%0 Journal Article %J Technology Innovation Management Review %D 2017 %T Accelerating Research Innovation by Adopting the Lean Startup Paradigm %A Kaisa Still %K commercialization %K context %K innovation %K innovation acceleration %K innovation paradox %K lean startup %K research %K research organization %K VTT %X Converting scientific expertise into marketable products and services is playing an increasingly important role in the launching of new ventures, the growth of existing firms, and the creation of new jobs. In this article, we explore how the lean startup paradigm, which validates the market for a product with a business model that can sustain subsequent scaling, has led to a new process model to accelerate innovation. We then apply this paradigm to the context of research at universities and other research organizations. The article is based on the assumption that the organizational context matters, and it shows how a deeper understanding of the research context could enable an acceleration of the innovation process. We complement theoretical examples with a case example from VTT Technical Research Institute of Finland. Our findings show that many of the concepts from early-acceleration phases – and the lean startup paradigm – can also be relevant in innovation discussions within the research context. However, the phase of value-proposition discovery is less adequately addressed, and that of growth discovery, with its emphasis on building on a scalable, sustainable business does not seem to be addressed with the presented innovation approaches from the research context. Hence, the entrepreneurial activities at the research context differ from those in startups and internal startups in established organizations. %B Technology Innovation Management Review %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %V 7 %P 32-43 %8 05/2017 %G eng %U http://timreview.ca/article/1075 %N 5 %1 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Kaisa Still is a Senior Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. She has extensive experience of innovation management gained within a research organization and a university, in a startup and in growth companies, as well as in a business incubator. Supporting collaboration, co-creation and innovation with technology continues to be at the core of her interests. Her current work concentrates on platforms and innovation ecosystems, accelerating innovation activities, and digital opportunities. Combined with the policy perspective, her work extends to private and public organizations, in regional and global contexts. %R http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/1075 %0 Journal Article %J Technology Innovation Management Review %D 2017 %T The Core Interaction of Platforms: How Startups Connect Users and Producers %A Heidi M. E. Korhonen %A Kaisa Still %A Marko Seppänen %A Miika Kumpulainen %A Arho Suominen %A Katri Valkokari %K core interaction %K digital platforms %K multisided markets %K platform business %K platform canvas %K slush event %K startups %K value creation %X The platform economy is disrupting innovation while presenting both opportunities and challenges for startups. Platforms support value creation between multiple participant groups, and this operationalization of an ecosystem’s value co-creation represents the “core interaction” of a platform. This article focuses on that core interaction and studies how startups connect producers and users in value-creating core interaction through digital platforms. The study is based on an analysis of 29 cases of platform startups interviewed at a leading European startup event. The studied startups were envisioning even millions of users and hundreds or thousands of producers co-creating value on their platforms. In such platform businesses, our results highlight the importance of attracting a large user pool, providing novel services to those users, offering a new market for producers, supporting the core interaction in various ways, and utilizing elements of the platform canvas – an adaptation of the business model canvas, which we have accommodated for platform-based business models – to accomplish these goals. %B Technology Innovation Management Review %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %V 7 %P 17-29 %8 09/2017 %G eng %U http://timreview.ca/article/1103 %N 9 %1 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Heidi M. E. Korhonen, PhD, works as a Senior Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, in the Business, Innovation, and Foresight research area. She is a professional in business development and research with a long experience of industrial and technology companies. Dr. Korhonen has a Doctor of Science (Tech.) degree from Aalto University School of Science, Finland. Her doctoral dissertation covers customer orientation in industrial service innovation and highlights ecosystems interaction and value co-creation in innovation. The recent work of Dr. Korhonen focuses on digitalization and supporting innovation and ecosystems development in the platform economy. Dr. Korhonen has published her research widely in international peer-reviewed journals, books, and conferences. %2 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Kaisa Still is a Senior Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. She has extensive experience of innovation management gained within a research organization, a university, a business incubator, as well as in a startup and in a growth company. Supporting collaboration, co-creation, and innovation with technology continues to be at the core of her interests. Her current work concentrates on platforms and innovation ecosystems, accelerating innovation activities, and digital opportunities. Combined with the policy perspective, her work extends to private and public organizations in regional and global contexts. %3 Tampere University of Technology Marko Seppänen, PhD, is a Full Professor in the field of Industrial Management at Tampere University of Technology, Finland. Prof. Seppänen is an expert in managing value creation in business ecosystems, business concept development, and innovation management. In his latest research, he has examined, for example, platform-based competition in business ecosystems and innovation management in business networks. His research has appeared in high-quality peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, the Journal of Systems and Software, and the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management. %4 