Tua Björklund

Enhancing creative knowledge-work: Challenges and points of leverage

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore critical success factors in knowledge‐intensive creative project work, using product development as an example field.Design/methodology/approach – Critical‐incident based in‐depth interviews of 11 product development experts (chosen based on their recommendations and length of experience) were carried out. The results were categorized into thematic classes of critical factors.Findings – Most challenges are embedded in the context of the product development projects. Collaboration and cognitive‐motivational factors such as trust, attitude, and intrinsic motivation‐related issues formed the most common classes of discovered critical factors behind product development project success, along with the mediating categories of goal and autonomy‐related factors. Furthermore, product development specific skills or knowledge accounted only for a small minority of the identified factors.Practical implications – The most pressing learning objective becomes not updatin...

Understanding idea advancement efforts in innovation through proactive behavior

Purpose – Innovations lie at the heart of both entrepreneurship and marketing. While research has long focused on the idea generation phase at the beginning of the innovation process, ideas need to subsequently be realized through efforts in idea development and implementation. This paper aims to study the antecedents and practices of idea advancement behavior. Design/methodology/approach – Seven product developers of an international company were interviewed in-depth based on a critical incident technique. Findings – Idea advancement behavior was found to be distributed in time and between people, pervasive in the development process. Antecedents for efforts were identified at personal, interpersonal and work organization levels. Although personal antecedents were most numerous, interpersonal and work organization antecedents distinguished successful and unsuccessful efforts. Key idea advancement behaviors were centered on the inclusion of others and communication channel choices. Research limitations/im...

Adapting to the changing needs of managing innovative projects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the changes in managerial activities and challenges at different phases of innovative projects. Design/methodology/approach – Six NPD project managers were interviewed in three different project phases in a qualitative, longitudinal design. The resulting 18 semi-structured face-to-face interviews were content analyzed and categorized according to thematic similarity. Findings – Altogether 19 categories describing managerial concerns in managing innovative projects were recognized. Task-oriented, rather than people-oriented, approaches were dominant throughout the projects, although the reported concerns clearly varied at each phase. The early development phase emerged as a transition point, where managers had to transform their roles, reported activities decreased, and reported challenges increased. Research limitations/implications – Although based on a small number of participants in a single setting, the results highlight the need for longitudinal studi...

Generating resources through co-evolution of entrepreneurs and ecosystems

Purpose The emerging perspectives of entrepreneurial ecosystems, bricolage and effectuation highlight the interaction between the entrepreneur and the surrounding community, and its potential for creative resource acquisition and utilization. However, empirical work on how this process actually unfolds remains scarce. This paper aims to study the interaction between the opportunity construction process and the development of resources in the surrounding ecosystem. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a qualitative analysis of the extreme case of Aalto Entrepreneurship Society (Aaltoes), a newly founded organization successfully promoting entrepreneurship within a university merger with virtually no resources, based on interviews of six key contributors and four stakeholder organizations. Findings The opportunity construction process both supported and was supported by two key resource generating mechanisms. Formulating and opportunistically reformulating the agenda for increasing potential synergy laid the groundwork for mutual benefit. Proactive concretization enhanced both initial resource allocation and sustaining input to the process through offering tangible instances of specific opportunities and feedback. Research limitations/implications Although based on a single case study in a university setting, proactive concretization emerges as a promising direction for further investigations of the benefits and dynamics of entrepreneur–ecosystem interaction in the opportunity construction process. Practical implications Intentionally creating beneficial entrepreneur–ecosystem interaction and teaching proactive concretization becomes a key goal for educators of entrepreneurship. Originality/value The paper extends an understanding of creative resource generation and utilization in the opportunity construction process. The role of proactive concretization was emphasized in the interaction of the entrepreneur and the ecosystem, creating virtuous spirals of entrepreneurial activity.

Developing as a teacher in the fields of science and technology

In universities, development as a teacher may be contradicted with developing as a researcher. Most previous studies have investigated pedagogical development merely as a result of pedagogical training and ignored the dual teacher-researcher identity. This study examines what kind of meaningful experiences are perceived to have triggered and influenced the process of developing as a teacher in the fields of science and technology. The data were gathered by interviewing 10 academics who had participated in a pedagogical training offered by a Finnish technical university between 1999 and 2009. Based on a narrative analysis utilizing dimensions of transformative learning, the results highlight the influence of the working environment and experiences, and imply that teacher development process in the fields of science and technology can be better understood in terms of becoming a teacher, rather than as a continual, conscious development process. The resulting teacher-researcher identity provides a basis for pedagogical development.

Perceived managerial functions in the front-end phase of innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore managerial functions and related activities of inexperienced project managers in the front-end of the innovation (FEI) process. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 15 student project managers were interviewed while they were engaged in the front-end phase of their respective eight-month projects. In total, 757 interview transcript segments on their perceptions of managerial functions were categorized based on thematic similarity of content. Findings – Four major managerial functions emerged: providing structural support, coordinating and acting as a link, empowering the team, and encouraging and providing social support. Out of these, traditional task-oriented managerial functions were emphasized. Research limitations/implications – Although limited by the small amount of participants in a university setting, the results suggest that task-oriented managerial functions are dominant even in the FEI for inexperienced project managers. More research is nee...

A Sino-Finnish Initiative for Experimental Teaching Practices Using the Design Factory Pedagogical Platform.

The paper presents a Sino-Finnish teaching initiative, including the design and experiences of a series of pedagogical workshops implemented at the Aalto-Tongji Design Factory (DF), Shanghai, China, and the experimentation plans collected from the 54 attending professors and teachers. The workshops aimed to encourage trying out interdisciplinary hands-on teaching, and enable teachers to implement their ideas for teaching development utilising the DF pedagogical platform. The majority of the participants planned teaching experimentations aiming at enhancing student understanding of curricula through various group exercises utilising concrete artefacts, but found their implementation within established practices quite challenging, highlighting the challenges of transforming strategic collaboration into grass-root activity. However, the workshops ignited widespread interest in a continuum of collaboration in teaching development, and the DF has since acted as a hub for the implementation of subsequent internationalisation efforts of the two universities, including establishing a dual-degree programme.

The impact of leadership, management and power in an international knowledge-intensive organization

The shift to knowledge economies and the boom of knowledge-intensive organizations with their expert employees pose new challenges for leadership and management of development work. What is the appropriate amount and form of managerial control that is needed in knowledge-intensive development work? This paper focuses on illuminating the kind of leadership and management efforts that either support or hinder advancing development projects. The results highlight the paradoxical role of power and control, and reveal that employees need freedom and yet strong guidance and managerial commitment to develop work in order to stay motivated. Implications for leading knowledge-intensive development are discussed.