Notes and Communications, Horses for Courses: Why Europe Should Not Harmonise its Book Policies

European countries have similar cultural goals for books. The most common are the promotion of reading and the production of (literary) books (of a diverse nature). The extent to which the free market can achieve the cultural goals is uncertain and differs across countries. In cases where the free market does not achieve the goals or politicians do not want to accept uncertainty, a policy instrument is needed. Commonly used instruments in Europe include the fixed book price, subsidies, libraries, and lower VAT. We demonstrate that differences among European countries matter and that harmonisation of European book policies is not a good idea.     

Foresight in services: possibilities and special challenges

Service sectors have been only loosely linked to foresight projects considered essential for wiring up innovation systems. This article examines possibilities and methodological challenges in the foresight of services on the basis of a study conducted in Finland in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). It also provides empirical results about the future trends in KIBS. The most central of these are the growing emphasis on a consultative way of working and broad service solutions, the tightening linkages to clients' strategies, the blurring of sectoral boundaries and the diversification of the forms of internationalisation.     

Making bottom-up and top-down processes meet in public innovation

Innovations in an organisation derive from multiple sources. In the public sector, users and the policy sphere provide important but often unconnected impulses for innovation. These impulses are transmitted to the organisation by grassroots employees who interact with users and managers who implement policy requirements. The paper examines the actors and activities that coordinate bottom-up and top-down initiatives and promote their development into innovations. It creates a theoretical framework that combines the views of employee-driven innovation and strategic reflexivity and supplements them with an analysis of coordination in innovation processes. The functioning of this framework is illustrated in the context of children's day care services. The results highlight the central role of middle managers and provide new knowledge regarding their ‘bridging’ activities in innovation. The adjustment of bottom-up and top-down processes requires the personal involvement of managers, and the creation of communication arenas, networks and mediating tools.     

Weak signals: Ansoff today

This paper examines the concept of weak signals: its basic idea presented by Igor Ansoff and its later developments. We argue that recent futures studies have essentially deepened the analysis of this concept, which originally lacked an accurate definition. Placing weak signals in the general context of futures research has provided the concept with a theoretical point of attachment and linked it with other futures concepts – such as strong signals and trends. Recent studies have also increased the applicability of the concept of weak signals, specifying ways in which signals can be identified, collected and interpreted. Consequently, a number of empirical examples of the analysis of weak signals are nowadays available. In the present paper, we summarize and evaluate both theoretical contributions and managerial implications of these new approaches. While emphasizing the advancements of research, we also want to point out that Ansoff not only was a pioneer in the field, but developed many ideas that are still applicable today. We conclude our paper by suggesting directions for the further development of weak signals research.     

SEARCH DIRECTION AND WAGE DISPERSION*

In a directed search model, we allow the unemployed and the vacancies to choose whether to send or receive wage offers. This determines the market structure. There are several equilibria but a unique evolutionary stable one. Wage offers are made under incomplete information about the number of offers, and the equilibrium strategies involve mixing. This results in wage dispersion. We show that if the unemployment–vacancy ratio is close to unity, the stable equilibrium consists of two submarkets with opposite search directions. Otherwise, the long side of the market sends offers. The stable equilibrium is efficient, given the frictions.     

Integration of planning and execution in service innovation

The purpose of this article is to elaborate two activities included in innovation: planning and execution. We use four dimensions – decision making, organization, process, and external interaction – as the analytical framework. Building on five empirical case studies in the Finnish residential sector, the article identifies various approaches to integrating planning and execution during the development process. Furthermore, the article identifies four integrative mechanisms that relate to each of the four analytical dimensions. The key proposition is that the integration between planning and execution is the driving force for innovation, and that the locus of this integration is the practical engagement of actors with specific aims, problems, and means at hand related to the emerging solution. Finally, the article identifies the availability of, or access to, service-provision resources and the customer interface as a key enabler of this integration.     

Emergence of innovations in services

Along with the ‘servicisation’ of society, innovation in services has become a topical issue. However, analytical and detailed discussion about the nature of service innovations and their emergence is only beginning. This article aims to contribute to this discussion through a theoretical analysis supplemented with findings from two empirical case studies. The theories examined are multi-disciplinary including general service theories, general innovation theories and theories linked to new service development and innovation management. The empirical studies have been carried out in Finland in the fields of real estate and construction services and of knowledge-intensive business services.