Annick Castiaux

Developing Dynamic Capabilities To Meet Sustainable Development Challenges

Dynamic capabilities are recognized as key factors for the adaptation of the firm to its changing environment. For two decades, a new pressure has been added on the shoulders of firms: they have to integrate sustainable development considerations in their strategy. This paper explores the impact of those new sustainability requirements on the dynamic capabilities that a firm should develop and sustain to remain competitive in turbulent environments. In particular, which new innovation capabilities are required to integrate environmental, social and financial objectives? To answer this question, we first consider the dynamicity levels identified in the literature in relationship with the turbulence of the firms environment and we study what level is required for which type of sustainable innovation. Secondly, we look at the three fundamental natures of dynamic capabilities (sensing, seizing, transforming) and identify typical new requirements coming from sustainability challenges. We apply this reflection to Green IT innovations.

Participative innovation: when innovation becomes everyone's business

In this paper, we develop the concept of participative innovation, conciliating innovation and quality management. Those two views of management are often opposed, the first being associated with emergence and exploration, while the latter is based on control and exploitation. Through interviews with key actors in innovation and quality management, we underline the divergences and convergences of those management approaches. With those actors, we try to find areas where both approaches could be conciliated. The study of emerging practices where every member of the firm is asked to participate in the innovation process gives us an area of intersection. We show that such practices are at the crossroads between innovation and quality management. As a matter of fact, participative innovation meets the key principles of quality management while offering new perspectives for creative innovation. We propose a definition of participative innovation and a method to implement it in companies.

Contingent knowledge transfers in university–industry R&D projects

This paper explores knowledge transfers inside University–Industry collaborative research as the objective and scope of R&D activities vary. First, we contribute to a dynamic perspective on inter-organizational knowledge transfers by providing a new typology of University–Industry collaborative research. Second, we provide propositions related to contingent knowledge transfers, i.e. alignment between the nature of a project and the expected transfers. If such an alignment should ideally be built starting in the design phase, we demonstrate that a lack of alignment can be corrected as the collaborative research is iterated. Those iterations are experienced by partners as highly emotional events, influencing the rest of the collaborative work through what we call the pivot complex.

Participation and Open Innovation for Sustainable Software Engineering

This chapter explores the reasons why the innovation processes, in particular in software engineering, become more and more open and participative; and the implications on the sustainability of future software-intensive systems. The chapter then goes deeper in understanding participation, and the collaborative creativity processes that lie behind it, towards an understanding of the conditions under which participation may lead to more sustainability. The case of open source software is analysed as an illustration and finally suggests novel participative and requirements-oriented techniques to support the design of sustainable systems.