MHN225553 - Management of Innovation & Creativity Assessment 1 Brief: Interview an Innovator (Individual Essay) Word Length: 1500 words (excluding abstract and appendices) +/- 10% Weighting: 50% Instructions: 1. Firstly, choose an individual that you have access to, with whom you can talk about innovating. You may conduct your interview face-to-face or online using a platform such as Zoom¹, MSTeams or Skype. You may already know them, be referred to them by someone else (a network), they could be a family member or you could approach someone directly by reaching out to them online or by phone. They may have developed an innovative product, service or process. They can be from any type of organisation from private to public or not-for-profit. [Note: this step for some is the most challenging, try to be creative in finding someone to interview, you can also seek help from your seminar tutor and module leader]. Remember an innovator is not just someone who comes up with a shiny new product or service, they can also be innovating in their job, such as a librarian, nurse or a sports club leader, you could also speak to someone from your recent internship. You could interview someone who runs your local café, sports facilities, hairdressers or nursery...these are just a few suggestions. If you absolutely cannot find someone to interview, then you could use a YouTube interview or an autobiography as an alternative to gather data but these will not give you the same experience (remember to cite your sources if you are not conducting your own interview). 2. Secondly, design your interview instrument, what questions do you want answered? For example; could you follow Tidd & Bessant's (2020) framework: Search, Select, Implement and Capture? If they run an organisation, you could bring in aspects on if they have created an organisation that is supportive of innovation and creativity and in what way? (E.g. In terms of the structure, culture, leadership). What is their innovation strategy? What challenges have they met on their innovation journey and how have they managed these? (Again, this is not an exhaustive list). Choose the innovation topic areas that interest you to explore. Word count is short, so you cannot cover everything, mention in your introduction the areas your essay will focus on. 3. Conduct the interview. It may be a 20 mins interview or it may last up to an hour in the person is very talkative. Your challenge is to identify the most useful aspects of the interview to include in your essay. A useful source to consult prior to your interview is: Cope, J. (2005) Researching entrepreneurship through phenomenological inquiry: Philosophical and methodological issues, International Small Business Journal, Vol.23, Iss.2, pp. 163-189. You can also now automatically transcribe your interview using Word in the MS Office 365 available to you to use as a GCU student. You may need to edit your transcription to fix any inaccurate translation from voice to text. Include your transcript with your essay. This step will likely help you with your data collection for your dissertation. 1 Zoom is free for the basic features but this means it will last 40 mins, if your interview lasts longer (it may not) then you may need to arrange to start the call again. The benefit of Zoom, is you can record your interview. 1 4. Ensure that you have considered the ethical implications of your interview. To do this, provide written or oral explanation of the study to the interviewee in advance of the interview. Make sure the interviewee is aware of the purpose of the interview, that they can withdraw at any time and that they will be kept anonymous (if preferred – and you can use a fictitious name for the individual/organisation) and their responses to the questions will be held in confidence. Caution should be taken if interviewing vulnerable groups or children and if so, please contact the module leader to check if an ethics application is required. Nobody under the age of 18 should be interviewed [a sample consent form is in appendix B that can be used to gain verbal or written consent, for confidentiality reasons, this should not be attached to our essay) 5. Critically analyse the data collected from the interview in relation to theory on innovation management, and reflect on the evidence provided by your innovator. An exemplar will be provided of a previous interview for your guidance. The challenge here is that you only have 1,500 words, therefore need to write concisely, choosing relevant points to discuss and so you cannot cover everything. It is better to cover a few areas and bring in depth of critical discussion alongside literature, for example one or two stages in their innovation process, how they select ideas, collaborate/open innovation, capture value etc. This is your essay and each student could provide a different slant on the areas they will cover. It is important to outline your focus in your introduction, make it interesting for the reader. NB. It is encouraged that you provide some direct quotes from your interview in your essay. 6. You should submit through Turnitin and no hard copy is required. (Important: ensure you always back up your work, email copies to yourself). This report will be marked online so please ensure you have uploaded in time and that it is a successful upload. Back up your work continuously. 7. Include a front cover sheet using the template in appendix B. As shown on this appendix, please provide a clear statement about the format of the interview, e.g. this essay is based on an interview of approximately 30 minutes' duration conducted online with [interviewee name/role/organisation as appropriate]. 8. Your work must be your own. You must insert the following statement on the front cover of your submission to confirm your attention to this and type your name below it: "This piece of coursework is my own original work and has not been submitted elsewhere in fulfilment of the requirement of this or any other award." Also attach the plagiarism declaration sheet as an appendix. 