Innovation conference held at A’Sharqiyah University

MUSCAT, DEC 23 - The 1st Innovation Conference was held under the auspices of Dr Ali bin Saud al Bemani, Vice-Chancellor of Sultan Qaboos University, from December 20 to 21. Prof Nabil Sultan, Dean of Business Administration College, introduced the conference titled Innovation: An Imperative for Progress and Success, followed by Vice-Chancellor Dr Abood al Sawafi addressing the delegates. The first keynote was delivered by Prof Paul Iske, a professor at the School of Business and Economics, University Maastricht, Netherlands, about “Building the Value Case: Environments for Shared Value Creation”.

Seven papers were presented on: Innovation and Lessons Learned in the Electric Car Industry, In Vitro Apoptosis Triggering of Human Breast Cancer T47D Cell Line by Lyophilised Aucklandia Lappa Decne Ethanolic Extract, Performance and Emission Characteristics of a Diesel Engine Using Oxy-Additive Blended Diesel Fuels, A Conceptual Study on Knowledge Sharing Behaviour as Driving Forces of Teaching Performance and Innovation in a Higher Learning Institution in Oman, Assessing the Acceptance, Readiness and Attitude Towards the Blended Learning Approach: A Case Study of Al Sharqiyah Governorate Potential Students in the Sultanate of Oman.

At the end of the first day conference sessions, 2 Arabic papers were presented talking about “Scientific Life in Oman between 1850 and 1914, Innovation Possibilities and how to utilise Arabic Language in the Sultanate.” The second day of the conference started with keynote by Dr Sylvia Van De Bunt, Co-director of SERVUS, the Servant-Leadership Centre for Research and Education at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, talking about Servant-Leadership: The Mind and Heart of the Sustainable Innovator.

This was followed by 7 papers which discussed Innovative Process Approach during Cross-Culture Post M&A-HR Integrations (Within Sino-Dutch commercial companies in the Netherlands), the Innovation of Waqf Bank In Islamic Finance Industry, Factors Influencing Online Ticket Purchase Intention: An Empirical Study on Public Transport Consumers, Evaluation of a Mobile Application Using Formative Evaluation Approach, Innovation in Personal Healthcare Management: An Adaptive Approach for Electronic Health Applications Interface Design, A Note on Caputo’s Derivative Operator Interpretation in Economy.

The conference opined that innovation is no longer an option to companies and organisations. It has become a way to survive and businesses are increasingly being disrupted by new innovations and business models.