Developing Dynamic Intellectual Capital through Creative Group Dynamics:

The ACSI Innovation Platform

Conference: ECIC 2012, presentation in a paper session Stream D: Innovation, Strategy and Performance

Tuesday 24 April 2012, Helsinki, Finland

Petro Poutanen, Helsinki University Aino Kianto, Lappeenranta University of Technology

Pirjo Ståhle, Turku School of Economics / Aalto (CKIR)

A dynamic perspective on societal-level IC

�  Most existing research on societal-level IC focuses on identifying and measuring intangibles

�  Research gap: How intangibles are created?

�  Generation of societal innovations as a crucial form of dynamic IC on the societal levels

�  The dynamics of how societal innovations are created in temporary informal groups

�  RQ: How can groups function in a self-organizing creative manner? How can this process be facilitated?

Aalto Camp for Societal Innovations (ACSI)

�  International innovation forum for solving societal problems

�  Bringing together education, research, and innovation

�  ACSI forms a genuine platform for generating change in society

�  8 days camps, organized since 2010

�  Based on principles of self-organizion as opposed top-down coordinated processes (Ståhle, 1998, 2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpK_2GhtK7w

ACSI working principles �  Real-life cases

�  Heterogenous groups

�  Individual contribution

�  Open dialogue and freedom to experiment

�  Groups are responsible for their own ways of working

�  Facilitation and support

Case: The Old Port of Kotka �  Case Kotka: Transforming a former harbor area into a

vibrant part of the city

�  Development observed through 2010-2011

�  Research data: Observations from ACSI camps, interviews, survey data, documentations

�  Analysis: Iterative grounded theory (Orton, 1997)

�  Focus on: �  main enabling group strategies �  environmental conditions �  critical moments

Causal map of critical moments (2010)

Kotka case: 2010 DAYS 1-2

Day 2

The use of

narrative methods

Conflict about the working methods

Focusing and

searching for the

objectives

A vision of Kotka

Increasing motivation

Day 1

Kotka case: 2010 DAYS 3-5

Days 4

No working hierar-chies

The case

visit to Kotka

•  Team-building •  New ideas •  Commitment

Day 3 Days 5

ACSI: Feed-back + facilita-

tion

(Re)formu-lation of

the objectives

Feed-back

from the case-owner

Kotka case: 2010 DAYS 6-8

Day(off) 6

Plan-ning the

final report

Prepa-ring the presenta

tion

The Emergence

of the working

roles

Day 7 Days 8 (Acsibition)

Work on innovation continues!

Findings Environmental supporting conditions

�  Case-visit �  Facilitation �  Case owner �  End product (ACSIbition)

Enabling group strategies •  Working methods •  Communication •  Group roles •  High motivation

Conclusion �  Self-organizing creative groups are the key structure for

societal level dynamic IC

�  They both 1) promote the generation of new ideas and 2) work as a link to extend the change to the wider ecosystem

�  The ACSI working model can be used to support formation of such groups

�  Applicable to other contexts as well

Thank you!

petro.poutanen@helsinki.fi

aino.kianto@lut.fi

pirjo.stahle@utu.fi