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
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