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This research examines how sustainable product design education can address the deficit in green talent. It presents a framework for a structured curriculum in product design, with hands-on activities, industry-specific case studies, and best practices in alternative design development. The impact of technologies like additive manufacturing on design is considered. Findings demonstrate that knowledge of technological capabilities, industry specific understanding, and proficiency in analytical tools such as Life Cycle Assessments contribute to sustainable designs mitigating a green talent gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past fifteen years, there has been a shift on the part of financial institutions from an initial concern about portfolio and financial risk management to putting more emphasis on their positive or negative impacts in a broader sense. They adopted a strategic and proactive approach on how to better drive their positive impacts. In this context, the extent to which banks have been making commitments and growing their resources and capacity to tackle both environmental and social issues, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), has increased significantly. This growing awareness is the result of both external and internal factors. The present paper focuses on Swedish savings banks’ commitments towards environmental and social progress, and analyses how they are building their internal capacity to deliver on those commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing industrial production means to balance the need of continuously, incrementally, improved production efficiency on one hand, while being capable of introducing radically new and unknown production innovation on the other. Since the total quality management (TQM) movement was introduced, “continuous improvement” (CI) emphasising employee involvement has been commonly implemented in manufacturing companies, while practices for managing radical production innovation has been less focused. As future manufacturing necessarily needs rapid transformation towards a sustainable, resilient production with a perspective shift from shareholder to stakeholder value, refered to as Industry 5.0, building on Industry 4.0 technologies and cyber-physical systems (CPS), production innovation capabilities of the manufacturing firm are increasingly important. Based on four case studies in an ongoing research project, this paper investigates production innovation management, especially from the operator perspective, aiming to enhance understanding of operator contribution and involvement in production innovation, and discusses further developed innovation management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of innovation on growth in established SMEs, by comparing growth outcome, strategic orientation (type of offering and geographical market), and to what extent growth challenges are expressed in terms of innovation between more and less innovative firms. Results indicate that the relationship between innovation activities and economic performance are not immediately linked. It is also observed that the strategic orientation does not differentiate high-innovators from low-innovators. While some high-innovation companies provide products and services successfully on a local market, in close proximity with demanding customers, it is also observed that low-innovation companies reach out internationally, exploiting old innovations, today mainly incrementally refining product and supporting processes. The paper contributes with new insights into the growth challenges of established SMEs, and with a more multi-faceted picture of innovation management for company growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With many manufacturing SMEs underperforming, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate which aspects of Open Innovation (OI) are applied and how these affect the performance of manufacturing SMEs. Using a set of 152 Swedish manufacturing SMEs, internal and external aspects affecting OI application were evaluated with regard how they affect OI performance. Two clusters were identified. One cluster had higher values on all variables except from supporting organizational structures, where the other group had the higher value. However, the variable with the strongest differentiating impact by far was strategic orientation. No significant difference in innovation and financial performance between the two clusters and no difference with regard to financial performance between the SMEs applying OI and those who did not could be established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of fast-growing companies, so-called gazelles, for the creation of jobs and wealth in society is undisputed (e.g. Birch 1981). Less is known about how a firm can become - and stay - a gazelle. While innovation is often pointed out as a key to successful business development, the relationship between investments in innovation and R&D activities and profitable long-term growth is still unclear. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the importance of innovation aspects for rapid growth in small and mediumsized enterprises, SMEs. Empirically, it is based on an initiative to enhance fast growth in SMEs in a region in Sweden. Early results from analyzing 39 cases indicate that innovation factors distinguish fast-growing companies from lowgrowing ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an in-depth case study from a development project in the bank sector. The findings have implications for companies that consider openness in their innovation activities. A large company that wishes to involve suppliers, partners, customers and end-users need to be prepared organizationally, with e.g., motivated individuals, and allocated budgets. This applies regardless company size, but, the study indicates that a smaller firm can more easily involve end-users, and can take advantage of its (built-in) proximity and flexibility towards customers. By knowing more and by planning for openness in a product development project, the expectations of involved parties can more easily be met. The indepth case study illustrates that openness in innovation takes time, and requires efforts, and should not be undertaken unless the company is well prepared for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a study of 409 Swedish SMEs, the difference between the highest growing, which can be characterized as gazelles, and the lowest growing companies were examined regarding performance change 2006-2009 and what contributed to the growth from an innovation perspective. It was concluded that, besides growing, the highest growing companies also showed high profitability, increased number of employees, and significantly higher markets shares locally, nationally and internationally than the lowest growing companies. Several traits were found to contribute to this. The highest growing companies had a significantly higher portion of new products as part of the turnover 2006-2009, and they perceived themselves as better than their competitors at: 1) offering better products, 2) understanding customer needs, 3) being agile, and 4) keeping costs down. They also found it more important to take risks, reinvest any profit and to focus on growth than the lowest growing companies, and this regardless of industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]