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- Bäckström, Izabelle, et al.
(författare)
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A mapping study of employee innovation : proposing a research agenda
- 2019
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Ingår i: European Journal of Innovation Management. - 1460-1060. ; 22:3, s. 468-492
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to systematically explore the current understanding of the role of non-R&D and non-managerial employees in different phases and types of innovation, and to propose avenues for future research. Design/methodology/approach: By conducting a mapping study and applying a critical discourse analysis, the phenomenon of “ordinary” employee innovation is explored across various fields, such as human resource management, psychology, economics, strategy, marketing and technology management. Proposals for future research are suggested based on the theoretical framework of dynamic capability, with the aim of further integrating employee innovation in the innovation management domain. Findings: The findings illuminate five main themes that form the employee innovation discourse across various academic disciplines, namely, employee innovative work behavior, firm innovation performance, employee innovation processes, frontline service employees and management tools for employee innovation. Originality/value: Unlike prior studies in the field of innovation management, this study specifically focuses on the employees without innovation-specific functions in organizations, or “ordinary” employees. Concerning the methodological lens of critical discourse analysis, the authors suggest forming the employee innovation discourse in an inclusive manner. Based on the theoretical lens of dynamic capability, a research agenda is proposed in which employee innovation research makes additional use of innovation processes and types, and takes into account the interactive processes and strong empirical evidence for relevant management tools.
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| 2. |
- BÄCKSTRÖM, IZABELLE, et al.
(författare)
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Behavioural implications of employee-driven innovation : a critical discourse analysis
- 2018
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Ingår i: International Journal of Innovation Management. - Singapore : World Scientific. - 1363-9196 .- 1757-5877. ; 22:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper examines a digital employee-oriented innovation program at a global IT-firm. It addresses the research question: how is the generation and promotion of employee ideas organised by the management, and what are the behavioural implications in terms of participation of such an organising? Drawing on the literature on inclusive innovation and employee-driven innovation, the authors explore the extent to which ordinary employees are included in innovative processes at work. The critical discourse analysis of written and spoken text exposes inclusiveness concerning the managements’ production and distribution of innovation discourse in the initial phases of the program. However, the analysis simultaneously reveals considerable excluding elements in the ordinary employees’ consumption of this discourse in its latter phases, particularly regarding the parallel discourses “we are all innovators” and “the single winning entrepreneur”.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Bäckström, Izabelle
(författare)
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Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the innovator after all? : An explorative study of a management-initiated employee innovation process
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today, the innovation arena is open to a wider range of participants than previously acknowledged. One specifically neglected group of innovators in traditional innovation studies is non-R&D and non-managerial employees, also referred to as ‘ordinary’ employees by the existing body of literature on employee-driven innovation (EDI). These employees have no formal innovation function, meaning that they work outside R&D and innovation-specific departments, but still represent significant and valuable creative assets for their employers. They are claimed to possess in-depth and context-dependent knowledge that is highly valuable in innovative work. The underlying assumption of the EDI concept is that all employees are able to contribute to innovation in spite of their level of education, background or current position in the organization. Thus, the EDI process has been highlighted in terms of a democratization of innovation as all employees are encouraged and invited to engage in innovative activities that go beyond their day-to-day tasks. However, what this democratization implies in practice when employees are expected to generate, develop, and implement ideas in a top-down management structure is less clear from a theoretical point of view. This thesis focuses on a management-initiated employee innovation process at a global IT firm’s Swedish operations, and its purpose is to explore the interaction between employees and managers in order to contribute to an increased understanding of the consequences of that interplay. This has been done in order to theoretically extend the conceptual typology created by Høyrup (2012; Høyrup et al., 2018), which is commonly referred to in the EDI field. In this way, both employees’ and managers’ roles are included in the theorization, which contributes to a dual emphasis in contrast to existing EDI literature that tends to focus on managerial structures, tools, and implications. By applying critical discourse analysis (CDA), this thesis demonstrates inclusiveness when it comes to the top-level management’s production and distribution of the employee innovation discourse in the initial phases of the innovation process. However, the analysis simultaneously discloses significant excluding elements in the ordinary employees’ consumption of this discourse in the latter phases of the innovation process where new roles, and expectations, of employees are enacted. Additionally, the results reveal that the production of the innovation discourse by the top-level management, which accentuates client satisfaction rather than employee engagement, restricts the employees’ utilization of the digital tool that distributes the discourse. However, middle-level managers were found to play a critical role for stimulating employee involvement since they act as co-distributors of the joint digital innovation platform that is utilized for collecting, monitoring, and evaluating employee ideas. Thus, this thesis contributes to EDI literature by exploring the interaction between top-level management’s formulation and arrangement of EDI activities and employees’ perceptions of, and response to, this structure. Hence, this thesis adds to our understanding of EDI in terms of the power relations involved in this interaction through which the democratization of the innovation process is highlighted. Thereby, this thesis sheds light on how the roles of employees and managers are discursively shaped, and how expectations of employees shift when the top-level management adopts an EDI approach.
