Founded in 2000 as a Short Message Service (SMS) marketing company for discos (clubs), CM evolved... more Founded in 2000 as a Short Message Service (SMS) marketing company for discos (clubs), CM evolved into a technology provider for SMS services. By 2008, CM was market leader in The Netherlands, a position won by offering high quality services at low prices. In 2010, the founders of the company were looking for different growth opportunities. Should they develop new products and/or expand internationally? Did they need to attract external funding? Or should they continue to focus on their core technology and home market?
Finthem is a state-of-the-art search tool that helps organizations to quickly find complementary ... more Finthem is a state-of-the-art search tool that helps organizations to quickly find complementary partners and new external sources of innovation. Any innovation officer or business developer that regularly searches for new ideas and collaborators will benefit from using Finthem to identify potential strategic partners. This tool has been developed in the doctoral thesis of Freek Meulman; the evidence supporting this tool is described in the article "Searching for partners in open innovation settings: How to overcome the constraints of local search" published in California Management Review (2018). More detailed info about the tool is available from: https://www.finthem.com/
This study provides insight into how the application and organization of pervasive digital techno... more This study provides insight into how the application and organization of pervasive digital technologies, which often recombine existing digital tools, can ‘fundamentally rewire’ firms. We focus on the influence of BIM technology on creative work practice in architectural firms and its firm-level effects. More specifically, we study how individual actors apply BIM technology, how they organize its use to coordinate their work with that of others, and which effects these coordinated interactions with a pervasive digital technology have at the level of architectural firms. To get in-depth insight into work practices within architectural firms with respect to BIM technology, a qualitative research design is implemented, based mainly on interviews in two architectural firms, and complemented with observations and archival data. We have analyzed various interactions of individual actors with new and established digital tools. Specifically, we have shown how distinguishing between applying...
Design Science Research (DSR) lacks accepted validation approaches to validate its outcomes (desi... more Design Science Research (DSR) lacks accepted validation approaches to validate its outcomes (design principles and design solutions). The quality of such a validation has to be ensured so that the outcomes of DSR are as methodologically thorough and as practically relevant as possible. This study introduces a pragmatic validation approach to ensure the quality of design principles. It uses a three-step approach, combining (1) evaluating the design solution as a case in practice, (2) qualifying the implementation of the set of design principles, and (3) assessing the validity of evaluation and qualification results. The validation approach is illustrated by assessing the evaluation results of a creativity facilitation course (design solution) developed according to a set of design principles.
Today's societal challenges call for integrated solutions that connect various industries and... more Today's societal challenges call for integrated solutions that connect various industries and transcend national boundaries. Investing in the design and development of innovative solutions in this interconnected world is therefore top priority for national and international policymakers[1]. Governmental organizations play a crucial role in innovation processes and the direction of these processes, as they set up “the rules of the game”[2]. They shape society, the economy and industries, as they are able to (in) directly facilitate and regulate the diffusion of technology and related innovation processes. In addressing innovation for societal challenges, such as climate change and sustainable energy, most of the benefits are likely to be public, rather than private. This requires a strategic reorientation in the innovation activities of industry actors towards societal progress. As such, governmental organizations are expected to take (and maintain) a more active role and bear ce...
The search for partners in open innovation settings often consumes substantial time and manageria... more The search for partners in open innovation settings often consumes substantial time and managerial attention. Yet, organizations tend to get trapped in local search, which typically leads to collaboration with partners already known to them. To improve the search for partners, this article develops a tool that exploits the power of state-of-the-art information technology. In a sample of 33 search queries conducted in six innovation intermediaries, it studies differences between search with and without the use of our tool. The tests confirm the tool’s effectiveness and efficiency, and highlight the importance of searching with keywords that represent the core roles and activities of a firm, next to keywords referring to market and technology characteristics. Network visualization and semantic algorithms thus appear to facilitate the effort to identify distant partners. The article also finds that local partners are not that easy to find as commonly assumed.
