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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Olsen, Nina Veflen |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a new approach for food innovation—a Design Thinking approach that challenges the strong product orientation that still exists in the food industry. Consumer researchers widely believe that innovation in the food sector can be much more user oriented. Fork to Farm projects try to maximize value creation for the end user, but; unfortunately; many of these projects appeals to an undifferentiated mass market. The food industry needs to understand individual consumers and the context in which they live to be able to deliver successful new food solutions. The aim of this paper is to discuss and exemplify how Design Thinking can contribute to innovation in the food industry. After introducing the Design Thinking approach and describing an innovation project conducted within the seafood industry in Norway, four specific aspects of Design Thinking: a) Begin at the beginning, b) Take a human-centered approach, c) Try early and often, and d) Seek outside help, are discussed in more detail. I conclude that Design Thinking is a faster and cheaper way to include the voice of the consumer into the process —a learning approach that needs to be further discussed, improved and tested out within the food domain. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iefi14:199343&r=ppm |
| By: | Gandenberger, Carsten; Bodenheimer, Miriam; Schleich, Joachim; Orzanna, Robert; Macht, Lioba |
| Abstract: | This study employs an original survey-based dataset to explore technology transfer in CDM projects. The findings suggest that about two-thirds of the CDM projects involve a medium to very high extent of technology transfer. The econometric analysis distinguishes between knowledge and equipment transfer and specifically allows for the influence of technological characteristics, such as novelty and complexity of a technology, as well as the use of different transfer channels. More complex technologies and the use of export as a transfer channel are found to be associated with a higher degree of technology transfer. Projects involving 2- to 5-year-old technologies seem more likely to involve technology transfer than both younger and older technologies. Energy supply and efficiency projects are correlated with a higher degree of technology transfer than non-energy projects. Unlike previous studies, our analysis did not find technology transfer to be related to project size, the length of time a country has hosted CDM projects or the host country' s absorptive capacity. Our findings are similar for knowledge and equipment transfer. CDM projects are often seen as a vehicle for the transfer of climate technologies from industrialized to developing countries. Thus, a better understanding of the factors driving technology transfer in these projects may help policy makers design policies that better foster the transfer of knowledge and equipment, in addition to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. This may be achieved by including more stringent requirements with regard to international technology transfer in countries' CDM project approval processes. Based on our findings, such policies should focus particularly on energy supply and efficiency technologies. Likewise, it may be beneficial for host countries to condition project approval on the novelty and complexity of technologies and adjust these provisions over time. Since such technological characteristics are not captured systematically by PDDs, using a survey-based evaluation opens up new opportunities for a more holistic and targeted evaluation of technology transfer in CDM projects. |
| Keywords: | Clean Development Mechanism,Technology Transfer,North-South,Energy Technology,Development and Climate |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisisi:s52015&r=ppm |
| By: | Lisa Chauvet (IRD, UMR DIAL, PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine); Paul Collier (Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford, International Growth Centre); Andreas Fuster (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) |
| Abstract: | This paper extends and applies principal-agent theory to the performance of donor projects. There is variation in the degree of divergence between the interests of the donor (the principal) and the recipient government (the agent). Further, the effort expended on observation of the agent is a control variable. We show that in a wide range of circumstances an implication of principal-agent theory is that the principal should put greater effort into observation the wider is the divergence of interest with the agent. We then test this prediction using data on World Bank project performance. We measure the degree of divergence between donor and recipient interests, as perceived by the donor, through a donor classification system of recipient governments. Consistent with the theory, we find that donor supervision of projects is significantly more effective in improving project performance where interests are widely divergent. However, donors do not put more effort into the supervision of projects in such cases.