Lawrence Dooley

University‐industry collaboration

Purpose – The paper aims to identify the requisite attributes and organisation to be displayed by a research university in order to engage successfully in collaborative research with industry partners.Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual framework contrasts the traditional public funding model against the requirements of the “triple helix” model of government‐university‐industry research funding. The framework supports the exploration of a case study of a long‐standing and successful joint research partnership, the Dundee‐Kinases Consortium, which links a world‐class life sciences research centre and a group of global pharmaceutical companies.Research limitations/implications – The case study provides a starting point, and additional case examinations will confirm the role of resource competences and organisational capabilities in facilitating performance by way of knowledge generation and transfer between partners.Findings – The design and leadership of the consortium achieves vital performance o...

Multiple project management: a modern competitive necessity

Purpose – The paper aims to examine the theory of project and multiple project management and develop a framework tool to facilitate the management of a portfolio of multiple projects across an organisation and enhance the overall effectiveness of the process.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology adopted in this paper was first, to undertake a literature survey of the area and to distil the key elements affecting the management of multiple projects within organisations. A number of interrelated tools to support effective management are then developed and applied to a mall to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) to validate their applicability.Findings – The paper highlights that greater organisational efficiency and less conflict can be achieved through greater structure and understanding of the intricacies of managing multiple projects.Practical implications – Organisations can reduce the pressure imposed on staff as a result of the matrix structure by clearer deployment of strategies to projects and in...

Managing Within Distributed Innovation Networks

Business competitiveness and sustainability depends on the effective management of innovation. To be effective, innovation needs to take place within every area of an organisation and by association within organisational networks that include key suppliers, customers and other strategic partners. Distributed innovation management is the process of managing innovation both within and across networks of organisations that have come together to co-design, co-produce and co-service the needs of customers. As innovation collaboration spreads outside the reporting structures of any one organisation, its management faces new challenges that must be addressed if collaboration is to be successful. This paper presents a discussion on the relational capabilities that need to be nurtured if distributed innovation management is to occur. It introduces an integrated framework and tools to support innovation from the individual employees to the distributed network level. Finally, it presents a case study of distributed innovation between a consortium of six organisations within the biotechnology area.

Virtual team environment for collaborative research projects

Large amounts of money are spent all over the world on R&D, in order to ensure future sustainability. However, much of this research fails to meet its full potential. These R&D projects are often costly and inefficient due to problems associated with working in a team environment, involving members from different geographical regions. One of the main limiting factors that reduce the potential output of this type of project is the poor communication, knowledge sharing and learning between members of the virtual team. In this context, collaboration and virtual team management are key issues that need to be addressed by todays innovation projects. This paper presents a literature review developed on the concept of collaboration between individuals working in a team and the advantages and requirements of virtual teams. It also presents a possible solution for the development of a virtual team environment that fosters better learning and innovation and ensures a good collaboration between individuals working in an innovation project.

Developing a software infrastructure to support systemic innovation through effective management

Abstract Organisations are constantly adapting and innovating their systems in order to compete. Given current turbulence of the global market, together with constant technological developments, pressure for modern organisations to innovate their systems is constantly increasing. Despite the obvious importance of systems innovation to continued organisational existence, research suggests that these innovative efforts are ineffectively managed, cumulating in over half failing to achieve their goals. Given this reality, there exists a need for an infrastructure that integrates the core elements of systems innovation to allow its effective management. The objective of this paper is to introduce a software system that supports the operation of the systems innovation process through the provision of such an infrastructure for its effective management. This paper is the cumulation of substantial research and the framework presented in Section 2 has been the focus of a number of publications. Consequently the material in Section 2 is presented as background to the development of the Systems Innovation Management software. The paper concentrates on the process pursued during the design of the software to ensure a strong correlation with the requirements of systems innovation management.

