ABSTRACT
An analysis of the professional experiences of Central Europe's first R&D purpose vertical farm is presented in the paper, which was formed through the Triple Helix innovation model with a collaboration of a wide variety of partners in Hungary. The aim of the article is threefold. Firstly, since sustainable food production is a worldwide problem, the scientific and practical knowledge of potential business models of agricultural innovations are further expanded in the paper using Porter's generic strategies framework. Secondly, whereas agricultural innovations are becoming more valuable in the future, most of these innovations are yet unprofitable. Therefore, the challenges of transforming R&D results to profitable commercial products and services from an ecosystem management point of view is analyzed. Thirdly, the research provides interesting insights on how Covid-19 influenced the diffusion of vertical agriculture technology. The research was conducted using qualitative methods, the findings of the case study is based on twenty-six semi-structured interviews. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 outbreak has affected the customers’ preferences and purchasing patterns as a result of the restrictive regulations taken by governments. Thus, service companies must adapt to this change by focusing on innovation as a solution to survive this crisis. Therefore, the basic objective of this study is the development of an integrated framework to investigate the impact of digital marketing and customization on service innovation in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. Data were collected from 53 Moroccan companies operating in the healthcare services industry. The data was analyzed, and the theoretical model was validated using Partial least square (PLS) and structural equation model (SEM). The findings show that: integration of digital marketing improves service innovation;customization of service offerings improves service innovation;customization has a higher impact on service innovation compared to digital marketing;and finally, customization has a significant effect on digital marketing. The contribution of this study is to emphasize the roles of customization and digital marketing, during the COVID-19 crisis, on companies’ service innovation so that they can differentiate their offered services and survive the current crisis. © 2021 International Consortium for Electronic Business. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought multiple social, economic, and technological divides to the forefront as key societal issues that were previously silent to the engineering and STEM community. These issues must be addressed through social innovations that can be easily implemented at the point of need. Social innovations are defined as new solutions (products, services, models, markets, processes, etc.) that simultaneously meet a social need (more effectively than existing solutions) and lead to new or improved capabilities and relationships and better use of assets and resources [1]. The design and development of socially conscious and frugal engineering solutions are a critical part of many of these techno-economic social innovations [2]. This is calling for new approaches to implement social innovation and entrepreneurship education to the engineering students, in addition to the traditional STEM curriculum. Additionally, in the primarily 'remote' learning mode during the COVID-19 pandemic, different pedagogies are crucial for effective and engaged student learning. This paper presents the methodology, highlights, and execution of the “Social Innovations: Engineering, Globalization, and Leadership” class that was conducted 'virtually' through the 8-week summer session of 2020. The motivation behind the class was to introduce, educate and encourage students to learn, adopt and implement attributes of social innovation philosophies and servant leadership via case studies and discussion during the class meeting times. Weekly modules were developed to include one social innovation case study (including presentation rubric) per week and leadership lessons. The class proceeded in the flipped classroom approach, where each student presented their perspective and analysis of the assigned social innovation case study, followed by interactive discussion within the group. Throughout the class, students advanced their understanding of the attributes of social innovation and leadership and its context to globalization and social equity. Concurrently, students were divided among two groups for the class project to practice the development of frugal engineering solutions for the COVID-19 pandemic. The projects focused on developing a multi-functional mask (physical) and a fact check plugin (digital), to prevent the spread of virus and misinformation, respectively. The project was executed in parallel with the class and culminated in an 'open house' presentation attended by multiple invited faculty and industry professionals. Throughout the duration of the class, each student developed their own model and attributes for delivering impactful social innovation along with a leadership mind map as a part of the final report. Students were graded based on their presentations, in-class interactive participation, and the final project report. At the end of the semester, based on the feedback from the students as well as the open house attendees, this virtual class, helped students to build a framework for social innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership for successful implementation within the frugal engineering model. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
In the last several years, innovation has received an amplified focus as various traditional businesses have been interrupted by new business models as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. Large organizations are often challenged to keep innovating lest they be disrupted by new upstart business models or unforeseen shocks. This case study explores three dimensions of achieving systematic organizational innovation, specific to internal business optimization: a process framework for managing and tracking innovation activities and outcomes;an examination of the front-end of this process related to generating ideas for innovation;and a mapping of industrial engineering graduate courses to the innovation process framework. Being a case study, this paper will provide some key learnings for areas to focus on and what works when innovation becomes a priority. © 2021 IISE Annual Conference and Expo 2021. All rights reserved.