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1. Introduction
The importance of proposing innovative meanings is well-established in academia, and different studies have followed this line of inquiry in the past decade from a strategic perspective, e.g., blue ocean strategy (Kim and Mauborgne, 2005) and innovation perspectives, e.g., searching for new meanings (Verganti, 2009). Madsberg and Rasmussen (2014) explain how traditional problem-solving methods taught in business schools serve us well for some of the everyday challenges of business, but they tend to be ineffective with situations involving a high degree of uncertainty. At the heart of this model, they would argue, “Is the belief that business problems can be solved through objective and scientific analysis and that evidence and facts should prevail over opinions and preferences. […] In the midst of human complexity, it is tempting to believe that businesses can obtain a clear picture of what is right and what is wrong, to take opinion, beliefs, feelings, doubt, and confusion out of the equation by focusing on the pure facts.” Developing innovative meanings, especially when proposing a radically new conception or understanding of a reality, requires a different type of analysis and dynamics than the one proposed by the well-established and well-diffused problem-solving approach to innovation. Problem solving sees innovation as the result of cognitive work that combines individual knowledge, skills, behaviors and processes in the search for an optimal solution to a given problem (Simon, 1982; Clark, 1985), whereas in innovation of meaning, the outcome is not an optimal meaning but a different interpretation of what a product or service could mean (Verganti and Öberg, 2013; Öberg, 2012). Differently than in the problem-solving approach, innovative meanings do not come only from exposing oneself to new, unknown fields. A meaning does not build on sudden ideas or creativity; its origin goes much deeper. Innovative meanings take shape and evolve within people and their reflections with others. It can be described as something that makes humans strive further (Verganti, 2009; Dell’Era and Verganti; 2010; Verganti and Dell’Era, 2014). Several studies have demonstrated that companies willing to do innovation of meaning need to step back from users and their products. These companies need to take a broader perspective and try to understand changes in society, culture and technology to propose innovative meanings –...