RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

308 RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
labs. The industry has put considerable effort into reducing the gap of technology transfer
and refining the services and products by taking account of user’s perspective. The central
theme of various research forums is focused on integrating the real needs of a community
with the research and development which would help directly with solving the issues and
social demands through real world experiments (Jerzmanowski, 2008). The modernisation
of product systems, enhancements to public services, urban renewables and healthcare transformations
are amongst current societal challenges. Technological innovations adoption can
address these challenges through open and systematic innovation in a broader context (Bruton,
2008; Draca, 2013; Stua, 2013). Systematic innovation ranges from, interrelated technologies,
through organisational adoptions of legal and financial aspects to community
involvement from human practices and behaviours. It is often very difficult to accomplish
innovation and change in complex systems due to competing interests and priorities of the
actors involved. The identification of interventions, causes, dependencies and interactions are
quite difficult to discover in hyper-complex innovative systems (Wielemaker & Gedajlovic,
2011). Therefore, understanding and addressing the requirements of community users, systematic
nature of cross-border interventions in complex systems development leading to change
and innovation is particularly important.
Systematic innovation through cross-border collaborative innovative networks is being
developed to deliver the “XploR” smart cane project. Different roles and responsibilities were
assigned to all living labs participating in this project because a phased approach is required
to develop such networks addressing both operational and strategic issues are shared and
resolved with a common vision. The smart cane is designed for the blind and visually impaired,
so when developing the cross-border collaborative platform to develop this project, the ecosystem
was built with great care and to ensure none of the requirements or details are missing.
The collaborative agreement was defined among three living labs which include contractual
agreements, business proposition, intellectual property rights and business model. As this project
was funded by Interreg IVB North West Europe (NWE), the initial phase of technology
transfer was piloted amongst partner located in England, France and Luxemburg, so there
were no restrictions if any partner living labs chose to drop-out at any stage of the co-innovation.
In general, it is always better to take precautionary measures to avoid participants exiting
from any phase of the project.
To avoid any delays in the project completion, all roles and responsibilities were allocated
to all participant living labs. It was also discussed and encouraged to one contact point for
each living lab, to reduce the existence of conflicts at a later stage. Each living lab is held
responsible for possessing required skills, competencies and expertise to develop this project.
Before this networked project was initiated, all stakeholders supported the business case
to avoid potential difficulties in the future. The goal, objective, outcome and time frame were
discussed and expectations were clearly defined. In the case of the development life cycle of
“XploR” project, opportunities were disseminated to all stakeholders to support advance the
product and target clear business opportunities after the project ends. Adequate project management
and planning was ensured through a cross-border collaborative online platform as
complex infrastructure. The communication tools and collaborative workspaces were intended
to facilitate the commitment, interaction and intra-communication. Through the development
of the “XploR” project it was established that the same technology could not be diffused to
France and Luxemburg, requiring different options for them; additionally, legal, cultural, social,