Digital innovation
Course set up
6 lectures exam readings
2 tutorials exam practice (compulsory)
o 6 groups, 2 online, 4 offline
o Registration will follow
2 guest lectures not exam readings, but key inputs for papers
Exam 31 may, 60 percent of grade minimum 5,5
Paper + presentation 2 june – 28 june
o Two feedback meetings with supervisor compulsory
o Presentation paper 28 june (10%)
o Paper (30%)
Contents
o 1. Introduction to digital innovations
o 2. Impacts of digital innovation I economy and sustainability
o 3. Impacts of digital innovation II new digital divides
o Guest lecture 1 Dirk Lukkien (Vilans) – Artificial Intelligence
o 4. Online platforms I the rise of the platform economy
o 5. Online platform II digitial user communities
o Guest lecture 2 José van Dijck (UU media studies) – The platform society
o 6. Mini-lectures on e-health, smart mobility, smart living and (social) media
Lecutres & tutorials
o Lectures will be recorded
Pp before lecture
Recording in teams
o During lectures
Mini assignments answers in the chat
Questions in the chat second lecturer will collect
o Tutorials and paper supervision meeting will not be recorded
o During tutorials
Engage actively
,Lecture 1
What is digital innovation? & Ecosystem strategy for digital innovation
What is digital innovation?
o New combinations of digital and physical components (digital) to produce
novel products
o Digital does not mean virtual world only includes physical artifacts
Otherwise, they cannot be consumed or scaled up
Physical is important how are sectors affected by digital innovations
o Focus lies on product innovation, not process innovation
Focus not producing process
Digitalize key functions and capabilities of industrial-age products
including cars, phones, televisions, cameras and even books
Offering novel functionalities changing way that we consume
Improving price/performance ratios that transform their design,
production, distribution and use
Sectors often disrupted by digital innovation, because it
changes the whole way of using/consuming
Some process innovation builds on product innovation
Digitization
o Transformation of mechanical into digital products
Digitization = to digitize information means to turn it into digital
format
Many possibilities; sound, visual, texts, weight, temperature, wind,
sun, etc.
o Digital innovation is not just ‘virtual’, but also physical
Digital technologies always rely on a physical basis (energy, artefacts),
physical location (wifi, data centers) and with physical effects
(electricity use, waste)
Information is independent of the product which is used to store the
string of 0’s and 1’s in the first place
o Dominant vision for the future internet of things
Moving from text to things
Objects also part of the internet connection to internet and ip
Send information of current state to central server
Example: communicating that they are for rent
o Combined digital/physical aspect of DI generates new inequalities
Between china + US and the rest of the world
City and countryside
High and low educated people
Characteristics of DI
o Re-programmability
Physical carriers can be used for many purposes
o Homogenization of data
Data are independent of physical carriers
Different physical structures to 0’s and 1’s process them in the
same way
Analyzed and recombined for example statistics
, Can also be sold
o Self-referential
Network externalities each adopter of a digital innovation increases
the value of use for other adopters, both directly (social media) and
indirectly (via development of complementary innovations)
o Architecture
Layered
Contents sounds, pictures, texts, robotics
Service apps such as search, social media, e-commerce
Network physical, logical (TCP/IS)
Device psychical, logical (OS)
Modular
Components in layered digital architectures are not just
modular, but product agnostic (google maps) rather than
product-specific (aircraft engine)
o This sets principle of modularity in digital innovation
apart from same principle in traditional
o Not know where it is going to be used for
o Creating modules for consumers to use
A physical device like the iPhone is both a traditional modular
product and a digital platform offering other firms to develop
complementary devices, apps and content using software
development kits and application programming interfaces
o Product specific vs. product agnostic
Example aircraft pre-specified
All modules of the aircraft are meant to make an aircraft and not
something different
Example Uber
Many different modules which pre-existed, not developed because
uber wanted to, but just combined them
o Industrial organization
Layered
Contents sounds, pictures, texts, robotics
Service apps such as search, social media, e-commerce
Network physical, logical
o T-mobile, KPN, Vodafone, hardware companies
Device physical, logical
Power
In traditional industries, firms higher up in the product
hierarchy are generally larger and have more power (airbus,
Volkswagen)
In digital industries, firms in each layer can function
independently power resides in platform firms, which can
be located in the device layer (windows, iOS) or service layer
(facebook, amazon)
Strategy (section 4.1)
, o Digital innovation blurs product and industry boundaries prepare for
disruption
o Choose your position in a layered, modular architecture few companies
can fulfil the platform role
o What to develop yourself, what to use from the shelf, and what to develop by
partners
Innovation ecosystem (Adner 2006)
o The ecosystem metaphor
o Digital services are typically co-produced by several organizations that jointly
create value to the end consumers
o Main advantage holds that every organization can focus on its core
competence
o Main disadvantage is that quality is no longer controlled by a single firm
‘Offering a Ferrari in a world without gasoline or highways’
o Example
Traditional car rental companies owning cars, garages, desks, cleaning
facilities labor-intensive
New car sharing companies only owning cars, but partnering with
municipality parking, smart locks, national railways and consumers
sabing on labour
o Three fundamental types of risk
Standard initiative risks
The familiar uncertainties of innovation resources, demand,
supply, competition, IPR)
Ecosystem
Interdependence risks the uncertainties of coordinating
with complementary innovators
Integration risks the uncertainties presented by the
adoption process across the value chain
o Interdependence risks the uncertainties of coordinating with
complementary innovators
The more partners involved, the more value can be created
However, for innovation to succeed, more partners mean more risk
Probability of ecosystem success does not depend on average of
probability component success but its product
Say four components and chance of success 90% chance of
ecosystem success is 0.94 = 0.66
And if one partner is a weak link (0.2), project is bound to fail
despite quality of other partners: chance of ecosystem success
is 0.2 x 0.9 x 0.9 x 0.9 = 0.15
Mitigation of interdepended risks
If partner fails/is delayed, other partners can decide to support
(exclusive license, financial), look for other partners (even from
competitor) or take up the task themselves
Beta testing may reveal that some components are not so
critical anyway, or components are overlooked