Policymakers demand alternative approaches to anticipate and deal with wicked problems, as well as effective and flexible means to interact with people and stakeholders (Kimbell & Bailey, 2017, p. 216). Design for policy takes novel approaches from the design discipline to enable exploration and co-creation through processes such as prototyping, which role has evolved due to changes of focus and field of action of the design discipline (Buchanan, 2001). In policymaking, prototyping could allow better engagement of citizens in decision making and help policymakers to test and explore solutions at a smaller scale in real contexts, anticipating possible responses and outcomes. However, there are challenges for prototyping to be embedded in design for policy, such as dealing with uncertainty and fear of failure. Prototyping, as an explorative approach in which solutions remain open and indefinite for a longer period, might introduce a high degree of uncertainty preventing policymakers to apply prototypes as a policy design method. This thesis explores the interaction of policymakers with the uncertainty of prototyping and its effects on their engagement in co-creation processes. A literature review about prototypes and policy design was carried out, followed by the comparative analysis of ten SISCODE co-creation laboratories in Europe and an in-depth qualitative analysis of three case studies. The results suggest that uncertainty can be a benefit or a threat depending on the policymakers’ role in the co-creation process and the phase of the policy cycle in which the prototype is developed. El ciclo de las políticas públicas exige enfoques alternativos para anticipar y tratar problemas complejos, así como medios eficaces y flexibles para interactuar con las personas y actores involucrados (Kimbell y Bailey, 2017, p. 216). El diseño aplicado al ciclo de políticas públicas, o Design for Policy, toma enfoques novedosos de la disciplina del diseño industrial para activar procesos de experimentación y co-creación a través de la construcción de prototipos. El prototipado permite involucrar a los ciudadanos en el ciclo de políticas públicas desde etapas tempranas, potenciando su participación y apoyando a los tomadores de decisiones en el testeo y exploración de soluciones en contextos reales y a menor escala. Sin embargo, existen desafíos para que la creación de prototipos sea adoptada de forma sistemática en el ciclo de políticas públicas. Uno de esos desafíos es lidiar con la incertidumbre y el miedo al fracaso que esta genera. El prototipado, como medio de experimentación, se basa en el pensamiento divergente en condiciones donde no se puede anticipar el resultado del proceso, lo cual genera un alto grado de incertidumbre; la cual puede ser percibida como negativa en ambientes tradicionales de la política pública, dificultando el interés y compromiso de los actores involucrados. Esta tesis explora la interacción de los formuladores, tomadores de decisiones y hacedores de las políticas públicas (Policymakers), con la incertidumbre propia de los prototipos en procesos de co-creación. Para esto, se llevó a cabo una revisión de literatura sobre prototipos y diseño de políticas, luego se realizó un análisis comparativo entre diez laboratorios de co-creación del proyecto SISCODE, en Europa. Finalmente, tres laboratorios fueron seleccionados para hacer un análisis cualitativo detallado. Los resultados sugieren tres tipos de incertidumbre percibida por los laboratorios, los cuales pueden ser un beneficio o una amenaza, dependiendo de la etapa del ciclo de la política pública en el que se desarrolle el prototipo y el rol que ocupen los policymakers en el proceso de co-creación. Distinción: Tesis Laureada – Laurea Magistrale con Lode

Conventional wisdom holds that large sums of money poured into election campaigns are the gateway to corruption. Allegations of the corrupting influence of money in politics and policy are widespread on the national level. Yet, little empirical evidence has advanced the understanding of such a link on the local level, coupled with blurred corruption measures. This master’s thesis tests the effect of campaign finance on public procurement corruption risks in Colombian municipalities, focusing on donations, small donations, and financial disclosure. To that end, I seized publicly disclosed contribution-level data from the 2015 municipal elections and a novel index of institutionalized public procurement corruption risks based upon contract-level data from the near population of local governments. The analysis shows that donations are negatively associated with overall corruption risk, yet they affect specific corruption risks differently. By contrast, small donations seem to correlate positively with direct awarding for a sub-sample of medium-sized municipalities, whereas in their large-sized counterparts the effect of the former on institutionalized corruption is adverse. Finally, financial misreporting is positively linked with market competition restrictions and direct awarding. In the conclusion, I discuss the implications of these findings for future research and outline a series of policy recommendations. La sabiduría convencional sostiene que las grandes sumas de dinero invertidas en campañas electorales son la puerta de entrada de la corrupción. Las acusaciones sobre la influencia corrupta del dinero en la política y la política pública son contundentes a nivel nacional. Sin embargo, poca evidencia empírica ha avanzado el entendimiento de dicha relación en el nivel local, junto con difusas mediciones de corrupción. Esta tesis de maestría mide el efecto del financiamiento de campañas electorales en el riesgo de corrupción en la contratación pública en municipios colombianos, enfocándose en las donaciones, las pequeñas donaciones y el reporte de información financiera sobre las campañas. Para alcanzar tal fin, usé información pública sobre las contribuciones políticas durante las elecciones locales de 2015 y un novedoso índice de corrupción institucional en la contratación pública, basado en el análisis de procesos de compra del universo de alcaldías municipales en Colombia. Los resultados muestran que las donaciones se relacionan negativamente con el riesgo de corrupción en general, aunque afectan específicos riesgos de corrupción de manera diferente. Por otro lado, las pequeñas donaciones muestran una correlación positiva con la contratación directa en ciudades medias, mientras en ciudades grandes el efecto parece ser negativo. Finalmente, el subreporte de información se relaciona positivamente con riesgos como restricciones a la competencia y contratación directa. En la conclusión, discuto las implicaciones de dichos resultados para futuras investigaciones y señalo algunas recomendaciones de política pública.

