Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

AHFE International

Accelerating Open Access Science in Human Factors Engineering and Human-Centered Computing

Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

book-cover

Editors: Evangelos Markopoulos, Ravindra S. Goonetilleke, Yan Luximon

Topics: Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Publication Date: 2022

ISBN: 978-1-958651-07-0

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1001499

Articles

Creative practice applied in a higher education class

In a society where information is widely available, being able to filter and under-stand facts is paramount to envision, devise and design practical solutions concerning a particular problem, and further consider its implications. In a higher education context, skills such as creativity and rational thinking are trained through-out a course, encouraging understanding and problem-solving skills, essential aptitudes in an everchanging world.Creativity can transform an idea of an existing domain into a new one, it is all about being curious, examining, connecting, experimenting, and playing with the surroundings, and thus incubating an entire new version or set of ideas, adding value to the process. It is the ability to reason and create connections with previously acquired knowledge that generate new ideas. The interest in creativity as a scientific area began in the 1960’s, with advertising result of interaction between the individual thoughts and sociocultural context, creativity is a systemic and non-individual process (Getzels et al., 1966), involving a cognitive and emotional dimensions.The purpose of any training is to stimulate awareness, develop skills, foster challenges, motivate, and attain accomplishments. In higher education institutions, students are encouraged to ask difficult questions, identifying the state-of-the-art, learning specific tools, applying methodologies, indulging in research and practice, developing soft skills, building character, and ultimately improving individual social-economic status.To face global challenges, it is necessary to understand its purposes to develop a global awareness, essential for present and future developments. The first step towards any (design) solution is to outline the problem, amongst all involved, correlating behavior, technology, and business in a reasonable manner. Most de-sign output depends on creativity, and reasoning, which can be trained to generate ideas and solve specific issues.This research, in a higher education context, regarding applied creativity in a classroom, aims to further develop the creative process design students, using creative methods such as brainstorming, registering ideas and thoughts, using visual references and metaphors from an array of circumstances, in a project-based learning environment, fostering a creative output.

Leonardo Springer

Conference Proceedings

Interdisciplinary Learning - Tomorrow’s Executive as Creative Problem Solvers

Incorporating creative processes in the business curriculum can provide a framework for dealing with uncertainty in new product development. The paper explores the role and significance of user-focused aspects of the human-centered process in creating successful products and services. Demystifying the creative process can be challenging, as many students have trouble when engaging in 'need-finding' and problem-solving for the first time. Coping with uncertainty seems to be a vital factor in a student's ability to generate new products. Bringing creative tools and approaches into the classroom and sharing how to solve problems through observation, experiment, analysis, reflection establishes the place of the creative process, as a bridge, as a guiding principle – as a method for generating new products and new products business strategies.Keywords: Creative Process, Embracing Ambiguity, Interdisciplinary Learning, User-Focused.

Simrun Sethi

Conference Proceedings

Entrepreneurial education: The case of South American countries

The interest in the development of an entrepreneurial culture has acquired special importance, both in the academic and social spheres, since it is considered as the engine of growth and economic development of countries, particularly, those that are in the process of development. The objective of the article is to analyze the level of education and its role in entrepreneurial activity from a comparative point of view in South American countries. From a theoretical point of view, a review of the different contributions regarding education, academic and business training in the generation of entrepreneurship is carried out. Methodologically, the research is approached from a descriptive and correlational perspective, based on the data obtained from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, for the case of 5 South American countries during the 2010 – 2016 period. The results suggest that education of entrepreneurs should be oriented to the development of skills to face the challenges of today's society.

Ximena Morales Urrutia, Diana Morales Urrutia, Stalyn Avila Herrera

Conference Proceedings

A drawing system with an interface that can be used to impose limits and unleash creativity

In order to enjoy creativity, the creators need to be given environmental restrictions. For example, there are rules such as Japanese Haiku or Chinese Zeku for poetry, or musical grammar for music, and these rules are supposed to enhance the creativity of the creator. However, most existing drawing software focuses only on making the process of completing a work comfortable, and does not provide much support for the goal setting process that requires environmental restrictions. In this study, based on research on creativity, such as the idea method, we were able to show that developing a drawing system that imposes environmental restrictions, such as the appearance of obstacles on the canvas, causes changes in the creativity of the subjects. In conventional drawing software, it is common to start the creative process with a blank canvas so that the painter can paint freely. However, in our experiments, many of the participants said that they were able to come up with more ideas and enjoy painting more when obstacles appeared on the canvas. By creating obstacles, we succeeded in approaching the characteristics of human visual cognition and structuring the creative process. Digital creative activities give us more control than analog creative activities. This advantage can be used to make the first step of the creative process, the idea generation process, more convenient. In analog creation, you could not choose irreversible methods such as creating obstacles on the canvas. The drawing software of the future will emphasize the process of externalizing human images and make the creative process more enjoyable, without the need to stick to a blank canvas.

Hiromi Katsumata, Bo Liu

Conference Proceedings

Use of AI tools in learning platforms and the role of feedback for learning

The digital transformation in the world of work has profound effects on the processes of career orientation and the transition between school and work. Together with international partners from Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy and Hungary, a digital mentoring concept to secure the employability of young people has been or is being investigated in the three-year EU project "Career 4.0". The focus is on the further development of a personal development plan with the help of which the young people can reflect on their future employment opportunities. Compared to other teaching-learning situations, this is a learning process that is open to development without a predetermined true or false, as is usually the case with mathematical tasks, for example. This places special demands on the mentors when it comes to assessing which forms of feedback are particularly beneficial for the young people and which prove to be less beneficial.Within the framework of the EU project, empirical studies were carried out which came to the conclusion that the quality of the feedback that mentors give to mentees is assessed very dif-ferently by these groups of participants. The mentees see considerable potential for improve-ment when it comes to the quality of the feedback from the mentors. In contrast, the mentors themselves are not as critical of their activities in giving feedback. Over 60 mentees and over 30 mentors have participated in the empirical study so far.The starting point for the study is the meta-analysis of the research team around Hattie et al. (2016). They differentiate between the following forms of feedback: (1) task-related, (2) pro-cess-related, (3) self-regulation-related and (4) person- or self-related feedback. According to the evaluation of their meta-analysis, the second and third forms of feedback have the greatest effect on learning outcomes.Furthermore, scientific studies have shown that the acceptance of feedback depends on numerous influencing factors, which can be assigned to four areas: Characteristics of (1) the feedback message, (2) the feedback source, (3) the feedback recipient and (4) the feedback context. The effect of feedback can be related to three levels, following the psychology of lear-ning: (1) cognitive (e.g. closing competence gaps), (2) metacognitive (e.g. supporting self-assessment and self-awareness) and (3) motivational level (e.g. promoting readiness). How the feedback recipients (here: the young people) ultimately deal with the feedback also depends on their causal attribution, i.e. which reasons they see as causal for their progress or the failure of their actions. If, for example, they attribute their inadequate task performance to environmental factors, e.g. difficult and unfair tasks or disproportionate time pressure, or if they see the reasons in themselves, e.g. in their lack of commitment or insufficient skills, this has very different effects on the effects of the feedback. Among other things, this can lead to a "self-esteem distortion" if, for example, negative results are primarily attributed to external circumstances. The research project is also investigating the extent to which AI tools can help to make feed-back even more effective and efficient for learners. In order to provide IT and AI solutions (such as adaptive learning systems, learning analytics, intelligent CBR recommendation sys-tems) to support the giving of feedback, e.g. with the help of a learning platform, it is advantageous and necessary to make the feedback process transparent by using a process mo-delling approach and to work out individual process steps.Hattie, J. & Timperley, H. (2007): The Power of Feedback, in: Review of Educational Research Vol. 77, No. 1, 81-112.London, M. & McFarland, L. (2010): Assessment Feedback. In J. Farr & N. Tippins (Hrsg.), Employee Selection (S. 417-436). New York, London: Routledge.Narciss, S. (2013). Designing and Evaluating Tutoring Feedback Strategies for digital learning environments on the basis of the Interactive Tutoring Feedback Model. Digital Education Review, (23), 7–26.

