Towards the actors' occupational movements of technical innovation system

Abstract

Linkage between science, engineering and technology creates and develops an academic program which includes a broad function from basic research to management of products and processes, called Technology and Innovation Management (TIM), with the aim of knowledge creation within innovation networks and subsequently, to advance humanities and develop economy. Nevertheless, given the relatively nascent nature of the TIM field, especially with respect to more established disciplines such as engineering, the occupations available to the individual actors of technical innovation networks remain unknown. As a preliminary step to addressing this gap, we identified individuals in innovation network employed in the Eindhoven province of the Netherlands, and studied what type of activities in their occupational movement they undertook. Further, we studied their linked-in profiles, which in many additional cases provides more useful information of the same type. The study results show an occupational movement typology that contains three types of paths available to the individuals - single, dual, and hybrid - pronounced by technical, managerial, entrepreneurial, consultancy, and academic occupations. The results reveal that more than half of the target sample follow a hybrid occupational movements, underlined primarily by technical activities across their work histories. We conclude our paper with implications for future research.