School of Management (SoM)

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Open Access
Appraising the transformation and future of digital multisided platforms- A bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review
(IEEE, 2023-10-12) Qureshi, Farrukh Naseem; Pundziene, Asta; Adams, Richard
This article draws on the digital multisided platform (DMSP) literature from 1990 to 2022 to systematically review and synthesize its themes and contexts. We analyzed 344 articles from Web of Science and Scopus databases using a two-step approach: 1) bibliometric analysis to identify principle research themes in the DMSP literature; and 2) content analysis to develop these themes further. This article contributes to highlighting the DMSP role in Industry 4.0 and Service 4.0, which is an exclusive finding that has not been discussed by any other SLR paper before, along with highlighting competition and collaborative innovation, antitrust, platform typologies, and data privacy as a future research direction, also, this article analyzes the challenges and makes recommendations. In this way, the review advances the current understanding of the growing field of DMSP. Further, the article offers practical insights to guide policymakers, strategists, and managers about the prominent implications. The article does not only review the literature but offers a consolidated account of critical analysis, reviewing the evolution of DMSP. The bibliometric analysis depicts current research trends presenting us with four clusters: 1) innovation and entrepreneurship, 2) sharing economy, 3) business model, and 4) network effects in DMSP literature. We have identified research gaps and presented future research questions for scholars to investigate along with managerial implications of DMSP owners and stakeholders.
Open Access
Customer insights generation at the front end of innovation: an exploration within a medical device company
(Cranfield University, 2023-06) Grant, Stuart Russell; Goffin, Keith; Adams, Richard
It is generally agreed that product innovation happens when innovation teams conduct market research to uncover customer needs. It has also been reported that customer needs and customer insights are essential for radical innovation. Over the last 40 years, research into customer needs has defined needs as either articulated or unarticulated, with associated market research methods to uncover needs and insights, such as surveys, questionnaires, observation, interviews, and a repertory grid. Though customer needs are well-defined, customer insights need an adequate definition. Although definitions exist in the marketing and psychology literature, they are unclear or often conflicting within the product innovation field. For example, customer insights are either a separate concept from a need or a component of needs. As such, how both these concepts relate to radical innovation remains unclear. Furthermore, the process of uncovering customer needs has been well defined; conversely, the process that links the uncovering of customer needs and discovering customer insights requires an improved framework. Nevertheless, does understanding the relationship and process between needs and insights matter and warrant being studied? If, as suggested, finding customer needs leads to incremental innovation and customer insights lead to radical innovation, then understanding this is worthwhile. This is because, firstly, for academics, investigating what innovation teams are doing during the front end of innovation (FEI) will allow them to analyse the data from case studies research more effectively. Secondly, practitioners will better appreciate the FEI process and be able to categorise their findings from market research into needs and insights, which will assist with considering the type of innovation being pursued. Therefore, understanding the relationship between a need and an insight is required. A fuller understanding of the process of discovering insights in the FEI is needed. Through a systematic literature review (SLR) and an exploratory case study, the research attempts to investigate this conceptualisation of customer insight in product innovation and understand the relationship between needs and insights. The SLR reviewed the extant literature on the definitions of, the methods used for finding, and the relationship between needs and insights. The exploratory case study investigated the process of discovering customer insight with innovation teams in a global medical technology company. The research had two strands – retrospective and longitudinal. Five retrospective cases were conducted immediately after the FEI had finished: four interviews per case, totalling 20 interviews. Four longitudinal cases followed the FEI for ten months; an interview was conducted with the participants at 1-, 4-, and 10-month intervals throughout the front end process; this totalled 45 interviews with 15 participants from the four cases. In addition to the interview data, documentation was also collected from all nine cases. The data was collected and analysed based on coding from the literature. The research extends the body of literature on customer needs and insights. From a theoretical perspective, the study provides a clearer understanding of the definition of customer needs and insights. It also suggests the relationship between the concepts of need and insight. The framework proposed that discovering insights produces a better understanding of the front end process. This process is iterative, whereby finer needs are uncovered, and deeper insights are discovered as the team further understands the customer and the market research. From a practice perspective, the study assists innovation in better appreciating the interaction of needs and insights. The research also helps product innovation teams better categorise their market research findings into needs and insights that may drive more radical innovations.
