Client,User and Architect Interactions in Construction: Implications for Analysing Innovative Outcomes from User-Producer Interactions in Projects

Three case studies of user/client-architect interaction, and their implications for an understanding of the design and innovation process in capital goods projects, are considered in this paper. The studies presented include a major 'City Challenge'-funded social housing development programme in the UK, a housing co-operative-driven workplace and housing scheme associated with the same programme and a new building for the business school of a major UK university. Reflecting upon existing literature on user-producer relationships, the paper draws two key conclusions from the case studies that add to this literature. The first points to the need to account for the broader strategic motivations of agents within projects. Two of the case studies describe how innovation driven by the architects involved exceeded the original requirements of the client, and in so doing reveal architects to be oriented toward non-project specific goals. The second conclusion focuses on the user/client and points to the importance of a strong and coherent 'customer vision' in 'enabling' the client to determine project outcomes more fully. Following from these conclusions, it is argued that an analysis of client/ user-producer interactions needs to account more fully for the effects of longer-term strategic planning by agents.     

英国从科技创新的视角评价战略性产业的做法及其启示

针对如何识别战略性产业这一理论与实践难题,通过实地访谈和文献调研的方法,深入分析了英国产业战略布局过程,了解到,英国在完整的战略性产业识别工作中,科技创新思想的引领作用主要体现在3个关键环节:通过创新能力与技术储备情况,考察产业基础;通过社会与技术因素驱动的未来需求,判断产业潜力;判断创新相关市场失灵问题的程度,确定政府干预的必要性。据此得出结论:在国民经济发展的整体规划中,科技创新的视角可对识别和评价战略性产业产生决定性作用。除理论意义外,以科技创新视角确立产业规划的英国经验亦可资我国产业政策实践借鉴。     

Challenges and trends facing the UK design profession

Designs plays a significant role in innovation and enhances business performance. A trend towards outsourcing design expertise is nolinear yel hills is known about the design consultancy profession itsel. The UK design consultancy industry hs undergone a major change with rapid growth in the mid to late 1980s followed by a market decline in the early 1990s. This paper reflects on a survey of over 200 design consultancy fo9rms which was carried out to understand the dynamics of the UK design profession during this period. In particular this paper focuses on two key areas, namely the professio's approaches to business management and client relationships. Two strategic archetypes are put forward that describe more and less effective strategic practice in these two key areas.     

中国企业海外研发机构组织与管理问题述评

随着中国企业从“制造商”向“投资家”的转变，建立海外研发机构进而充分利用国际市场创新成果，成为中国企业实现创新驱动的重要转型升级道路。尽管现有研究已经充分认识到后发国家企业建立海外研发机构的动机和组织管理特征有别于发达国家企业，但遗憾的是针对后发企业设立海外研发机构的组织与管理问题的详细分析还没有系统展开，研究结论比较分散。以此为切入点，对比式地梳理国外企业和中国企业海外研发机构设立动机、进入模式、战略定位和组织形式等若干海外研发组织与管理核心问题，在此基础上提出中国企业海外研发机构的潜在研究方向。结论有利于弥补已有海外技术投资领域对新兴市场企业关注不足的缺陷，可为未来中国企业海外研发机构的实证研究提供文献基础。     

Decision criteria for selecting air source heat pump technology in UK low carbon housing

The use of low or zero carbon technologies has been encouraged in the UK, one of which is air source heat pump (ASHP). However, the current ASHP uptake in UK housing is low, far behind that in Europe and America. This paper aims to contribute to knowledge of utilising ASHP by examining the decision criteria for selecting ASHP and exploring underlying considerations of UK housebuilders. The research was carried out through a case study with a housebuilder and seven nation-wide suppliers, engaging four new-build projects. A wide range of decision criteria were identified. Despite the dominance of cost considerations, non-cost factors also imposed significant commercial implications on the housebuilder’s technology selection. For achieving more effective ASHP selection, a structured approach is suggested to manage the decision criteria and appreciate the stakeholders’ roles and relationships regarding technology uptake. Improved practice should enable a more informed technology decision culture in UK housing.     

数字化情境下用户参与产品创新组态效应研究——基于TOE框架的fsQCA分析

在颇具挑战性的数字化时代，用户成为企业获取持续创新优势的重要源泉，如何激发用户参与产品创新成为企业创新管理亟待解决的重要问题。基于TOE框架，采用fsQCA方法，分析数字技术应用、产品技术创新、组织职能协调、用户创新能力、同侪竞争效应和用户参与产品创新的组态效应及相互关系。通过对93家用户参与产品创新企业数据的分析，结果表明：存在市场驱动型、驱动市场型和数字驱动型3种高用户参与产品创新条件组态，具有多重并发性，遵循殊途同归原则；在企业开展用户参与产品创新过程中，用户创新能力、数字技术应用两个前因条件相对重要；高用户参与产品创新的条件组态与非高用户参与产品创新的条件组态存在因果非对称性。     