Martin Kröll, Kristina Burova-Keßler

Conference Proceedings

A Certification Framework for Virtual Reality and Metaverse Training Scenarios in the Maritime and Shipping industry.

The maritime and shipping industry tremendously impact on the society and the economy across the centuries. Today shipping is, environmentally and economically, the most efficient way to transport merchandise, serving nearly 90% of world trade. Safety at sea has always been a major issue for all the parties involved in shipping from different perspectives, reasons, and interests. Shipping and maritime training that can assure this safety is a key requirement for every ship to sail and for every seafarer, of any level and rank, to get on-bard and perform any operations. However, the cost of such training can be unbearable for many shipping companies especially in emerging markets that rely much on the readiness and effectiveness of their local seafarers. The introduction of virtual reality (VR) in maritime and shipping training became a solution for all those who seek affordable and reliable professional training, but the markets indicated skepticism on the quality and reliability of such training. Furthermore, there has been significant hesitation on the validity of VR ad Metaverse shipping training and its compliance with the international maritime training certification processes. The covid-19 pandemic and the continuous lockdowns that froze the world, helped VR training to be more accepted by all industries, including the shipping and maritime industry, and to be reconsidered as an accepted training alternative. Within the first year of the pandemic, the VR training industry has exploded in terms of applications, many of which indicate a significant degree of intelligence and state-of-the-art technologies, in hardware, software and communications between the trainee, the system, and the virtual environment. The MarSIOT (Maritime Safety, for Immersive Oceans Technology) case is examined throughout this paper along with other technologies. On the other hand and despite the justified need for virtual training and the readiness of the VR industry to respond to this need a major issue that still has not been resolved, but remains under research investigation and process formulation, is the certification of virtual training scenarios, as qualified and valid professional skills, by credible certification bodies. This paper presents an analysis of the maritime and shipping VR and Metaverse training certification demand, the requirements that need to be fulfilled for VR training scenarios to be certified, and the overall certification process that can be followed. The research is based on primary and secondary research with an extensive academic literature review, a survey with 80 maritime participants, five interviews with industry experts in maritime VR training and certification, case studies on the maturity and the readiness on the VR training in maritime and shipping, and analysis on the maritime virtual training requirements from leading certification organizations in the shipping professional training. The research results indicate an initial VR training certification process that can be used as a guide for VR training organizations on their efforts to certify their professional training applications and technologies. The paper indicates research limitations and areas of further research that can be explored for the standardization of the proposed VR certification methodology and its acceptance by the international maritime and shipping industry.

Evangelos Markopoulos, Aksel David Nordholm, Stavroula Iliadi, Panagiotis Markopoulos, John Faraclas, Mika Luimula

Conference Proceedings

An evaluation of material customized modular protective helmets

Helmets are often recommended as primary safety equipment for protecting the head. Several studies have been conducted to test the effectiveness of different impact-absorbing liner materials and their response to high impact loading. The standard helmets have an impact-absorbing liner of a single material, which may not be the best design approach. Hence, the possibility of modular helmet liner design with two different materials has been explored in this study. The chapter presents a preliminary Finite element analysis (FEA) study to evaluate the performance of hard foam, soft foam and a combination of both the foams as impact-absorbing liners for helmets. The results suggest that the hard foam liner showed better performance for high impact loads, while the soft foam liner was more effective for low impact loads. The results also indicated that the modular design-based helmet liners developed using both the hard and soft foam performed better than single foam liners.

Parth Shah, Tejeswar Yarlagadda, Ameersing Luximon, Dong An, Yan Luximon

Conference Proceedings

An operational framework of methods for designing ethical and sustainable future digital scenarios

The rapid pace of technological innovations is changing almost every aspect of people’s lives. Indeed, digital technologies are reshaping behaviors and human interactions as well as having great impacts on the environmental, political and economic level (Schwab, 2016). In this scenario, it becomes paramount for people to be able to adapt to this increasingly digital environment to reach the so-called Digital Maturity (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2017) and to recognize and unlock the huge potentialities of emerging technologies to foster sustainable development (WEF & PwC, 2020).Such topics are being addressed and tackled by the Digital Creativity for developing Digital Maturity Future Skills (DC4DM) European Project [1], a three-year project funded by the Erasmus + Program and whose outcome will be the spread of an educational model to train students to become Digital Maturity Enablers, new professional figures up-skilled to drive the change and to creatively envision future possibilities. Digital Maturity Enablers, indeed, have to possess a set of Digital Creative Abilities (DCAs) which encompass all those competencies, attitudes and mindsets that allow them to unleash their full creative potential. The empowerment and practice of such DCAs are enabled by the DC4DM educational model, a creativity-driven design model to free learners’ creativity and ease the achievement of a Digital Maturity (Bruno & Canina, 2021).Some DCAs can be trained simultaneously and are thus grouped in the so-called Drivers, clusters of DCAs that allow learners to gain awareness on paramount topics applied to digital technologies, namely digital ethics and sustainability, collaboration, technology foresight, data collection and complexity. Within this context, the aim of the paper is to introduce an operational framework built as part of the methodology used to identify the most important methods and tools to enhance the DCAs related to ethics, sustainability and futures thinking. Indeed, an ad hoc methodology was implemented in order to provide a systematic overview of the existing resources that could be useful to develop the competencies to design responsibly and sustainably with digital technologies and to envision futures possibilities. The effort has been channeled into mapping and clustering methods, tools, techniques and formats i.e. every type of resource that could help students acquire the creative abilities included in the cross model area called “Digital Responsibility and Sustainability”. As a matter of fact, the initial draft of the DC4DM model, the starting point to conceive the methodology, consisted of three phases, namely Pre-Process, Process and Post-Process, and a cross model area which included all the ethics, sustainability and futures thinking-related abilities essential when dealing with digital technologies. In order to filter and systematize the selected resources, these three dimensions have been considered as macro-categories and some criteria identified to steer the classification process. Based on their objectives, all the resources have been mapped on the DC4DM model, sorted between the Pre-Process and Process phase and finally collected in a digital booklet. So far the booklet has been used internally by the DC4DM consortium which is actually willing to make it an open online repository accessible to anyone interested in improving specific abilities. [1] https://www.dc4dm.eu/

Marita Canina, Carmen Bruno, Eva Monestier

Conference Proceedings

Introducing PATI: The Pareto Analysis for Technology Insertion - a human-centered methodology to identify and prioritize innovation in complex systems

The commoditization of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) algorithms, and automated agents (AA) affords innovators and entrepreneurs myriad opportunities for the creative pursuit of new business endeavors. This abundance is, however, overwhelming, and no adequate methodology currently exists to identify and select what technologies to insert into existing systems or processes to create value. In particular, there is a lack of techniques that drive such decision-making towards desireability and utilization, two critical factors that entrepreneurs and innovators must diligently consider in their efforts. To bridge this gap, we propose the simple, human-centered “pareto analysis for technology insertion,” or PATI, as an approach to identify and prioritize the insertion of AI, ML, or AA into complex systems. Through the application of PATI to the use case of aircraft maintenance, we demonstrate how this straightforward methodology yields artifacts that are both useful and comprehensive for most stakeholders in the innovation entrepreneurship ecosystem, thereby accelerating and making more resilient their creative pursuits.

