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Report 2014

INNOVATIONCENTER FOR BUSINESS

CBI is a research center focusing on innovation activities in firms. CBI wants to contribute to greater understanding of innovation both in the research community and among companies.

CBI’s research approach is interactive and action-oriented with a point of departure in companies’ real challenges for innovation. We see innovation as something much more than technology - business innovation.

Launched in 2007 Funded by VINNOVA, housed by Chalmers CBI Faculty: Seven senior researchers and four associated researchers Four PhD students

CBI short facts

Technology Management and EconomicsChalmers University of TechnologySE-412 96 Göteborg

Phone: +46 (0) 31 772 51 59E-mail: sofia.borjesson@chalmers.seWeb: cbi.chalmers.se Layout: Hanna Timring and Caroline ÖrmgårdPhotographers: Henrik Berglund, Sofia Börjesson, Maria Elmquist, Alexandra Ericsson, Erik Lindberg, Sofia Sabel, Jan-Olof Yxell, Caroline Örmgård

Center for Business Innovation

Report 2014

Director’s comment

Center description and center activities

CBI Research approach and strategy

Research projects

PhD studies

Other activities

Results

Dissemination activities and impact

CBI People

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combination – academic knowledge in the field of innovation management and experience from and willingness to work with industrial partners – is unique and forms the basis for us to research as we do. Our core competence is thus found in dual competences of producing high quality research (in terms of publications in ranked journals) and working closely and collaboratively with practitioners.

During 2014 we have been publishing our work in renowned scientific journals and presented our results on international conferences and simultaneously created value in the firms we have co-operated with. During the year we have been running a number of research projects led by senior researchers and four PhD studies. In this report a brief overview of our activity is presented.

Director’s comment

CBI was established in 2007 and we can now look back on more than 8 years with many achievements. Our research portfolio today consists of a set of projects where we collaborate closely with industry. Today, words such as innovation capability and business model innovation are words that many use – we have had these themes as our research focus already from the start in 2007! I would also like to underline that CBI’s focus indeed is on innovation activities as distinct from product development activities. We all focus on innovation management issues (or business innovation issues), not product development. This means that we take a management perspective and mainly address questions of strategic significance. Further, we deal with innovation as something very different from product development and we are very strict with that. Thus, the focus as such (on innovation management and not product development management) together with our homogeneousness in that respect (we do not diffuse into other areas that many other research groups do) are two of our key characteristics. Another one is that of CBI researchers’ dual competencies. All senior researchers are all well-connected to industry and have all long experience from working together with practitioners. This

Sofia BörjessonFebruari 2015

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Innovation research in Sweden and a limited number of other European countries is unique in building on case studies and collaboration with firms. Our aim is to contribute to knowledge development in the field of innovation management and by means of our company-close research, develop unique knowledge. Our ambitions can be summarized as follows:

• To contribute to innovation research, in particular by clarifying and pursuing new knowledge in leadership, governance and renewal of the business innovation area, both in large and small firms.

• To be an arena for developing and establishing new forms for cooperation between companies and academia, in particular by means of the design of our research projects and our choice of relevant research topics.

• To provide a research environment that is attractive for both young researchers and for researchers with industry experience, who are interested in conducting interactive, action-oriented research.

Our point of departure has already from the start been the real problems encountered by firms; the relevance of our research is central. CBI’s research is within the broad subject area of ‘innovation management’, i.e. research on innovation and business model activities and how they are managed and organized. We have worked with both large and small firms with their respective innovation challenges. Our current (2014) research portfolio consists of a set of projects where we collaborate closely with industry and we have been doing so since the start, striving for creating value both in the academic context and in the firms we are collaborating with.

Center description and center activities

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We take a management perspective to address questions of strategic significance. Typical themes are the ability to innovate, ways of organizing to promote innovation, how innovation can be measured, and contributing to development in companies. CBI’s research is within the broad subject area of ‘innovation management’, i.e. research on innovation and business model activities and how they are managed and organized. We work with both large and small firms with their respective innovation challenges.

We use two main theoretical perspectives in our research: innovation capabilities and business modeling. Companies’ innovation capabilities, in addition to the ability to develop new technology and hence new products, must also include the ability to think innovatively about the entire business offering: business model innovation.

