IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/jikmxx/v24y2025i02ns0219649225500108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stedin’s Collaborative Path to Employee-Driven Innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Nikolaos Pahos

    (Department of Values, Technology, & Innovation, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Jaffalaan 5, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands)

  • Robert Verburg

    (Department of Values, Technology, & Innovation, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Jaffalaan 5, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands)

  • Martin Sand

    (Department of Values, Technology, & Innovation, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Jaffalaan 5, 2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands)

  • Stefan Uitermarkt

    (��Bilfinger Tebodin Netherlands B.V., Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indië 25, 2593 BJ The Hague, The Netherlands)

  • Joery de Haas

    (��Stedin Group, Blaak 8, 3011 TA Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Employee-driven innovation (EDI) burgeons as an important mechanism to drive the exploration activities by making the general employees responsible for innovation. However, little is known about the conditions under which EDI is most effective. To get a better understanding of EDI, we examine how Stedin, an established global player within the energy distribution industry based in the Netherlands, involves its general employees in innovation activities. Stedin actively supports EDI through strategic programmes designed to stimulate employee innovation. Our findings highlight that collaboration is a main driver of EDI at Stedin. In the early implementation phases, dynamic, heterogeneous, informal and distant collaborations are essential, while the later phases benefit from more stability and intimacy. The insights from our detailed case study provide actionable guidelines for organising EDI initiatives in practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Nikolaos Pahos & Robert Verburg & Martin Sand & Stefan Uitermarkt & Joery de Haas, 2025. "Stedin’s Collaborative Path to Employee-Driven Innovation," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(02), pages 1-21, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:jikmxx:v:24:y:2025:i:02:n:s0219649225500108
    DOI: 10.1142/S0219649225500108
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219649225500108
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S0219649225500108?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:jikmxx:v:24:y:2025:i:02:n:s0219649225500108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/jikm/jikm.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.