July 2016 Download this article as a PDF

Welcome to the July 2016 issue of the Technology Innovation Management Review. The articles in this issue were developed from papers presented at the 2016 ISPIM Innovation Forum (Box 1), which was held in Boston, USA, from March 19–22, 2016 under the theme of "Charting the Future of Innovation Management".

The authors in this issue share insights on innovating business models for the circular economy, assessing cooperation between industry and research infrastructures, designing value networks, managing intellectual property, and driving open innovation ecosystems.

In the first article, Maria Antikainen and Katri Valkokari from VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) provide a framework for sustainable business model innovation in the circular economy: a novel economic model aiming to foster sustainable economic growth, boost global competitiveness, and generate new jobs. They also present the results of a case study with a startup company, which was designed to test the framework and provide a concrete example of its usage and future development needs.

Next, Csaba Deák, Associate Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, and Chancellor of the University of Miskolc, Hungary, and István Szabó, Head of Department at Hungary's National Research, Development and Innovation Office, assess the degree of cooperation between industry and research infrastructure in Hungary. They share results of a nation-wide survey carried out in support of a National Infrastructure Roadmap. Their analysis provides a starting point for developing new measures, setting goals for individual scientific fields, and making comparisons with other countries.

Then, Martin Kage, Marvin Drewel, Jürgen Gausemeier, and Marcel Schneider, from the Heinz Nixdorf Institute in Germany, present a methodology to design value networks for innovations, including approaches to identify necessary competences, find suitable partners, and bundle them to powerful alternative value networks. As illustrated by the case used to validate their methodology, companies that want to create smart products or services must arrange the value network such that the customer obtains a unique value while all participants profit from their engagement.

Next, Daniel Eckelt, Christian Dülme, Jürgen Gausemeier, and Simon Hemel, from the Heinz Nixdorf Institute in Germany, propose an approach to help companies identify "white spots" in innovation-driven intellectual property management and provide recommendations to help companies improve their intellectual property portfolios. White spots represent unaffected/untainted and circumscribed areas on an intellectual property technology landscape. Thus, they offer great opportunities for innovative and creative companies seeking to gain competitive advantage.

Finally, Gonzalo León and Roberto Martínez from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) in Spain answer the question "How can a university drive an open innovation ecosystem?" By examining the general characteristics and specific dimensions of university-driven open innovation ecosystems, they show how different types of such ecosystems can be created and evolved to suit individual and system-level goals.

We are proud to be associated with ISPIM and are grateful for their assistance in putting together this issue. We hope you will enjoy and find value in the insights provided through these articles.

For our future issues, we are accepting general 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. Please contact us with potential article topics and submissions.

Chris McPhee
Editor-in-Chief

 

Box 1. About ISPIM

The International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) is a network of researchers, industrialists, consultants, and public bodies who share an interest in innovation management.

Recent events

Upcoming events

  • ISPIM's next major event, the Innovation Summit is being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from December 4–7, 2016. The submission deadline for outlines is September 16.
     
  • Next year's Innovation Forum will be held in Toronto, Canada, from March 19–22, 2017.

 

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Keywords: business model innovation, circular economy, cooperation, industry, Innovation management, intellectual property, Open innovation, research infrastructure, value network design