CBI Research approach and strategyFocus and theoretical perspectives

Our research examines the processes firms engage in to create their business offer and, thus, encompasses more than technological research and development, product development, of the innovative conceptual phases within the framework of the existing business logic. Ever more companies today are trying to develop new business models, i.e. fresh solutions for the creation and appropriation of competitive value for the customer. Business model innovation is essential for both large and small firms.

However, research on business model development and the elements required for building and changing innovation capability is relatively limited. Also, business model research tends to be based on retrospective studies of rather grandiose business-model innovations.

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CBI’s senior researchers are all well-connected to industry and have all long experience from working together with practitioners. This combination – academic knowledge in the field of innovation management and experience from and willingness to work with industrial partners – is unique and forms the basis for us to conduct research as we do. Our core competence is thus found in dual competences of producing high quality research (in terms of publications in ranked journals) and working closely and collaboratively with practitioners.

We all focus on innovation management issues (or business innovation issues), not product development. This means that we take a management perspective and mainly address questions of strategic significance. Further, we deal with innovation as something very different from product development and we are very strict with that. Thus, the focus as such (on innovation management and not product development management) together with our homogeneousness in that respect (we do not diffuse into other areas that many other research groups do) are key characteristics.

CBI Research approach and strategyKey characteristics

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Collaboration between researchers and practitioners is increasing and comes in a variety of shapes and forms. Action-oriented research is the generic term used to describe a number of approaches involving collaboration between academy and practice that seek to contribute simultaneously to both practice and knowledge. Within CBI we apply a variant of action research – collaborative research.

Our research approach has as a starting point to identify research problems in the intersection of practical concerns and academic need for new knowledge - the ‘joint problem formulation’ aspect of research problem identification. This means that the research aims at producing knowledge that is both interesting for the academic community (relevant) and directly useful to the companies and organizations that participate in CBI research projects (actionable).

The approach involves working with practitioners as co-researchers and developing critical awareness that triggers action, based on the knowledge created, thus a joint knowledge

Research approach - collaborative research

production using established practices combined with existing and emerging theory.

Our role in the research collaboration is not to prove any truths or make normative statements, but to facilitate the absorption of organizational knowledge and hence organizational change and development by means of co-creation of knowledge with members from the organization.

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Our strategy for research is summarized in the points below:

• Conducting research on innovation processes in order to develop actionable knowledge, methods and tools. Working in projects in which practitioners and researchers collaborate, to create the conditions for knowledge and business development

• Addressing management problems in order to access strategically significant problem areas and gain insights into what really challenges companies, in order to increase influence over ways of working and acting in firms

• Involving companies in identifying and formulating problems for research

• Involving companies as active parts in our research projects

• Broadening the action-oriented research approach to the field of innovation, in order to provide new perspectives

CBI Research approach and strategyStrategy

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CBI runs, together with Almi, an extensive national business development program for promising Swedish firms and entrepreneurs - the Born Global program. The development program includes comprehensive professional and financial business development support, aiming to increase the growth rate of the participating firms.

The program runs between 2012 and 2015 and, in different program runs, selected companies have the possibility of learning from CBI faculty, venture capitalists and leading entrepreneurs.

Project membersSören Sjölander - project leader Henrik BerglundJoakim BjörkdahlMartin Wallin

Research projectsBorn Global Business Prototyping

Business prototyping is a workshop series that seek to provide Chalmers researcher with hands-on guidance on how to develop startup-projects based on new technologies and research results. The workshops are very practically oriented, with focus on frameworks and tools for developing the researchers' projects. These workshops are for all PhD students, professors and other faculty with an interest in exploring the commercial potential of their technologies and research results.

Project membersHenrik Berglund - project leaderMarouane Bousfiha (project assistant)Sören Sjölander

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A circular economy has been suggested as the way to achieve a more eco-sustainable society. This project tries to find answers to how a firm that operates in the traditional take-make-waste business model logic can move towards a circular economy in a way that also improves profitability and competitiveness using an action-research based approach working with an SME.

