About the Chair

To explore and exploit technology and process innovation potential and to create a culture of innovation within Woolworths Limited.

The aim of the Woolworths Chair of Retail Innovation has been to develop novel concepts of retail innovation across Woolworths’ divisions leading to cost reductions and potential new revenue streams. The Chair was set up to facilitate research outcomes with the aim to generate, complement and enrich ideas and solutions that can be applied across Woolworths and its divisions, customers, employees and supply and distribution networks, as well as other areas of significance to Woolworths.

Stated objectives of the initiative have been to:

• provide seamless integration of the research and scholarship resources of QUT with the requirements of an innovation-led culture of Woolworths leading to quantifiable, short and mid-term benefits including cost reduction and potential new streams of revenue;
• develop an internationally recognised retail innovation research profile closely affiliated with Woolworths, leading to mutual reputational benefits.

Through the initiative, Woolworths and QUT committed to jointly undertake activities in retail innovation research, education and training for the mutual benefit of Woolworths, Woolworths Group, and QUT; and to provide research-grounded services to ensure successful implementation of all stages along the innovation lifecycle including post-implementation studies leading to increased corporate performance. The initiative’s objective was to conduct applied research on innovations in business, processes and technology-based systems, and the management of innovation processes at Woolworths Limited. Topics addressed a variety of business, management, process, service and IT-components, and thus require holistic and multidisciplinary approaches to research.

The Chair has also been active in supporting capability development at Woolworths, by providing education seminars and contributing to leadership development programs, such as regular Innovation Inspiration Seminars and an Innovation Leadership Professional Education course.

Completed research projects

In total, 18 projects were successfully completed between 2012 and 2015. All research projects were centered on innovation initiatives, ranging from product innovations (such as fresh food or local produce), to process innovations (such as replenishment, agile development or promotion planning) and technology innovations (such as enterprise social network or process mining technology). Across these types of innovations, initiatives were selected that ranged from predictable to uncertain outcomes and incremental to potentially disruptive impact. In turn, the research set out to cover the whole portfolio of innovation activities and provide evidence-based insights into the balance between innovations to the core business, activities that can change the business, and research into truly transformational opportunities in the retail sector.

Cross-disciplinary research

Research projects have ranged across topics such as store manager leadership and performance, positive deviants in bakery departments, improving promotion planning, and understanding the impact of implementing Google technology in all stores. Much of the research focused on supermarkets as a domain, but also included work with Woolworths business technology services, employee communications, logistics, learning, development and corporate services, human resources and other units.

Collaborative research

The research teams working on these projects have been sourced largely from QUT’s Information Systems School, but also involved fellow researchers from QUT’s Business School, the School of Civil Engineering, the School of Design, the High Performance Computing (HPC) team, and external research partners such as the University of Muenster, Griffith University, Vlerick Business School, Goethe University Frankfurt, the University of Cologne, and others. A key role in the conduct of the research has been played by research students, from under-graduate students seeking research projects to post-graduate or Doctoral-level students completing research projects as part of their theses.

Impactful research

Through the research projects, the Chair contributed to significant multi-million dollar cost savings across Woolworths Ltd., and is classified as a positive return-on-investment engagement. For instance, the research recommendations to support the first phase of centralizing promotions planning contributed to significant multi-million dollar total store labour savings. Other projects provided valuable input to evaluate or solidify strategic decisions made in new store operations models, in fresh food decisions and about local produce initiatives.

Aside from monetary gains, the research led to improved decision-making and better understanding of the complexities of various innovation undertakings and innovation approaches.

Documentation

Project Reports

Much of the research has been commercial-in-confidence. For information about the research, please contact Professor Jan Recker at j.recker@qut.edu.au.