Sylvain Bruni

Conference Proceedings

Monetization Canvas Framework to Efficiently Assess the Impact of Research Outcome

In the current dynamically changing demands and aspirations of populations across the globe, nations are putting up impetus on innovations and entrepreneurship. There is huge disparity in demand as third world countries are struggling to fulfil the demands and developed nations are poised to fulfil aspirations while maintaining a balance with existing demands. Global economy has always been driven by innovation and in line with the Paris Agreement to create a sustainable business in different sectors while being responsible towards climate change. Inclusion of different policies such as Internal Carbon disclosure and policies to promote them through rebates at various levels. Adoption of science-based targets in sustainability is a buzz word these days. While these practices are creating a niche for the responsible organizations and nations, core still remains at development of innovative solutions to meet both demand and aspirations. Economies across the globe are spending a significant amount of their budget, after defense and healthcare, on research and development which acts like a pillar for this economic growth. It is significant to mention that the budget expenditure on research and development attracts a lot of attention and governments across the globe face wrath due to low percentage of return on investment. This happens majorly because the framework to assess the outcome of this investment is very vague and is scenario specific. It depends on many factors such as human resource, state of infrastructure, identifying needs, projection of need and many more. To understand the issue better we first need to gather information regarding the total spending by different nations from different strata of the economy. It helps us to understand that there is an urgent need to narrow down on outcome-based research, rather than lurking for some miracle to happen. A well-structured outcome-based framework, which is easy to adopt while framing the policies needs to be in place which can assess the impact and hence help in carving out the policies further. At least ninety countries around the world spent more than USD50 million based on Wikipedia (2022). The top ten countries spent over USD38 billion. The United States, China, Japan, Germany, India and South Korea amount to 70 % of the global Research and Development (R&D) spent, while the United States and China account for 50% of the spending. Based on The World Bank (2022) South. Korea and Israel are well ahead in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) spending on research the two largest economies U.S. and China are lacking in terms of GDP percentage. A report by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) (2015) reports not much impact on the economy of government funded R&D. Private R&D funding had an impact on the economy and University Research did have an impact. It also reports that private funding had a better impact on basic research compared to applied research. This paper describes a research monetization canvas to enhance research output in particular academic institutions.

Muthu Singaram, Vr Muraleedhran, Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam Sivaprakasam, Shashwat Pathak

Conference Proceedings

Understanding corporate innovation readiness and frequency factors with the Democratic Survival, Mirrored and Compulsive (DSMC) Framework

Innovation, and technological innovation in particular, seems to be the driving force in the modern entrepreneurial revolution that stated at the beginning of this century. The .net phenomenon with the rise of the internet active users made the word flat, increased the business opportunities but also decreased the success rate. Blue oceans strategies have been replaced by Green and Pink oceans strategies in a continuous effort to stay current with the global innovation trends, needs and expectations. Most of the businesses across all industries seek micro-innovations to improve their product or services delivery but not necessarily to make a breakthrough. However, their innovation rate and pace differ from one another ranging from a year to five years. The distance to deliver innovation is related with the distance organizations have from democratic organizations cultures that ignite and utilize internal knowledge contributions which can lead to innovative processes, products, and services. The company’s DNA and philosophy is primarily responsible for the innovation pace and effectiveness, but this is also affected by internal and external factors. The ability or inability to create democracy organizational cultures has positive and negative consequences that need to be assessed in relation to the company’s’ finances, workforce knowledge and maturity, industry readiness and openness, and other factors. To understand the reasons and the business innovation frequency, an academic and critical literature review has been conducted. The results led to the formulation of a framework taking into consideration several weighted internal and external factors. Furthermore primary research has been conducted to better understand their innovation motives innovation frequency by gathering and analysing data from 66 individuals such as university innovation hub coordinators, entrepreneurs and product developers.This paper introduces the Survival, Mirrored and Compulsive (SMC) Framework, a step-by-step guide to help businesses understand their innovation readiness status. The framework calculates several attributes and plots the results on a graph indicating the factors to be considered in at the company’s innovations strategy. The primary findings indicate factors that impact the innovation frequency such as the available R&D facilities, financial position and stability, cumulative organizational knowledge, policy direction, and the industry the organizations operate, among others. The analysis of these factors in the SMC framework revealed that survival mode is what impacts organizational innovation frequency. Organizations tend to either reduce or postpone innovation initiatives until they feel comfortable for their existence or learned from their mistakes, neglecting however the fact that innovation driven by democratic internal development and utilization of the human intellectual capital costs less, is more likely to succeed, and can be attempted continuously. Therefore, the paper extends the SMC framework to the Democratic SMC (DMSC) that aligns the SMC phases with the Company Democracy Model innovation evolution levels by relating and categorizing the SCM innovation factors to the CDM levels. This helps to understand the organizational innovation DNA and also the culture and philosophy that impacts the company’s human intellectual capital production frequency and the utilization frequency of this capital as well. The paper refers limitations on both the SMC framework and DSMC model at their current development stages and identifies areas of further research for their maturity through applications and optimization.

Evangelos Markopoulos, Kwame Ofori, Hannu Vanharanta

Conference Proceedings

An ESG-SDGs alignment and execution model based on the Ocean Strategies transition in emerging markets

Sustainable Development has been introduced in 1987, and it is underpinned by three equally essential pillars: economy, society, and the environment. The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 was a watershed moment in the campaign for sustainable growth. Since then, this set of 17 objectives has steered the private and governmental sectors toward more sustainable, inclusive, and responsible processes. In addition, the ESG Index has recently gained prominence primarily in the financial industry. While ESG Investment Markets in developed nations have proliferated, many emerging market businesses have been marginalized, owing to a lack of human and financial resources for ESG compliance. Considering that the appropriate ESG credentials may result in various advantages, ranging from attracting potential investors to establishing a good reputation and gaining a competitive edge, it is critical for firms in Emerging Markets to employ tactics that will assist them in achieving this.The research conducted involve an extensive literature review on this subject, a survey with 86 valid responses and four interviews with international experts. The results indicate that within different challenges regarding ESG compliance, the unbalanced approach that many businesses adopt is a major one. Societal issues seem to be the aspect that companies primarily focus on, while Environment issues appear to be neglected or forgotten. This is especially true in Emerging Markets because of a lack of data, a lack of interest and a lack of political pressure. Therefore mapping ESG and SDGs requirements can bring significant benefits to organizations that can improve their Corporate Sustainability without harming their economic growth, development and strategy.This research introduces an ESG – SDG mapping model and its execution process to achieve the maximum of this relationship. The prioritization of the SDGs has to be related to the ESG strategy an organization is committed to executing based on its capability and maturity. The proposed model is based on integrating the Blue, Pink and Green oceans and the gradual achievement of SDGs during the transition from one ocean to the other. This Pink Ocean and Green Ocean driven ESG framework is targeted primarily for the Emerging Markets where the need to adapt the SDGs is more significant than other regions. The paper indicates the initial limitations in the strategy and application of the proposed model and areas of further research that can overcome these limitations and wider its areas and regions of adaptation, and improve the scoring parameters and process. Local and international companies can use the proposed model to ignite and boost their Corporate Sustainability by complying with the ESG metrics and align themselves to the Sustainable Development Agenda.