Project membersMats Williander - project leader, Viktoria Swedish ICTMarcus Linder, Viktoria Swedish ICTThomas Nyström, Viktoria Swedish ICTSofia Börjesson

Research projects Circular Business Models

Recently, researchers are acknowledging design as a potential avenue for improving innovativeness in firms. One approach held forward is Design Thinking (DT). The ambition of the research project is to contribute to a better understanding of DT, how it can be applied in large firms and the value it may create in these organizations.

Project membersMaria Elmquist - project leaderLisa CarlgrenIngo Rauth

Design Thinking

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Innovation is difficult, especially for large, established companies, which often are – very logical - organized according to an entirely different rationale than the one needed for innovation. Therefore, how innovation efforts can be organised and pursued constitutes a major challenge for many companies. This is also the focus for this project. The project is in collaboration with four large companies that all are running innovation initiatives, both to explore and experiment but also to develop their capabilities for innovation. The project also will result in a book directed towards practitioners that will provide other companies with good examples of how they can build up their capabilities for innovation.

Project membersSofia Börjesson - project leaderMaria Elmquist

Developing Capabilities for Innovation in Large Firms

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The research is on the use of Design Thinking (DT) in large organizations and how it affects their ways of innovating. DT is considered a concept that enables human-centered innovation inspired by the way designers’ and the focus is on understanding in which ways organizations translate, spread and use design thinking.

Design Thinking Adoption in Large Organisations

Ingo Rauth

PhD studiesBusiness Model Changes

Sara Fallahi

The research is mainly about business model innovation in established firms, with a particular focus on barriers and drivers for the implementation of new business models in such firms. The studies are also focusing on organizational inertia towards innovation and the role of customers in innovation management.

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Exploring Idea Management Systems for Innovation

Anne Elerud-Tryde

The focus is on understanding how large organizations can support the generation and implementation of innovative ideas, and become more innovative. The research draws on both front end of innovation and innovation capabilities research.

The research interest centers around the interplay between entrepreneurial methods and entrepreneurial processes, how they guide and inform each other, why entrepreneurs deviate from following the methods and how entrepreneurial methods stimulate entrepreneurs’ learning process.

Entrepreneurship as a Method

Yashar Mansoori

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Other activities 2014 Innovation audits

CBI conducts business innovation audits in order to investigate innovation capabilities of firms. By so doing CBI helps improving the processes, practices and structures of commercializing new and valuable ideas. CBI looks to work constructively with the management of its audited companies, aiming to increase the company’s long term competitiveness and create value for all shareholders. CBI’s audit goes beyond the traditional idea of only measuring innovation capabilities in an engineering-wise way. CBI’s audit uses quantitative data as a means for triggering discussions and reflections in the firm and uses qualitative data – as a second step in the audit – in order to be able to improve company’s innovation capabilities. In order to develop the audit, CBI has worked systematically between 2006 and 2010 to find a rigorous way to “review” firms’ innovation processes and activities.

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CBI also offers companies an opportunity to create new businesses based on their inherent core competences. The concept is labelled Business Innovation Project (BIP) and is a novel way of uniting advanced university research, a creative working environment and an extended master’s thesis supervised by experienced tutors and senior professors. The project is run in close collaboration with the participating company. The overall aim of the BIP is to identify new opportunities, design a business concept and develop a plan for how the company can realize the implementation.

Business Innovation Projects (BIP) and business development projects

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Book chapters Börjesson, S. (2014) Innovation, så enkelt så svårt, in Position Sverige, Ed: Ögren

Wanger, M., Ekerlids Förlag.

Williander, M. and Stålstad, C. (Forthcoming) Four business models for a fast commercialization of plug-in cars, in. Lecture Notes in Mobility, Ed: Meyer, Gereon, Springer, Verlag.

Berglund, H. (forthcoming) Between Cognition and Discourse: Phenomenology and the Study of Entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research. Special Issue: Embracing Qualitative Research Philosophies and Methods.

Björkdahl, J. and Linder, M. (forthcoming) Formulating problems for commercializing new technologies: The case of environmental innovation. Scandinavian Journal of Management. In press.

