| 1. |
- Ericson, Åsa, et al.
(författare)
-
Exploit and explore : two ways of categorizing innovation projects
- 2011
-
Ingår i: Impacting society through engineering design. - Glasgow : Design Research Society. - 9781904670230 ; , s. 284-293
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Innovation is vital to companies, but also difficult to perform since there are many ways to approach the subject. Typically, a balance between all issues related to innovation is suggested in literature. The empirical study presented in this paper elaborates on two strategies for innovation projects, namely to exploit existing solutions and to explore a market to develop breakthrough solutions. This is done for the purpose to discuss management implications, and thereby also make those transparent for innovation projects. The result indicates that managerial implications for radical innovation projects are to provide internal legitimacy for the projects intentions, to provide for a clear view of balancing aspects by using concepts that fit into opposite ends on a continuum, and to preserve a rich information base about users.
|
|
| 2. |
|
|
| 3. |
- Andersson, Linda, et al.
(författare)
-
The Swedish flex-fuel failure
- 2016
-
Ingår i: BEHAVE 2016.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
|
|
| 4. |
- Andersson, Linda, et al.
(författare)
-
Transition towards sustainable transportation : What determines fuel choice?
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Transport Policy. - : Elsevier. - 0967-070X .- 1879-310X. ; 90, s. 31-38
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- For the transport sector to become more sustainable, substantial technological and behavioural changes are required. Increased understanding about household choices related to more green alternatives in transportation is needed in order for policy makers to make efficient policies in the future. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze which factors that determines the fuel choice between ethanol and gasoline for owners of flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs). We evaluate how the self-reported fuel choice is influenced by the relative price, as well as individual differences in norms and perceptions about environmental and quality attributes of ethanol. Data was collected through a survey sent to Swedish FFV owners and is analyzed in a binary choice and a LCM framework. Results show that price, perceptions about quality, age and environmental attitudes influence the self-reported willingness to choose ethanol. Furthermore, results show that preferences are not homogenous, three groups are identified; price conscious respondents, ethanol skeptical respondents and respondents with pronounced environmental concern. However, although the motive for introducing and subsidizing ethanol was to reduce climate and environmental impacts, the group that chooses ethanol based on climate and environmental motives is small. The results further reveal that the debate about motor damages from ethanol have had a long lasting effect on the willingness to choose ethanol. Thus, it is necessary to try to prevent or mitigate concerns regarding e.g. potential technical or ethical issues when promoting future technologies or fuels aimed at a sustainable transportation sector.
|
|
| 5. |
- Andersson, Linda, et al.
(författare)
-
Why flex-fuel failed? : A household perspective
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Meeting Sweden's current and future energy challenges, Luleå: Luleå tekniska universitet, 2016. - Luleå : Luleå tekniska universitet.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
|
|
| 6. |
- Kastensson, Åsa, et al.
(författare)
-
Decision-making in gates : based on formal basis or gut feeling?
- 2011
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning (IJTIP). - 1740-2832 .- 1740-2840. ; 7:2, s. 140-152
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Manufacturing companies continuously deal with development of innovations. Many of these are cancelled on the way, in gate meetings. This paper investigates why technologies are cancelled, and on which basis managers make decisions. The paper is based on a study from the automotive industry with interviews with different stakeholders in the gates. The most common reasons for stopping projects were time, cost and technology readiness. Gut feeling is found to be an important factor when evaluating projects. This paper concludes that managers need to understand the role of intuition and query for this subjective information in addition to objective measures.
|
|
| 7. |
- Kastensson, Åsa
(författare)
-
Developing lightweight concepts in the automotive industry : taking on the environmental challenge with the SåNätt project
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 66, s. 337-346
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Given the all-encompassing environmental challenge facing the automotive industry the weight of the car is one essential factor that has an effect on CO2 emissions for both conventional cars and for Electric Vehicles and Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Even though automakers understand and have largely mastered the technical difficulties involved with alternatives to the all-steel body, the mainstream industry has nevertheless for the most part retained it. The purpose of this paper is to explore the SåNätt lightweight project as a concrete example of how two Swedish automakers (Saab and Volvo) have approached the lightweight challenge, but also to conceptualize the project in terms of what hinders and enables environmental innovations in the automotive industry. The result of the study indicates fundamentally different approaches between the automakers. While Saab focused on radical development of new concepts aiming to build a supplier structure for collaboration, Volvo focused on incremental development emphasizing short-term implementation. The empirical data also reveals a tendency for Volvo to be more deeply committed to its infrastructure for body manufacturing (the production of the all-steel body), thus hindering more radical changes. The paper concludes by highlighting a paradox emerging from the case, questioning whether established actors in the automotive industry can effectively deal with the environmental challenge.
|
|
| 8. |
- Kastensson, Åsa, et al.