Open Access
Data supply chain (DSC): research synthesis and future directions
(Taylor and Francis, 2017-11-09) Spanaki, Konstantina; Gürgüç, Zeynep; Adams, Richard; Mulligan, Catherine
In the digital economy, the volume, variety and availability of data produced in myriad forms from a diversity of sources has become an important resource for competitive advantage, innovation opportunity as well as source of new management challenges. Building on the theoretical and empirical foundations of the traditional manufacturing Supply Chain (SC), which describes the flow of physical artefacts as raw materials through to consumption, we propose the Data Supply Chain (DSC) along which data are the primary artefact flowing. The purpose of this paper is to outline the characteristics and bring conceptual distinctiveness to the context around DSC as well as to explore the associated and emergent management challenges and innovation opportunities. To achieve this, we adopt the systematic review methodology drawing on the operations management and supply chain literature and, in particular, taking a framework synthetic approach which allows us to build the DSC concept from the pre-existing SC template. We conclude the paper by developing a set of propositions and outlining an agenda for future research that the DSC concept implies.
Open Access
How COVID-19 impacted the tacit knowledge and social interaction of global NPD project teams
(Taylor & Francis, 2022-02-18) Cecchi, Michele Angelo; Grant, Stuart; Seiler, Matthias; Turner, Neil; Adams, Richard; Goffin, Keith
Multinational, technology-intensive companies routinely use globally distributed R&D teams, but COVID-19 represented an additional challenge. Lockdowns and home-office working severely limit human interaction and can impact the communication, social interaction, and knowledge sharing critical to successful R&D. Our study investigated how COVID-19 affected R&D processes at three global companies, using a project complexity perspective. Although R&D managers responsible for global projects are accustomed to the challenges of managing communications, the fact that teams were forced into home-office working made new product development more difficult in several ways. Ensuring that technical details are understood by all members of dispersed teams is crucial. Of particular note, and central to our findings, is the emphasis that R&D managers placed on maintaining a high level of social interaction in their teams, and special efforts were needed to keep interactions at a sufficient level to foster the generation and transfer of tacit knowledge. The findings have strong implications for the way that R&D project management is likely to be conducted in a post-COVID-19 world, and we demonstrate how the complexity framework we used can benefit managers in navigating this and other challenges.
Open Access
Perceptions of innovations: exploring and developing innovation classification
(Cranfield University, 2003-09) Adams, Richard; Tranfield, David; Denyer, David
The capacity to innovate is commonly regarded as a key response mechanism, a critical organisational competence for success, even survival, for organisations operating in turbulent conditions. Understanding how innovation works, therefore, continues to be a significant agenda item for many researchers. Innovation, however, is generally recognised to be a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. Classificatory approaches have been used to provide conceptual frameworks for descriptive purposes and to help better understand innovation. Further, by the facility of pattern recognition, classificatory approaches also attempt to elevate theorising from the specific and contextual to something more abstract and generalisable. Over the last 50 years researchers have sought to explain variance in innovation activities and processes, adoption and diffusion patterns and, performance outcomes in terms of these different ‘types’ of innovation. Three generic approaches to the classification of innovations can be found in the literature (innovation newness, area of focus and attributes). In this research, several limitations of these approaches are identified: narrow specification, inconsistent application across studies and, indistinct and permeable boundaries between categories. One consequence is that opportunities for cumulative and comparative research are hampered. The assumption underpinning this research is that, given artefact multidimensionality, it is not unreasonable to assume that we might expect to see the diversity of attributes being patterned into distinct configurations. In a mixed-method study, comprising of three empirical phases, the innovation classification problem is addressed through the design, testing and application of a multi-dimensional framework of innovation, predicated on perceived attributes. Phase I is characterised by an iterative process, in which data from four case studies of successful innovation in the UK National Health Service are synthesised with those drawn from an extensive thematic interrogation of the literature, in order to develop the framework. The second phase is concerned with identifying whether or not innovations configure into discrete, identifiable types based on the multidimensional conceptualisation of innovation artefact, construed in terms of innovation attributes. The framework is operationalised in the form of a 56-item survey instrument, administered to a sample consisting of 310 different innovations. 196 returns were analysed using methods developed in biological systematics. From this analysis, a taxonomy consisting of three discrete types (type 1, type 2 and type 3 innovations) emerges. The taxonomy provides the basis for additional theoretical development. In phase III of the research, the utility of the taxonomy is explored in a qualitative investigation of the processes underpinning the development of exemplar cases of each of the three innovation types. This research presents an integrative approach to the study of innovation based on the attributes of the innovation itself, rather than its effects. Where the challenge is to manage multiple discrete data combinations along a number of dimensions, the configurational approach is especially relevant and can provide a richer understanding and description of the phenomenon of interest. Whilst none of the dimensions that comprise the proposed framework are new in themselves, what is original is the attempt to deal with them simultaneously in order that innovations may be classified according to differences in the way in which their attributes configure. This more sensitive classification of the artefact permits a clearer exploration of relationship issues between the innovation, its processes and outcomes.
