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Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021

Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies

Two cases on the uses of debt and equity at Hertz claimed top spots in the CRDT’s (Case Research and Development Team) 2021 top 40 review of cases.

Hertz (A) took the top spot. The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT’s list, describes the company’s struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list. Usually, cases take a number of years to gain popularity, but the Hertz cases claimed top spots in their first year of release. Hertz (A) also became the first ‘cooked’ case to top the annual review, as all of the other winners had been web-based ‘raw’ cases.

Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to maintain an enormous fleet of cars, the Hertz cases also expanded the diversity of case protagonists. Kathyrn Marinello was the CEO of Hertz during this period and the CFO, Jamere Jackson is black.

Sandwiched between the two Hertz cases, Coffee 2016, a perennial best seller, finished second. “Glory, Glory, Man United!” a case about an English football team’s IPO made a surprise move to number four.  Cases on search fund boards, the future of malls,  Norway’s Sovereign Wealth fund, Prodigy Finance, the Mayo Clinic, and Cadbury rounded out the top ten.

Other year-end data for 2021 showed:

• Online “raw” case usage remained steady as compared to 2020 with over 35K users from 170 countries and all 50 U.S. states interacting with 196 cases.
• Fifty four percent of raw case users came from outside the U.S..
• The Yale School of Management (SOM) case study directory pages received over 160K page views from 177 countries with approximately a third originating in India followed by the U.S. and the Philippines.
• Twenty-six of the cases in the list are raw cases.
• A third of the cases feature a woman protagonist.
• Orders for Yale SOM case studies increased by almost 50% compared to 2020.
• The top 40 cases were supervised by 19 different Yale SOM faculty members, several supervising multiple cases.

CRDT compiled the Top 40 list by combining data from its case store, Google Analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption.

All of this year’s Top 40 cases are available for purchase from the Yale Management Media store .

And the Top 40 cases studies of 2021 are:

1.   Hertz Global Holdings (A): Uses of Debt and Equity

2.   Coffee 2016

3.   Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020

4.   Glory, Glory Man United!

5.   Search Fund Company Boards: How CEOs Can Build Boards to Help Them Thrive

6.   The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?

7.   Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global

8.   Prodigy Finance

9.   Design at Mayo

10. Cadbury

11. City Hospital Emergency Room

13. Volkswagen

14. Marina Bay Sands

15. Shake Shack IPO

16. Mastercard

17. Netflix

18. Ant Financial

19. AXA: Creating the New CR Metrics

20. IBM Corporate Service Corps

21. Business Leadership in South Africa's 1994 Reforms

22. Alternative Meat Industry

23. Children's Premier

24. Khalil Tawil and Umi (A)

25. Palm Oil 2016

26. Teach For All: Designing a Global Network

27. What's Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

28. Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

30. Project Sammaan

31. Commonfund ESG

32. Polaroid

33. Connecticut Green Bank 2018: After the Raid

34. FieldFresh Foods

35. The Alibaba Group

36. 360 State Street: Real Options

37. Herman Miller

38. AgBiome

39. Nathan Cummings Foundation

40. Toyota 2010

Ten Types of Innovation: 30 new case studies for 2019

If you’ve followed my work for a while, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of the Ten Types of Innovation, a framework developed by Doblin (now a part of Deloitte).

I previously listed it as the #2 innovation framework you should be using.

And with good reason. I have used it frequently with clients to get them to think beyond innovating their product , which becomes harder, more expensive and less differentiating over time.

However, what I have found in recent workshops is that since it was originally published in 2013, some of the case studies and examples in the book already come across as out of date. That’s how rapidly the world is changing.

So here, I present three new more recent case studies for each of the Ten Types of Innovation, along with an outline on what each of them represents. Try and see which of these examples you would also suggest touch on more than one of the Ten Types, and let me know in the comments below:

1) Profit Model: How you make money

Innovative profit models find a fresh way to convert a firm’s offerings and other sources of value into cash. Great ones reflect a deep understanding of what customers and users actually cherish and where new revenue or pricing opportunities might lie.

Innovative profit models often challenge an industry’s tired old assumptions about what to offer, what to charge, or how to collect revenues. This is a big part of their power: in most industries, the dominant profit model often goes unquestioned for decades.

Recent examples:

• Fortnite – Pay to customise: This Free-to-Play video game by Epic Game Studios is currently one of the most popular and profitable games in the world. Unlike other “freemium” games which incentivise people to spend money to speed up progression, Fortnite is completely free to progress and people only need pay if they want to unlock cosmetic items which don’t affect gameplay but act to personalise their characters.
• Deloitte – Value sharing: Professional Services firm Deloitte is the world’s largest Management Consulting firm and still growing. They noticed a desire from their clients for assurance that the advice they were being given and transformation projects which Deloitte was running would actually succeed. As a result, Deloitte has begun trialling projects where instead of their fee being based just on Time and Materials, they will also share in value delivery, where additional bonus payments are only activated if previously-agreed performance metrics are successfully met.
• Supreme – Limiting supply: While most companies want to get their products in to the hands of as many people as possible, Supreme has built a cult following through deliberately forcing scarcity of its products. The streetwear clothing retailer announces limited items which will only be available from a specific day when they “drop”, and once they are sold out, that’s it, unless you want to pay huge markups for a second-hand item on eBay. Their red box logo is now so collectible and desirable that the company is able to sell almost anything by putting the logo on it for a limited time only. Case in point: you can find official Supreme Bricks (yes, like the ones used to build houses) which are still selling on eBay for $500.

Supreme’s limited quantity releases often lead to people queuing overnight

2) Network: How you connect with others to create value

In today’s hyper-connected world, no company can or should do everything alone. Network innovations provide a way for firms to take advantage of other companies’ processes, technologies, offerings, channels, and brands—pretty much any and every component of a business.

These innovations mean a firm can capitalize on its own strengths while harnessing the capabilities and assets of others. Network innovations also help executives to share risk in developing new offers and ventures. These collaborations can be brief or enduring, and they can be formed between close allies or even staunch competitors.

Recent Examples:

• Ford & Volkswagen – Developing Self-driving cars: As two of the world’s largest car-makers, Ford and Volkswagen are competitors on the road. However, in 2019 they announced a partnership to work together to develop technology for self-driving cars and electric vehicles which would be used in both company’s fleets of the future. While Ford brings more advanced automated driving technology, Volkswagen was leading in electric vehicles. Through the combined venture called ARGO, both firms can spread their R&D spending across more cars, while both developing competing products.
• Microsoft – launching on competitors platforms: Since new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has taken over, he has changed the innovation ethos of the company. Whereas previously Microsoft was a product-first company who tried to eliminate competing products and customers should stay within the company’s ecosystem, Nadella has shifted the mindset to a service company where their products should be accessible to customers should be able to access the products in whichever way they prefer. As a result, products such as Office 365 are now available in any web browser, as well as on the mobile marketplaces of Google’s Android and Apple’s IOS, previously seen as competitors.
• Huawei – Leveraging celebrity endorsement: Until recently, “high-quality smartphone” made people think of companies like Apple (USA), Samsung and LG (South Korea). Brands from China were often seen as competing on price but suffering from lower build quality and a lack of innovation. So in order to raise their profile in Western markets, Huawei has invested heavily in celebrities to endorse their flagship phones, such as Scarlett Johanssen, Lionel Messi, Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot. This initial investment raised brand name recognition, to the stage where it is now focusing marketing more towards features and functionality.

Huawei has paid Lionel Messi millions to endorse their brand

3) Structure: How you organize and align your talent and assets

Structure innovations are focused on organizing company assets—hard, human, or intangible—in unique ways that create value. They can include everything from superior talent management systems to ingenious configurations of heavy capital equipment.

An enterprise’s fixed costs and corporate functions can also be improved through Structure innovations, including departments such as Human Resources, R&D, and IT. Ideally, such innovations also help attract talent to the organization by creating supremely productive working environments or fostering a level of performance that competitors can’t match.

• Perpetual Guardian – Four-day working week: This small financial advisory firm in New Zealand trialed moving to a four-day working week, giving their staff an additional free day each week as long as they got their outputs done. As a result, they found people adjusted their working rhythm to achieve the same outcomes in 20% less time , while also resulting in more satisfied employees.
• Netflix – Unlimited Vacations: In order to drive their breakneck growth, Netflix reviewed their formal HR policies to see what processes were getting in the way of people doing their best work. They discovered that most bureaucratic processes which slowed down high performing individuals were in place to only handle situations where a low-performance individual would do something wrong. As a result, they scrapped most formal HR policies to free people to work in their own ways to benefit the company, summarised in their “Freedom and Responsibility” culture document, including allowing staff to take as many vacation days as they felt they needed to produce their best work.
• WeWork – Leveraging other companies’ hard assets: WeWork’s business model revolves around providing affordable office rentals for entrepreneurs and companies, fitting a lot of tenants into the same space by offering co-working areas. In order to rapidly deploy new working spaces and attract customers, WeWork started using a system called rental arbitrage, where they would rent commercial space, create a ready-to-use coworking setup, and then rent this space to customers. By not having to spend CAPEX on purchasing the buildings themselves, they were able to rapidly expand with lower overhead.

Netflix allows staff to take unlimited vacation days

4) Process: How you use signature or superior methods to do your work

Process innovations involve the activities and operations that produce an enterprise’s primary offerings. Innovating here requires a dramatic change from “business as usual” that enables the company to use unique capabilities, function efficiently, adapt quickly, and build market–leading margins.

Process innovations often form the core competency of an enterprise, and may include patented or proprietary approaches that yield advantage for years or even decades. Ideally, they are the “special sauce” you use that competitors simply can’t replicate.

• Tesla – Vertically integrated supply chain: Tesla’s electric cars require huge packs of EV batteries, made of thousands of lithium-ion cells. Until recently, the lack of demand for electric vehicles meant that companies had not invested in battery technology development, resulting in prices remaining high and making the cost of cars prohibitively more expensive than their gasoline counterparts. Tesla invested in a massive gigafactory to produce the newest battery packs themselves, and the economies of scale, as well as not paying markups to manufacturers, are estimated to save them 30% of the cost of the batteries.
• Amazon Web Services – opening internal technology to third parties: When Amazon Web Services initially launched in 2006 , it effectively launched the cloud computing market, allowing external companies to not just host webpages but run code and calculations at a fraction of the cost of building their own server network. Since then, Amazon has continued to develop new technology it would use for its own services, such as artificial intelligence, image recognition, machine learning, and natural-language processing, and later make this technology available to their customers.
• AliExpress – Making everyone a Shop Owner: AliExpress is one of the world’s largest eCommerce sites, and serves as a commercial storefront for thousands of Chinese companies, allowing you to purchase everything to phone cases to forklifts. However, AliExpress also allows the platform to handle purchases as listed on external storefronts using a system called drop-shipping, where anyone can set up their own store, sell someone else’s products (but to customers it looks like they are coming from the seller) and then have those manufacturers send the product directly to the customer.

Tesla’s Gigafactory is the world’s largest building

5) Product Performance: How you develop distinguishing features and functionality

Product Performance innovations address the value, features, and quality of a company’s offering. This type of innovation involves both entirely new products as well as updates and line extensions that add substantial value. Too often, people mistake Product Performance for the sum of innovation. It’s certainly important, but it’s always worth remembering that it is only one of the Ten Types of Innovation, and it’s often the easiest for competitors to copy.

Think about any product or feature war you’ve witnessed—whether torque and toughness in trucks, toothbrushes that are easier to hold and use, even with baby strollers. Too quickly, it all devolves into an expensive mad dash to parity. Product Performance innovations that deliver long-term competitive advantage are the exception rather than the rule.

• Gorilla Glass – Changing chemistry to improve smartphone durability: Gorilla Glass by Corning was listed as one of the original Ten Types by becoming scratch resistant. I have included it again for how it has changed the properties of its glass based on customer feedback each year. In 2016, version 5 of the glass was designed to resist shattering when dropped from 5+ feet, dubbed “selfie height” drops. However, after discussing what properties their customers wanted, by 2018 version 6 was no longer trying to resist shattering when dropped from a height once, instead the chemistry and manufacturing process had been changed to make it resistant to cracking after 15 drops from a lower height (1 meter, or a “fumble drop from your pocket”). I love this example of innovation as the product performance doesn’t just try to become “ better ” by resisting one drop from a higher height than last year, instead figuring out what really matters to customers and delivering that.
• Raspberry Pi – full PC for $35: The original Rasperbby Pi was developed by a UK charity to make a simple yet expandable computer which was affordable enough for everyone. Their credit-card sized PC may look bare-bones (it comes without a case and is effectively an exposed circuit board), yet it contains everything which someone needs to run a Linux operating system, learn to program and even connect it with external sensors and peripherals to make all manner of machines. The latest version 4 is now powerful enough to serve as a dedicated PC, all for a price so low you can give it to a child to tinker with without fear of it being broken.
• Lush Cosmetics – Removing what people don’t want anymore: As people become more aware of their impact on the environment, customers are demanding that customers do more to reduce the amount of plastic packaging their products use which could end up in landfill or the ocean. Lush Cosmetics was an early pioneer in bringing packaging-free cosmetics to scale, offering some of their packaging-free products like shampoo bars and soaps in dedicated packaging-free stores .

Giving children a cheap PC like the Raspberry Pi to learn and experiment on

6) Product System: How you create complementary products and services

Product System innovations are rooted in how individual products and services connect or bundle together to create a robust and scalable system. This is fostered through interoperability, modularity, integration, and other ways of creating valuable connections between otherwise distinct and disparate offerings. Product System innovations help you build ecosystems that captivate and delight customers and defend against competitors.

• Ryobi – One battery to rule them all: While handheld tools have had rechargeable batteries for decades now, Ryobi’s innovation was designing the modular One+ battery which could be used with over 80 different tools. Not only was this convenient for customers who needed fewer batteries overall for multiple uses, it also encouraged someone to buy into the Ryobi tool ecosystem once they had previously purchased one tool and battery set.
• Zapier – making APIs easy: Many web-based applications nowadays have an Application Programming Interface (API) which allows them to share data with other services. However, this often requires complex coding from the developers, and repeated effort to integrate with multiple different APIs. Zapier acts as a middleman for data, providing ready-made actions and API integrations between popular web services, allowing customers to automate certain activities every time a specific event happens.
• Airbnb – Expanding into experiences: Airbnb built their business on allowing everyday people to sell accommodation in their homes to strangers. Now the company has begun offering complementary services to people visiting new places through Experiences . These experiences are also sold by local guides, and allow guests to try things they would otherwise not have known about in addition to staying somewhere new.

Ryobi One+ battery powers multiple different tools

7) Service: How you support and amplify the value of your offerings

Service innovations ensure and enhance the utility, performance, and apparent value of an offering. They make a product easier to try, use, and enjoy; they reveal features and functionality customers might otherwise overlook, and they fix problems and smooth rough patches in the customer journey. Done well, they elevate even bland and average products into compelling experiences that customers come back for again and again.

• Kroger – Smartphone grocery scanning: US retail giant Kroger has been trialing a new smartphone app which allows shoppers to scan items as they shop, and then skip checking out altogether. Using the Scan, Bag, Go app, a customer will scan each item as they pick them up and place them into whatever bag they want, and once they are done, they can simply pay using the app and leave. This prevents shoppers having to wait in checkout lines and gives them an overview of their running total as they go, and also allows the supermarket to entice shoppers by sending coupons and offers directly to them.
• PurpleBricks – bringing real estate online: Estate Agents have a poor reputation for treating both sellers and buyers, especially for the amount they charge relative to the service they provide. PurpleBricks was one of the first online-only estate agents , where they could charge a significantly lower fee if the seller chose to complete some of the service processes themselves, such as showing the home to potential buyers. The firm can provide additional services for additional charges.
• Meituan Dianping – providing one app for all the services you want: As Fast Company’s 2019 Most Innovative company , Meituan Dianping provides a platform for Chinese consumers to purchase a variety of services. Known as a transactional super-app, you can use the app to book and pay for food delivery, travel, movie tickets and more from over 5 million Chinese small and large merchants.

Scan your own groceries with the Scan-Bag-Go app

8) Channel: How you deliver your offerings to customers and users

Channel innovations encompass all the ways that you connect your company’s offerings with your customers and users. While e-commerce has emerged as a dominant force in recent years, traditional channels such as physical stores are still important — particularly when it comes to creating immersive experiences.

Skilled innovators in this type often find multiple but complementary ways to bring their products and services to customers. Their goal is to ensure that users can buy what they want, when and how they want it, with minimal friction and cost and maximum delight.

• Dollar Shave Club – Direct to your door: Razor Blades have always been high-margin products, and Gillette was one of the original innovators by giving away the razor handle to make money on the subsequent razor blade sales. Dollar Shave Club has taken a different approach, by reducing the cost of each set of blades, but having people join a subscription service where blades are delivered to them automatically. While the margin on each set of blades is lower than retail, the subscription model has provided steady, predictable revenue for the company, to the extend that subscription boxes can now be found for almost any consumable product.
• Zipline – Blood Delivery for remote areas: In hospital settings, getting fresh blood can a matter of life and death. Unfortunately, many Sub-Sharan African countries don’t have road infrastructure suitable for quickly delivering blood between hospitals or storage locations. This is why Zipline has developed a simple, reliable drone network where hospitals in Rwanda and Ghana can order fresh blood from a central processing area and receive it within an average of 15 minutes, rather than the hours or days it would take using conventional transportation.
• 3D Printers – produce whatever you need at home: Instead of a single company, the industry of 3D printers is slowly beginning to change the way in which consumers get simple tools and parts. By downloading schematics from the internet (or designing their own), people owning a 3D printer now no longer to go to a retail location or order the parts they need. In commercial settings, this is also speeding up how quickly companies are able to prototype new ideas and designs, waiting hours rather than days or weeks.

zipline blood drone innovation

9) Brand: How you represent your offerings and business

Brand innovations help to ensure that customers and users recognize, remember, and prefer your offerings to those of competitors or substitutes. Great ones distill a “promise” that attracts buyers and conveys a distinct identity.

They are typically the result of carefully crafted strategies that are implemented across many touchpoints between your company and your customers, including communications, advertising, service interactions, channel environments, and employee and business partner conduct. Brand innovations can transform commodities into prized products, and confer meaning, intent, and value to your offerings and your enterprise.

• Gillette / Nike – being willing to lose customers who don’t align with purpose: I have combined both Gillette and Nike into this example of brand innovation since they have both recently aligned their brands to a purpose (social and political), which has been positively welcomed by some people but has resulted in hatred from other groups. Nike began by making former NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick the face and voice of one of their advertising campaigns. Kaepernick rose in prominence when he refused to stand during the national anthem before his games, his way of protesting the police brutality and inequality towards his African American community. This led to some people claiming he was disrespecting the American Flag, and therefore what the flag stands for. When his advert launched, a vocal minority took to social media to upload videos of themselves saying that Nike no longer aligned with their values, and they burned their shoes, vowing to never buy Nike again. Similarily, Gillette came out with a commercial urging all men to be “The best a man can be”, by pushing aside previously ‘masculine’ traits like bullying, chauvinism or fighting, and showing children how a modern man should behave. As soon as the ad was released online, many media outlets praised its message, but it brought the wrath of angry men who claimed that the razor manufacturer shouldn’t tell them what to think or how to behave, how they would never buy the products again, and how the world was becoming too politically correct, with women and minorities getting preferential treatment over white men. The advert quickly became one of the most disliked videos on Youtube, and even my commentary about the innovative message (seen in the video below) had the comments section covered by hate-filled messages. What both Nike and Gillette realised was that if they wanted to align with positive, progressive messages and values (which align with their target demographic of the future), then they would risk upsetting and alienating the proportion of their current customer base who didn’t share those views. In both cases, these were decisions that would have been signed off by all levels in the company, through marketing, sales, legal and the board, and the brands will be stronger in the future because of it.
• Burberry – modernising a classic brand: Burberry had built its luxury fashion reputation by aligning itself with the British Aristocracy, and its famous chequer patterned fabric was iconic. However, when trying to modernise and make the brand “sexy” in the early 2000s, a misstep happened when the luxury house began to license the chequered fabric, resulting in it becoming a status symbol and desired motif for a different social group: the British “Chavs” (rough, lower class and sometimes aggressive). This poisoned the once iconic brand in the eyes of their intended luxury clientele. In order to survive, the company and brand embraced innovation , by becoming one of the first fashion houses to redesign their website to be mobile-optimised, aligning their store layout to mirror the website, highlighting young British talent and livestreaming content and fashion shows. Most importantly, they moved away from the iconic chequer pattern in their fashion designs, where it is now limited to less than 10% of products.

10) Customer Engagement: How you foster compelling interactions

Customer Engagement innovations are all about understanding the deep-seated aspirations of customers and users, and using those insights to develop meaningful connections between them and your company.

Great Customer Engagement innovations provide broad avenues for exploration and help people find ways to make parts of their lives more memorable, fulfilling, delightful — even magical.

• REI – closing their stores on the busiest shopping day: Outdoor equipment retailer REI had begun closing its doors on Black Friday , traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year. They claim they are doing this to Eddie their customers to actually get outdoors and use their equipment, rather than queuing for discounted material goods.
• Peloton – bringing the gym into the home: Many people benefit from going to joint gym classes because the sense of a group working toward is goals together with a coach is more powerful than trying to exercise by yourself. Peloton makes exercise equipment with built-in screens, powered by a subscription to live and on-demand classes. It’s like being part of a workout group with the benefits of being at home.
• NBA – bringing the fans into the action: The NBA had invested heavily in innovation to make their sport more immersive. From live analytics and player statistics, new ways to watch like VR video, and official video game players for each team, they are finding new ways to bring basketball to the next generation, while making it even more exciting for existing fans.

Peloton brings exercise classes into the home

There we go, a new set of 30 examples of the Ten Types of Innovation.

If you found some of these examples interesting, please share the article.

Can you think of any more good examples? Let me know in the comments below.

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great examples! I now feel inspired to innovate in my entrepreneurial project. Thank you ?

Greetings from Mexico

Excellent work!

