Path dependent constraints on innovation programmes in production and operations management

Innovation has been categorised into levels, ranging from incremental to radical, each of which has the potential to impact on the workforce and the organisation of a company, influenced by contextual factors. This paper investigates the barriers to innovation diffusion in companies working at these two ends of the innovation scale, in order to identify similarities and differences in how levels of innovation affect an organisation and how culture affects success. It also considers these factors in light of the path dependency concept. Investigations were conducted on a case study basis, using semi-structured interviews. This led to the creation of force field analysis diagrams to portray the findings, which show the radical innovation implementation has experienced greater resistance than the incremental programme. Conclusions show that there were many similarities between the radical and incremental innovation projects. Differences were primarily based on project specific forces and those that occur as a result of path dependant forces that have shaped the current working environment. Organisational culture was found to be a significant influence, as all innovation programmes require the involvement of people. Findings of this study will contribute to theory on the differential and similar forces which shape incremental and radical innovations.     

Complementarities Affecting the Returns to Innovation

The purpose of this paper is to determine which firm strategies, perceived benefits of innovation and objectives for innovating in various manufacturing industries are indeed complementary with innovation. The test for complementarity is performed by proving that the data satisfies a set of supermodularity parametric equation restrictions. Our estimation results, from Canada's national innovation survey, show a wide variation in complements affecting the perception of the value of innovation to a firm. In terms of profit, complementary variable pairs for world‐first innovators exceed those of firms who report a Canada‐first or firm‐first innovation. With labour productivity, complementary variable pairs for the Canada‐first innovators exceed those of the world‐ and firm‐first innovators. It is readily apparent though, that a high‐technology industry does not necessarily equate to a high degree of complementarity.     

Driving business performance: innovation complementarities and persistence patterns

Complementarities between technological and non-technological innovation are crucial determinants of firm performance. Although innovation complementarity has been extensively tested in the empirical literature, it has not been analysed in conjunction with innovation persistence. This fact is mainly due to the lack of data sets able to provide adequate longitudinal information. The capacities to develop market-oriented behaviour and introduce new organisational innovations, together with technological innovation, are the drivers of a firm’s productivity and profitability. We find that these activities complement technological innovation and that their impact is greater when they persist over time, thus introducing a more general concept of innovation persistence. We present an empirical model based on a large new panel of Italian manufacturing firms covering the period 2000–2012 which enables us to determine the precise impacts of a firm’s innovative attitude, in a broad definition that incorporates non-technological innovation and persistence, on its productivity and profitability.     

Top management Team's cognitive diversity and the Firm's ambidextrous innovation capability: The mediating role of ambivalent interpretation

The top management team (TMT) diversity has received considerable attention in literature, especially due to its influence on an organization's innovation strategy. While previous studies have considered diversity in terms of education, experience, skills, functionality, and gender, little is known about the TMT's cognitive diversity. We contribute to the literature by examining the influence of the TMT's cognitive diversity on an organization's ambidextrous innovation capability; i.e., its incremental and radical innovation capability. Results from 50 TMTs involved in the electronics industry support our hypothesized mediating role of ambivalent interpretation; that the TMT cogitative diversity positively influences ambivalent interpretation, and this, in turn, positively influences both radical and incremental innovation capability. These findings have important implications for how a firm's decision makers (i.e., the TMT) with their diverse cognitive styles support building the firm's ambidextrous capability through ambivalent interpretation.     

论渐进性与激进性创新理念在品牌标志中的应用

目的 探讨渐进性创新和激进性创新两种创新理念在品牌标志中的运用,为标志设计的发展提供新的研究思路和视角。方法 运用案例研究法以及文献研究法,将国内外的成功品牌标志案例进行剖析,分别阐述了渐进性创新和激进性创新理论在其品牌标志中的体现以及应用方法;结果 具有时代意义和成功的品牌标志都在渐进性创新和激进性创新两种创新理念中得以体现。结论 渐进性创新理论在品牌标志中体现的是一个迭代的过程,标志在原有的基础上不断改善,最终产生一个经典标志;而激进性创新理论在品牌标志中体现的是一种变革和进取的不保守状态,通过改变技术或者意义,让标志设计的模式焕然一新,体现出新颖性和唯一性。     

Tracing knowledge flows in innovation systems

This paper gives an overview of quantitative approaches used to study the science/technology linkage. Our discussion is informed by a number of theoretical approaches that have emerged over the past few years in the area of innovation studies emphasizing the exchange of actors in innovation system and a shift in the division of labour between publicly funded basic research and industrial development of technology. We review the more quantitative literature on efforts made to study such linkage phenomena, to which theorizing in the science policy area has attributed great importance. We then introduce a typology of three approaches to study the science/technology linkage - patent citation, industrial science, and university patenting. For each approach, we shall discuss merits and possible disadvantages. In another step we illustrate them using results from studies of the Finnish innovation system. Finally, we list key limitations of the informetric methods and point to possible hybrid approaches that could remedy some of them. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