Björkdahl, J. and Holmén, M. (forthcoming) Exploiting the control revolution: Uncertainty reduction, value creation and appropriation in the division of labour. Industrial and Corporate Change.

Börjesson, S., Elmquist, M. and Hooge, S. (2014) The challenges of innovation capability building: Learning from longitudinal studies of innovation efforts at Renault and Volvo Cars. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 31(1): 120-140.

Carlgren, L., Elmquist, M. and Rauth, I. (2014) Design thinking: Exploring values and effects from an innovation capability perspective. Design Journal, 17(3): 403-424.

Carlgren, L., Elmquist, M. and Rauth, I. (2014) Exploring the use of design thinking in large organizations: towards a research agenda. Swedish Design Research Journal, 1(14): 47-56.

Elerud-Tryde, A. and Hooge, S. (2014) Beyond the Generation of Ideas: Virtual Idea Campaigns to Spur Creativity and Innovation. Creativity and Innovation Management, 23(3): 290-302.

ResultsPeer-reviewed journal articles

Fischer, A., Sieg, J.H., Wallin, M.W. and von Krogh, G. 2014. What motivates professional service firm employees to nurture client dialogues? The Service Industries Journal, 34(5): 399-421.

Laurell, C., Sandström, C. (2014) Disruption and Social Media – Entrant Firms as Institutional Entrepreneurs. International Journal of Innovation Management, 18(3).

Linder, M., Björkdahl, J. and Ljungberg, D. (2014) Environmental Orientation and Economic Performance: A quasi-experimental study of small Swedish firms. Business Strategy and the Environment, 23(5): 333-348.

Sandström, C., Berglund, H. and Magnusson, M. (2014). SymmetricAssumptions in the Theory of Disruptive Innovation - Theoretical and Managerial Implications. Creativity and Innovation Management. 23(4): 472-483.

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Carlgren L., Elmquist M. and Rauth I. (2014) The challenges of evaluatingDT efforts: Insights from three large companies, the Design Management Institute Conference, London, September 2-4, London, UK.

Carlgren L., Elmquist M. and Rauth I. (2014) Design thinking in organizational settings: exploring the challenges, the European Academy of Management, June 5-7, Valencia, Spain.

Larsson, J., Ramstedt, J. and Wickenberg, J. (2014) On the diffusion of rule breaking norms to organizational newcomers, 9th Colloquium on Organizational Change & Development, Sep 12-13, Essen, Germany.

Laurell, C., and Sandström, C. (in press) Disruption and Social Media – Entrant Firms as Institutional Entrepreneurs, HUI Workshop 17-18 januari, 2014.

Mansoori, Y., Berglund, H., and Bousfiha, M. (2014). Entrepreneurship as method: a review and comparison of transformation and experimentation. Presented at the European Summer University conference on Entrepreneurship (ESU 2014), Lund, Sweden, August 18-23 2014 (Best Paper Award).

Wickenberg, J. (2014) Working but Threatening? On the Trade-Off Between Efficiency and Legitimacy in the Design of Knowledge Transfer Methods in Project Management. Presented at the International Conference on Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities (OLKC), Oslo, Norway, April 22-24 2014.

Wickenberg, J. (2014) The BEEP – a Democracy Assurance, an Administrative Curse, and a Shortcut to Better Grades? Proceedings, Konferens om Undervisning och Lärande, KUL2014, Göteborg 15 jan 2014.

Williander, M. New Business Models for Electric Cars, Second International Conference Electromobility: Challenging issues. Venue: Commission de Régulation de l’Energie (CRE). Paris, France.

Conference presentations

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Ingo RauthLicentiate Degree in January 2014

Anne Elerud-TrydeLicentiate Degree in April 2014

Maria ElmquistProfessor (without a chair) in June 2014

Christian SandströmAssociate Professor in December 2014

ResultsExams and degrees

During 2014 we have been involved in a lot of dissemination activities, ranging from external lectures and presentations, panel participations, hands-on work with firms to being present in media – the outreach of our research could thus be said to be substantial!