They’s very interesting. Do you have the solutions of some of recent examples?

My university has taken pretty much everything from here, poorly rephrased a few things and have delivered it to us, the student, as an entire weeks worth of content. Maybe i should be paying my fees here…

Bachelor of business student Australia

Very interesting. Which course was it being used for?

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Berkeley Haas Case Series

The Berkeley Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies created by UC Berkeley faculty

Entrepreneurship

Connect-in-Place: Startup Disrupts Socializing and Learning During COVID-19

Two UC Berkeley students forced into online classes during COVID-19 realized - due to their volunteer experiences championing educational equality - that younger students (K-12) could suffer social isolation and reduced learning opportunities. So, the undergrads brainstormed how to tackle new educational and emotional challenges pre-college students faced due to pandemic restrictions.

Medinas Health: Building a Medical Equipment Marketplace

This case centers on the startup Medinas Health, a technology company based in Berkeley, California that aimed to increase the efficiency of the medical equipment market in the U.S. Chloe Alpert, Medinas Health’s CEO, envisioned a more sustainable healthcare industry and aimed to reduce waste and improve the financial bottom-line of hospitals.

Niantic Labs and the Professional Entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley: Google, Pokémon Go, and Beyond

This case series focuses on the entrepreneurial career of John Hanke, a 1996 MBA graduate of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and a professional entrepreneur.

International Data Spaces: A Collaborative Organizational Moonshot

Led by ThyssenKrupp CTO Reinhold Achatz, IDSA is an organization that seeks to set, diffuse, and implement a dominant global B2B data standard.

Maire Tecnimont: The Creation of NextChem

Maire Tecnimont is an international leader in the engineering and construction of industrial plants.

Goodbaby: How a Chinese Underdog Became a World Leader Through Open Innovation

Goodbaby is an industry-leading manufacturer of juvenile products. Under a variety of brand names, nearly a third of the strollers in the world are designed and manufactured by Goodbaby.

Barça Innovation Hub: Getting the Ball Rolling on Innovation

This case study follows the Spanish football club, FC Barcelona, as it starts to innovate and create an organizational structure for open innovation.

Enel X: Driving Digital Transformation in the Energy Sector

Enel is one of the world’s largest electric utilities, based in Italy but operating in dozens of countries around the world. This case discusses the process of establishing a new subsidiary company inside Enel to lead the company towards digital transformation in eMobility.

Bosch: Scaling Large Company Innovation for Strategic Advantage

This case focuses on the Innovation Performance Management (IPM) methodology as a new approach whereby established and global companies, like Bosch, can use innovation to support strategic goals.

Amyris, Inc: Make good. No compromise.

Amyris has grown from a Silicon Valley startup to a global publicly-traded company who genetically programs yeast into chemicals used by more than 250 million consumers in over 2,000 brands. The company's path has included entering markets with new production solutions, learning how to lower risk through business partnerships, and expanding from B2B to B2C.

Innovation, Co-Creation, and Design Thinking: How Salesforce's Ignite Team Accelerates Enterprise Digital Transformation

From its inception, Salesforce, the cloud computing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) company, took a radically different approach to selling enterprise software than competitors such as Oracle and SAP.

Sproutel: How Design Roadmapping Helped Improve Children's Health & Guide a Growing Company

This case aims to introduce students to the 'design roadmapping' process that connects customer and user experience design with product and technology roadmapping to create an integrated plan for future growth and development.

Innovating Innovation @tk

This case shows how ThyssenKrupp (tk) has altered its innovation process in recent years. CEO Heinrich Hiesinger has brought in a former colleague from Siemens, Reinhold Achatz, to lead a transformation of the R&D function at the company.

Disruption in Detroit: Ford, Silicon Valley, and Beyond

This case focuses on the Ford Motor Company in Spring 2016 and how its then-CEO, Mark Fields, and his senior management team should best respond to several emerging disruptive technologies that will ultimately force the automaker to modify its current business model.

The Berkeley-Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies written by Haas faculty. Our culture and vision at the Haas School of Business naturally offer distinctive qualities to the Series, filling a gap in existing case offerings by drawing upon lessons from UC Berkeley's rich history and prime location in the San Francisco Bay Area. We seek to publish cases that challenge conventional assumptions about business, science, culture, and politics.

Siemens Healthineers: A Digital Journey

Maersk: Driving Culture Change at a Century-Old Company to Achieve Measurable Results

Flourish Fi: Empowering Positive Money Habits

Just Climate: A New Investment Model?

Roche Pakistan

A new collection of business case studies from Berkeley Haas

The aim of the Berkeley Haas Case Series is to incite business innovation by clarifying disruptive trends and questioning the status quo.

Five routes to more innovative problem solving

Rob McEwen had a problem. The chairman and chief executive officer of Canadian mining group Goldcorp knew that its Red Lake site could be a money-spinner—a mine nearby was thriving—but no one could figure out where to find high-grade ore. The terrain was inaccessible, operating costs were high, and the unionized staff had already gone on strike. In short, McEwen was lumbered with a gold mine that wasn’t a gold mine .

Then inspiration struck. Attending a conference about recent developments in IT, McEwen was smitten with the open-source revolution. Bucking fierce internal resistance, he created the Goldcorp Challenge: the company put Red Lake’s closely guarded topographic data online and offered $575,000 in prize money to anyone who could identify rich drill sites. To the astonishment of players in the mining sector, upward of 1,400 technical experts based in 50-plus countries took up the problem. The result? Two Australian teams, working together, found locations that have made Red Lake one of the world’s richest gold mines. “From a remote site, the winners were able to analyze a database and generate targets without ever visiting the property,” McEwen said. “It’s clear that this is part of the future.” 1 1. See Linda Tischler, “ He struck gold on the Net (really) ,” fastcompany.com, May 31, 2002.

McEwen intuitively understood the value of taking a number of different approaches simultaneously to solving difficult problems. A decade later, we find that this mind-set is ever more critical: business leaders are operating in an era when forces such as technological change and the historic rebalancing of global economic activity from developed to emerging markets have made the problems increasingly complex, the tempo faster, the markets more volatile, and the stakes higher. The number of variables at play can be enormous, and free-flowing information encourages competition, placing an ever-greater premium on developing innovative, unique solutions.

This article presents an approach for doing just that. How? By using what we call flexible objects for generating novel solutions, or flexons , which provide a way of shaping difficult problems to reveal innovative solutions that would otherwise remain hidden. This approach can be useful in a wide range of situations and at any level of analysis, from individuals to groups to organizations to industries. To be sure, this is not a silver bullet for solving any problem whatever. But it is a fresh mechanism for representing ambiguous, complex problems in a structured way to generate better and more innovative solutions.

The flexons approach

Finding innovative solutions is hard. Precedent and experience push us toward familiar ways of seeing things, which can be inadequate for the truly tough challenges that confront senior leaders. After all, if a problem can be solved before it escalates to the C-suite, it typically is. Yet we know that teams of smart people from different backgrounds are more likely to come up with fresh ideas more quickly than individuals or like-minded groups do. 2 2. Lu Hong and Scott Page, “Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , 2004, Volume 101, pp. 16385–89. For more on the benefits of open innovation, see John Seely Brown and John Hagel III, “ Creation nets: Getting the most from open innovation ,” McKinsey Quarterly , May 2006. When a diverse range of experts—game theorists to economists to psychologists—interact, their approach to problems is different from those that individuals use. The solution space becomes broader, increasing the chance that a more innovative answer will be found.

Obviously, people do not always have think tanks of PhDs trained in various approaches at their disposal. Fortunately, generating diverse solutions to a problem does not require a diverse group of problem solvers. This is where flexons come into play. While traditional problem-solving frameworks address particular problems under particular conditions—creating a compensation system, for instance, or undertaking a value-chain analysis for a vertically integrated business—they have limited applicability. They are, if you like, specialized lenses. Flexons offer languages for shaping problems, and these languages can be adapted to a much broader array of challenges. In essence, flexons substitute for the wisdom and experience of a group of diverse, highly educated experts.

To accommodate the world of business problems, we have identified five flexons, or problem-solving languages. Derived from the social and natural sciences, they help users understand the behavior of individuals, teams, groups, firms, markets, institutions, and whole societies. We arrived at these five through a lengthy process of synthesizing both formal literatures and the private knowledge systems of experts, and trial and error on real problems informed our efforts. We don’t suggest that these five flexons are exhaustive—only that we have found them sufficient, in concert, to tackle very difficult problems. While serious mental work is required to tailor the flexons to a given situation, and each retains blind spots arising from its assumptions, multiple flexons can be applied to the same problem to generate richer insights and more innovative solutions.

Networks flexon

Imagine a map of all of the people you know, ranked by their influence over you. It would show close friends and vague acquaintances, colleagues at work and college roommates, people who could affect your career dramatically and people who have no bearing on it. All of them would be connected by relationships of trust, friendship, influence, and the probabilities that they will meet. Such a map is a network that can represent anything from groups of people to interacting product parts to traffic patterns within a city—and therefore can shape a whole range of business problems.

For example, certain physicians are opinion leaders who can influence colleagues about which drugs to prescribe. To reveal relationships among physicians and help identify those best able to influence drug usage, a pharmaceutical company launching a product could create a network map of doctors who have coauthored scientific articles. By targeting clusters of physicians who share the same ideas and (one presumes) have tight interactions, the company may improve its return on investments compared with what traditional mass-marketing approaches would achieve. The network flexon helps decompose a situation into a series of linked problems of prediction (how will ties evolve?) and optimization (how can we maximize the relational advantage of a given agent?) by presenting relationships among entities. These problems are not simple, to be sure. 3 3. For more on network analysis, see Robert L. Cross, Roger D. Martin, and Leigh M. Weiss, “ Mapping the value of employee collaboration ,” McKinsey Quarterly , August 2006. For more on the role of brokers in filling organizational gaps, see Ronald S. Burt, Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition , first edition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992. But they are well-defined and structured—a fundamental requirement of problem solving.

Evolutionary flexon

Evolutionary algorithms have won games of chess and solved huge optimization problems that overwhelm most computational resources. Their success rests on the power of generating diversity by introducing randomness and parallelization into the search procedure and quickly filtering out suboptimal solutions. Representing entities as populations of parents and offspring subject to variation, selection, and retention is useful in situations where businesses have limited control over a large number of important variables and only a limited ability to calculate the effects of changing them, whether they’re groups of people, products, project ideas, or technologies. Sometimes, you must make educated guesses, test, and learn. But even as you embrace randomness, you can harness it to produce better solutions to complex problems.

That’s because not all “guessing strategies” are created equal. We have crucial choices to make: generating more guesses (prototypes, ideas, or business models) or spending more time developing each guess or deciding which guesses will survive. Consider a consumer-packaged-goods company trying to determine if a new brand of toothpaste will be a hit or an expensive failure. Myriad variables—everything from consumer habits and behavior to income, geography, and the availability of clean water—interact in multiple ways. The evolutionary flexon may suggest a series of low-cost, small-scale experiments involving product variants pitched to a few well-chosen market segments (for instance, a handful of representative customers high in influence and skeptical about new ideas). With every turn of the evolutionary-selection crank, the company’s predictions will improve.

Decision-agent flexon

To the economic theorist, social behavior is the outcome of interactions among individuals, each of whom tries to select the best possible means of achieving his or her ends. The decision-agent flexon takes this basic logic to its limit by providing a way of representing teams, firms, and industries as a series of competitive and cooperative interactions among agents. The basic approach is to determine the right level of analysis—firms, say. Then you ascribe to them beliefs and motives consistent with what you know (and think they know), consider how their payoffs change through the actions of others, determine the combinations of strategies they might collectively use, and seek an equilibrium where no agent can unilaterally deviate from the strategy without becoming worse off.

Game theory is the classic example, but it’s worth noting that a decision-agent flexon can also incorporate systematic departures from rationality: impulsiveness, cognitive shortcuts such as stereotypes, and systematic biases. Taken as a whole, this flexon can describe all kinds of behavior, rational and otherwise, in one self-contained problem-solving language whose most basic variables comprise agents (individuals, groups, organizations) and their beliefs, payoffs, and strategies.

For instance, financial models to optimize the manufacturing footprint of a large industrial company would typically focus on relatively easily quantifiable variables such as plant capacity and input costs. To take a decision-agent approach, you assess the payoffs and likely strategies of multiple stakeholders—including customers, unions, and governments—in the event of plant closures. Adding the incentives, beliefs, and strategies of all stakeholders to the analysis allows the company to balance the trade-offs inherent in a difficult decision more effectively.

System-dynamics flexon

Assessing a decision’s cascading effects on complex businesses is often a challenge. Making the relations between variables of a system, along with the causes and effects of decisions, more explicit allows you to understand their likely impact over time. A system-dynamics lens shows the world in terms of flows and accumulations of money, matter (for example, raw materials and products), energy (electrical current, heat, radio-frequency waves, and so forth), or information. It sheds light on a complex system by helping you develop a map of the causal relationships among key variables, whether they are internal or external to a team, a company, or an industry; subjectively or objectively measurable; or instantaneous or delayed in their effects.

Consider the case of a deep-sea oil spill, for example. A source (the well) emits a large volume of crude oil through a sequence of pipes (which throttle the flow and can be represented as inductors) and intermediate-containment vessels (which accumulate the flow and can be modeled as capacitors). Eventually, the oil flows into a sink (which, in this case, is unfortunately the ocean). A pressure gradient drives the flow rate of oil from the well into the ocean. Even an approximate model immediately identifies ways to mitigate the spill’s effects short of capping the well. These efforts could include reducing the pressure gradient driving the flow of crude, decreasing the loss of oil along the pipe, increasing the capacity of the containment vessels, or increasing or decreasing the inductance of the flow lines. In this case, a loosely defined phenomenon such as an oil spill becomes a set of precisely posed problems addressable sequentially, with cumulative results.

Information-processing flexon

When someone performs long division in her head, a CEO makes a strategic decision by aggregating imperfect information from an executive team, or Google servers crunch Web-site data, information is being transformed intelligently. This final flexon provides a lens for viewing various parts of a business as information-processing tasks, similar to the way such tasks are parceled out among different computers. It focuses attention on what information is used, the cost of computation, and how efficiently the computational device solves certain kinds of problems. In an organization, that device is a collection of people, whose processes for deliberating and deciding are the most important explanatory variable of decision-making’s effectiveness. 4 4. See Dan Lovallo and Olivier Sibony, “ The case for behavioral strategy ,” McKinsey Quarterly , March 2010.

Consider the case of a private-equity firm seeking to manage risk. A retrospective analysis of decisions by its investment committee shows that past bets have been much riskier than its principals assumed. To understand why, the firm examines what information was transmitted to the committee and how decisions by individuals would probably have differed from those of the committee, given its standard operating procedures. Interviews and analysis show that the company has a bias toward riskier investments and that it stems from a near-unanimity rule applied by the committee: two dissenting members are enough to prevent an investment. The insistence on near-unanimity is counterproductive because it stifles debate: the committee’s members (only two of whom could kill any deal) are reluctant to speak first and be perceived as an “enemy” by the deal sponsor. And the more senior the sponsor, the more likely it is that risky deals will be approved. Raising the number of votes required to kill deals, while clearly counterintuitive, would stimulate a richer dialogue.

Putting flexons to work

We routinely use these five problem-solving lenses in workshops with executive teams and colleagues to analyze particularly ambiguous and complex challenges. Participants need only a basic familiarity with the different approaches to reframe problems and generate more innovative solutions. Here are two quite different examples of the kinds of insights that emerge from the use of several flexons, whose real power emerges in combination.

Reorganizing for innovation

A large biofuel manufacturer that wants to improve the productivity of its researchers can use flexons to illuminate the problem from very different angles.

Networks. It’s possible to view the problem as a need to design a better innovation network by mapping the researchers’ ties to one another through co-citation indices, counting the number of e-mails sent between researchers, and using a network survey to reveal the strength and density of interactions and collaborative ties. If coordinating different knowledge domains is important to a company’s innovation productivity, and the current network isn’t doing so effectively, the company may want to create an internal knowledge market in which financial and status rewards accrue to researchers who communicate their ideas to co-researchers. Or the company could encourage cross-pollination by setting up cross-discipline gatherings, information clearinghouses, or wiki-style problem-solving sites featuring rewards for solutions.

Evolution. By describing each lab as a self-contained population of ideas and techniques, a company can explore how frequently new ideas are generated and filtered and how stringent the selection process is. With this information, it can design interventions to generate more varied ideas and to change the selection mechanism. For instance, if a lot of research activity never seems to lead anywhere, the company might take steps to ensure that new ideas are presented more frequently to the business-development team, which can provide early feedback on their applicability.

Decision agents. We can examine in detail how well the interests of individual researchers and the organization are aligned. What financial and nonfinancial benefits accrue to individuals who initiate or terminate a search or continue a search that is already under way? What are the net benefits to the organization of starting, stopping, or continuing to search along a given trajectory? Search traps or failures may be either Type I (pursuing a development path unlikely to reach a profitable solution) or Type II (not pursuing a path likely to reach a profitable solution). To better understand the economics at play, it may be possible to use industry and internal data to multiply the probabilities of these errors by their costs. That economic understanding, in turn, permits a company to tailor incentives for individuals to minimize Type I errors (by motivating employees to reject apparent losers more quickly) or Type II errors (by motivating them to persist along paths of uncertain value slightly longer than they normally would).

Predicting the future

Now consider the case of a multinational telecommunications service provider that operates several major broadband, wireless, fixed, and mobile networks around the world, using a mix of technologies (such as 2G and 3G). It wants to develop a strategic outlook that takes into consideration shifting demographics, shifting technologies for connecting users with one another and with its core network (4G), and shifting alliances—to say nothing of rapidly evolving players from Apple to Qualcomm. This problem is complicated, with a range of variables and forces at work, and so broad that crafting a strategy with big blind spots is easy. Flexons can help.

Each view of the world described below provides valuable food for thought, including potential strategic scenarios, technology road maps, and possibilities for killer apps. More hard work is needed to synthesize the findings into a coherent worldview, but the different perspectives provided by flexons illuminate potential solutions that might otherwise be missed.

Decision agents. Viewing the problem in this way emphasizes the incentives for different industry players to embrace new technologies and service levels. By enumerating a range of plausible scenarios from the perspective of customers and competitors, the network service provider can establish baseline assessments of future pricing, volume levels, and investment returns.

Networks. This lens allows a company or its managers to look at the industry as a pattern of exchange relationships between paying customers and providers of services, equipment, chips, operating systems, and applications, and then to examine the properties of each exchange network. The analysis may reveal that not all innovations and new end-user technologies are equal: some provide an opportunity for differentiation at critical nodes in the network; others do not.

System dynamics. This flexon focuses attention on data-flow bottlenecks in applications ranging from e-mail and voice calls to video downloads, games, and social-networking interactions. 5 5. The information-processing flexon, which focuses attention on the computational tasks required to give users access to assured data streams, is also relevant for evaluating bottlenecks and facilitating predictions about how networks and operators will fare in the future. The company can build a network-optimization map to predict and optimize capital expenditures for network equipment as a function of expected demand, information usage, and existing constraints. Because cost structures matter deeply to annuity businesses (such as those of service providers) facing demand fluctuations, the resulting analysis may radically affect which services a company believes it can and cannot offer in years to come.

Flexons help turn chaos into order by representing ambiguous situations and predicaments as well-defined, analyzable problems of prediction and optimization. They allow us to move up and down between different levels of detail to consider situations in all their complexity. And, perhaps most important, flexons allow us to bring diversity inside the head of the problem solver, offering more opportunities to discover counterintuitive insights, innovative options, and unexpected sources of competitive advantage.

Olivier Leclerc is a principal in McKinsey’s Southern California office. Mihnea Moldoveanu is associate dean of the full-time MBA program at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, where he directs the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking.

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Open Innovation: 9 Benefits, 12 Case Studies and 12 Books

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Today we hear a lot Open Innovation , but there are a lot of people who are not sure what it means exactly. As this topic is important nowadays, we decided to write an article about it to clarify all your doubts.

What is Open innovation?

Open innovation is about combining internal resources with external ones to boost innovation culture in the company .1 For example, big companies like GE, Cisco or Microsoft , etc. tend to have 8-12 different value pools, for instance, think suppliers , startups, customers or universities, etc. to consider for their open innovation efforts.

In other words, open innovation is a business model that encourages you to connect with outside sources so you can profit from exciting new startups and product opportunities, get a broader pool of talent, collaborate with others to come up with innovation that you could never do just by yourself.

Now, large multinationals including Kraft, KLM, Pfizer, and Siemens actively and openly participate in collaborative, online innovation communities where seekers and solution providers work together. Much the way tech companies use hackathons to get outsiders to contribute to their goals, OI-committed businesses announce proudly that they’re taking full advantage of the global innovation community. That transparency demonstrates to the market that they have a clear strategy for the future and they’re aggressively pursuing it out in the open.

Open innovation may seem to be for big business. But it is an approach that can be used by all companies, especially start-ups and small businesses. It may be as simple as inviting a trusted supplier to help you develop ideas or launching a website , etc.

So, find the right collaborators! One of the most visible open innovation actions these days are suggested websites or special places on the web that invite customers and the general public to submit ideas on how to improve a company’s products and services. And then, on these websites companies publish a hackathon info to find the right partner with the most brilliant idea.

9 Benefits of Open Innovation

1. creating new products and services.

Especially when you’re a startup, there’s nothing more exciting than getting your first product out on the market. But it’s easy to get stuck, focusing all your efforts on selling your first product rather than thinking of what else you could provide for your customers. It can be scary to invest time and resources into creating a new product, especially taking into account that startups have a limited budget. Yet, by investing your resources and the resources of the third parties into creating something new, that you know will bring value to your community. This move may help you increase your profits and create buzz around you.

2. Innovating old products and services

Sometimes, you don’t need to create new products. Sometimes, your older service has a potential to be better, has potential to attract a lot of clients. This is when you need to get a creative team together to improve your idea. One of the benefits of open innovation is that the process never ends. You’re always thinking about how you can make your organisation better.

