Innovation support needs of sustainability driven small firms: Studies within the Ecomind project

Innovation support needs of sustainability driven small firms: Studies within the Ecomind project

Molenaar, N.H.

Lauche, K. (mentor)
Diehl, J.C. (mentor)
Keskin, D. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Product Innovation Management

Master of Science Strategic Product Design

2010-10-11

Traditional approaches to sustainable consumption and production emphasized addressing issues related to the natural environment and sustainability through optimising existing products, processes and businesses. Even though it is suggested that young and new firms have advantages in innovation, there are few studies that address exploiting sustainable product ideas through new organizations. Therefore, this project seeks to firstly explore and characterize the innovation process of sustainability-driven small and young firms in the Netherlands. Secondly, this project seeks to understand how sustainability-driven small firms can be better supported in their innovation process. This project reports on the results of an explorative study that involves the use of generative techniques during individual semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs and intermediary organizations. The results suggest that the novelty and radicalness of an innovation and the development phase of a firm are important factors that influence how firms organize for innovation, manage their network and in-source knowledge necessary for innovation. Findings from the research also suggest that small firm owners can be best supported in these innovation processes, by leading them to have insights about their firm’s development themselves. Relevant areas to consider were found to be the skills and capabilities needed and available for innovation, structuring the product innovation process, researching users and markets and considering sustainability in all of these aspects.

susainable product development
small firms
entrepreneurs
intermediaries
innovation support
the Netherlands

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:60dfa624-fe69-4fab-9c57-7687ef193732

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2010 Molenaar, N.H.