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Innovation is a key element of economic growth. In fact, innovation is the catalyst that propels the development of new organisation forms and that modernises old processes to meet current needs. The 2nd Annual Innovation Update Seminar, 2010, showcased a holistic set of trends and topics on innovation, with a focus on service innovation and e-Government.
Effectuation - An Opportunity For Innovation
Virginia Cha, Chief of Research Practice at the Institute of Systems Science, kicked off Innovation Update Seminar, 2010, with a review of her latest research in technopreneurship.
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Virginia Cha, Chief of Research Practice at the Institute of Systems Science, NUS
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Inspired by the concept of Juugaad, which is "overcoming harsh constraints by improvising an effective solution using limited resources" or "the ability to think assertively, and work creatively around unexpected problem", Virginia explored new ways of decision making and problem solving when it comes to technopreneurship, or technology-centric entrepreneurship.
Virginia's research examines how startups begin. As Virginia explained in her presentation, Effectuation, a theory developed by Professor Saras D. Sarasvathy, provides one explanation for how new business opportunities are conceived by the entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs and companies operating under Effectual Logic focus on "who I am, what I know and whom I know" when creating an entrepreneurial venture, meaning they do not have a specific idea or product/service in mind before leaving their place of employment. Those using this logic wait for an opportunity to surface and often operate on a basis of partnership or co-creating a future with their customers, suppliers or even competitors. This contrasts with causal logic, which recognises specific goals, estimates an expected return and expects competition. In the causal logic model, the entrepreneur is more likely to have a set idea in mind before he begins his entrepreneurial venture.
In addition, Virginia interviewed 17 Singaporean-based IT professionals, all of whom had left their previous employers to found a startup. The thought-provoking study revealed that 11 entrepreneurs used Effectual Logic.
Stay tuned for more of Virginia's research in technopreneurship as part of the new research discipline at ISS called Decision Making In Uncertain Environments.
Finding The Best Way - Innovation In Journey Planning
Although a relatively new research area, Service Innovation has already had a large impact on the perception of the provisioning of services. Recently, Dr. Robert Firth and his research partners investigated the concept of Service Innovation at ISS by conducting a study on Goods Dominant versus Service Dominant Design.
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Dr Robert Firth, Evangelist, Software Engineering Programme at Institute of Systems Science, NUS
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In this experimental study, ISS students were asked to use two different Singapore on-line bus journey planning services to find the most efficient route between two locations. The two companies are tagged Company "X" and "Y". Although both companies provided the same service, they presented it in diametrically opposed fashion: One stressed its fleet of buses and individual routes, the other focused on the customer's need to get from one location to another. The results of the survey showed that customers found that Company "Y", which has a customer-centric approach, provided the more satisfactory service. Its focus on Service rather than on Goods was a key factor behind the positive feedback its service received from the participants.
The Service Innovation Department at ISS will be publishing more information on the results of this study and studies in other areas of Service Innovation in the near future.
Digitising Old Documents By Means Of New Media
Dr. Olivier Amprimo and his team at the National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore were faced with the challenge of converting old issues of the Straits Times into digitised copies. However, due to improper storage of the original newsprints, the final digitised product ended up with garbled text that needed to be manually corrected to meet NLB's requirement of 96% accuracy.
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Dr Olivier Amprimo, Assistant Director of the National Library Board
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The National Library Board decided to tackle the problem by launching a game called TypeAttack in September 2009 over the social networking site Facebook. This viral game attracted 289 games players who competed with one another to type out in the shortest possible time what they believed were the correct words to the garbled text. Together the gamers turned in 505 fully digitised and corrected snippets of text at an accuracy level 99.1%, well above the accuracy requirements set by NLB.
The project is innovative because it leveraged on social media software, involved zero marketing effort and cost NLB absolutely nothing to develop since it was created by research interns as part of their research projects. This project shows that social computing offers a new strategy for driving efficiency within organisations and that it can be a fun and innovative way for organisations to get quick results.
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Mega Trends In Service Innovation
The 2nd Annual Innovation Update Seminar, 2010, was held on 30 March at the Institute of Systems Science. The seminar showcased both academic and industry examples of service innovation and new thoughts on e-Government from industry and academic leaders from around the globe.
As a new and continuously improving service concept, service innovation can be seen in new solutions within the customer interface, new distribution methods, novel application of technology in the service process, new forms of operation with the supply chain and new ways to organise or manage services.
The seminar also examined how innovation is transforming governments through Government Enterprise Architecture and how research-practice partnerships can foster innovative e-Government solutions.
This year's event featured a lineup of distinguished experts in service innovation and e-government, including several ISS visiting fellows.
Among the visiting fellows was Professor Bo Edvardsson, the Professor of Business Administration and Director of the Service Research Centre at the University of Karlstad in Sweden. In his presentation, Customer Integration In Service Development, Professor Edvardsson shared four ways in which organisations can involve customers in service development.
Newly appointed ISS courtesy visiting fellow, Professor Sharon Dawes, Senior Fellow at the Center for Technology in Government (CTG), spoke on e-Government Innovation Through Research-Practice Partnerships. Her talk focused on ways to conceptualise, operationalise, and capitalise on links between research and practice that help turn e-Government investments into better public management and that enhance public value.
Dr Pallab Saha, Evangelist, Architecture & Governance at ISS, spoke on Singapore Government Enterprise Architecture - A Platform For Connected Government.
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Dr Pallab Saha, Evangelist, Architecture & Governance at Institute of Systems Science, NUS
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Professor Bo Edvardsson, Professor of Business Administration and Director of the Service Research Centre at the University of Karlstad in Sweden
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Professor Sharon Dawes, Senior Research Fellow CTG, State University of New York, University at Albany and Courtesy Visiting Fellow, Singapore e-Government Leadership Centre
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Microsoft And ISS Announce Enterprise Architecture Research Collaboration
At the 2nd Annual Innovation Update Seminar, 2010, the Institute of Systems Science and Microsoft announced that they will be embarking on a 15-month research project in Government Enterprise Architecture (EA).
The project will examine the current status of practice in Government EA and how it influences e-Government programs. The study seeks to gain insights into current understanding about connected government, develop a meta-framework for Government EA to facilitate connected government and lastly, assemble case studies from the success stories of governments that have utilised Government EA to achieve a connected government.
ISS has been deeply involved in the area of Government EA for several years in various ways including advising foreign governments. This project extends its capabilities in an area that is fast emerging as an imperative for highly capable and mature e-Government programmes.
In support of this research project, Microsoft will contribute funding, subject matter expertise and facilitate access to governments. The results of the project will be disseminated as research reports, research notes, conference papers, and seminars from as early as June 2010. |
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