A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
International Innovation Camps for Tackling Grand Challenges
Authors: Mumford, Jonathan Van; Fuerst, Sascha; Zettinig, Peter; Storm, Minna; Aleem, Majid
Publisher: Sage
Publication year: 2026
Journal: Journal of Management Education
Article number: 10525629251415152
ISSN: 1052-5629
eISSN: 1552-6658
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/10525629251415152
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Partially Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1177/10525629251415152
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/515627404
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
Addressing Grand Challenges requires innovative pedagogical approaches that equip future leaders with the skills to navigate complex, systemic, and dynamic global issues. This article presents international innovation camps as an instructional innovation for preparing business students to address Grand Challenges. We present insights from two three-week international innovation camps held in 2023 and 2024, a collaboration between business schools in Finland and Mexico focused on the pressing issue of overweight and obese populations—a systemic and structural problem that links individual-, organizational-, and societal-level challenges. These camps aim to develop in students the competencies and mindsets required to address this particular Grand Challenge, namely: (1) critically analyzing dominant problem framings, (2) navigating governance structures to identify collaborative opportunities, (3) engaging in iterative problem-solving through design thinking, and (4) developing systemic, context-sensitive solutions. To achieve these pedagogical objectives, the camps immersed students in real-world problem-solving environments grounded in an experiential learning framework that emphasizes cross-contextual immersion, multivocal stakeholder engagement, and intercultural collaboration to develop innovations tackling the Grand Challenge of mitigating the individual, social, and economic impacts of being overweight or obese.
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Funding information in the publication:
Funding for the international innovation camps discussed in this manuscript was provided by the Finnish National Agency for Education, “TFK (Team Finland Knowledge) Program,” which funds cooperation between higher education institutions through mobility and collaboration projects in China, India, Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. The innovation camps were supported by the Institute for Obesity Research of Tecnologico de Monterrey and the Nutrition and Food Research Center (NUFO) of the University of Turku.