Browsing by Subject "Innovation"

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Annual Report, Health Sciences Libraries, 2015/2016
(2016) Health Sciences Libraries
The Health Sciences Libraries (Bio-Medical Library, Wangensteen Historical Library, Veterinary Medical Library) annual report for 2015/2016 describes how we support the Academic Health Center (AHC) by providing knowledge through our vast collections, inspire advancements in health with our services, contribute to excellence in education and support customized information solutions for students, faculty, and staff.
Assessing the woody biomass supply chain in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions: Investigating policy as drivers of change
(2015-08) Kudrna, Jordan
With the ever-increasing need for clean and accessible energy sources, woody biomass has long been entertained as a potential prospect. As energy markets and business operations are influenced by political decisions, it is essential to know the relationship between policy impacts on business innovation and investment decisions. This study looks at significant changes woody biomass business owners have implemented over the course of their operations, and how state and federal policies have affected those changes. A survey of 175 woody biomass business owners in the upper Midwest Lake States and Pacific Northwest was conducted in 2014 to gain insight into the bioenergy investment decisions of logging and transport businesses, utility companies, pellet and densified fuel producers, and institutional heat users. Failing to understand policy influence on business innovation risks investment in ineffective strategies and business uncertainty. The results of this study will help arm policy makers and energy professionals with knowledge about how current renewable energy policies are influencing business investment decisions along the wood-energy supply chain in hopes of more effective policy planning and implementation.
Becoming aware of and learning how to navigate the SBIR program: the entrepreneurs‘ perspectives.
(2011-04) Sarvela, Pamela M.
Little is known about how much technological innovation is lost in the United States because technology entrepreneurs do not have the financial capability for the research and development necessary to bring an idea to a commercial level. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is part of a national innovation system developed to support research and development efforts for technological innovation by small business. The program is national in purpose, but regionally distributed. The old adage of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer seems to hold true with 56% of SBIR awards going to the same handful of states since the genesis of the program. This study explored the phenomenon of how entrepreneurs in Minnesota learned to navigate the SBIR program by interviewing six entrepreneurs who had experienced various levels of success. Intellectual capital—human, social, organization learning—served as the thread woven through all aspects of the participants learning how to navigate the SBIR program. As the stories unfolded, the participants description of learning by ―doing it‖ revealed the complexity of the interrelationships; and an adaptable and flexible learning style which Kolb (1984) refers to as learning in a holistic way.
Critical Factors in the Willingness to Adopt Innovative Wood-based Building Materials in the Construction Industry: The Case of CLT
(2017-10) Laguarda Mallo, Maria
Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), has increased the possibilities of building with wood. CLT consists of multi-layer panels, manufactured with lumber boards that are glued together, alternating the direction of their fibers for each layer. The successful introduction of CLT into the Canadian market indicates that there is potential for further market penetration in North America, and more specifically the United States. To increase the understanding of the market potential for CLT in the U.S., this dissertation aimed at identifying the critical factors influencing the willingness of U.S. construction professionals to adopt innovative wood-based construction materials, such as CLT. The overall objective was achieved by: (a) investigating the level of awareness, perceptions, and willingness to adopt CLT among structural engineers and construction firms; (b) developing a conceptual model including the most critical factors that influence the adoption of innovate wood-based construction materials among structural engineers and construction firms; and (c) identifying distinct market segments for CLT adoption in the U.S. The outcomes from this research help fill the gap in the knowledge about the market adoption process for innovative wood-based materials in the construction industry. This study also contributes to advance the development of the CLT industry in the U.S. by increasing the demand of wood-based construction materials and supporting the creation of employment in a sector of critical importance to the U.S. economy. Findings from this thesis provide useful information that will help these actors accelerate the adoption of CLT through well-designed educational programs, demonstration projects, marketing strategies, and policy incentives.