Evangelos Markopoulos, Maria Barbara Ramonda

Conference Proceedings

Gamification in a Democratic Pro-Environmental Behaviour Model towards achieving effective ESG corporate strategies.

The climate crisis has received high levels of attention from the public and scholars over the last few decades. While the search for solutions involves strict regulations and innovation in clean energy sources, changing individual behaviours towards sustainability could prevent us from reaching a point of no return. Inarguably, there is a need for strong involvement of the public and private sector organizations, changing individual organizational behaviours towards sustainability might foster a great impact in terms of lowering the effects of the climate crisis. In this context, a democratic pro-environmental behaviour (DPEBs) is introduced to enable green behaviours with individual and voluntary actions within organizations that benefit the preservation and recovery of the environment. Recycling, efficient energy consumption, reduction of meat consumption and sustainable transportation are examples of actionable PEBs that need to be fostered to contribute to the reduction of the human impact on climate change.Nevertheless, the adoption of new behaviours is a complex goal that requires the application of mechanisms to address employee intrinsic and extrinsic democratic motivation. In this vein, gamification, as a process that enhances projects and service with affordances for gameful experiences., might provide a viable alternative. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the extent to which gamification is an effective alternative to promote the adoption of democratic pro-environmental behaviours and contribute to the creation of the relative organization culture. The accepted definition of gamification for this paper is the process of enhancing a service with affordances for gameful experiences in order to support user's overall value creation. This marketing perspective approach, has more focus on the effects obtained as a consequence of activating intrinsic and extrinsic motivation through the use of gamified systems rather than the analysis of the characteristics of the game design elements, and the incentives for its practical and actual adaptation and utilization within organizations.A systematic literature review was conducted in order to exclusively retrieve - after a thorough selection process - case studies that evaluated the psychological and behavioural effects of gamified information technology systems. Psychological outcomes are related to intrinsic motivation; in the case of gamification, positive outcomes are described by gameful experience. These, in turn, are categorized in this work according to the motivational need to which they correspond and their adaptation likeness in a corporate context. On the other hand, behavioural outcomes are related to extrinsic motivation; these are the desired pro-environmental behaviours promoted extrinsically with the use of the gamified application.Fifteen studies were analysed in detail, which overall provided positive results regarding gamification’s capability to engage users by appealing to intrinsic motivation and to effectively promote the adoption of extrinsically motivated PEBs. As a result the paper presents a methodological approach and a process model that integrates democratic organizational culture elements that utilize gamification to achieve employee pro-environmental behaviours that can benefit both the economy and the society. Furthermore the proposed model is linked with the ESG criteria as a further incentive for its organization adaptation from theory to practice. The paper also indicates limitations and areas of further research on the proposed model towards green ocean strategies that can maximize its applications and impact.

Evangelos Markopoulos, Alexandro Vera Ramirez, Panagiotis Markopoulos, Hannu Vanharanta

Conference Proceedings

The use of metaverse in maritime sector – a combination of social communication, hands on experiencing and digital twins

COVID-19 has caused challenges in traveling, sales activities, and teleconferencing is at the moment the main communication tool in industry. Various technologies have been introduced during the last a couple of years to increase the immersion of remote presence. Technologies, that can be called as a virtual reality social platform (VRSP) such as Glue, MootUp, Breakroom, LearnBrite, Virtway Events, Engage, AltspaceVR, and VirBELA are robust solutions for a small group of people to participate in the same event. In July 2021, both Microsoft CEO and Facebook CEO published their visions for remote presence, teleconferencing, and much more. Microsoft plans to build an enterprise metaverse (combining technologies such as AltspaceVR, Mesh, Teams, and HoloLens). Facebook in turn intends to transit their business from social media platform to metaverse provider. In February 2021, much before the metaverse enhancement of the big tech giants, Turku University of Applied Sciences started the development of its own metaverse technology. According to Nevelsteen (2018) metaverse is a virtual universe shared amongst its users allowing them to interact with each other within the boundaries of the platform. For TUAS the metaverse concept is a combination of social communication, hands on experiencing and digital twin integration. None of the mentioned VRSP technologies include all these three features neither Microsoft or Facebook have this type of vision. Moreover existing VRSP technologies typically have challenges such as update management, number of simultaneous users, usability, user experience, license policies, customization but also limited user interaction and user data gathering. In this paper, we will introduce our own metaverse technology. Research conducted at TUAS tested existing VRSPs, compared Unity and Unreal game engines in metaverse development and based on industry trend analysis revealed that Epic Games intends to focus on metaverse software development tools. On the other hand the use of Unreal limits user groups for VR and PC users. This research approach presented in this paper provides metaverse experiences to be used with various ways from VR/AR/XR to PCs and mobile phones. This way, users who have limited resources available are able to participate in metaverse applications where the user experience will vary based the available device. This paper introduces the TUAS metaverse technology, the first experiences of developing it and how the first prototype version of this technology has been used in various maritime sector projects. To demonstrate the technology a harbor area has been selected as a test environment. In the first test, AltspaceVR technology was used to develop the environment itself with features needed in virtual exhibition called Match XR. This will be followed by an experiment where the harbor environment with same functionalities will be moved to the TUAS metaverse technology. Finally, the paper reports how multiplayer concepts such as MarISOT command bridge training scenarios can be developed utilizing the TUAS metaverse technology.

Mika Luimula, Timo Haavisto, Duy Vu Dinh Pham, Panagiotis Markopoulos, Jami Aho, Evangelos Markopoulos, Juha Saarinen

Conference Proceedings

Coworking Spaces for Startup Companies: A Comparative Study in Istanbul

Coworking spaces have recently become mainstream worldwide. Therefore, research studies on the subject to investigate the interface and relationships between architectural design and creativity is becoming a popular subject in the academic community. The need for coworking spaces is derived from the evolutionary structure of the society and changing needs of time, as both are under the pressure of economic constraints. Coworking spaces, increase collaboration, social interaction, and collective intelligence between individuals. Coworking spaces are split into categories regarding the user type and the opportunities they provide. This paper presents a comparative study about coworking spaces for startup companies and entrepreneurs in Istanbul. 3 different coworking facilities with various characteristics in terms of organization, space design and user profile have been selected from the city, and they have been elaborated according to their spatial features and their contribution to creativity and entrepreneurship.