This paper aims to analyze concealment and deception in self-defeating organizational crisis response strategies and the possible consequences of their adoption on a company’s reputation. It represents an example of where every guideline to address stakeholders after a crisis was dismissed. It investigates a major environmental incident that took place in Colombia in 2013 and studies how the responsible company responded to the incident through the examination of company reports, media statements and national and international newspaper articles. The analysis shows that in addition to environmental damage, the company’s reputation was affected by the way the company responded during this crisis. The outcomes highlight the importance of the manner in which a crisis response is managed, as these types of mistakes often aggravate reputational damage. This paper is an invitation for companies to be quick, consistent and transparent with their responses when facing their stakeholders in moments of crisis. Not doing so may aggravate not only social but also economic and environmental impacts. Contrary to other contributions on the subject, this study implies that a misleading crisis response, including concealment and deception, can be an even greater challenge to a company’s reputation than the crisis itself.

The present work addresses the question of how companies belonging to the natural resource industry use to perform greenwashing practices to their organizational value chain processes. For this purpose, a multi-case approach with five different cases in the Colombian context is adopted. Through the data analysis, an exemplification of each of the five value chain greenwashing transgressions at the company level is provided. Besides highlighting a real-life problematic with several implications in a sensitive context, the contributions of this work are twofold. First, the work contributes to reinforcing the notion of greenwashing and related transgressions by clarifying a concrete way of identifying certain deceptive practices related to the organizational value chain under certain conditions. Second, this work promotes the transferability of the concepts used for elucidating the reality of the value chain greenwashing phenomenon at different levels and in various geographical contexts. Finally, both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Framed by the normative dimension of the crisis communication literature, this study examines and compares the messages conveyed by two large companies in the South American extractive industry when dealing with catastrophic crises. By focusing on the application of the ethics of care principles, this study illustrates two divergent ways of conducting interpersonal relationships and benevolence as a virtue when communicating with stakeholders in the aftermath of two recent socio-environmental disasters involving human losses in Venezuela and Brazil. For this purpose, the offending companies’ official responses obtained from various public sources are analyzed, both within and across the two cases, in light of a proposed outline of the theoretical framework at issue. The results show the contrasting ways in which these companies approached their stakeholders through crisis responses when referring to crisis casualties. Furthermore, the study compares the two cases’ backgrounds and argues that the socio-political context influences the corporate decisions on crisis responses.

En el presente trabajo se propone evaluar el grado de imparcialidad en la percepción general sobre la importancia de los diversos stakeholders junto con lo que ellos reclaman y afirman. Para ello, se pondrán a prueba los constructos relacionados con la influencia, interés, legitimidad y urgencia en un escenario real de crisis medio-ambiental. El estudio propuesto consiste en la evaluación de percepciones sobre un estudio de caso real, a partir de un análisis de correspondencia múltiple aplicado sobre una muestra representativa de estudiantes profesionales de diferentes nacionalidades en una escuela de negocios Francesa acreditada internacionalmente. A partir de los resultados es posible determinar que, contrario a lo esperado en estudiantes con alta formación en negocios, aún se encuentran ciertos sesgos respecto a la importancia que se le debe dar a cada stakeholder en los constructos analizados.

El fenómeno conocido como decoupling implica la desconexión entre el discurso y la acción organizacional; la incoherencia entre el decir y el hacer. El presente trabajo pretende ilustrar el decoupling asociado con la sostenibilidad empresarial mediante el uso de un caso de estudio particular. Para ello, se hace referencia a un incidente ambiental producido por una empresa multinacional perteneciente al sector de la minería del carbón a gran escala en Colombia. Además de resaltar la relevancia teórica de un concepto poco aplicado en el contexto de los países en vías de desarrollo, este estudio contribuye a la identificación del decoupling como fenómeno que permite comprender situaciones de disociación entre la política y las acciones en el ámbito de la empresa. En este sentido, el estudio de caso también permite comprender la caracterización del decoupling como práctica organizacional controvertida, identificando escenarios de aplicación con diferentes niveles de premeditación. Adicionalmente, desde el punto de vista práctico, y dado su enfoque normativo, el presente estudio resalta el decoupling como un comportamiento contraproducente para los objetivos de sostenibilidad de las empresas y de la sociedad entera.