Determinants and Consequence of the Alliance Partner Network Distance
(2015-06) Kang, Ribuga
This dissertation consists of two essays on the determinants and innovation consequences of alliance partner choice. To narrow down the scope of alliance partner choices, I focus on how a focal firm and a partner firm are connected in their network. To understand the relational connection, I use the notion of alliance partner network distance, which refers to how far away the partner is from the focal firm in the network. Methodologically, the notion of alliance partner network distance is captured by the shortest alternative path to the partner firm from the focal firm in the time period prior to alliance formation. Theoretically, network distance explains the social mechanism and the characteristics of information flowing between the two firms. If there is a mutual partner between the two firms (i.e., a close partner), the relational risk is reduced (Coleman, 1988), and the novelty of information coming from an unconnected partner (i.e., a distant partner) is higher than that from a connected partner (Burt, 1992). This dissertation examines the effects of corporate governance on network distance as a determinant of alliance partner network distance in the first essay and the innovation consequences of alliance partner network distance in the second essay. Drawing on multiple managerial perspectives and an innovation perspective, taken together, the essays in this dissertation provide a comprehensive understanding of alliance partner choices. In the first essay, entitled "Determinants of Alliance Partner Choice: Alliance Partner Network Distance and Agency Theory," I argue that an agency problem is involved in alliance partner choice, in particular between distant partners and close partners, as a determinant of alliance partner selection. I ask if managerial opportunism may be a significant problem in the alliance partner choice and examine the role of corporate governance mechanisms designed to address agency problems in explaining alliance partner network distance. I propose that the increased relational risk of allying with distant partners may be mitigated by managerial incentives and monitoring by outsider directors. Using a sample of 310 alliances of U.S. firms from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries from 1996 to 2010, I find support for the presence and mitigation of agency hazards in alliance partner choice. Firms tend to form alliances with close partners to avoid employment and other risks, which are mitigated by managerial ownership and outside director ownership. In addition, managerial tenure moderates the relationship between network distance and managerial incentives, and the relationship between network distance and board monitoring. This study makes a theoretical contribution to the body of literature on alliance partner choice by adding a new lens of agency hazards. The second essay, entitled "How Does an Alliance Partner Network Distance Affect a Firm's Innovation?"� investigates how an alliance partner's network distance affects a firm's innovation. I propose that an alliance with a distant partner contributes to exploratory innovation and better-quality innovation with novel and non-redundant information from the distant partner, while an alliance with a close partner contributes to innovation quantity based on social capital with the close partner. Technological distance substitutes network distance for innovation quality. I test the effect of alliance partner network distance on innovation with 534 R&D alliances of 189 firms in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in the U.S. between 1996 and 2009. This study makes theoretical contributions to the literature on innovation by addressing the conflicting theories about the benefits of social capital and the benefits of novel information.
Engaging Teachers in Innovation: A Bottom Up Perspective from Two Districts
(2018-12) Schuttinger, Kevin
Public schools in the 21st century face many challenges, from recruiting and retaining high-quality staff in an era high teacher attrition, meeting the needs of students in a rapidly changing world, and adapting to ever changing demands from local, state and federal stakeholders. School are challenged to be more nimble and innovative, but they are often saddled with organizational structures which hinder innovation. This study explores the experiences of teachers in two school districts working to change this paradigm. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze teachers’ experiences in a participatory innovation process, and to explore whether and how this participation affected teachers’ perceptions of themselves personally and professionally. This study employed grounded theory methods and aimed to illuminate the effects such processes may have had on teachers and schools. The primary findings of this study are that participatory innovation processes, when employed in public school districts, can promote teacher empowerment, foster connections between staff and administration, and contribute to increased organizational and professional commitment among teachers who participate.
Essays on the Politics of Innovation
(2023) Park, Michael
The innovation literature has noted that political factors are an important class of determinants for firms’ new technologies (Teece, 1986; Tushman and Rosenkopf, 1992; Ahuja et al., 2013). Accordingly, recent studies have documented the impact of different policies on innovation outcomes (e.g., Arora et al., 2021; Marx et al., 2009; Balsmeier et al., 2017). The works from this stream of literature have mostly studied changes in the regulatory environment which are understood to be exogenous and discontinuous. However, the literature’s focus on this specific type of policy change may be overlooking other political dynamics also important for new technologies. In particular, prior literature suggests that some regulations have a tendency to evolve at a more continuous pace (Hargadon and Douglas, 2001; Weber et al., 2008; Sine and Lee, 2009; Navis and Glynn, 2010), and that firms’ political landscapes can develop endogenously at times (Hillman and Hitt, 1999; Dorobantu et al., 2017; Funk and Hirschman, 2017). Therefore, in this dissertation, I explore how changes in the regulatory environment that are more incremental but commonly-observed can impact the innovation output of firms, and how firms’ attempts to directly shape regulations influence new technologies.