Salih Ceylan, Mehmet Emre Arslan

Conference Proceedings

Co-creation services boosting health technology potential – the case of Turku Finland

Especially in health technology, developing an idea into a marketable solution, is a long and winding role. More so in the case of medical devices, that play an essential role in healthcare delivery of today. These devices are solutions that are intended for medical use in “homes and hospitals”. Regulating their development ensures the devices are safe to use, and available to the end-users on global markets. As the regulatory framework expands beyond development to sales, regulatory compliance is of paramount importance for every organization working in the field. To enable the development of medical devices, and other solutions of health technology, we have created a platform called “Terttu” (engl. “Bunch” as in “bunch of grapes”) that brokers and facilitates regional co-creation services to companies in need of them. In our previous article, we created a theoretical framework for the platform. In this one, we take a deep dive into the actual results of our development.In the core, the Terttu service was developed using Service Design as the over-arching design principle. The service is an electronic platform used for matching the end-user (company) co-creation needs with the services available in the regional. “Under the hood”, the service is also used for combining different co-creation services together, in the case that a single service can’t meet the needs of the end-user. And, when there is a match between the need and the co-creation service(s), Terttu provides a way for advancing a contact into an actual agreement between the involved parties, and using a completed co-creation project as a reference in promoting the service.The actual work in developing the platform started with focus group interviews. In these interviews, the end-users’ (9 companies) needs, wishes, and ideas for the Terttu service were investigated. As the services is intended to be used in the healthcare sector, the companies were selected accordingly. In the interviews, the end-users were walked through the intended process of initiating co-creation from their perspective, and after that the users were given the floor; how the process worked, how it should have worked, and what would be an ideal process. On the basis of these interviews, an ideal version of the Terttu service was drafted, and presented to the co-creation service providers. These in turn, had an option to add their insights into the drafted version, that would eventually steer the development of the Terttu service.This collaborative work with the end-users and the service providers resulted in a shared vision of a service – the way it should look, and the way the promises to the end-users should be redeemed. However, it turned out that this was just the icing on the cake. There were still practical, and fundamental, issues to be addressed before the vision would could be done true. The development work brought to light a) problems associated with the ownership and management of the Terttu service, b) ambiguities in the way the service promise was initially formulated, and c) challenges in the marketing and pricing. All these would need hard work and making compromises from all service provider organizations. Future research aspects and practical recommendations will also be issued in the paper.

Janne Lahtiranta, Tero Reunanen, Elina Kontio

Conference Proceedings

Infrared thermographic evaluation of facemasks

In the past only health care professionals wore facemasks daily, but in recent times almost all citizens of many countries are expected to wear facemasks to reduce infection at work and in public. Because of SARS and now COVID-19, facemasks have become an essential personal protective equipment to fight against infectious disease. Frequent use of mask has proven to provide significant protection in reducing infections, even though there are complaints about its long-term usage. Although there are many types of masks, the surgical mask and the N95 respirator are the common ones. In this study, the surgical mask and the N95 respirator were compared with a no-mask condition. Results indicated that participants wearing the N95 respirator had the most significant thermal discomfort. The surgical mask was also significantly uncomfortable when compared to the no mask condition. Infrared thermographic results indicated that the heat retained when wearing a mask is higher than without a mask. Results of this study show the importance in mask design to have sufficient protection, comfort and fit.

Ameersing Luximon, Yan Luximon, Ravindra Goonetilleke

Conference Proceedings

Evaluation of Systematically Developed Gamification Strategies with Game-Balance Simulation Tools

is a modern method of motivational design. It aims to motivate people to perform Desired Actions in a specific context. The development of successful gamification strategies requires a consistent, systematic approach. This consists of context and user analysis, technology ideation, and mechanics design. Ultimately, in the practical application, the so-called testing, it must be examined what influence the gamification strategies actually have in order to make eventual adjustments before the implementation takes place in the target context. A prior, objective evaluation possibility does not exist and is therefore often limited to the empirical experience of gamification designers. The balancing of video games can be tested with digital simulation tools (e.g. machinations.io), which show the described relationships in flow charts. This research work shows that gamification strategies for products can be mapped and evaluated with the help of game balancing simulation tools to make better statements about the probability of success. Conclusions and requirements for the general simulation of gamification strategies with game balancing tools are drawn from an exemplary application. A structured process with instructions for the implementation of gamification strategies in game-balance simulation tools helps gamification developers in practical applications.

David Kessing, Manuel Löwer

Conference Proceedings

Towards a Democratisation of Innovation

Singapore is an innovation-intensive nation. In 2020 Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pledged to inject ‘up to S$150million’ in the country’s startup ecosystem (Channel News Asia). This paper discusses the distribution of public funds amongst startups in Singapore. It raises questions about the effectiveness of early-stage pre-seed funding and discusses medium and long-term impact of distributed funds on business performance. The paper defines startups as growth-oriented independent SMEs in pursuit Series A investments. It distinguishes between bootstrap initiatives and funding-intensive initiatives. The paper argues that there is currently a problematic emphasis on funding-intensive startups, and a potentially compromising neglect of bootstrap ventures who do typically not have equal access to smart funds, mentoring schemes and support frameworks. Equally importantly, bootstrap initiatives often escape the radar of government authorities, thus compromising the authorities’ capabilities of monitoring innovation performance across the entire spectrum.This paper uses a mixed-method approach. It draws on a series of exchanges with experts — entrepreneurs, incubator managers, investors, VC firms, as well as representatives of government funding bodies — and secondary research findings. The primary research data has been collected over a period of nine years. The preliminary hypothesis is that the support mechanisms in the context of contemporary startup ecosystems tend to be ill-directed and may compromise overall innovation performance. Various studies carried out in different parts of the world raise questions about the effectiveness of government funding for innovations that are pursued by startups and suggest that the distribution of public funds does often not benefit innovation performance generally: Following an investigation of public fund distribution in China, Hong et al. (2015) claim that ‘government grants negatively impact the overall innovation efficiency in the high-tech sector.’ Other studies (Liu and Rammer, 2016) point towards the possibility that government grants are often used as substitute for private innovation investment by established businesses who, in the absence of public funding, would be able to afford R&D financing internally, whilst early-stage startups that are in greater need of funding, often miss out on support due to requirements related to match funding or trading history. This means that early-stage startups are often disadvantaged, in particular bootstrap initiatives, whilst established SMEs and large businesses do not enhance their innovation performance through subsidies. It is also thought that there is a prioritisation of incremental innovations and a lack in funding for potentially disruptive innovations because the latter are at higher risk of economic failure. As a result, firms tend to prioritise incremental innovation, in conjunction with which it is easier to predict viability.This paper, which primarily focuses on the distribution processes used by Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and other public institutions in Singapore, raises questions about the effectiveness of public spending in relation to innovation. Bootstrap ventures that might benefit from smart-fund injections, are not captured by the Singapore authorities, and there is currently no reliable progress tracking to objectively monitor startup performance. Instead, various funding organisations including universities, VC firms, as well as the ESG, rely on each other’s recommendations in their decision-making. There is a likelihood that the selection process is subject to bias which may have compromising macro-economic implications in the long term.To summarise the above, the proposed paper raises questions about the tracking of government funded startups, and it explores the consequences of startup funding from an economic and a sociopolitical point of view. The paper discusses possibilities of reversing this trend by empowering independent startups through accessible support frameworks that operate autonomously and independent from profit-oriented incubators, VC firms and angel investment networks.Sample Sources:Hong, J. et al. (2015): Government Grants, Private R&D Funding and Innovation Efficiency in Transition Economy, Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: RoutledgeLiu, R., Rammer, C. (2016): The Contribution of Different Public Innovation Funding Programs to SMEs’ Export Performance, ZEW Discussion PapersSoetanto, D. P., van Geenhuizen, M. (2015): Getting the right balance: University networks’ influence on spin-offs’ attraction of funding for innovation, in: Technovation, Volumes 36–37, February–March 2015, Pages 26-38, Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Teece, D. (2009): Business Models, Business Strategy and Innovation, Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier

Matthias Hillner

Conference Proceedings

Emotion deep dive for designers: Seven propositions that operationalize emotions in design innovation

This paper presents a five-day intense course that teaches “emotion-driven design” (EDD) to graduate students with a broad variety of disciplinary backgrounds at the Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University. We introduce seven principles drawn from design-relevant emotion knowledge that informed the design of the course’s overall structure, and explain how they guided the development of learning activities and materials. We envision that this paper will interest design educators who aspire teaching how to operationalize emotions in creative design processes to students with little preexisting expertise in (or scientific knowledge about) emotion psychology.

Pieter Desmet, Haian Xue, Xin Xin, Wei Liu

Conference Proceedings

Barriers affecting incremental innovation in design-led SMEs in China's Greater Bay Area

In this study, we review and explore the critical barriers affecting design-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China. Eight in-depth interviews are conducted with key decision-makers in the innovation process, representing a range of SMEs. The results show that collectivism, hierarchy, and market factors are unique barriers to SMEs in the GBA. Collectivist culture is the fundamental and macro factor that hinders innovation. It results in employers possessing most of the decision-making power in firms, whereas employees at lower levels can only provide basic skills to accomplish tasks without the motivation to innovate. The middle-level leaders in these enterprises are essential for internal knowledge creation and smoothing the information flow between members, thereby stimulating innovation. Moreover, under collectivism and hierarchy, design has become a rigid process linked to achieving key performance indicators (KPIs) instead of acting as a creative endeavor for designers. Instead of motivating employees to work creatively, KPIs force them to achieve only minimal goals at work. In addition, collectivism leads to a more extreme design strategy in which employers and designers tend to imitate existing products on the market, rather than taking risks to develop novel products and services that generally require a large amount of time to generate any commercial value.

Xiuxiu Wu, Kin Wai Michael Siu, Joern Buehring

Conference Proceedings

Democratic Management Succession in Balkan Family Businesses: Appointment of Family and nonfamily Members in Leadership Roles

Family businesses are considered to be the backbone of the free-enterprise system in the Balkans. They account for the overwhelming majority of small and medium-sized enterprises and contribute significantly to the economic welfare of the region. However, the lack of succession planning, among other factors, has put the future prospects of local family businesses at risk. Accordingly, family-owned enterprises that do not have a succession plan in place could not only endanger the ongoing prosperity of their future generations but also the company’s very existence. Given that the nomination of family and nonfamily members to top senior positions may set personal interests against corporate ones, this may lead to serious problems in the firm’s strategic direction when the two are not compatible. Consequently, potential successors should be assessed across different domains to determine who is the best fit for a leadership role. Accordingly, this paper introduces the Democratic Employee Connect Model (DECM), a step-gated framework which can provide a potential solution for family businesses when planning for management succession. It is composed of six steps, which will guide family-owned enterprises during this crucial process. The six steps of the model are aligned with the six levels of the Company democracy Model to democratically identify the most suitable candidate in this succession process which is often driven by personal and family interests. Two essential components of the DECM are its scoring system and change management model applied in a democratic context. The former would help family-owned enterprises decide whether a family or nonfamily member should be the next leader of the company, whereas the latter would increase the organisational commitment and level of cohesion between family and nonfamily members. Although this framework is specific only for the Balkan region, it may also be applicable in other regions and economies of similar size with some minor adjustments. The research conducted is based on secondary data that integrates selected elements from the main family business theories in the proposed model such as the family business system theory, agency and stewardship theories, social exchange and social identity theories, and others. In addition, primary research has been collected from survey responses of 63 family businesses, interviews with five industry experts and observations of two family-owned enterprises to better understand the factors that Balkan family businesses take into account for the appointment of family and nonfamily successors.In this context, the primary and secondary research findings suggested that relational and contextual factors are more important than individual factors for the nomination of a nonfamily successor in these organisations and the opposite is true for a family successor. This provides evidence that most family-owned enterprises in the region have a strong desire to appoint family members in leadership roles as opposed to nonfamily members, whose contributions are presumably secondary to the founding family. These insights are incorporated in the Democratic Employee Connect Model (DECM) for a more accurate representation of family businesses in the region. The paper also presents research limitations that can be considered for future research.

Evangelos Markopoulos, Denis Ukperaj, Hannu Vanharanta

Conference Proceedings

Understanding Situationality using the Kepner-Tregoe Method in the Company Democracy Model to increase Employee Engagement and Knowledge Contribution

Driving sustainable and successful change towards achieving democratic organizational culture a company has to evolve through the 6 levels of the Company Democracy Model which needs to be supported by two foundational and prerequisite enablers. The first one is the critical thinking skills to build an alignment on a meta-level / logic-level / thinking level for effective and efficient communication and actions. Effective actions and communication require clear thinking which requires thinking processes. The second one is the Change Management tools and skills to drive the change. However the integration and activation of these two enablers seem to be the challenge on the first level in the company democracy model who seeks critical thinking to become change agents. This paper integrates the concepts of critical thinking and change making with the introduction of the problem solving Kepner-Tregoe (KT) Method in the Company Democracy Model. Critical Thinking is approached as the applied thinking processes to gather, organize, analyse, confirm, and communicate information in order to solve concerns and issues in an effective, unbiased and self-reflected mode that first seeks to understand and then to act. Therefore, it is the prerequisite for effective and efficient actions. This necessary exchange of information can more targeted and effortless if achieved through a democratic organizational culture which equips each member in an organization with the same logic/thinking, to reveal their intellectual capital by focusing on how to think, not what to think. Effectively thinking requires understanding the concern and the situation that creates a need to act. The concept of situationality, as introduced in the Company Democracy Model (CDM) is further supported in this paper with the KT problem solving methods to identify the core nature of a specific situational concern that enables or disables people’s thinking. The paper defines and analyses the situational concerns which can be categorized in five areas such as understanding a situation, deviation cause, alternatives selection, risk reduction and change enhancement.The identification of the situationality helps finding a thinking approach which leads to an idea that is transformed into an innovative process, product or services. This can be considered a fundamental approach for effective and efficient actions within democratic organizational cultures. Furthermore change management lies in the capability to assess a situation in which people interact, understand the mechanics of the system that forms individual or groups behaviour, and develop activities to manage these mechanics that change human behaviour. Therefore, the challenge of the first level of the company democracy model which is understanding human behaviour is based on the effectiveness of critical thinking capabilities in a systematic human performance model. The elements of the performance environment influence the performance of any person. These elements operate as a system, influencing performance as it happens. The paper presents the five performance system core elements which deal with the environment infrastructures (processes, workflows, expectation and priority setting) the capabilities and willingness of the performer, the demonstrated or desired response/ behaviour, the consequences which follow the behaviour and the performance feedback given to the performer. The paper uses the Aristotelian golden mean to effectively balance this employee performance, and identity imbalances that feed the development of corrective actions and impact behavioural change.