面向成熟期产品突破性创新设计模糊前端阶段过程研究

 为解决机械产品突破性创新设计概念产生的问题,将发明问题解决理论（TRIZ）应用于新产品开发的模糊前端阶段．基于耗散结构理论分析了产品突破性创新的时机;在建立产品技术系统主功能物质场模型的基础上,提出了机械产品突破性创新的方法;基于技术进化理论对实现产品主功能的技术子系统进行技术预测,分析突破性创新的技术机会,并应用计算机辅助创新软件工具产生突破性创新设想;综合上述分析建立了面向成熟期产品突破性创新设计模糊前端阶段过程模型．应用该过程模型对快速切断阀进行创新设计,验证了所提方法的有效性．     

Effects of Production Feedback and Standards on Worker Productivity in a Repetitive Production Task

The main objective of this research was to determine whether production feedback and/or standards could be provided singly or jointly to operators to improve worker productivity in a repetitive production task. Only the combination of production feedback on quantity and quality in the presence of an assigned hard-task production standard had a significant positive effect on worker productivity, both in terms of production quantity and quality output. The percentage increases in quantity and quality output were 13& and 15&, respectively, compared to the control group. All the subjects who were provided with this experimental condition had accepted the assigned standard and 75& of them showed innovation(s) in task performance. The interaction between production feedback and standard was highly significant, in terms of both quantity and quality. The provision of an assigned hard-task production standard alone failed to improve worker productivity; monetary incentive added no incremental performance gain. Quantity output was highest in the last or fourth (15-minute) quarter, whereas the production quality output increased progressively from the first to the fourth quarter.     

Materials and strategies for successful innovation and competition in the metal packaging industry

Recent discussions about technological development and innovation have omitted some important issues: innovation development in so-called low-technology industries; the important role played by material technology not only in high-technology industries, but in the adaptation processes in most industries. These discussions often lack a historical perspective. Many contemporary issues, such as integrated product development and networking, have been central to industrial production for more than one hundred years. Each of these is discussed in this study of the emergence and development of the metal packaging industry over the last two hundred years. An important research question is the influence of material development on the development of strategies, dominant designs, and the overall adaptability of the industry. Against this background we cannot speak of one single successful strategy. In Denmark's can manufacturing industry a non-innovative strategy, characterized by volume and rationalization and based on licensing from the U.S., was developed. In tube production, however, a strategy of incremental innovation for solving problems related to the use of existing materials emerged based on the industry's own innovation resources, financed by world-wide licensing. Thus licensing played an important role for the technological adaptability of the industry.     

The effect of innovation on productivity: evidence from Turkish manufacturing firms

This paper systematically explores the effects of firms’ innovation activities on their productivity changes for Turkish manufacturing firms, differentiating between different typologies of innovation. We employ endogenous switching methodology, controlling for endogeneity and selection bias issues, as well as analysing counterfactual scenarios. The main finding of the study points to firm heterogeneity in terms of propensity both to innovate and to benefit from innovation activities. Our results indicate that all types of innovation activity have positive effects on the productivity of firms when compared with non-innovating firms. We find robust evidence for the differential impact of innovation on firm productivity across different innovation types. Further, this relationship alters across different phases of the economy with respect to the 2008 financial crisis.     

Asymmetric inter-linkages between green technology innovation and consumption-based carbon emissions in BRICS countries using quantile-on-quantile framework

The role of reliable Carbon emission measures and relevant climate policy is imperative in realizing Sustainable Development Goals. A large extent of the literature concludes the emissions-mitigating effect of green innovations in a linear framework and ignored structural changes, technological revolutions, and socio-economic reforms that create non-linearity. Apart from that, there is a murky relationship between emissions and green innovation, where two-way links exist between both variables. Therefore, this study draws the inter-linkages between green technology innovation (GI) and carbon emissions (consumption-based and terrestrial emissions) in BRICS countries using monthly data from 1990 to 2017. Our preliminary findings strictly reject the preposition of data normality and highlight that the observed relationship is quantile-dependent. Therefore, a complete set of non-linear modeling is employed that included; Quantile unit root, Quantile cointegration, Quantile causality, and Quantile on Quantile regression to unveil hidden unit root, cointegration, causality, and association between variables. The results exhibit that the emissions-mitigating effect of GI is only pronounced at higher emissions quantiles in Brazil, China, India, and Russia, whereas at lower emissions quantile, GI is weekly or positively linked with carbon emissions. On the flipside, higher carbon emissions instigate GI across medium to higher emissions quantiles in Brazil, China, and India. Unlike them, Russia produces different outcomes, where higher emissions are associated with lower GI across all quantiles. The overall results suggest that GI (carbon emissions) mitigate (instigate) carbon emissions (GI) when a country is embodied with higher level of emissions.     

