Managing Controversies in the Fuzzy Front End

This research investigates the controversies that emerge in the fuzzy front end (FFE) and how they are closed so the innovation process can move on. The fuzzy front has been characterized in the literature as a very critical phase, but controversies in the FFE have not been studied before. The analysis investigates the microprocesses around the controversies that emerge during the fuzzy front end of four products. Five different types of controversies are identified: profit, production, design, brand and customers/market. Each controversy represents a threat, but also an opportunity to search for new solutions in the unpredictable non‐linear processes. The study uses an ethnographic approach using qualitative data from interviews, company documents, external communication and marketing material, minutes of meetings, informal conversations and observations. The analysis of four FFE processes demonstrates how the fuzzy front requires managers to deal with controversies that emerge from many different places and involve both human and non‐human actors. Closing the controversies requires managers to take account of the situation, identify the problem that needs to be addressed, and initiate a search for solutions. Management is actively involved in this process, in many different ways. Among the implications from this analysis is that the managers' role in the FFE is multifaceted and each controversy seems to require different skills and competencies.     

Language Brokering: Stimulating Creativity during the Concept Development Phase

To improve product styling and ergonomics, a growing number of companies are exploring new ways to involve design consultants in their innovation processes. Many studies have underlined the importance of designers in the innovation processes of successful companies, and some designers have achieved ‘superstar’ status. By capturing, recombining and integrating socio‐cultural knowledge and product semantics across social and industrial settings, designers can help create breakthrough product meanings. The relationship between briefs written by managers and solutions developed by designers is quite complex. Very often managers are unable to appropriately communicate and commercialize new products and services conceptualized by designers because they know only the final output of the innovation process rather than its entire story. The Language Brokering Process can enrich the dialectic between managers and designers, and consequently, it can improve both current and future innovation projects. This methodology elucidates the structure and process adopted by several designers and also illustrates an effective framework for communicating choices to managers. We present results from a student application of this methodology in the development of a new product‐service system for Aquarius (a brand of the Coca‐Cola Group) for two target demographics: ‘desperate housewives’ and ‘young adults’.     

“StoryWeb”: A storytelling‐based knowledge‐sharing application among multiple stakeholders

The research objective of this paper is to develop a storytelling‐based knowledge‐sharing application that enables users to co‐create their own stories for both individuals and groups. To address this, a design science research methodology was applied for elucidating users' requirements. As empirical evidence, a case study was conducted on the children's book industry to synthesize a knowledge‐sharing design application named “StoryWeb”. Usability tests were conducted to reconfigure users' feedback and suggestions after two StoryWeb prototypes were developed. This study makes three main contributions. First, it empirically tests individual's or group's creativity and co‐creation by a view of knowledge sharing. Second, it methodologically applies a design thinking approach into a knowledge‐sharing study. Third, it also practically suggests feasible guidelines for the creativity and innovation research community on which features of storytelling‐based applications can be configured.     

A Multidimensional Product‐Concept Model Enhancing Cross‐Functional Knowledge Creation in the Product Innovation Process: The Case of the Suunto t6 Training Wrist Computer

This article presents a four‐dimensional product‐concept model enhancing cross‐functional knowledge creation in product innovation: the dimensions presented in the new model are: technology, end‐user, brand and business logic. The application of the model is described in the case study of the Suunto t6 training wrist computer. For the Suunto t6 development it was revealed that cross‐functional knowledge creation had happened on an even larger scale than expected. Analysis of the results suggests that certain dimensions of the product concept can be especially indicative of cross‐functional knowledge creation, such as concern with the end‐user’s experience. Furthermore, the new product concept may provide an early warning of innovation‐based diversification. Nicknames for the product concept under development, which requires the verbalisation of tacit subjective associations, can be used as indicators of cross‐functional integration within the organization and as suitable indicators of tacit knowledge. Measurement of all relevant organizational capabilities is discussed.     

Co‐creation of new solutions through gamification: A collaborative innovation practice

This paper aims to explore the main implications of gamification approaches to collaborative innovation and particularly to co‐creation, i.e. the interaction and interchange of ideas between users, customers, suppliers and other actors in the development of new solutions. Despite the few approaches attempting to make co‐creation more ludic and accessible, researchers have yet to analyse the link between gamification and co‐creation in an extensive manner. In order to better understand this unexplored relationship, empirical case research studies have been conducted with multi‐actors participating in a real‐life co‐creation project through the deployment of a gamified method and tool (ideaChef®), as well as a combination of different instruments, involving speed meetings, workshops, debriefings and interviews. Besides advancing the body of knowledge on collaborative innovation practices and conceptualizing the relationship between gamification and co‐creation, this paper provides important implications for managers on how multiple actors can be engaged and coordinated in such practices through gamification. The paper's main contribution lies in the suggestion that engagement goes hand in hand with coordination, and that a combination of both will be the best strategy for co‐creating new solutions through gamification.     