From Mass To Motion: The Temporal Dynamics Of Industry Clusters
(2020-05) Kim, Min Jung
This dissertation zooms in an underexplored phenomenon that I refer to as the temporal dynamics of industry clusters: concentration levels of industry activity in a region change over time and patterns of growth do not necessarily follow life cycle stages or larger industry- or region-wide trends. Despite extensive work on cluster size (or “mass”), there has been little attention paid to their temporal dynamics (or “motion”). I propose that understanding cluster dynamics is important, because clusters are seldom stable, and cluster dynamics may have strategic implications not accounted for in existing approaches. In the first essay of my dissertation (Chapter 2), I build a framework for characterizing cluster temporal dynamics, develop a novel empirical technique that characterizes the dynamics, and document the prevalence of the phenomenon. The second essay (Chapter 3) builds on the first chapter framework and examines how cluster dynamics influence the nature of technology creation. I find evidence that innovation by firms in clusters experiencing greater sustained growth is likely to be more disruptive relative to innovation by firms in clusters of comparable size that are experiencing stable or declining periods. I also find that cluster dynamics influence innovation, at least in part, because of cross-cluster employee mobility, which has rarely been discussed as a key mechanism by which clusters influence firm innovation. In the third essay (Chapter 4), I conduct a qualitative study on cluster temporal dynamics based on interviews and historical case studies, unpacking the phenomenon of the temporal dynamics of the medical device industry in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region.
Hey, maybe you can help me with this: chance encounters, geographic proximity, and innovative collaboration
(2021-06) Pennington, Keith
We know that proximity can influence collaborations, but it is unclear how proximity affects collaborator choice. Collaborator choice is important because it determines what knowledge is recombined, shaping the very nature of an innovation. In my dissertation, I consider both the context and mechanisms of proximity to explore the effect of proximity on collaborator choice. My first essay explores the context of proximity between knowledge workers’ residences, a setting that excludes some potential proximity mechanisms and modestly generalizes to between-firm spillovers. I show residential proximity predicts collaboration, as prior literature shows within a workplace. Notably, I show that only same-gender pairs seem influenced by residential proximity. This finding is potentially counterintuitive because, here, proximity leads to less diverse collaborator choices. I suggest homophily prohibits between-gender interactions outside an office from being substantive enough to increase awareness and influence collaborator choice. In the rest of my dissertation, I focus on the proximity mechanism of chance encounters as theoretically distinct from proximity. I predict and show that chance encounters should generally increase the variance of collaborator choice and diversity of knowledge in innovation. I also show that chance encounters do not seem to increase productivity. Instead, when chance encounters are less available, people turn to their prior contacts, limiting recombination potential. To empirically invoke variance in chance encounters instead of proximity, I develop and validate a measure using the flu to proxy for fewer chance encounters, borrowing from epidemiology findings that show when people fear a disease, they can engage in social avoidance behavior with proximate people.
Improving Organizational Innovation Capability Through Effective Hiring and Retention—A literature Review Based Research
(2019-12) Siffring, Caleb
This thesis addresses critical problems that managers face when seeking to improve the innovative capability: hiring and retention of innovative individuals. Through literature review, a gap between the importance of effectively attracting, assessing, and retaining innovative employees and the lack of study in the field was identified. Through literature review, methods and models are discussed to help companies to attract, evaluate, and retain innovative individuals. Evaluation methods were reviewed to build a framework that helps management in the selection process of prospect employees with the goal of improving the organizational innovation capability. Existing evaluation methods were reviewed and combined into a framework that selects innovative individuals who can be placed within the right job and team, to improve company innovation capability. The mechanism to achieve innovative company image building was also explored with the goal of developing a candidate pool. A retention model was also discussed and suggested.
Innovation Adoption: Adopting change management techniques to positively impact new product diffusion
(2018-05) Kennedy, Christine
Several decades of innovation diffusion research has utilized varying lenses – from forecasting innovation diffusion to controllable variables such as cost, quality, and marketing. Yet with so much research into the affecting factors, innovation adoption continues to fail at an alarmingly high rate. One factor that could be influencing this failure rate is adopting an innovation requires a behavior change on the part of the consumer and the resistance to change may lead to the resistance to adopt an innovation. In this thesis, the effectiveness of applying change management techniques to promote innovation diffusion is investigated. It is shown that change management techniques used proactively in marketing can positively influence the overall diffusion of a working innovation. This unique research utilizes organizational change management techniques to promote diffusion and provides a pathway for doing so when dealing with diffusion in the market. Seven propositions were derived from combing consumer personality types and organizational change management. The propositions were challenged against successful and failed innovation adoption case studies for verification. Findings show that each of the seven propositions can positively influence innovation diffusion and as such, seven steps for innovation change management were identified as a pathway for managerial use.