Open Access
Pre-paradigmatic status of industrial sustainability: a systematic review
(Emerald, 2017-10-01) Smart, Palie; Hemel, Stefan; Lettice, Fiona; Adams, Richard; Evans, Stephen
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to progress operations management theory and practice by organising contributions to knowledge production, in industrial sustainability, from disparate researcher communities. It addresses the principal question “What scholarly dialogues can be explicated in the emerging research field of industrial sustainability?” and sub-questions: what are the descriptive characteristics of the evidence base? and what thematic lines of scientific inquiry underpin the body of knowledge? Design/methodology/approach Using an evidenced-based approach, a systematic review (SR) of 574 articles from 62 peer-reviewed scientific journals associated with industrial sustainability is conducted. Findings This paper distinguishes three prevailing dialogues in the field of industrial sustainability, and uses Kuhn’s theory of paradigms to propose its pre-paradigmatic scientific status. The three dialogues: “productivity and innovation”, “corporate citizenship” and “economic resilience” are conjectured to privilege efficiency strategies as a mode of incremental reductionism. Industrial sustainability espouses the grand vision of a generative, restorative and net positive economy, and calls for a future research trajectory to address institutional and systemic issues regarding scaling-up and transition, through transformative strategies. Research limitations/implications The review is limited by the nature of the inquiries addressed in the literatures by specific researcher communities between 1992 and 2014. Originality/value This study performs the first SR in the field of industrial sustainability, synthesises prevailing scholarly dialogues and provides an evaluation of the scientific status of the field.
Open Access
A review of the literature addressing the role of knowledge and expertise at key stages of business growth and development. Final Report
(Dti - Department of Trade and Industry., 2005-08) Bessant, John; Phelps, Bob; Adams, Richard
Open Access
The role of the social system in the diffusion of innovation in low to middle income countries: the case of be he@lthy, be mobile.
(Cranfield University, 2021-07) Ihasz, Orsolya; Adams, Richard; Vyakarnam, Shailendra
Actors across the private, public and third sector are increasingly embracing the idea of promoting the use of externally developed social innovations to address important social challenges globally. Successful diffusion of these types of innovations has the potential to offer long term solutions to grand challenges. However, when diffusing innovations into low to middle income countries (LMICs), significant problems arise, particularly due to lack of cross-sectoral alignment in financial and technical resource deployment. This thesis contributes to the understanding of how multiple actors engage in activities to support the diffusion of externally developed social innovations into LMICs. We argue that through purpose-led alignment around a mission-orientated goal that is focused on solving social challenges and through the combining resources and knowledge across all sectors, through the active empowerment of civil society in creating value and continuous feedback loops, externally developed social innovations can contribute greatly to the emergence of new innovation ecosystems in LMICs. A systematic literature review illuminates the role of the social system in successfully enabling widespread diffusion, especially in creating value from the use of the innovation. We propose that the social system perspective, which conceptualise diverse actors engaged in a dynamic process, permits a systems view of diffusion in which long term collaborations and the integration of indigenous knowledge into communication processes are associated with successful diffusion. The role of social systems in value creation is been further investigated through an in-depth case study of the World Health Organization’s Be He@lthy, Be Mobile initiative across three different countries (Senegal, Sudan and India). The case highlights how civil society drives the diffusion process through its ability to manoeuvre across the social system and to actively search for innovative solutions. While our research has implications for the introduction of improved strategic investment across sectors it also contributes to the theory of innovation diffusion by moving away from an innovation- centric view and instead adopting a systems-centric view. It hence allows us both to view diffusion as a co-creation process and to reconfigure adopter and diffuser communities into one conceptual field.
Open Access
Social media representations of innovation by non-users: everyday problem solving
(ISPIM, 2021) Adams, Richard; Quinton, Sarah; Pera, Rebecca
This exploratory study extends the conceptual space of open innovation. We build on previous work recognising opportunities to contribute to a firm's innovation processes, particularly ideation, from the external environment. Initially, scholarship focused on users’ intimate knowledge of a firm’s products and services such as suppliers and lead users. More recently, affordances of digital technologies have broadened the scope of contributors to include, for example, crowdsourcing. We go a step further and consider the often-overlooked group ‘non-users’. Specifically, employing a novel two-stage approach incorporating network visualization based on 7607 Instagram #innovation posts supplemented by qualitative analysis, we explore the contribution non-users might make to firms’ innovation activities. Findings suggest that nonusers conceptualise innovation as problem solving but represent it through ludic and utopic narratives. The value of non-users in the innovation process is not in addressing specific technical problems but in offering a new lens through which to appreciate the phenomenon of innovation itself.
