Search results

This chapter focuses on the micro-contexts of cross-innovation between digital audiovisual media and the health care sector by examining two cases, both start-ups working on virtual reality-assisted rehabilitation solutions. Through a discussion of the two cases, this chapter aims to elucidate the broader dynamics of digital health care as experienced by innovators seeking to contribute to it. It addresses the challenges faced by innovators, including the lengthy and costly nature of medical licensing, the inflexibility and fragmentation of pertinent regulations, and health care institutions’ and insurers’ resistance to change. It also highlights the importance of networking and the emergence of digital health care as a distinct and increasingly visible epistemic community, while touching upon the tensions between the public and the private sectors as a target market for innovators.

The paper contributes to the discussion on valuation in organization studies and strategic management literature. The nascent literature on valuation practices has examined established markets where producers and consumers are known and rivalry in the market is a given. Furthermore, previous research has operated with a narrow meaning of value as either a financial profit or a subjective consumer preference. Such a narrow view on value is problematic and insufficient for studying the interlacing of innovation and value creation in emerging technoscientific business domains.

The authors present an empirical study about value creation in an emerging technoscience business domain formed around personalized medicine and digital health data.

The results of this analysis show that in a technoscientific domain, valuation of innovations is multiple and malleable, entails pursuing attractiveness in collaboration and partnerships and is performative, and due to emphatic future orientation, values are indefinite and promissory.

As research implications, this study shows that valuation practices in an emerging technoscience business domain focus on defining the potential economic value in the future and attracting partners as probable future beneficiaries. Commercial value upon innovation in an embryonic business milieu is created and situated in valuation practices that constitute the prospective market, the prevalent economic discourse, and rationale. This is in contrast to an established market, where valuation practices are determined at the intersection of customer preferences and competitive arenas where suppliers, producers, service providers and new entrants to the market present value propositions.

The study findings extend discussion on valuation from established business domains to emerging technoscience business domains which are in a “pre-competition” phase where suppliers, customers, producers and their collaborative and competitive relations are not yet established.

As managerial implications, this study provides insights into health innovation stakeholders, including stakeholders in the public, private and academic sectors, about the ecosystem dynamics in a technoscientific innovation. Such insight is useful in strategic decision-making about ecosystem strategy and ecosystem business model for value proposition, value creation and value capture in an emerging innovation domain characterized by collaborative and competitive relations among stakeholders. To business managers, the findings of this study about valuation practices are useful in strategic decision-making about ecosystem strategy and ecosystem business model for value proposition, value creation and value capture in an emerging innovation domain characterized by collaborative and competitive relations among stakeholders. To policy makers, this study provides an in-depth analysis of an overall business ecosystem in an emerging technoscience business that can be propelled to increase the financial investments in the field. As a policy implication, this study provides insights into the various dimensions of valuation in technoscience business to policy makers, who make governance decisions to guide and control the development of medical innovation using digital health data.

This study's results expand previous theorizing on valuation by showing that in technoscientific innovation all types of value created – scientific, clinical, social or economic – are predominantly promissory. This study complements the nascent theorizing on value creation and valuation practices of technoscientific innovation.

Incoming first-year college students completed a leadership survey prior to any formal leadership education. These students were reassessed during the spring of their senior year; 386 students completed both surveys. The differential effect of 33 leadership and demographic variables on change in hierarchical and systemic leadership beliefs were examined with stepwise regression analyses. Completion of a leadership certificate intended for students in supervisory student employment positions and racial/ethnic background were the only variables predicting changes in leadership beliefs. Results are discussed relative to Leadership Identity Development theory (Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella, & Osteen, 2005) and ecological leadership theory (Wielkiewicz & Stelzner, 2005).

The objective of this paper is to increase understanding of social media in international business context. To this end, the authors make an attempt to integrate the existing, still somewhat limited views in a framework that advances the knowledge of scholars and decision-makers on this topic.

The authors conduct a conceptual study supported by use of a systematic literature review method.

This study shows marketing as a dominant area of discussion and reveals that many firm functions where social media plays a role have received relatively little attention. Furthermore, the study shows that the positive features of social media in international activity tend to be more widely acknowledged and better understood than the potentially problematic aspects.

The number of articles analyzed in this study was relatively small, resonating with the nature of an emerging research area. Research on social media has only taken off over the last years, and it is understandable that there is limited research that connects it specifically to phenomena of international business.

