HÖG-PRESTERANDE INNOVATIONSTEAM

HÖG-PRESTERANDE INNOVATIONSTEAM – steg för steg BY MIKAEL JOHNSSON (LIBER, 2018)

The high performance innovation team – step by step (in Swedish).

1. WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT

One of the most amazing developments of modern and post modern world is how a small nation like Sweden with, today, just about 10 million persons, has hade a tremendous impact in our world and daily life. From Nobel to IKEA, Skype to Gretha Thunberg and more, we have a small population culture with great global impact. No doubt, a Swedish way to innovate and to innovation exists. Contributing tog this way of life there is a cultural self reflection. It manifests itself in works that give momentum and acceleration to innovative processes. This book, focussing on the construction of highly effective  innovation team, is one of these works.

Hög-presterande Innovationsteam transforms research results on innovation management into the practical steps needed to establish an innovation team in an organization. These are steps to creating and to increase the innovation performance of the team. This book must be read as a step by step manual in the building of the team involved with an organization’s innovation process. It gives steps which can be concretely tried and tested.

2. HOW DID HE DO IT?

Johnsson takes the reader through a discussion on the necessary requirements for the innovative work. This is standard knowledge and can be found in many sources. But he uses the discussion to trace a path into how the reader may construct a highly effective innovation team, based on well proven and established requirements. Some key factors facilitate the management of innovation. These include the structure of the organization where the innovation team is inserted and the relationship between the innovation process and the team.

Johnsson considers five steps, which, with afterthought, most readers who are members of innovation focussed organizations, may notice that they are very much in front of us all. But the obvious only becomes so after it has been spoken of.

The first step is to gain and guarantee the support and engagement of the organization’s leadership. If the leadership can not understand the relevance of innovation and its processes, very little will be achieved. The leadership may talk much about and with innovation related words, but it must be verified whether those words are translated into action and allocation of resources. If you feel the organization has a leadership which fails in these, it may not be worth your investment. The alternative is to change the leadership.

Second, it is important to have a clear view and definition of who is facilitating the construction of the team. The facilitator will also identify the convener of the innovation meetings. From my reading, the facilitator is best when he / she is an external person to the organization, while the convener may be, or will become, internal to the organization. The convener must be a person who inspires the team while, at the same time, gives energy and allows the team to drive the innovation process forward.

Third, it is the convener who, with sufficient time and resources, will prepare the meetings. The convener will make sure that innovation actions will not be perceived as something extra and  separated from the organization’s life and a dead weight to daily activities.

The fourth step is very critical. The convener must have the capacity, the vision and enough resources to build the team and keep it going. The convener must have also the capacity and means to bring into the team individuals who are needed, but may not have experience with innovation work. This is more significant than appears at first. Not all that are needed in a team may realize, at first, that this so.

Once the team is assembled, the convener must demonstrate the capacity to explain to the team what innovation is and what the innovation process is. Since the members of the innovation team may come from several units within the larger organization, the convener must also have the skills to carry out a constructive dialogue with unit managers.

Finally a well organized kick off is key to motivate the team. It sets the tempo and initial energy for individual team members. The kick off signals to the organization that the team is active and on the move.

3. HOW YOU CAN USE THIS BOOK

The high performance innovation team – step by step offers you what is in the title. As Johnsson indicates, one can start with a small effort, gradually to build the skills on how to start and manage the effective and high performance innovation team. This is not a book to only read and understand. It is the use of the steps, including failures, that make the book interesting. Try the steps and when it does not work, go back to the reading to bring in your own solutions to emerging and de facto issues.

4. MY PITCH

While this is a hands on, step by step, manual on how to create and drive a high performance innovation team, it would gain much from the network and transaction cost perspective. This is particularly true when considering that cost reduction and increase in gains may be a key argument to mobilize the organization’s leadership into embracing innovation processes. This is a must. Innovation has become a buzz word with the danger of entering the discourse and debate but not translating into result oriented organizational actions.

The network and transaction cost approach is also of relevance within the team. The role of the facilitator and certainly of the convener is to reduce transaction costs within the team. Here it is very clear that costs are definitely not only pecuniary. The relationships within the team are crucial to high performance in innovation.

5. WHAT IS NEXT?

I recommend trying the approach here suggested. Even in a small scale, it has great potential for contributing to organizational results.

The great drawback of this book is the language. As a all works written in minority languages, Swedish in this case, it reaches only a small audience. A version in Chinese, English or Portuguese, would be most welcomed. These are three very large and avoid book markets. It is ironic that the book is printed in China.

