ASTA – roles, rights n'duties

Research Project, 2013 – 2014

This project focuses on understanding what managing means in emerging types of inter-organizational collaborations. It is set in the context of the initial phases of establishing ASTAZero, an open environment for research and testing within the field of traffic safety. The project specifically addresses the question of role distribution (rights and duties) and how to enact leadership in such a complex context.

Drawing upon experiences from researchers as well as practitioners, it is clear that there is a lack of understanding of actual processes and activities for using open innovation. The complexity of the innovation process increases with the number of collaborators, and the leadership of the open innovation process and the management of the different interfaces between participating organizations and individuals become central challenges. Open innovation management implies orchestrating complex social processes in which interaction between different actors creates new knowledge and reveals new business opportunities and sustainable solutions.

 The project is based on an action research methodology, which implies a close collaboration between the researchers and the participating organizations and is a suitable method when aiming at understanding practices in use.