David Rönnberg Sjödin

Open Innovation and the Stage-Gate Process: A Revised Model for New Product Development

This article explores how firms can benefit from opening up the new product development process by integrating the principles of open innovation with the Stage-Gate process. It examines the potential opportunities of employing the principles of both inbound and outbound open innovation within new product development at a firm in the upstream oil & gas industry. A practitioner-oriented work model, named the open Stage-Gate model, can exploit the advantages of “openness. “This model allows explicit consideration of import and export of know-how and technology through gate evaluations and also enables firms to continuously assess their core capabilities and business model. The application of this model can assist firms in capturing value from both internal and external technology exploitation in increasingly open innovation processes.

Mastering the Transition to Product-Service Provision: Insights into Business Models, Learning Activities, and Capabilities

OVERVIEW: Traditional manufacturing companies are increasingly offering industrial services in order to secure their position in the globally competitive environment. However, little is known about the extent and effect of this transition. Based on a large-scale survey of Finnish manufacturing companies, this study offers descriptive statistics for current industrial service offerings. Merely adding on simple services to a current product offering is shown to be negatively associated with financial performance. Rather, our statistical analysis suggests a thorough and comprehensive organizational transformation is required to generate significant financial value. In addition, qualitative data from globally recognized Swedish and Finnish frontrunner manufacturing companies offer insights into how these market leaders have successfully navigated the organizational challenges of such a transformation to offer successful industrial product-service systems. Based on the data, we outline four distinctive capabilities and associated key learning activities required to facilitate a successful transition toward becoming a high-value industrial product-service provider.

Open innovation in process industries: a lifecycle perspective on development of process equipment

The development and installation of new process equipment in production plants typically requires strong collaboration among a process firm and various equipment suppliers. While incentives to collaborate often are strong, close collaboration also poses significant problems, throughout the lifecycle of process equipment. The purpose of this article is to explore the problems and opportunities faced by process firms and their equipment suppliers throughout the lifecycle stages of collaborative development projects. This paper combines literature on open innovation, collaborative development and buyer-supplier relationships. Empirically, we draw on a large number of interviews in a dual case study of two process firms. Our results show that strong collaboration is neither positive nor negative in general. Rather, opportunities, problems, and collaboration intensity are strongly contingent on the specific stage in the lifecycle of process equipment. Our findings underscore the managerial and theoretical importance of a lifecycle perspective on the development of process equipment, since significant overlaps and interconnections exist across different stages.

Risk management for product-service system operation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a product-service systems (PSS) risk management decision-making framework for PSS operation, which can enable global manufacturing companies to offer PSS successfully. Thus, the authors aim to contribute primarily to developing the PSS literature by integrating insights from the literatures on risk management and decision making. Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on an exploratory, single case study with a Swedish manufacturing company that has long-term experience with providing PSS. In total, the authors conducted 25 semi-structured interviews with diverse respondents from different functional units. Findings – The study’s main findings include identifying and proposing an interconnection between the operational risks associated with providing PSS, possible risk management responses, and decision criteria, all of which enable decision makers to select an appropriate risk management response. Research limitations/implications – The study c...

Developing Global Service Innovation Capabilities: How Global Manufacturers Address the Challenges of Market Heterogeneity

OVERVIEW: As multinational manufacturing companies pursue service innovation toward global markets, their back-end development units—headquarters R&D—face immense challenges due to market heterogeneity. Our extensive studies of 13 leading multinational companies in service innovation have identified, analyzed, and ranked challenges to reveal the key steps to building necessary capabilities. Based on our analysis, we inductively identified four competencies in global service innovation capabilities (developing customer insights, integrating global knowledge, creating global service offerings, and building a digitalization capability) and the activities associated with them. Global service innovation requires companies to develop capabilities that support increased relationship intensity and interaction between headquarters R&D and local units, customers, and service partners. In developing these capabilities, the headquarters units progressively learn to collaborate, integrate, and orchestrate processes and activities across and within regional front-end units, customers, and service partners.

Procurement Procedures For Supplier Integration And Open Innovation In Mature Industries

The development and installation of new process equipment in production plants typically require strong collaborative efforts by a process firm and its equipment suppliers. However, existing knowledge about how such supplier integration and open innovation practices should be organized and managed is scarce. The purpose of this investigation is therefore to explore how process firms can organize and manage supplier integration and open innovation practices when developing and installing new process technology. By means of a literature review and a case study of two process firms, a lifecycle perspective on procurement is adopted. Our results show that the process firms utilize different interconnected cooperative procurement procedures in different stages of the equipments lifecycle, in order to enhance integration both in buyer-supplier dyads and among the suppliers in the project network. The contributions of the paper are summarized and illustrated in a developed lifecycle-based procurement model that guides practitioners in organizing and managing supplier integration and open innovation practices.

Managing Interorganizational Technology Development: Project Management Practices for Market‐ and Science‐Based Partnerships

Firms are increasingly relying on collaborating with external partners to drive technology development. Many firms struggle with managing the inherently uncertain and ambiguous technology developme ...

Barriers and conditions of open operation: a customer perspective on value co-creation for integrated product-service solutions

Enabling value co-creation between provider and customer is a key requirement for successful adoption of integrated product-service offerings in a capital good industrial setting. However, little i ...

Smart Factory Implementation and Process Innovation: A Preliminary Maturity Model for Leveraging Digitalization in ManufacturingMoving to smart factories presents specific challenges that can be addressed through a structured approach focused on people, processes, and technologies.

Overview: The development of novel digital technologies connected to the Internet of Things, along with advancements in artificial intelligence and automation, is enabling a new wave of manufacturing innovation. “Smart factories” will leverage industrial equipment that communicates with users and with other machines, automated processes, and mechanisms to facilitate real-time communication between the factory and the market to support dynamic adaptation and maximize efficiency. Smart factories can yield a range of benefits, such as increased process efficiency, product quality, sustainability, and safety and decreased costs. However, companies face immense challenges in implementing smart factories, given the large-scale, systemic transformation the move requires. We use data gathered from in-depth studies of five factories in two leading automotive manufacturers to analyze these challenges and identify the key steps needed to implement the smart factory concept. Based on our analysis, we offer a preliminary maturity model for smart factory implementation built around three overarching principles: cultivating digital people, introducing agile processes, and configuring modular technologies.

Managing Risks for Product-Service Systems Provision: Introducing a Practical Decision Tool for Risk Management

Providing product-service systems (PSS) entails increased risks for manufacturing companies as they shift from transaction to relational engagements with customers and assume operational responsibilities for customers’ processes. This study proposes a PSS risk management decision tool, which enables global manufacturing companies to more proficiently manage risks to offer PSS successfully. The results are based on a case study with a Swedish manufacturing company that has long-term experience with providing PSS. The study’s main findings include identifying and proposing an interconnection between risks associated with providing PSS, possible risk responses, and decision criteria that enable decision-makers to select appropriate risk management responses.