Programa del congreso

This study explores how end-user agency can transform failed projects into successes, using the Figueira Gorda irrigation reservoir in Cape Verde as an extreme case study. Initially abandoned due to top-down policy shifts and structural failures, the reservoir became a catalyst for innovative, bottom-up efforts by local farmers. These farmers mobilized the limiting resource—water—through resourceful adaptations, including motorized pumps and drip irrigation systems, to create a thriving horticultural ecosystem.

The theoretical framework integrates bricolage theory, which emphasizes the creative recombination of available resources, and structuration theory, which examines the dynamic interplay between human agency and structural constraints. Adopting an abductive research design, the study synthesizes diverse data sources, including farmer surveys, expert interviews, and satellite imagery, to iteratively refine theoretical insights.

Findings reveal that when a failed project provides access to a limiting factor, end-users can develop a bricolage repertoire to mobilize it, extract value, and redefine project outcomes. This study challenges traditional, top-down project management frameworks and highlights the potential of adaptive, end-user-led solutions in resource-constrained contexts. The insights contribute to both theory and practice by advocating for the integration of end-user strategies into project designs, enhancing resilience and fostering sustained success outcomes.

How do employees respond when their creative ideas are rejected, and their expectations about ownership rights are challenged by organizational policies? This study introduces ownership misalignments—discrepancies between employees’ anticipated ownership rights and formal organizational policies—as a critical factor. We distinguish between unmet ownership expectations, where employees expecting ownership are denied it, and exceeded ownership expectations, where employees unexpectedly are granted ownership of their ideas. Drawing on organizational fairness theory, we propose that unmet expectations foster perceptions of unfair treatment, reducing creative engagement, while exceeded expectations signal consideration of employees’ creative efforts, enhancing future contributions. We further argue that these fairness perceptions are particularly significant for non-R&D employees, who have less familiarity with intellectual property (IP) policies and contribute creatively on a voluntary basis. Using a longitudinal dataset of employee invention disclosures from a multinational ICT firm operating across diverse IP regimes, we find empirical support for our hypotheses. The results demonstrate that ownership misalignments significantly shape subsequent creative idea submission after rejection, with stronger effects observed among non-R&D employees. By identifying ownership misalignments as a central mechanism linking rejection experiences to creative behavior, this study advances research on ownership, organizational fairness, and employee creative engagement.

• This study examines the effect of firm digitalization scope— the variety of digital technologies adopted by the firm—on firm performance.

• Adopting the knowledge-based view of the firm, this paper proposes an inverted U-shaped relationship between digitalization scope and firm performance. Furthermore, it examines the moderating role of organizational skills on the proposed relationship, suggesting that the potential decline in performance resulting from using too many different types of digital technologies is likely to be mitigated for firms that possess such skills.

• The hypotheses are empirically tested using a dataset from the Flash Eurobarometer 486 survey.

• We find that digitalization scope has inverted U-shaped relationship with firm performance, and that organizational skills help to mitigate the negative effect of digitalization scope on performance. Our findings contribute to the literature on digital transformation and its effect on organizational business processes.

The interest in regional innovation policies has increased in recent years. Science and Technology Parks (STPs) are one of the most widespread regional innovation policies worldwide. They are considered a catalyst for regional innovation because they constitute a source of knowledge spillovers and a mechanism for knowledge transfer. The aim of this work is to evaluate the effect of the adoption of the STP policy on regional innovation performance. To this end, we build a provincial dataset for Spain covering 37 years and implement a difference-in-differences approach taking advantage of the staggered adoption of the STP policy and the fact that some provinces do not have an STP yet. The main results show that STPs increase provincial patents by 43.0% in years 6-10 after the adoption of the policy and by 73.5% in years 11-15.This result is robust to different assumptions and methodological choices. In addition, we find that the increase in patents does not come at the cost of lower patent quality, that STPs perform similarly in more or less advanced provinces, and that approximately 57% of the effect comes through STP spillovers.