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The paper presents a teaching experience in a master course about business models following a pedagogical approach, which combines flipped classroom and backward design to facilitate the development of students’ competencies. The results confirm this method is effective, though it requires a significant shift in both lecturers’ and students’ roles., Journal of Business Models, Vol 7 No 3 (2019): Special Issue: Teaching Business Models - Part 1

The lockdowns of covid-19 contributed to accelerating the developments within distance work and collaboration. This development is impressive in terms of organizations’ and employees’ rapid adoption of digital tools, as well as to the extensive shift of attitude towards working from home. In this paper, we ask how we might exploit covid-findings on digitalisation to prepare innovation management for the impeding developments within AI-based technologies to facilitate their exploration and the exploitation of its potential productivity contribution.

The starting point of this study is a broader review of literature related to innovation partnerships. Based on that review, the concept of Living Labs was identified as a proper enabler of regional collaborative innovation between a variety of stakeholders. Then, the aim was to identify the practices for successful collaboration of Living labs through comparative case study in five European countries, i.e. Austria, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands and Sweden. As a result, we clustered the success factors to four categories: 1) shared vision, 2) funding and operational model 3) collaboration (including orchestration) and complementary partners and 4) value co-creation and impacts of the collaboration. As a practice-oriented comparative case study, there was only limited theoretical contributions; the linkages between different concepts was demonstrated both at literature and at practice.

Multi-actor collaboration is necessary for sustainability-oriented innovations. Thus, despite the common focus on sustainability, differences between the interests of industry (or a firm) and society hinder knowledge sharing, integration, and the protection required for the transformation. Through a case study of bio-based plastics ecosystems, this paper evaluates e role of knowledge sharing and protection methods in boosting collaborative sustainability-oriented innovation. The results indicate that fostering systemic collaborations for sustainable innovations requires finding a proper balance between protecting and sharing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). This balance depends on the objectives of the ecosystem-level collaboration and the actors involved. Accordingly, this supports minimising the risk that protection may hamper collaboration, adoption, and diffusion of sustainable innovations and practices.

The European Union is introducing the concept of the Digital Product Passport (DPP) to the manufacturing industry. The first domain areas are batteries and textiles, but regulation will soon reach all manufacturing domains. In this paper, we briefly discuss the requirements of the DPP and its contributions to the circular economy and sustainable decision making through the product lifecycle and manufacturing value chain. Some preliminary architectural viewpoints are explained, aligned with the intention to exploit the International Data Spaces (IDS) reference architecture for secure data sharing among actors. A practical way to manage the complex innovation process of how to co-create and implement the DPP via several iterative minimum viable DPP deployments is also outlined. It contains the proof-of-concept process with the build-measure-learn circles and the sprint model.

Empirical studies focusing on the emergence of a platform innovation ecosystem and related co-innovation processes are still scarce in the construction and smart building contexts. This longitudinal case study examines an emerging platform innovation ecosystem to tackle productivity challenges in construction projects. Two-phased multi-actor interviews (N=25) and participatory observations were conducted. Empirical findings showed that co-evolution of the platform innovation ecosystem in construction is a dynamic, iterative, and networked process. Complex ecosystem dynamics in cooperation and competition, value creation and value capture, as well as autonomy and orchestration, were identified. Multiple new value creation opportunities and ecosystem outcomes were achieved. It was not only a question of the ecosystemic co-innovation process for smart construction solutions but of the simultaneous development of capabilities for the entire smart building platform ecosystem. Our findings are useful when studying and orchestrating platform innovation ecosystems and related novel value creation opportunities in smart construction and building contexts.

This article investigates the modelling and simulation that supports the implementation of Industry 4.0 through two industrial SME case studies. Our findings suggest that the importance of modelling and simulation is increasing significantly also in the SME context as the use of smart manufacturing technologies proliferate in every industry. Rather than applying all-embracing modelling and simulation tools, SMEs need lighter task-focused tools, which they can nimbly utilize and avoid big investments in modelling tools as well as competence development. Larger companies are leading the Industry 4.0 development, but to take full advantage of the benefits it promises, they need to engage their supply chains that often include SMEs. Further research on the changes Industry 4.0 brings about is needed to support the different stakeholders in the value chains better. Research is also needed in order to take advantage of the opportunities, and to respond to the challenges of this transformation.

The meaning of sustainability is increasing among manufacturing companies, as pressure is coming from both within and outside of the company. Data and sustainability are strongly linked as data, e.g., enables highlighting sustainability actions and measuring implications. This paper studies, how manufacturing companies are seeing the role of sustainability data when innovating their practical actions. We explore the theme by presenting findings from 12 recent interviews with manufacturing companies. The results are demonstrated in a framework for describing companies’ data utilisation and sustainability-related actions, divided into four different types: 1) Beginners in data utilisation having no sustainability focus, 2) Beginners in data utilisation with sustainability focus, 3) Advanced data utilisers with rising sustainability focus and 4) Advanced data utilisers with sustainability focus. In addition, the paper presents practical viewpoints of sustainability data in manufacturing companies. Managerial and theoretical implications consist of clarifying scattered viewpoints for the role of sustainability data in manufacturing companies.

Sustainable business innovations aim to tackle global challenges including environmental and social issues. Establishing business ecosystem based on sustainability-oriented innovations include dealing with a system level change and impacts. In this article we present a single case of an ecosystem looking to solve a global challenge of plastic debris. The ecosystem is looking into establish operations in target markets with a two-phase entry model, both representing a different ecosystem phase. Potential market areas represent areas with no current waste management infrastructure established. We use causal-loop diagrams to visualise the concepts of these ecosystem phases and aim to identify major characteristics affecting the expansion of these ecosystems. The sustainability-oriented innovation may attract funding opportunities to support initial ecosystem phase and help to gather resources for expansion.