6. WHERE TO FIND IT?

Hög-Presterande Innovationsteam – steg för steg (The high performance innovation team – step by step, in Swedish) by Mikael Johnsson (Stockholm, Sweden: Liber, 2018). ISBN: 978-91-47-12279-0 https://www.liber.se/produkt/hogpresterande-innovationsteam-22314

7. HOW MANY CABRAL POINTS FOR THIS BOOK?

In a scale from 0 to 10, where ten is the absolute best, Hög-Presterande Innovationsteam

(The high performance innovation team – step by step,  Swedish) by Mikael Johnsson receives 8.0.

Reviewed by Regis Cabral, 11 January 2020.

THE RISE TO MARKET LEADERSHIP. NEW LEADING FIRMS FROM EMERGING COUNTRIES BY FRANCO MALERBA, SUNIL MANI and PAMELA ADAMS

THE RISE TO MARKET LEADERSHIP. NEW LEADING FIRMS FROM EMERGING COUNTRIES BY FRANCO MALERBA, SUNIL MANI and PAMELA ADAMS (ELGAR, 2017)

1. WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT
BRICS countries have taken over the global market in a variety of services, manufacturing and production industries. Governmental actions and policies have been instrumental and crucial in this process, allowing for an interplay between firms and the innovation systems. The articles in this book cover ICT, pharmaceutical and automotive case studies in Brazil, India and China. This book is even more interesting now, that a new Brazilian government has dropped most of the policies to support innovation, research and education, making the country loose its position in the global economy. Thus the authors’ conclusions on the importance of governmental action are reinforced by developments in 2019.

2. HOW DID THEY DO IT?
Authors in this collection have a background in the countries they study. Thus the book is illuminated by local insights which inform and guide theories and approaches of global validity, for instance national and sectoral innovation systems. The papers cover three main BRICS countries, Brazil, India and China and three main industries, pharmaceutical, automotive and ICT.
There is an unbalance in their approach, though, which makes it difficult a comparative approach. For India the three industrial fields are covered. But this is not the case for China, where ICT is missing. And neither is the case for Brazil where the pharmaceutical sector is missing. Moreover a very important field for the three countries, aerospace, is absent. The Chinese aerospace program, with astronauts and space stations,  the Indian aerospace with missions to the Moon and to Mars, and the Brazilian aerospace with Embraer, are of gigantic importance and global game changers.  These weaknesses may create issues with the authors’ conclusions and results.

3. HOW YOU CAN USE THIS BOOK
Malerba, Mani and Adams book is very useful. It describes, illustrates and analyses an interplay between firms’ innovation and governmental promotion and support of national and regions innovation systems. Even if the conclusions suffer from the lack of balance in the book, they are still valid, as the recent developments in Brazil demonstrate.
As such, this book should circulate beyond the study, research and academic communities. It is a more than useful reading and background material for policy makers. If there was any doubt that government matters, that governmental policies make a difference, they are dispelled by this book. The countries studied indicate that, given the different historical trajectory of each country, the national policies will be tailored differently. But they will still need to be there.

4. MY PITCH
The interplay between firms and national and sectoral systems of innovation have shaped how BRICS firms have successfully globalized. The articles on Brazil, India and China are solid case studies illustrating this. The chapters’ authors describe how founders of firms, entrepreneurs, developed existing networks to expand beyond the national markets to become key global players.
For the authors, innovation is taken as the processes, products and services developed by entrepreneurs. They provide data that clearly indicates how entrepreneus, supported by their governmental policies, articulate their networks to expand nationally and gain international markets. These networks could be based on local political connections, as was the case in China, or the immigrant networks and student links as was the case of Brazil. One reads explicitly and in between the lines, how entrepreneurs reduce their transaction costs to achieve their results. As such this book provided relevant data and analysis that support my own approach to innovation, ”the new element introduced in a network which reduces the transaction costs, or increase the value of transactions, between at least two nodes in the network.” As more detailed network analysis, including mapping the connections between nodes would increase the value of the studies here presented. In particular the automotive and the ICT Brazilian studies, which as the studies on India and China are of high quality, are very useful from and in this perspective.

5. WHAT IS NEXT?
There is no doubt that policy makers must read this book, particularly in line with the obvious consequences of the decisions of the current Brazilian government. So, open policy making seminars for Latin Americans based on this book could be an interesting follow up.
Moreover, the book calls for complementary research, as it is off balance. It is difficult to carry out comparative research and reach to conclusions when not all the three industries covered are represented for the three countries. Furthermore, a section on the aerospace industry would be of most interest since it is a major player in the three countries.
A network approach to innovation should also be considered, particularly given that the contributors describe quite well innovation networks in the three countries considered.