领先顾客知识管理对产品不连续创新绩效的影响

基于技术采用生命周期的视角,构建了领先顾客知识管理对企业产品不连续创新绩效影响模型,研究了战略柔性在两者间影响关系中的中介作用。利用问卷调查数据实证检验了领先顾客知识管理、产品不连续创新以及战略柔性三者之间的关系。得出如下结论:领先顾客知识管理对产品不连续创新绩效存在正向影响;战略柔性在领先顾客知识管理对产品不连续创新绩效影响中起中介作用。     

Strategic Trading and Welfare in a Dynamic Market

This paper studies a dynamic model of a financial market with N strategic agents. Agents receive random stock endowments at each period and trade to share dividend risk. Endowments are the only private information in the model. We find that agents trade slowly even when the time between trades goes to 0. In fact, welfare loss due to strategic behaviour increases as the time between trades decreases. In the limit when the time between trades goes to 0, welfare loss is of order 1/ N , and not 1/ N ² as in the static models of the double auctions literature. The model is very tractable and closed-form solutions are obtained in a special case.     

创新型产业集群是否提升了国家高新区创新效率？

因产业集聚转型的迫切性及产业集群创设先天优势,创新型产业集群试点在国家高新区开展,并成为国家高新区推动战略性新兴产业发展的重要途径。以创新型产业集群建设为准自然实验,运用双重差分法评估创新型产业集群对高新区创新效率的提升作用。结论表明:与对照组相比,创新型产业集群建设显著提高了实验组的创新效率;相比东部和东北地区,创新型产业集群对中部和西部地区的高新区创新效率影响更为显著。未来可通过在中西部地区扩大政策实施范围,提升整体区域产业创新能力。     

用户参与企业产品创新的系统管理机制

用户参与是技术创新理论中一个非常重要的研究领域,在新产品开发过程中,用户作为价值创造者的作用已经受到学者和企业家的重视.用户参与产品创新,可以拓展企业创新源、为企业赢得持续竞争优势和提高新产品开发效率.如何有效地获取用户资源,将这一资源充分整合在新产品的开发过程中,且能够成功将产品推向市场,这是用户参与产品创新的关键.本文研究了如何系统管理用户参与新产品开发的过程,认为企业需要进行相应的组织安排和制度设计;需要构建用户参与产品创新的支持系统;需要控制用户参与新产品开发的过程.     

面向战略管理的国家实验室评估工作机制研究

当前，我国国家实验室建设处于重要战略机遇期，在诸多方面面临重大挑战，亟需面向战略管理需求加快完善评估工作机制。在梳理相关研究成果的基础上，首先分析国家实验室战略管理特点，论述评估在战略管理全流程中的职能作用；其次，比较中国国家重点实验室、美国能源部下属国家实验室和德国马克斯·普朗克学会(MPG)等大型科研机构评估实践，从战略管理视角讨论存在的差距和短板；最后，结合现有管理问题和国外经验，提出推动我国国家实验室评估工作的政策建议。     

Automated feature extraction from social media for systematic lead user identification

Manufacturers strive to rapidly develop novel products and offer solutions that meet the emerging customer needs. The Lead User Method, emerging from studies on sources of innovation by the scientific community, offers a validated approach to identify users with innovation ideas to support rapid and successful new product development process. The approach has been more recently applied on online communities, where collection and analysis of rich user data are performed by expert practitioners. In this paper, feature extraction techniques are outlined, that enable automated classification and identification of lead users that are present in online communities. The authors describe two case studies to construct a classification model that is then used to identify online lead users for confectionery products, and to evaluate the outlined feature extraction techniques. The presented research points to opportunities in automated identification within the lead user approach that further reduce the resource and time costs.     

Information Acquisition in Financial Markets

Previous work on information and financial markets has focused on a special set of assumptions: agents have exponential utility, and random variables are normally distributed. These assumptions are often necessary to obtain closed-form solutions. We present an example with alternative assumptions, and demonstrate that some of the conclusions from previous literature fail to hold. In particular, we show that in our example, as more agents acquire information, prices do not necessarily become more informative, and agents may have greater incentive to acquire information. Learning can therefore be a strategic complement, allowing for the possibility of multiple equilibria.     

Technology innovation and entrepreneurial state: the development of China's high-speed rail industry

China proactively promotes indigenous technology innovation towards developing an innovation-based economy. This contradicts the developmental state literature that puts emphasis on technology imitation. Drawn from the strategic entrepreneurship perspective, this article explores the role of the government in China's technology innovation process. Carrying out a case study in the high-speed rail (HSR) industry, it suggests that it is best to understand the Chinese government as an entrepreneur in moving China's HSR industry towards technology innovation-driven development, through three dimensions of state-led strategic entrepreneurship: alertness to opportunities, resource exploration and consolidation, and strategic learning. This article highlights the importance of strategic entrepreneurship to the government in an emerging economy context and contributes to the literature by building a conceptual framework of ‘entrepreneurial state’.     

