Uppsats för avläggande av filosofie kandidatexamen iKulturvård, Trädgårdens hantverk och design22,5 hp, 2014.

Organizations that want to maintain a good innovation capability can seek knowledge both within and outside its boundaries. Opening up innovation processes, through so-called open innovation, allows organizations to combine internal and external knowledge sources in order to include previously excluded perspectives to the innovation process. This study examines how knowledge is created and transferred when conducting open innovation through crowdsourcing. It is done based on Nonaka?s (1991; 1994) theory of how knowledge is created through conversion processes, where implicit knowledge can be converted into explicit knowledge and vice versa.

The purpose of this thesis is to study and determine how working in cross functional teams can generate value in an effort to facilitate innovation. An inductive scientific perspective is chosen as the research approach. A single case is investigated with the theoretical framework based on Resource Based View, Intellectual Capital, Innovation theory and theories concerning Cross Functional Teams. The empirical material has been collected through primary data; surveys, interviews and secondary data; literature, websites and further complementary data. The practice of using Cross Functional Teams will enhance organizational learning, knowledge transfer, increase communication and innovation, which in turn will increase the speed and performance of the new product development process.

Al Gore may have helped put global warming on the agenda. However, it is not a new subject. Neither is so called green marketing a new phenomenon within branding and communication. As more and more companies establish environmental strategies there exist beliefs that the environmental focus is becoming a triviality, which is the reason for this study. Implementation of words such as ?environmentally friendly?, ?green? and ?global warming? is becoming more and more widespread and frequently used within marketing communication.

Motivation främjar innovation, men innovationsprocesser måste samtidigt ta hänsyn till organisationens förutsättningar. Det krävs en jämvikt mellan flexibilitet och struktur i organisationen där team är ett optimalt sätt att skapa en sådan balans. Resultatet presenteras även i analysverktyget ITM med praktiska tillämpningsområden..

För att en organisation ska kunna överleva i en tid som präglas av förändring och hård konkurrens, krävs en organisationskultur som främjar innovation. Många av de komponenter som litteratur inom innovationsområdet beskrivs som essentiella för just en sådan här kultur, återfinns också i improvisationsteater. Den här studien binder samman dessa två områden, både ur ett teoretiskt perspektiv och genom en praktisk, undersökande studie. Studiens hypotes var: ?Improvisationsteaterworkshops kan, av ett arbetslag, upplevas som ett fungerande verktyg till att på längre sikt kunna skapa en organisationskultur som främjar innovation.? För att kunna verifiera eller falsifiera hypotesen, genomfördes tre improvisationsteaterworkshops på ett företag där åtta deltagare på ett lekfullt och prestigelöst sätt fick ta del av hur improvisationsteater kan relateras till arbetslivet på olika sätt.

This master of science thesis intends to examine how the established innovation theoriesinteracts with the social and cultural phenomena arising from the reduction in communicationcosts as a result of the development of the internet.The aim is to present a knowledge inventory of attitudes to and experiences of an openapproach, with emphasis on collaborative innovation, in product and service developmentdriven companies in different fields. The studied theories and the empirical results forms thebasis for an analysis of how companies can benefit from the diversified knowledge that existsoutside their borders as well as an exploration of the potential for this kind of knowledgeexchange to act as a catalyst for innovation.The theoretical part of the study is based essentially on two tracks: (1) innovation theories witha focus onopen innovation and user innovation, and (2) a broad review of how theories ofdiversified knowledgeand collective intelligence has become possible to apply in an innovationcontext. The empirical part of the study is based on material obtained from semi-structuredinterviews with respondents from six companies.The results show that companies have implemented unstructured innovation initiatives withoutany formal links to the structured product development processes, which are part of thecompanies core activities. The main conclusions include the following insights: There is a needfor structured links between the unstructured initiatives and the core activities, which makes itpossible to take promising ideas to market. The companies also have to lose some control of theunstructured initiatives; consequently it is impossible to pinpoint what the outcome will be.

As a result of today`s competitive situation, the demand on the rapid development of research has increased. Both universities and companies are realizing the importance of a functioning and well-developed cooperation. A close collaboration and communication between universities and the business community has in many studies been shown to be very important for business development and knowledge transfer. The purose was to examine how communication and collaboration between universities and industry can be developed and strenghthen on the basis of innovative thinking. In order to initially identify the perceived problems the authors studied how communication and cooperation manifests itslelf today between the two parties, what does not work and how the existing tools for communication and collaboration look like today.

En innovation handlar i grund och botten om en förståelse och inkorporation av den komplexa kreativiteten i en innovationsprocess. I denna studie har sex centrala kärnvärden kring den upplevda kreativiteten tagits fram med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer från tio respondenter. Utifrån en fenomenologisk ansats har dessa kärnvärden utvecklats från begreppen kreativitet och innovation. Inom kreativitet var ? relatera, förändra och kommunicera ? centrala begrepp för respondenterna.

Syftet med uppsatsen var att studera den information finansiella institutioner förmedlar gällande företagens arbete med innovation. Fem stycken globala banker inom området global custody valdes att studeras. Med utgångspunkt i tidigare teorier om företags arbete med innovation och genomlysbarhet studerades företagens information gällande innovation. De teorier som användes gällde företags genomlysbarhet samt tidigare forskning om hur banker arbetar med innovation. Källorna var företagens årsredovisningar för år 2007 samt företagens hemsidor.

Syftet med detta arbete är att beskriva hur innovationsprocessen ser ut bland företag inom den gröna näringen. Vidare att ta reda på är hur idéer sprids mellan företag och organisationer samt vilka hinder som finns för att en idé skall bli en innovation..

En sammanfattning av uppsatsen på maximalt 8000 tecken..

This thesis examines history of the subject of mechatronics and innovation. The main reason tostudy mechatronics from a historical point of view is that it has never been done to a greater extent before. An overview is justified because various definitions have been used over the decades, but nowadays the subject has become more established. Focus in this thesis is mainly on development of the subject of mechatronics at Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Innovation is the other aspect of this thesis.

Nowadays, the world around us is changing faster and faster, the globalization is increasing and harder competition puts extra pressure on companies to be more innovative than ever before. One of the fastest changing industries is the IT industry where the actors always have to be up to date to keep their competitive advantage. The authors want to find out what makes some companies in this industry more innovative than others by examining what internal elements that are necessary for innovation. Much research has already been carried out within the field of innovation and especially about innovation management, although less research exists about smaller, non high tech service companies. Therefore the authors also tries to find out how applicable today?s theories are on this special field and thereby fill a smaller gap in today?s research.

Understanding how innovation and renewal occurs in an industry is important for how to manage technical development for individual companies. It is also important for creating a beneficial industrial context for renewal, from both a political and an industrial perspective, in which new solutions can arise and spread through the involvement of several actors of the industry. How innovation and renewal occurs in the construction industry in Sweden is however viewed differently. One challenge that has been pointed to is that most of the work performed in the construction industry is organized in projects, which in turn should affect how innovation and renewal can be achieved. The aim of this thesis is to provide an understanding of how the project organizing in the industry affects innovation and renewal. This is executed through a case study of the construction of Skandionkliniken, a proton therapy clinic, and by using an industrial network theory that challenges the traditional view of how innovation is achieved.