Conference theme

Innovation activities face a threefold challenge today: they build on the advancement of science and include an increasingly strong technological component; they involve a growing number of actors, among whom large corporations, high-technology start-ups, public research organizations, and user association; they are to take into account various stakeholders’ concerns which extend beyond a mere economic or financial logic. In other words, innovation becomes – or at least attempts to become - increasingly disruptive, open, and responsible. The uncertainty inherent to innovation hence bears not only on the odds of success, but also on the nature of scientific knowledge to build and leverage, on the identity of partners to enroll, and on the evaluation criteria to rely on. Marked by this threefold uncertainty, innovation regimes pertain to the exploration of new possibilities, rather than theexploitation of things already known, as James March famously put it.

The conference investigated new forms of organizing collective action given the uncertainty inherent in exploratory innovation. This issue was addressed through the analysis of practices and devices that are put forward and tried out to equip collective exploration activities, such as:

• On the industry level: open source, patent pools, platforms, standards, cooperative R&D;
• On the inter-organizational level: public-private partnerships, user and stakeholder focus groups, business models and business plans, research-design collaborations, fablabs and other alternative design spaces;
• On the intra-organizational level: communication tools, new forms of design through prospective narratives and exploratory artifacts, enterprise social networking, alternative forms of governance, new product committees.

Programme

Program (PDF version)

Plenary sessions

Charles Baden-Fuller (Cass Business School), "Business models: A challenging agenda"

Bill Gaver (Goldsmiths, University of London), “Polyphony in design”

Thematic parallel sessions

Session 1: Users and design

Lecomte, Blanco, Trompette & Cholez, “Towards a better frugal design using persona - issues and insights from an ethnography on prosthetics in Vietnam”

Royer, “Medical Design: How health-care users can contribute to understand new medical practices”

Sanchez-Criado, “Infrastructuring a user-led care economy? Figuring collaborative economic agencies through design practices”

Session 2: Alternative forms of collective exploration

Meyer & Ermoshina, “Bricolage as collaborative exploration: transforming matter, citizens and politics”

KokKokshagina, Gillier, Cocez, Guemy & Barthelemy, "Towards a new form of ideas contests in high-tech environment: Design community building in double unknown"

Musiani, “A decentralized Domain Name System? User-controlled infrastructure as alternative Internet governance”

Session 3: Managing exploration

Aggeri, Chanal, Charue-Duboc & Garel, “Managing exploratory innovation: Towards an analytical framework”

Imbert & Chauvet, “The role of KIBS in the clients’ knowledge absorption process in the case of exploration innovation”

Karstens, Duijn, Altamirano, Nijburg & Oldenkamp, “Accelerating innovation: Empiric lessons from the Dutch water and construction sector”

Session 4: Collective exploration practices

Gillier, Hooge & Piat, “Collaborative design of value in creative projects: An expansive value management model”

Mallard, Reverdy & Vigilante “Exploring value and steering innovation. The case of telecommunication services for professionals.”

Le Gall, “Visualizations of Advanced innovation projects: Examining the practices of project managers”

Pohjola, Koivisto & Pitkanen, “Enhancing the co-creation of service innovations by a web-based development environment”

Session 5: Framing collective exploration

Bessy, “Technological cooperation, intellectual property and standards”

Baron, Ménière & Pohlmann, “Innovation in standards”

Krychowski, “Technology licensing decisions: A real options perspective”

Michelino, Cammarano, Lamberti & Caputo, “Open innovation models: Collaboration, market or both?”

Session 6: Design: Sharing concepts

Chen, “The design and characteristics of low cost products”

Baker, Détienne & Burkhardt, “Quality of collaboration in design: Articulating multiple dimensions and viewpoints”

Freitas-Salgueiredo, “Modeling biological inspiration for innovative design”

Jutant, “A communicational framework for studying atypical organizations: the case of the “residence” Design & Sciences in Grenoble (ENSCI – Les Ateliers and CEA)

Session 7: Organizing for collective exploration

Meyer, Schubert & Windeler, “Organizing uncertainty. Technological innovation in the semiconductor industry”

Ferdinand, “The sensitivity of innovation communities: Desktop 3D printing between Open Source and market exploitation”

Powell, “Developing standards for Open Hardware: Exploring controversies and boundaries”

Laurent, Tironi & Badouard, “Market experiments for industrial exploration: testing a car-sharing system”

Conference co-chairs:

• Liliana Doganova, CSI, Mines ParisTech
• Annie Gentès, Télécom ParisTech
• Sébastien Gand, CGS, Mines ParisTech
• Laurie Marrauld, Télécom ParisTech