3. Building a strong community

Lego is a great example of how a company can engage their fans on a wide scale by using open innovation. No matter the size of your organisation , a great benefit of open innovation is taking the time to get in touch with your fans and your soulmates, news talents. Get to know what your community wants, and then give it to them. In the process, you will find that enthusiastic community members are willing to dedicate their time and ideas to help you create something better. These relationships are key and will help your company build a strong community dedicated to your project.

4. Keeping your employees engaged

One of the main sources of employee dissatisfaction is a lack of feeling of ownership on the projects they work on. Sometimes, your team may have some great ideas but might not feel comfortable bringing them forward. By bringing an open innovation initiative to your workplace, your team can get involved in big picture planning, make it their project. When people feel more invested in the bigger goals of the organisation, it makes them more excited to come to work in the morning and put their heart and their soul in it.

5. Staying ahead of the competition

By keeping your team and your community engaged and on the lookout for new ideas, you make sure that your organisation stays helpful and relevant to your community. Using open innovation can help you find your niche that makes your organisation uniquely valuable to the community.

6. Costs reduction

When you work with other companies, you split the costs. Moreover, you become more efficient because of each company; each member works on what he is good at.

7. Time-to-market acceleration

Instead of figuring out how to make the desired product, train your people, buy equipment, etc., you just start a collaboration with a company that already has all this, that allows you to bring a product to market faster.

8. New revenue streams

Did you know that some businesses get more revenue from secondary products rather than from the primary ones? Working with other companies will allow you to enter a new market with an idea and product you have.

9. Innovation risk reduction

Any innovation has risks, but if you work with experts, you minimise your risk of failure, especially if you agile and get feedback from your target on a regular basis.

Let’s look at open innovation case studies

GE is one of the leading companies implementing different open innovation models. Their Open Innovation Manifesto focuses on the collaboration between experts and entrepreneurs from everywhere to share ideas and passionately solve problems. Based on their innovation Ecomagination project that aims to address environmental challenges through innovative solutions, GE has spent $17 billion on R&D and received total revenues of $232 billion over the last decade. GE is famous for their open innovation challenges and initiatives on their open innovation page. Through these challenges, GE familiarises itself to future potential talents.

For example the Unimpossible Missions: The University Edition challenge is targeted for students that are creative, have a certain level of technical skills and a clear recruitment motivation. Through the challenge, GE aims to get three smart and creative students to have their internship at GE.

Another example is GE’s project First Build, a co-create collaboration platform, which connects designers, engineers, and thinkers to share ideas with other members who can discuss it together. It is one of the open innovation models that aims to provide a platform that can help both external and internal individuals to collaborate in terms of ideas sharing and manufacturing to reach innovative ideas for products and services.

Open innovation was also adopted by NASA to build a mathematical algorithm that can determine the optimal content of medical kits for NASA’s future manned missions. To reach an innovative software who can solve this problem, NASA collaborated with TopCoder, Harvard Business School, and London Business School. The application of open innovation created a cost-effective and time-effective solution that could not be reached using the internal team alone.

Currently, the company is adopting open innovation models on levels between the team and other entrepreneurs from one side and the company and its consumers from the other. The Coca-Cola Accelerator program aims to help start-ups in eight cities around the world; Sydney, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Singapore, Istanbul, San Francisco, and Bangalore. Those start-ups aim to think in innovative ways to build a the Happiness Coca-Cola brand.

Another open innovation model presented by Coca-Cola is the Freestyle dispenser machine that allows users from around the world to mix their flavors and suggest a new flavour for Coca-Cola products. The new product records the consumer flavour so they can get it from other Freestyle machines located around the world using the Coca-Cola mobile application. This model of open innovation puts the consumers in the heart of the production process as the company uses the suggested flavours as part the external ideas that can be evaluated and processed as a new product line.

The new LEGO strategy aimed to focus on the consumer by linking both business and creativity. This strategy was known as, LEGO’s Shared Vision. To innovative new LEGO sets that can achieve success in the market, LEGO started the LEGO Ideas, an initiative based on a co-create open innovation model. In this online website, LEGO consumers can design their own LEGO sets either using LEGO bricks or computer 3D applications. Other users start to discuss the idea and vote for it, once the idea reaches a targeted vote, LEGO can consider it as a new product with giving a small part of the revenues to the creator of the set. This model contributes putting the consumer at the heart of the innovation process and help the team to target sets that can achieve success based on the LEGO Ideas votes and comments. This co-create platform can also contribute reducing the risk of innovation as these feedback from the website can give business analysts idea about the viability of the new product.

Another great open innovation step LEGO did was building a partnership between the company and MIT Media Lab to deliver programmable bricks, which was introduced as LEGO Windstorm.

Samsung adopts an open innovation to build their external innovation strengths through Samsung Accelerator program. The initiative aims to build a collaboration between designers, innovators, and thinkers to focus on different solutions. The program provides office spaces, statical capital, and product support to entrepreneurs to help them to build software and services. Samsung does open innovation collaboration, especially with startups.

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The distinctive part of Samsung’s open innovation collaboration is that Samsung divides it into four categories: partnerships, ventures, accelerators, acquisitions. Typically Samsung partnerships aim for new features or integrations within Samsung’s existing products. Ventures can be described as investments in early-stage startups. These investments can bring revenue in case of exits, but also provide access to new technologies that Samsung can learn and benefit from. For example, Samsung has invested in Mobeam, a mobile payment company.

Accelerators provide startups with an innovative and empowering environment to create new things. Samsung offers these startups an initial investment, facilities to work in, as well as some resources from their vast pool. The idea is that the products coming from the internal startups could become a part of Samsung’s product portfolio over time or just serve as learning experiences for the company. Acquisitions aim to bring in startups working on innovations that are at the core of Samsung’s strategic areas of the future. These acquisitions often remain independent units and can even join the Accelerator program.

As an example of Samsung’s collaboration with startups, Samsung has acquired an IoT company called SmartThings to gain an IoT platform without having to spend the money, and more importantly, time on R&D. Samsung sees potential in the IoT industry and views it as a strategically important part of their future business and thus an area where they want to be the forerunner. For Smart Things, it continues to operate as an independent startup fueled with the resources of a big company. With the investment potential and home electronics of Samsung, SmartThings can be developed into an integral part of Samsung products, by creating new IoT possibilities for homes.

By collaborating with startups, Samsung aims to benefit from the variety of innovations that smaller companies have already come up with. These companies often have products that can complement or be integrated into Samsung’s products, creating value for both parties.

The Entrepreneurs in Residence program allows Cisco to invite early-stage entrepreneurs with big ideas for enterprise solutions to join their startup incubation program. This includes access funding from Cisco, potential opportunities to collaborate with their product & engineering teams, co-working space in Silicon Valley and much more.

Wayra by Telefonica has been around for three years, and today, it is present in 11 countries across Latin America and Europe. It seems to be very well organised, and it is very active with more than 300 startups engaged so far.

Hewlett Packard

It is one company in particular that has embraced the ideals of open innovation. It has developed labs where open innovation thrives. It has created an open innovation team that links collaborators that are researchers and entrepreneurs in business, government and academia, to come up with innovative solutions to hard problems with a goal of developing breakthrough technologies.

Peugeot Citro”n

The French car manufacturer has launched a collaborative project to design the cars of the future and aimed at multiplying the company’s partnerships with scientific laboratories all around the world. This project materialised into the creation of a network of OpenLabs. These structures are designed to allow the encounter between the group’s research centres and the external partners. They have a goal of thinking about the future of the automotive industry, particularly according to scientific advances.

P&G’s open innovation with external partners culminates in their Connect+Develop website. Through this platform, P&G communicates their needs to innovators that can access detailed information related to specific needs and submit their ideas to the site. P&G recruits solutions for various problems all the time. Connect+Develop has generated multiple partnerships and produced relevant products.

The idea for Nivea’s B&W deodorant was coined together with Nivea’s users through social media. The way Nivea collaborated with its users throughout the R&D process is very interesting. They pretty much said that okay, we know that our current product can be connected to stains in clothes. Could you share your stories and home remedies so that we can develop a better product? Nivea then partnered up with a company they found via pearl finder and developed, together with the users, the B&W deodorant. This admittance of issues in their product could have been seen as a sign of weakness. However, users were very active in collaborating with Nivea, and the end-product ended up being a great success.

Telegram is a messenger application that works on computers and smartphones very much like WhatsApp and Line. However, what makes Telegram different is how much users can contribute to its content openly. Users with any developing skills can create their stickers and bots on the Telegram platform. Telegram also promotes the best stickers updating an in-app list of the trending stickers.

Open Innovation Books

To learn more about Open Innovation, I recommend you to read these interesting books about open innovation.

1. A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing: Advice from Leading Experts in the Field by Paul Sloane

Open innovation is one of the hottest topics in strategy and management today. The concept of capturing ideas in a hub of collaboration, together with the outsourcing of tasks is a revolution that is rapidly changing our culture. A Guide to Open Innovation explains how to use the power of the internet to build and innovate to introduce a consumer democracy that has never existed before. With corporate case studies and best practice advice, this book is a vital read for anyone who wants to find innovative products and services from outside their organizations, make them work and overcome the practical difficulties that lie in the way.

2. Open Business Models: How To Thrive In The New Innovation Landscape by Henry W Chesbrough

In his book, the author demonstrated that because useful knowledge is no longer concentrated in a few large organisations, business leaders must adopt a new, open innovation model. Using this model, companies look outside their boundaries for ideas.

3. Open Services Innovation: Rethinking Your Business to Grow and Compete in a New Era by Henry Chesbrough

Chesbrough shows how companies in any industry can make the critical shift from product- to service-centric thinking, from closed to open innovation where co-creating with customers enables sustainable business models that drive continuous value creation for customers. He maps out a strategic approach and proven framework that any individual, business unit, company, or industry can put to work for renewed growth and profits. The book includes guidance and compelling examples for small and large companies, services businesses, and emerging economies, as well as a path forward for the innovation industry.

4. Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm by Henry Chesbrough, Wim Vanhaverbeke and Joel West

Authors describe an emergent model of innovation in which firms draw on research and development that may lie outside their boundaries. The book will be key reading for academics, researchers, and graduate students of innovation and technology management.

5. The Open Innovation Revolution: Essentials, Roadblocks, and Leadership Skills by Stefan Lindegaard, Guy Kawasaki

This practical guide reveals that, without the right people to drive innovation processes, your odds of success shrink dramatically. And as open innovation becomes the norm, developing the right people skills networking, communicating with stakeholders, building your brand and the ability to sell ideas is essential for your innovation leaders and intrapreneurs.

6. The Open Innovation Marketplace: Creating Value in the Challenge Driven Enterprise by Alpheus Bingham and Dwayne Spradlin

Authors Alpheus Bingham and Dwayne Spradlin draw on their own experience building InnoCentive, the pioneering global platform for open innovation. Writing for business executives, R&D leaders, and innovation strategists, Bingham and Spradlin demonstrate how to dramatically increase the flow of high-value ideas and innovative solutions both within enterprises and beyond their boundaries.

7. Online Communities and Open Innovation: Governance and Symbolic Value Creation by Linus Dahlander, Lars Frederiksen, Francesco Rullani

This book brings together distinguished scholars from different disciplines: economics, organisation theory, innovation studies and marketing to provide an improved understanding of how technological as well as symbolic value is created and appropriated at the intersection between online communities and firms. Empirical examples are presented from different industries, including software, services and manufacturing. The book offers food for thought for academics and managers to an important phenomenon that challenges many conventional pearls of wisdom for how business can be done.

8. Motivation in Open Innovation: An Exploratory Study on User Innovators by Robert Motzek

Robert Motzek’s study investigates most important factors controlling user innovators’ motivation and will derive suggestions on how manufacturers can address these points to tap the full potential of user innovation for their new product development.

9. Constructing Openness on Open Innovation Platforms: Creation of a Toolbox for designing Openness on Open Innovation Platforms in the Life Science Industry by Emelie Kuusk-Jonsson, Pernilla Book

The work benchmarks a model for designing Open Innovation Platforms and takes a theoretical standpoint in the socio-legal approach, viewing regulatory interventions and constructions of contractual and intellectual property law as the legal framework enabling the creation of openness, which in turn affects the choices made in the business arena.

10. SMEs and Open Innovation: Global Cases and Initiatives by Hakikur Rahman, Isabel Ramos

Open innovation has been widely implemented in small and medium enterprises with the aim of influencing business promotion, value gain, and economic empowerment. However, little is known about the processes used to implement open innovation in SMEs and the associated challenges and benefits. This book unites knowledge on how SMEs can apply open innovation strategies to development by incorporating academic, entrepreneurial, institutional, research, and empirical cases. This book discusses diverse policy , economic, and cultural issues, including numerous opportunities and challenges surrounding open innovation strategies; studies relevant risks and risk management; analyses SMEs evolution pattern on adopting open innovation strategies through available measurable criteria; and assists practitioners in designing action plans to empower SMEs.

11. Open Innovation Essentials for Small and Medium Enterprises: A Guide to Help Entrepreneurs in Adopting the Open Innovation Paradigm in Their Business by Luca Escoffier, Adriano La Vopa, Phyllis Speser , Daniel Stainsky

Small and Medium Enterprises have to approach open innovation differently than large companies. This practical guide to open innovation is expressly for entrepreneurs and managers in SMEs. The authors provide strategies, techniques, and tricks of the trade enabling SMEs to practice open innovation systems profitability and enhance the long-term value of their company.

12. Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating And Profiting from Technology by Henry W Chesbrough

This book represents a powerful synthesis of that work in the form of a new paradigm for managing corporate research and bringing new technologies to market. Chesbrough impressively articulates his ideas and how they connect to each other, weaving several disparate areas of work R&D, corporate venturing, spinoffs, licensing and intellectual property into a single coherent framework.

About Ekaterina Novoseltseva

I am a cmo at Apiumhub . Apiumhub is a software development company based in Barcelona that transformed into a tech hub, mainly offering services of mobile app development, web development & software architecture.

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Top 10 FinTech Case Studies [A Detailed Exploration] [2024]

In the dynamic realm of financial technology—often abbreviated as FinTech—groundbreaking innovations have revolutionized how we interact with money, democratizing access to myriad financial services. No longer confined to traditional banking and financial institutions, today’s consumers can easily invest, transact, and manage their finances at their fingertips. Through a deep dive into the top five FinTech case studies, this article seeks to illuminate the transformative power of financial technology. From trailblazing start-ups to industry disruptors, we will unravel how these companies have reshaped the financial landscape, offering invaluable lessons for consumers and future FinTech leaders.

Top 10 FinTech case studies [A Detailed Exploration] [2024]

Case study 1: square – democratizing payment processing.

Launched in 2009 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Square sought to fill a gaping hole in the financial services market—accessible payment processing for small businesses. In an industry overshadowed by high costs and complexity, Square introduced a game-changing point-of-sale (POS) system, using a tiny card reader that could be plugged into a smartphone.

Key Challenges

1. High Costs: The financial burden of traditional payment systems made it difficult for small businesses to participate, affecting their growth and market reach.

2. Complexity: Legacy systems were cumbersome, requiring hefty upfront investments in specialized hardware and software, with a steep learning curve for users.

3. Limited Accessibility: Many small businesses had to resort to cash-only operations, losing potential customers who preferred card payments.

Related: Important FinTech KPIs Explained

Strategies Implemented

1. User-Friendly Hardware: Square’s portable card reader was revolutionary. Easy to use and set up, it integrated seamlessly with smartphones.

2. Transparent Pricing: A flat-rate fee structure eliminates hidden costs, making budgeting more predictable for businesses.

3. Integrated Business Solutions: Square went beyond payment processing to offer additional services such as inventory management, analytics, and loans.

Results Achieved

1. Market Penetration: As of 2023, Square boasted over 4 million sellers using its platform, solidifying its market position.

2. Revenue Growth: Square achieved significant financial gains, reporting $4.68 billion in revenue in Q2 2021—a 143% year-over-year increase.

3. Product Diversification: Expanding its ecosystem, Square now offers an array of services from payroll to cryptocurrency trading through its Cash App.

Key Learnings

1. Simplicity is Key: Square’s user-centric design proved that simplifying complex processes can open new markets and encourage adoption.

2. Holistic Ecosystems: Offering integrated services can foster customer loyalty and increase lifetime value.

3. Transparency Builds Trust: A clear, straightforward fee structure can differentiate a FinTech solution in a market known for its opaqueness.

4. Accessibility: Providing easy-to-use and affordable services can empower smaller businesses, contributing to broader economic inclusion.

Related: Benefits of Green FinTech for Businesses

Case Study 2: Robinhood – Democratizing Investment

Founded in 2013, Robinhood burst onto the financial scene with a disruptive promise—commission-free trading. Unlike traditional brokerage firms that charged a fee for every trade, Robinhood allowed users to buy and sell stocks at no direct cost. The platform’s user-friendly interface and sleek design made it particularly appealing to millennials and Gen Z, demographics often underrepresented in the investment world.

1. High Commissions: Traditional brokerages often had fee structures that discouraged individuals, especially younger investors, from participating in the stock market.

2. Complex User Interfaces: Many existing trading platforms featured clunky, complicated interfaces that were intimidating for novice investors.

3. Limited Access: Entry-level investors often felt the investment landscape was an exclusive club beyond their financial and technical reach.

1. Commission-Free Trading: Robinhood’s flagship offering eliminated the financial barriers that commissions presented, inviting a new cohort of individual investors into the market.

2. User-Friendly Design: A sleek, intuitive interface made stock trading less intimidating, broadening the platform’s appeal.

3. Educational Resources: Robinhood provides educational content to help novice investors understand market dynamics, equipping them for more informed trading.

1. Market Disruption: Robinhood’s model has pressured traditional brokerage firms to rethink their fee structures, with several following suit by offering commission-free trades.

2. User Growth: As of 2023, Robinhood has amassed over 23.2 million users, a testament to its market penetration.

3. Public Scrutiny: Despite its success, Robinhood has not been without controversy, especially regarding its revenue model and lack of transparency. These issues have sparked widespread debate about ethical practices in fintech.

1. User-Centricity Drives Adoption: Robinhood’s easy-to-use platform illustrates that reducing friction encourages higher user engagement and diversifies the investor base.

2. Transparency is Crucial: The controversies surrounding Robinhood serve as a cautionary tale about the importance of transparent business practices in building and maintaining consumer trust.

3. Disruption Spurs Industry Change: Robinhood’s entry forced a reevaluation of longstanding industry norms, underscoring the influence a disruptive FinTech company can wield.

Related: How to Get an Internship in the FinTech Sector?

Case Study 3: Stripe – Simplifying Online Payments

Founded in 2010 by Irish entrepreneurs Patrick and John Collison, Stripe set out to solve a significant problem—simplifying online payments. During that time, businesses looking to accept payments online had to navigate a complex labyrinth of banking relationships, security protocols, and regulatory compliance. Stripe introduced a straightforward solution—APIs that allow businesses to handle online payments, subscriptions, and various other financial transactions with ease.

1. Complex Setup: Traditional online payment methods often require cumbersome integration and extensive documentation.

2. Security Concerns: Handling financial transactions online raised issues about data safety and compliance with financial regulations.

3. Limited Flexibility: Most pre-existing payment solutions were not adaptable to specific business needs, particularly for start-ups and SMEs.

1. Simple APIs: Stripe’s suite of APIs allowed businesses to integrate payment gateways effortlessly, removing barriers to entry for online commerce.

2. Enhanced Security: Stripe implemented robust security measures, including tokenization and SSL encryption, to protect transaction data.

3. Customization: Stripe’s modular design gave businesses the freedom to tailor the payment experience according to their specific needs.

1. Broad Adoption: Stripe’s intuitive and secure payment solutions have attracted a diverse client base, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

2. Global Reach: As of 2023, Stripe operates in over 46 countries, testifying its global appeal and functionality.

3. Financial Milestone: Stripe’s valuation skyrocketed to $50 billion in 2023, making it one of the most valuable FinTech companies globally.

1. Ease of Use: Stripe’s success proves that a user-friendly, straightforward approach can go a long way in attracting a wide range of customers.

2. Security is Paramount: Handling financial data requires stringent security measures, and Stripe’s focus on secure transactions sets an industry standard.

3. Scalability and Flexibility: Providing a modular, customizable solution allows businesses to scale and adapt, increasing customer satisfaction and retention.

Related: FinTech Skills to Add in Your Resume

Case Study 4: Coinbase – Mainstreaming Cryptocurrency

Founded in 2012, Coinbase set out to make cryptocurrency trading as simple and accessible as using an email account. At the time, the world of cryptocurrency was a wild west of complicated interfaces, murky regulations, and high-risk investments. Coinbase aimed to change this by offering a straightforward, user-friendly platform to buy, sell, and manage digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many others.

1. User Complexity: Before Coinbase, cryptocurrency trading required high technical know-how, making it inaccessible to the average person.

2. Security Risks: The lack of centralized governance in the crypto world led to various security concerns, including hacking and fraud.

3. Regulatory Uncertainty: The absence of clear regulations concerning cryptocurrency created a hesitant environment for both users and investors.

1. User-Friendly Interface: Coinbase developed a sleek, easy-to-use platform with a beginner-friendly approach, which allowed users to start trading with just a few clicks.

2. Enhanced Security: The platform incorporated advanced security features such as two-factor authentication (2FA) and cold storage for digital assets to mitigate risks.

3. Educational Content: Coinbase offers guides, tutorials, and other educational resources to help demystify the complex world of cryptocurrency.

1. Mass Adoption: As of 2023, Coinbase had over 150 million verified users, contributing significantly to mainstreaming cryptocurrencies.

2. Initial Public Offering (IPO): Coinbase went public in April 2021 with a valuation of around $86 billion, highlighting its commercial success.

3. Regulatory Challenges: While Coinbase has succeeded in democratizing crypto trading, it continues to face scrutiny and regulatory hurdles, emphasizing the sector’s evolving nature.

1. Accessibility Drives Adoption: Coinbase’s user-friendly design has played a pivotal role in driving mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, illustrating the importance of making complex technologies accessible to everyday users.

