Ideas are essential for innovation and for the continuous renewal of a firm’s product offerings. Previous research has argued that online communities contain such ideas. Therefore, online communities such as forums, Facebook groups, blogs etc. are potential gold mines for innovative ideas that can be used for boosting the innovation performance of the firm. However, the nature of online community data makes idea detection labor intensive. As an answer to this problem, research has shown that it might be possible to detect ideas from online communities, automatically. Research is however, yet to provide an answer to what is it that makes such automatic idea detection possible?
Our study is based on two datasets from dialogue between members of two distinct online communities. The first community is related to beer. The second is related to Lego. We generate machine learning classifiers based on Support Vector Machines and Partial Least Squares that can detect ideas from each respective online community. We use partial least squares to investigate what are the words and expressions that allows for automatic classification of ideas. We conclude that ideas from the two online communities, contains suggestion/solution words and expressions and it is these that make automatic idea detection possible. In addition we conclude that the nature of the ideas in the beer community seems to be related to the brewing process. The nature of the ideas in the Lego community seems to be related to new products that consumers would want.
Biotechnology is a platform technology that may significantly contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Yet biotechnology is hardly ever referred to as a ‘clean technology’. This paper investigates why biotechnology tends to be ignored in this context. A global stakeholder survey on biotechnology and climate change was conducted with 55 representatives of 44 institutions. The results of a perception pattern analysis show that the majority of stakeholder representatives had a neutral or positive attitude towards the use of biotechnology and regarded its potential to address climate change problems as significant. The survey results further reveal a significant relationship between a representative’s institutional and disciplinary background and his or her attitude. To a considerable extent, a person’s background appears to determine whether biotechnology is framed as a risk or an opportunity for sustainable development.
The demography of cities in the 21st century will be shaped, to a large extent, by migration. This paper argues that the rights-based approach to urban policy advocated in the preparatory work of Habitat III, the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development to be held in October 2016 in Quito, Ecuador, may not be conducive to this goal. The approach lacks a contextual and dynamic understanding of urbanization. It implicitly assumes that a growing and expansive urban economy would primarily benefit the rich and harm the poor. The resulting containment policies to stop “urban sprawl” and defend “the right to the city” can, however, be counterproductive if adopted in cities in less developed countries (LDCs) that grow fast due to internal migration. Attempts to limit urban growth may merely lead to more informal settlements, less affordable housing, and increasing costs of doing business. In other words, it may benefit the rich and harm the poor. LDCs should, therefore, refrain from adopting defensive urban policies mostly advocated by more developed countries (MDCs) and, instead, plan for sustainable urban expansion designed to improve access to essential urban services and to create a level playing field for newcomers in business. In this context, urban policies may build upon the basic insights of the late urbanist Jane Jacobs. She recognized that the vital function of cities is to provide affordable infrastructure and an institutional environment that enable migrants and other marginal urban communities to contribute to urban prosperity and problem-solving with their skills, networks, and entrepreneurial minds. The resulting social and economic empowerment increases access to essential human rights and ensures that cities become more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.
By 2030, sixty percent of the world’s population is projected to live in cities. The majority of this growth in urban areas is expected to occur in cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The transition from rural to urban life styles is likely to increase household consumption and will require massive investments in urban infrastructure.
How will society cope with this process of transformation without causing social exclusion and environmental harm? The answer is to see cities not just as centers of consumption, but as platforms for sustainable change that create new forms of collaboration and innovation to address environment, social and economic challenges. To capture the full potential of cities and their hinterlands requires an understanding of sustainability in society, a vision that captures the importance of context and time.
In this issue we focus on the role of knowledge creation and innovation as drivers of sustainable urban change. These drivers have the potential to de-couple economic growth and affluence from increasing energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, waste production and exploitation of natural resources.
