Diversity in foresight: Insights from the fostering of innovation ideas

Foresight activities have often provided support for objectives such as priority-setting, networking and consensual vision-building. In this paper, we draw upon complementary evolutionary perspectives and discuss these objectives from the viewpoint of diversity which may be vital in contexts characterized by technological discontinuities and high uncertainties. We also argue that although the scanning of weak signals has been widely advocated in such contexts, the solicitation of ideas for prospective innovations may provide more focused, action-oriented, and comparable reflections of future developments. For the analysis of such ideas, we develop a collaborative foresight method RPM Screening which consists of phases for the generation, revision, multi-criteria evaluation, and portfolio analysis of innovation ideas. We also report experiences from a pilot project where this method was employed to enhance the work of the Foresight Forum of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Finland. Encouraging results from this project and other recent applications suggest that RPM Screening can be helpful in foresight processes and the development of shared research agendas.     

Multicriteria Portfolio Modeling for the Development of Shared Action Agendas

Organizations and collaborative networks set strategic directions by building agendas of action topics that will be implemented subject to limited resources and other constraints. The development of such agendas typically involves several decision makers and possibly other stakeholders who may have divergent views about how the topics contribute to multiple objectives. The processes of developing these agendas can be supported by methods of multicriteria decision analysis which allow the group members’ preferences to be systematically and transparently synthesized. In this paper, we extend methods of portfolio decision analysis with the aim of guiding the development of agendas in the presence of possibly incomplete information about the group members’ preferences and the impacts of the proposed topics. Specifically, we define performance measures that convey (i) what topics are favored by individual group members and (ii) how acceptable alternative portfolios of topic agendas are to the whole group. The methods are illustrated with data from a real case study for the development of a national research agenda on wood products in Finland.     

Rationales for Government Intervention in the Commercialization of New Technologies

The paper examines rationales relevant to the evolving roles of government intervention and private venture capital industry in the commercialization of new technologies. Specifically, government interventions may aim to mitigate market and systemic failures, eliminate structural rigidities, or respond to anticipatory myopia. Ex ante , constructive, and ex post evaluations are discussed in relation to the possibility that agencies responsible for policy implementation may intervene even in situations in which the benefits of their interventions are not necessarily transparent.     

Market Orientation and Performance Measurement System Adoption Impact on Performance in SMEs

Previous research has shown a connection between market orientation (MO) and firm performance, as well as between performance measurement systems (PMS) adoption, but their mutual interactions are as yet little understood in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Using empirical data collected by a survey from 123 Finnish SMEs, we analyze the relationship between MO, PMS adoption, and performance. According to the results, MO has positive relationships with PMS adoption and nonfinancial performance. However, the impact of MO on financial performance is mediated by PMS adoption. PMS adoption is thus an important factor in explaining variance in firm performance. Finally, empirical analysis shows that the larger SME firms adopt PMS more extensively.     

Beyond Bureaucracy: How Prosecutors and Public Defenders Enforce Urban Planning Laws in São Paulo,Brazil

Cities need law to thrive, but it is not clear how abstract texts become tangible policy outcomes. Existing research on the role of law in urban affairs conceives law as either an algorithm that shapes urban life or a reflection of political disputes. The former assumes that the meaning of law is obvious; the latter claims it is irrelevant. In contrast to these views, I argue that laws are multipurpose instruments that acquire a specific function when enforced by those government agents who operate at the frontlines of public service. To understand what these agents do and why, I conducted a qualitative study of the Ministério Público and the Defensoria Pública in São Paulo, Brazil. Through this process, I found that these government agencies are not cohesive bureaucracies but heterarchies composed of distinct internal factions with different evaluative principles. Moreover, officials within them are not isolated from other entities in society but tightly entangled with them, and these connections influence what these officials do. Finally, enforcement agents are not always resigned to solving conflicts as they arise. Rather, they strive to find acceptable solutions in the interstices of existing conditions or even change the circumstances that created the conflict in the first place.     