2. Security is a Selling Point: In an ecosystem rife with security concerns, robust safety measures can set a platform apart and attract a broader user base.

3. Regulatory Adaptability: The ongoing regulatory challenges highlight the need for adaptability and proactive governance in the fast-evolving cryptocurrency market.

Related: Top FinTech Interview Questions and Answers

Case Study 5: Revolut – All-In-One Financial Platform

Founded in 2015, Revolut started as a foreign currency exchange service, primarily focusing on eliminating outrageous foreign exchange fees. With the broader vision of becoming a financial super-app, Revolut swiftly expanded its services to include digital banking, stock trading, cryptocurrency exchange, and other financial services. This rapid evolution aimed to provide users with an all-encompassing financial solution on a single platform.

1. Fragmented Services: Before Revolut, consumers had to use multiple platforms for various financial needs, leading to a fragmented user experience.

2. High Costs: Traditional financial services, particularly foreign exchange and cross-border payments, often have hefty fees.

3. Slow Adaptation: Conventional banking systems were slow to integrate new financial technologies, leaving a gap in the market for more agile solutions.

1. Unified Platform: Revolut combined various financial services into a single app, offering users a seamless experience and a one-stop solution for their financial needs.

2. Competitive Pricing: By leveraging FinTech efficiencies, Revolut offered competitive rates for services like currency exchange and stock trading.

3. Rapid Innovation: The platform continually rolled out new features, staying ahead of consumer demand and forcing traditional institutions to catch up.

1. User Growth: As of 2023, Revolut has amassed over 30 million retail customers, solidifying its reputation as a financial super-app.

2. Revenue Increase: In 2021, Revolut’s revenues climbed to approximately $765 million, indicating its business model’s viability.

3. Industry Influence: Revolut’s multi-functional capabilities have forced traditional financial institutions to reconsider their offerings, pushing the industry toward integrated, user-friendly solutions.

1. User-Centric Design: Revolut’s success stems from its focus on solving real-world consumer problems with an easy-to-use, integrated platform.

2. Agility Wins: In the fast-paced world of fintech, the ability to innovate and adapt quickly to market needs can be a significant differentiator.

3. Competitive Pricing is Crucial: Financial services have always been a cost-sensitive sector. Offering competitive pricing can draw users away from traditional platforms.

Related: Surprising FinTech Facts and Statistics

Case Study  6 : Chime – Revolutionizing Personal Banking

Essential term: digital banking.

Digital banking represents the digitization of all traditional banking activities, where financial services are delivered predominantly through the internet. This innovation caters to a growing demographic of tech-savvy users seeking efficient and accessible banking solutions.

Founded in 2013, Chime entered the financial market with a bold mission: to redefine personal banking through simplicity, transparency, and customer-centricity. At a time when traditional banks were mired in fee-heavy structures and complex service models, Chime introduced a revolutionary no-fee model complemented by a streamlined digital experience, challenging the status quo of personal banking.

1. Fee-Heavy Structure: Traditional banks heavily relied on various fees, including overdraft and maintenance charges, alienating a significant portion of potential customers, particularly those seeking straightforward banking solutions.

2. Complexity and Inaccessibility: Conventional banking systems were often marred by cumbersome procedures and lacked user-friendly interfaces, making them less appealing, especially to younger, more tech-savvy generations.

3. Customer Service: The traditional banking sector frequently struggled with providing proactive and responsive customer service, creating a gap in customer satisfaction and engagement.

1. No-Fee Model: By eliminating common banking fees such as overdraft fees, Chime positioned itself as a customer-friendly alternative, significantly attracting customers frustrated with traditional banking penalties.

2. User-Friendly App: Chime’s app was designed with user experience at its core, offering an intuitive and accessible platform for everyday banking operations, thereby enhancing overall customer experience.

3. Automatic Savings Tools: Chime innovated with features like automatic savings round-up and early paycheck access, designed to empower customers in their financial management.

1. Expansive Customer Base: Chime successfully captured a broad market segment, particularly resonating with millennials and Gen Z, evidenced by its rapid accumulation of millions of users.

2. Catalyst for Innovation: The company’s growth trajectory and model pressured traditional banks to reassess and innovate their fee structures and service offerings.

3. Valuation Surge: Reflecting its market impact and success, Chime’s valuation experienced a substantial increase, marking its significance in the banking sector.

1. Customer-Centric Approach: Chime’s journey underscores the importance of addressing customer pain points, such as fee structures, and offering a seamless digital banking experience, which can be instrumental in rapid user base growth.

2. Innovation in Features: The introduction of genuinely helpful financial management tools can significantly differentiate a FinTech company in a competitive market.

3. Disruptive Influence: Chime’s success story illustrates how a digital-first approach can disrupt and challenge traditional banking models, paving the way for new, innovative banking experiences.

Related: Is FinTech Overhyped?

Case Study  7 : LendingClub – Pioneering Peer-to-Peer Lending

Essential term: peer-to-peer (p2p) lending.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending is a method of debt financing that enables individuals to borrow and lend money without using an official financial institution as an intermediary. This model directly connects borrowers and lenders through online platforms.

LendingClub, founded in 2006, emerged as a trailblazer in the lending industry by introducing a novel P2P lending model. This innovative approach offered a substantial departure from the traditional credit system, typically dominated by banks and credit unions, aiming to democratize access to credit.

1. High-Interest Rates: Traditional loans were often synonymous with high-interest rates, rendering them inaccessible or financially burdensome for many borrowers.

2. Limited Access to Credit: Conventional lending mechanisms frequently sidelined individuals with lower credit scores, creating a significant barrier to credit access.

3. Intermediary Costs: The traditional lending process involves numerous intermediaries, leading to additional costs and inefficiencies for borrowers and lenders.

1. Direct Platform: LendingClub’s platform revolutionized lending by directly connecting borrowers with investors, reducing the overall cost of obtaining loans.

2. Risk Assessment Tools: The company employed advanced algorithms for assessing the risk profiles of borrowers, which broadened the spectrum of loan accessibility to include individuals with diverse credit histories.

3. Streamlined Process: LendingClub’s online platform streamlined the loan application and disbursement processes, enhancing transparency and efficiency.

1. Expanded Credit Access: LendingClub significantly widened the avenue for credit, particularly benefiting those with less-than-perfect credit scores.

2. Influencing the Market: The P2P lending model introduced by LendingClub prompted traditional lenders to reconsider their rates and processes in favor of more streamlined, borrower-friendly approaches.

3. Navigating Regulatory Hurdles: The journey of LendingClub highlighted the intricate regulatory challenges of financial innovation, underscoring the importance of adaptive compliance strategies.

1. Efficiency of Direct Connections: Eliminating intermediaries in the lending process can lead to substantial cost reductions and process efficiency improvements.

2. Broadening Credit Accessibility: FinTech can play a pivotal role in democratizing access to financial services by implementing innovative risk assessment methodologies.

3. Importance of Regulatory Compliance: Sustainable innovation in the FinTech sector necessitates a keen awareness and adaptability to the evolving regulatory landscape.

Related: Who is a FinTech CTO?

Case Study  8 : Brex – Reinventing Business Credit for Startups

Essential term: corporate credit cards.

Corporate credit cards are specialized financial tools designed for business use. They offer features like higher credit limits, rewards tailored to business spending, and, often, additional tools for expense management.

Launched in 2017, Brex emerged with a bold vision to transform how startups access and manage credit. In a financial landscape where traditional corporate credit cards posed steep requirements and were often misaligned with the unique needs of burgeoning startups, Brex introduced an innovative solution. Their model focused on the company’s cash balance and spending patterns rather than relying on personal credit histories.

1. Inaccessibility for Startups: Traditional credit systems, with their reliance on extensive credit history, were largely inaccessible to new startups, which typically lacked this background.

2. Rigid Structures: Conventional corporate credit cards were not designed to accommodate rapidly evolving startups’ fluid and dynamic financial needs.

3. Personal Guarantee Requirement: A common stipulation in business credit involves personal guarantees, posing a significant risk for startup founders.

1. No Personal Guarantee: Brex innovated by offering credit cards without needing a personal guarantee, basing creditworthiness on business metrics.

2. Tailored Financial Solutions: Understanding the unique ecosystem of startups, Brex designed its services to be flexible and in tune with their evolving needs.

3. Technology-Driven Approach: Utilizing advanced algorithms and data analytics, Brex could assess the creditworthiness of startups in a more nuanced and comprehensive manner.

1. Breaking Barriers: Brex made corporate credit more accessible to startups, removing traditional barriers.

2. Market Disruption: By tailoring its product, Brex pressures traditional financial institutions to innovate and rethink its credit card offerings.

3. Rapid Growth: Brex’s unique approach led to rapid adoption within the startup community, significantly growing its customer base and market presence.

1. Adapting to Market Needs: Brex’s success underscores the importance of understanding and adapting to the specific needs of your target market.

2. Innovative Credit Assessment: Leveraging technology for credit assessment can open new avenues and democratize access to financial products.

3 Risk and Reward: The move to eliminate personal guarantees, while riskier, positioned Brex as a game-changer, highlighting the balance between risk and innovation in FinTech.

Related: Is FinTech a Dying Career Industry?

Case Study  9 : SoFi – Transforming Personal Finance

Essential term: financial services platform.

A financial services platform offers a range of financial products and services, such as loans, investment options, and banking services, through a unified digital interface.

SoFi, short for Social Finance, Inc., was founded in 2011 to revolutionize personal finance. Initially focused on student loan refinancing, SoFi quickly expanded its offerings to include a broad spectrum of financial services, including personal loans, mortgages, insurance, investment products, and a cash management account. This expansion was driven by a vision to provide a one-stop financial solution for consumers, particularly catering to the needs of early-career professionals.

1. Fragmented Financial Services: Consumers often had to navigate multiple platforms and institutions to manage their various financial needs, leading to a disjointed financial experience.

2. Student Loan Debt: Many graduates needed more flexible and affordable refinancing options with student debt escalating.

3. Accessibility and Education: A significant segment of the population lacked access to comprehensive financial services and the knowledge to navigate them effectively.

1. Diverse Financial Products: SoFi expanded its product range beyond student loan refinancing to include a suite of financial services, offering more holistic financial solutions.

2. Tech-Driven Approach: Utilizing technology, SoFi provided streamlined, user-friendly experiences across its platform, simplifying the process of managing personal finances.

3. Financial Education and Advice: SoFi offered educational resources and personalized financial advice, positioning itself as a partner in its customers’ financial journey.

1. Expanding Consumer Base: SoFi succeeded in attracting a broad customer base, especially among young professionals looking for integrated financial services.

2. Innovation in Personal Finance: The company’s expansion into various financial services positioned it as a leader in innovative personal finance solutions.

3. Brand Recognition and Trust: With its comprehensive approach and focus on customer education, SoFi built a strong brand reputation and trust among its users.

1. Integrated Services Appeal: Offering a broad array of financial services through a single platform can attract customers seeking a unified financial management experience.

2. Leveraging Technology for Ease: Using technology to simplify and streamline financial services is key to enhancing customer experience and satisfaction.

3. Empowering Through Education: Providing users with financial education and advice can foster long-term customer relationships and trust.

Related: FinTech vs Investment Banking

Case Study  10 : Apple Pay – Redefining Digital Payments

Essential term: mobile payment system.

A mobile payment system allows consumers to make payments for goods and services using mobile devices, typically through apps or integrated digital wallets.

Launched in 2014, Apple Pay marked Apple Inc.’s foray into the digital payment landscape. It was introduced with the aim of transforming how consumers perform transactions, focusing on enhancing the convenience, security, and speed of payments. Apple Pay allows users to make payments using their Apple devices, employing Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. This move was a strategic step in leveraging the widespread use of smartphones for financial transactions.

1. Security Concerns: The rising incidences of data breaches and fraud in digital payments made consumers skeptical about the security of mobile payment systems.

2. User Adoption: Convincing consumers to shift from traditional payment methods like cash and cards to a digital platform requires overcoming ingrained habits and perceptions.

3. Merchant Acceptance: For widespread adoption, a large number of merchants needed to accept and support Apple Pay.

1. Enhanced Security Features: Apple Pay uses a combination of device-specific numbers and unique transaction codes, ensuring that card numbers are not stored on devices or servers, thereby enhancing transaction security.

2. Seamless Integration: Apple Pay was designed to work seamlessly with existing Apple devices, offering an intuitive and convenient user experience.

3. Extensive Partnership with Banks and Retailers: Apple forged partnerships with numerous banks, credit card companies, and retailers to ensure widespread acceptance of Apple Pay.

1. Widespread Adoption: Apple Pay quickly gained a significant user base, with millions of transactions processed shortly after its launch.

2. Market Leadership: Apple Pay became one of the leading mobile payment solutions globally, setting a standard in the digital payment industry.

3. Influence on Payment Behaviors: The introduction of Apple Pay substantially accelerated the shift towards contactless payments and mobile wallets.

1. Trust Through Security: The emphasis on security can be a major driving force in user adoption of new financial technologies.

2. Integration and Convenience: A system that integrates seamlessly with users’ daily lives and provides tangible convenience can successfully change long-standing consumer habits.

3. Strategic Partnerships: Building a network of partnerships is key to the widespread acceptance and success of a new payment system.

These stories of globally renowned FinTech trailblazers offer invaluable insights, providing a must-read blueprint for anyone looking to make their mark in this rapidly evolving industry.

1. Square shows that focusing on user needs, especially in underserved markets, can drive innovation and market share.

2. Robinhood serves as both an inspiration and a cautionary tale, advocating for democratization while emphasizing the importance of ethical practices.

3. Stripe proves that simplifying complex processes through customizable, user-friendly solutions can redefine industries.

4. Coinbase highlights the transformative potential of making new financial instruments like cryptocurrency accessible while reminding us of regulatory challenges.

5. Revolut sets the bar high with its user-centric, all-in-one platform, emphasizing the need for agility and competitive pricing in the sector.

The key to FinTech success lies in simplicity, agility, user focus, and ethical considerations. These case studies serve as guiding lights for future innovation, emphasizing that technological superiority must be balanced with customer needs and ethical responsibilities.

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E-Tools for Personalizing Learning During the Pandemic: Case Study of an Innovative Solution for Remote Teaching

Loredana adriana patrascoiu.

1 Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

Ruxandra Folostina

Dan patzelt.

2 Urban Development Association, Bucharest, Romania

Maria Paula Blaj

Bianca poptean, associated data.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

“Every child counts” has lost its value even from the political discourse of some societies during the pandemic, proving that the level of culture of inclusion is the true standard of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) commitment. Online education and therapy required rethinking the way we educate children with special needs and, implicitly, prepare them for life. We consider that the personalized approach of the therapeutic intervention was the main difficulty. In this article, we propose a solution to this problem, an approach based on a platform initially developed by tactileimages.org for vision-impaired pupils which became a tool in the universal design of learning materials. This e-learning tool includes an Editor, a browser-based software developed to allow the creation or adaptation of drawings into vector images; the QR code through which areas of educational and therapeutic interest are allocated to pictures for task personalization; and the voice-over function of the companion application. The customized material is identified by image recognition algorithms, and the user's gesture is recognized by artificial intelligence algorithms, which receives (by voice-over) details about therapeutic tasks in remote teaching. The article illustrates the personalization of the therapeutic and educational path. The process starts with defining the child's functioning profile and matching function with the curriculum elements as they are found within the Erasmus + project “Cognitive Resources for Toddlers Teens and Experts” —stored in the virtual library. Information and comunication technology is currently an important vector in attaining the SDG vision. The proposed solution will be improved in order to further personalize the educational and therapeutic intervention in the post-pandemic period too.

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goal and The Pre-Pandemic Educational Context

All the 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) need to be achieved by education involvement, even if Goal 4 is about how we see education in the future. Goal 4 is about ensuring inclusiveness and a good level of education by promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. The transformative intentions of the 2030 Agenda gain sustainability in the light of a matrix of indicators for immediate, medium, and long-term implementation of the SDGs as Lee et al. ( 2016 ) recommend for violence and social issues.

In the context of the Incheon Declaration and the 2030 Agenda, inclusion implies that each person has an equal and personalized chance for educational progress. This has proven to be a social challenge in almost all countries. Despite the progress made over the past two decades to expand access to basic education, further directions are needed to minimize barriers to learning, thus ensuring that all students in schools and other learning environments benefit from a genuine, inclusive environment (International Bureau of Education-UNESCO (IBE-UNESCO), 2016 , 2017 ). We cannot build inclusive and equitable societies if we do not start this process within inclusive education systems.

During the pre-pandemic period, the main difficulty of inclusive education was to personalize the educational and therapeutic approach to create learning environments that generate meaningful learning experiences for each beneficiary (Cantor et al., 2019 ). This challenge was mirrored in terms of curriculum development and assessment systems that must consider all the learners.

Elaborated before knowing the challenges of the pandemic, “Cognitive Resources for Toddlers Teens and Experts—CORTTEX” is an Erasmus + project meant to training Romanian specialists in cognitive education and neuro-didactics. Developed and implemented by the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, the project aimed to promote various cognitive education strategies (e.g., making mind maps, visualization, association, mnemonics, using clues in reading comprehension, underlining keywords, scanning, self-testing, and monitoring) and various self-directed pedagogical methods (e.g., cognitive gamification-based learning and cognitive problem-based learning) for different educational levels (e.g., kindergartens, primary school, and secondary school) of children with learning difficulties or in the management of particular behavioral difficulties.

The pandemic period revealed the harsh reality of the Romanian educational system. More than a third of Romania's children are at high risk of poverty, and a significant number of them come from rural areas where the support educational services (offered by support teachers) are almost non-existent. In 2020, Eurostat ranks Romania 1st in the EU in terms of the risk of poverty/social exclusion, child poverty being higher in children (41.5%) than in the general population. Even by the OECD definition, disadvantaged students are included in the C category of special educational needs; in Romania, the service of support teacher is only offered to children with disabilities. It is difficult to outline, statistically at a national level, the problem of schooling children with special needs in rural areas and the support services provided to them, due to the general lack of transparency or concern at the level of the relevant ministries (Eurostat, 2021 ).

Romania's situation regarding SDG1 (no poverty), in correlation with SDG4, highlights the context in which children with special needs entered the educational lockdown.

The Romanian educational system has been plagued for many years by an increased dropout rate (between 16.4 and 19.1% in the last 10 years) and functional illiteracy (between 38 and 42% in the last 10 years), Save the Children ( 2019 ) which places it at the bottom of European rankings. Romania is in a situation of a real educational crisis since many students from rural or urban disadvantaged schools do not have the necessary devices or the necessary skills to use them.

In this context, TactileImages becomes an important tool for distance education and for independent development. Based on interactive augmented reality and in the context of the CORTTEX project, TactileImages creates personalized educational materials in an interactive audio self-described manner.

SDG Commitment During the Pandemic Period and the New Lens for Inclusion—Tactileimages and CORTTEX Contribution to Achieve the SDG Vision in Therapy and Inclusive Education

In Romania, due to the chronic lack of support for research in special education for over 15 years, we only have small-scale initiatives developed by small groups on isolated topics. Although the Ministry of Education has permanently collected information from schools during the pandemic, it has not yet brought forth a document for a diagnosis of the situation in special education (especially in rural areas and for poor families) or proposed measures for improvement. All reports are made by international organizations such as UNICEF, which are conditioned financially. For example, Save the Children periodically monitors the children's rights in Romania, but only on fundamental rights. We specify that the Romanian authorities do not monitor the rights of people with special needs, and there is no national or international reporting.

That is why we will focus on international reports made during this pandemic period and especially on the solutions they propose.

The World Bank report “Pivoting to Inclusion: Leveraging Lessons from the COVID-19 Crisis for Learners with Disabilities” (World Bank, 2020 ) presents recommended practices for educational and social inclusion and participation for children with disabilities. In this context, specialists have to rethink education with the inclusive lens of the pandemic period, and its central action is remote learning.

Two challenges are identified about remote learning: one is about the systemic inequalities expressed by accessibility, ability, and affordability, and the second challenge is about designing remote learning, to which the authors propose solutions such as Universal Design for Learning, which engages the learners to think, develop skills, and grow while at home.

The lessons learned from the COVID-19 are valuable in understanding the limitations of educational service systems, emphasizing the need for a change of perspective (Basham et al., 2020 ). In this context, in countries where education is not really a priority of the government, the question is how we should rethink these educational services considering the evolutions in technology. Technology, in all its forms, is part of our lives—at home, at school, at work. In the pre-pandemic period, online learning tools were used not only in classrooms but also at home, as complementary ways to increase the attractiveness and interactivity of learning experiences or to provide knowledge and skills. The use and usefulness of technologies have been scientifically validated for children with special needs, as a significant support for enhancing their cognitive and emotional development in schools. Especially for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), Carrington et al. ( 2020 ) today there are multiple behavioral modeling attempts through virtual learning environments. In interaction with the simulated life situation, children with ASD, and not only them, can be prepared/desensitized to respond to more or less complex or unpredictable life situations by avoiding blockage and panic behaviors. These models can use conversation agents, relational agents, pedagogical agents, and chat-bot agents (Ramachandiran et al., 2015 ). Virtual learning environments can contribute significantly to cognitive and behavioral therapy. As Papoutsi et al. ( 2018 ) highlight, emotion-aware apps have a significant contribution to improve emotional intelligence and a better integration into social contexts for people with ASD, to understand the mind of others and to be better understood by their caregivers, educators, and parents.

We already know the importance of assistive technology (AT) in increasing the quality of life for people with special needs. Koch ( 2017 ) considers computer-embedded AT as a component of universal design (even for learning), so using it teachers facilitate students' learning creating more independent, more motivated students who have greater access to their curriculum.

Remote teaching is one of the solutions that the pandemic has highlighted. Specialists differentiated the “online learning experiences generated by the pandemic” from the “online learning” as a term theorized and developed before the pandemic as “planned from the beginning and designed to be online” (Hodges et al., 2020 ).

In this context, TactileImages becomes an important tool for distance education and for independent development.

