November 2017 Download this article as a PDF

Welcome to the November 2017 issue of the Technology Innovation Management Review. The authors in this issue share insights on developing value propositions for the Internet of Things (IoT), understanding Industry 4.0 from a social innovation perspective, leveraging third-generation living labs for collaborative innovation in cities, designing business models based on open data, and the impact of open access models on academic publishing.

In the first article, David Hudson provides practical guidance to help technology entrepreneurs understand and express a specific and compelling value proposition for their enterprise IoT offer. Given the diverse and broad opportunities in the IoT space, Hudson cautions against trying implement too broad a vision. Rather, he argues that entrepreneurs should focus specifically on “who is buying and what they will pay for”, and he provides a set of pragmatic steps they can take to develop, test, and communicate a compelling IoT value proposition for these buyers.

Next, Rabeh Morrar, Husam Arman, and Saeed Mousa examine the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) from a social innovation perspective. They argue that the transformation resulting from Industry 4.0 – in which “physical systems can cooperate and communicate with each other and with humans in real time, all enabled by the IoT and related services” – will bring vast opportunities but also substantial socioeconomic challenges. In the article, they propose a framework that can facilitate the ongoing interaction between technological and social innovation to yield proactive, timely, and sustainable strategies.

Then, Seppo Leminen, Mervi Rajahonka, and Mika Westerlund describe next-generation living labs in the city context. Based on 118 interviews with participants in six Finnish cities, they developed a framework for collaborative innovation networks in cities and propose a typology of third-generation living labs. Through their analysis, the authors reveal how cities can encourage collaborative innovation by leveraging platforms and participation approaches. They describe four collaborative innovation modes that characterize different types of third-generation living labs and explain how they can be exploited to encourage collaborative innovation activities in cities.

The fourth article is by Tuomo Eskelinen, Teemu Räsänen, Ulla Santti, Ari Happonen, and Miika Kajanus, who used action research methods to discover new business opportunities for an environmental monitoring service relying on open data. They applied a four-stage innovation process for industry, which included context definition, idea generation, and selection, and produced multi-criteria decision support (MCDS) data to help design a new business model. Their business model creation process can help businesses find new ideas based on open data, turn them into business models, and then improve those models using a participative approach.

Finally, Haven Allahar analyzes the role of open access in the domain of academic publishing from the perspective of disruptive innovation. Following a characterization of the traditional journal publishing system, Allahar describes the evolving phenomenon of open access models on journal publishing, the nature and extent of open access as a disruptive innovation, and the implications for key stakeholders.

In December, we feature articles based on papers presented at the 2017 ISPIM Innovation Conference in Vienna. ISPIM – the International Society for Professional Innovation Management – is a network of researchers, industrialists, consultants, and public bodies who share an interest in innovation management.

For 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

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Keywords: academic publishing, business models, cities, collaboration, entrepreneurship, fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, Internet of Things, IOT, living labs, open access, open data, Open innovation, social innovation, value propositions

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