The development of post-project buyer–seller interaction in service-intensive projects

The purpose of this research is to enhance the understanding of post-project buyer–seller interaction, a topic previously studied mainly from the perspective of social exchange or sleeping relationships. With the advent of service-intensive projects, however, the dynamics of post-project interaction has changed, demanding a broader theorization. This research extends the scope of project marketing, by proposing a research framework illustrating interaction development in a longitudinal setting. We utilize the framework to analyze three projects, two of which continued for more than a decade, through a qualitative case study. The research provides empirical insight into the interaction orientations and development patterns arising in the post-project stage. It suggests that post-project interaction develops through three main orientations (cooperative development, buyer-led development, and seller-led maintenance) that vary over time, thus creating unique development patterns. The study concludes with five practical recommendations for managers to deal with evolving post-project interaction.     

Rationales for Government Intervention in the Commercialization of New Technologies

The paper examines rationales relevant to the evolving roles of government intervention and private venture capital industry in the commercialization of new technologies. Specifically, government interventions may aim to mitigate market and systemic failures, eliminate structural rigidities, or respond to anticipatory myopia. Ex ante , constructive, and ex post evaluations are discussed in relation to the possibility that agencies responsible for policy implementation may intervene even in situations in which the benefits of their interventions are not necessarily transparent.     

Eco‐innovation motivations and ecodesign tool implementation in companies in the Nordic textile and information technology sectors

The current sustainability challenges and the required systemic transformation highlight the need for innovations on multiple levels. Ecodesign integrates environmental aspects into product and process design to reduce environmental impacts, whereas eco‐innovation also concerns nontechnological solutions. In this paper, we formulate a model that combines eco‐innovation targets ad mechanisms with sustainability maturity, which also concerns stimuli and barriers faced by companies and ecodesign tools used. The results are based on a questionnaire sent to 902 textile and information technology (IT) companies (N = 104) in the Nordic countries. The tools that Nordic textile and IT companies use in particular are life cycle assessment, type I ecolabel, and carbon footprint. Internal stimuli, especially general willingness, were important for eco‐innovativeness, while legislation and customer demand also pushed companies forward. Specific no‐go barriers were not identified, although increase in costs was a common barrier. The respondents focus often on technological product innovations, but rarely on functional innovation, renting of products, and so forth. This highlights the need to address the availability of the right kind of tools to support a broader suite of innovation that can drive toward the circular economy.     

Markets for standardized technologies: Patent licensing with principle of proportionality

In this paper, we study the licensing of standard-related patents among companies that employ a two-level licensing model where (i) the aggregated value of technology in the end product is divided among the integrated technologies in the product, and (ii) the value of each technology is then shared among the patent owners in proportion to the strengths of their patent portfolios in these technologies. Specifically, we develop a system dynamics simulation model for analyzing the effects of licensing costs on product and technology markets. This model is based on the modeling of three types of companies whose interactions are analyzed using non-cooperative game theory. The numerical results suggest that none of the three companies benefit from very low or very high royalty rates. In this setting, our model for two-level proportional sharing of licensing payments helps identify royalty rates which benefit all types of companies and which provide incentives for technology development and innovation.     

Effects of link placements in email newsletters on their click-through rate

Firms adopting email marketing strategy often complain about low click-through rate (CTR). Scarcity of attention in this digital economy requires including psychological aspects of consumer behavior into the design considerations of digital contents. In this study, we propose differential effects of link placements in email newsletter on their CTR. We explain the observed effects of link placements on CTR drawing concepts from psychology and visual heuristics. The empirical analysis confirms that when it comes to clicking on the links of a newsletter, the click-through follows a U-pattern, i.e. as users traverse the links placed on a U-path their responsiveness decreases gradually. Thus, links placed in the left region of an email newsletter have higher impact than those placed in the right region with links in the top-left region having highest impact. Insights gained from this study can be used in the design consideration of email newsletters.