Suchergebnisse

Purpose
Although new forms of innovation such as open innovation, user innovation or crowdsourcing have been intensively discussed in the past decade, there is little systematic exploration of their wider positive and negative effects on economy, society and environment. Based on the recent debate in the literature and findings from a European foresight project, this paper aims to discuss the critical aspects of new forms of innovation such as increased participation, the use of information technologies and the increased pace of innovation and their challenges for innovation policy.


Design/methodology/approach
Based on a collection of international practice examples from industry and society, innovation visions have been generated and assessed by different experts across whole Europe.


Findings
A generic trend identified can be best described as open, distributed and networked innovation process. Although many new innovation models accelerate the innovation process, there are also some counter trends which in some fields may slow down the innovation process. In addition, the increased use of web-based tools, algorithms and information technologies raises new questions concerning the protection of intellectual property and data security. This reveals new questions for policymaking, which have not gained much attention on the European level so far.


Originality/value
Although there is an established discourse around potentially negative impacts of the outcomes of the innovation processes notably in the field of technology assessment, innovation capacity is usually seen as a desirable characteristic of innovation systems. In this paper, the possible negative aspects of new innovation models, an issue hardly addressed in the innovation literature so far, are discussed.

Sustainability is widely expected to become a major driver of innovation activities. Many companies adopt sustainability oriented innovation strategies and innovation policy on the national and EU level is increasingly targeting sustainability as "Grand Challenge". With respect to the environmental dimension of sustainability, the notion of "eco-innovation" that is directed at products, services and processes reducing harmful impact of production and consumption on the environment is becoming highly prominent in research, policy and industry. The paper rests on the findings of an international foresight project which investigates new forms of innovation such as open innovation and social innovation and their economic, social and environmental impacts. Based on these findings we show that we do not only need green products and services but rather "transformative innovation" towards systemic change in production and consumption patterns in order to achieve the step-change in reduction of environmental impact.

This policy brief on future innovation landscapes in Europe has recently been published under the Socio-economic sciences and humanities programme of the EU's Seventh R&D Framework Programme (FP7). The document is a result of work under the FP7 INFU foresight project, which aims to analyse and discuss the evolution and diffusion of new innovation patterns in Europe and their implications for European policy. Specifically, the brief presents a range of key factors that are expected to influence the future of European innovation, as well as five potential scenarios for long-term innovation development patterns by 2025. The scenarios have been developed using standard foresight methods (expert panel, scenario development and assessment etc.) and through analysis of existing literature on new innovation patterns. Recommendations for policy makers, particularly with respect to the implications for the European Research Area under the outlined scenarios, are also presented in the report.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of data envelopment analysis (DEA) as a consulting and management tool that fulfils the requirements of quantitatively and comprehensively evaluating and benchmarking the efficiency of intellectual capital (IC).Design/methodology/approachDEA is applied for a sample of input and output data of all technical and natural science departments of Austrian universities. Correlation and factor analyses are carried out to select appropriate variables of the sample. DEA estimates the production function of the units under evaluation in relation to peer units, which are identified as fully efficient.FindingsResults illustrate the existence of scale efficiencies of Austrian university departments and show a large heterogeneity within and among universities as well as between different fields of study with respect to their efficiency.Research limitations/implicationsDEA is mainly appropriate for larger samples inside an organisation or among different organisations. The method can be easily transferred to similar management situations in other types of organisations or industries, where the efficiency of IC should be assessed.Practical implicationsThe results reveal detailed improvement or reduction amounts of each input and output of the evaluated organisational units and indicate areas for managerial action at Austrian universities.Originality/valueFor the first time DEA is applied for evaluating and benchmarking IC of Austrian universities. DEA is proposed as consulting and management tool for evaluation IC performance.

Purpose
– The public sector is one of the least addressed areas of intellectual capital (IC) research. Universities are an interesting area of investigation because they are considered critical players in the knowledge-based society. The purpose of this paper is to develop a more general, flexible and comprehensive "IC Maturity Model" for Universities (ICMM), a framework for defining and implementing IC measurement and management approaches, as part of the whole strategic management of universities. Thus, the ICMM proposes a staged framework to initiate a step-by-step change within a university based upon its current level of IC management maturity. The different steps of maturity might be an answer to cope with the huge diversity of European universities, some of which have strong managerial orientation, while others follow collegial forms of governance.


Design/methodology/approach
– The research approach is based on what has been called the "third stage" of IC research (Dumay and Garanina, 2013), focused on the practices of IC approaches rather than on its theoretical conceptualisation. The ICMM has been developed under the "Quality Assurance in Higher Education through Habilitation and Auditing" project framework, initiated by the Executive Agency for Higher Education and Research Funding of Romania (EUFISCDI). Three Mutual Learning Workshops (MLWs) were organised as a mean to bring together 15 international experts and practitioners to share their views and experience on IC reporting and setting up task forces.


Findings
– An ICMM, which is a flexible model of implementing IC approaches within public universities, is developed. The ICMM provides a theoretical continuum along which the process of maturity can be developed incrementally from one level to the next, moving from IC data collection, awareness of IC, adjustment of IC specific indicators, measurement of IC, reporting of IC, interpretation and decision making, strategy and planning.


Research limitations/implications
– Future research needs to conduct empirical studies in universities to generalise the effectiveness of the ICMM model and guidelines for implementation.


Practical implications
– The ICMM provides a staged framework to initiate a step-by-step change within a university based upon its current level of IC management maturity and its IC value creation dynamics. It allows universities to follow different paths, not necessarily a linear sequence.


Originality/value
– Although several methods for IC measurement and management exist, most of these cannot accommodate the trade-off between the comparability aims and the efforts to capture the institution's uniqueness when designing an IC model.

The aim of this study commissioned by the European Commission, DG CONNECT, is to conduct an in-depth analysis of possible development pathways of the 5G equipment and services supply market. Departing from the baseline analysis of the 5G supply market trends a foresight exercise on key trends influencing the further development of 5G has been developed. Based upon a selection of key trends, which were deemed to be particularly relevant for the future development of the 5G supply market but associated with a very high level of uncertainty in its outcome, the study team elaborated hypothetical but plausible scenarios for the future development of the 5G supply market with a time horizon of 2030. Four scenarios are illuminating potential pathways for Europe, based on different configurations of key technological, economic, social and political factors. The impact of the four different scenarios are analysed based upon a review of recent academic literature, market analyses, and more than thirty expert interviews with high-level representatives from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), vendors, standardisation organisations and relevant associations. Where possible, uncertainty related to any quantitative projections included in the sceanios has been accounted for. However, underlying data and assumptions for many projections are proprietary or unavailable for other reasons, therefore an assessment of these underlying data was not possible. The four scenarios and their assessment should inform policy-makers to develop strategies aiming to strengthen the European telecommunication industry and the provision of 5G infrastructure.