9. Include your word count on your cover sheet. 10. Ensure that you have considered the ethical implications of your interview and that you should only interview adults (i.e. persons over 18 years). To do this, provide written or oral explanation of the study to the interviewee in advance of the interview. Make sure the interviewee is aware of the purpose of the interview, that they can withdraw at any time and that they will be kept anonymous (if preferred – and you can use a fictitious name for the individual/organisation) and their responses to the questions will be held in confidence. - 2 11. It is an essay, so there should be no contents page or headings included. 3 1.1.1 CW1 Assessment Criteria Whilst students have freedom in this essay to explore key areas of innovation management theory, which they choose, the essay should broadly consist of the following sections, alongside this it is shows the indicative weighting for marking purposes. Appendix A provides further information on the assessment/grading criteria using to arrive that the overall mark for the essay. Section Introduction Set the scene on the background concepts to the essay topic i.e. innovation and creativity, introduce the key areas/themes that you will cover (remember you cannot cover everything in the word limit), the scope of the essay and how you are going to tackle it. The introduction should introduce the innovator and contain factual information that gives the reader sufficient contextual information. You should discuss why the innovator could be considered innovative, how the research has been conducted, and provide a rationale for why the innovator was chosen to study. Integrate theory and concepts learned on managing innovation and creativity into a critical discussion on the key themes (there is flexibility to decide on the key areas to cover in this essay). Your essay should demonstrate the depth and breadth of your understanding by applying relevant theory in order to critically evaluate how the innovator manages innovation in their organisation. Provide examples to link theory and practice. You should choose to use an innovation process framework such as Tidd and Bessant (2020) or the Pentathlon Framework by Goffin and Mitchell (2016) and/or follow another theory on the innovation process. This could form the spine of your essay and you can bring in other innovation theories within these process stages. You should NOT cover every stage due to the word limit, one or two stages should be sufficient to give you more depth of discussion. Conclusion A full conclusion drawing together all the key points discussed. Try to bring in some critical reflection here. References In-text citations should be used where appropriate. A Reference list must be provided. References must use Harvard conventions and should demonstrate breadth and depth of reading. For guidance, students tend to use between 10 and 30 references, the quality and relevance of the reference is as important as the quantity. Academic sources are essential. Avoid websites and non- academic sources, particularly when defining key theories. Notes: • Cite it Right Harvard referencing must be used. Indicative weighting 15% 70% 10% 5% Total 100% . Do not write in the first person (i.e. avoid I, we). • on. • • Formal writing should be used i.e. avoid the use of don't (use do not), can't (use cannot); and so Avoid words like huge, massive, exceptional they do not add anything and lack precision. Avoid using 'recent'. If you use a quote from literature, comment on it, integrate it into your discussion remembering to cite it properly. It is encouraged that you use direct quotes from your interview. Critical discussion means instead of describing something, comment on it, words like 'however', 'although' can help. Are there limitations? What does it really mean? As the coursework is an essay, a contents page or executive summary is not required. 4 Housekeeping: • The submission date is the date for which a submission should be submitted. Extensions will be permitted if information is provided to the module leader about challenges you are facing with completing your coursework. The module leader can then agree to an extension with suitable dates to undertake the work. Please contact your personal tutor to get further support if you are struggling with assessments, as it may be that you need to apply for mitigating circumstances rather than an extension, if you are facing significant challenges affecting your academic performance. Extensions will not be granted if you lose your work, so back up, back up, back up. Marking Criteria Mark Comment 80-100% 70-79% 60-69% 50-59% 40-49% 35-39% Work of exceptional quality that shows an excellent command of the subject in question and originality in thought and extent of knowledge acquired. Work that shows an excellent, though not necessarily faultless, command of the subject in question, together with elements of originality in thought and in the extent of knowledge acquired. Work that shows a good command of the subject in question, possessing qualities of thoroughness, conscientiousness, and insight. Work that reveals that the student has acquired a satisfactory command of the material covered in the course. Work that shows some understanding of the material covered in the course, but of a barely adequate standard and with some elements of misunderstanding and limited thoroughness and attention to detail. there Work that fails to come up to the standard expected of University students admitted to an Honours degree, but where are sufficient signs that understanding prevails over misunderstanding and could be considered for compensation. 30-34% Fail - But containing some relevant facts and some evidence of understanding. 0-29% Fail Work that contains very few, if any, relevant facts and shows little or no understanding of the material covered. [End of Coursework Briefing] 5