Innovation by Design: An Analysis of a New Model at the University of Minnesota For Technology Commercialization
(Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, 2010-05-11) Arntzen, Graham
"Introduction"
Innovation Effects and Origins of Ego-Network Stability: The Hidden Dimension of Social Capital
(2018-04) Kumar, Pankaj
Much research has shown that firms’ ego-network configurations, i.e., structural holes or network closure, help them achieve superior innovation outcomes. However, little is known about how overall ego-network stability affects innovation. In this two-part dissertation, I first argue that in the alliance network context the stability is detrimental for the focal firm’s innovation performance. Moreover, firms are affected differentially by the stability depending on whether they span structural holes and on whether their inventive activities are geographically concentrated. Spanning structural holes mitigates the negative effect of ego-network stability whereas the geographic concentration of firms’ inventive activities further worsens the negative relationship. Next, I develop propositions about the origins of firms’ ego-network stability. I limit my theorizing in this case to structural hole stability or the stability of open structures only, with special focus on the embeddedness of alliance brokerage structures in geographic and network community space. I argue that the stability of network structures increases with the geographic distance between member firms. In contrast, I hypothesize that member firms’ location in different network communities has a negative effect on the stability of networks. I empirically test my propositions regarding the (ego-network) stability-performance relationship using 198 biopharmaceutical firms headquartered in the U.S. over a 21-year period from 1985 to 2005. My estimation sample for testing the origins of structural hole stability comprises of 329 broker and 680 alter firms over 1985-2005, yielding 61,495 triad-year observations in the global pharmaceutical industry context. I find support for my ideas. I contribute theoretically by highlighting the importance of network stability, a salient but lost dimension of social capital, for the focal firm’s performance. My work has practical implications in terms of network rewiring and maintenance.
Innovation In Craft: A Mixed Methods Study on Pre-Cut Fabrics' Impact on Quiltmaking
(2020-06) Pokorny, Colleen
The purpose of this mixed methods study was to develop an understanding of how the innovation of pre-cut fabrics impacted the Under 45 Quilter’s processes, quilt designs, and connections to the historical craft of quiltmaking. The effect of pre-cut fabrics on contemporary quiltmaking has been a neglected area of scholarly research. This research advanced the understanding of shifts in quiltmaking and the relationship between historical and contemporary practices of quiltmaking. A review of the literature discussed the impact of previous innovations on the evolution of quiltmaking. Background was provided on pre-cut fabrics, based on information from literature as well as interviews with industry professionals. Core values of quiltmaking were identified from the literature and categorized into three aspects specific to quiltmaking: processes, designs, and connections to the historical craft of quiltmaking. A mixed methods approach was used with multiple data sources, including interviews with 14 Under 45 Quilters, quilt photographs, five industry professional interviews, and participant observation. Data were analyzed through a grounded theory approach to find emergent themes on how pre-cut fabrics impacted quilters’ processes, designs, and connections to the historical craft. The themes identified were categorized under the three aspects of quiltmaking. Results showed that pre-cut fabrics were pivotal for the Under 45 Quilter’s sustained engagement in the craft of quiltmaking. Pre-cut fabrics redefined the traditional relationship with the fabric stash through purposeful buying and collectible eye candy. The Under 45 Quilter’s aesthetic preferences were affected by pre-cut fabrics, as seen through simpler quilt designs with a variety of fabrics. While the Under 45 Quilter found ways to be creative within the constraints of pre-cut fabrics, pre-cut fabrics were also limiting to design capabilities. The quilters’ selection of quilt designs and fabrics reflected the influence of pre-cut fabrics. Pre-cut fabrics contributed to a reworking of traditional patterns for contemporary techniques. Pre-cut fabrics also influenced how the Under 45 Quilter adopted quiltmaking. The interrelationships among the resulting themes of this study showed the scope of the effect pre-cut fabrics had on the Under 45 Quilter and quiltmaking. There was a shift towards efficient, quick completion, which caused changes to the aesthetics of quilt designs. Historical connections to traditional quilt designs potentially were being lost. For the Under 45 Quilter to maintain a historical connection to quilting, traditional designs needed to be presented in pre-cut fabric friendly techniques and modern colors. The findings of this study contributed to theory development on the relationship between innovations and quiltmaking. The study illustrated how pre-cut fabrics fit into the values and lifestyle of the Under 45 Quilter, and therefore impacted their quilt designs and connections to the historical craft of quiltmaking. The Under 45 Quilter was looking for solutions that accommodated their lives and allowed them to enjoy a creative and meaningful craft. Using pre-cuts, the Under 45 Quilter could quickly finish quilts, which helped sustain their engagement in the craft of quiltmaking.
