LEAPFROG - A research initiative on Innovation Management for Societal Transition

Why

Need for structural transition in society

Major societal and wicked challenges; negative climate impact as well as social and economic dysfunctionality. Expressed through, e.g., unequal public health, unsustainable energy systems, residential segregation, overconsumption and exclusion

Need for joint making of  technological, economic and social change

• Participatory and collaborative (seeking common good)
• Continuous and integrated across different levels of organizing (operational to political)
• Engine for collective experiments and co-creation of knowledge

From dispersed and isolated activities to participatory, continuous, integrated and innovative knowledge and incentive co-creation.

How

Development of new academic and policy thinking through interdisciplinary research at the intersection of organizational management theories, system thinking as well as social psycology of innovation and markets.

This by:

• Identify enablers and obstacles for different actors to transform and raise their impact for a sustainable future
• Use this knowledge for devising roadmaps and tools for improving and implementing innovations and practices
• Develop conceptual understanding of ‘better’ innovation management for societal transformation towards sustainability
• FOCUS primarily on innovative efforts involving public actors
• INTERSECTORAL where projects span across e.g., health care, energy, and tourism
• ACTION RESEARCH, largely in collaboration with public actors
• MIXED METHODS including interviews, document analysis, vignettes, as well as processing of quantitative data
• REFLEXIVE in questioning the role of prominent conceptual and technical tools in understanding and valuing innovation in society