Client–vendor knowledge transfer in IS offshore outsourcing: insights from a survey of Indian software engineers

We use knowledge‐based theory to develop and test a model of client–vendor knowledge transfer at the level of the individual offshore information systems engineer. We define knowledge transfer in this context in terms of mechanisms by which an offshore engineer employed by a vendor can (a) gain understanding of their onshore client; and (b) utilize their knowledge for the benefit of the client. Over large geographic, cultural and institutional distances, effective knowledge transfer is difficult to achieve, although it is central to the success of many offshore outsourcing contracts. Our empirical test consists of a survey of vendor software engineers physically located in India but working on development projects for clients in Europe and the United States. The findings support predictions regarding engineer exposure to explicit and tacit knowledge: We find client–vendor knowledge transfer to the offshore vendor engineer to be positively associated with formal training and client embedment. We also test whether an offshore vendor engineer's inappropriate reliance on informal discussions in the offshore location hinders effective client–vendor knowledge transfer. Our result for this is mixed. Finally, we show differences between offshore engineers who have had previous onshore experience and those who have not. Client embedment is a potent driver of knowledge transfer when the offshore engineer has had previous onshore placement, while it acts to reduce inappropriate reliance on informal discussions for those that have not had an onshore placement.     

Procedural knowledge for integrated modelling: Towards the Modelling Playground

Integration aims to bridge disciplines and bring together knowledge that is fragmented across these disciplines. However, practical integration in Natural Resource Management (NRM) remains out-paced by the increasing pressures on natural resources. Research must become more effective at producing tools appropriate for NRM praxis (IAASTD 2009).Quantitative integrated modelling (IM) offers NRM the precision of mathematical formalism for rigorously evaluating hypotheses, testing concepts and comparing management options. To support IM, software tools have made great leaps in recent years. On the other hand, the knowledge of how to apply this “cyber infrastructure” remains mostly tacit and no adequate guidelines are available to support project managers in choosing cyber infrastructure that is appropriate for a specific project.The objective of this paper is to define a framework and a benchmark against which the efficiency of integrated modelling for natural resource management (IM-NRM) processes can be evaluated. First, the IM challenge is characterized by defining complexity, knowledge requirements and, using concepts from organizational theory, three strategies of knowledge acquisition. These include individual learning, collaboration within staff and cooperation with third parties. Next, the three strategies are used to categorize the organizational challenge of IM-NRM with five metaphors. Cyber infrastructure plays a pivotal and distinct role in each metaphor by sharing knowledge across project members. One of these metaphors, the “Modelling Playground,” is defined as an optimal combination of the three strategies.Finally, this perspective is used to describe two NRM projects, one from academia and one from a governmental program. Both case studies have undergone significant changes in organizational structure and in knowledge acquisition strategies. The initial choice of cyber infrastructure proved insufficient for these changes and resulted in significant adjustment costs.In conclusion, it is suggested that guidelines for cyber infrastructure used in NRM, which take into consideration the aspired goals, the constraining organizational context and incentive structures, are crucial to improve the effectiveness of NRM. It is also suggested that lesson learning be based on the framework of organizational theory, as well as an action-based approach, to create a test Modelling Playground as a learning hub.     

Controlling system uncertainty in sport and work

An applied psychological framework for coping with performance uncertainty in sport and work systems is presented. The theme of personal control serves to integrate ideas prevalent in industrial and organisational psychology, the stress literature and labour process theory. These commonly focus on the promotion of tacit knowledge and learned resourcefulness in individual performers. Finally, data from an empirical evaluation of a development training programme to facilitate self-regulation skills in professional athletes are briefly highlighted.     

The Front End of Radical Innovation: A Case Study of Idea and Concept Development at Prime Group

A firm's ability to develop radical innovation is heavily contingent on the front‐end phases where ideas and concepts are created, yet few empirical studies provide detailed insights into radical idea and concept development. Using literature on problem finding and problem solving, we explore how radically new ideas and concepts emerge, and outline the process by which they are created. Based on multiple case studies of five completed and two ongoing projects conducted by a highly innovative consultancy firm, Prime Group, the article proposes a six‐step process for radical idea and concept development. The insights provide theoretical implications and advice for how firms can increase novelty and success rates of emergent radical ideas and concepts.     