Innovative Autonomy. Transformed Subjectivities In Austrian Short Fiction And Radio Plays
(2024-05) Treber, Bjorn
This thesis focuses on modern short fiction that demonstrates a linguistic and narrative “governance of subjectivities”, i.e. that problematizes individual autonomy on a diegetic level. By showing the interconnections between historical and subjective crises in the plot, this dissertation will also make the historical transformations in literary forms of autonomy apparent – forms which have been progressing towards an “endgame” of the traditional sense of autonomy in the course of the 20th century, in turn leading to a new narrative mode of governance and a new practice of literary autonomy which is interrelational, intersubjective, intermedial, intertextual, and - in relation to the authors depicted- politically committed. In order to demonstrate this, particular attention is paid to three key motifs: the play, the face, and the mirror as they are manifested in literature from the First to the Second Austrian Republic, spanning the period from the 1920s to the 1970s. The chosen short-fiction works show that autonomy is inevitably at stake, either explicitly or in subtext. Through a close reading of the texts and analysis of the three key motifs, I plea for a more refined historical genealogical understanding of this notion within a relational theoretical framework. It attempts to re-conceptualize the basic underlying individual paradigm of literary autonomy through the lens of modern short fiction, including radio plays.
The Interactions between E-Shopping and Store Shopping: A Case Study of the Twin Cities
(2010-08) Cao, Jason; Douma, Frank; Cleaveland, Fay; Xu, Zhiyi
This research aims to reveal the interactions between e-shopping and in-store shopping using a sample of Internet users in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. This report summarizes previous research on the interactions among spatial attributes, e-shopping, and travel behavior and makes eight recommendations for future research. Guided by the recommendations, this study adopts an innovative research design by integrating a conventional shopping survey with an activity diary. This report provides a detailed description of survey development and implementation and points out several common pitfalls in survey administration. This report also presents results on the interactions. Specifically, two ordered probit models and structural equation models were developed to investigate the influence of geography on online shopping usage and the influence of e-shopping on traditional shopping.
An investigation of the internal corporate factors of organizational learning and innovation
(2013-08) Jayanti, Elizabeth Bechtel
This study answers the question, "What are the dimensions of the organizational learning experience?" from the perspective of 35 members of four leading companies, representing the first such empirical effort. A review of over 1,368 articles revealed that current organizational learning models are based in theory rather than practice, frequently reduce organizational learning to the individual level , and focus on external factors to the neglect of internal factors. While research on organizational learning dates back to work by Cyert and March (1963), fifty years later, empirical answers to the following questions were still lacking: What happens to information as it is processed through the organization? What predictable screening biases are there in an organization? * What is the relation between decisions made by the responsible representatives and the final decision implemented by the organization? *In what systematic ways are decisions elaborated and changed by the organization? (Cyert & March, 1963, p. 21-22). Fifty dominant organizational learning survey instruments were closely reviewed. It was discovered that each instrument was based on theoretical models, rather than real-world organizational data. This meant that it was unknown whether any dimensions of organizational learning had been missed, or if the assumed dimensions were correct. Questions for the interview were drawn from questions that appeared in multiple previous instruments and focused on the organizational rather than individual level. Data was recorded and transcribed verbatim. Scrubbed transcripts were analyzed in Nvivo using a grounded theory approach. This study found no evidence for several assumed dimensions such as decision types , decision proactivity , role clarity , knowledge turnover , and market share . It was determined that the long-standing idea of controlling for industry is not practical. Finally, this study discovered that organizational learning is significantly influenced by company culture , which constitutes a way of being. This culture shapes what actions a company takes in areas of knowledge management , client focus , focus for growth , and engagement . What a company does ultimately influences what a company becomes, through organizational learning .
