Søren Bolvig Poulsen

User-driven Innovation in a Construction Material Supply Network

Purpose – User‐driven innovation (UDI) has been proven to successfully increase the value of products and services in single companies with direct linkages to the end‐user. The construction material industry often has no direct linkages to the end‐user, due to supply networks through builder merchants. Moreover, a lack of user knowledge is common in such networks, and companies rarely have explicit knowledge on how their products and services are in fact used and valued by their end‐users. Thus, it is clear that UDI is not directly applicable to the construction material industry without further developments. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that a network perspective is essential when adapting and implementing UDI in the construction material industry and to let the advantages of doing so surface.Design/methodology/approach – The research design includes a number of different approaches and types of interaction between the researchers and industry. Additionally, an extensive literature ...

Embodied design thinking: a phenomenological perspective

The aim of the article is to demonstrate, discuss and substantiate the embodiment of design thinking: what role does the body play in relation to engaging in design interaction and the generating of ideas? In order to discuss this question, we draw on the phenomenological philosophy of Merleau-Ponty and his concept of the lived body. The phenomenological perspective is related to a single case study in which three designers collaborate during a workshop as they discuss ethnographic video material with the aim of generating new ideas. Through an analysis of their interaction it is argued that the embodied engagement of the designers plays a fundamental role both in understanding the problem at hand and in opening up new ideas leading to a new design solution. The verbal interaction constantly finds its meaning in reference to a tacit level of embodiment, which remains unspoken. The verbal interaction is also integrated into the designers tacit use of items in the surroundings. Consequently, the paper concludes that design thinking cannot be understood if we are only attentive to verbalised interaction, but design thinking relies on a more complex and multidimensional interaction, which is based on the pre-linguistic engaged perspective of the lived body.

Enablers of Innovation in the Construction Material Industry

The construction material industry is often acknowledged as slightly more innovative than the overall construction industry and could hence serve as a valuable learning place for how innovation could flourish in the construction industry. Construction is viewed as network or supply chain based, which creates a strong interdependence between the different supply network partners and can be seen as a hindrance for innovation. Innovation models must embrace such a contemporary business structures, where competition often takes place between supply chains rather than between individual companies. By exploring case-based innovation processes the purpose is to discover enablers of innovation in the construction material industry. The research design is based on explorative case studies. By applying case study as method, the research is drawn towards inductive research, where we investigate patterns suitable for generalization on enablers for innovation. In total, six cases of successful innovation are investigated. The conclusion of this research validates that open innovation in a network approach is a precondition for a successful innovation journey in the construction industry. In addition, it was found that different approaches for facilitating this journey exists, based on company characteristics. This paper adds to the body of knowledge on how to succeed with innovation in the construction industry. The increased awareness of an open and cooperative approach to innovation is of value both theoretical and practical.

Is Design a Plus?: A dilemma of disciplines when implementing design into academic education

Abstract Universities are increasingly implementing design into their education programmes across the humanities, social science, natural sciences and business schools. Through design, it can therefore be argued that academic education is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, implementing design along with the given academic discipline’s traditional curriculum. With design moving into other disciplines and schools of thought, the question arises as to what types of knowledge contribution can be identified and how can the established schools of thought comprehend a new type of knowledge contribution. In this paper, we will discuss an epistemological dilemma that occurred when implementing design into established humanistic education at Aalborg University, which is a problems-based learning (PBL) university. From our empirical observations, having implemented design into the humanistic curriculum, a series of educational dilemmas arose. We therefore pose, and later discuss, the following question: Can interdisciplinary universities with any fair claim expect their students to both create a constructive design contribution as well as a ‘classic’ academic contribution – or should the constructive design itself be acknowledged as a knowledge contribution?

Animating the ethical demand: exploring user dispositions in industry innovation cases through animation-based sketching

This paper addresses the challenge of attaining ethical user stances during the design process of products and services and proposes animation-based sketching as a design method, which supports elaborating and examining different ethical stances towards the user. The discussion is qualified by an empirical study of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in a Triple Helix constellation. Using a three-week long innovation workshop, UCrAc, involving 16 Danish companies and organisations and 142 students as empirical data, we discuss how animation-based sketching can explore not yet existing user dispositions, as well as create an incentive for ethical conduct in development and innovation processes. The ethical fulcrum evolves around Løgstrups Ethical Demand and his notion of spontaneous life manifestations. From this, three ethical stances are developed; apathy, sympathy and empathy. By exploring both apathetic and sympathetic views, the ethical reflections are more nuanced as a result of actually seeing the user experience simulated through different user dispositions. Exploring the three ethical stances by visualising real use cases with the technologies simulated as already being implemented makes the life manifestations of the users in context visible. We present and discuss how animation-based sketching can support the elaboration and examination of different ethical stances towards the user in the product and service development process. Finally we present a framework for creating narrative representations of emerging technology use cases, which invite to reflection upon the ethics of the user experience.