This study reminds managers to be cautious when using social media in international markets. The relationship between social media and international business exhibits dynamism and is dependent on a variety of factors. Social media does not come without costs, nor is easily transferred from one market to another. Efficient use of this media in the international context may increase the need of specific and qualified human resources, and it may necessitate having the whole process from R&D to delivery, and beyond, ready for adaptation.

It can be argued that we know too little about the relevant factors and relationships between social media and international business. The authors hope that this study revealing the scarcely studied aspects and suggesting a tentative framework for capturing the dynamics of social media and international business can guide subsequent research and accelerate its emergence.

The paper aims to investigate if the performance of older adults on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) were associated or predictive of their functional performance in a geriatric evaluation and management (GEM) inpatient hospital setting. This will inform the occupational therapy assessment and management of older adults admitted to sub-acute GEM settings.

In all, 20 participants (11 men, 9 women, mean age 82 years, SD = 6.93) were recruited from a GEM ward in an Australian hospital. Participants’ cognitive abilities were assessed using the MMSE and MoCA, and their functional performance were assessed using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). Spearman’s rho correlations and linear regression analyses were completed. Bootstrapping was applied to the regression analyses to accommodate the small study sample size.

No statistically significant correlations were obtained between the total and subscale scores of the MMSE and FIM or between the total and subscale scores of the MoCA and FIM. In other words, the cognitive and functional abilities of older adults admitted to a GEM setting were not significantly associated in this study.

The findings suggest that the MoCA and the MMSE were not predictive of participants’ functional performance as measure by the FIM in a sub-acute GEM setting. Occupational therapists should be cautious when interpreting participants’ MMSE, MoCA and FIM results and not depend solely on these results in the goal setting and intervention planning processes for clients on GEM wards. Further studies are recommended to confirm these findings.

Social practices of work humor among engineering workers are a lesser studied phenomenon. We examine the social practices of an engineering work team through acts of a peculiar form of humorous expression we identify as installation humor. In these cases of installation humor, an anonymous member of the team created a temporary, inappropriate, yet neutral installation of a physical object to amuse the other members of the team. We provide three mini-cases of installation humor; these installations appeared as the team subtly resisted a managerial initiative. We contribute knowledge to the practices of engineers at work and to the practices of resistive humorous expression.

Qualitative, full-participant ethnographic research with multiple data collection methods and utilizing abductive analysis. During the data collection, one of the researchers was a full member of the engineering team.

We identified anonymous, artefact-based enactments of resistive humorous expression, which we named installation humor. We identify and describe installation humor, which occurred at the intersectionality of work and self-expression and served as momentary artefacts symbolic of engineering worker resistance in a high-tech environment.

Managerial awareness of the unfolding forms of worker-led, fleeting signals of resistance, such as acts of installation humor, would provide another dimension of perception for identifying salient signals surrounding the phenomenon of resistance to managerial-led change initiatives. Further research is needed on engineering humor in the R&D workplace to better understand the complexity and dynamics of phenomena such as worker resistance through humorous acts. We suggest future studies on forms of humor in the engineering workplace, including incidences of installation humor as they exist in other professional work environments and organizations, to understand common and shared practices across professional boundaries.

We advance and extend the understanding of humor as a social practice in the context of professional engineers in their R&D workplace and we identify humorous acts serving as a response to negative emotions (Huber, 2022) toward the organization related to a newly instated form of managerial control. This paper contributes to the studies of social practices of humor and emotions (Fine and De Soucey, 2005) in the engineering workplace (Buch and Andersen, 2013; Buch, 2016; Mazzurco et al., 2021) as unsupervised activity at work (Gabriel, 1995), with the social practice of humor adopting a non-verbal form that we identified as installation humor. We named this specific form of humor that we observed as installation humor and defined its specificity and differences from more traditional methods of humor (t. ex. Fine and De Soucey, 2005; Martin and Ford, 2018), shop floor humor (t. ex. Roy 1959), workplace humor (t. ex. Rosenberg et al., 2021) and engineering student humor (Holmila et al., 2007; Bender, 2011; Berge, 2017).The results of this study also suggest that ethnography for studying humor as a social practice is useful in identifying micro-level occurrences of unfolding engineering humor, including humor as a form of resistance.

The study of humor in high-tech engineering settings enhances the literature of engineering work (t. ex. Mazzurco et al., 2021) and emerging humorous phenomena (Jarzabkowski and Lê, 2017). This case study highlights and extends the understanding of the non-technical competencies of engineers and the role of peer-to-peer humor in the engineering workplace as a form of resistance during managerial initiatives within an organization.