The Knowledge Building Approach to Science Education: A Problem-Solving Perspective
(2019-09) Groos, David
Science education is reasonably constructed around a vision of authentic scientific practices. Yet, this vision of science is clearly a construct as seen when viewing its changes throughout the last 120 years, as well as viewing it through different theoretical perspectives. While there are diverse descriptions of science and its enactment, going back to Dewey and Peirce, the mission of science is commonly considered to be about the advancement of theory through inquiry where problems serve a central function. Beyond the challenge of constructing an understanding of scientific inquiry as theory development where the diversity in perspectives of scientists is seen as essential, there is the challenge of devising pedagogy and approaches that effectively promote this vision. There are a rich mix of approaches working at solving different parts of this complex problem. One such approach is called, "knowledge building" (Scardamalia and Bereiter, 2006). This approach seeks to scaffold classroom communities such that they develop and grow into a complex community where progressive science-theory improvement emerges. It is considered that these sorts of communities where innovation is the norm have relevance beyond the fields of science and STEM: innovation and knowledge creation is becoming the essential practice of the knowledge age. The knowledge building approach is designed to support the growth of classroom communities that embody the essential nature of progressive scientific inquiry. To effectively support this kind of classroom community development, the unique assets and needs presented by the ever-increasing diversity of thinking and knowing that are emergents of the students' cultures, developmental levels, neurological diversities and iv networks of communities. Overall, this research sought to support and augment classrooms as they strive to grow into classroom communities of scientific inquiry. The research occurred in two stages. It first used philosophical methods to generate a simple, high-level model of problem-solving made possible by Popper's World-3 conception. This conception is a keystone in some epistemologies developed to support approaches aimed at helping students grow in knowledge-innovation practices. The visual problem-solving model that was developed seeks to provide students and teachers with a very simple yet flexible model allowing them to describe, analyze and reflect on the state of their community's knowledge improvement and through this understanding adaptively and effectively respond. The second stage of research utilized hybrid philosophical-empirical methods to develop a framework that describes science in terms of its mission to progressively improve theory through the iterative solving of and subsequent unfolding of new knowledge-problems. These research methods involved an iterative process where promising theories are tested on their ability to describe students' actual online knowledge-building discourse in a satisfying way. In this iterative process, empirical classroom data informed and yet also constrain the theory generation which was informed by diverse theoretical perspectives. These theoretical perspectives included for example, ideas of scientific practices, theories of design such as design thinking and understandings of classroom diversity as represented in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) which were intentionally founded upon theories of v culturally responsive pedagogy. The developed framework seeks to scaffold teachers as they design and enact lessons aimed at growing communities of diverse scientists. Taken together, the products of this research seek to provide conceptual structures to aid the students and teachers in classroom communities as they seek to grow into complex communities of scientists.
Making Space for Evaluation to Strengthen Conservation Innovation
(2023-06) Meyer, Nathan
Providing growing global populations with sustainable sources of clean water, food, and energy are existential grand challenges rapidly growing in magnitude and severity. These challenges are exacerbated by wicked social-ecological problems like climate change that make formulaic, one-size-fits-all solutions impossible. Managing these challenges increasingly calls for the engagement of citizen and professional networks in partnerships to advance transformative, social-ecological innovations. Such innovations aim to radically redesign our ways of living and working together to better balance our productivity, prosperity, and conservation of natural resources. Cooperative extension, soil and water conservation, and other community-situated conservation professionals are well-situated to play critical roles in developing and supporting such innovation partnerships. But incremental innovation diffusion strategies that are likely familiar and typically utilized by these institutions are ill-suited to the complexity of transformative innovation. More promising is facilitating adaptive innovation management, or collaboration and social learning processes that strengthen and support partnership capabilities for co-experimenting with transformative solutions. However, there is a critical need to refine and make widespread the practice of adaptive innovation management. This dissertation aims to support the widespread practice of adaptive innovation management through building understanding of how and when to productively integrate evaluation to enhance and accelerate innovation through structuring systematic processes of questioning, collecting, and analyzing social-ecological data, called evaluative thinking. The following chapters describe results and implications of an integrative theory and a sequence of three studies focused on an exemplary University of Minnesota innovation partnership, the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP). A first integrative theory characterizes innovation as a practice of group learning through collaborative deliberation and experimentation that can be accelerated and supported through semi-structured interventions, called adaptive innovation management. It describes how evaluative thinking is an inherent dimension of learning to grow and scale conservation-focused innovations and illuminates how certain developmental evaluation approaches are promising to guide efforts to strengthen evaluative thinking in conservation innovation partnerships like RSDP. A second study describes using a modified-Delphi method to reach consensus among a select group of experienced professionals about important considerations for deciding how and when to infuse developmental evaluation into partnership innovation practices. Three frameworks of important concepts and conceptual dimensions are developed for evaluative thinking, effective developmental evaluation design, and partnership evaluation capacities that can be assessed to guide the integration of developmental evaluation. These frameworks are then used in a set of RSDP case studies to illuminate strategies for effectively integrating developmental evaluation into partnership activities. One case study describes the analysis of survey and qualitative data to identify strategies to help RSDP leaders manage perceived challenges with integrating evaluation into partnership activities. A second case study describes certain RSDP learning activities and written artifacts that are opportune starting points for efficiently and effectively integrating developmental evaluation to strengthen innovation learning practice. Scholarly and practical motivations for doing this are threefold: 1) to inform the growing literature on transdisciplinary approaches to develop and enhance conditions for social-ecological innovation, 2) to improve understanding in the emergent discipline of developmental evaluation about how it can function in the context of such conditions, and 3) to guide land grant organizational development to strengthen social-ecological innovation.