6. WHERE TO FIND IT?
The Rise to Market Leadership. New Leading Firms from Emerging Countries. Edited by Franco Malerba, Professor of Applied Economics, Department of Management and Technology and President of ICRIOS, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy; Sunil Mani, Director and Professor, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, Kerala, Indi;  and Pamela Adams, Associate Professor of Management, The Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, US (Cheltenhamn, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2017). ISBN: 978 1 78347 678 7
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/the-rise-to-market-leadership

7. HOW MANY CABRAL POINTS FOR THIS BOOK?
In a scale from 0 to 10, where ten is the absolute best,  The Rise to Market Leadership. New Leading Firms from Emerging Countries by Malerba, Mani and Adams receives 7.0.
Review by Regis Cabral, 04 July 2019

RESEARCH HANDBOOK OF INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY FOR MARKETING MANAGEMENT BY ERIC SHIU

RESEARCH HANDBOOK OF INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY FOR MARKETING MANAGEMENT BY ERIC SHIU (ELGAR, 2017)

1. WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT
The connection between innovation and creativity has been taken for granted. Innovation and Creativity for Marketing Management looks into the nature of this connection and its implications. How and when it happens have puzzled the research community and innovation practitioners. There are still those who confuse innovation, invention and creativity. Thus, Shiu’s collection of articles is timely and it will continue to be so for a long while. The book brings together works from both fields, backed by cases and discussions, illuminating how to manage creativity for innovation in marketing.

2. HOW DID THEY DO IT?
Authors in this collection have a global background, although their affiliations are mostly EU based. The papers cover several fields where creativity and innovation are central components: product design, service industry and music in advertisement among others. In addition the authors cover consumer role, strategy, organization, resistance and the role of personality in creativity.

3. HOW YOU CAN USE THIS BOOK
It is clear that Shiu’s book is an useful reading for managers who realize that, without creativity there is no innovation. It also opens the path for further research about the interfaces between creativity and innovation, a non trivial subject. So, it is a must reading for graduate students looking for new paths. We do have a critical issue, for without creativity, there is no innovation. Societies, cultures and companies that restrict creativity will not be competitive in a world economy which is driven by innovation. Political and social systems that do not allow individuals, groups and companies to be creative are risking their own future, their dynamic stability and their own well being. So this book is good reading for those interested in background information on political and social developments. Furthermore, we need to quantify the relationships between innovation and creativity. While this book does not address this issue, its articles provide inspiration in our efforts to identify these variables for the functions liking the two processes.

4. MY PITCH
Creativity is not innovation, but without creativity there is no innovation. At the same time, innovations may motivate, inspire and generate the settings where creativity flourishes.
From my perspective, which is not the authors’, innovation is the new element introduced in a network which reduces the transaction costs, or increases the value of transactions, between at least two nodes in the network. So, within this perspective, what is creativity? Consider that the new element must come from somewhere, from one of the nodes in the network. This node may be an individual, a group, a company, or a culture. The new element is a function of several variables, one of which is creativity. In a simple case I consider creativity as behaving like a delta function. When it does not exist, or does not reach a certain level, its value is zero – nothing happens despite other events in the network. It is from this perspective that I read the papers in this handbook collection.
The article by Klausen, ”What is innovation?” would certainly have gained if author would have taken my approach. Klausen’s definition, ”innovation occurs if and only if there is an intentional production of something which is new and fairly useful (to a novel degree) to a person or (preferably) a larger group” (p. 27) can be consider a particular case of the transaction cost – network approach. His discussion about what is and what is not innovation, as well as on the relationship between innovation and creativity, is very useful. As Klausen points out, innovation is related to what is new, including as we look into the origin of the word.
Shiu’s paper on product design innovation is informed by field work in the UK. It identifies four variables of relevance: functionality, sustainability, aesthetics and self-identity with a not straightforward trade offs between them. Functionality is favored by consumers.
Rasulzada points out that there are plenty of myths about creativity. Some elements are true. For instance trust and safety may encourage creativity. More important, it is possible to have an organizational structure which will promote creativity. ”Being creative is … to prefer the unsafe” ( p. 75). For Tran, the customer can play a crucial role in innovation. Co-innovation has received increased attention by the research community, but more empirical work is needed. Customers have evolved from buyers in the 1970s to co-creators of value after 2000.
Salari’s piece is of great interest to me, given my view of creativity with a kind of delta function behavior. Culture, both at the broader level and at the company and family levels, is fundamental in the support or the resistance to innovation. A framework is presented but the article is too short. It would really need further development to fit a handbook collection. Hoff and Carlsson’s is a more solid piece, discussing the influences of personality in creativity. As I read it, I can only think that, depending on the person, the needed level of the delta function is never reached. But why or why not? In this respect the table on Goldberg’s big five factors is very informative (p. 171). The article discusses several approaches and insists on the need to combine them in our support to Leaders and managers who want to promote creativity in their organizations.
Tan takes a direct approach and considers how meditation can be a factor in the management of creativity. Meditation, chan or zen is to reach the middle ground in the management towards happiness. But chan is not zen, the meaning differences lost in translation due to the poverty of the English language, as our same word is use for both meanings. Tan is inspired by the theory to convert creativity, which expands on both meanings. Tan’s point of departure is the Hu’s chan – Suzuki’s zen debate. So, should management consider the staff’s full life to promote creativity? How do we consider this in a world where work is considered an outsider to life’s necessity of survival? ”The practice of chan / zen for social engagement is about creative synthesis of cultural practices (for example, customs and traditions) and a modernized way of managing life of the collection” (p. 219).
In all the chapters, the authors struggle with the problem of circularity in definitions. How to discuss innovation without using the word innovation? But it is clear , without creativity there is no innovation, and this book solidly argued for this, despite the non-linearity of the relationship.

