Global jams and country-specific adjustments:insights from Iran

Journal article, 2016

Service and sustainability jams are annual events that are being held across the globe to promote collective design-based problem solving. These events, similar to other innovation jams, represent a new approach towards design which is based on collective and distributed innovation. While the online platform and the main framework of these jams are designed by the global organisers, there are always country-specific adjustments in implementation. Understanding the relationships between the global frameworks and the country-specific adjustments in these collective innovative activities is an interesting, but unexplored research area. This paper explains how seven jam events between 2012 and 2015 in Iran have been influenced by changes on both global and country-specific levels. As a conclusion, we found out that despite the important role of global frameworks, country-specific adjustments had a significant influence on the tools, rules and procedures, roles, demographics of participants, and the resultant designs.