Project no. H-1
The inSPIRe industry-research Brokering Community
Researchers:
Helle Alsted Søndergaard (AU-MAPP) and Mette Præst Knudsen (SDU)
Industrial partners: Network of SME’s in cooperation with DTI
Summary of project:
The aim of this horizontal activity is to set up a web platform where participating companies in InSPIRe (and especially SMEs) can broadcast their questions and problems (within the boundaries of the three pillars) to the other project participants (both researchers, GTS institutions and other companies) with the aim of getting input for possible solutions. The solutions can either be publicly available or shared only among the solution seeker and solution giver. The platform will be designed with input from the other project participants. MAPP researchers will set up and maintain the platform and use it to investigate research questions related to the type of problems posted, the quality of the solutions, the motivation for participating in the community, and the attitude of the participating companies and individuals. The concept of sharing or ‘broadcasting’ unresolved questions or problems to a community of relevant actors is part of the paradigm of open innovation (Chesbrough, 2007), and the success of such approaches has been documented (Terwiesch & Xu, 2008).
Project no. H-2
Communicability and Impression Management in the Design of Food Production Chains
Researchers:
Klaus G. Grunert (AU-MAPP), Athanasios Krystallis (AU-MAPP) and Wim Verbeke (U Ghent)
Industrial partners: Arla Foods, DMRI, other industrial participants in Projects 1 and 3
Summary of project:
Value can be created not only by endowing a physical product with certain characteristics, but also by manufacturing the product in a production chain that is communicable to customers and that is composed of activities that customers find valuable. Customers may find certain production activities valuable because they believe those production activities have an impact on the properties of the final product, or they may find certain production activities in themselves valuable, even when no impact on the physical product is expected (Grunert, 2005). For example, it is believed that physical processes which are designed to faithfully mimic the art of good cooking, but in large scale, are positively valued by customers (e.g., Olsen et al. 2010). However, there are also aspects of industrial food production which, when communicated, may have the opposite effect, i.e. detrimental effects on value perception of customers; examples of this are use of additives, ingredients perceived as unnatural, use of mechanical deboning in meat processing, etc.