Innovation in the Agri‐Food sector: Exploiting opportunities for Industry 4.0

Agri‐Food producers have a responsibility to provide safe, secure and sustainable food in a world characterized by disruption and increasing intolerance of waste along supply chains. As such, it is critical that they adopt new technologies to ensure efficient and effective management of their responsibility. While Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies can underpin process innovation opportunities, there is a gap in research‐based understanding of how they influence innovation practice and outcomes in Agri‐Food. In this paper, we investigate how I4.0, as a set of enabling technologies, influences core process innovation practice and product innovation outcomes in Agri‐Food firms. We present case studies of two Spanish firms processing fresh food products, competing in two important subsectors of the industry, meat and fruit and vegetables. We used secondary material and semi‐structured interviews as data sources. The findings describe how, in the two cases, I4.0 has enabled responses to new customers requirements through process innovations resulting in enhanced functionality, aesthetics and meaning of the delivered products. Our paper contributes a framework identifying for researchers and managers how I4.0 technologies act as enablers of the core innovation processes and competitive outcomes.     

Information management practices (IMP) from the senior manager's perspective: an investigation of the IMP construct and its measurement

While many scholars have discussed what a company should look like when it has reached an advanced state in using its information, there has been little empirical research to develop a valid effectiveness measure to determine whether a company is doing a good job of managing its information. Based on a theoretically derived model of an information life cycle, this study empirically tests a measure of information management practices (IMP) that can be part of future business measurement approaches. To ensure that we maintain an enterprise‐wide perspective, we focus on senior managers' perceptions of how well their companies manage information. We discuss IMP as a ‘process’ or life cycle that involves sensing, collecting, organising, processing and maintaining information to enhance its use for decision‐making. We first give an overview of the research on life cycle views of information management. Next, we present our information management life cycle framework and its dimensions. We then statistically determine the extent to which these ideas exist in the minds of senior managers as reflected in the second‐order construct IMP. Finally, we discuss the implications for evaluating and measuring IMP in companies. The contributions have scholarly value as a building block in a theory of knowledge management, and practical value as a validated measure of the effectiveness of IMP.     

Dual Allegiance and Knowledge Sharing in Open Source Software Firms

Employees of commercial software firms who participate in open source software projects are found to be allegiant to both their company and the open source community. In this paper we examine how these employees' dual allegiance influences their knowledge sharing behaviour. We adopt Husted and Michailova's model on dual allegiance and knowledge sharing in inter‐firm R&D collaborations to the context of open source software firms. We argue that the type of allegiance the individual holds towards their employing firm and the open source community has a strong influence of how they share knowledge with other community members. We use the examples of two open source software firms in New Zealand to ground the empirical inspiration of our paper and to illustrate our key ideas and arguments. We discuss the knowledge governance challenges imposed by employees' dual allegiance and how managers of open source software firms can balance the demands of the open source community and the interests of the clients.     

An empirical knowledge management framework for professional virtual community in knowledge-intensive service industries

With continued growth of the service-oriented knowledge economy, knowledge-intensive service industries (KISI) have become a trend nowadays for industrial development. Enterprise activities in knowledge-intensive service industries are highly creative. When performing and achieving each activity, the domain professional knowledge and experiences, which involve various ideas, such as service innovation or service value-added, are employed.Therefore, effective knowledge management must be achieved to rapidly accumulate knowledge assets of enterprise and increase the efficiency of knowledge-intensive service industries.A professional virtual community is an interactive platform that allows enterprise experts to create and share empirical knowledge in knowledge-intensive service industries. A high volume of useless information and empirical knowledge is typically generated during expert discussions. Therefore, managing and sharing useful contents of knowledge discussion have become important issues for empirical knowledge management in a professional virtual community.This work presents a systematic approach to develop a framework for managing empirical knowledge to support a professional virtual community in knowledge-intensive service industries. The approach presented in this study comprises three phases: (i) proposing an empirical knowledge management model for a professional virtual community, (ii) designing an empirical knowledge management system framework for a professional virtual community, and (iii) implementing an empirical knowledge management system prototype for a professional virtual community.Study results facilitate efforts within the professional virtual community to extract, verify, store, and share empirical knowledge to assist knowledge-intensive service industries in enhancing service innovation abilities and creating the best services for customers.     

Integrated knowledge management model and system for construction projects

In the past there has been no structured approach to learning from construction projects once they are completed. Now, however, the construction industry is adapting concepts of tacit and explicit knowledge management to improve the situation. Top managers generally assume that professionals in enterprises already possess tacit knowledge and experience for specific types of projects. Such knowledge is extremely important to organisations because, once a project is completed, professionals tend to forget it and start something new. Therefore, knowledge multifold utilisation is a key factor in productively executing a construction project. This paper discusses the benefits of knowledge management to construction industry organisations and projects and emphasises the significance of tacit knowledge. The main purpose of this paper is to present the integrated knowledge management model for the construction industry as well as system architecture and system of the Knowledge Based Decision Support System for Construction Projects Management (KDSS-CPM) which the authors of this paper have developed. Different knowledge management models that are presented in scientific literature are discussed and compared, and the proposed new, KDSS-CPM model, as developed by this paper’s authors, is introduced.     