Project Publications

• Patroni, J., von Briel, F., Recker, J. (2016): How can Enterprise Social Media use facilitate innovation? An exploratory study in the retail industry. IEEE IT Professional, Vol. 18, No. 6, pp. 34-41.
• Kummer, T.-F., Recker, J., Bick, M. (2017): Technology-induced anxiety: Manifestations, cultural influences, and its effect on the adoption of sensor-based technology in German and Australian hospitals. Information & Management, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp. 73-89.
• Recker, J., Rosenkranz, C., Hummel, M., Holten, R. (2017): How Agile Practices impact Customer Responsiveness and Development Success: A Field Study. Project Management Journal, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 99-121.
• Mertens, W., Recker, J. (2017): Positive Deviance and Leadership: An Exploratory Field Study. In: Proceedings of the 50th Hawaiian International Conference on Systems Sciences. IEEE, Waikaloa, Hawaii, pp. 214-223.
• Mertens, W., Recker, J., Kohlborn, T., Kummer, T.-F. (2016): A Framework for the Study of Positive Deviance at Work. Deviant Behavior, Vol. 37, No. 11, pp. 1288-1307.
• Recker, J., Lekse, D. (2016): A Field Study of Spatial Preferences in Enterprise Microblogging. Journal of Information Technology, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 115-129.
• Recker, J. (2016): Reasoning about Discontinuance of Information System Use. Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 41-66.
• Recker, J., Malsbender, A., Kohlborn, T. (2016): Learning how to Effectively Use Enterprise Social Networks as Innovation Platforms. IT Professional, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 42-49.
• Mertens, W., Recker, J., Kummer, T.-F., Kohlborn, T., Viaene, S. (2016): Constructive Deviance as a Driver for Performance in Retail. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 30, pp. 193-203.
• von Briel, F., Recker, J. (2016): The Dual Nature of Information Systems in Enabling a New Wave of Hardware Ventures. In: Proceedings of the 49th Hawaiian International Conference on Systems Sciences. IEEE, Kuaui, Hawaii.
• Alarif, A. H., Sedera, D., Recker, J. (2015): Posters versus Lurkers: Improving Participation in Enterprise Social Networks through Promotional Messages. In: Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems, Fort Worth, Texas.
• Recker, J., Rosemann, M. (2015): Systemic Ideation: A Playbook for Creating Innovative Ideas More Consciously. 360 Degrees – The Business Transformation Journal, No. 13, pp. 34-45.
• Patroni, J., Recker, J., von Briel, F. (2015): How does Enterprise Soical Media Help Retail Employees Innovate? In: Proceedings of the 23rd European Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems, Muenster, Germany.
• Recker, J. (2015): Evidence-Based Business Process Management: Using Digital Opportunities to Drive Organizational Innovation. In J. vom Brocke and T. Schmiedel (eds.): Business Process Management – Driving Innovation in a Digital World. Springer, Heidelberg, Germany, pp. 129-143.
• Lekse, D., Recker, J. (2014): “Long Distance Calling? Spatial Preference Patterns in Enterprise Microblogging in the Retail Industry“. In: Proceedings of the 25th Australasian Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems, Auckland, New Zealand.
• Recker, J. (2014): “Towards a Theory of Individual-level Discontinuance of Information Systems Use“. In: Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems, Auckland, New Zealand.
• Malsbender, A., Recker, J., Kohlborn, T., Beverungen, D., Tanwer, S. (2013): Much Ado about Nothing? Tracing the Progress of Innovations Borne on Enterprise Social Network Sites. In: Proceedings of the 34th International Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems, Milan, Italy.
• Dreiling, A., Recker. J. (2013): Towards a Theoretical Framework for Organizational Innovation. In: Proceedings of the 17th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems, Jeju Island, Korea.
• Recker, J. (2012): “From Product Innovation to Organizational Innovation – and what that has to do with Business Process Management”. BPTrends, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp. 1-7.

Coverage in the Media

• New Gen Talks Shop
  The Sunday Mail (Queensland), 26 October 2014, written by Jackie Sinnerton.
  Link
• Woolworths releases report into future of supermarkets
  Sunshine Coast Daily, 10 August 2014, published by APN Media.
  Link
• Woolies’ plan to stock the promotional shelf
  The Australian, 5 November 2013, written by Jennifer Foreshew.
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• Innovating for the “Fresh Food People”
  360 Degrees – the Business Transformation Management Journal, Issue 8, pages 70-71, written by Norizan Safrudin.
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• Woolies to fund$1m for QUT retail research
  Computerworld, 3 May 2012, written by Diana Nguyen.
  Link