________________________________ Cet article étend et applique la théorie Principal-Agent à la performance des projets d’aide. Les intérêts du donneur (le principal) et du gouvernement receveur (l’agent) peuvent différer de manière importante. Dans le modèle, l’effort mis en oeuvre pour observer l’agent est une variable de contrôle. Nous montrons qu’une implication du modèle principal-agent est que le principal devrait faire d’autant plus d’effort pour observer l’agent quand ses intérêts divergent de ceux de l’agent. Nous testons ensuite ces prédictions en utilisant les données de performance des projets d’aide de la Banque mondiale. Nous mesurons le degré de divergence entre les intérêts du donneur et du receveur, telle que perçue par le donneur, par la classification des receveurs comme ‘partenariats difficiles’. Comme prédit par le modèle, nous trouvons que la supervision des projets d’aide par le donneur permet d’autant plus d’assurer le succès des projets que les intérêts du donneur et du receveur diffèrent. Toutefois, le donneur ne semble pas faire plus d’effort de supervision dans les partenariats difficiles. |
| Keywords: | Principal-Agent theory, Aid projects, Supervision, Difficult partnerships. |
| JEL: | D86 F35 O19 O22 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201504&r=ppm |
| By: | Verdouw, Cor N.; Bondt, N.; Schmeitz, H.; Zwinkels, H. |
| Abstract: | The horticulture and propagation materials sector has been designated as one of the so-called top sectors in which the Netherlands excels globally and that are a government priority. The top sector approach for further innovation is based on public-private partnerships (PPPs) in which businesses, knowledge institutes and the (national) government are working closely together towards a common vision and action plans (the 'golden triangle'). This paper introduces the Digital Greenport Holland (Dutch: Tuinbouw Digitaal) and its research and innovation programme ‘a Smarter Greenport’. Digital Greenport Holland is the PPP of the horticultural top sector that focuses on digital information management. The business involvement consists of the collaboration between three active industry associations for chain information, i.e. Frug I Com (fruit and vegetables), Floricode (flowers and plants) and EDIbulb (flower bulbs). The activities focus on four main themes: E-standards, E-information-integration, E-business-to-government and E-competence. The programme ‘a Smarter Greenport’ has currently conducted eight projects on these themes. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iefi14:199378&r=ppm |
| By: | Ada Scupola (Roskilde University, Denmark); Antonello Zanfei (Department of Economics, Society & Politics, Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo") |
| Abstract: | Based on a longitudinal case study of virtual library development, we highlight three important aspects that characterize the links between governance and innovation in public sector innovation. First, the examined case shows that the organizational complexities have increased in the transition from what could be considered as a spurious New Public Management approach, which incorporates elements of the traditional hierarchical model and elements of market-like competition, towards a “networked model” implying more emphasis on bottom-up decision making and a greater involvement of end users. Second, we provide evidence of increasing co-creation activities in which end users are involved not only in choosing out of a given menu of alternative solutions to given problems, but also in the definition of the menu itself, and in shaping and implementing innovative solutions. Third, the increasing involvement of users has created important innovation opportunities that are more and more characterized by their frugal/bricolage nature, hence more localized but not necessarily trivial and relatively easy to diffuse to different contexts. |
| Keywords: | Governance, Innovation, Public Sector, Services, ICT. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urb:wpaper:14_11&r=ppm |
| By: | Chicot, J.; Matt, M. |
| Abstract: | Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) has received recent renewed impetus and interest in most OECD countries although the academic literature pays little attention to its economic rationales. Since public procurement is being seen increasingly as an instrument of innovation policy, it is important to understand which situations favour its implementation. Based on a review of the literature on innovation policy, the present paper develops a failure-based framework that allows the resolution by PPI of three types of failures: demand-side, supply-side and user-supplier interaction traps. We propose a four-category typology of PPI based on the type of demand-side failures addressed, and whether or not it also targets supply-side failures. Each category is refined based on the degree of user-supplier interactions required. This typology based on the economic foundation of PPI allows the linking of failure, innovation and public procurement characteristics alongside the types of instruments derived from the academic literature on PPI. One of the strengths of this PPI typology is that it links to the various classifications proposed in the PPI literature and contributes to the smart design of PPI policy. It also considers PPI as a hybrid innovation instrument, that is, a demand-side policy tool, which, if appropriately designed, can be applied to resolve supply-side failures. |