Structural TactileImages includes the following:

• - Image Creator is an innovative software that allows the creation or adaptation of usual images as interactive tactile vectorial drawings that self-describe via audio output and can be explored independently by any person (universal design) with the help of a mobile app. Image Creator has three main components, namely, the Drawing Tool, the Editor, and the Map. The first is used to create drawings from scratch, the second allows adding descriptions to any drawing, and the last one allows creating a map of one's surroundings.

The Drawing Tool offers different functions such as a) free drawing (create predefined shapes, add text and color, and also use the pencil to draw freely); b) clipart (there is an entire library of clipart you can use to create drawings easily by drag and drop your favorite elements, but you can also upload your own clipart); and c) background (this function allows turning any picture into a drawing easily).

The Editor adds captions to drawings or pictures. We can add as many words as we want to any part of the drawing or picture. The descriptions work just like the indications given by the teacher, in a non-linear mode. So, children can explore the tactile images independently with the help of a mobile application (currently available only for iPhone, but it will be developed for the Android version in the future). Using algorithms of artificial intelligence, machine learning, finger tracking and interactive augmented reality, the latter identifies the place where the finger is positioned on a tactile graphic with an attached QR code, and the information is then transmitted via Voiceover (a screen reader in which auditory descriptions help you navigate easily with a Bluetooth keyboard or simple gestures on a touch screen or trackpad).

The connection between the physical board and the application is made through a QR code. The QR code facilitates information input in specific areas of drawn space, which provides educational and therapeutic interest and allows the personalization of tasks.

The Tactile Images READER App does not require human interaction because it can play the role of the person assisting the child with special needs, explaining to him or her what he or she has under the finger, thus creating a coherent representation of the drawing. The App works only when the phone is placed above tactile graphics.

Based on interactive augmented reality, TactileImages creates personalized educational materials in an interactive audio self-described manner in the framework of the CORTTEX project.

CORTTEX curriculum is based on a needs analysis (Folostina et al., 2021 ); 600 specialists (therapists and teachers) from 3 countries were involved (i.e., Romania, Belgium, and Greece). The research methodology used was a mixed cross-sectional methodology (quantitative and qualitative), which provides a comprehensive perspective on several aspects regarding the therapeutic intervention and interaction for students with learning difficulties (LD): attitude and knowledge, concerns about teaching students with LD, methods for identifying students with LD and assessing their cognitive skills, integrated curriculum use, methods used for cognitive therapy, management of challenging behaviors, parents relationship, methods of enhancing empathy in children with LD, and education quality. Specialists analyze the nine-layer pyramidal model on emotional intelligence in order to improve the CORTTEX curriculum (Drigas and Papoutsi, 2018 ).

CORTTEX curriculum is structured in three dimensions as shown in Table 1 .

CORTTEX curriculum structure.

The second part (Part II) of the curriculum brings a higher dimension of cognitive processing, offering the perspective of “thinking skills.” Part II is aimed at primary and secondary schools.

Mitsea et al. ( 2021 ) highlight that training in adaptability and flexibility in various domains (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral) is very important for students to be better prepared to adjust to uncertainty and to rapid change (Drigas and Papoutsi, 2021 ). An appropriate training in cognitive and socio-emotional skills can integrate them in an academic, working, and social environment, but this can happen only when we train the metacognitive skills. The authors conclude that soft skills are fully trainable and are entirely dependent on the development of metacognitive skills even if, initially, the literature considered that soft skills have a rich cognitive background (led by attention, working memory, and other executive functions).

Focusing on the CORTTEX curriculum and using TactileImages tools, specialists (psychologists and psycho-pedagogues) created examples of curricular sets (in fact therapeutic programs for different areas of development—perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social, behavioral) with all the benefits of remote teaching.

These sets of materials illustrate the ways in which the therapeutic approach is conducted and offer the premises for its personalization. The functioning profile justifies the manner of personalization in the heterochrony of the student's individual development.

The resources are designed for therapists and teachers, for families, and even for children, if they use them under professional guidance. Children can study the drawings independently (or as independent work) only with the help of the assistant app that reads the descriptions just like a teacher (even using a personalized voice in the future features of the e-learning platform).

Remote Teaching—the Deployment of Therapeutical and Educational Personalization Process Using CORTTEX Curriculum and Tactileimages Tools

In order to attain the goals of SDG 4, it is necessary to personalize the educational and therapeutic intervention. The term “personalized learning,” although recommended, is often less methodologically defined, but the wide range of approaches broadly seeks to tailor the content, support, and pathways that students learn (Alli et al., 2016).

Researching the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on learning in Germany in terms of perceived self-efficacy of teachers working with children with special educational needs, Maurer et al. ( 2021 ) highlight the low values of this important motivator for the teachers' activity. This seems to result from challenges in the identification of difficulties and support offered in distance learning to the students with difficulties in reading, writing, and mathematics due to a lack of use of concrete materials.

Unlike other e-learning platforms, TactileImages uses concrete material and does not transpose the child into a virtual world, but brings digital advantages to the real world. Tactile images (with embossed areas), as the main mediators of knowledge in this approach, are not only useful for visually impaired children but also bring focus and essential information to children with autism, attention disorders, and mental deficiency and, last but not least, to children without difficulties. For this reason, we can say that TactileImages offers premises for a universal design of learning. Universal design for learning is a framework that supports the design of a learning environment and accepts the variability of every learner (Nelson and Basham, 2014 ). The same authors see teachers when they put this framework into action as “learning engineers” because they are designers of development solutions “focused on overcoming barriers through a process of problem-solving and iterative design.”

We can only plan or attain an educational goal with a good understanding of individual psychological characteristics and mechanisms of learning. That is why we use TactileImages as a tool in the CORTTEX matrix to improve individual development through personalization. We consider the illustrated approach as pertaining to educational psychology.

The ICF functioning profile, as structure and content, identifies and monitors the effectiveness of intervention strategies of rehabilitation professionals; it is also an important tool for clinicians and researchers (Ustün et al., 2003 ). We used it as a starting point for personalization. By mapping out the level of development of specific mental functions, we can explore the functional profile to find the poorly developed areas that need intervention, and we can also highlight the compensation areas (those areas with a good level of functioning that we can use as a foundation/anchor during intervention).

CORTTEX provides the necessary content elements, and TactileImages provides the intervention tool. We will exemplify some specific ways of intervention for the cognitive development of various categories of children—we will illustrate the contribution of Tactile and CORTTEX for training life skills in verbal and non-verbal children. In the following, we show morning activities where Tactile organizes a sequence.

On the poster in Figure 1 , information on various levels of complexity can be attached to the QR Code fields. When the finger touches the QR area/picture for at least 3 s, it triggers the rendition of a prerecorded message. Recorded messages will soon be available so that the child can hear familiar voices (mother, teacher, support teacher, etc.) to improve the quality of remote teaching.

Sequencing the day's activities.

The posters below are designed for children who have difficulties in building daily routines, and they can also be used as an educational material for the development of complex perception of time, order, and succession. Preschoolers without learning difficulties can benefit from this educational material too.

For example, the morning icon (sun up) carries different messages appropriate to the child's level of understanding from a simple “Good morning, Daniel!” to a more elaborated: “Good morning, Mihai! The sun is up and brings you a wonderful day!” / “(It's a wonderful day!)”.

The icons in row 2 carry a QR-coded message with verbs in the simple present tense, first person:

“I wake up/get out of bed, wash my face, get dressed, eat.” or can share a story about personal hygiene including details about the instructions needed to guide the child for the day.

The same poster can carry another personalized message (by QR) that the specialist considers suitable for another child or by matching the level of complexity to the growing learning needs of the student from one lesson to another about one topic.

The pictures are printed in relief, so tactile exploration brings extra information to the visual image, which improves the attention span. It can also be used by visually impaired children, and we consider it to be an educational material that respects the principles of universal design for learning. The icons were taken from arasaac.org, but were edited to suit the educational context.

It is a learning support not only for reading the dial clock but also for understanding the concept of night-day, darkness-light. Together, they are part of a set proposed by CORTTEX specialists which aims at both adaptive behaviors and learning specific concepts.

Adaptive behaviors (basic skills related to daily living) such as getting dressed, personal grooming and physical self-care, eating and table manners, orientation in the environment, helping in home activities, and general knowledge about the immediately experienced world are plans with sequenced activities.

Reader App allows the child to return to the previous sequence of activities, including separate exploration, and fix them. The QR code allows the task to be more complex as the child learns the basics. The QR code is, in fact, the one that ensures the personalization of these tools.

Basic concepts such as color, shape, size, orientation in space, number and quantity, time, cause and effect relationships, feelings and moods, and the human body (body parts and their functions) can be illustrated in sets of specialized drawings.

All CORTTEX-developed materials can be downloaded free of charge from the section https://tactileimages.org/ro/category/cortex/ .

They can be printed using affordable techniques from tactileimages.org . As to the various functions of TactileImages, personalized tactile pictures can be attractive even in a post-pandemic context as they help diversify learning tasks by using shared visual support for all the students in a class.

The TactileImages platform becomes an alternative pedagogical solution that contains, in addition to the mobile application, a virtual library of 1,000 self-describing drawings that can be added simply via drag & drop when teachers or parents plan personalized educational resources.

Teachers and parents can access or adapt these resources with personalized descriptions and use them as a function of the child's learning dynamic.

In conclusion, we consider TactileImages as an e-tool for universal design curricula because it fulfills the principles of UNESCO's well-established good practices for inclusion and equity such as:

• Clarity of meaning : The design of educational materials takes into account the diversity among learners since the very beginning.
• Analysis of context : With personalized tasks and remote teaching, it also contributes in the pandemic context to the improvement of the child's status (the functional profiles offer a psychological perspective for the therapeutic and educational approach) aiming to increase participation and achievement.
• Building on existing practices : The platform improves the existing educational offer and the possibilities of cooperation and free access, thus giving the opportunity to transfer expertise within and between schools.
• Working collaboratively : Not only does it offer the potential for collaboration, but it also emphasizes the importance of promoting mutual support among stakeholders to shift practices; the child and parents can give important feedback to the specialist in personalizing the therapeutic and educational approach.
• Managing change : Being an innovative tool, it brings about change in the therapeutic approach, including at the classroom level. It facilitates the reduction of frequent bureaucracy in case management and makes the process more efficient.
• The evaluation of progress is easier to record and test, as this practice focuses on the implementation of the bio-psycho-social model, and the impact of change is recorded in the functioning profile (UNESCO, 2021 ).

All the benefits that the implementation of UDL instruments has at local (schools) and national levels are illustrated in the paper A blueprint for UDL. Considering the design of implementation (Nelson and Basham, 2014 ), we list the ones that are very important for a country like Romania according to the illustrated socio-educational context:

• - Therapists/teachers will have a better understanding of instructional strategy and design, instructional technology, cognition and learning, proactive behavior management and student engagement, and self-determination.
• - Therapists/teachers will be data-driven problemsolvers and active designers of teaching as an iterative process influenced by learner variability and performance.
• - Therapists/teachers will connect instructional resources and technology infrastructure, technology being simply another tool or resource for supporting teaching and learning.
• - Encourage therapists/teachers to innovate and iteratively design around barriers to learning.
• - Often, design models of instruction are actively communicated and exchanged for sharing ideas and developing solutions with other colleagues' expertise as a supported culture of idea and resource exchange among different educational organizations and specialists.

Discussions on the Practical Advantages Offered by Tactileimages as a Personalized Learning and Therapeutical tool for the Peri And Post-Pandemic Period

During the development of TactileImages as an innovative educational solution, the needs identified in relation to the beneficiaries and in relation to the Romanian educational system were permanently taken into account.

The defining characteristics for TactileImages compared with the main identified competitors are given as follows ( Figure 2 ).

Benchmarking for tactile images.

• - Tactopus is a creator of interactive books, games, and puzzles that can be explored with a digital assistant. https://tactopus.com/ .
• - Tactile Graphics Helper is a mobile app that tracks the user's finger as they explore a tactile graphic, announcing information about the location they are pointing to. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tactile-graphics-helper/id1469997677 .
• - Seeing AI is mobile app that identifies persons and objects and describes them via audio output. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/seeing-ai .
• - TTT or The Talking Tactile Tablet is a computer peripheral device designed for use as a “viewer” for audio/tactile materials. http://touchgraphics.com/portfolio/ttt/ .
• - IVEO allows users to understand tactile graphics in an engaging and interactive solution. https://viewplus.com/product/iveo-3-hands-on-learning-system/ .

Thus, milestones were outlined, elements that we used in the benchmarking process in the analysis of competitors, such as:

• - Hardware component : TactileImages working on creating 4 tactile printers based on wood-glue.
• - Software component : TactileImages includes a mobile app and drawing software.
• - Personalization —Create educational materials (using the Editor/ Sketcher) or adapt existing material: Anyone can write their own descriptions or add descriptions to the already created materials to be suitable to the age and knowledge level of the beneficiary.
• - Embossing technique : Anyone can add audio descriptions to any tactile material, regardless of the embossing technique.
• - Translate materials or existing ones : Anyone can translate the descriptions of the tactile graphics in the library into their own language.
• - Independent learning : Anyone can use the mobile assistant to study interactive tactile graphics independently.
• - User-generated content : Users are free to create their own materials.
• - Free of charge : Anyone can access TactileImages e-learning platform (library, drawing software, mobile app) for free.
• - Upgradable : Automatically.
• - Mobile solution : Anyone can use their own mobile app to study at school, at home, in the park, train station, museum—wherever there is a stable internet connection.
• - Mass-produced materials : Any drawing can be reproduced on a wider scale.
• - Specialized and professional materials : Tactile catalogs are created with the help of teachers mainly from special schools.

There are software solutions (apps) on the market which can identify objects and describe them audibly for multisensorial learning purposes. They use image recognition algorithms, but do not offer additional information, they just recognize the object (e.g., the apps utter: elephant, whale, mug). The disadvantage is that the descriptions cannot be personalized, according to the specific needs of every child/lesson requirement, and do not offer detail, representing just a general description (Patzelt and Blaj, 2020 ).

In our perspective, TactileImages represents a necessary e-tool for personalizing the educational and therapeutic intervention not only for the pandemic period but also for the post-pandemic period, marking a shift in the evolution of the field and generating an important progress for ensuring the quality of inclusion.

In our qualitative study, we involved 10 specialists (5 teachers and 5 therapists, 7 of them tested TactilesImages in the special schools and 3 in the mainstream schools) using diagnostic teaching research methodology to collect data about the educational direct impact of 5 custom drawings made using TactileImages and the CORTTEX curriculum. Observation grids were based on the functioning profile of the student, to which Likert scales 1–10 were attached (according to Table 2 , we selected the most impacted functions).

Body functions improvement.

The 18 children observed belong to the categories presented in Figure 3 .

Categories of students observed.

We note that the most intense impact was recorded on the following:

• - b1564 Tactile perception (improvements recorded from 5 to 10 points), more precisely on the use of tactile information in educational tasks.
• - b1264 Openness to experience (improvements recorded from 4 to 10 points) due to the attractiveness of multisensory information recorded for all children observed.
• - b1560 Auditory perception (improvements from 4 to 10 points) to complete visual/tactile information.

Other functions with notable improvements (from 3 to 10 points) were recorded on b1141 Orientation in the sheet's space, b130 Energy and drive functions, b1400 Sustaining attention, b1470 Psychomotor control, b1471 Quality of psychomotor functions, b1561 Visual perception, and b1565 Visuospatial perception.

From the perspective of the intervention, the specialists observed hierarchical improvements (by frequency): increase the attractiveness of the activity and the level of involvement of students in the task (100%), a better relationship with the one who facilitates learning (80%), increase the capacity of intellectual effort (80%), a better understanding of abstract concepts (50%), and understanding of emotions (50%). From the perspective of personalization, all the specialists involved appreciated the possibility offered by the platform to create their own images and to adapt the content according to the needs of each student through the facilities offered by the QR code.

We could say that the role of CORTTEX and TactileImages is not only to improve the results of SDG4 but also to reduce the effects of SDG1.

Acknowledgment of Any Conceptual, Methodological, Environmental, or Material Constraints

This article illustrates the evolution of an educational solution dedicated to the creation of personalized educational and therapeutic material as a pandemic response brought to the Romanian educational system challenges and also to the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda (Arthars et al., 2019 ).

Although we did not benefit from a diagnosis and a report from the authorities about the education of children with special needs during the pandemic, by referring to educational systems with a higher commitment regarding SDG goals, the authors brought improvements to the educational solution. In this context, they completed this personalization tool with remote teaching functions, which are considered necessary for this period. The approach is qualitative and brings to the fore how this tool has evolved and how it can contribute to the curriculum developed within the CORTTEX project, a project whose results are based on the principles of neuro-didactics.

Some online tools shift could change teachers' roles, making them more like coaches and mentors (d'Orville, 2020 ).

Data Availability Statement

Author contributions.

LP, RF, and BP: curriculum development and applied study. DP and MB: technical development and description of the platform design. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This work was funded by the budget of the Erasmus + project Cognitive Resources for Toddlers Teens and Experts—CORTTEX - 2020-1-RO01-KA202-080239.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

We want to acknowledge the contributions of Orange Foundation Romania that aided the authors from the Urban Development Association to develop the platform.

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Managing Change in Uncertain Times: A Case Study

Change management, defined as the methods and processes by which a company effects and adapts to change, has long been vital to the functioning of successful organizations. As John C. Maxwell said , “change is inevitable, growth is optional.” All organizations undergo changes during their lifespans, but not all organizations are able to effectively respond to change or harness it for success. 

This fact was made painfully apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. After businesses were forced to shut down in-person operations, many suffered catastrophic losses. The airline industry, travel and leisure industry, oil and gas industry, and restaurant industry were among the hardest hit . Thousands of businesses were forced to close for good, and thousands more suffered through significant profit loss, layoffs and downsizing. Still, some businesses made vital adaptations that carried them through the worst of the pandemic. Many restaurants, for example, shifted from traditional, in-person service and poured resources into curbside, takeout and delivery services, using technology to communicate with their customers and remain up and running. These adaptations built on services that the restaurants already offered, making the changes easier to implement and accept.

A Case Study in Change: Delta Airlines

Unlike restaurants, airlines did not have much existing infrastructure to carry them through a global pandemic. Airlines profit based on the tickets they book, and if nobody is willing to fly, airlines can’t just pivot to a “take-out” travel option. After the pandemic hit, airlines were faced with a crucial ultimatum: find an innovative solution or suffer catastrophic losses. Delta Airlines, one of the oldest and largest airlines in the country, decided to tackle the change head-on and immediately started working on a change management plan.

Delta structured changes to its operations around what would make customers more comfortable and ultimately found that customers were willing to pay for some extra peace of mind. Implementing the change was made easier by quick and effective communication across all levels of operation. Flight attendants, gate staffers and corporate communications professionals were given the tools they needed to communicate the company’s safety plan to prospective passengers and execute the new seating rules. As the immediate changes took effect and began yielding results, Delta worked on making the changes more efficient and seamless, refining its process every step of the way.

The Science of Change Management

Delta’s quick and effective response to a major change in business operations helped usher it through the worst of the pandemic without suffering bigger losses. Innovative research on best practices in change management is poised to help other businesses do the same. According to the Change Management Review , using technological and organizational tools to manage “the human side of change” is particularly important. Consider, many businesses were forced to move their operations online after the start of COVID-19, and this change affected employees most of all. The businesses who fared best after moving online were the ones who assisted their employees in adapting to the change by providing opportunities for virtual team building, socialization, and mental wellness checkups, for instance. By considering the effects of change on their employees, these businesses took a proactive approach to getting their teams through a daunting and sudden transition. 

David Michels and Kevin Murphy, two industry experts who research change management, have helped quantify what exactly makes some organizations excel at handling change. According to their study , there are nine organizational elements that contribute to an organization’s ability to manage change:

• Purpose and direction – the qualities that help organizations lead change.
• Connection, capacity, and choreography – the qualities that help organizations accelerate change.
• And scaling, development, action, and flexibility – the qualities that help organizations organize change.

Michels and Murphy also developed categories identifying the challenges many organizations face when dealing with change. They determined that organizations struggling with change were either:

• In search of focus, meaning they struggle to lead change, identify ambitions and map agendas.
• Stuck and skeptical, meaning they struggle to move beyond small-level changes and avoid big decision making.
• Aligned but constrained, meaning they struggle with change because of organizational barriers.
• And struggling to keep up, meaning they struggle with organizational fatigue and burnout. 

This kind of change management research gives organizations the opportunity to critically evaluate their responses to change and map effective plans for dealing with change in the future. Even without the pandemic factor, being able to change and grow is of primary importance in a world of fast-paced technological advancement and global communication. Change management specialists are in high demand in every industry, with 12% projected job growth (U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics) and a median salary of $128,992 (Salary.com). 

Purdue Prepares Project Managers to Master Change

Purdue University’s 100% online Master of Science in IT Project Management prepares students for project management careers in the fast-growing information technology field. Students develop mastery of project management processes and procedures using program materials included in the Body of Knowledge developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI®). Courses are taught by industry experts in high-demand specialization areas such as change management,  risk management and security management.

Since the program is entirely online, working professionals can arrange their plan of study around their busy schedules and take classes from anywhere. The program is specifically tailored to industry-experienced go-getters who want to break into the IT field or advance their careers by developing project management expertise.

Professionals who want to grow their expertise without committing to a master’s degree can choose to complete a four-course graduate certificate in Managing Information Technology Projects. The credits from the graduate certificate can be applied towards the master’s degree if a student chooses to pursue the master’s after completing the certificate.

Learn more about the program and graduate certificate on the course’s website .

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Case study on adoption of new technology for innovation: Perspective of institutional and corporate entrepreneurship

Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

ISSN : 2398-7812

Article publication date: 7 August 2017

This paper aims at investigating the role of institutional entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship to cope with firm’ impasses by adoption of the new technology ahead of other firms. Also, this paper elucidates the importance of own specific institutional and corporate entrepreneurship created from firm’s norm.

