Browsing by Author "Hemel, Stefan"

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    How are partners used in the search for innovations? A systematic review
    (Cranfield University, 2013-09) Hemel, Stefan; Smart, Palie
    The importance of search partnerships has grown as a mode to search for innovations. However, in spite of this development, notions of open innovation combined with new propositions to change the search process in favour of sustainability have unravelled a need to take stock of the existing literature of search partnerships and the aims that these partnerships follow. This review addresses this shortcoming and synthesises the literature on search partnerships to analyse the current state of knowledge to deliver future research opportunities. A systematic review process was adopted by means of a set a set of pre-defined stages. These stages included the formulation and positioning of the review question within the larger literature domains, a systematic research process which included the adoption of search strings, relevance and quality appraisal criteria, as well as a stock-taking process of descriptive and thematic features, which followed the logic of prescriptive synthesis. This process led to a representative sample of 73 articles which were analysed subsequently. The tentative findings reveal that the literature is underpinned by a combination of theories linking to evolutionary or transaction-based understandings of search partnerships. Also, six conditions were found to drive search partnerships and when they are likely to form. Moreover five interventions were identified that relate to the use of search methods, boundary spanning activities, and the number, type and involvement levels with the partner. Finally search partnerships have been found to yield five outcomes: partnerships, and various types of innovations, higher social goals, as well as market knowledge. By combining contexts, interventions, and outcomes, research opportunities are identified that should inform future reviews, including the need for more research in sustainability-led search partnership contexts and a better understanding of search strategy configurations in relation interventions used and anticipated search partnership outcomes obtained.
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    Policy for sustainable entrepreneurship: a crowdsourced framework
    (2016-11-22) Watson, Rosina; Nielsen, K. R.; Mera, Christine elena; Wilson, Hugh; Macdonald, Emma K.; Reisch, L.; Hemel, Stefan
    Sustainable entrepreneurship—entrepreneurship with social and ecological gains as well as economic ones—has the potential to play a significant role in addressing societal and environmental challenges. However, sustainability and entrepreneurship have hitherto been addressed through separate policy regimes, and it is not clear how policymakers can encourage sustainable entrepreneurship specifically. The authors develop a policy framework for sustainable entrepreneurship, using an open innovation approach with policymakers, business executives, academics, entrepreneurs and other relevant actors, including an online crowdsourcing event with 150 participants. The framework incorporates five policy domains: creating awareness and skills; building networks; funding and investing; measuring impact and performance; and innovating government. The article proposes a modified version of the multi-level perspective (MLP) on how socio-technical transitions occur, since the findings suggest that policy can catalyze the facilitation and aggregation of innovations coming from the niche level, thereby evolving the socio-technical regime, in addition to the role of policy described in earlier work in stabilizing the socio-technical regime. Contributions to entrepreneurship policy literature include the policy domain of measuring impact and performance, as appropriate success measures are non-trivial in a triple bottom line environment, and the potential for open policy innovation in entrepreneurship policy. Contributions to sustainability policy literature include the requirements for support mechanisms and capacity building to empower individuals to contribute as innovators and entrepreneurs and not just consumers. The sustainable entrepreneurship framework can be applied by policymakers to develop context-specific policies: this is illustrated with a worked example of EU policy recommendations. The paper also outlines a method for crowdsourcing policy innovations.
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    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.