Ruusa Ligthart’s PhD that she defended in Spring 2022, focused on open innovation in services in both the private and public sector organisations. She did her PhD at the University of Cambridge, Institute of Manufacturing, Centre of Technology Management (CTM) under the supervision of Prof Tim Minshall. Ruusa’s PhD studies contributed to the research on innovation management in the public and private sector. Both open and service innovation, by providing framework for conceptualisation of open service innovation, it provides a platform for further research and support practitioners in structuring the design of their innovation processes. In addition, her research identified specific features and differences in public and private sector organisations innovation management.

After her PhD she continued as a postdoctoral researcher /IfM visitor at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge Service Alliance, and CTM. Her post doc studies focus on innovation management in the public sector organisations. Her postdoctoral studies are under the supervision of prof Mohamed Zaki and prof Tim Minshall.

Ruusa Ligthart also works as a senior lecturer in Finland Laurea University of Applied Science. She has extensive experience in teaching, supervising thesis as well as developing and executing RDI projects. Prior to her PhD studies she worked at the RDI unit at the Laurea University of Applied Sciences as both an education service product manager and a project manager. She was working with RDI projects together with various firms, 3rd sector, universities and other research organisations.

Ruusa holds a Master of Science degree with distinction from the University of Brighton, England from the international tourism management. She has worked in the field of hospitality and tourism management and in advisory positions in several countries.

Research Interests

• Open Service Innovation
• Service Innovation
• Open Innovation
• Innovation in the public and private sector organisations
• Organisational culture
• Co-creation
• Stakeholder collaboration
• Customer centricity
• Service design

Publications and Conference Presentations

Ligthart, R. and Zaki, M. (2022) Open Innovation implementation in Finnish service organisations. RESER Conference. Paris, France 8-10 December 2022.

Ligthart, R. (2021) Open innovation in services in private and public sector organisations. Doctoral thesis.

Ligthart, R. (2021). The development of open service innovation at public sector. Druid22 Conference. Copenhagen, Denmark, October 18-20, 2021.

Ligthart R., and Minshall T. (2020). The development journey of open service innovation in the public and private sector. Digital Living Lab Days Conference 2020. Online, September 2-4, 2020.

Larjovuori, R., and Ligthart, R. et.al, (2020). Digimuutos tehdään yhdessä. University of Tampere, Faculty of Management and Business.

Ligthart R., and Minshall T. (2019). Conceptual framework for open service innovation. WOIC Conference. Rome, Italy. December 12-13, 2019.

Ligthart R., Keränen K., and Minshall T. (2018). An initial framework for open service innovation adopting digital co-creation. ISPIM Conference 2018. Stockholm, Sweden. June 17-20, 2018.

Keränen K., and Ligthart R. (2017). Digital open innovation and co-creation in service organisations: Enablers and barriers. The 21st annual Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium – Globalisation 2.0. Cambridge, UK. September 28-29, 2017.

Ligthart, R. Porokuokka, J. and Keränen K. (2016). Using digital co-creation for innovation development. RESER Conference. Naples, Italy. 8-19 September 2016.

Contact details

E rml52@cam.ac.uk

Linkedin Ruusa Ligthart | LinkedIn