Evangelos Markopoulos, Jens Refflinghaus, Marven Roell, Hannu Vanharanta

Conference Proceedings

Metaverstic Innovation Management: The World Innovation Stock Exchange Democratic Incubator

Since the first ideation of the World Innovation Stock Exchange in 2015, the business landscape has drastically changed. The world witnessed the introduction the Metaverse as the pioneer of cyber-parallel worlds. Societies endured a global pandemic and the subsequent socio-economic crises of unprecedented force. All happened under an ambient banalization of individual entrepreneurship as a shaping capacity with increasing impact power on the Collective (physical, cultural, and digital society). Under the phenomena of globalization and financialization, the contribution to knowledge and innovation is becoming more and more organic, since citizens themselves endorse an entrepreneurial proactiveness in tackling challenges of varied scale. The contemporary global technologic and social disruptions are changing the game of innovation management. Emerging and existing technologies of the Industrialisation 4.0 not only provide a platform to the digital world, but also augment it, thereby augmenting the impact a sole individual, a simple organization, or a remote business can have in innovating globally. Moreover, global crises have accelerated both the already occurring evolution of work-places & work-practices, and the capacity stakeholders have in endorsing collectively and holacratically projects to solve commonly faced challenges. More than ever before, the digital world enables to collaboratively develop, control and monetise one another’s Innovation. The diversity in stakeholder’s collaboration is a consequence of these structural changes. Indeed, it is no longer surprising that eminent businessmen now collaborate individually with start-up incubators, celebrities partner with social enterprises, and eminent scholars pair up with MNCs to come up with developmental programs. Above the previously mentioned technological, social, and economic disruptions, a superseding revolution has occurred. One that is structurally reshaping individual and social relationships to knowledge and knowledge management: the democratisation of intellectual capital. Nowadays, anyone connected to the web can collaborate and expose its ideas formally or informally on a variety of social media and professional platforms. The number of innovators with unique profiles, in age, geographic location, and social status has sprung. The power of metaverstic-like processes in knowledge management relies on its democratic nature, inclusively welcoming a diversity of profiles and ideas. How to take sporadic ideas and contributions internationally, expressed on a web platform, and instantaneously match them, ideally structure them, and coordinate their protagonists’ actions to pursue them? How to facilitate and incentivise the evolution idea-innovation? How to optimally take ideas on a page to a lifechanging service? Since innovation management is becoming gamified, the is an evident need to develop Metaverstic project management tools that encompasses not only AI-facilitated holacratic teaming, but also blockchained project management in all its phases (from ideation to market launch), while taking into account the critical component of innovation monetisation. In 2015, the World Innovation Stock Exchange already set the bases of such Metaverstic platform of innovation management: this Exchange structures the meeting of the minds, just as any financial stock exchange does, while following the Shared Values principles. To extend on the premises of this novel Exchange, this paper describes in detail how a component of the W.ISE will have to be developed, namely the World Innovation Stock Exchange Democratic Incubator (WISE-DI). It describes how it operates conceptually and to which extent it answers structural guidelines to practically develop this W.ISE. It addresses the critical notion of Innovation tokenization with the MarkPoints cryptocurrency, the securitization of project management via the W.ISE blockchain, and the monetization of the launched-to-market innovations in the real economy*. The ultimate benefit of the W.ISE-DI platform relies on both its smart structuring capacity and user-friendly/ interactive interface, which enable to manage intellectual contribution ownership and incentivise R&D collective financing.

Evangelos Markopoulos, Ines Selma Kirane, Hannu Vanharanta

Conference Proceedings

An ESG aligned Global Gender Equity Model for creating equitable corporate and government organisations

Living in the 21st century does not necessarily mean that men and women are treated fairly and respectfully regarding their respective needs and thus in a gender equitable way. On the one hand, women still do three times the amount of unpaid care work, earn 18% less for the same work, make up the minority of C-Suite Level leaders with only 22% compared to 78% of men (which has become even worse due to the Covid-19 Pandemic) and have to deal with issues such as the glass ceiling or glass cliff which prevent their careers from flourishing, to name a few issues. On the other hand, studies by experts conducted in the field of gender equity have shown that women were rated as more effective leaders during and before a crisis, that female participation in the workforce could add between 12-18 trillion dollars to global GDP and increase profits of companies whilst reducing turnover rates and improving productivity as well as employee satisfaction, therefore potentially benefitting society as a whole. To understand why the world has not become gender equitable yet despite the many benefits it would provide, the research conducted in this paper includes academic primary and secondary research, an international literature review, 13 individual interviews with top level managers and/or diversity, equity and inclusion experts (DEI) as well as a global survey with 66 respondents. The results led to the conclusion that there is a need for a shift away from the patriarchal system towards a gender equitable society, which can be achieved with the help of the Global Gender Equity Model (GGEM). The GGEM is a new conceptual model for understanding and describing the implementation of the factors that create gender equitable nations. It is based on four socioeconomic pillars (People, Economy, Education, Governance) aligned with ESG (Environment, Social Governance) criteria adopted by private and public organizations. The four pillars of the GGEM model blend the traditional corporate and government systems of global nations with the current need for individual and collective accountability, collaboration as well as transparency and free flow of information. These pillars were found to be associated with equitable environments and can be seen as both interdependent and positively reinforcing of each other. This means the relative strength of any one pillar has the potential to either positively or negatively influence national gender equity. The GGEM uses the principles behind these pillars to develop and deliver an assessment tool and guidelines that are holistic in their approach to help transform nations from their current inequitable state. The model has been developed to benefit any organization by enacting some or all of these principles no matter their location or the path selected to achieving true gender equity. The integration of the GGEM model with the ESG index has been designed to incentivise the adaptation of the model towards achieving faster and higher organizational ESG scoring. The paper also presents the limitations of the model at its current stage and areas of further research which can support it with technologies and processes that can give adaptation efficiency and implementation consistency.

Evangelos Markopoulos, Marlena Schmitz, Baiba Ziga

Conference Proceedings

Exploring the Underlying Entrepreneurial Competencies Essential for the Competitive Advantage of Indigenous Contractors in the Global South: A Ghana study

This study identifies the underlying entrepreneurial competencies (ECs) essential for indigenous contractors’ competitive advantage in the construction industry in the Global South using Ghana as a case study. Structured questionnaire aided collection of research data from 667 indigenous building and civil engineering practitioners in the Ghanaian construction industry (GCI). Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) reduced the underlying ECs into four underlying components namely: strategic competencies, self-trait competencies, acquired competencies, and market intelligence competencies. Market intelligence competencies was unique to this Ghana study. This study provides the main and sub-ECs useful in explaining and assessing ECs of indigenous contractors in the Ghanaian construction industry. It informs policymaking, and capacity building of indigenous contractors in Ghana and countries in the Global South whose construction industry shares characteristics with Ghana.

