White Spaces Innovation in Sweden - Innovation policy for ... - Vinnova

WHITE SPACES INNOVATION IN SWEDENOrder is seen as a kind of balance or equilibrium and the pursuit of equilibrium haslong been a goal of traditional management. In fact, good managers are often judged asthose who achieve stability and balance in a system, and are able to minimize suddenand unexpected changes (anticipating „wickedness‟ capability‟). Traditional approachesto orderly management have been based on the idea that the world is knowable, becauseit is a kind of mechanical system in which identifiable forces and fundamental laws ofmotion are in operation. Good managers in such systems arm themselves with knowledgeof cause and effect and over time can come to understand the forces and laws theyperceive at work in the system. This knowledge enables managers to achieve predictability,order and control in their organizations. Predictable stability becomes ``normal''and change is seen to ``punctuate'' the equilibrium as a radical departure from normal.A complexity absorption response to environmental complexity, on the other hand,involves holding multiple and conflicting portrayals of the variety in the environment.Managerial responses to complexity from the absorption perspective would include thedevelopment of multiple and sometimes conflicting goals, recognising the importanceof a variety of strategic activities, more informal and decentralized structural/decisionmaking patterns, and a wide variety of interactions and connections for decision making.This would be to apply abductive logic (i.e. creative rather than deductive or inductivereasoning). This is design thinking in Martin‟s (2009) language, or applying anentrepreneurial response to use Boisot & McMillan‟s (2007) language. This approachalso has a need for co-construction or innovation of meaning (e.g. use of metaphors,analogies and narrative) since the cognitive dimension is very important together withdialogue, discourse and learning to reach shared meaning.Weick (1995) describes „sensemaking as arguing‟ and encourages managers to recognizethe „divergent, antagonistic, imbalanced forces‟ that are woven throughout theprocess of sensemaking. When managers try to impose order and eliminate ambiguity itis because ambiguity is seen as a form of ignorance and acknowledging ignorancebrings out insecurities. Such insecurities are traditionally dealt with by acquiring information.However, if ambiguity is viewed as confusion that occurs because of multipleinterpretations then it is a condition that improves when individuals work together toconstruct new meanings (Weick, 1995). Insecurities are reduced not merely with informationbut with information interpreted through a social process. Finally, disorder canbe seen as something to be eliminated, avoided and prevented. These concerns are evidentin the rationale for the EU‟s advocacy of „smart specialisation‟ faced with a perceivedEU innovation space characterised by: unrestricted competition, diversity, fragmentationand policy overlap (Foray, 2009). Alternatively, it can be accepted, if notcelebrated, as an opportunity for new growth. Change does not occur without a shock tothe current order.24