Open Access
Sustainability-oriented innovation: a systematic review
(Wiley, 2015-05-15) Adams, Richard; Jeanrenaud, Sally; Bessant, John; Denyer, David; Overy, Patrick
This paper is intended as a contribution to the ongoing conceptual development of sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI) and provides initial guidance on becoming and being sustainable. The authors organize and integrate the diverse body of empirical literature relating to SOI and, in doing so, develop a synthesized conceptual framework onto which SOI practices and processes can be mapped. Sustainability-oriented innovation involves making intentional changes to an organization's philosophy and values, as well as to its products, processes or practices to serve the specific purpose of creating and realizing social and environmental value in addition to economic returns. A critical reading of previous literature relating to environmental management and sustainability reveals how little attention has been paid to SOI, and what exists is only partial. In a review of 100 scholarly articles and 27 grey sources drawn from the period of the three Earth Summits (1992, 2002 and 2012), the authors address four specific deficiencies that have given rise to these limitations: the meaning of SOI; how it has been conceptualized; its treatment as a dichotomous phenomenon; and a general failure to reflect more contemporary practices. The authors adopt a framework synthesis approach involving first constructing an initial architecture of the landscape grounded in previous studies, which is subsequently iteratively tested, shaped, refined and reinforced into a model of SOI with data drawn from included studies: so advancing theoretical development in the field of SOI.
Open Access
Sustainable entrepreneurship as a community of practice.
(Cranfield University, 2022-12) Mera, Christine Elena; Adams, Richard; Wilson, Hugh; Macdonald, Emma K.
Sustainable entrepreneurship literature at the micro-level of individual enterprises identifies several issues hampering their growth, such as lack of funding and other resources, and psychological and/or geographical isolation. Macro-level research identifies attempts at supportive policy, such as new enterprise funding and incubation hubs; however, sustainable entrepreneurs often find these resources inaccessible or insufficient. There is very limited research, however, examining the impact of the meso-level context of sustainable entrepreneurs, and whether this level can help address their challenges. This study’s motivating objective is therefore: To examine the phenomenon of sustainable entrepreneurship at the meso-level, in order to better understand how it can be enabled. Initial field immersion in an EU-funded research project led abductively to the observation that actors in the sustainable entrepreneurship field appear to interact at the meso-level to address issues collaboratively. This led to the overarching research question: Does a community of practice form around sustainable entrepreneurship, and if so, what does it look like? Three more specific questions were: RQ1: What drives the formation of a sustainable entrepreneurship community of practice? RQ2: What shared practices does the sustainable entrepreneurship community of practice enact? And RQ3: What outcomes arise from these practices, and for whom? These questions were explored through analysis of data-collection episodes over a three-year period that the author attended as a participant observer alongside sustainable entrepreneurs and allied stakeholders. A key finding is that a sustainable-entrepreneurship community of practice exists: actors with a shared commitment to the domain of sustainable entrepreneurship collaborate as part of a community to solve problems by sharing practice and learning from one another. Four drivers for this community of practice are identified: perceived isolation, a lack of resources, reduced government, and prosocial motivation. The community participates in four high-level practices: network building, resource sharing, evolving business models, and re-shaping the sustainable entrepreneurship infrastructure. Four categories of outcome from the community of practice emerge: individual empowerment, enterprise scaling and proliferating, civil society strengthening, and mainstreaming sustainable entrepreneurship. Collectively, these practices can reduce some of the issues facing sustainable entrepreneurs, such as limited funding and resources. This thesis contributes to communities of practice theory by demonstrating that the feature of situated learning (Lave and Wenger, 2011) via the four shared practices creates social capital, highlighted in the entrepreneurship literature as a key factor for success (Honig and Davidsson, 2003). In this way, this thesis provides a novel contribution to theory by indicating how participation in the community of practice can help sustainable entrepreneurs address the issues identified and thereby develop, scale and replicate triple-bottom-line business models. They do so, not just solving problems but supporting the wider multistakeholder members to maximise opportunities and positively influence the societal and political environment for SE. It also shows how situated learning about the domain more widely is both a motivation and desired outcome of CoP membership. Through the social capital generated, this community can influence the macro-level and thereby further mainstream the phenomenon of sustainable entrepreneurship.
Open Access
University culture and sustainability: designing and implementing an enabling framework
(Elsevier, 2017-10-04) Adams, Richard; Martin, Stephen; Boom, Katy
Universities across the globe are giving increasing priority to the challenges of sustainability, encouraged by a variety of drivers including international and national policy, student and societal pressures. Many extant initiatives focus on a relatively narrow set of activities including: Technological solutions; Integrating sustainability across the curriculum; Integrating sustainability as an operational, strategic and outreach principle. These have met with mixed success, and have overlooked the importance of cultural change in embedding sustainability. Drawing and building upon previous studies in the cultural change and sustainability literature, the purpose of this article is to propose a conceptual framework for designing interventions and measuring and monitoring progress in building and embedding a university sustainability culture. Initial staff and student survey data from a UK university has been applied to the framework and their interpretation and implications are explored.

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