Multiple levels of ambidexterity in managing the innovation-improvement dilemma: evidence from high technology organizations.
(2009-06) Chandrasekaran, Aravind
The goal of this dissertation is to understand how high technology organizations simultaneously innovate and improve to maintain a competitive advantage. Too much attention paid to innovation does not address the problems of today, while too much attention paid to improvement may not build a better tomorrow. Gaining a competitive advantage requires that organizations balance both innovation and improvement. Ambidexterity is one mechanism that allows organizations to achieve the proper balance of the two. However, theoretical knowledge on ambidexterity is relatively new. Toward this end, this dissertation develops a multilevel theory on organizational ambidexterity through three interrelated essays. The first essay, "Multiple Levels of Ambidexterity in Managing the Innovation and Improvement Dilemma: Evidence from Case Studies," adopts a grounded theory building approach using a case study design to develop a multilevel theory on organizational ambidexterity. Data for this study is collected from four high technology divisions and involves over 198 respondents. Both qualitative (53 semi-structured interviews) and quantitative data are collected from multiple levels within each division. Case study analyses indicate three complementary solutions to balancing: cognitive ambidexterity, contextual ambidexterity, and structural ambidexterity. Cognitive ambidexterity, a dynamic capability at the strategic level, facilitates decisions on the right balance of innovation and improvement. Contextual ambidexterity helps align decisions between the strategic and the project levels through disciplined project management, metric alignment, and roll-over of divisional plans. Finally structural ambidexterity helps facilitate simultaneous execution of innovation and improvement at the project level through distinct rewards, project team and leadership structures. The second essay, "Antecedents to Organizational Ambidexterity - A Multilevel Investigation," empirically tests the theories developed from the case studies. Data for this study is collected through an online survey conducted at 34 high technology divisions and involves 110 innovation and improvement projects. Informants from multiple levels within each division are used in the data collection process. Results from this research suggest that organizational processes such as information analysis and methods, customer and market focus, and inter functional multilevel planning teams (grouped as scanning practices) synthesize internal and external information and predict cognitive ambidexterity, the ability to resolve strategic contradiction between innovation and improvement. Disciplined project management and scorecard approach are approaches to connect innovation and improvement project level decisions with the division's strategies and promote contextual ambidexterity. Both cognitive and contextual ambidexterity impact the division's ability to simultaneously pursue innovation and improvement strategies. The third essay, "Explaining Structural Ambidexterity in High Technology Organizations," delineates structural ambidexterity into two different contexts: macro organizational contexts (e.g., organizational processes, organizational structures) and micro organizational contexts (e.g., team leadership, team incentives, project team structures). Using multilevel data collected from 34 high technology divisions and 110 innovation and improvement projects, this research examines the effects of macro and micro organizational contexts on innovation and improvement project performance. Results from this multilevel research suggest that improvement projects benefit from both organizational macro contexts and certain micro contexts (project team leadership and project team incentives). Innovation projects, on the other hand, mainly depend on micro contexts and are negatively affected by organizational macro contexts. Results from this research also introduce a third classification of projects - hybrid projects -which have both innovation and improvement goals embedded in them. Theoretical and practical implications from this research are discussed. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the key findings from each of the three essays. Limitations and directions for future research are also identified.

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