Tampere University of Technology Miika Kumpulainen, MSc (Tech), is a doctoral candidate at Tampere University of Technology in Finland. His thesis will cover business relationships and digitalization, and his research interests are in interorganizational relationships and platform ecosystems. Kumpulainen has ten years’ work experience in purchasing functions in industry. %# VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Arho Suominen, PhD, is Senior Scientist in the Innovations, Economy, and Policy unit at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and he also lectures at the Department of Information Technology at the University of Turku. Suominen is also the chairman of the board and co-founder of Teqmine Analytics Ltd, a patent and technology intelligence company. Dr. Suominen’s research focuses on qualitative and quantitative assessment of innovation systems. His research has been funded by the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology, and the Fulbright Center Finland. Dr. Suominen has published work in several journals, including Technological Forecasting and Social Change, the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Science and Public Policy, Scientometrics, the Journal of Systems and Software, and Foresight. Dr. Suominen has a Doctor of Science (Tech.) degree from the University of Turku and holds an Officer’s basic degree from the National Defence University of Finland. %$ VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Katri Valkokari works as a Research Manager at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland in the Business, Innovation and Foresight research area. Over the past 15 years, she has carried out several development projects concerning different networked business arrangements (ecosystems, networks, partnerships, and firms). In 2009, Katri completed her doctoral thesis on business network development. She has published several international and national articles in the research areas of business network management, collaboration, organizational knowledge, and innovation management. %R http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/1103 %0 Journal Article %J Technology Innovation Management Review %D 2016 %T Entrepreneurial Growth Ambitions: The Case of Finnish Technology Startups %A Arto Wallin %A Kaisa Still %A Katja Henttonen %K entrepreneurial innovation %K growth ambitions %K startups %X Technology startups are expected to be a major driving force of economic growth in Europe. The search for new high-growth startups has been particularly topical in Finland, the country that is known for its high-tech products – and the fall of Nokia’s mobile phone business. Although a record number of startups has been established in recent years, the previously identified challenge is that only a small percentage of entrepreneurial businesses are responsible for the lion’s share of economic benefits typically associated with entrepreneurial activity. Hence, we need better understanding of what level of growth technology entrepreneurs aim to create and why there may be differences in growth ambitions among them. In this study, we undertook interpretivist case study research in pursuit of rich, empirically grounded understanding of entrepreneurial growth ambitions in the context of Finnish technology startups. We interviewed entrepreneurs at a Finnish startup event and supplemented this information with data available publicly on the Internet related to the growth ambitions of startups. Our study sought to increase understanding of the different aspects of entrepreneurial growth ambitions, and to explore the relationship between context and growth. Based on the findings, we suggest that growth ambitions should be seen as a complex, socially constructed concept. The growth ambitions of entrepreneurs in our study were influenced, at least in part, by their startups' institutional and market contexts, the scalability of their business models, their personal characteristics and experience, and their perceptions of the barriers and constraints of the field. We conclude that startups have very different growth pathways: although the growth of one startup may depend on the talent of a few software developers, the growth of another startup may be based on its success in building international sales networks. As a result, to get most out of the support provided for a startup ecosystem, support activities should be tailored to different types of high-growth startups. %B Technology Innovation Management Review %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %V 6 %P 5-16 %8 10/2016 %G eng %U http://timreview.ca/article/1023 %N 10 %1 VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) Arto Wallin is a Senior Scientist and Project Manager at VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) in the Business, Innovation and Foresight research area. For last four years, his work has focused on business consulting, and he has helped numerous e-health startups and SMEs in the commercialization of their innovations. His recent scientific interest has been on the startup innovation process, service innovation and management, and institutional change, particularly in the field of healthcare. %2 VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) Kaisa Still is a Senior Scientist at VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) and Visiting Scholar at mediaX at Stanford University. Supporting collaboration and innovation with technology continues to be at the core of her career. Her current work concentrates on platforms and innovation ecosystems, accelerating innovation activities, and digital opportunities. Combined with the policy perspective, her work extends to private and public organizations, in regional and global contexts. %3 VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) Katja Henttonen is a specialist at the VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) in a team studying digital transformations in organizations and society. She holds an MSc degree in ICT and socio-economic development from the University of Manchester and is working towards a PhD at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Since joining VTT in 2006, she has worked in several research projects on technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Prior to that, she worked for almost ten years in the software business, both in professional and consulting roles. %R http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/1023