Katja Maria Hydle

Incentives and performance measures for open innovation practices

Purpose – To guarantee alignment between ongoing activities and organizational goals, innovation management theory emphasizes management control and explicit innovation strategies as prerequisites for innovation performance. However, the theory on open services innovation emphasizes individual autonomy and incentives to foster open innovations. The aim of this paper is to explore this inconsistency. Design/methodology/approach – An explorative research design involving 25 semi-structured interviews in five large scale-intensive service firms is explored. Scale-intensive service firms are strategically sampled for this study since these firms experience tension between open service innovation characteristics and efforts to standardize. Findings – The authors show how individual autonomy facilitates the internal and external networking required in open innovations. However, individualized incentives do not suffice to motivate, mobilize and direct the collaboration and collective effort needed to ensure succ...

Transnational practices in communities of task and communities of learning

This article explores situated practices in communities that provide transnational services. Communities of practice generally focus on reinforcing local ties. Our study identifies two distinctive but interdependent communities of practice that are transnational and virtual: one community consists of employees who share work and tasks, labeled communities of task; the other consists of employees who jointly share and create knowledge, labeled communities of learning. We extend the existing community of practice literature by providing a heterogeneous understanding of the different types of situated practices, claiming that the situated practices of sharing work and sharing knowledge stem from the type of participation within the communities, either through service relays or virtual servicing. Empirical data in this study were collected from two transnational professional service firms. Our study shows that both types of communities benefit from managerial facilitation, even though one community type is more formal and the other is informal.

INNOVATION MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN PRODUCTION-INTENSIVE SERVICE FIRMS

This paper posits that innovation management practices are contingent upon the type of industry, and examines the innovation management practices in a distinctive set of service firms: production-intensive service firms. Production-intensive services are standardised services produced at a large scale. These services have received little attention from prior comprehensive qualitative innovation management practices research. The examination in this paper is based on in-depth interviews with 21 key-employees in five large Scandinavian production-intensive service firms. The results revealed a number of innovation management practices specific to production-intensive service firms in the four dimensions of strategy and culture, front end of innovation and portfolio management, development process, as well as intellectual and organisational resources. The findings expose that production-intensive service firms are less likely to have an explicit innovation strategy and they are unlikely to measure the strategic impact of innovation activities. Furthermore, the innovation processes in production-intensive service firms tend to be flexible, although formal descriptions exist. The findings extend knowledge on innovation management practices research and provide useful lessons and implications for managers who seek to develop new production-intensive services. The findings also demonstrate that there is a need to acknowledge a contingent view of innovation management practices that are receptive to the type of context the innovation occur in.

Characteristics of Intrapreneurs in Scale-Intensive Service Firms

This empirical paper explores the work of employees in charge of service innovation when firms develop and launch new scale-intensive services by addressing two re- search questions: i) How do employees responsible for service innovation work? and ii) what are the related managerial implications when developing and launching new scale-intensive services? To this end, 21 qualitative, in-depth interviews were con- ducted with employees in five large scale-intensive service firms. The findings suggest that the involvement of internal professionals is an asset when new scale-intensive services are developed, and that internal professionals act as intrapreneurs when they are involved in the development of radically new scale-intensive services. This paper integrates understanding from the innovation management literature with knowledge of professionals from extant literature on professional service firms since we find that professionals in scale-intensive firms act as intrapreneurs. Thus, this pa- per extends the theory on determinants of innovation in scale-intensive service firms, blending insights from both findings and theory.

Transnational project work: practices creating knowing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of how practices creating knowing can be enabled in project work.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on an exploratory, in‐depth case study of an international professional service firm (IPSF) and local and transnational project work to deliver services. Project work is investigated through a practice approach.Findings – In transnational project work, three knowing practices are identified – networking, doing, and sorting – and three practices of creating new knowing – finding, learning, and probing.Research limitations/implications – Although only one organization was studied, the research presented shows that knowledge creation and project work benefit from a practice perspective to highlight the enacted aspects of knowing and new knowing.Practical implications – The findings show that different project phases enable the necessary knowing and/or new knowing practices through a differentiated focus on social interactio...

EXPLORING NEW SERVICE PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

Most research on the management of innovation portfolios has focused on new product portfolios, whereas the management of new service portfolios has not been researched correspondingly. This paper addresses this literature gap by exploring portfolio management of New Service Development (NSD) activities empirically. The paper applies a qualitative research design, where data was collected in 52 in-depth interviews with managers and employees involved with NSD. The study finds that the portfolio management activities and processes were carried out in parallel with the NSD process, and that the most important stakeholders in the NSD portfolio management organization were top managers not involved in the daily NSD operations. Findings reveal that the firms used a great variety of criteria when making portfolio decisions. However, contrary to prescriptions based on new product development research, the decision process exposed for NSD was to a limited degree assisted by explicit portfolio management tools. We explicate our findings in five propositions.

Spinning Them Off : Entrepreneuring practices in Corporate Spin-Offs

This paper focuses on the practices between parent and child firms in corporate spinoffs. We uncover the enacted aspects of knowledge, called knowing, through theories from seven cases of incumbent-backed spin-offs and find that the management of the parent firms are highly involved in the spin-offs. The practices associated with spinning off are solving problems, involving multidisciplinary expertise and entrepreneuring management at the parent firm. We contribute to the spin-off literature by discussing the knowledge required for successfully spinning off child firms and to practice theory by empirically uncovering the practical understanding involved in the origin and perpetuation of an organization.

Supplying Spin-Offs: Collaboration Practices in the Perpetuation of an Organizaton

This paper focuses on the collaboration practices between spin-offs and their customers and suppliers. With empirical material from seven cases of incumbent-backed spin-offs, we find that suppliers are highly involved in the development of the innovation that spin-offs are based upon and specifically, the practices of understanding customers, identifying a market gap and collaborating with suppliers. We contribute to the spin-off literature by revealing which activities are at play for successful spin-offs, and we contribute to practice theory by empirically uncovering the general understandings in the perpetuation of an organization and the nets between the spin-offs and their suppliers.