Purpose -This paper seeks to present findings from an SME case study situated in the computer games industry, the youngest and fastest growing of the new digital industries. The study aims to examine changing people management practices as the case company undergoes industry-typical strategic change to embark on explorative innovation and it seeks to argue that maintaining an organisational context conducive to innovation over time risks turning into a contest between management and employees, as both parties interpret organisational pressures from their different perspectives. Design/methodology/approach -A single case study design is used as the appropriate methodology to generate in-depth qualitative data from multiple organisational member perspectives. Findings -Findings indicate that management and worker perspectives on innovation as strategic change and the central people management practices required to support this differ significantly, resulting in tensions and organisational strain. As the company moves to the production of IP work, the need for more effective duality management arises.Research limitations/implications -The single case study has limitations in terms of generalisability. Multiple data collection and triangulation were used to mitigate the limitations. Practical implications -The economic contribution of small businesses in the new creative industries is widely acknowledged. While the sector shows high business birth rates, the business failure rate is equally high. This remains of concern for policy makers. This study aims to contribute to understanding why businesses in the sector either fail to grow or decline. Social implications -The economic contribution of small businesses in the new creative industries is widely acknowledged. While the sector shows high business birth rates, the business failure rate is equally high. This remains of concern for policy makers. This study aims to contribute to understanding why businesses in the sector either fail to grow or decline. Originality/value -Few qualitative studies have examined people management practices in the industry in the context of organisational/strategic change, and few have adopted a process perspective.

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Design-led innovation interventions are predicated on the importance of establishing complex disciplinary collaborations. This paper reflects on the effects of different co-design methods to support knowledge exchange and the co-creation of new business ideas with multidisciplinary participants. It draws on data collected from sandpit style events entitled Chiasma, undertaken as part of the knowledge exchange hub, Design in Action (DiA) in which co-design methods were used to bring designers, entrepreneurs, and academics together to develop innovative business ideas in Scotland. Employing a thematic analysis of idea generation, team formation, and idea development, we suggest that a more nuanced range of methods, tools, and techniques can strengthen multidisciplinary engagement and participation. We argue that such approaches can be enhanced by designers and researchers' shifting focus from co-design methods to supporting collaborative mindsets in knowledge exchange towards innovation.

The pressure to innovate is growing as technology cycles change more rapidly. Organisations need to balance exploration and exploitation effectively if they are to heed the innovation imperative. Organisational ambidexterity is proposed as a means to achieve such balance with structural or contextual ambidexterity as possible choices. Yet how organisations become ambidextrous is an as yet under-researched area, and different industry sectors may pose different innovation challenges. Using the case study method, this paper examines how a computer games company responds to an industryspecific innovation challenge and how it endeavours to balance exploration and exploitation. The findings suggest that ambidexterity is difficult to achieve, and is fraught with organisational tensions which might eventually jeopardise the innovation potential of a company. The paper suggests that more qualitative research is needed to further our understanding of innovation challenges, innovation management and organisational ambidexterity.

Successful creative production is often documented to occur in urban areas that are more likely to be diverse, a source of human capital and the site of dense interactions. These accounts chart how, historically, creative industries have clustered in areas where space was once cheap in the city centre fringe and inner city areas, often leading to the development of a creative milieu, and thereby stimulating further creative production.Historical accounts of the development of creative areas demonstrate the crucial role of accessible low-cost business premises. This article reports on the findings of a case study that investigated the location decisions of firms in selected creative industry sectors in Greater Manchester. The study found that, while creative activity remains highly concentrated in the city centre, creative space there is being squeezed and some creative production is decentralizing in order to access cheaper premises. The article argues that the location choices of creative industry firms are being constrained by the extensive city centre regeneration, with the most vulnerable firms, notably the smallest and youngest, facing a Hobson's choice of being able to access low-cost premises only in the periphery.This disrupts the delicate balance needed to sustain production and begs the broader question as to how the creative economy fits into the existing urban fabric, alongside the competing demands placed on space within a transforming industrial conurbation.