Matthew Kwaw Somiah, Clinton Aigbavboa, Wellington Didibhuku Thwala

Conference Proceedings

Creating New Blockchain Business Ideas using Morphological Analysis: A Case Study

This study suggests a methodology for creating blockchain business ideas using a morphological analysis method. A total of 521 blockchain businesses and Dapps were surveyed and analyzed to derive 6 representative business fields. In addition, the role that blockchain plays in the business and the customer problems that blockchain solves in the business were analyzed to derive customers’ generalized needs. A methodology for creating blockchain business ideas was developed by combining “fields” and “needs” through morphological analysis. A case study was conducted to make a new business model using the developed methodology.

Junseong Park, Sung H. Han, Young In Koh

Conference Proceedings

Broadband development and firm creation: Dif-in-dif estimates for Germany

Although some of the outcomes of the digital transformation are reflected in the scientific literature, the connection between high-speed internet transmission rates and firm entries is still poorly studied. While some positive impact of basic broadband availability in Germany was found in our previous studies, in this paper we decided to examine the effects of better broadband coverage between 2014 and 2019 (second implementation phase of EU Digital Agenda) by applying dif-in-dif method. Except for ICT firms in district areas and a whole sample of firms in production sector, our dif-in-dif estimates seem to be statistically insignificant. That supports a view that just a certain speed of internet is necessary for the entrepreneurial milieu, while higher transmission rates are beneficial only in some particular cases.

Kirill Sarachuk, Magdalena Missler

Conference Proceedings

The Scandinavian Democratic Governmental Support Model for Start-Ups and Innovations (SDeGMSI)

Regional and national development has always been impacted with the synchronisation of the public and the private sector. The growth of privately owned enterprises contributes significantly to the national economy, employment and prosperity, but also to the national pride, brand name and reputation for further investments to be made in a country. Therefore the support of the public sector to the development of the private sector is mandatory for the public sector to keep its private sector and avoid a catastrophic brain drain. Scandinavia is one of the regions with remarkable achievements in innovation, science, technology and economy compared to its size, as league of nations and population with other countries or regions. This paper attempts to identify the main elements of the unique Scandinavian government business policy formula for innovation startup success, particularly in Sweden and Finland, which has been key in creating a region with an incredibly high density of “unicorns” (BN$ companies per capita), second to Silicon Valley.The paper has used a research methodology which is based on primary research taking the form of interviews and surveys, along with secondary research based on existing academic literature.The research conducted in this paper identifis and analyses tax structures, government favors, human resource bases, public private partnerships, social safety nets, venture capital and investment infrastructures, R&D investments, and business support systems available to entrepreneurs of the Scandinavian countries. Having identified such key elements, the paper propose a more globally applicable public sector model for the support and encouragement of startups, and business innovation. The model named Scandinavian Democratic Governmental Support Model for Start-Ups and Innovations (SDeGMSI) is based on the practices of Scandinavian governments, while also accounting factors such as cultural values, performance of local economies, and demographic characteristics. The democratic concept in the development of this model is supported by the Company Democracy Model, another Scandinavian innovation management model, and is critical for the fair and unbiased support of the government to all the organizations and startups that can demonstrate significant and valuable intellectual capital for the economy and the society. SDeGSISM is characterized by its triple-pyramid for public support of startups and Innovation and can be used to help develop more internationally competitive economies through the establishment of a series of publicly enforced innovation supports and changes to the business environment. The three interrelated pyramids of the model represent the levels of support provided by the government to start-ups (reversed pyramid 1), the types of organisations across which said support is distributed (pyramid 2), and the impact that support, once applied to start-ups, should have on an economic level (reversed pyramid 3). The pyramids, organised by volume of support provided, disruptive potential of businesses, and scale of impact, respectively, provide an indication and an assessment on how governments are aligned with the Nordic model for entrepreneurial support.Furthermore, structures, practices and metrics available in the model support the creation of more dynamic economies which favor market development and disruption over the continued market dominance of incumbents. The “market-favoring” economies which this model seeks to both encourage and foster are more conducive to economic dynamism and create greater opportunities for investors, as cycles of market disruption increases the potential for widespread returns.The paper indicates limitations on the proposed model and identifies areas of further research for future development and applications.

Evangelos Markopoulos, Hugo Rourke, Hannu Vanharanta

Conference Proceedings

A strategic partner selection decision-making support methodology in the business modelling phase for startups in the pre-incubation phase

Partner choice is an important element for any business throughout its lifecycle. It is even more strategic in early startup stages, when the business model is set in the pre-incubation phase.Entrepreneurs are confronted to take decisions on which partners to choose. Those strategic decisions on which partners to commit with, and defining their roles, can be made more or less formally, with the risk of relying on “gut feelings” when there is complex data to be taken in consideration and when there is pressure, constraints, limited resources and no proper methodology for the entrepreneur to base its decision on.Confronted to such a situation, it is interesting to consider building a decision-making support methodology for strategic partner choice for in the business modelling phase of a startup pre-incubation phase. This can offer support to the entrepreneur and make its leadership anchored in more formal approach to decision-making.This research presents a methodological framework that can support early startups, while still in the pre-incubation phase, to select the most suitable strategic business partner(s) and develop, based on that, their business operations, management, development and commercialization models. The methodology offers an initial approach which allows an entrepreneur to make more formal investigation and be assisted in the decision-making process on choosing the partners and defining their roles and contribution in the strategy of the start-up. Specifically, the methodology intends to provide support on selecting the most relevant and feasible data types that need to be collected for the effective partner evaluation and selection. Furthermore, it provides a data collection mechanism and algorithm, a partner evaluation procedure, support on identifying the strategic intend or need from a specific partner, the analysis of the potential partner based on the partnership needs, a scoring tableau based on several parameters per partner selection criteria and finally the calculation of the potential partner’s score. The research conducted evaluated twenty-one potential partners for a VR training startup that intends to operate in the following months and it is currently at the partnerships establishment phase. The partners that have been analyzed derive from eight, related to the start-up, professional sectors, from five countries, and with more than fifty unique activities that cover the fourteen key parameters of the partner evaluation methodology. The paper presents the overall methodological approach in stages and the procedure (steps) of each stage. It indicates the goal setting approach, the evaluation of the partner’s activities, the partner’s evaluation scorecard, the computation of the scoring process and the visualization of the scoring results in tables and charts that create a partner’s evaluation dashboard for effective partners comparison in total or in specific partnership requirements as set in the partnerships strategy and objectives. It must be noted that the proposed methodology is not an optimal tool but more of a heuristic exploratory tool. Further research has been scheduled to be extend the testing of the methodology with more cases, to increase the number of partner evaluation parameters and to link several of the related parameter metrics with sources than can provide more subjective values.

Evangelos Markopoulos, Emmanuel Querrec, Mika Luimula

Conference Proceedings