Problem exploration for creating value propositions when developing point-of-care solutions

Point-of-care (POC) testing has been increasingly proposed as one of the most promising solutions for improving healthcare provision as it enables fast and accurate testing both inside and outside hospital settings. Many of these POC device stem from academic research. Yet, the commercialization of these devices through academic spin-offs is not straigthforward. Many academic spin-offs fail due to an inproperly articulated value proposition. To create a value proposition with biosensors it is crucial to understand how they can be used to address problems in the current diagnostics processes and protocols. Therefore, this paper studies how different university teams engage in problem exploration to better understand how they can translate the technical features of their POC testing solutions into an attractive value proposition. To be able to study this, a qualitative case study research design was chosen. In particular, 11 university student teams participating in the SensUs contest were studied. The main findings show that teams adopting search patterns involving a 'broader' (i.e., considering a wider range of problems and stakeholders) and a more 'interconnected' (i.e., thematically linking problems with one another) problem-exploration were more successful in creating contest outcomes (biosensing solutions) with greater commercial viability. Moreover, teams that sougth direct feedback from market experts generated more commercially viable projects than teams that relied primarly on advice from technical experts.

Exploring the effects of problem- and solution-related knowledge sharing in internal crowdsourcing

Purpose

Firms increasingly rely on both external and internal crowdsourcing to capture ideas more broadly and enhance innovative problem-solving. Especially in internal crowdsourcing, knowledge sharing that contributes to develop or further the understanding of the problem the idea is focused on solving can take place between critical employees, and in that way improve ideas generated by others. This far, most crowdsourcing practices have focused on identifying solutions to proposed problems, whereas much less is known about how crowds can be used to share problem-related knowledge. There is thus an untapped potential in leveraging crowds not just to generate solution-oriented ideas but also to share knowledge to improve ideas and even to reframe problems. This paper aims to explore the effect of problem- and solution-related knowledge sharing in internal crowdsourcing for idea development.

Design/methodology/approach

Data on ideas and comments were collected from an idea management system in a Swedish multinational company. The investigation captures the influences of the problem- and solution-related knowledge sharing on ideas based on content analysis and logistic regression analysis.

Findings

The results from this study show that sharing knowledge related to solutions in idea development impacts idea acceptance positively, whereas sharing knowledge related to problems in idea development has a negative effect on the likelihood of idea acceptance and these effects of knowledge sharing are moderated by the active author responses.

Practical implications

This research provides managerial implications for firms to deliberately manage knowledge sharing in peer communities in internal crowdsourcing, especially by providing suggestions on problem reframing and solution refining for ideas.

Originality/value

The results contribute to existing theory in terms of extending the view of crowdsourcing in ideation to include how crowds contribute to the development of the problem and the solution during the development of ideas and providing new insights on knowledge sharing in internal crowdsourcing based on problem-solving theory.

Empowering College Students’ Problem-Solving Skills through RICOSRE

Problem-solving skills are advantageous when resolving complicated and multidimensional challenges. Problem-solving skills can be developed through active learning models that engage students in the learning process. One active learning model is RICOSRE. The main focus of RICOSRE is problem-solving activities in (1) reading; (2) identifying the problem; (3) constructing the solution; (4) solving the problem; (5) reviewing the solution; and (6) extending the solution. The purpose of this study was to assess the ongoing development of problem-solving skills of students with upper, middle, and lower academic abilities at the Department of Biology Education in a state university in Indonesia. This study employed a concurrent embedded mixed-methods design. The repeated-measures ANOVA was used to test the hypothesis for the quantitative data, and NVivo 12 was utilized to analyze the qualitative data. The participants’ problem-solving skills were determined by their responses to items on RICOSRE-integrated worksheets. The students’ responses were graded using a validated and reliable problem-solving rubric. The findings indicated that the students’ problem-solving skills improved consistently in the upper, middle, and lower academic groups that were taught by implementing RICOSRE.

Shaping the Future: Strategy Making as Artificial Evolution

To investigate how firms engage in forward-looking action, we examined the processes by which a pioneering firm actively influenced the future of its industry over five decades. From our longitudinal field study, we generated a process model of strategy making that helps to explain how firms work to shape the future in some preferred fashion. Specifically, we describe our findings on shaping-oriented forward-looking strategy making in terms of “artificial evolution” processes—interventions by which a firm’s leaders challenge the status quo and leverage the internal ecology of the organization to nudge the evolution of the business landscape toward a preferred direction. This is distinct from the more conventional and commonly invoked natural selection processes that describe how firms adapt to markets or unintentionally shape them. These findings on strategy making as akin to artificial evolution complement and extend the traditional view of strategic management, which has historically focused on processes anchored in models of search and adaptation. Our findings also shed light on an exceptional mode of strategy making—one that goes beyond concerns of firm survival and competitive advantage, and tackles societal grand challenges. By accounting for constructivist, forward-looking dimensions of strategic agency, our findings also contribute to the microfoundations of strategic decision making and to organization theories, more generally.

Firms, crowds, and innovation

The purpose of this article is to suggest a (preliminary) taxonomy and research agenda for the topic of "firms, crowds, and innovation" and to provide an introduction to the associated special issue. We specifically discuss how various crowd-related phenomena and practices-for example, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, user innovation, and peer production-relate to theories of the firm, with particular attention on "sociality" in firms and markets. We first briefly review extant theories of the firm and then discuss three theoretical aspects of sociality related to crowds in the context of strategy, organizations, and innovation: (1) the functions of sociality (sociality as extension of rationality, sociality as sensing and signaling, sociality as matching and identity), (2) the forms of sociality (independent/aggregate and interacting/emergent forms of sociality), and (3) the failures of sociality (misattribution and misapplication). We conclude with an outline of future research directions and introduce the special issue papers and essays.