March 2018 Download this article as a PDF

Welcome to the March 2018 issue of the Technology Innovation Management Review. The authors in this issue share insights on creating value in the Internet of Things, using big data and analytics to develop value propositions, transitioning from closed to open innovation in an emerging economy, and deciding on the right timing and conditions for internationalization.

In the first article, Heini Ikävalko, Petra Turkama, and Anssi Smedlund from the Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research at Aalto University in Finland examine the co-creative nature of business opportunities in the Internet of Things (IoT). Taking an ecosystem perspective on three use cases within a larger European IoT initiative, they discover how different actors may take the roles of “ideator”, “designer”, or “intermediary” as they co-create business models in different design layers. Their mapping of value creation in IoT ecosystems has implications for both researchers and managers.

Next, Victoria Kayser, Bastian Nehrke, and Damir Zubovic from Ernst and Young in Germany ask: what can the practical discourse on big data and analytics learn from innovation management? Using a framework based on data, infrastructure, and analytics – and driven by business need – they have developed a process for taking analytics projects from the first ideas to the realization of a functional application. In their article, they outline the phases of this process and discuss how it can be transferred to organizations that wish to build analytics capabilities, regardless of size or level of experience.

Then, Elisa Thomas from the Centre for Innovation Research at the University of Stavanger in Norway examines the extent to which open innovation is undertaken by firms in an emerging economy as they engage in R&D activities. Despite finding some evidence of increasing openness in the flow of knowledge through the internal and external relationships in two chemical firms in Brazil, the study shows that these firms are not fully exploiting the potential benefits of open innovation, even when complete opening is not the main goal. The author highlights the scholarly contribution of the study and provides general recommendations for innovation managers.  

Finally, Flavia Luciane Scherer, Italo Fernando Minello, Cristiane Krüger, and Andréa Bach Rizzatti from the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil describe a technology startup’s failed early attempt at internationalization and the lessons its founders are applying as they contemplate a second attempt to grow beyond the Brazilian market. Drawing on the literature on internationalization (especially the Uppsala model), export barriers, and the origin and concept of startups, the authors share insights from the case and derive recommendations to help technology startups in emerging economies successfully internationalize.

In April, we will examine the theme of Frugal Innovation with Guest Editors Deepak S. Gupta, Executive Director of Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Services (ARIES) at Centennial College in Toronto, Canada, and Mokter Hossain, Assistant Professor in the Center for Industrial Production at Aalborg University, Denmark.

We have also recently issued a call for papers for a special issue on Transdisciplinary Innovation with Guest Editors Martin Bliemel and Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer from the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

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, and proposals for future special issues.

Chris McPhee
Editor-in-Chief

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Keywords: analytics, big data, business models, closed innovation, ecosystems, emerging economies, innovation, internationalization, Internet of Things, Open innovation, technology startups, value creation, value propositions