Exploring Social Network Dynamics Driving Knowledge Management for Innovation

It is accepted that knowledge and competencies are key drivers of innovation. Knowledge is a key resource to manage if innovative efforts are to succeed. Despite this, it is noted that the process is intricate, complex, and difficult to manage. To facilitate understanding and management of this process, in-depth studies into the roles of network actors, implications of network characteristics over time, and greater understanding of interaction effects is required. This paper analyzes how a social network perspective can inform the key stages of a knowledge management for innovation process and conducts an exploration of this process on three university–industry knowledge networks. The set of findings reflect the evolution of the structural, relational, and cognitive social capital components and identify the most valuable characteristics relevant at each phase of the innovation process.

Knowledge Sharing in a Collaborative Networked Environment

Knowledge is a key resource that must be managed within organisations and across collaborative enterprise networks. In particular, the two major challenges that such organisations face are ensuring that they have the appropriate knowledge to support their operations and ensuring that they optimise these knowledge resources available to them. In recent years, researchers, consultants and industrialists have developed approaches in an attempt to address these requirements. Most of these approaches have been technology oriented. In other words, the implementation of information technology systems is seen as the solution to enterprise knowledge management problems. However, research indicates that organisations are still failing to convert individual skills and competencies into tangible products and services. Knowledge management is an emerging discipline and it is still not very well understood or managed in industry. Consequently, new knowledge initiatives are not exploited to their full potential. In other words, companies are not reaping the full benefits of knowledge management projects. This paper explores the key constituents to managing knowledge and examines the main problems with sharing knowledge across teams and organisational boundaries. Findings from a qualitative study suggest that the key problems to managing knowledge across a collaborative network are person centric and consequently managers should focus their efforts on improving critical areas such as motivation and trust as well as people oriented methods and tools.

Systems innovation manager

Each year organizations spend a significant amount of money developing new products and processes in an effort to satisfy customer demands and manufacture high-quality products efficiently. Both development processes - product and process, are complex, resource intensive and thrive on innovation. They demand a variety of skills and resources, but in particular, participation among all staff in generating ideas, managing projects and implementing change. There are currently a number of software tools and methods that facilitate change in a systems environment. These range from complex modelling tools to information management tools. The tools have been developed around paradigms, e.g. world class manufacturing, total quality management and business process reengineering. They are often complex, requiring the efforts of skilled designers and managers. Current thinking within a systems environment reflects a more participative and less specialist approach to managing innovation and change. There is a need to create compromise between detailed project engineering and good management practice. This paper introduces a new paradigm centred on good management practice, and identifies the critical issues in systems innovation and change. The paradigm is articulated through a series of change levers and a methodology that guides managers and designers. It is supported by a series of software tools that together bring innovation management to life within the industrial organization.

Interorganizational innovation across geographic and cognitive boundaries: does firm size matter?

A key trend of recent literature is the increased use of interorganizational relationships to achieve organizational objectives. While the phenomenon of collaborative innovation has attracted significant academic interest in recent years, little research has been undertaken to examine how widespread the collaborative phenomenon is relative to organizational size or the diversity of partner organizations being leveraged for collaborative innovation activity. Consequently, this paper seeks to address two research questions. Firstly, the extent to which collaborative innovation is occurring within different sized firms that are research and development active, and secondly, are these different sized firms engaging in collaborative innovation activities with different types of partner organization. The results support earlier studies regarding the increasing practice by industry leveraging interorganizational collaborations in order to support innovation. Findings highlight that large‐scale firms are more active than SMEs in leveraging external resources for innovation and that small‐sized firms are the firm category least active in the practice. In addition, findings indicate that when small and medium‐ sized enterprises (SMEs) are collaborating, they leverage both vertical and horizontal partner linkages but that the sector is constrained by geographic distance in terms of the diversity of its collaborating partners.

Collaborative information system for university-based research institutes

University-based research is recognised as an increasingly important factor for economic growth. One of the mechanisms for improving university research is to support the collaboration between research teams. Information systems that support collaboration have gained widespread application in industry in recent years. They offer organisations various facilities for managing, sharing and documenting mission-critical information. Two distinct types of systems have evolved – unstructured collaborative information systems and structured collaborative information systems. This paper presents the background to the development of a structured collaborative information system, designed to help manage information in a university-based research institute, and presents a detailed case study of the system in use.