Biography
Ruusa Ligthart is a research collaborator at the Cambridge Service Alliance and a By-Fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge (2022) in innovation management, open innovation, and service innovation, with research that identifies key differences between innovation management in the public and private sectors.
Ruusa is a Principal Lecturer and Head of the Master’s Joint Degree Programme in Managing Digital Transformation in the Health Sector at Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland. She also holds a master’s degree with distinction in International Tourism Management from the University of Brighton, England.
Ruusa has extensive experience in teaching, supervising thesis, and leading RDI projects, with a particular focus on innovation management and service marketing.
Publications
Ligthart, R. (2025). Service innovation process development in public and private sector organisations. In P. Kristensson, L. Witell, & M. Zaki (Eds.), Handbook of Service Experience (Chapter 7, pp. 82-102). Edward Elgar Publishing.
H Tikkanen, R Ligthart, A Salmi, O Ahonen (2024) Co-creating a service ecosystem for supporting digitalization in health and welfare Finnish Journal of eHealth and eWelfare 16 (1), 49–61-49–61
Ligthart, R. and Zaki, M. (2022) Open Innovation implementation in Finnish service organisations. RESER Conference. Paris, France 8-10 December 2022.
Ligthart, R. (2021) Open innovation in services in private and public sector organisations. Doctoral thesis.
Ligthart, R. (2021). The development of open service innovation at public sector. Druid22 Conference. Copenhagen, Denmark, October 18-20, 2021.
Ligthart R., and Minshall T. (2020). The development journey of open service innovation in the public and private sector. Digital Living Lab Days Conference 2020. Online, September 2-4, 2020.
Larjovuori, R., and Ligthart, R. et.al, (2020). Digimuutos tehdään yhdessä. University of Tampere, Faculty of Management and Business.
Ligthart R., and Minshall T. (2019). Conceptual framework for open service innovation. WOIC Conference. Rome, Italy. December 12-13, 2019.
Ligthart R., Keränen K., and Minshall T. (2018). An initial framework for open service innovation adopting digital co-creation. ISPIM Conference 2018. Stockholm, Sweden. June 17-20, 2018.
Keränen K., and Ligthart R. (2017). Digital open innovation and co-creation in service organisations: Enablers and barriers. The 21st annual Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium – Globalisation 2.0. Cambridge, UK. September 28-29, 2017.
Ligthart, R. Porokuokka, J. and Keränen K. (2016). Using digital co-creation for innovation development. RESER Conference. Naples, Italy. 8-19 September 2016.