How Product Newness Influences ‘Learning and Probing’ and the Linearity of its Development Process

In this paper, the relationship between product newness and non‐linearity of new product development processes has been examined in the context of the UK’s information and communications technology industry. The results showed that new product development and implementation are contingent on the product’s newness. New product development managers should be aware of such differences in order to avoid costly iterations when they are not necessary, and accept them when they are. Such knowledge may encourage managers to consider the scope for deliberately introducing feedback/iteration processes when they lead to more effective new product development.     

Organizational Slack and Knowledge Creation in Product Development Projects: The Role of Project Deliverables

Our concern is with how changes in organizational slack affect knowledge creation in product development projects. We operationalize a change in organizational slack as changed possibilities to depart from project deliverables in NPD projects. Through case research in high velocity industries we identify the effect a change in organizational slack has on knowledge creation processes inside product development projects. In particular we highlight the effects on tacit and explicit knowledge. More specifically we find that reduced slack creates a focus on explicit knowledge rather than tacit knowledge, which may reduce the ability to create knowledge creation and ultimately to innovate.     

“Light green doesn’t mean hydrology!”: toward a visual–rhetorical framework for interface design

The utility of metaphor as a visual–rhetorical design framework has diminished dramatically, and continues to erode. Metaphor has two important limitations as it is commonly applied in interface design: (a) metaphors are indexical, pointing to physical artifacts that they represent, and (b) metaphors are static, that is, unwavering in their indexicality. Both assumptions are demonstrably flawed. In this article, I first critically examine metaphor’s limitations as a visual–rhetorical framework for designing, evaluating, and critiquing user interfaces. Next, I outline an alternate framework for visual rhetoric, that of genre ecologies, and discuss how it avoids some of the limitations of metaphor. Finally, I use an empirical study of computer users to illustrate the genre-ecology framework and contrast it with metaphor.     

The role of a “make” or internal human resource management system in Spanish manufacturing companies: Empirical evidence

The combined study of the literature about human resource management and the resource‐based view of the firm and organizational learning provides an analysis framework useful for understanding how strategic human resource management systems contribute to the creation and development of a sustained competitive advantage for the firm. This article has two major aims. First, it provides a conceptual framework linking simultaneously three theoretical blocks: (a) human resource management, (b) organizational learning and knowledge management, and (c) sustained competitive advantage. Second, the article builds a causal model and tests it with a sample of Spanish firms from the manufacturing industry using structural equation modeling (SEM). After the performance of a cluster analysis, a group of 72 learning firms is identified and used to test the model. Finally, major conclusions and implications for management are drawn and further avenues for research are suggested. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Assessing the impact of knowledge management strategies announcements on the market value of firms

Although there is much literature on the relationship between KM strategies and organizational performance, the benefit of KM strategies is not well understood. We addressed this issue by exploring how KM strategies influence a firm's market value using event study methodology. We evaluated the cumulative abnormal returns for KM strategies announced by U. S. firms from 1998 to 2003. Our findings supported the hypothesis that firms’ announcements about their KM strategies provoked positive reactions in the market. More specifically, strategies that focus on either (i) knowledge reusability through IT or (ii) knowledge sharing through informal discussions among employees contributed to higher performance than strategies that emphasized both. This outcome empirically supported our argument that the emphasis on either tacit or explicit knowledge results in a better market value of the firm. Furthermore, the market's reaction to the announcement is dependent on the firm's industry classification. The findings of this study offer insights that may help managers maximize the market impact of their KM strategies.     

Metaphors in managerial and employee sensemaking in an information systems project

This longitudinal study looks at the metaphors used in a public sector information systems development project from the perspective of cognitive metaphor theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980 ). We examine the use of metaphors by project team members, including representatives of the users, software developers and the managers guiding the project work. The findings indicate that project team members and managers use a rich set of metaphors to make sense of the project and the records management system they are working on. Notably, distinct sets of metaphors are used in different project phases and among the project personnel and management. As the differences in the metaphors also coincide with key events in the trajectory of the project, we contend that metaphors have significant power in sensemaking, influencing action and project outcomes. In particular, we find that in highly ambiguous, knowledge‐intensive situations, metaphor use with unclear intentions and purpose hinders learning and creates more chaos than order. From a practical perspective, our study highlights the relevance of metaphor use for project management. We suggest that intentional selection of metaphors by management could be beneficial for many complex information systems projects. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd