This study about innovation and Enterprise 2.0 from Jönköping International Business School has been around for a while, but that does not make it less impressive or important.
It is a 99-page (!) master thesis about innovation, Enterprise 2.0 and a new form of management at Incentive customer IBS. The study contains extensive interviews and a lot of exciting facts. If you'd like to skip the theoretical and methodical part, go to page 40 where the case study starts.
Download the study in English from Digital Scientific Archives of Sweden:
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:325725/FULLTEXT01
For more hints of what the study is about, please read the abstract from authors Stanislav and Agne:
"The impact of Web 2.0 technologies has crossed the Internet borders and is increasingly affecting not only individuals but also organizations as entities. The emergence of the Enterprise 2.0 concept, which presumes the application of Web 2.0 tools within the organizational context, is being intensively adopted by many organizations of all types and sizes world-wide. Authors suggest that there is a direct impact of Enterprise 2.0 system on such organizational aspects as communication, collaboration, cooperation, co-creation and even innovation activities. There is though a sort of informational gap in the literature that would address these concepts (Enterprise 2.0 and Innovation) simultaneously and this was one of the main reasons that motivated the authors of this master thesis to investigate this topic.
In conducting this research all kinds of informational resources were used and these findings were combined with the results obtained from a real business case study, which is an example of an Enterprise 2.0 platform (Incentive) implemented within an organization (IBS). The overall research can be described in three main parts. In the first part analysis of the theoretical aspects related to Innovation and Enterprise 2.0 is made. A preliminary research framework is build based on these findings and this framework represents an at-tempt to bridge these theoretical dimensions. In the second part the investigation of the „Colin‟ case study was presented. With this case investigation the research gains access to primary data and information. This strengthens the initial research framework and also delivers new insights and perspectives in connection to the highlighted topic. The findings related to the impact of Enterprise 2.0 on Innovation processes are analyzed and discussed in the final part of the research from theoretical and empirical perspectives.
An enhanced framework, representing the result of the theoretical and empirical studies, is ultimately suggested. This model represents an attempt to portray how can an Enterprise 2.0 system support innovation activities in a more generic way, addressing together major factors that are critical for an innovation process. This investigation has also determined that such Enterprise 2.0 tools as Wikis, Blogs, Social Networking, Micro-blogging, Forums & Discussions, Search Engines, Tagging etc. are having the highest impact on innovation related activities. Additionally, the managerial aspect in relation to Enterprise 2.0 influence on Innovation has proved to be extremely important, especially during the implementation phase."
Download the study.
Thank you Agne Mackeviciute and Stanislav Iacubitchi for all your great work!