5. WHAT IS NEXT?
As long as the debate on the relationship between innovation and creativity is not closed, this book is an important reading. Thus, it provides inspiration for research. Some article should be further expanded, and this may be carried out by other authors. The book raises the very important issue of the limitations of the English language as an operational language for reporting on research and its results. If we are going to continue to use English, further words need to be imported. The handbook also inspired our search for the variables that are relevant as inputs to the function describing the relationship between innovation and creativity.

6. WHERE TO FIND IT?
Research Handbook of Innovation and Creativity for Marketing Management
Edited by Eric Shiu, Director of Education, Department of Marketing, University of Birmingham, UK  (Cheltenhamn, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2017). ISBN: 9780857937940
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/research-handbook-of-innovation-and-creativity-for-marketing-management
7. HOW MANY CABRAL POINTS FOR THIS BOOK?
In a scale from 0 to 10, where ten is the absolute best,  Research Handbook of Innovation and Creativity for Marketing Management by Shiu receives 7.5.
Review by Regis Cabral, 19 July 2018

RESEARCH METHODS IN SERVICE INNOVATION

RESEARCH METHODS IN SERVICE INNOVATION BY SØRENSEN AND LAPENTA (ELGAR, 2017)

1. WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT
Research Methods in Service Innovation is a state of the art, cutting edge, collection of methods on service innovation research. The authors tackle a serious issue: the lack of a proper definition of innovation that takes into account that service is not a product or a process as discussed in much of the literature.  Despite the growing interest in innovation in the service economy, a systematic approach to research methods in innovation and innovation processes in the service economy and in service organisations was missing. Now we have it.

2. HOW DID THEY DO IT?
Each chapter addresses a method, theory, practical applications, examples and, very useful, learning points. The discussion points and methods open for further research possibilities.  The methods, innovative or presented in innovative ways, include quantitative measurement instruments, critical incident theory, laddering method, narratives, visual techniques and mapping, interpretative analyses of social networks, social media data, technology oriented scenarios, future workshops, field experiments, and triple helix framework. These methods are creative tools to address issues in service innovation and service process innovation.

3. HOW YOU CAN USE THIS BOOK
If you are a researcher or student, Research Methods in Service Innovation is an excellent investment. Each article overall review of the literature gives an updated view of theories and methods. The book also offers a variety of research approaches and methods that can be applied to one’s research, including to verify previous results. It also offers great possibilities to train young researchers and advanced students. In principle, most of the chapters can be applied to cases other than those discussed by the authors. So, for instance, one could look into the banking and financing services, as well as social security. This brings me a very important audience to this book, the practitioners.  The service economy is key to development, to social and individual well being, to a sustainable life and even to social and international peace. Without innovation in services and in service processes, these will be moved far way. This book is important because it is within the reach of practitioners, the people that makes it happens. Several service professionals will benefit from reading Research Methods in Service Innovation, including social security, social insurance, insurance business, banks and the financial sector, the health sector, authorities and entities dealing with immigration and migration situations and issues, the police and security services, development agencies, and aid agencies. If you work for any of these, I strongly suggest you read this book. But do more, take the Research Methods in Service Innovation to your office and say, ”I want these methods to be applied here, let us learn from the results and improve our work.”

