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- Holmén, Magnus, 1967-, et al.
(author)
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Doing more by knowing less. The evolution of the division of innovative labour in software creation
- 2021
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In: Technological Change and Industrial Transformation. Vicky Long, Magnus Holmén (red.). - London : Routledge. - 9780429423550 - 9781138390034 ; , s. 92-110
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- To conceptualize the coevolution of the division of innovative labour and knowledge growth, this chapter analyses the evolution of mechanisms for economizing cognition in software development processes. The mechanisms are called abstraction mechanisms and they determine what representations, called abstractions, developers can create and use when writing software. Over time, complementary advances in theoretical knowledge, instrumentation and computational capacity have led to an expansion of the types of abstraction mechanisms in use. As a consequence, software has become composed of a large, interrelated network structure of abstractions created by a large number of developers. As the network structure expands, and becomes more fine-grained, the ratio between developers’ knowledge and the total knowledge they are able to draw upon in their development work becomes lower. They are thus able to do more by knowing less in relative terms. We suggest that the findings have a general significance for understanding industrial transformation from a knowledge perspective by furthering our understanding of changes in the division of inventive labour across and within firms.
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- McKelvey, Maureen, 1965, et al.
(author)
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Governance of medical research and innovation - Lessons from a recent crisis in regenerative medicine
- 2017
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In: Third Nordic STS (Science, Technology, Society) Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 31 May - 2 June 2017.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Within the field of regenerative medicine radical steps are taken, by combining knowledge advances in engineering and medicine, in an attempt to relieve human suffering and save lives. However, such an approach is not without risks and crisis that lead to questions about its legitimacy are common, especially in prestigious and fast-moving fields (The Lancet 2014, van Hoorden 2011). A recent Swedish television documentary tells the story of the thorax surgeon Paolo Macchiarini at the Karolinska Institute and his attempts to develop a new procedure for replacing parts of the trachea by growing stem cells on both biological and synthetic scaffolds. Originally presented as a groundbreaking achievement documented in prestigious medical journals and hailed by the press, it is now seen by many as a reckless and unethical experimentation supported by research fraud. Four members of the Nobel Prize committee in Physiology or Medicine have resigned. The Vice-Chancellor of the Karolinska Institute has resigned. Police investigation is in process A former minister and head of Swedish police is investigating whether unethical research practice can be verified. At the same time The Lancet (Horton 2016) has published a comment on why they have not retracted his article. While the Maccchiarini crisis is not unique it raises many interesting questions about the governance of medical research and innovation in general, and regenerative medicine in particular. The purpose of this paper is to identify and conceptualize the governance challenges related to major advances in medical research and innovation. Based on a previous conceptual model to explain technological collaboration (McKelvey et al 2015), this paper uses the case of regenerative medicine and of the crisis surrounding Macchiarini and the Karolinska Institute to identify three challenges facing policy makers and researchers. This paper is framed through theories of the specific site of medicine as an area for innovation. Recent research on medical innovation has focused on explaining how and why medical innovation emerges through heterogeneous and dispersed actors, such as hospitals, firms and universities, interacting through sequences of problem-finding, and problem-solving, processes (Metcalfe et al 2005). In this research special attention has been given to the role of clinical practice and its mutual interaction with biomedical science, but at the same time noting the role of the physician in mobilizing and guiding industrial innovation (Blume 1992, Hopkins 2006). In this particular setting, we then apply and develop theories of governance and co-evolution of knowledge in medicine to describe the system challenges (McKelvey et al 2015). Our conceptual model of the governance of technological collaboration recognizes that different types of organizations are involved in the production and use of knowledge, where each has a different set of incentives and networks. However, the governance requires the development of common norms and institutions for the collective action. In other words, the collective action is mediated by interacting, where common norms and institutions are developed that regulate behavior and help create a common good. The challenges that we identify and will describe in this case are: Firstly, role of research funding, especially the concentration of funding into strategic areas. The hiring of an internationally acclaimed researcher, Macchiarini, coincides with a strategic investment in regenerative medicine by the Karolinska Institute supported by large government grants for research excellence in selected fields. High concentration of research funds, strong pressures for success, and global competition for talent put strains on existing systems of governance of research and innovation for which it was not designed. Secondly, the specific nature of interface between medical research and practice. The close connection between research and practice is commonly believed to be one of the strength of medical innovation. In many cases university departments and university hospitals employ the same people, which means they are involved both in research and practice. However, there are different rules within medical research and clinical practice in terms of experimentation. How should procedures, and knowledge, by transferred from research to practice and how should the results transferred back to research? Furthermore, these issues play out in a larger context, which involves development of stem cell technology and intellectual property rights to commercialize the technology. Thirdly, the emergence of medical innovations also leads to systemic problems due to the rapid development of knowledge. Due to their evolutionary nature medical knowledge and innovations may give rise to irreducible systems based on how bottlenecks direct the focus of attention in order to solve critical problems. Furthermore, as the search for new medical knowledge has a strong ethical dimension, is sought for the common good, and to a large degree funded by public funds, oversight is required for what bottlenecks should be attended to and how. This oversight is proved by a governance regime, which includes both formal and informal elements. Given the nature of the current discussion about the Macchiarini crisis the most likely response is to strengthen the oversight and regulation, including monitoring, related to the interface between medical research and practice. The focus will be on universities and hospitals without consideration of other actors involved in the production and use of medical knowledge. We argue, based on our conceptual model, that this may have the adverse effects of introducing bottlenecks in the system. The main challenge for policy makers and researchers is to understand what actors are involved in the system, at regional, national and international levels, and how best to interact in order to create mechanisms of self-regulation that benefit each type of actor and the system as a whole.