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| 7. |
- Bäckström, Izabelle, et al.
(författare)
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Perspectives on supervising and conducting interdisciplinary research projects
- 2023
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Ingår i: LTH:s 12:e Pedagogiska Inspirationskonferens, 7 december 2023. - 2003-3761 .- 2003-377X.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study has been carried out as an assignment in the 2021 Readership Course (GB_S91) at LTH. The motivation for this study was to obtain a further understanding of the situation of PhD students and supervisors who operate in an interdisciplinary research context. The focus is on finding the positive aspects, as well as existing challenges, to comprehend how to provide future PhD students with adequate support and inclusive environments. To unravel what constitutes a winning strategy when supervising PhD students in an interdisciplinary environment, we have conducted interviews with PhD students and supervisors active in interdisciplinary research projects at LTH. A general conclusion is that both PhD students and supervisors have a positive perspective towards interdisciplinary research with an emphasis on the interesting and inspirational challenging aspects. The main negative issue raised by PhD students is confusion about which supervisors he/she should turn to for help in different situations. The supervisors on the other hand address challenges related to communication, financing, publication, and recruitment.
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| 8. |
- Bäckström, Izabelle, et al.
(författare)
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Play, print, and share : 3D printing enthusiasts as user innovators and entrepreneurs
- 2020
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Ingår i: International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing. - 1742-5360. ; 12:6, s. 648-664
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The main aim of this paper is to explore how these 3D printing enthusiasts make sense of their 3D printing activities online and offline, and how these activities can be explained in terms of the theoretical concepts user innovation and user entrepreneurship. This paper builds on an in-depth interview study and reveals four ideal types (Halkier, 2011) of 3D printing enthusiasts: Entrepreneurial, hobby, individual, and sharing. Based on the theoretical concepts of user innovation and user entrepreneurship, the four ideal types of 3D printing enthusiasts show varying degrees of willingness to engage in 3D communities and disseminate their ideas and innovations beyond inhouse or in-community use. We contribute to user innovation and user entrepreneurship research by highlighting 3D printing enthusiasts as a specific group of user innovators/entrepreneurs with characteristics especially favourable to the diffusion of their ideas, designs, and innovations peer-to-peer or commercially.
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| 9. |
- Bäckström, Izabelle, et al.
(författare)
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Rigorous and Relevant – introducing a critical discourse analysis to the relevance debate
- 2018
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Ingår i: European Business Review. - 0955-534X. ; 30:2, s. 202-215
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how the notion of “relevance” is produced, distributed and consumed in the field of management research by applying a critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a theoretical lens. A CDA perspective offers a way to scrutinize the power relations that emerge with journal rankings and how these influence how the relevance discourse develops. Design/methodology/approach: This paper illustrates how a CDA perspective can be fruitfully applied to the relevance literature, exemplifying such an application with two illustrative texts. The texts represent two distinct cases; one is a fictive story informally distributed among scholars, and the other is an extract of a published review on the relevance debate. Findings: A CDA lens sheds light on how academic power relations are maintained in the production, distribution and consumption of the “relevance” notion. It shows the importance of individual awareness among management researchers of how the discourse is shaped. Research limitations/implications: To increase the generalizability of the study, a CDA lens could be applied to a larger amount of texts in the relevance literature. The findings imply that the relevance literature would benefit from contributions bridging the gap between rigor and relevance, and questioning how power relations are maintained. Originality/value: CDA adds a new perspective to the relevance debate, revealing how academic power relations are maintained with management scholars’ adherence to journal norms and the implications of this act.
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| 10. |
- Bäckström, Izabelle, et al.
(författare)
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The inclusive organisation : Management practices of employee-driven innovation (EDI)
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Journal of Innovation Management. - 1363-9196. ; 25:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of this study is to explore the inclusive involvement of non-R&D and non-managerial employees’ in processes of innovation. It answers a contemporary call for research to investigate a wider scope of organisations in the quest for understanding the interaction between employees and managers in employee-driven innovation (EDI). Based on a qualitative research study of two global corporations, this paper poses the following research question: How does the EDI approach manifest as a new management practice and thereby influence the interaction between employees and managers? By applying a critical discourse analysis, findings reveal that the production, distribution, and consumption of the EDI discourse are pervaded by a dynamic tension in the power relation between the top-level management and employees. While management enforces the impression that the EDI process is inclusive and engaging, employees remain critical to the contrasting way it is communicated.
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