March 2016 Download this article as a PDF

Welcome to the March 2016 issue of the Technology Innovation Management Review. The authors in this issue share insights on underground innovation (bootlegging), frugal innovation, urban living labs, and crowdsourcing.

In the first article, Kamal Sakhdari and Erfan Jalali Bidakhavidi from the University of Tehran, Iran, examine the factors that encourage employees to reveal previously hidden "bootlegging" activities for innovation within a developing-country context. In their study, they identified five groups of factors at individual, managerial, firm, industrial, and idea levels, explaining the revealing stage of bootlegging behaviour. The findings provide a better understanding of the later phases of bootlegging behaviour and the possible role of context-specific factors such as cultural and religious beliefs.

Next, Anne-Christin Lehner and Jürgen Gausemeier from the Heinz Nixdorf Institute in Paderborn, Germany, use a pattern-based approach to understand the development of frugal innovations. In their study, they examined 29 selected frugal innovations and the problems they were designed to solve. They deduced six problem categories and identified 56 solution patterns, which they used to analyze the relationships between the abstracted solution patterns, problem areas, and frugal innovations. Their findings illustrate how a pattern-based approach can be used to find comparable – but frugal – solutions to common problems experienced in both developed and emerging markets.

Then, Bastiaan Baccarne, Sara Logghe, Dimitri Schuurman, and Lieven De Marez from iMinds – MICT – Ghent University in Belgium, study the urban living lab concept as an inter-organizational design and multi-stakeholder innovation development process to govern the quintuple helix model for innovation. Using a multidimensional case study design that focuses on the concepts of innovation democracy, mode 3 knowledge production, the innovation ecosystem as a system of societal subsystems, and socio-ecological transition, they provide a more profound understanding of such innovation processes to tackle socio-ecological challenges by means of public–private interactions driven by eco-entrepreneurship.

Next, David Gedda, Billy Nilsson, Zebastian Såthén, and Klaus Solberg Søilen from Halmstad University, Sweden, investigate crowdfunding models and associated payout models in search of an optimal combination of models for entrepreneurs and funders. Based on an analysis of the top 10 most visited crowdfunding platforms and surveys of both entrepreneurs and funders, their results suggest that the combination of the "all-or-nothing" payout model with both non-financial and equity crowdfunding models would be optimal. Given that the models used in current platforms are in better alignment with the preferences of entrepreneurs than funders, the authors highlight a potential new market for crowdfunding platforms.

Finally, this issue includes a summary of a recent TIM Lecture presented by Dave Thomas, Chief Scientist/CSO of First Derivatives FD Labs, who focused on the disruptive aspects of "huge persistent memory" in terms of the technology shift it represents, the impact it has on how developers write software programs, and the corresponding business opportunities it brings about.

In upcoming issues, we will be examining innovation and entrepreneurship in India and in Australia. We also have other unthemed issues in progress, for which we welcome your submissions of articles on technology entrepreneurship, innovation management, and other topics relevant to launching and growing technology companies and solving practical problems in emerging domains.

A common thread through several of our upcoming issues is our association with ISPIM, the International Society for Professional Innovation Management, which is a network of researchers, industrialists, consultants, and public bodies who share an interest in innovation management. This year, ISPIM Innovation Conference is being held in Porto, Portugal, from June 19–22.

We hope you enjoy this issue of the TIM Review and will share your comments online. Please contact us with potential article topics and submissions.

Chris McPhee
Editor-in-Chief

Share this article:

Cite this article:

Rate This Content: 
No votes have been cast yet. Have your say!

Keywords: bootlegging, crowdfunding, emerging markets, frugal innovation, patterns, quintuple helix, underground innovation, urban living lab

Breadbasket