Beyond its purely technological aspects, innovation has important societal implications, in particular as regards new forms of regulations, new incentive mechanisms, new organizational forms and institutional arrangements. Beyond its implications, innovation must also be analyzed in terms of trajectories, processes and mechanisms which themselves require a broad approach that integrates the technological, organizational, spatial and societal dimensions of innovation.
 
This wide-reaching approach to innovation can be broken down into four themes which cover the scientific work carried out by the two research units forming ELMI :

  • GREDEG (CNRS and Université Côte d'Azur joint unit 7321).
  • Team from SKEMA Business School
Innovation & digital transformation (new acosystems, new uses, new rules)
 
This research examines the economic, organizational, legal and sociological transformations induced by new digital technologies. Its original approach is to study the effects of digital transformation from an interdisciplinary perspective within the field of humanities, further strengthened by collaboration with researchers specialized in communication and information technologies. Researchers from diverse fields study the same topic (the effects of digital transformation understood as innovation) using different and complementary approaches.

This allows them to analyze digital transformations on several levels: in behaviors and individuals, in work teams, platforms and new forms of regulation via new digital technologies, organizations, etc. and also in innovation ecosystems, industries and markets. The researchers are using proven methodologies specific to their disciplines (theoretical modeling, quantitative and qualitative empirical analyses, and historical methods) but they are also developing new methods (experimental methods, numerical simulations, machine learning, and qualitative methods of analyzing online activity). The very nature of digital transformation encourages exploration through new avenues.
Green innovation and ecological transition

This research analyzes green innovation or “eco innovation”. This concept emerged as a result of the environmental and social crises of the late twentieth century. It differs from traditional innovation in two ways:

  • This type of innovation explicitly emphasizes a reduction of the environmental footprint, whether deliberate or not.
  • Eco-innovation has an influence on social and institutional structures        

Green innovation can be compared to a structural change that raises barriers that need to be identified at the individual, technological, organizational and legal levels. 

It needs to be understood in terms of market structure and business ecosystems, but also of the availability of resources and environmental degradation. The originality of this scientific approach lies in its interdisciplinary nature. It reaches beyond the scope of economics, law, management and sociology and draws from new disciplines (agroecology, physical sciences, psychology, marine biology, materials science, electronic physics applied to buildings and energy consumption, etc.) to understand the drivers of green innovation and the difficulties of achieving the ecological transition.

Dynamics of organizations and territories

This research analyzes interactions between the drivers of innovation, of organizations, and of regional economies. It examines the phenomena associated with the emergence of innovation, based on an analysis of the coordination mechanisms that contribute to new knowledge or new combinations of existing knowledge. It also studies the phenomena contributing to the spreading of innovation, via the mechanisms that explain how innovation is adopted, including ruptures and adaptations in the learning process. Finally, it deals with the phenomena involved in the impact of innovation on the economy, notably issues of resilience depending on the original or radical nature of the innovation implemented.

The approach is applied to:

  • Individuals and intra-organizational networks.
  • Inter-organizational and sectorial collaboration.
  • Cities, regions and countries. 

 This research is novel in several respects. First, it investigates topics as yet rarely addressed (the analysis of competitiveness in different contexts and spatial scales, smart cities, industry 4.0, the impact of public research funding, the identification of breakthrough ideas in science and innovation, high-growth firms (gazelles), etc.). Second, it uses a multidisciplinary approach which allows a confrontation of the methods (qualitative, quantitative, econometric) and the levels of analysis specific to each discipline (from the individual to the global).
 

Financial innovations and innovation financing systems 

It is impossible to understand the dynamics of financial systems without looking at the interactions between their technological architecture and human behavior. Technological innovations, often made possible by new financing models, lie at the heart of new financial practices which in turn lead to transformations in financial systems. To study this topic, researchers are seeking to develop an overarching view of the dynamics of financial systems in order to understand the emergence of aggregate behaviors and values, and of new stakeholders. They are analyzing how financial innovations generate the need for new forms of regulation. Their goal is to gain an understanding of the original approaches required to finance innovative projects compared to traditional projects.

Three main research topics are addressed:

  • Financial innovations and the dynamics of financial systems.
  • Financial innovations and institutions, new forms of regulation.
  • New ways of financing innovation and new payment practices.

            
Studies under this theme are based on the traditional methods developed in economics and management, namely theoretical modeling and econometrics. A unique feature of this research is to also borrow the methods used in the history of economic thought, in particular by studying archival material from the history of analysis, the history of ideas and economic philosophy.