4. MY PITCH
In my approach, innovation reduces the cost, or increase the value, of transactions. For the authors of Research Methods in Service Innovation, value, in its many forms, is of great relevance, Thus, my approach makes their work more straight forward. Innovation is a new element introduced in a network which increases the value of the transactions between at least two nodes or elements in the network. The value function includes variables not only monetary but also emotional, social, political and more. Lets see how this relates to some of the contributions. All the other articles also deal with how to create and / or increase value.
Sørensen and Lapenta highlight that service and service processes innovation research have unique dimensions, including theoretically and methodologically and the forces influencing the evolution of service innovation. Such uniqueness has often been missed because of the insistence in having service as a product. In much of the literature and public parole, innovation is presented as a new product, so service innovation reduces to an introduction of new service products. “A definition of service innovation … remains fuzzy.” The authors contribute to the debate with new interpretations of innovation in services and in service processes. For me, if we have a definition of innovation for products and another for services, there must be an encompassing approach which includes both. The definition based on transaction cost theory and network theory theory does this.
Sundbo’  contribution on quantitative measurement instruments, takes the approach that not all innovation results in economic growth. He is right. Innovation increases value. When we can not see economic growth, we have difficulties at linking the macro and the micro levels. His discussion about what to measure, input and output factors, is a brilliant guide, useful to managers and researchers, particularly when considering non monetary variables. How do we measure a customer’ feeling? How do we measure the emotions influencing transactions?
Olesen’ mapping and visual techniques presents the case of digital communications in a museum. It is a fascinating paper with an approach that can be applied in other settings. It would be interesting if this visual technique can be applied to map innovation as I have defined it. Is it possible for us to see the increase in the value of transactions in a network?
Staddon Forder approaches service innovation in complex research projects with a triple helix framework. She addresses the key issue of how triple helix projects develop. The triple helix of industry, government and universities is driven by today’s knowledge economy, as argue by its creator, Etzkowitz. Since, according to critics, the concept of “knowledge economy” has not stabilised, it is difficult to identify the three players in the service sector. Therefore this article is timely. The key elements of the research project she studies are at the centre of the triple helix and its three blades, industry, policy and academia. As she indicates, there are different world views of the helix configurations. In my approach to the triple helix, I broadened it into the management of society (which includes policy and government but it is more), production of goods, services and processes (which includes industry but it is more), and knowledge production (which includes academia and universities but it is more). This takes us closer to an understanding of the knowledge society. I placed innovation actors such as science parks and business incubators at the helix’ centre. This is also the locus Staddon Forder’ research groups.

5. WHAT IS NEXT?
Certainly a very useful book. I recommend it. It opens the possibility of applying the methods,  learning points and discussion topics to one’s research and teaching. When one combines these with my approach to innovation, further possibilities for research and publication emerge. The methods can also be applied to a variety of organisations, including social security, insurance and banks. I would like to see the authors applying these methods to the Nordic social security systems and to the immigration services, both in great need of improvement.

6. WHERE TO FIND IT?
Research Methods in Service Innovation by F. Sørensen and F. Lapenta, Roskilde University, Denmark (Cheltenhamn, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2017). ISBN: 9781785364853 (cased); 9781785364860 (eBook).
http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/research-methods-in-service-innovation

7. HOW MANY CABRAL POINTS FOR THIS BOOK?
In a scale from 0 to 10, where ten is the absolut best Research Methods in Service Innovation by Sørensen and Lapenta receives 8.5.
Review by Regis Cabral, 19 May 2017

INNOVATION - A definition by Regis Cabral

Given a general cost function, which is not only monetary but also may describe emotional, social, political, relational or any other types of costs, Innovation for a particular network is a new element introduced in the network which reduces, even if momentarily, the costs of transactions between at least two actors, elements or nodes, in the network.

Alternatively

Given a general value function, which is not only monetary but also may describe emotional, social, political, relational or any other types of values, Innovation for a particular network is a new element introduced in the network which increases, even if momentarily, the value of transactions between at least two actors, elements or nodes, in the network.

Cabral, R. (1998). "Refining the Cabral-Dahab Science Park Management Paradigm", Int. J. Technology Management, Vol. 16, pp. 813-818.

Cabral, R. (2003). "Development, Science and" in Heilbron, J. (ed.), The Oxford Companion to The History of Modern Science, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 205-207.

Cabral, R. (2004). "The Cabral-Dahab Science Park Management Paradigm Applied to the Case of Kista, Sweden", Int. J. Technology Management, Vol. 28, pp. 419-443.