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Research Award by the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana

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Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana awarded my co-authored paper the runner-up prize for the the best scientific journal article at the annual research achievements event. The paper is co-authored with Miha Škerlavaj(University of Ljubljana) and Vlado Dimovski (University of Ljubljana) and examines network-based learning in organizations.  I hold a visiting professorship at the University of Ljubljana.

Škerlavaj, M., Dimovski, V., & Desouza, K.C. (2010): Patterns and Structures of Intra-Organizational Learning Networks Within a Knowledge-Intensive Organization, Journal of Information Technology, 25(2):189-204.

This paper employs the network perspective to study patterns and structures of intra-organizational learning networks. The theoretical background draws from cognitive theories, theories of homophily and proximity, theories of social exchange, the theory of generalized exchange, small-worlds theory, and social process theory. The levels of analysis applied are actor, dyadic, triadic, and global. Confirmatory social network analysis (exponential random graph modeling) was employed for data analysis. Findings suggest: (1) central actors in the learning network are experienced and hold senior positions in the organizational hierarchy, (2) evidence of homophily (in terms of gender, tenure, and hierarchical level relations) and proximity (in terms of geographical and departmental distances) in learning relationships, (3) learning relationships are non-reciprocal, and (4) transitivity and high local clustering with sparse inter-cluster ties are significant for intra-organizational learning networks.

Reflections from Slovenia: Designing Public-Private Innovation Partnerships

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I returned from Slovenia about a week back. During my visit, I had the opportunity to give a keynote talk at the Center of Excellence for Biosensors, Instrumentation and Process Control as part of the Slovenska visokotehnološka MSP na prepihu inovativne in razvojno tehnološke prebojnosti: Slovenija x.0 ? conference. I met with several executives during the conference and enjoyed exchanging ideas on how to design collaborative innovation platforms that promote private-private and private-public innovation partnerships. A key issue that surfaced is how to design an appropriate governance structure so as to promote knowledge transfer and collaboration among industry players that have a lot to gain (and lose) from collaboration. Alignment of incentives, sharing of risks, and even design of prototype collaborative endeavors are all essential components to build collaborative innovation partnerships.

Keynote Presentation – Center of Excellence for Biosensors, Instrumentation and Process Control, Slovenia – Ten Rules of Leveraging Ideas for Innovation

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On November 10th, I will give a keynote presentation for the annual conference hosted by the Center of Excellence for Biosensors, Instrumentation and Process Control (COBIK) at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The conference is titled: Slovenska visokotehnološka MSP na prepihu inovativne in razvojno tehnološke prebojnosti: Slovenija x.0 ?

The Slovenian government has supported the development of Centers of Excellence. Each Center of Excellence focuses on creating efficient relationships between public and private research institutions, technology driven firms and their global market positioning. The Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, is one of the partners in the Center of Excellence (COBIK) and is responsible for enabling the research and technology driven firms to gain business knowledge and helping them in the process to market their innovative products and solutions.

The program is available here [LINK]

Ten Rules of Leveraging Ideas for Innovation [LINK]

In this keynote address, I will discuss how leading organizations are building robust processes for leveraging ideas within their organization and across their networks. Ideas are critical ingredients for innovation. Designing robust innovation processes calls for great care in the handling of ideas. To this end, leading organizations are designing, and deploying, a portfolio of mechanisms to help their employees seek out, share, experiment with, commercialize, diffuse, and implement, ideas. I will highlight emerging technology solutions. In addition, I will outline how smart organizations are capturing knowledge about their innovation process and employing it for continuous refinement and renewal.

Building Sustainable Collaborative and Open Innovation Programs – University of Ljubljana

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I will be giving an invited lecture at the Raziskovalni center Ekonomske fakultete (Faculty of Economics) of the University of Ljubljana on February 15, 2010. My talk will focus on how organizations can design collaborative innovation programs.

Organizations cannot innovate in isolation. Ideas, knowledge, expertise, and processes needed for innovation are often distributed in the marketplace across a wide-assortment of actors from business partners, to customers, government agencies, and even competitors. Organizations have to find ways to collaborate and develop open, rather than closed, innovation programs. Collaboration calls for the ability to share required artifacts from ideas to knowledge and expertise, and even processes, with external entities. Being open requires an organization to unlock, and make available, its innovation process to external entities. Developing Collaborative and Open Innovation (COI) programs can be a daunting challenge. Issues such as ensuring trust, governance structures, rewards and incentives, and mechanisms for rent sharing from innovations can seem insurmountable. In this presentation, I will share actionable knowledge on how we can build sustainable COI programs. I will draw on research and consulting on designing organizational innovation programs in over 50 global organizations. I will share a framework for organizations that want to collaborate on innovation. This framework will outline methods for collaborative idea generation and mobilization, idea advocacy and screening, idea experimentation, idea commercialization, and idea diffusion and implementation. Examples will be used to illustrate how leading organizations collaborate with external entities for innovation and build open innovation programs that external entities can plug-into.

Patterns and Structures of Intra-Organizational Learning Networks: Forthcoming in Journal of Information Technology

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jitI have co-authored a paper with Miha Škerlavaj (University of Ljubljana) and Vlado Dimovski (University of Ljubljana) that examines network-based learning. The paper will appear in a special issue of the Journal of Information Technology. I hold a five-year honorary visiting professor appointment at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana.

This paper employs the network perspective to study patterns and structures of intra-organizational learning networks. The theoretical background draws from cognitive theories, theories of homophily and proximity, theories of social exchange, the theory of generalized exchange, small-worlds theory, and social process theory. The levels of analysis applied are actor, dyadic, triadic, and global. Confirmatory social network analysis (exponential random graph modeling) was employed for data analysis. Findings suggest: (1) central actors in the learning network are experienced and hold senior positions in the organizational hierarchy, (2) evidence of homophily (in terms of gender, tenure, and hierarchical level relations) and proximity (in terms of geographical and departmental distances) in learning relationships, (3) learning relationships are non-reciprocal, and (4) transitivity and high local clustering with sparse inter-cluster ties are significant for intra-organizational learning networks.

Keynote Speaker: First International Conference on Information Society and Information Technology, Slovenia (12-13 October 2009)

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header_3I have been invited to deliver a keynote lecture at the First International Conference on Information Society and Information Technology in Novo Mesto (Dolenjske Toplice), Slovenia. The conference is being organized by the Faculty of Information Studies.

The Value-Creation Imperative for the Information System Academy: Lessons from Three Radical (Risky) Projects

The Information System (IS) Academy continues to falter in its attempt to create value-added artifacts for its stakeholders. IS researchers are seldom invited to participate in significant projects at private organizations and government establishments. Stakeholders, from management practitioners to government policy makers, are frustrated by the current state of IS research. In this talk, I draw on three of my recent research projects the change management book as part of the global text project, leveraging ideas for organizational innovation, and an examination of information management challenges in complex, networked, settings (e.g. government intelligence communities and terrorist organizations) to propose a new model for IS research. The new model puts value-creation as the central measure of IS research impact. Given this, the model illustrates how to engage stakeholders to co-create value that not only benefits the theoretical knowledge bases, but also contributes directly and deliberately to the state of practice. Furthermore, the model outlines how to commercialize research so as to benefit society at-large through the widespread diffusion and implementation of research results.

Two Research Seminars at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana

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I enjoyed delivering two research seminars in Slovenia. Thanks to all that attended. I gained a lot from your feedback and comments.

Seminar prof. dr. Kevina C. Desouze (University of Washington, Seattle, WA), z naslovom Designing the Innovation Process: Building, Managing, Communicating and Measuring, bo v sredo, 13. maja 2009, ob 17. uri, v klubski sobi CISEF-a

Seminar prof. dr. Kevina C. Desouze (University of Washington, Seattle, WA), z naslovom Challenges in Inter-Disciplinary Research: Strategies from Crafting Research Ideas to Publishing, bo v ponedeljek, 11. maja 2009, ob 16. uri, v sejni sobi CISEF-a.

Pictures from Ljubljanski Grad, Slovenia

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Pictures from Ljubljana, Slovenia

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements: Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, May 2009

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I will be delivering two invited lectures at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana in May. logo_eng

The first talk, Challenges in Inter-Disciplinary Research: Strategies from Crafting Research Ideas to Publishing, will take place on May 11, 2009. In this presentation, I will share my experiences in executing inter-disciplinary research projects. Studying complex phenomenon requires us to undertake research that (1) draws on multiple disciplines, (2) engages a diverse group of stakeholders, (3) appreciates a plurality of research approaches, and (4) communicates to a diverse set of audiences. Executing inter-disciplinary research is no easy feat to accomplish. Researchers face daunting challenges from the onset, beginning with the very inception of ideas, crafting of problem statements, executing the research process, and communicating the results via publications in academic and practitioner outlets. However, these challenges should not be viewed as an excuse to abandon inter-disciplinary research in favor of narrow-minded and singular research exercises, which reduce complex phenomenon in deterministic fashions so as to arrive at simplistic problems that lack relevance. I will present a method (process) for executing inter-disciplinary research that has served me well. Illustrative examples of research projects will be used to exemplify this process and outline strategies for researchers to consider when conducting inter-disciplinary research projects.

The second talk, Designing the Innovation Process: Building, Managing, Communicating and Measuring, will take place on May 13, 2009. In this presentation, I will describe the process of innovation and propose mechanisms to measure the value of innovation. The innovation process will be broken down into the discrete stages of idea generation and mobilization, screening and advocacy, experimentation, commercialization, diffusion and implementation. For each stage, context, outputs and critical ingredients are discussed. Findings are based on extensive study of over 30 top US and European companies with mature innovation processes.