Explicating the market dimension in the study of digital innovation: a management framework for digital innovation

Digital innovation is gaining momentum among academics and business practitioners. Featuring increasingly cross-industry and multi-actor innovation processes, digital innovation reveals the inherent technology bias in the dominant perspectives on innovation. This study aims to transfer the focus from technology-centred ideas of digital innovation to a more balanced concept in which digital innovation is conceptualised as a combination of multiple needs and solutions linked to various actors and their behaviours. The study builds on a longitudinal case study. The article contributes by providing a partial response to the explicit calls for strategic frameworks that capture the process of digital innovation. Furthermore, the article explicates the market dimension of digital innovation and extends the analysis of the market dimension from a limited view of customer information and user knowledge to further include needs, actions, and behaviours of market actors directly or indirectly using, complementing, or substituting the digital innovation and innovation process.     

用户参与对软件产品创新绩效影响的实证研究

以中国260个软件项目为研究样本,从参与深度和参与宽度两个维度衡量用户参与程度,并以系统知识集成能力作为中介变量,采用因子分析和回归分析的方法,研究用户参与对软件产品创新绩效的影响,验证系统知识集成能力对影响的中介作用。结果显示:在软件产品创新过程中,用户参与对软件产品创新绩效具有积极的正向作用;系统知识集成在用户参与作用于软件产品创新绩效的过程中具有显著的中介效应,即系统知识集成能够提高用户参与软件研发过程的深度和宽度以及软件产品创新绩效。     

Maximizing benefits in project selection: a hybrid approach

Charitable foundations and government programmes should endeavour to allocate their limited resources to best serve their constituents. Yet, mathematical programming techniques are rarely used despite overwhelming evidence of their superiority in selecting projects that yield higher levels of total benefits. We present a novel ‘hybrid selection model’ that combines binary linear programming and heuristic rank-based models applied to two case studies. The first case focuses on providing services to women and shows a hybrid model would have selected the top three ‘signature’ projects and maintained an above-average overall project benefit while securing a 180% improvement in the number of projects funded, a 66% improvement in the number of women served and a 132% improvement in the total benefit achieved. In the second case, we apply the hybrid approach to data from the US government’s largest forest preservation programme and demonstrate that the hybrid approach could allow the programme to select up to 11 top-scoring projects while still achieving a 97% gain in the total overall benefit compared to their traditional method. These case studies show that the hybrid approach has the potential to be applied in a variety of settings and improve how foundations and programmes achieve their goals.     

Towards an integrated framework for analysing sustainable innovation policy

An integrated framework for the analysis of sustainable innovation policy was developed, based on a combination of the transition management (TM) framework, the strategic niche management approach, and policy recommendations, resulting from technological innovation system (TIS) studies. In the framework, the multi-level view from TM has been integrated with the functions approach from the TIS literature. The integrated policy framework shows that specific policy goals and measures can be found at the specific points of intervention related to (the interfaces between) landscape, regime, TIS and niches. The integrated framework suggests that stimulation of a TIS only makes sense when this action is well aligned with landscape and regime developments. The framework should be used in empirical studies for further testing and refinement.     

Exploring local projects for sustainable energy in system transition: local perceptions of success

In the sustainability transitions literature, ‘success’ is conceived as the transition from an unsustainable system to a sustainable one. However, this view hides a more profound complexity in individual projects which can contribute to system transition. This paper focuses instead on local projects as key sites for change. In two case studies of UK sustainable energy projects, success is shown to be characterised by different causative beliefs held by different people about the problems being addressed, which predetermines solutions to those problems; and hence the nature of success. By acknowledging this multiplicity of success, as perceived by ordinary residents and project organisers as well as transition scholars, ‘narratives of success’ can be recognised, enabling future projects to build on success, and continue along the path to transition. This reconceptualisation provides transition scholars with new ways of understanding and effecting transitions; by focusing on the project level, which is useful in contexts with varying commitment to sustainability.     

Expectational coordination in simple economic contexts

We consider an economic model that features (1) a continuum of agents and (2) an aggregate state of the world over which agents have an infinitesimal influence. We first review the connections between the ??eductive?? viewpoint on expectational stability and standard game-theoretical rationalizability concepts. The ??eductive?? reasoning selects different plausible beliefs that are a priori, and possibly a posteriori, ??diverse??. Such beliefs are associated with the sets of ??Cobweb tatonnement?? outcomes, ??Rationalizable States?? and ??Point-Rationalizable States?? (the latter two being shown to be convex). In the case where our model displays strategic complementarities, unsurprisingly, all our ??eductive?? criteria support similar conclusions, particularly when the equilibrium is unique. With strategic substitutabilities, the success of expectational coordination, in the case where a unique equilibrium does exists, relates with the absence of cycles of order 2 of the ??Cobweb?? mapping: in this case, full expectational coordination would be achieved. However, when cycles of order 2 do exist, our different criteria predict larger sets of outcomes, although all tied with cycles. Under differentiability assumptions, the Poincaré?CHopf method leads to other global stability results. At the local level, the different criteria under scrutiny can be adapted. They lead to the same expectational stability conclusions, only when there are local strategic complementarities or strategic substitutabilities. However, for the local stability analysis, it is demonstrated that the stochastic character of expectations can most often be forgotten.