Design/methodology/approach

The utilized research frame is as follows: first, perspective of studies on institutional and corporate entrepreneurship are performed using prior literature and preliminary references; second, analytical research frame was proposed; finally, phase-based cases are conducted so as to identify research objective.

Kumho Tire was the first tire manufacturer in the world to exploit the utilization of radio-frequency identification for passenger carâ’s tire. Kumho Tire takes great satisfaction in lots of failures to develop the cutting edge technology using advanced information and communication technology cultivated by heterogeneous institution and corporate entrepreneurship.

Originality/value

The firm concentrated its resources into building the organization’s communication process and enhancing the quality of its human resources from the early stages of their birth so as to create distinguishable corporate entrepreneurship.

• Corporate entrepreneurship
• Institutional entrepreneurship

Han, J. and Park, C.-m. (2017), "Case study on adoption of new technology for innovation: Perspective of institutional and corporate entrepreneurship", Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship , Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 144-158. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJIE-08-2017-031

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Junghee Han and Chang-min Park.

Published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial & non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

Without the entrepreneur, invention and new knowledge possibly have lain dormant in the memory of persons or in the pages of literature. There is a Korean saying, “Even if the beads are too much, they become treasure after sewn”. This implies importance of entrepreneurship. In general, innovativeness and risk-taking are associated with entrepreneurial activity and, more importantly, are considered to be important attributes that impact the implementation of new knowledge pursuing.

Implementation of cutting edge technology ahead of other firms is an important mechanism for firms to achieve competitive advantage ( Capon et al. , 1990 ; D’Aveni, 1994 ). Certainly, new product innovation continues to play a vital role in competitive business environment and is considered to be a key driver of firm performance, especially as a significant form of corporate entrepreneurship ( Srivastava and Lee, 2005 ). Corporate entrepreneurship is critical success factor for a firm’s survival, profitability and growth ( Phan et al. , 2009 ).

The first-mover has identified innovativeness and risk-taking as important attributes of first movers. Lumpkin and Dess (1996) argued that proactiveness is a key entrepreneurial characteristic related to new technology adoption and product. This study aims to investigate the importance of corporate and institutional entrepreneurship through analyzing the K Tire’s first adaptation of Radio-frequency identification (RFID) among the world tire manufactures. Also, this paper can contribute to start ups’ readiness for cultivating of corporate and institutional entrepreneurship from initial stage to grow and survive.

K Tire is the Korean company that, for the first time in the world, applied RFID to manufacturing passenger vehicle tires in 2013. Through such efforts, the company has built an innovation model that utilizes ICTs. The adoption of the technology distinguishes K Tire from other competitors, which usually rely on bar codes. None of the global tire manufacturers have applied the RFID technology to passenger vehicle tires. K Tire’s decision to apply RFID to passenger vehicle tires for the first time in the global tire industry, despite the uncertainties associated with the adoption of innovative technologies, is being lauded as a successful case of innovation. In the global tire market, K Tire belongs to the second tier, rather than the leader group consisting of manufacturers with large market shares. Then, what led K Tire to apply RFID technology to the innovation of its manufacturing process? A company that adopts innovative technologies ahead of others, even if the company is a latecomer, demonstrates its distinguishing characteristics in terms of innovation. As such, this study was motivated by the following questions. With regard to the factors that facilitate innovation, first, what kind of the corporate and institutional situations that make a company more pursue innovation? Second, what are the technological situations? Third, how do the environmental situations affect innovation? A case study offers the benefit of a closer insight into the entrepreneurship frame of a specific company. This study has its frame work rooted in corporate entrepreneurship ( Guth and Ginsberg, 1990 ; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000 ) and institutional entrepreneurship ( Battilana, 2006 ; Fligstein, 1997 ; Rojas, 2010 ). As mentioned, we utilized qualitative research method ( Yin, 2008 ). This paper is structured as follows. Section two presents the literature review, and section three present the methodology and a research case. Four and five presents discussion and conclusions and implications, respectively.

2. Theoretical review and analysis model

RFID technology is to be considered as not high technology; however, it is an entirely cutting edged skills when combined with automotive tire manufacturing. To examine why and how the firm behaves like the first movers, taking incomparable high risks to achieve aims unlike others, we review three kinds of prior literature. As firms move from stage to stage, they have to revamp innovative capabilities to survive and ceaseless stimulate growth.

2.1 Nature of corporate entrepreneurship

Before reviewing the corporate entrepreneurship, it is needed to understand what entrepreneurship is. To more understand the role that entrepreneurship plays in modern economy, one need refer to insights given by Schumpeter (1942) or Kirzner (1997) . Schumpeter suggests that entrepreneurship is an engine of economic growth by utilization of new technologies. He also insists potential for serving to discipline firms in their struggle to survive gale of creative destruction. While Schumper argued principle of entrepreneurship, Kirzner explains the importance of opportunities. The disruptions generated by creative destruction are exploited by individuals who are alert enough to exploit the opportunities that arise ( Kirzner, 1997 ; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000 ).

Commonly all these perspectives on entrepreneurship is an appreciation that the emergence of novelty is not an easy or predictable process. Based on literature review, we note that entrepreneurship is heterogeneous interests and seek “something new” associated with novel outcomes. Considering the literature review, we can observe that entrepreneurship is the belief in individual autonomy and discretion, and a mindset that locates agency in individuals for creating new activities ( Meyer et al. ,1994 ; Jepperson and Meyer, 2001 ).

the firm’s commitment to innovation (including creation and introduction of products, emphasis on R&D investments and commitment to patenting);

the firm’s venturing activities, such as entry into new business fields by sponsoring new ventures and creating new businesses; and

strategic renewal efforts aimed at revitalizing the firm’s ability to compete.

developing innovation an organizational tool;

allowing the employees to propose ideas; and

encouraging and nurturing the new knowledge ( Hisrich, 1986 ; Kuratko, 2007 ).

Consistent with the above stream of research, our paper focuses on a firm’s new adaptation of RFID as a significant form of corporate entrepreneurial activity. Thus, CE refers to the activities a firm undertakes to stimulate innovation and encourage calculated risk taking throughout its operations. Considering prior literature reviews, we propose that corporate entrepreneurship is the process by which individuals inside the organization pursuing opportunities without regards to the resources they control.

If a firm has corporate entrepreneurship, innovation (i.e. transformation of the existing firm, the birth of new business organization and innovation) happens. In sum, corporate entrepreneurship plays a role to pursue to be a first mover from a latecomer by encompassing the three phenomena.

2.2 Institution and institutional entrepreneurship

Most literature regarding entrepreneurship deals with the attribute of individual behavior. More recently, scholars have attended to the wider ecosystem that serves to reinforce risk-taking behavior. Institution and institutional entrepreneurship is one way to look at ecosystem that how individuals and groups attempt to try to become entrepreneurial activities and innovation.

Each organization has original norm and intangible rules. According to the suggestion by Scott (1995) , institutions constrain behavior as a result of processes associated with institutional pillars. The question how actors within the organizations become motivated and enabled to transform the taken-for-granted structures has attracted substantial attention for institutionalist. To understand why some firms are more likely to seek innovation activities despite numerous difficulties and obstacles, we should take look at the institutional entrepreneurship.

the regulative, which induces worker’s action through coercion and formal sanction;

the normative, which induces worker’s action through norms of acceptability and ethics; and

the cognitive, which induces worker’s action through categories and frames by which actors know and interpret their world.

North (1990) defines institutions as the humanly devised constraints that structure human action. Actors within some organization with sufficient resources have intend to look at them an opportunity to realize interests that they value highly ( DiMaggio, 1988 ).

It opened institutional arguments to ideas from the co-evolving entrepreneurship literature ( Aldrich and Fiol, 1994 ; Aldrich and Martinez, 2001 ). The core argument of the institutional entrepreneurship is mechanisms enabling force to motivate for actors to act difficult task based on norm, culture and shared value. The innovation, adopting RFID, a technology not verified in terms of its effectiveness for tires, can be influenced by the institution of the society.

A firm is the organizations. An organization is situated within an institution that has social and economic norms. Opportunity is important for entrepreneurship. The concept of institutional entrepreneurship refer to the activities of worker or actor who have new opportunity to realize interest that they values highly ( DiMaggio, 1988 ). DiMaggio (1988) argues that opportunity for institutional entrepreneurship will be “seen” and “exploited” by within workers and not others depending on their resources and interests respectively.

Despite that ambiguity for success was given, opportunity and motivation for entrepreneurs to act strategically, shape emerging institutional arrangements or standards to their interests ( Fligstein and Mara-Drita, 1996 ; Garud et al. , 2002 ; Hargadon and Douglas, 2001 ; Maguire et al. , 2004 ).

Resource related to opportunity within institutional entrepreneurship include formal or informal authority and power ( Battilana, 2006 ; Rojas, 2010 ). Maguire et al. (2004) suggest legitimacy as an important ingredient related to opportunity for institutional entrepreneurship. Some scholars suggest opportunity resources for institutional entrepreneurship as various aspects. For instance, Marquire and Hardy (2009) show that knowledge and expertise is more crucial resources. Social capital, including market leadership and social network, is importance resource related to opportunity ( Garud et al. , 2002 ; Lawrence et al. , 2005 ; Townley, 2002 ). From a sociological perspective, change associated with entrepreneurship implies deviations from some norm ( Garud and Karnøe, 2003 ).

Institutional entrepreneurship is therefore a concept that reintroduces agency, interests and power into institutional analyses of organizations. Based on the previous discussion, this study defines institution as three processes of network activity; coercion and formal sanction, normative and cognitive, to acquire the external knowledge from adopting common goals and rules inside an organization. It would be an interesting approach to look into a specific company to see whether it is proactive towards adopting ICTs (e.g. RFID) and innovation on the basis of such theoretical background.

2.3. Theoretical analysis frame

Companies innovate themselves in response to the challenges of the ever-changing markets and technologies, so as to ensure their survival and growth ( Tushman and Anderson, 1986 ; Tidd and Bessant, 2009 ; Teece, 2014 ). As illustrated above, to achieve the purpose of this study, the researcher provides the following frames of analyses based on the theoretical background discussed above ( Figure 1 ).

3. Case study

3.1 methodology.

It is a highly complicated and tough task to analyze the long process of innovation at a company. In this paper, we used analytical approach rather than the problem-oriented method because the case is examined to find and understand what has happened and why. It is not necessary to identify problems or suggest solutions. Namely, this paper analyzes that “why K Tire becomes a first mover from a late comer through first adoption of RFID technology for automotive tire manufacture with regards to process and production innovations”.

To study the organizational characteristics such as corporate entrepreneurship, institutional entrepreneurship, innovation process of companies, the qualitative case study is the suitable method. This is because a case study is a useful method when verifying or expanding well-known theories or challenging a specific theory ( Yin, 2008 ). This study seeks to state the frame of analysis established, based on previously established theories through a single case. K Tire was selected as the sample because it is the first global tire manufacturer, first mover to achieve innovation by developing and applying RFID.

The data for the case study were collected as follows. First, this study was conducted from April 2015 to the end of December 2015. Additional expanded data also were collected from September 12 to November 22, 2016, to pursue the goal of this paper. Coauthor worked for K Tire for more than 30 year, and currently serves as the CEO of an affiliate company. As such, we had the most hands-on knowledge and directed data in the process of adoption RFID. This makes this case study a form of participant observation ( Yin, 2008 ). To secure data on institutional entrepreneurship, in-depth interviews were conducted with the vice president of K Tire. The required data were secured using e-mail, and the researchers accepted the interviewees’ demand to keep certain sensitive matters confidential. The interviewees agreed to record the interview sessions. In this way, a 20-min interview data were secured for each interviewee. In addition, apart from the internal data of the subject company, other objective data were obtained by investigating various literatures published through the press.

3.2 Company overview

In September 1960, K Tire was established in South Korea as the name of Samyang Tire. In that time, the domestic automobile industry in Korea was at a primitive stage, as were auto motive parts industries like the tire industry. K Tire products 20 tires a day, depending on manual labor because of our backward technology and shortage of facilities.

The growth of K Tire was astonishment. Despite the 1974 oil shock and difficulties in procuring raw materials, K Tire managed to achieve remarkable growth. In 1976, K Tire became the leader in the tire sector and was listed on the Korea Stock Exchange. Songjung plant II was added in 1977. Receiving the grand prize of the Korea Quality Control Award in 1979, K Tire sharpened its corporate image with the public. The turmoil of political instability and feverish democratization in the 1980s worsened the business environment. K Tire also underwent labor-management struggles but succeeded in straightening out one issue after another. In the meantime, the company chalked up a total output of 50 million tires, broke ground for its Koksung plant and completed its proving ground in preparation for a new takeoff.

In the 1990s, K Tire expanded its research capability and founded technical research centers in the USA and the United Kingdom to establish a global R&D network. It also concentrated its capabilities in securing the foundation as a global brand, by building world-class R&D capabilities and production systems. Even in the 2000s, the company maintained its growth as a global company through continued R&D efforts by securing its production and quality capabilities, supplying tires for new models to Mercedes, Benz, Volkswagen and other global auto manufacturers.

3.3 Implementation of radio-frequency identification technology

RFID is radio-frequency identification technology to recognize stored information by using a magnetic carrier wave. RFID tags can be either passive, active or battery-assisted passive (BAP). An active tag has an on-board battery and periodically transmits its ID signal. A BAP has a small battery on board and is activated when in the presence of an RFID reader. A passive tag is cheaper and smaller because it has no battery; instead, the tag uses the radio energy transmitted by the reader. However, to operate a passive tag, it must be illuminated with a power level roughly a thousand times stronger than for signal transmission. That makes a difference in interference and in exposure to radiation.

an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulating a radio frequency signal, collecting DC power from the incident reader signal, and other specialized functions; and

an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal.

capable of recognizing information without contact;

capable of recognizing information regardless of the direction;

capable of reading and saving a large amount of data;

requires less time to recognize information;

can be designed or manufactured in accordance with the system or environmental requirements;

capable of recognizing data unaffected by contamination or the environment;

not easily damaged and cheaper to maintain, compared with the bar code system; and

tags are reusable.

3.3.1 Phase 1. Background of exploitation of radio-frequency identification (2005-2010).

Despite rapid growth of K Tire since 1960, K Tire ranked at the 13th place in the global market (around 2 per cent of the global market share) as of 2012. To enlarge global market share is desperate homework. K Tire was indispensable to develop the discriminated technologies. When bar code system commonly used by the competitors, and the industry leaders, K Tire had a decision for adoption of RFID technology instead of bar code system for tires as a first mover strategy instead of a late comer with regard to manufacture tires for personal vehicle. In fact, K Tire met two kinds of hardship. Among the top 20, the second-tier companies with market shares of 1-2 per cent are immersed in fiercer competitions to advance their ranks. The fierceness of the competition is reflected in the fact that of the companies ranked between the 11th and 20th place, only two maintained their rank from 2013.

With the demand for stricter product quality control and manufacture history tracking expanding among the auto manufacturers, tire manufacturers have come to face the need to change their way of production and logistics management. Furthermore, a tire manufacturer cannot survive if it does not properly respond to the ever stricter and exacting demand for safe passenger vehicle tires of higher quality from customers and auto manufacturers. As mentioned above, K Tire became one of the top 10 companies in the global markets, recording fast growth until the early 2000. During this period, K Tire drew the attention of the global markets with a series of new technologies and innovative technologies through active R&D efforts. Of those new products, innovative products – such as ultra-high-performance tires – led the global markets and spurred the company’s growth. However, into the 2010s, the propriety of the UHP tire technology was gradually lost, and the effect of the innovation grew weaker as the global leading companies stepped forward to take the reign in the markets. Subsequently, K Tire suffered from difficulties across its businesses, owing to the failure to develop follow-up innovative products or market-leading products, as well as the aggressive activities by the company’s hardline labor union. Such difficulties pushed K Tire down to the 13th position in 2014, which sparked the dire need to bring about innovative changes within the company.

3.3.2 Phase 2. Ceaseless endeavor and its failure (2011-2012).

It needs to be lightweight : An RFID tag attached inside a vehicle may adversely affect the weight balance of the tires. A heavier tag has greater adverse impact on the tire performance. Therefore, a tag needs to be as light as possible.

It needs to be durable : Passenger vehicle tires are exposed to extensive bending and stretching, as well as high levels of momentum, which may damage a tag, particularly causing damage to or even loss of the antenna section.

It needs to maintain adhesiveness : Tags are attached on the inner surface, which increase the possibility of the tags falling off from the surface while the vehicle is in motion.

It needs to be resistant to high temperature and high pressure : While going through the tire manufacture process, a tag is exposed to a high temperature of around 200°C and high pressure of around 30 bars. Therefore, a tag should maintain its physical integrity and function at such high pressure and temperature.

It needs to be less costly : A passenger vehicle tire is smaller, and therefore cheaper than truck/bus tires. As a result, an RFID tag places are greater burden on the production cost.

Uncountable tag prototypes, were applied to around 200 test tires in South Korea for actual driving tests. Around 150 prototypes were sent to extremely hot regions overseas for actual driving tests. However, the driving tests revealed damage to the antenna sections of the tags embedded in tires, as the tires reached the end of their wear life. Also, there was separation of the embedded tags from the rubber layers. This confirmed the risk of tire separation, resulting in the failure of the tag development attempt.

3.3.3 Phase 3. Success of adoption RFID (2013-2014).

Despite the numerous difficulties and failures in the course of development, the company ultimately emerged successful, owing to its institutional entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship the government’s support. Owing to the government-led support project, K Tire resumed its RFID development efforts in 2011. This time, the company discarded the idea of the embedded-type tag, which was attempted during the first development. Instead, the company turned to attached-type tag. The initial stages were marked with numerous failures: the size of a tag was large at 20 × 70 mm, which had adverse impact on the rotation balance of the tires, and the attached area was too large, causing the attached sections to fall off as the tire stretched and bent. That was when all personnel from the technical, manufacturing, and logistics department participated in creating ideas to resolve the tag size and adhesiveness issues. Through cooperation across the different departments and repeated tests, K Tire successfully developed its RFID tag by coming up with new methods to minimize the tag size to its current size (9 × 45 mm), maintain adhesiveness and lower the tag price. Finally, K Tire was success the adoption RFID.

3.3.4 Phase 4. Establishment of the manufacture, logistics and marketing tracking system.

Whenever subtle and problematic innovation difficulties arise, every worker and board member moves forward through networking and knowledge sharing within intra and external.

While a bar code is only capable of storing the information on the nationality, manufacturer and category of a product, an RFID tag is capable of storing a far wider scope of information: nationality, manufacturer, category, manufacturing date, machines used, lot number, size, color, quantity, date and place of delivery and recipient. In addition, while the data stored in a bar code cannot be revised or expanded once the code is generated, an RFID tag allows for revisions, additions and removal of data. As for the recognition capability, a bar code recognizes 95per cent of the data at the maximum temperature of 70°C. An RFID tag, on the other hand, recognizes 99.9 per cent of the data at 120°C.

The manufacture and transportation information during the semi-finished product process before the shaping process is stored in the RFID tags, which is attached to the delivery equipment to be provided to the MLMTS;

Logistics Products released from the manufacture process are stored in the warehouses, to be released and transported again to logistics centers inside and outside of South Korea. The RFID tags record the warehousing information, as the products are stored into the warehouses, as well as the release information as the products are released. The information is instantly delivered to the MLMTS;

As a marketing, the RFID tags record the warehousing information of the products supplied and received by sales branches from the logistics centers, as well as the sales information of the products sold to consumers. The information is instantly delivered to the MLMTS; and

As a role of integrative Server, MLM Integrative Server manages the overall information transmitted from the infrastructures for each section (production information, inventory status and release information, product position and inventory information, consumer sales information, etc.).

The MLMTS provides the company with various systemic functions to integrate and manage such information: foolproof against manufacture process errors, manufacture history and quality tracking for each individual product, warehousing/releasing and inventory status control for each process, product position control between processes, real-time warehouse monitoring, release control and history information tracking across products of different sizes, as well as link/control of sales and customer information. To consumers, the system provides convenience services by providing production and quality information of the products, provision of the product history through full tracking in the case of a claim, as well as a tire pressure monitoring system:

“South korea’s K Tire Co. Inc. has begun applying radio-frequency identification (RFID) system tags on: half-finished” tire since June 16. We are now using an IoT based production and distribution integrated management system to apply RFID system on our “half-finished products” the tire maker said, claiming this is a world-first in the industry. The technology will enable K Tire to manage products more efficiently than its competitors, according to the company. RFID allows access to information about a product’s location, storage and release history, as well as its inventory management (London, 22, 2015 Tire Business).

4. Discussions

Originally, aims of RFID adoption for passenger car “half-finished product” is to chase the front runners, Hankook Tire in Korea including global leading companies like Bridgestone, Michaelin and Goodyear. In particular, Hankook Tire, established in 1941 has dominated domestic passenger tire market by using the first mover’s advantage. As a late comer, K Tire needs distinguishable innovation strategy which is RFID adoption for passenger car’s tire, “half-finished product” to overcome shortage of number of distribution channels. Adoption of RFID technology for passenger car’s tire has been known as infeasible methodologies according to explanation by Changmin Park, vice-CTO (chief technology officer) until K Tire’s success.

We lensed success factors as three perspectives; institutional entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. First, as a corporate entrepreneurship perspective, adopting innovative technologies having uncertainties accompanies by a certain risk of failure. Corporate entrepreneurship refers to firm’s effort that inculcate and promote innovation and risk taking throughout its operations ( Burgelman, 1983 ; Guth and Ginsberg, 1990 ). K Tire’s success was made possible by overcome the uncountable difficulties based on shared value and norms (e.g. Fligstein and Mara-Drita, 1996 ; Garud et al. , 2002 ; Hargadon and Douglas, 2001 ; Maguire et al. , 2004 ).

