder copsar impactes rellevants en els principals resultats empresarials. Això és així perquè l'economia catalana, avui, presenta una estructura productiva dual.

European research funding and regional technological capabilities: Network composition analysis

We use network and correspondence analysis to describe the compositionof the research networks in the European BRITE--EURAM program. Our mainfinding is that 27\% of the participants in this program fall into one oftwo sets of highly ``interconnected'' institutions --one centered aroundlarge firms (with smaller firms and research centers providing specializedservices), and the other around universities--. Moreover, these ``hubs''are composed largely of institutions coming from the technologically mostadvanced regions of Europe. This is suggestive of the difficulties of attainingEuropean ``cohesion'', as technically advanced institutions naturally linkwith partners of similar technological capabilities.

Interpretation of primary care physicians' attitude regarding rotavirus immunisation using diffusion of innovation theories.

To evaluate primary care physicians' attitude towards implementation of rotavirus (RV) immunisation into the Swiss immunisation schedule, an eight-question internet-based questionnaire was sent to the 3799 subscribers of InfoVac, a nationwide web-based expert network on immunisation issues, which reaches >95% of paediatricians and smaller proportions of other primary care physicians. Five demographic variables were also inquired. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses for the main outcome "acceptance of routine RV immunisation" and other variables were performed. Diffusion of innovation theory was used for data assessment. Nine-hundred seventy-seven questionnaires were returned (26%). Fifty percent of participants were paediatricians. Routine RV immunisation was supported by 146 participants (15%; so called early adopters), dismissed by 620 (64%), leaving 211 (21%) undecided. However, when asked whether they would recommend RV vaccination to parents if it were officially recommended by the federal authorities and reimbursed, 467 (48.5%; so called early majority) agreed to recommend RV immunisation. Multivariate analysis revealed that physicians who would immunise their own child (OR: 5.1; 95% CI: 4.1-6.3), hospital-based physicians (OR: 1.6; 95% CI: 1.1-2.3) and physicians from the French (OR: 1.6; 95% CI: 1.2-2.3) and Italian speaking areas of Switzerland (OR: 2.5; 95% CI: 1.1-5.8) were more likely to support RV immunisation. Diffusion of innovation theory predicts a >80% implementation if approximately 50% of a given population support an innovation. Introduction of RV immunisation in Switzerland is likely to be successful, if (i) the federal authorities issue an official recommendation and (ii) costs are covered by basic health care insurance.

Innovation through withdrawal. Contribution to a sociology of detachment

To develop the understanding of innovation processes conceptualized in terms of asso- ciation through the "sociology of translation" (cf. actor-network theory) studies, this article analyses innovation processes in terms of dissociation and detachment mechanisms, exami- ning innovation through "withdrawal;" that is, innovation based on reducing or withdrawing use of a practice-"subtracting," "detaching"-a given artefact. Specifically, it focuses on the shift to farming techniques that have eliminated ploughing, bringing to light four major mechanisms constitutive of dissociation: centrifugal association; making entities and asso- ciations visible; making other entities and associations invisible; bringing together or "asso- ciating" new entities. The study helps refine our understanding of the detachment processes at work in innovation, shedding light in this particular case on transfers between public research institutes, industrial companies, farmers and citizens seeking to develop new farm production models.

The Network Company in Catalonia : ICT, Productivity, Competitiveness, Salaries and Performance in Catalonia's Companies. Research report (synthesis document)

Resum en anglès del projecte de recerca L'empresa xarxa a Catalunya. TIC, productivitat, competitivitat, salaris i beneficis a l'empresa catalana té com a objectiu principal constatar que la consolidació d'un nou model estratègic, organitzatiu i d'activitat empresarial, vinculat amb la inversió i l'ús de les TIC (o empresa xarxa), modifica substancialment els patrons de comportament dels resultats empresarials, en especial la productivitat, la competitivitat, les retribucions dels treballadors i el benefici. La contrastació empírica de les hipòtesis de treball l'hem feta per mitjà de les dades d'una enquesta a una mostra representativa de 2.038 empreses catalanes. Amb la perspectiva de l'impacte de la inversió i l'ús de les TIC no s'aprecia una relació directa entre els processos d'innovació digital i els resultats de l'activitat de l'empresa catalana. En aquest sentit, hem hagut de segmentar el teixit productiu català per a buscar les organitzacions en què el procés de coinnovació tecnològica digital i organitzativa és més present i en què la intensitat de l'ús del coneixement és un recurs molt freqüent per a poder copsar impactes rellevants en els principals resultats empresarials. Això és així perquè l'economia catalana, avui, presenta una estructura productiva dual.

Cab45 is required for Ca(2+)-dependent secretory cargo sorting at the trans-Golgi network

Ca(2+) import into the lumen of the trans-Golgi network (TGN) by the secretory pathway calcium ATPase1 (SPCA1) is required for the sorting of secretory cargo. How is Ca(2+) retained in the lumen of the Golgi, and what is its role in cargo sorting? We show here that a soluble, lumenal Golgi resident protein, Cab45, is required for SPCA1-dependent Ca(2+) import into the TGN; it binds secretory cargo in a Ca(2+)-dependent reaction and is required for its sorting at the TGN.