Associative ventures in the rural sector seeks to exploit group commercial activities of small family-based productive units. There efforts are added to reach common goals that aim at increasing its sustainability. Through associativity it is possible to manage knowledge that leads to technological innovations that allow increasing productivity and, economic benefits to members. However, in order to achieve that level, there is a need for accessing to funding resources, which has been proved as difficult in nature. The latter has become one of the main obstacles for developing these initiatives since rural entrepreneurs use to exhibit a risky profile. Accordingly, impact investing takes the place of a genuine funding alternative taking into account its dual purpose (i.e. obtaining economical return and generating a positive impact on society). Impact investments are specifically designed to promote sustainable development through innovative solutions that generate added value on a permanent basis. The present research aims to establish, from an impact investing perspective, what are the main challenges to sustainability upon those ventures. An analysis with an inductive approach is proposed through semi-structured interviews with managers of three organizations: IC Foundation, Agrosolidaria and Corseda. Results obtained define the following challenges to face: education, leadership, competition within free market, associative organizational structure, fair trade, and solidarity. The importance of the study lies in the transferability of its findings to other contexts, which can contribute to higher levels of competitiveness and development.

The commercial drones’ market has grown significantly in recent years given its different industries’ applications. Ports are evolving and moving towards Industry 4.0, creating an opportunity for technologies to improve their operations, one being drone-in-a-box technology; however, there is scant understanding of the port industry, its potential customers and the technology needs to be addressed. This study explores the UK port industry and its potential use of drone-in-a-box, to give recommendations to Herotech8 about how to grow in this market. A critical review of the literature was carried out and primary data collected from 14 interviewees, i.e. managers working at ports, people related to the drone industry and experts – with knowledge in drone technology and/or ports. Given the lack of awareness of drone-in-a-box technology, some information was gathered regarding conventional drone technology. Also, to contrast and complement the information, several interviews were conducted with Herotech8’s CEO. Results identified potential customers and their understanding of drone technology – applications, benefits, drawbacks and challenges. A value proposition emerged from these findings, but the impact level on each customer will depend on how their needs could be satisfied. Therefore, a general buying decision process was mapped to identify the crucial steps where needs can be recognised and assessed to deliver high value. The results indicated that although customers had not heard about drone-in-abox technology, they are interested; however, there is a fear of acquiring relatively new technologies and some would rather not be the early adopters. Recommendations were made, highlighting the steps to be taken by Herotech8, having identified the need to gain market share in the port sector, including attracting potential customers’ attention, establishing a process to identify their needs and sealing its first deal.

Abstract: The primary goal of this thesis is to understand the role of Human Resources Management (HRM) units are playing to have more innovative public servants in Colombia. It is then necessary to know what are the policy strategies that HRM offices are implementing, to fostering skills for Public Sector Innovation. Also, to compare and contrast the current official condition with the discourse that main stakeholders have about Public Sector innovation and innovative public servants. In doing so, strategic information about the main three stakeholders of the public innovation ecosystem was analyzed, understanding their respective role and position about innovation for public servants, and concluding with some recommendations for the implementation of the public innovation country strategy 2018-2021. One of its three primary goals is to train 8300 in public innovation to activate the ecosystem. This thesis argues that it is time to focus on who will implement more innovative policies, and, in turn, design more innovative approaches to public services provision. Resumen: El objetivo principal de esta tesis es comprender el papel que las unidades de Gestión de Recursos Humanos (HRM, por sus siglas en inglés) están desempeñando para tener servidores públicos más innovadores en Colombia. Es necesario entonces conocer cuáles son las estrategias de política que las oficinas de HRM están implementando, para fomentar las habilidades para la innovación del sector público. Asimismo, comparar y contrastar la actual condición oficial con el discurso que los principales actores tienen sobre la innovación del sector público y los funcionarios públicos innovadores. Para ello, se analizó la información estratégica sobre los tres principales interesados del ecosistema de innovación pública, comprendiendo su respectivo papel y posición sobre la innovación para los funcionarios públicos, y concluyendo con algunas recomendaciones para la aplicación de la estrategia nacional de innovación pública 2018-2021. Uno de sus tres objetivos principales es capacitar a 8300 en innovación pública para activar el ecosistema. En esta tesis se sostiene que es hora de centrarse en quiénes aplicarán políticas más innovadoras y, a su vez, diseñar enfoques más innovadores para la prestación de servicios públicos.