This paper examines how themed hotel companies work with innovation and innovation processes to meet the demands of todays market.. To get a deeper understanding the paper is focused on three separate hotel companies in Sweden. The paper is based on a qualitative method. The paper starts with a methodology chapter, followed by an explanation for a number of concepts that are central in the paper. Here, the reader will also read about the concept of innovation, and innovation processes. This is followed by a number of innovation processes in tourism.

Small!size!enterprises!within!the!outdoor!industry!seldom!use!a!structured!process!or!method!when!involving!users!in!product!development.!One!reason!for!this!is!that!many!structured!development!processes!are!designed!for!large!companies!with!very!different!resources.!When!involving!users!in!product!development!processes,!the!most!common!user! is! an! elite! athlete.! She! or! he! often! has! different! requirements! than! the! regular!consumer!and!in!the!customers?!point!of!view;!this!leads!to!nonCmaximized!developed!products.!!The! result! of! this! thesis! is! a! user! involvement! process! for! small! outdoor! companies!based! on! the! Sister! Kenny! Research! Center! Innovation! Handbook,! a! product!development!process,!which!itself!is!based!on!a!phaseCgate!model.!The!process!focuses!on!the!user!category!enthusiastic!amateurs,!since!this!is!what!companies!in!the!industry!require.!The!process!also! focuses!on!how!and!where! small!outdoor! companies! should!involve!users!and!give!recommendations!on!how!many!users!that!should!be!involved!in!a! product! development! process,! different! from! what! the! theory! recommend.! The!process! also! builds! on! that! ideas! should! come! from! the! users! first,! and! then! being!further!developed!by!the!company's!product!developers.!The!degree!of!communication!between!users!and!the!company!is!shown!and!the!report!clarifies!the!user!involvement!intensity!in!product!development!processes.!!The!involvement!process!that!has!been!developed!has!also!been!summarized!in!a!guide!that! can!be!used!by! a! company!on! a!daily!basis.!This! contains! information!on,! among!other!things,!how!users!are!selected!and!how!to!plan!a!workshop.!!! !.

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.

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.

In order to understand user behaviour and navigation patterns, user logging is today widely used in analysis and development of user interfaces. These user logs tend to be quite many and can contain a lot of different data. A big issue is how to process and display this data in a perspicuous way to the stakeholder. This study is about how to develop a prototype to handle this issue. It was solved by various methods from human-computer interaction.

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.

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.

The purpouse of this study is to find out how and if a Content Managment System (CMS) can benefit from applied User Experience Design (UX). A work project has been executed where a client wanted the students to create a user friendly CMS for adding content to a global hotel review site. A prototype of a CMS was created based on literature studies about UX and CMS. The prototype of the user friendly CMS was then tested through user tests and interviews with key users. After input from the key users the prototype was changed until the users were satisfied with it..

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..

A large part of the Namibian low income population lack access to grid distributed electricity. This mean they are effectively shut out from basic functions such as lighting, information technologies and hygienic food handling. Hence, finding ways of providing affordable off-grid electricity is an important, not to say critical, task.This master thesis is an innovation and concept development project that has been carried out in cooperation with organisations in Sweden and Namibia. The purpose of the project has been to (1) develop a concept for off-grid electricity supply in Namibia and (2) to gain a deeper knowledge within the area of innovation and product development for the Base of the Pyramid population, i.e. the poorest, but largest, socio-economic part of the global population.Essential in this project has been to acquire user understanding and to identify user needs to create a foundation for developing the concept.

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.