The logic of CBI is as mentioned to create value whilst researching, i.e. to undertake the research so that value in the firms we are cooperating with simultaneously is created. In parallel to that we have quite frequently been invited as speakers and panel participants to various settings outside the academic community, in firms as well as at institutions e.g., Mölnlycke Healthcare, Preera, Chalmers Innovation, Västra Götalandsregionen, Rotary, SAP Innovation Forum. We have also been visible in media, for instance in SvD, Ingenjören and Svenskt Näringsliv.

Dissemination activities and impact

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Maria ElmquistProfessor

“I do research on how large firms work with developing their innovation capabilities. This means that I do not study innovation from a traditional process perspective but apply a systemic view, deriving from the theory of the Resource Based View of the Firm. I am also very inspired by design research, a field having a lot in common with innovation.”

Sofia BörjessonFull Professor and Center Director

“As for all of us at CBI I carry out research within the broad field of innovation management. More specifically the focus is on large firms’ innovation challenges and their initiatives for increasing innovativeness, using a capability perspective. I have a special interest in the role top management take in the development, together with the overall innovation governance.”

Henrik BerglundAssociate Professor

“I do research in many areas drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives, but my main empirical focus is on early stage innovation processes, be they in independent startups, large firms or academic research groups”

Joakim BjörkdahlAssociate Professor

“I conduct research about firms’ value creation and value capture. Many firms spend time and effort trying to launch new business models while academics struggle to make sense of the recent managerial interest in business model innovation and in parallel. Management research tends to be general and not able to describe how business models are built-up.”

CBI People Senior researchers

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Jan WickenbergSenior Lecturer

“My main occupation is to teach master students how to better perform different kinds of development work, and how they can make others better perform such work. The main theoretical base for such improvement is organisational learning, and thus, my research is based on that.”

Martin WallinProfessor

“I am grappling with the challenges companies face when they open up their innovation process to include outside stakeholders. For example, my research covers innovation intermediation in the chemical industry, proactive diagnosis of client problems in the professional service industry and practice-based motivation in open source software development.”

Sören SjölanderFull Professor

“Currently my major research interest is technology-based innovation processes in their early, formative stages. It is in those stages that major “death pills” of innovation is designed into new firms by thinking and acting unproductively; asking the wrong questions or acting without any deeper thinking.”

CBI People Senior researchers

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Ingo RauthDoctoral student

“My research is focusing on how new approaches to innovation are adapted and diffused within large organizations. Theoretically, I mainly draw on management innovation and fashion theory seeking to explain how managers can deal with new managerial practices, such as design thinking.”

Anne Elerud-TrydeDoctoral student

“My work seeks to understand how large organizations can support the generation and implementation of innovative ideas, and become more innovative. I draw on both front end of innovation and innovation capabilities research in my work.”

Sara FallahiDoctoral student

“My research is mainly about business model innovation in established firms. I study what the barriers and drivers for creation of new business models are, and how they are organized. During the past three years, I have empirically studied business model innovations of different multinational companies based in Sweden such as SCA and Skanska.”

Yashar MansooriDoctoral student

“My main research interest centers around the interplay between entrepreneurial methods and entrepreneurial processes, how they guide and inform each other, why entrepreneurs deviate from following the methods and how entrepreneurial methods stimulate entrepreneurs’ learning process.”

Doctoral students

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Mats WillianderAdjunct Lecturer

“I do research enablers and barriers for radical sustainability improvements in firms, the move towards circular business models. My theoretical perspective is quite broad but with an emphasis on management and organizational change. The research is applied, qualitative and mostly collaborative together with industry.”

Christian SandströmAssociate Professor

“I study how technological change affects the competitiveness of firms, largely from an institutional perspective. The interplay between firm strategy, technological and institutional change is my main focus area. The research is relevant to managers of firms undergoing technological change, but also to legislators as new technology frequently affects existing regulation.”

CBI People Associated researchers

Lisa CarlgrenPhD

“I study design-inspired innovation; more specifically the use of design thinking in large firms. I take a capability perspective on innovation, a systemic view that takes into account a variety of aspects that may hinder or enable innovation in firms.”

Marcus LinderPhD

“I research the circular economy with a focus on business model innovation. I tend to rely on hypothesis-driven entrepreneurship methods and the product-service systems literature. I use both statistical analysis and qualitative collaborative research.”