(författare)
-
Embracing risk to pursue product innovation in automotive industry
- 2010
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A company’s ability to successfully introduce radically new products and services is a key success factor for sustaining competitive advantage. This is particularly true for the automotive industry, where smaller manufacturers with niche products struggle to compete with the large-scale efforts of their bigger competitors, and are thus in desperate need to innovate their way out of the current crisis. A key challenge for companies seeking innovation is how to better understand the role of risk in innovative practice. The purpose of this study is to investigate how managers within an automotive company perceive the concept of innovation and the relation between innovation and risk. The study is based on interviews with fifteen managers representing a cross-section of disciplines. The analysis of the informants’ answers resulted in two overarching themes, “novelty” and “value”, which were further broken down into seven sub-themes to highlight different facets of innovation that were raised by managers from these disciplines. While there were many similarities in the perceptions, the most striking differences related to; 1) innovation as being about the “combination of things to something new”, and 2) innovation as being about increasing “customer value”. Several informants noted that risk taking is a success factor to achieve innovation, but they also acknowledged that there are several inhibiting factors that are in contradiction with this approach, such as limited time and money. Further the paper has highlighted the crucial challenge of how to effectively balance risk and opportunity to invest in long-term opportunities, without risking short-term growth.
|
|
| 9. |
- Kastensson, Åsa
(författare)
-
Managing innovation projects : a perspective of explore and exploit
- 2011
-
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A company’s ability to introduce new products and services is a key success factor for sustaining competitive advantage. In parallel, the manufacturing industry faces the challenge of delivering customer-perceived value, so-called service offerings, rather than merely goods. Consequently, innovation capabilities become more important than ever. In particular, companies acting in a business-to-consumer market environment have found that launching innovations is crucial to business success.A product development process generally starts from some kind of user need or the identification of a market opportunity. Such a process is commonly described as consisting of stages and decision gates, supporting a fairly sequential process where information about a known solution is managed. Some argue that innovation projects fit into this kind of process, and some argue that they do not since the requirements of innovations cannot be known beforehand. One cause of these conflicting arguments could be that perceptions of what constitutes an innovation differ. The literature describes two types of innovation: incremental (step wise) and radical (disruptive). This thesis builds on the assumption that these two types have to be managed differently. One key issue for the company studied is that there seem to be aspects that hinder the implementation of really creative and great innovations into products. The company has a history of technical innovations, but currently needs processes that assure innovations will be implemented into products, and thus will actually benefit users and strengthen the company’s competitiveness. Consequently, an overall purpose of the research project upon which this work is based, is to increase the possibilities for implementation of innovations of products. The work outlined in this thesis has been guided by two research questions: how is innovation perceived within the company? And, how are innovation projects managed today?The study is based on an action research approach that has generated qualitative empirical data. The methodology is explorative and descriptive in nature. Data have been generated by participation in projects, interviews and workshops.The initial studies focused on innovation as a concept, and a number of keywords describing the company view were identified, thus providing a point of view for continued research efforts. The literature review has shed light on the perspectives explore (related to radical innovation) and exploit (related to incremental innovation) as adding a dimension to the management of innovation projects. The perspectives have been tested in a workshop with innovation managers and resulted in insights about how to balance different types of projects. Moreover, the study of the gated processes for product development and interviews with decision makers indicate that further investigation of the gate criteria is important. In light of the explore and exploit perspectives, it seems that the applied gates might sort out innovation early on.
|
|
| 10. |
- Kastensson, Åsa
(författare)
-
Managing Product Innovation in the Automotive Industry : in light of the environmental challenge
- 2014
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A company’s ability to introduce new products is a key success factor for sustaining a competitive advantage. Increasing environmental concerns are an even stronger incentive to innovate. Environmental regulations will exert immense pressure on manufacturing industries, which will increase in the future, enabling a more sustainable world for coming generations. Facing the automotive industry, an aggravating circumstance is, however, that the industry is deeply affected by the paradigm grounded in mass production, a dominant design and incremental development. A common view in the innovation literature is that large, established firms usually experience difficulty fostering radical innovations. Taking on the environmental challenge, it is argued that companies lack the methods, tools and processes to scan markets and to find opportunities beyond their existing businesses. Further challenges fostering radical innovations are the conflicting demands to explore new opportunities in parallel with daily business. The aim of this thesis is to explore the prerequisites embracing innovations in terms of what hinders and enables the development and implementation of new technologies in future products. The research question is answered through qualitative studies at Saab Automobile, Volvo Cars and the lightweight project SåNätt. I also draw upon my experience working in the automotive industry for many years. The empirical studies revealed different approaches to develop radical innovations. While one of the companies focused on radical development of new concepts aiming to build a supplier structure for collaboration, the other company’s focus was on incremental development of technical solutions to be implemented in a shorter time horizon. However both companies were stuck in the paradigm where the first focused on more explorative projects and through significant interest in technology and a more informal way of working, they managed to bypass several parts in the paradigm. The other company was managing the projects through a formal process governed by strategic plans and a strong implementation focus and was more deeply committed to its infrastructure for body manufacturing thus hindering more radical changes. The thesis shows that some inertias in the paradigm can indeed be challenged, but it also shows that in order to succeed in an environmentally driven transition, the paradigm dominating the automotive industry has to be questioned.
|
|
