Tuesday, 16 June 2026 at 14:30-15:30 in room SOC-356 / MS Teams

A presentation by Daria Podmetina, D.Sc. (senior researcher at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech SBG).

📝The transition from traditional technology-driven innovation toward more responsible, sustainable, and meaning-driven innovation models is becoming increasingly important for companies facing environmental, social, and digital transformation challenges. This research studies how open innovation, circular design, design thinking and art-driven innovation foster responsible innovation. Drawing on a structural literature review and comparative research on 60 companies across 13 European countries, this research develops a conceptual framework integrating open innovation, circular design, design thinking, and art-driven innovation. The study explores how companies combine artistic engagement, collaborative innovation, AI-enabled creativity, and sustainability-oriented design practices to create both societal and business value. Preliminary findings suggest a paradigm shift from technology-push innovation toward meaning-driven and aesthetically responsible innovation, where art, AI, and circular design act as interconnected enablers of sustainable creativity. The research identifies emerging patterns related to organizational learning, regional identity, collaborative ecosystems, and hybrid human–machine creativity in innovation processes.

This presentation introduces the preliminary results from the ETAG project: Aiming for Responsible innovation and Sustainability: looking for new insights from open innovation, circular design, and design thinking with focus on Estonia.

Daria Podmetina, D. Sc. (Tech.), senior researcher and PI for ETAG project focused on innovation and sustainability at Tallinn University of Technology, School of Business and Governance. Her research is in an interdisciplinary field of strategy, management and technology with a focus on innovation, sustainability, internationalization and entrepreneurship. After finishing her doctoral studies in 2011, she worked as postdoctoral researcher, and later as associate professor (2019-2023) at LUT University, Finland. Daria is an active member of the Academy of Management community, R&D Management conference, and a scientific board member of ISPIM and WOIC conferences and serves as a reviewer for several top academic journals. Being an education innovation enthusiast, she made an impact in integrating arts into STEM education, challenge-based education and developing 21st century skills for innovation management professionals. Daria promotes sustainability and collaborative innovation principles in research and teaching through international projects, collaboration with industry, presentations at international conferences, and publishing research results in academic journals such as Technovation, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Management Decisions, Journal of Small Business Management and others. Daria has also professional expertise in developing and coordinating international research, industry, education and consulting projects and managing projects portfolio.

The seminar is in English. Further information: [email protected]

Open seminars