Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

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European standardization of innovation management: The sufficiency of the CEN/TS 16555 in the 6th generation of innovation management

2019 , Cap, J.-P. , Hinzmann, F. , Kohl, H. , Orth, R.

Although being an innovator is an important role to play for significant growth and profitability of firms to gain competitive advantages, companies struggle to find and implement an efficient and effective innovation management system and innovation process for new product development (Salomo et al. 2007). The emerge of innovations is rarely incidentally, therefore, require a systematic approach. To enhance the innovation system, companies are constrained to develop and implement the necessary framework for all innovation activity. Contrary to regular management objectives, innovation management can constrain new barriers and unknown challenges and requires therefore a different approach compared to routine functions (Granig und Perusch 2012). The CEN/TS 16555 has the objective to prescribe technical requirements to be fulfilled for the development and implementation of a sustainable innovation management system into an organisation. The centre of this innovation management model is the innovation process which starts with an idea and ends with innovation results. As organisational aspects, such as innovation supportive leadership, strategy, factors and techniques are key elements of this model, the innovation process get enriched by assessment, improvement and planning of the process itself (Technical Specification 16555-1). This paper investigates the current European standardization activity regarding the implementation of innovation management approaches to tackle the abovementioned challenge of the implementation of innovation management in reference to the in DIN Spec CEN/TS 16555 introduced in 2016 by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). This paper will analyse the CEN/TS 16555 for its sufficiency regarding the bigger picture of innovation management by linking it to main literature and best practices. For the comparison of the specification and the innovation management requirements and purposes, this paper will specifically focus on the innovation management framework in the 6 generation of innovation management.

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IC future check: Greater transparency within the credit process

2014 , Wuscher, S. , Kohl, H. , Orth, R.

Field reports and surveys have shown that complementing financial data with information on intangibles can sharpen the view on creditworthiness of an organisation. Especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are facing the challenge that the intangibles which thus far have not been taken into account are to make transparent for their respective banks. At the same time banks adopt such qualitative information in their lending decisions to optimize their risk portfolio. This paper presents the tool box "IC Future Check" which has been developed and tested in cooperation with financial institutions and businesses within a project for the German Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology. In this context it shows how the "IC Future Check" systematically supports the communication between bank and business and increases the transparency of intangibles. In a case study of a German SME the practical use of the "IC Future Check" is demonstrated in the credit lending process. The presented tool "IC Future Check" can provide significant support to the communication between SMEs and banks and to reduce existing information asymmetries. This puts SMEs in position to present their future potential in a structured way and to show the transparency regarding their intangible success factors.

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Intellectual capital and sustainability management: Perspectives for an integrated reporting and benchmarking

2012 , Orth, R. , Kohl, H.

Purpose - Sustainability Management can be defined as a corporate strategy that respects not only economic goals but also environmental and social aspects (Schaltegger, 2011). In this context the development and use of intellectual capital (IC) provides an important lever for the implementation of sustainability management due to the fact that IC affects equally all three sustainability dimensions. Different sustainability management concepts point out the relevance of intangible resources but the contribution of IC to a sustainable development is not or only very limited provided. Therefore the question arises how intangible resources can be measured and communicated as well as managed systematically considering the vision of sustainable development. Within this paper perspectives for an integrative approach will be examined. Approach - Regarding the integration of Intellectual Capital and Sustainability Management three aspects should be examined in detail: (1) Conceptual Model: based on the InCaS approach (Mertins et al., 2009) an integrated framework will be developed, taking aspects of different sustainability concepts into account. (2) KPI and Benchmarking: built on the 'BenchmarkIndex' (Mertins et al., 2011), an integrated set of indicators will be developed - useful for internal management as well as external reporting purposes. (3) Integrated Reporting: Bases on a systematic review of existing (sustainability reporting) guidelines requirements regarding an integrated reporting format will be formulated. Originality/value - IFKAD-KCWS 2012 tackles three crucial aspects of the 21st century: knowledge, innovation and sustainability - on a micro and macro level. Against this background the paper aims to integrate two distinctive but at the same time greatly corresponding perspectives - intellectual capital and sustainability management on the micro/company level. Both topics are of high relevance for the future of organizations but have not really been integrated so far. This work will also contribute to the actual discussion initiated by the IIRC on "Communicating Value in the 21st Century" and harmonizing different disclosure formats (IIRC, 2011). Practical implications - According to the global survey "A New Era of Sustainability" more than 80% of CEOs stated that sustainability issues are now fully embedded into strategies and operations of their companies (Lacy et al., 2010). But at the same time only 21% of listed companies report any sustainability information (Bloomberg, 2010) and the full integration of sustainability into performance management frameworks remains some way off (Berns et al., 2009). A result of this paper will be a draft model for an integrated sustainability management - taking intangibles into account and bridging the gap between internal management and external reporting issues. This proposal will consider conceptual as well as procedural aspects for implementing for an integrated performance measurement and reporting.

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Comparative analysis of German and Brazilian innovation systems to improve binational cooperation

2017 , Melo, G. , Haunschild, J. , Orth, R. , Will, M. , Kohl, H.

