The Business Unit “Industrial Innovation Strategies and Systems” researches the corporate innovation strategies of manufacturing companies and their macroeconomic and political framework conditions. The business unit focuses on the following main topics:

• The diffusion and impacts of new methods of organization and production on the competitiveness of companies as well as the identification of successful innovation strategies in different sectors, markets and technology contexts.
• The development and application of concepts and instruments to measure and assess the innovativeness and competitiveness of companies as well as to control and improve innovation processes internally within the companies and to evaluate them from an external perspective (e.g. associations, investors).
• Analyzing the interaction of actors from industry, society and politics in industrial innovation systems and their impacts on the innovativeness and competitiveness of industrial companies. This includes accompanying research of innovation and technology policy support measures in the field “innovation in production” at national and international level.

The business unit is coordinated by Dr. Oliver Som.

The Business Unit “Innovative Production Systems and Value Chains” is concerned with how companies can sustainably increase their competitiveness by developing and implementing innovative value processes. The business unit focuses on the following main topics:

• planning and implementing versatile production systems and value chains at a strategic and operative level;
• planning and evaluating resource-efficient production systems and value chains to sustainably reduce energy and material consumption;
• planning and analyzing location and out/insourcing decisions concerning production, research and development. Systematic development of local-global value networks with strategic location roles;
• socio-economic assessment of production technologies; scenario-based development and life-cycle based assessment of investment strategies.
  

The business unit is coordinated by Dr. Oliver Kleine.

The Business Unit “Industrial Services” researches and evaluates new concepts for the management, strategic control and export of product-based services and innovative service and operating schemes of industrial companies. In addition, it analyzes:

• how offering products and services as a complete package can improve the protection against piracy;
• how innovative service models can contribute to sustainably reducing industrial companies’ energy and material consumption;
• how new data and impulses for product and service innovations can be collected through industrial services.

The business unit is coordinated by Dr. Christoph Zanker.