| Keywords: | PUBLIC PROCUREMENT;INNOVATION POLICY INSTRUMENTS;POLICY RATIONALES;POLICY DESIGN |
| JEL: | H57 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gbl:wpaper:2015-05&r=ppm |
| By: | Kandathil, George; Sue Newell; Erica Wagner |
| Abstract: | The implementation of ERP software into organizations is widely recognized as contentious with different groups often requesting customization of the standard product to meet their particular needs and interests. Various efforts aimed at influencing the discourse and framing related to the ERP are therefore common in such implementation projects. Using an interpretive case study we examine the dynamics of such conflict, focusing on the process of framing meanings of ERP technology during an ERP implementation in an India based multinational company. In this exploration, we create a processual account of discursive framing through which a frame emerges around ERP - an IT artifact. This leads to a collective frame that eventually shapes the decision-conflict of adopting versus customizing the standard ERP artifact. Based on this account, we develop a dialogical approach to collective technology action framing that draws on the developments in social movement (SM) theory while addressing limitations of the dominant approaches to framing. We also develop a model that explicates the interaction between cognitive frame and discursive framing, clarifying an underexplored and unclear relationship in SM and IS framing literature. Finally, we highlight the role of perceived coercion in generating a widely shared meaning of ERP technology, foregrounding the relationship between coercion and consent. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:13312&r=ppm |
| By: | Sundmaeker, Harald |
| Abstract: | The paper will present an approach for an incremental solution development that is based on the usage of the currently developed Internet based FIspace business collaboration platform. Key element is the clear segmentation of infrastructures that are either internal or external to the collaborating business entity in the food network. On the one hand, the approach enables to differentiate between specific centralised as well as decentralised ways for data storage and hosting of IT based functionalities. The selection of specific data exchange protocols and data models is facilitated. On the other hand, the supported solution design and subsequent development is focusing on reusable “software Apps” that can be used on their own and are incorporating a clear added value for the business actors. It will be outlined on how to push the development and introduction of Apps that do not require basic changes of the existing infrastructure. The paper will present an example that is based on the development of a set of Apps for the exchange of product quality related information in food networks, specifically addressing fresh fruits and vegetables. It combines workflow support for data exchange from farm to retail as well as to provide quality feedback information to facilitate the business process improvement. Finally, the latest status of the FIspace platform development will be outlined. Key features and potential ways for “real users and software developers” in using the FIspace platform that is initiated by science and industry will be outlined. |
| Keywords: | Business Collaboration, Food Networks, App Development, FIspace, Future Internet, Fruits & Vegetables, Agribusiness, |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iefi14:199375&r=ppm |
| By: | Commander, Simon (IE Business School, Altura Partners); Nikoloski, Zlatko (London School of Economics); Vagliasindi, Maria (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | It is widely accepted that the costs of under-pricing energy are large, whether in advanced or developing countries. This paper explores how large these costs can be by focussing on the size of the external effects that energy subsidies in particular generate in two important sectors – transport and agriculture – in two MENA countries, Egypt (transport) and Yemen (agriculture). Our focus is mainly on the costs associated with congestion and pollution as well the impact of under-priced energy for depletion of scarce water resources including through crop selection. Quantifying the size of external effects in developing countries has received relatively little analytical attention, although there is a significant body of literature for the advanced world. By building on earlier research, as well as employing the UN ForFITS model we are able to provide indicative estimates of the external costs of energy subsidies, as manifested in congestion and pollution. Our estimates using simulations indicate that these costs could be materially reduced by elimination or reduction of energy subsidies. We are also able to describe the impact of energy subsidies on water consumption in a region where water resources are particularly limited. As such, our findings provide further evidence of the adverse and significant consequences of subsidising energy. |
| Keywords: | energy subsidies, pollution, congestion, health effects of energy subsidies |
| JEL: | O13 R41 Q41 Q53 I15 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8865&r=ppm |