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- McKelvey, Maureen, 1965, et al.
(author)
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Ready to innovate during a crisis? Innovation governance during the first wave of COVID-19 infections in Iceland
- 2023
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In: Innovation-Organization & Management. - Melbourne : Routledge. - 1447-9338 .- 2204-0226.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Previous studies on innovation governance have focused on the governance of science, technology, and innovation from a long-term perspective. In this article we focus on the short term by exploring the generation and use of new scientific and technical knowledge to address an urgent societal crisis. We empirically analyse the emergency response during the first wave of COVID-19 infections in Iceland using a conceptual framework based on three theoretical components, namely, emergency management, innovation governance, and the innovation process as a problem-solving process. The empirical analysis is built on a systematic analysis of secondary data. Based on the results, we conclude that improvisation processes using existing knowledge and capabilities and triggered by unanticipated problems during a crisis are in some cases sources of successful innovation. In these cases initial problem-solving processes characterized by improvisation can be interpreted as blind variations that are retained and diffused through a series of complementary problem-solving processes that generate and use new scientific and technical knowledge. Furthermore, we extend the concept of innovation governance readiness to include both the readiness to exploit technological opportunities and the readiness to address unanticipated problems during a crisis and propose that our extension is useful for integrating long-term and short-term aspects of innovation governance.
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- McKelvey, Maureen, 1965, et al.
(author)
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The Grey Zones of Technological Innovation: Negative Unintended Consequences as a Counterbalance to Novelty
- 2021
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In: Industry and Innovation. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1366-2716 .- 1469-8390. ; 28:1, s. 79-101
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The purpose of this article is to better understand the challenges of avoiding the dark side of technological innovation. Specifically, we analyse 10 public investigations started as a reaction to a major crisis in regenerative medicine at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, associated with the clinician-scientist Paolo Macchiarini. We interpret the reaction as an attempt to restore the balance between the stimulation and regulation of technological innovation processes by clarifying ambiguities in the regulation at the interface between research and practice. We conceptualise these ambiguities as grey zones – situations when it is unclear if the benefits of experimentation outweigh its risks – and propose that grey zones are continually created and resolved as actors in innovation governance systems counterbalance the generation of novelty and the risk of negative unintended consequences.
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- Saemundsson, Rögnvaldur J., 1968, et al.
(author)
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Absorptive capacity and the identification of opportunities in new technology-based firms
- 2017
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In: Technovation. - Kidlington : Elsevier BV. - 0166-4972 .- 1879-2383. ; 64-65, s. 43-49
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- © 2017 Elsevier Ltd The purpose of this work is to investigate relationships between knowledge and opportunities in new ventures. More specifically, this work proposes and empirically tests how potential absorptive capacity is related with the identification of opportunities in new technology-based firms (NTBFs). To take into account the unique nature of NTBFs we divide potential absorptive capacity into problem absorptive capacity, i.e. the ability to identify and acquire knowledge of the goals, aspirations and needs of current and potential customers, and solution absorptive capacity, i.e. the ability to identify and acquire external knowledge of solutions to fulfill them. We develop three hypotheses, which predict that both problem absorptive capacity and solution absorptive capacity will be positively related with the identification of opportunities in NTBFs and that they will reinforce each other. The findings support the importance of making a distinction between the two proposed dimensions of potential absorptive capacity and shed light on their effectiveness and interaction for the identification of opportunities.
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- Candi, Marina, et al.
(author)
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How Different? Comparing the Roles of Design in Service Innovation in Nordic and American New Technology-Based Firms
- 2008
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In: Design Studies. - : Elsevier BV. - 0142-694X. ; 29:5, s. 478-499
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores differences in the use of design in service innovation in Nordic and American new technology-based firms and is based on a systematic qualitative comparison of case data collected on eight service innovation projects in each of the locations. Differences were expected due to these two locations' disparity in terms of agglomeration of technology-based firms and access to design resources. The results of the comparison indicate that there are more similarities than there are differences in how design is used in service innovation in these two locations. Possible explanations are explored and implications suggested.
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