Designing adaptable consumption: A new practice to foster food system transitions.

In recent years, more designers have been engaging in transitions for which design activity is used to develop innovations that steer change. However, little is known about how designers develop innovations to foster change along a desired transition path. In this short paper, we explore how designers can develop joint innovations that steer a...

The role of public funding in the initiation and upscaling of collective innovation trajectories

Our society is facing big challenges and public organizations have a key role in addressing these, as well as providing public funding for innovation. Many innovation projects however result in a proof-of-concept and deliver initial results but experience issues with upscaling further to realize impact. In the EU, innovation networks are...

Unravelling social capital value in science parks: Growth versus R&D orientation

Science and Technology Parks (STPs) have fueled many debates on their effectiveness in policies to enhance innovation and regional economic growth. Some authors put emphasis on advantages of physical proximity between on-site firms and the university, while others pay increasingly attention to benefits from social capital between the...

Educate for technological innovation

At Polytechnics design & engineering students are taught about state-of-the-art technical knowledge. Students become qualified engineers and learn to innovate artifacts related to their domain. Not taught is how to develop new engineering knowledge within a multidisciplinary context of stakeholders, companies and regulations. In short,...

Public Funding in Collective Innovations for Public–Private Activities

Whereas in market-driven situations the private parties have an interest in driving innovations towards implementation, in the case of public concerns, it is often the public concern that initiates the innovation process. The issue for the public funding agencies is then to stimulate idea generation and the process towards implementation and...

Entrepreneurial universities meet their private partners: Towards a better embedding of the outcomes of cross-sector collaborations

In the past decades, universities’ involvement in socio-economic development, which goes along with their teaching and researching activities, has defined a new role for them in society’s ecosystem. This new role is often referred with the term of “entrepreneurial” university, whose objectives are positive societal, economic and environmental...

Observing new product impacts on sectors value chains: The case of a French electronic SME

As a new technology impacts both the company itself and its ecosystem, the aim of this study is to visualize the influence of SME's new products on its supply chain. We adopted a case study approach to explore how products can affect the structure of a supply chain. Using data about the organization of the company and its external supply...

Towards an ambidextrous government: Strategies for balancing exploration and exploitation in open government

Governments are often putting their efforts in the operation and execution of existing services without having the means to innovate. Ambidexterity is the ability to operate existing services and to innovate at the same time Ambidexterity is a concept originating from organizational studies in the private sector and is hardly used in the public...

Opportunities and challenges in the implementation of the knowledge triangle