Brazil is the core economy of Latin America, and Germany plays that role for the EU. Bilateral relations between Brazil and Germany are long-standing and comprehensive. For more than 140 years, Brazil and Germany have been connected by active bilateral diplomatic relations. Based on this solid relation and their economic positions, it is interesting to find means of collaboration, especially in long-term strategies as innovation. Based on broadly literature review, this study attempts to identify strength and weaknesses of each National Innovation System through a framework that comprises six different functions and three types of interactions between the actors in the system. They are policy formulation, performing R&D, financing R&D, promotion of human resource development, technology bridging, promotion of technological entrepreneurship; R&D collaboration, technology diffusion, labour mobility. This research contributes to a new perspective that is particularly interested in the differences in these structures in developing countries and countries at the frontier. Besides, the outcome of this study guides insights on how two leading economies, which have historical great relations, could better cooperate in innovation, science and technology field. This study attempts to examine, by means of a SWOT analysis, the Brazilian and German Innovation System in order to suggest improvements on each system and the binational cooperation concerning science, technology and innovation. The first step of the paper is the identification of the strengths and weakness in each National Innovation System based on library resources, articles, reports and other secondary data. In a second step, through interviews with relevant experts, the study tries to clarify the opportunities and threats on the binational cooperation.

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Sustainability analysis for indicator-based benchmarking solutions

2013 , Kohl, H. , Orth, R. , Riebartsch, O.

In times of scarce resources, the concept of sustainability management has become tremendously important within today's business environment. The integration of a sustainable perspective into corporate management structures does not only satisfy the involved stakeholders, but rather prepares a company to cope with the continuously increasing challenges on the markets. The Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (IPK) offers the BenchmarkIndex-Analysis that allows especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to measure their business performance based on selected indicators of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). Since the methodology and the broad dissemination of the BenchmarkIndex represent a promising opportunity for a wide application of sustainability management solutions, an analysis of existing and potential sustainability indicators was carried out to identify how an adaption of the BenchmarkIndex can consider the long-term economic, but in particular the environmental and social aspects of sustainability.

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Intellectual capital statements as a driver for regional development

2015 , Kohl, H. , Wuscher, S. , Orth, R. , Steinhöfel, E.

The definition of Intellectual Capital (IC) and the methodology of creating Intellectual Capital Statements (ICS) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) as well as in larger companies and organizational networks have been adequately researched over the last years. The experience gained from more than 1.000 implementations of ICS in European companies has been utilized to derive a standard set of 15 IC factors according to the common categorization into Human Capital, Structural Capital and Relational Capital, which is stable and mainly applicable on the company-level. Since the concept of IC on the company level has been established, first investigations have started to come up with different concepts of IC and ICS on the regional level. These concepts show that both, the definition of IC and the procedure for implementing ICS on the regional level, are not adequately investigated yet though. Therefore, the requirement is to develop and test a stable regional IC concept, meaning a suitable definition of IC and an adjusted procedure for implementing ICS on the regional level. Against this background, the paper at hand seeks to illustrate a conceptual framework for determining and measuring IC on different actor levels (micro, meso and macro level). The illustration of the conceptual framework is based on a literature review of four different regional IC concepts from Germany and of further existing Intellectual Capital concepts on regional and national level. The findings indicate that the definition of IC and the procedure of implementing ICS on the regional level are not adequately investigated yet and an adapted procedure with a balanced combination of quantitative measurement and qualitative assessment of IC is required. The paper introduces a preliminary set of harmonized IC success factors for regions based on a recent survey and workshop with more than 65 representatives from the local and regional level in Germany carried out in September 2014. Furthermore, the paper discusses possible approaches of procedures for implementing Intellectual Capital Statements on the regional level, which is and will be investigated further on in current and planned research projects.

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Sustainability incubators

2013 , Kohl, H. , Orth, R. , Galeitzke, M.

Combining the strength of small and medium-sized enterprises to operate and innovate in networks and the guidance of a sustainability incubator is an application-oriented solution to the described mission to progress the sustainable development from the private sector. The beneficial framework conditions for the enterprise network and the direction predetermined by the objective of the sustainability incubator are an initial step towards this imperative. Supporting the small and medium-sized enterprises of the manufacturing sector is an essential economic policy to underline the sustainable development of almost any economy. The provision of education, employment and economic added value are substantial contributions of these enterprises. The knowledge of the enterprises and thereby the capabilities of the personnel within the network are utilized to create services and products in an effective and efficient way enabling the increase of sustainability performance of the individual enterprises. The strong and innovative network that is coordinated by the sustainability incubator benefits of the systematic management of the success factors and their utilization and gains potential to increase its innovation activities in regard to environmental and social determination factors. The division corporate management of the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (IPK) has gathered experience in both the provision of knowledge management solutions as well as the research regarding knowledge management in networks to increase sustainability. Furthermore the development of new methodologies for the measurement and evaluation of the sustainability performance of SME is an essential aspect of its research and development activities. As part of the future research, a case study with a network of collaborating SMEs is intended that utilizes the learning about small scale enterprises and incubators, the strategic and implementation planning of science and technology parks as well as the comprehensive understanding of national innovation systems.

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