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Enabling Infrastructures for Technology Transfer| Lead Investigator : Prof Dennis Kehoe | Project Investigator: Dr Roula Michaelides | Timescales: September 2006 – December 2008 | Project Outline: The purpose of this research has been to look at the information infrastructures that are evident in collaborative networks and to propose and compose a clear theoretical model of ‘Development of Collaborative Information Systems’ that holistically integrates traditional ISDMs with the open innovation characteristics and with the Communities of Practice theory on user behaviours. This would enable practitioners to better understand how to design, deploy and manage Collaborative Information Systems. Case examples here include the IPGC research community itself, and a development of an innovation collaborative network across 11 European regions. The European Innovation network called i-techpartner, aims to facilitate technology scouting and the development of collaborations of SMEs and Entrepreneurs with research leaders through out the participating regions: Flanders (Belgium), Sweden, France, Spain, North Portugal, Central Portugal, Cyprus, Hungary, Greece, Northwest (UK), Italy. Details of this network could be found at: www.i-techpartner.eu. One consequence of this new case study that has 1200 members has been that the numbers of firms/research organisations and individual researchers involved will now permit a degree of survey-based quantitative research to complement the largely qualitative case –based activity. In outline the i-techpartner process involves: - recruiting SMEs and research leaders in each of the 11 European countries - facilitation of collaborations through regional events, called academies, where research projects in need of partnership are presented. - One-to-one communication platform is available during these events to further discuss interesting partnerships further facilitation of collaborations across specialist sectors such as ICT, biotechnologies etc where all European members are invited. - The specialist event called a forum facilitates experience sharing and identification of learning opportunities as well as investment opportunities | Proposed Methods: Exploratory interviews; Follow on interviews; Pilot questionnaire; Framework development; Framework testing | Key Messages from Our Research so far… Collaborative internet technologies Web 2.0 are a highly topical subject area, with international analyst group Gartner highlighting the particular significance of technologies that enable the development of collaboration, next-generation architecture, and real-world Web. Internet connectivity coupled with the development of new information standards have enabled an open and almost cost-free exchange of information between users/actors in any market. In one of these manifestations, information networks allow a large number of users to systematically share ideas and create distributed learning systems. Information infrastructures go beyond providing interconnected hardware and software to supporting business models and enacting paths of behaviours in organisations and communities. In the last few years, in addition to the surge in online communities, both for industrial and social purposes, the open innovation paradigm has been a modern management approach adopted by many large international organisations. As a consequence successful organizations seek to connect more rapidly and effectively with others in the creation of new knowledge. The significance of inter-organisational and social networks for innovation processes is rooted in the nature of knowledge creation. Thus developing a ‘cyber-infrastructure’ to facilitate the knowledge flow within an organisation but also across-organisational boundaries is key to successful global and regional collaborations. | Future Plans Main project: Further data collection and analysis leading to the theoretical model validation. Development of a questionnaire for the second case study Collaborative project with Loughborough University: Ongoing investigation: pilot instrument; refinements through action research; roll out to other case studies | Member Profile Professor Dennis Kehoe [dfkehoe@liverpool.ac.uk] is Royal Academy of Engineering Research Professor of e-Business and Director of the e-Business Research Centre (e-BRC) at the University of Liverpool. Professor Kehoe has led a number of research programmes examining the role of manufacturing information systems in improving business performance. Dr Roula Michaelides [roulam@liverpool.ac.uk] PhD in Management from Liverpool University, an MSc in Computer Science (also Birmingham University), an MSc in Medical Physics (Surrey University) and a first degree in Physics. Roula’s current work involves looking at Internet tools and technologies with a particular focus on evolving traditional Information Systems Development methodologies (ISDMs) to providing Collaborative Information Systems Development Methodologies (CISDM) that are aligned with the modern open innovation paradigm. Her research interests span Internet technologies, Web 2.0 and social networks, innovation and the impact of virtual infrastructures to collaborative teams, such as software developers. | Links to other researchers Liverpool University Dr Sharifi: Investigating University Technology Transfer operations Dr S Morton, Loughborough University collaborative research project:– Investigating the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on Continuous Innovation Networks | News and upcoming events - i-techpartner, Forum on Software: Porto, Portugal, 6 December 2007 - i-Techpartner, Forum on e-services: Liverpool, UK, February 2008 | Outputs: Conference Contributions – Refereed Michaelides, R and D. Kehoe (2007), ‘Internet Communities and Open innovation: an Information System Design methodology’, In 6th IEEE International Conference on Computer and Information Science (ICIS) 2007IEEE-CS, Melbourne, Australia, 11-13 July 2007. Tickle, M. and Michaelides, R (2007), “ The Challenge of Creating Virtual Communities”, Information Resources Management Association (IRMA) Conference May 19-23, 2007 Morton, S.C. and R. Michaelides (2007). “Evaluating the Impact of Web 2.0 Technologies on Continuous Innovation Networks”. 8th International CINet Conference: Continuous Innovation – Opportunities and Challenges, September 7-11, Gothenburg, Sweden. Michaelides, R. and Kehoe, D. (2006), “ Information Infrastructures in virtual communities: a case study of a research community”, presented at a special session in EUROMA Conference, 2006 Michaelides, R. (2006), ‘IPGC-Enabling technologies and Infrastructures’, presented at the AURIL (Association for University Research and Industry Links) Conference, 29 September 2006, Liverpool, UK
| Working/Work in Progress Papers Michaelides, R. and Morton, S. C. (submission 2007/2008), Collaborative Technologies and Continuous Innovation Networks in Product Development, target publication: International Journal of Production Research Morton, S. C. and Michaelides, R. (submission 2008), Technological and Psychological Barriers and Enablers to Innovation, target publication: Technovation (International Journal of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology Management) Michaelides, R. and Kehoe, D (submission 2008): ‘A European innovation network adopts Web 2.0 as an operational collaboration enabler’, target publication: IJOPM ( International Journal of Operations and Production Management)
Book Chapter Michaelides, R and Kehoe, D. (2008), Enabling Information Infrastructures and Technologies, in Creating Wealth from Knowledge: Meeting the innovation challenge, J. Bessant & T. Venables (eds.), Edward Elgar, Cheltenham |
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