Founded in 2000 as a Short Message Service (SMS) marketing company for discos (clubs), CM evolved... more Founded in 2000 as a Short Message Service (SMS) marketing company for discos (clubs), CM evolved into a technology provider for SMS services. By 2008, CM was market leader in The Netherlands, a position won by offering high quality services at low prices. In 2010, the founders of the company were looking for different growth opportunities. Should they develop new products and/or expand internationally? Did they need to attract external funding? Or should they continue to focus on their core technology and home market?
Finthem is a state-of-the-art search tool that helps organizations to quickly find complementary ... more Finthem is a state-of-the-art search tool that helps organizations to quickly find complementary partners and new external sources of innovation. Any innovation officer or business developer that regularly searches for new ideas and collaborators will benefit from using Finthem to identify potential strategic partners. This tool has been developed in the doctoral thesis of Freek Meulman; the evidence supporting this tool is described in the article "Searching for partners in open innovation settings: How to overcome the constraints of local search" published in California Management Review (2018). More detailed info about the tool is available from: https://www.finthem.com/
This study provides insight into how the application and organization of pervasive digital techno... more This study provides insight into how the application and organization of pervasive digital technologies, which often recombine existing digital tools, can ‘fundamentally rewire’ firms. We focus on the influence of BIM technology on creative work practice in architectural firms and its firm-level effects. More specifically, we study how individual actors apply BIM technology, how they organize its use to coordinate their work with that of others, and which effects these coordinated interactions with a pervasive digital technology have at the level of architectural firms. To get in-depth insight into work practices within architectural firms with respect to BIM technology, a qualitative research design is implemented, based mainly on interviews in two architectural firms, and complemented with observations and archival data. We have analyzed various interactions of individual actors with new and established digital tools. Specifically, we have shown how distinguishing between applying...
Design Science Research (DSR) lacks accepted validation approaches to validate its outcomes (desi... more Design Science Research (DSR) lacks accepted validation approaches to validate its outcomes (design principles and design solutions). The quality of such a validation has to be ensured so that the outcomes of DSR are as methodologically thorough and as practically relevant as possible. This study introduces a pragmatic validation approach to ensure the quality of design principles. It uses a three-step approach, combining (1) evaluating the design solution as a case in practice, (2) qualifying the implementation of the set of design principles, and (3) assessing the validity of evaluation and qualification results. The validation approach is illustrated by assessing the evaluation results of a creativity facilitation course (design solution) developed according to a set of design principles.
Today's societal challenges call for integrated solutions that connect various industries and... more Today's societal challenges call for integrated solutions that connect various industries and transcend national boundaries. Investing in the design and development of innovative solutions in this interconnected world is therefore top priority for national and international policymakers[1]. Governmental organizations play a crucial role in innovation processes and the direction of these processes, as they set up “the rules of the game”[2]. They shape society, the economy and industries, as they are able to (in) directly facilitate and regulate the diffusion of technology and related innovation processes. In addressing innovation for societal challenges, such as climate change and sustainable energy, most of the benefits are likely to be public, rather than private. This requires a strategic reorientation in the innovation activities of industry actors towards societal progress. As such, governmental organizations are expected to take (and maintain) a more active role and bear ce...
The search for partners in open innovation settings often consumes substantial time and manageria... more The search for partners in open innovation settings often consumes substantial time and managerial attention. Yet, organizations tend to get trapped in local search, which typically leads to collaboration with partners already known to them. To improve the search for partners, this article develops a tool that exploits the power of state-of-the-art information technology. In a sample of 33 search queries conducted in six innovation intermediaries, it studies differences between search with and without the use of our tool. The tests confirm the tool’s effectiveness and efficiency, and highlight the importance of searching with keywords that represent the core roles and activities of a firm, next to keywords referring to market and technology characteristics. Network visualization and semantic algorithms thus appear to facilitate the effort to identify distant partners. The article also finds that local partners are not that easy to find as commonly assumed.
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