Cross-Border Innovation Support Platform for the SMEs: The Case of St. Petersburg Corridor Region

Työssä tutkitaan eri mekanismeja rajojen ylittävään innovaatioiden edistämiseen pienten ja keskisuurten yritysten näkökulmasta. Case ympäristönä on Kaakkois-Suomen ja Luoteis-Venäjän alueeli Pietarin Corridor. Tavoitteena on löytää tarkemmat määritykset ja rajauksetnäille mekanismeille. Teoriassa muodostettiin viitekehys rajojen ylittävälle innovaatioiden edistämismallille. Mallin pohjalta toteutettiinhaastattelututkimus, joka suoritettiin case-ympäristössä. Haastattelujoukko koostui yritysten edustajista, tutkimus-henkilöstöstä sekä julkisista toimijoista. Innovaatiojärjestelmä oli avoin uusille toimintamenetelmille.Menetelmien toteuttamistapa kuitenkin jakoi mielipiteitä. Toimijoiden välille tarvitaan parempaa yhteistyötä ja tämän kautta selkeämpää kommunikointia yritysten suuntaan. Innovaatioiden edistämiseen ehdotetaan Innovation Relay Centre tyyppisen toiminnan laajentamista Corridorin alueelle sekä sen käyttämän teknologioiden välittämismallin sekä kansainvälisen verkoston hyödyntämistä. Edistämisen tukena tulisi käyttää innovaatiotietokanta-työkalua.

Sidosryhmien odotukset voittoa tavoittelemattomalle kehitysyhtiölle. Case: Lappeenranta Innovation Oy

Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan, mitä sidosryhmät odottivat voittoa tavoittelemattomalta case-yritykseltä Lappeenranta Innovation Oy:ltä sen perustamisen yhteydessä ja reilun vuoden toiminnan jälkeen. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään myös niitä kehittämisehdotuksia, joita sidosryhmillä on yritykselle. Tutkimus on laadullinen tapaustutkimus jasen aineisto koostuu dokumenteista, mediateksteistä ja haastatteluista. Menetelminä on käytetty teemoittelua ja diskurssianalyysiä. Tutkimuksen tuloksena löytyi kuusi alkuvaiheen odotuskokonaisuutta: 1) yrittäjien auttaminen; 2) tutkimuksen ja liiketoiminnan yhdistäminen; 3) rahoituksen hakeminen; 4) public-private -yhteistyön kehittäminen; 5) Venäjä-yhteistyön kehittäminen ja6) verkostojen luominen. Reilun vuoden toiminnan jälkeen odotukset ovat muuttuneet jonkin verran: public-private-yhteistyön odotuksen merkitys on kasvanut ja uutena odotuksena on tullut IP-oikeuksien suojaaminen. Kehittämisehdotuksia tutkimuksessa löytyi 10 eri toiminta-alueelta: yritys-kehitys; rahoitus; Venäjä-yhteistyö; verkostot; maakunnallisuus; toiminnan laajuus; yhteistyö sidosryhmien kanssa; tiedottaminen, asioista kertominen, selkeys; fokusointi ja priorisointi; sisäisen toiminnan kehittäminen ja hallituksen rakenne.

Innovation Processes: Case M-real

Tässä työssä on tutkittu innovaatiota kirjallisuudessa ja M-realissa. Tekninen kehitys johtuu innovaatioista. Innovaatio on luonteeltaan epävarmaa, polkusidonnaista ja sisältää eri teknologioita. Innovaation vaikutukset ulottuvat usein myös asiakkaisiin ja toimittajiin. Yrityksen eri funktioita ja hierarkiatasoja tarvitaan kaupallistamaan uusi idea tai keksintö. Dynaamiset kyvykkyydet erottavat muutokset ympäristöstä ja niitä tarvitaan innovaatioiden toteuttamisessa. Yrityksen ympäristö muuttuu ja joustavuutta tarvitaan projektien toteuttamisessa. Reaalioptiot tarjoavat joustavuutta projektien toteuttamisessa. M-realissa on vahva tekninen osaaminen, mutta asiakkaat ovat jääneet vähälle huomiolle innovaatioprosessissa. Innovaatiota ei myöskään ajateltu koko yrityksen tehtävänä. Tästä johtuu osittain vaikeudet saada ekstravoittoja. Paino M-realissa on kehittää palveluinnovaatioita.

Webdatanet : Innovation and quality in web-based data collection

The article discusses the development of WEBDATANET established in 2011 which aims to create a multidisciplinary network of web-based data collection experts in Europe. Topics include the presence of 190 experts in 30 European countries and abroad, the establishment of web-based teaching and discussion platforms and working groups and task forces. Also discussed is the scope of the research carried by WEBDATANET. In light of the growing importance of web-based data in the social and behavioral sciences, WEBDATANET was established in 2011 as a COST Action (IS 1004) to create a multidisciplinary network of web-based data collection experts: (web) survey methodologists, psychologists, sociologists, linguists, economists, Internet scientists, media and public opinion researchers. The aim was to accumulate and synthesize knowledge regarding methodological issues of web-based data collection (surveys, experiments, tests, non-reactive data, and mobile Internet research), and foster its scientific usage in a broader community.

Innovation and Regulation in ICT. Keys for Development

The expansion of broadband speed and coverage over IP technology, which extend over transport and terminal access networks, has increased the demand for applications and content which by being provided over it, uniformly give rise to convergence. These shifts in technologies and enterprise business models are giving rise to the necessity for changing the perspective and scope of the Universal Service and of the regulation frameworks, with this last one based in the same principles as always but varying its application. Several aspects require special and renewed attention, such as the definition of relevant markets and dominant operators, the role of packages, interconnection of IP networks, network neutrality, the use of the spectrum with a vision of value for the citizenship, the application of the competition framework, new forms of licensing, treatment of the risk in the networks, changes in the regulatory authorities, amongst others. These matters are treated from the perspective of the actual trends in the world and its conceptual justification.