An unsuccessful attempt at developing innovative technologies causes direct loss, as well as loss of the opportunity costs. This is why many companies try to avoid risks by adopting or following the leading companies’ technologies or the dominant technologies. Stimulating corporate entrepreneurship requires firms to acquire and use new knowledge to exploit emerging opportunities. This knowledge could be obtained by joining alliances, selectively hiring key personnel, changing the composition or decision-making processes of a company’s board of directors or investing in R&D activities. When the firm uses multiple sources of knowledge ( Branzei and Vertinsky, 2006 ; Thornhill, 2006 ), some of these sources may complement one another, while others may substitute each other ( Zahra and George, 2002 ). Boards also provide managers with appropriate incentives that better align their interests with those of the firm. Given the findings, K Tire seeks new knowledge from external organizations through its discriminative corporate entrepreneurship.

When adopting the RFID system for its passenger vehicle tires, K Tire also had to develop new RFID tags suitable for the specific type of tire. The company’s capabilities were limited by the surrounding conditions, which prevented the application of existing tire RFID tag technologies, such as certain issues with the tire manufacturing process, the characteristic of its tires and the price of RFID tags per tire. Taking risks and confronting challenges are made from board member’s accountability. From the findings, we find that entrepreneurship leadership can be encouraged in case of within the accountability frame work.

Despite its status as a second-tier company, K Tire attempted to adopt the RFID system to its passenger vehicle tires, a feat not achieved even by the leading companies. Thus, the company ultimately built and settled the system through numerous trials and errors. Such success was made possible by the entrepreneurship of K Tire’s management, who took the risk of failure inherent in adopting innovative technologies and confronting challenges head on.

Second, institutional entrepreneurship not only involves the “capacity to imagine alternative possibilities”, it also requires the ability “to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the moment” if existing institutions are to be transformed ( Emirbayer and Mische, 1998 ). New technologies, the technical infrastructure, network activities to acquire the new knowledge, learning capabilities, creating a new organization such as Pioneer Lab and new rules to create new technologies are the features. To qualify as institutional entrepreneurs, individuals must break with existing rules and practices associated with the dominant institutional logic(s) and institutionalize the alternative rules, practices or logics they are championing ( Garud and Karnøe, 2003 ; Battilana, 2006 ). K Tire established new organization, “Special lab” to obtain the know technology and information as CEO’s direct sub-committees. Institutional entrepreneurship arise when actors, through their filed position, recognize the opportunity circumstance so called “norms” ( Battilana et al. , 2009 ). To make up the deficit of technologies for RFID, knowledge stream among workers is more needed. Destruction of hierarch ranking system is proxy of the institutional entrepreneurship. Also, K Tire has peculiar norms. Namely, if one requires the further study such as degree course or non-degree course education services, grant systems operated via short screen process. Third, as innovation perspectives, before adopting the RFID system, the majority of K Tire’s researchers insisted that the company use the bar code technology, which had been widely used by the competitors. Such decision was predicated on the prediction that RFID technology would see wider use in the future, as well as the expected effect coming from taking the leading position, with regard to the technology.

Finally, K Tire’s adoption of the RFID technology cannot be understood without government support. The South Korean government has been implementing the “Verification and Dissemination Project for New u-IT Technologies” since 2008. Owing to policy support, K Tire can provide worker with educational service including oversea universities.

5. Conclusions and implications

To cope with various technological impasses, K Tire demonstrated the importance of institutional and corporate entrepreneurship. What a firm pursues more positive act for innovation is a research question.

Unlike firms, K Tire has strongly emphasized IT technology since establishment in 1960. To be promotion, every worker should get certification of IT sectors after recruiting. This has become the firm’s norm. This norm was spontaneously embedded for firm’s culture. K Tire has sought new ICT technology become a first mover. This norm can galvanize to take risk to catch up the first movers in view of institutional entrepreneurship.

That can be cultivated both by corporate entrepreneurship, referred to the activities a firm undertakes to stimulate innovation and encourage calculated risk taking throughout its operations within accountabilities and institutional entrepreneurship, referred to create its own peculiar norm. Contribution of our paper shows both importance of board members of directors in cultivating corporate entrepreneurship and importance of norm and rules in inducing institutional entrepreneurship.

In conclusion, many of them were skeptical about adopting RFID for its passenger vehicle tires at a time when even the global market and technology leaders were not risking such innovation, citing reasons such as risk of failure and development costs. However, enthusiasm and entrepreneurship across the organization towards technical innovation was achieved through the experience of developing leading technologies, as well as the resolve of the company’s management and its institutional entrepreneurship, which resulted in the company’s decision to adopt the RFID technology for small tires, a technology with unverified effects that had not been widely used in the markets. Introduction of new organization which “Special lab” is compelling example of institutional entrepreneurship. Also, to pursue RFID technology, board members unanimously agree to make new organization in the middle of failing and unpredictable success. This decision was possible since K Tire’s cultivated norm which was to boost ICT technologies. In addition, at that time, board of director’s behavior can be explained by corporate entrepreneurship.

From the findings, this paper also suggests importance of firms’ visions or culture from startup stage because they can become a peculiar norm and become firm’s institutional entrepreneurship. In much contemporary research, professionals and experts are identified as key institutional entrepreneurs, who rely on their legitimated claim to authoritative knowledge or particular issue domains. This case study shows that authoritative knowledge by using their peculiar norm, and culture as well as corporate entrepreneurship.

This paper has some limitations. Despite the fact that paper shows various fruitful findings, this study is not free from that our findings are limited to a single exploratory case study. Overcoming such limitation requires securing more samples, including the group of companies that attempt unprecedented innovations across various industries. In this paper, we can’t release all findings through in-depth interview and face-to-face meetings because of promise for preventing the secret tissues.

Nevertheless, the contribution of this study lies in that it shows the importance of corporate entrepreneurship and institutional entrepreneurship for firm’s innovative capabilities to grow ceaselessly.

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Acknowledgements

 This work was supported by 2017 Hongik University Research Fund.

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Collaborative Governance for Innovative Environmental Solutions: Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Cases from Around the World

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• Published: 23 May 2022
• Volume 71 , pages 670–684, ( 2023 )

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It is common understanding that to address pressing environmental issues and ensure sustainable environmental management innovative solutions are required. Many studies have striven to understand which governance conditions enable generation of innovative solutions. However, there are very few studies in the field of management and public administration studies that investigate the combined, interactive effects of a suit of conditions on the likelihood of innovative solutions. This article uses the method of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to investigate the complex causality of collaborative governance and innovative solutions. More specifically, it examines the combination of conditions of collaborative process, leadership, institutional design and knowledge sharing, and their joint effects on the presence or absence of innovative solutions. An analysis of 16 cases of environmental endeavors with a goal of generating innovative solutions and extracted from Collaborative Governance Case Database shows that there are 3 possible configurations or paths leading to innovative solutions. Various combinations of the above-mentioned conditions can in fact be sufficient for generating innovative solutions. The configurations provide insight into which collaborative conditions deserve attention when aiming for innovation in the field of sustainable environmental management.

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Introduction

It is widely recognised nowadays that human activities are putting increasing pressures on our living environment (OECD 2012 ). We need to be aware and become more responsible with environmental management having no alternative other than conforming with the principles of sustainability. It is also recognised that this can be done only by creating new ideas and innovations (Maier et al. 2020 ), a challenge that requires more than technological innovation. Although technological innovations are considered pivotal to realizing sustainability transitions (Paredis 2011 ), major changes are needed also in the governance processes, multi-level structures and institutions, and the behaviour of actors involved in developing innovative solutions for sustainable environmental management (Ansell and Torfing 2014 ). For that reason, governments, environmental managers, private organisation and various interest groups are searching for novel solutions (e.g. innovative measures, systems, structures, processes) to address local to global-scale environmental changes, such as climate change, widespread pollution or resource extraction as well as the impacts these pressures are creating for systems in place to meet fundamental societal needs (Frantzeskaki and Loorbach 2010 ; Westley et al. 2011 ).

However, most environmental problems being wicked (e.g. climate change), are particularly challenging for the governmental officials and other actors to address (Rittel and Webber 1973 ). They are generally imprecise and result in problem shifting when a solution to one problem creates new problems elsewhere (Rakhyun and van Asselt 2016 ). Addressing such environmental problems through conventional solutions is rather implausible and calls for new, innovative solutions (Ansell and Torfing 2014 ; Crosby, ‘t Hart, and Torfing 2017 ). Generating and implementing innovative solutions on the other hand requires not only financial resources, but also collective agreements, expertise, knowledge, procedural arrangements and many other capacities which collaborative governance can help to acquire (Steinacker 2009 ; Torfing et al. 2020 ). Presumed benefits of collaborative governance such as establishing partnerships, sharing knowledge, accumulating resources and expertise are particularly highlighted in different studies to be critical for generating innovative solutions (e.g. Crosby et al. 2017 ). Furthermore, understanding the virtues and the effects of collaborative governance on environmental innovation has become a needful line of study in management research (Araújo and Franco 2021 ).

Yet, empirical studies establishing the positive impact of collaborative governance on the development and production of innovative solutions for environmental management are lacking. In particular, little is known about collaborative conditions as well as combinations thereof that enable or constrain development of innovative solutions. The present article addresses this gap by linking innovative solutions for environmental management, or else environmental innovations (new technologies, policies, products and practices) to collaborative governance. A fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of 16 cases of collaborative governance is conducted to test and compare how collaborative process, leadership, institutional design and knowledge sharing, impact the development and production of innovative solutions for environmental management in the context of selected mix of cases. The data is drawn from Collaborative Governance case Databank that provides a repository for collaborative governance case studies from around the world (Douglas et al. 2020 ). I make no claims about the outcomes of environmental innovation in the selected cases, for example whether they improve environmental management or reduce environmental externalities. Instead, I consider developed innovative solutions (if any) within the studied cases as outputs of collaborative processes and investigate the conditions of collaborative governance that are necessary and/or sufficient for these outputs to come about.

This study offers two contributions to the literature of collaborative governance, innovation and environmental management. First, the findings demonstrate the important role of institutional design of collaborative governance in the efforts to generate innovative solutions. Almost all successful cases that have generated innovative solutions acquire functional institutional designs. Second, the findings demonstrate that sole presence of institutional design (or the other conditions) is neither necessary nor sufficient for it. Only a combination of institutional design with knowledge sharing of collaborating parties or productive collaborative process and leadership results in innovation solutions in the studied cases. This finding suggests there might be different pathways to generating innovative solutions and highlights the interconnectedness of collaborative conditions. This article begins with conceptualizing innovative solutions followed with a section that links innovative solutions with collaborative governance and the select group of conditions. Then I present the data used for the article and the method of Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) that was applied to analyze the data. This section is then followed by a presentation of findings and conclusions.

Conceptualising Innovative Solutions

There are diverse conceptions of innovation. It is a complex phenomenon being studied by different academic disciplines, including economics, engineering and sociology. Generally, innovation is defined as the development and implementation of new solutions that break with the dominant ideas and practices in a particular context (Hartley, Sørensen, and Torfing 2013 ). At the organisational level, scholars have approached the construct of innovation as both the development and implementation of novel ideas and/or behaviours related to products, services, systems or practices (e.g. Damanpour and Schneider 2006 ; Hartley et al. 2013 ). In this respect, the generation, adoption and implementation of innovation are understood as processes or outputs that are meant to result in outcomes the innovative solutions are developed for (Walker 2008 ). In other words, innovation is not a goal per se, but a way or an instrument to reach the goal of creating different public values (Torfing et al. 2020 ). One of the dimensions of public values, the environmental dimension, is the focus of this article.

An increasing number of scholars are studying innovation for sustainable environmental management from various perspectives (Clausen and Fichter 2019 ; Fernando et al., ( 2019 ); Paredis 2011 ; Wagner 2007 ; Weber and Hemmelskamp 2005 ). Labelling innovative solutions differently (e.g. environmental innovations, eco-innovations, green innovations, ecological innovations), they all highlight the clear environmental aim of the solutions (for overview: Araújo and Franco 2021 ). Unlike other issues, such as economic development, which are receptive to trade-offs, responses to environmental issues often require a different approach to planning and decision making (Coffey 2021 ). This is evident in debates about the need for integrated rather than sectoral responses, and transformative change, which represent considerable challenge given the contested nature of environmental politics (Díaz et al. 2019 ). Environmental innovations have similarities and differences in relation to other types of innovation (e.g. new technology) generated by organisations (Araújo and Franco 2021 ). One considerable difference lies in the knowledge-sharing and collaboration practised for environmental innovation, which differ greatly from conventional innovation (González-Moreno et al. 2019 ). For this article, I approach innovative solutions as outputs of collaborative processes generated with technologically new or modified products and processes or novel solutions and/or improvements in existing policies, programs and practices for sustainable and optimal environmental management.

Collaborative Governance as Determinant for Innovative Solutions

The forces moving innovation for environmental management are of great importance for politicians, managers, businesses and society, and therefore, the literature contains important research investigating the determinants and governance modes of generating innovative solutions. There are abundant reports about political and business leaders, public entrepreneurs and private contractors or else individual innovators being critical determinants for innovative solutions (e.g. Doig and Hargrove 1990 ; Roberts et al. 1996 ). Yet, without downplaying the important role of single innovators, more recent research argues that innovative solutions are frequently an output of partnerships between a range of public and private actors and collaborative governance (Meijer 2014 ; Torfing et al. 2020 ) understood as “a collective decision-making process based on more or less institutionalized interactions between two or more actors that aims to establish common ground for joint problem solving and value creation” (Douglas et al. 2020 , p. 498). Multi-actor and multi-sector collaborative governance that attempts to solve an environmental problem or issue in a consensual way often can foster innovation (Ansell and Torfing 2014 ; Hartley et al. 2013 ). The idea that multi-actor collaboration can spur innovation is well supported by innovation system theory (Hekkert et al. 2007 ) as well as theories of public innovation (Gieske et al., ( 2016 )). Due to the high cost and also the high risk of environmental innovation, organisations are reluctant to embark on its activities in practice (Weber and Hemmelskamp 2005 ). The high cost and risk can be lessened by important choices throughout the process, such as deciding to undertake the development and implementation of environmental innovation in collaboration with other organisations. In that effort towards ensuring sustainable environmental management, public and private organisations more frequently engage with each other and increasingly with the society, instead of relying on traditional cooperating or coordinating mechanisms.

There are also many other claims in favor of collaborative innovation including the argument that multi-actor collaboration facilitates the production of a more exact interpretation of the issue at hand, stimulation of mutual learning, creation of shared ownership over innovative solutions, coordinated implementation etc. (Torfing 2016 ). Furthermore, resources accumulated or brought to the process by different collaborating parties may be consequential. In a more traditional cooperative or coordinative settings, resources of parties (e.g. knowledge and information) may only be exchanged to achieve individual goals, while in collaborating settings the resources and assets are pooled in support of collective goals (McNamara 2012 ). These resources may include financial, technical, scientific or logistical assistance and organizational support, and knowledge and skills. They may be combined or intentionally distributed among the participating organisations to generate desired interventions and outputs (Berardo 2014 ) such as innovative solutions. Drivers of innovation manifest both from single sources and from combinations of them, working collaboratively, or iteratively, to generate innovation between collaborating parties (Beynon et al. 2016 ). Furthermore, the collaborative process tends to disturb the established practices, a condition for innovation, according to Torfing et al. ( 2020 ). The authors also argue that communication, institutional design and good leadership are important conditions for the development of innovation. For this study, I have selected four collaborative conditions that I expect to make a positive contribution to the development of innovative solutions.

Collaborative Process

Collaborative engagement processes illustrate behavioral interactions among collaborating parties. These processes are at the core of jointly generating innovative solutions as they provide a venue where actors position themselves toward the others, build trust, internal legitimacy as well as commitment to the idea that brought them together (Ansell and Gash 2008 ; Emerson and Nabatchi 2015 ), such as innovating for enhanced environmental management. Researchers have accentuated various aspects of processes within collaborations fostering effective collaboration (for overview: Bryson et al. ( 2015 )). Here I focus on at least three: (1) identification and/or examination of information relevant to the collaboration via regular meetings, (2) interpretation of shared meanings around that information, (3) deliberation and joint problem-solving of the addressed issues (Emerson et al. 2012 ). In other words, collaborative process shapes the substance of innovative solutions. I expect a productive collaborative process to contribute to development of innovative environmental solutions if it regularly offers participants opportunities to identify, deliberate and make agreements over objectives and shared meanings about innovative solutions.

Institutional Design

If collaborative process shapes the substance, institutional design provides a structure for co-development of innovative solutions. Institutional design establishes the basic rules arrangements under which collaboration is taking place (Ansell and Gash 2008 ). For example, rules and procedures for co-creation and co-development is fundamental design issue as generating joint outputs and outcomes is ultimately the purpose of collaboration. Alexander conceptualize institutional design as “the devising and realization of rules, procedures, and organizational structures that will enable and constrain behavior and action so as to accord with held values, achieve desired objectives, or execute given tasks” (Alexander 2005 , p. 213). In the contexts when innovation is an objective or one of the objectives of collaboration, some studies show that structural constituents of collaboratives such as rules of inclusion of divers actors may spur innovation for example in the field of urban planning (Dente et al. 2005 ). Practically speaking, institutional design entails the development of a regulatory framework for collaborative process, and the formation of procedural arrangement for making joint decisions and their implementation (Torfing et al. 2020 ). It is considered functional if the basic procedural and institutional rules/arrangements critical for the procedural legitimacy of the collaborative process are followed (Ansell and Gash 2008 ) and the mechanisms of co-development and implementation of joint outputs (e.g. innovative solutions) are used.

Collaborative Leadership

The literature on collaborative governance highlights the importance of leadership in initiating and sustaining collaborative arrangements (Ansell and Gash 2008 ; Bryson et al. 2006 ; Emerson et al. 2012 ) and stimulating transformative learning and creative problem solving (Crosby et al. 2017 ; Sørensen and Torfing 2011 ). Public leaders may play different roles in processes of generating innovative solutions (Ansell and Torfing 2014 ). Sullivan and Williams ( 2012 ) argue that along with ordinary management tasks, leaders in collaborative arrangements are responsible for handling conflicts or risks to build productive relationships between parties. Hofstad et al. ( 2021 ) advance co-creation leadership form that aspires to generate collaborative innovation through undertaking different tasks (e.g. mobilizing actors who possess necessary assets for producing public value, managing risks associated with innovation, engaging in boundary-spanning activities etc.). Performing such responsibilities makes a range of leadership qualities desirable and necessary. For example, in network management literature researchers highlight a number of leadership qualities to boost collaboration, such as the ability to bring actors together and focus on enabling interactions and relationships (Edelenbos et al. 2013 ). Studies also highlight the role of leaders, particularly their connective capacity, in good performance of collaborative arrangements (Avoyan et al. forthcoming). Productive and performing collaborations may also rely on multiple leadership roles, rather than relying on one leader (Ansell and Gash 2008 ; Meijerink and Stiller 2013 ). In this paper, I consider the collaborative leadership being effective if it displays a management style of engaging and connecting actors and expect such leadership contributes to development of innovative solutions.

Knowledge Sharing

Both collaborative and network governance literature also accentuate the importance of knowledge sharing (or knowledge building as a resource) to collective outputs, such as innovative solutions. Referring to knowledge, Thomson, J ( 2006 ) mention that the possibility to share knowledge among collaborating parties can itself be seen as one of the benefits of collaboration. The different kinds of knowledge (e.g. expert, local, lay) of various actors may be combined or intentionally distributed among the participating organisations to generate desired interventions and outputs (Berardo 2014 ) or to establish a common ground for joint learning (Gerlak and Heikkila 2011 ). Moreover, specific knowledge sharing and building activities that facilitate deliberation and discussion can also facilitate better understanding of novel concepts or technical measures by overcoming contested or uncertain knowledge (Emerson et al. 2012 ). In the context of inclusive collaborative settings for environmental management, the knowledge brought to the table by advocates of environmental interests can increase the environmental quality of outputs (Brody 2003 ; Newig et al. 2018 ), such as innovative environmental solutions. With more collaborating actors, it is more likely to accumulate different kinds of knowledge and positively influence innovative performance of collaboratives (Knudsen 2007 ). Furthermore, by enabling knowledge sharing, the authorities or decision making actors may get better understanding of beneficiaries and their practices, local norms or competing stakes, which will help them to first anticipate the acceptability of proposed measures and second adjust the measures to enhance the acceptability and implementability (Newig et al. 2018 ). In this study, I anticipate that sharing and managing the knowledge of collaborating parties contributes to the development of innovative solutions.

In sum, it is expected that all four conditions make a positive contribution to development of innovative solutions. Previous studies have tested the independent impact of different conditions on collaborative outcomes (Turrini et al. 2010 ; Ulibarri 2015 ), but we need to study the effects of competing configurations of conditions in order to understand how the presence and/or absence of different conditions combine to produce successful results, such as innovative solutions. I am interested, therefore, in the extent to which above four conditions substantiate and complement each other, and hence show signs of partial and conditional necessity. To understand the combinations of collaborative conditions that led to innovative solutions (or their absence) in the selected cases, I have applied a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), which is detailed below following the presentation of data used for this study.

Data and Method

Collaborative governance data bank.

The data used in this study originate from the Collaborative Governance Data Bank (Douglas et al. 2020 ). All cases included in the data bank are examples of collaborative governance drawn from different countries and different policy domains. The data of cases, which includes both survey format with a scale from 1 to 5 and texts, is provided by different researchers studying collaborative governance. For the purposes of this article, I have selected the cases covering Environment and climate policy domain alone or in combination with other sectors. This strategy allowed to compile 20 cases. Furthermore, I filtered the cases based on their aim: whether the cases featured innovation being an objective/ambition. 3 cases were excluded from the analysis because the generation of innovative solutions was not the main motivation of these collaboratives. Next, I further excluded one case where data was missing. These considerations left me with 16 cases for the analysis (overview in Table 1 ). With this dataset, I followed Torfing et al. 2020 and chose to focus on data related to the middle of the period observed. As the main criterion for case selection was that innovation should be an objective of the collaboration, I chose those cases that had such objective in the middle of the period observed rather than start or end periods. Choosing the start point could be unreliable as collaborations may not have clearly stated goal of innovating from the start of collaborative processes, but may cultivate it after sometime when joint opportunities become clearer. Likewise, selecting the end of period may not be correct, as this period may coincide with a phase of collaboration when participants switch to other objectives, because possibly they already generated innovative solutions among other reasons (Torfing et al. 2020 ). Subsequently, the middle of period of scores was also used for the conditions.

Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Given the aim of this study and its comparative nature, I favoured a method that allows to extract different configurations of collaborative conditions enabling innovative solutions in the studied cases. Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is a set-theoretic method of systematically comparing multiple cases in terms of their membership (or non-membership) in the sets of conditions and the outcome of interest (Ragin 2008 ; Rihoux and Lobe 2012 ). In QCA terminology, the terms “condition” and “outcome” are in principal equivalent to “independent variable” and “dependent variable” terms used in other research contexts, such as statistical methods (Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ). However, unlike conventional statistical analysis of investigating the independent effect of a variable on the outcome of interest, QCA allows for the use of both in-depth qualitative case knowledge and quantitative data to identify varying configurations of conditions and their joint effect on the likelihood of an outcome (Ragin 2012 ; Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ). The ambition of QCA is to distinguish necessary (whenever the outcome is present, the condition is also present) and sufficient (whenever the condition or configuration of conditions is present, the outcome is also present) conditions that justify the outcome of interest (Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ).

QCA provides a choice between its two main variants: crisp (used to deal with binary data and indicates either present/1 or absent/0 set membership) and fuzzy analysis (used to capture the complexity in cases by level or degree and thus indicates also the values within the crisp range of 0–1) (Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ). I have performed a fuzzy-set variant of qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) in fsQCA 3.1b software package (Ragin and Davey 2019 ). FsQCA is preferred over crisp set QCA as it allows for different degrees of membership in sets rather than only using dichotomous sets as with crisp analysis. FsQCA includes more nuanced information distinguishing between differences in cases both in kind and in degree. This results in a higher content validity (Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ). Moreover, fsQCA identifies not just necessary and sufficient conditions, but also so-called INUS conditions that are insufficient on their own but are necessary parts of solutions and can explain the outcome (Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ). This phenomenon, known as “equifinality,” is difficult to capture in statistical analysis. For instance, one configuration for a given outcome may require the presence of a condition, while a second configuration for the same outcome may require the absence of the same condition. FsQCA is designed to allow and identify equifinal solutions (Fainshmidt et al. 2020 ). Finally, fsQCA allows for differentiating between core and peripheral conditions as well as “do not care” situations (Fiss 2011 ). Core conditions indicate a strong causal relationship with the outcome while peripheral conditions display a weaker relationship. The “do not care” situation indicates that the condition may either be present or absent and it does not play a role in a specific configuration. This distinction of causal conditions enables a fine-grained examination of causal processes determining what really matters and to what degree (Fiss 2011 ).

Operationalization: Calibration of the Outcome and Conditions

Causal conditions and outcomes in fsQCA assume set membership values from 0 (“fully absent”) to 1 (“fully present”). To achieve this, fsQCA requires a process called “calibration”, entailing a refinement of the operationalization and setting of the set membership thresholds (Ragin 2008 ). Therefore, I first created the data matrix (Table 7 ) based on the scores of the indicators (survey questions) for the outcome and the conditions (Table 2 ). Then I calibrated the outcome and conditions specifying three qualitative anchors: the threshold for full membership (1), the threshold for full non-membership (0) and a crossover point (0.5) for each of the conditions included in the analysis (Ragin 2008 ). Membership scores close to 1 (e.g. 0.9) indicate strong but not full membership, while membership scores below 0.5 but greater than 0 (e.g. 0.3) indicate that the condition is still weak member of the set. The crossover point 0.5 is the point of maximum ambiguity. The Collaborative Governance Data Bank uses a Likert scale to score the indicators of different conditions/variables of collaborative governance. I set the endpoints of the 5-point Likert scales as the two qualitative anchors for calibration of full membership (value 5) and full non-membership (value 1). The crossover point was then calculated by observing the median score of each indicator. The literature indicates that sample-based calibration should be avoided whenever possible (Greckhamer et al. 2018 ). However, in the case of survey-based data coming from individuals’ self-reported perceptions, this choice can be justified as a “median” cross-point, which is better than simply using the midpoint of the scale. Table 2 includes a brief explanation of my choices for calibration, while Table 3 displays the data matrix after performing the calibration procedure.

I have first assessed the necessity of each separate condition for the occurrence of innovative solutions (Table 4 ). The commonly accepted consistency threshold here is 0.9 (Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ): if a condition has a consistency score above this threshold it can be considered necessary for the outcome to occur. None of the conditions met this threshold, although DSGN scored relatively high: 0.835351. I further analysed the condition by looking at the scores across the cases and plotting them against the outcome (innovative solutions) score. Most of the cases scoring low on DSGN did not produce innovative solutions (scoring below 0.5 on INNV) in most cases. The DSGN condition seems to be important, meaning the presence of procedural and institutional rules/arrangements that are designed and applied for co-development of joint outputs seems important for achieving innovative solutions.

The truth table then was constructed within the software (Table 5 ). Although looking much like a data matrix, truth tables display a different type of information. Rather than denoting a different case to each row, in the truth table each row instead illustrates one of the logically possible combinations of conditions and are being assigned to empirical cases (Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ). In fsQCA, cases often have partial membership in all rows but they can have a membership of higher than 0.5 in only one row. Cases are thus assigned to this one row to which they fit best (Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ). For the truth table, the consistency threshold of 0.85 was selected, which is above the recommended level of 0.8 (Ragin 2008 ; Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ). Given the limited number of cases, I used a frequency threshold of 1. Initially, 9 configurations (rows from 1 to 9) were obtained for the analysis (Table 5 ). However, a closer look at these configurations revealed one configuration (row 6) with a case that did not reach the outcome (INNV = 0). This row was excluded from the minimization process.

The remaining configurations then were minimized into solution formula following the application of Boolean minimization. This procedure performed by the fsQCA software results in complex, parsimonious and intermediate solutions illustrating which configurations or pathways lead to innovative solutions. In this analysis, I considered the intermediate solution generated by the software. Intermediate solutions are preferable as they seize a balance between parsimony and complexity while supplementing the empirical information at hand with theory-guided assumptions (Fiss 2011 ; Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ). The following intermediate solution with 3 configurations was then derived:

In Boolean algebra, the * sign indicates multiplication or AND, the + sign indicates OR, the ~ suggests that the condition is absent and illustrates if-then relation (Schneider and Wagemann 2012 ). These 3 configurations can be interpreted as follows:

Configuration 1

In a context of limited or unproductive collaborative process, the presence of functional institutional design combined with considerable knowledge sharing leads to innovative solutions.

Configuration 2

The presence of effective collaborative leadership, functional institutional design and productive collaborative process leads to innovative solutions.

Configuration 3 (exception)

In a context when collaborative leadership is ineffective, considerable knowledge sharing is not observed and institutional design is not sufficiently functional innovative solutions are possible if the collaborative process is productive.

Although the above interpretation is fairly informative, the current best practice to represent findings from sufficiency analyses in management studies is to use the “configuration chart” (“Fiss charts”) notation system introduced by Ragin and Fiss ( 2008 ) and further developed by Fiss ( 2011 ). The chart facilitates the comparison across configurations and makes it easier to determine the role of individual conditions (Rubinson 2019 ). Moreover, the chart allows to illustrate the distinction between core and contributory conditions. The core conditions are represented by “⚫” (presence) and “⊗” (absence); whereas contributing or peripheral conditions are marked with “⚫” (presence) and “⊗” (absence). As already mentioned, the core conditions are those that make up the parsimonious solution indicating conditions that are fundamental to the recipe, cannot be eliminated and must be part of any final solution (Ragin and Sonnett 2005 ). The smaller glyphs mark a configuration but are not necessary for its delimitation. Finally, blank spaces indicate a “do not care” situation - that is, the condition is not relevant to that configuration. Table 6 visualizes the 3 configurations as well as illustrates the core, peripheral and do not care conditions.

The consistency score for the entire solution term is rather high: 86% (solution consistency 0.863338) of the empirical evidence is in line with the solution term. Furthermore, 79% (solution coverage 0.7954) of the outcome “innovative solutions” is covered by one or more of the three configurations. Consistency and raw coverage measures of each single configuration are also informative here. Raw consistency refers to the proportion of empirical data consistent with the expected outcome, while raw coverage measures the proportion of instances of the outcome that exhibits a certain causal combination or path (Fiss 2011 ). A solution or path is informative when its consistency is above 0.75–0.80, and its raw coverage is higher than 0.25 (Urueña and Hidalgo 2016 ): all three configurations exhibit a consistency score way above 0.80, and raw coverage above 0.25.

Overall, the solution shows that institutional design and collaborative process are core conditions in the terms of QCA, pointing out their importance for the outcome. Specifically, functional institutional design is a critical condition for generating innovative solutions in the studies cases. Since the third configuration is rather an exception, institutional design is the only condition that is present in both first and second configurations (Table 6 ). As also seen with the necessity analysis, institutional design being to some extent a necessary condition, is not sufficient alone for generating innovative solution. In the majority of studied cases that have generated innovative solutions, institutional design is complemented either by knowledge sharing or productive collaborative process and collaborative leadership. Additionally, also the analysis of the absence of innovative solutions albeit rather low consistency and coverage scores, shows the pivotal role of institutional design condition (Table 8 ). Almost all cases that did not produce innovative solutions, scored also low on institutional design. These cases did not have or did not use sufficiently the basic procedural and institutional rules and arrangement for co-development of innovative solutions.

The first configuration (C1) applies to those cases that did not have regular opportunities to identify, deliberate and make agreements over objectives and shared meanings about innovative solutions (PRCS = 0). While collaborative leadership could be present or absent, what was consequential for these two cases to generate innovative solutions was the presence of functional institutional design complemented with considerable knowledge sharing. The Case 8 - the congestion charge zone (Area C) implemented by the Municipality of Milan in Italy for sustainable mobility (decreased road traffic, improved public transport network, reduced noise and air pollution etc.) had specific institutional arrangements designed to share, mobilize or generate knowledge in support of Area C innovative implementation (Trivellato et al. 2019 ). So called knowledge orchestrators, internal expert teams and cross-departmental working groups were engaged with each other and international specialists for that purpose. On the other hand, the Case 10, which relates to collaborative efforts of preserving the unique Lake Tahoe in North America, was characterized with problematic collaborative process, conflicts and divisive votes (Imperial 2005 ). And yet, in view of specific institutional arrangements combined with structured rules for collaboration (federal-interstate compacts, regional plans, environmental threshold carrying capacities) and considerable time invested by collaborating parties in knowledge sharing, innovative solutions were possible in this case.

The second configuration (C2), which explains the majority of successful cases in terms of producing innovative solutions in existing policies, programs and/or practices suggests that the presence of functional institutional design coupled with productive collaborative process and effective collaborative leadership is sufficient to result in innovative solutions. For example one of the cases- the case 16 (Grebbedijk dike reinforcement project in the Netherlands), uniquely covered by this configuration, made use of specific procedural and institutional arrangements to boost innovation. During number of collaborative sessions led by “studio designers”, research-based design methodology was employed to integrate different perspectives on innovative solutions. The discussions and deliberations were informed by the results of in-depth studies on, for example technical innovations, conducted by experts from different sectors. Importantly, the collaborative process was productive to the extent it offered opportunities to deliberate these studies and suggested solutions. The leadership provided by the project manager was instrumental in this process as his skillset of connecting parties, mediating conflicts and steering the project towards integrative and innovative final solution was decisive (Avoyan 2021 ).

Finally, the third configuration covers only one case and may rather be considered as an exception. The Case 12 (The Tillamook Bay National Estuary Program) is one of the many watershed management programs initiated in the United States to develop and implement Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plans (Imperial 2005 ). Six watershed management programs are included in this analyses (Cases 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15). These collaborative programs differ in their ecological settings, environmental problems, institutional environments, and situational histories, factors found to influence the implementation of watershed management programs etc. (Imperial 2005 ). Not surprisingly, some of these programs have managed to generate innovative solutions and some did not. If the case 12 would not be the only case that generated innovative solutions while lacking leadership, knowledge sharing and institutional design, further in depth case investigation might have reveal the underlying reasons of such configuration potentially contradicting first and second configurations. However, in this situation, a closer look at the data matrix (Table 7 ), shows that the scores of absent conditions (LEAD, DSGN, KNWL) are just below the crossover point of falling in the set (conditions = 1). The reason of not reaching the crossover point might be hidden in the limitation of dataset discussed below in the conclusion section.

Discussion and Conclusions

This study provides insights into the combined effects of four collaborative governance conditions on innovation. I have started the exploration of the likelihood of generating innovative solutions for sustainable environmental management by proposing that collaborative governance might be an useful governance mode to work with. It provides a favourable context for dealing with the challenges of having both a diversity of actors and a common ground for managing differences and developing and implementing new and promising solutions. More specifically, I proposed that four conditions of collaborative governance, namely productive collaborative process, institutional design fit for co-development of innovation, proper knowledge sharing among collaborating parties and leadership characterised with management style of engaging and connecting actors are consequential for innovating. Research findings highlight that for collaborative endeavours to succeed in coming up with innovative solutions, institutional design and collaborative process are critical conditions. Based on the analysis of 16 environmental cases from around the world, on the local, regional, national and supranational level, I find that it is not really necessary to have all the four collaborative conditions in their greatest extent for generating innovative solutions. The functional institutional design coupled with either considerable knowledge sharing or productive collaborative process and effective collaborative leadership may be sufficient to reach the outcome: innovative solutions. Interestingly, in the absence of intensive collaborative process when participants have regular opportunities to deliberate and make agreements over specific issues, the presence of a clear institutional design and structure for following basic rules of co-development and knowledge sharing is pivotal to the production of innovative solutions. On the other hand, specific instances of sharing and managing the knowledge of various collaborating parties may not matter, if the collaborative process is productive enough to provide sufficient opportunities for identification of necessary information, deliberation and consensus.

The above considerations lead to certain implications and conclusions about what matters in collaborative settings when developing innovative solutions for environmental management. First of all, the results of this study illustrate that individual conditions of collaborative governance, such as collaborative process, institutional design, knowledge sharing and collaborative leadership are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for generating innovative solutions. Only combined in different configurations they may be sufficient for innovative solutions to happen. Second, the results of this study partly confirm what Torfing et al. 2020 concluded in their resent study: institutional design coupled with specific leadership roles is an important condition for realizing collaborative innovation outcomes. This study as well demonstrates the important role of functional institutional design along with productive collaborative process in generating innovative solutions. Third, the configurations discussed in this study clearly illustrate the interconnectedness of collaborative conditions for producing collaborative outputs, such as innovative solutions. For example, knowledge sharing efforts may risk to turn into simple information exchange or absence of results without functioning institutional design mechanisms as shown in the first configuration. Finally, the results of this study provide a guidance to policymakers and practitioners about appropriateness of collaborative governance for generating innovative solutions and suggests conditions that deserve attention.

Although this study deepens the understanding of joint effects of collaborative conditions on innovative solutions in the domain of environment and climate, it does not come without limitations. There are at least three limitations to this study that must be report. First two limitations concern the Collaborative Governance Case databank used to select the cases for analysis, Although the selected cases cover the domain of Environment & climate in different contexts and countries, and have a clear aim of producing innovative solutions, they still do not represent a considerable number of collaborative arrangements globally or within these countries to make the generalization of the findings possible. Therefore, this study provides first insights into this relatively little studied field of research: the link between collaborative governance and innovation in the domain of Environment & climate. In addition, the data of dataset is reported by different researchers without an assessment of intercoder reliability (Ulibarri et al. 2020 ). This questions the extent of bias related to the data on how reliably collaborative processes are reported. Third limitation concerns the concept of innovative solutions and its calibration for performing QCA. I have used somewhat general definition (also conditioned by the survey question I have used to operationalize the concept of innovative solutions) by encompassing innovative solutions in existing policies, programs and practices for sustainable environmental management. Therefore it is not possible to draw conclusions whether and how the different configurations of collaborative conditions lead to innovation in practices, programs or policies separately. Both for practice and research it would be valuable to investigate whether the found configurations favor more one of these three segments where innovative solutions can be generated. Future research may inquire into individual recipients, being practice or policy, of innovative solutions to shed light on how collaborative conditions contribute to innovative solutions in different segments of environmental management. Future research could take also a wider array of conditions, both characterizing processes within collaborative governance and beyond, into account to test their individual or joint contribution into innovation. Finally, in depth case studies could deepen the knowledge about the configurations found in this study, while the interpretation of configurations outlined above could guide the cases studies as propositions.

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This work was supported by Perspectief research programme ‘All risk’, project P15-21, which is (partly) financed by the NWO Domain Applied and Engineering Sciences.

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Avoyan, E. Collaborative Governance for Innovative Environmental Solutions: Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Cases from Around the World. Environmental Management 71 , 670–684 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01642-7

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E-Tools for Personalizing Learning During the Pandemic: Case Study of an Innovative Solution for Remote Teaching

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• 1 Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania.
• 2 Urban Development Association, Bucharest, Romania.
• PMID: 35602680
• PMCID: PMC9121995
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.751316

"Every child counts" has lost its value even from the political discourse of some societies during the pandemic, proving that the level of culture of inclusion is the true standard of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) commitment. Online education and therapy required rethinking the way we educate children with special needs and, implicitly, prepare them for life. We consider that the personalized approach of the therapeutic intervention was the main difficulty. In this article, we propose a solution to this problem, an approach based on a platform initially developed by tactileimages.org for vision-impaired pupils which became a tool in the universal design of learning materials. This e-learning tool includes an Editor, a browser-based software developed to allow the creation or adaptation of drawings into vector images; the QR code through which areas of educational and therapeutic interest are allocated to pictures for task personalization; and the voice-over function of the companion application. The customized material is identified by image recognition algorithms, and the user's gesture is recognized by artificial intelligence algorithms, which receives (by voice-over) details about therapeutic tasks in remote teaching. The article illustrates the personalization of the therapeutic and educational path. The process starts with defining the child's functioning profile and matching function with the curriculum elements as they are found within the Erasmus + project "Cognitive Resources for Toddlers Teens and Experts" -stored in the virtual library. Information and comunication technology is currently an important vector in attaining the SDG vision. The proposed solution will be improved in order to further personalize the educational and therapeutic intervention in the post-pandemic period too.

Keywords: e-learning tools; inclusion; innovative teaching solution; learning design; remote teaching.

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Case Study: Strocks Solutions For The Arbour Development, Tribeca Kings Cross and Bellingdon Nursery

Image from HG Mattews

Introduction: Discovering Strocks - Unfired Earth Blocks for Sustainable Structures

Strocks – unfired earth blocks are crafted from clay-rich earth and chopped straw. These unassuming building elements find their strength in simplicity, ideal for forming structural walls supporting up to three storeys. In the following case study covered by the UKGBC we shed light on Strocks’ potential in fostering eco-conscious building practices. Join us in uncovering the practicality and possibilities inherent in Strocks as we navigate the landscape of building materials based on their sustainability performance.

Addressing the Challenge: Tapping into the Potential of Unfired Clay

Within the construction sector, unfired clay emerges as a standout due to its minimal emissions during the production phase. Yet, unavoidable impacts such as extraction and transportation contribute to environmental concerns. Strocks confronts this by embracing the third impact – drying instead of firing, the most significant of the three savings. In use, the substantial mass of clay acts as a structural and thermal buffer, enhancing heat regulation and managing internal humidity. Strocks play a crucial role in sequestering VOCs, notably formaldehyde, a pervasive indoor pollutant.

Innovative Solution: Moulded Clay Blocks

Strocks, clay blocks infused with straw and moulded into an innovative solution, offer an inventive answer. Crafted from on-site or transported clay, these blocks undergo drying without firing, resulting in substantial energy and emissions savings. Serving as load-bearing, fireproof, and sound-attenuating components, Strocks present a versatile alternative to traditional bricks. Ideal for reusing excavated material on-site. The use of clay plasters further enhances their sustainability performance.

The Arbour Project: A Showcase of A Greener Future

Developed by gs8 in 2022, “ The Arbour ” exemplifies the successful integration of Strocks. This mixed housing development utilised spoil from foundations to craft Strocks for party walls. Beyond meeting Passivhaus design standards, the unfinished blocks contribute to sound and fire attenuation, adding character and aesthetic value to the structures. The environmental gains, including improved indoor air quality and VOC sequestration, align with the developer’s commitment to a greener environment, creating a high-performance yet environmentally conscious living space.

Image from The Arbour

Tribeca Kings Cross: Commercial Public Building

Tribeca is a commercial life science laboratory in the heart of London’s Kings Cross. Strocks are made from extracted piling material and in the first phase are used to line the basement as a direct replacement for concrete blocks. Testing was done to prove their compressive and flexural strength as well as a complete fire spread and resistance tests meaning they could be used as partition wall materials on the next phases. Strocks used in this way mean improved air quality, managed humidity which in turn reduces the spread of bacteria, virus and mould spores so important in a work environment.

The Nursery, Bellingdon

HG Matthews consulted with earth expert Gernot Minke to design the special blocks produced for this unique load bearing dome. Clay lends itself to making many different shapes each with the qualities of a load bearing material with the health and well being benefits of unfired clay. The Nursery hosts 40 small people every day with a minimum of active heating through the winter and with a pleasant cool temperature through the summer. The thermal mass really comes into its own with this project, giving the children a fantastic start in life.

Strocks on 2050 Materials

2050 Materials partnered up with Strocks as they offer more than just structural integrity. Their composition, aided by thin bed clay mortar, creates a homogenous and seamless earth wall. Explore their thermal properties, capturing warmth during the day and radiating it at night. Additionally, witness their natural ability to regulate indoor humidity to a balanced 50%.

In the spirit of materials based on their sustainability performance, strength and genuine innovation, Strocks present an alternative for those seeking a harmonious blend of functionality and greener construction. Discover the full properties on app.2050-materials.com here and reach out to us on [email protected] for more information.

Strocks 210 on 2050 Materials Platform

Unfired clay bricks, UKGBC

Planet-positive homes in the heart of Walthamstow Village, The Arbour

Strocks 210, 2050 Materials Platform

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