Developing business opportunities for biological by-products
(2016) MIO920Production Management
- Abstract
- A growing middle class and increased consumption call for better utilization of resources. For companies to make use of all resources in the production system is not only a way of meeting the changing customer demands and regulatory changes regarding sustainability, but also a way of increasing profits.
Finding new business opportunities for by-products can be considered as early stage innovation, commonly known as the front end of innovation. Management of the front end of innovation is however perceived by companies as being particularly difficult, and the research available in this area is limited.
This master’s thesis aimed at providing corporations with a practical tool for innovating the utilization of biological by-products, to be... (More) - A growing middle class and increased consumption call for better utilization of resources. For companies to make use of all resources in the production system is not only a way of meeting the changing customer demands and regulatory changes regarding sustainability, but also a way of increasing profits.
Finding new business opportunities for by-products can be considered as early stage innovation, commonly known as the front end of innovation. Management of the front end of innovation is however perceived by companies as being particularly difficult, and the research available in this area is limited.
This master’s thesis aimed at providing corporations with a practical tool for innovating the utilization of biological by-products, to be used in the front end of innovation. The result was a conceptual framework that was developed through combining theory with practice. A literature study was performed in the areas of innovation and strategic-decision making in order to gain an understanding of how to be innovative and make good decisions. To gain knowledge from practice, three different companies that have experienced by-product innovation were interviewed using an unstructured interview approach. Critical aspects for by-product innovation in practice were analyzed and combined with findings from theory. The result was a conceptual framework that can be used to identify and evaluate business opportunities for biological by-products.
The developed conceptual framework was also applied on a case study performed at Lantmännen. Apart from validating the conceptual framework, the case study resulted in potential business opportunities for two of the three by-products examined. The examined by-products were three different types of forage seeds that are currently being digested for biogas. For one by-product, no alternative business opportunity was found, and for the other two, business opportunity potential within cosmetics and feed was identified.
Conclusions drawn from this master’s thesis was that the developed conceptual framework was stated as useful for by-product innovation, but that further validation of the framework is needed. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8892369
- author
- Larsson, Andrea and Lundkvist, Fanny
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MIO920
- year
- 2016
- type
- M1 - University Diploma
- subject
- keywords
- Utilization of By-products, Front End of Innovation, Decision-making, Biological Waste
- language
- English
- id
- 8892369
- date added to LUP
- 2016-09-23 09:55:25
- date last changed
- 2018-01-17 09:02:03
@misc{8892369,
abstract = {{A growing middle class and increased consumption call for better utilization of resources. For companies to make use of all resources in the production system is not only a way of meeting the changing customer demands and regulatory changes regarding sustainability, but also a way of increasing profits.
Finding new business opportunities for by-products can be considered as early stage innovation, commonly known as the front end of innovation. Management of the front end of innovation is however perceived by companies as being particularly difficult, and the research available in this area is limited.
This master’s thesis aimed at providing corporations with a practical tool for innovating the utilization of biological by-products, to be used in the front end of innovation. The result was a conceptual framework that was developed through combining theory with practice. A literature study was performed in the areas of innovation and strategic-decision making in order to gain an understanding of how to be innovative and make good decisions. To gain knowledge from practice, three different companies that have experienced by-product innovation were interviewed using an unstructured interview approach. Critical aspects for by-product innovation in practice were analyzed and combined with findings from theory. The result was a conceptual framework that can be used to identify and evaluate business opportunities for biological by-products.
The developed conceptual framework was also applied on a case study performed at Lantmännen. Apart from validating the conceptual framework, the case study resulted in potential business opportunities for two of the three by-products examined. The examined by-products were three different types of forage seeds that are currently being digested for biogas. For one by-product, no alternative business opportunity was found, and for the other two, business opportunity potential within cosmetics and feed was identified.
Conclusions drawn from this master’s thesis was that the developed conceptual framework was stated as useful for by-product innovation, but that further validation of the framework is needed.}},
author = {{Larsson, Andrea and Lundkvist, Fanny}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Developing business opportunities for biological by-products}},
year = {{2016}},
}