The study extends and contributes new knowledge to research on emotions and humor by engineers at work, including the identification of a peculiar form of humor used by the engineers. This study also contributes to nascent research on the social practices of engineers at work. The research material was gathered as a full-member ethnography, increasing methodological knowledge of researching a site from within.

Consistent with the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship, the purpose of this paper is to recognise the complementary entrepreneurial role of knowledge transfer intermediary organisations in the context of two Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries: Poland and the Czech Republic.

The aim was achieved through empirical studies relying on multiple-case study methodology and cross-case analysis covering 21 cases of commercialisation intermediary institutions. It was assumed that institutional and geographical conditions can impact the knowledge-based opportunity exploitation between different national economies.

Research confirmed that scientists in Poland and the Czech Republic are the central figures of the commercialisation process in terms of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition; however, they need support from intermediary organisations in many other entrepreneurial activities. The history of knowledge commercialisation and its intermediating entities in these countries is relatively young and spin-off company creation is not a common practice. Expertise knowledge, creativity and self-confidence admitted, by the respondents in both countries, can be an optimistic sign for the future efforts in fostering innovativeness of CEE countries. Stronger support of formal institutional framework and policies in those countries is expected.

Science commercialisation has lately attracted much attention, but only a few studies have tried to develop conceptual frameworks considering knowledge-based entrepreneurship and knowledge commercialisation in their relations and subsequential roles. Also, over the past couple of years literature in this area has expanded mainly relying on observations in the USA and Western European countries. Hence, this study allowed to collect findings from CEE countries for which data are still insufficient but can significantly contribute to the theory development. Also, some recommendations for policymakers arise from this study. Further research could validate the results in an extensive quantitative study.

To address complex societal challenges, particularly in the context of climate change, there is a growing interest in employing interdisciplinary ethnographic research (IER). This paper examines the experiences associated with participating in IER, drawing insights from a collaboration project that integrates organization studies with energy management research.

Within the context of a three-year interdisciplinary collaboration, the paper focuses on the performance of an interview and the analysis thereof. It draws from this example to highlight the difficulties in translating discipline-specific language and understanding failures in IER. Including an exploration of the process of recovery, involving analyzing research results and the subsequent collaborative writing of a paper.

The primary findings revolve around the challenges inherent in ethnography as an interdisciplinary method. These challenges include language barriers between disciplines and the complexities of comprehending and learning from failures in interdisciplinary research.

The contribution lies in its exploration of abductive reasoning in IER, shedding light on the complexities and opportunities associated with interdisciplinary collaboration in the making. By emphasizing the importance of going into the field before negotiating common ground, the approach presented provides a unique perspective that not only addresses challenges but also facilitates the development of involved disciplines and scholars through self-reflection.

1. The paper shows the importance of both expertise and experience knowledge in interdisciplinary ethnographic research.

2. By using different writing styles, the importance of language and translations between disciplines is exemplified.

3. The paper provides an example of how to engage in abductive reasoning in interdisciplinary ethnographic research.

4. The paper calls for a broad understanding of failure and success in interdisciplinary ethnographic research.

The paper shows the importance of both expertise and experience knowledge in interdisciplinary ethnographic research.

By using different writing styles, the importance of language and translations between disciplines is exemplified.

The paper provides an example of how to engage in abductive reasoning in interdisciplinary ethnographic research.

The paper calls for a broad understanding of failure and success in interdisciplinary ethnographic research.

The entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) literature is dominated by conceptual studies with insufficient theoretical foundations and empirical evidence on the micro-level. This study aims to explore the largely overlooked question of what the drivers that motivate small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to participate in an ecosystem are.

The study adopts a qualitative exploratory approach. The empirical data consists of 19 semi-structured interviews with top management of SMEs in the health tech ecosystem in Finland. The data were analyzed using a thematic content analysis.

This study reveals a typology of drivers that motivate SMEs to participate in an ecosystem. These include social drivers (networking and cooperation and communication and knowledge sharing), resource drivers (access to resources, formal and informal support and market access) and cognitive drivers (shared goals and common values).

The study contributes to the EE research by highlighting the drivers that motivate health tech SMEs to become members of the local ecosystem. It suggests that managers and entrepreneurs need to be aware of the factors related to social, resource and cognitive drivers to ensure the future success of their business.

The study draws evidence from a micro-level perspective which enriches the understanding of the EE phenomenon. It also explores an increasingly relevant but under-researched field, the health tech ecosystem.