The Catalysing Role of In-House R&D in Fostering Complementarity Among Innovative Inputs

While several studies have investigated the relationship between internal and external sources of innovation, no clear-cut result has emerged so far, suggesting the possibility that the nature of such interaction—far from being an absolute property of the innovative process—may instead be a relative one, contingent upon the nature and the level of innovative inputs a firm has invested in. Using microdata from the third Italian Community Innovation Survey, we test under what conditions the nature of the interactions between four different innovative inputs (internal and external R&D, embodied and disembodied technological acquisition) is one of complementarity or substitutability. Two are the main findings of our study: (i) internal R&D and embodied technological acquisitions turn out to be complementary only after a minimum threshold of in-house R&D expenditure has been overcome, being substitutive otherwise; (ii) investing in internal R&D also affects the nature of the relationships between alternative external sources of innovation, whose interaction proves to be complementary only for firms that invest in internal R&D.     

Assessing the Potential of Cross-border regional innovation Systems:A case study of the Hong Kong -Shenzhen region

While technological transformations have redrawn the boundaries of regional innovation systems, the effect of such transformations on the development of cross-border regional innovation systems (CBRISs) – defined here as the innovation system spanning neighboring territories belonging to different nation-states – has not been well understood. The Hong Kong-Shenzhen region presents a unique opportunity to study the potential of CBRISs, as Hong Kong and Shenzhen are adjacent to each other though there is a border between them and the two cities have their own political and legal systems under the “one country, two systems” arrangement. In this research, we examine the development of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen region by focusing on cognitive proximity, innovation actors, collaboration, and global connectivity through an analysis of patent and publication data for the 2001–2015 period. Our findings point to a good potential given the growing convergence in scientific research among the two cities, steadily increasing collaboration output, and a complementarity among innovation actors. However, compared with other cross-border regions, the technological linkages between Hong Kong and Shenzhen remain limited.     

Antitrust environment and innovation

Summary This paper examines the relationship between the antitrust environment and innovation in the US economy, where innovation is measured by patent activity. The hypothesis to be tested is whether antitrust enforcement activity, as measured by the number of civil filings of the US Department of Justice, has had a significant impact on the level of innovation in the US economy, after adjusting for other factors that have an impact on innovation, such as research and development expenditures and real economic growth. Impacts of civil antitrust case filings, criminal antitrust case filings and total US Department of Justice antitrust case filings on patent activity in the USA are estimated for the period 1953-2000. The empirical results show that civil case filings have a statistically significant impact on innovation.     

Revitalizing the race between technology and education: Investigating the growth strategy for the knowledge-based economy based on a CGE analysis

This study conducted quantitative policy experiments using a computable general equilibrium model to investigate how long-run economic growth can be achieved through the endogenous interactions between innovation and human capital accumulation. The analysis found that there are limits to driving productivity growth and enhancing growth potential when focusing solely on the expansion of technological innovation. However, our results suggest that promotion of the complementarity between technological innovation and human capital formation may alleviate the inequalities of wages and employment induced by skill-biased technological change, promoting balanced growth among industrial sectors with higher productivity improvement and scale effects. This study suggests that in order to spur long-run growth in knowledge-based economy, policymakers should establish educational infrastructure to support workers to move up the skill ladder and cope with rapid technological change.     

From outsourcing to productivity,passing through training: microeconometric evidence from Italy

This paper provides firm-level evidence on the short-run link between outsourcing and productivity using an original data-set of Italian manufacturing firms and estimating a recursive system of three equations. We find a positive correlation between productivity and outsourcing only if firms provide training for the workforce. This indirect impact is significant only in the case of production outsourcing and when training is provided off the job to top and middle managers. The rationale is that production outsourcing induces a re-organization of the production process requiring workers to learn and adapt through formal training activities.     

Barriers towards cleaner production for optimizing energy use and pollution control for foundry sector in Howrah,India

The most pressing environmental problems of casting production in small-scale foundry sector are gaseous emission and utilization of energy. Promotion of clean technology towards cleaner production has achieved significant improvement. But that technology was not widely accepted due to different barriers. However, incremental innovation with the existing technology got preference. For realization of the scenario, operational performances of cupola and pollution control system were evaluated in 12 units and 15 units, respectively. The study revealed that foundry sector, as a whole, could not ensure proper utilization of the energy and the control of emission. The parameters governing the efficiency of these technologies varied remarkably, which questions its consistency and reliability. This study focused the major barriers towards cleaner production with an aim to define the strategies to overcome the eco-friendly casting production.     

Entrepreneurial networks and open innovation: the role of strategic and embedded ties

This paper considers the open innovation paradigm in the context of entrepreneurial firms. Based on an analysis of survey data, it examines the relationship between network ties and innovation. These are considered as the strategic network ties associated with open innovation and the embedded ties associated with entrepreneurial networks. It is found that both strategic and embedded ties are significantly associated with rates of innovation for entrepreneurial firms, although for the former this relationship is driven by a minority of larger or highly innovative firms. Strategic ties are most strongly linked to product and organisational innovations, whilst process innovations are more related to embedded network ties. There is some evidence of complementarity between the two forms of network tie. It is concluded that in the entrepreneurial context, the open innovation concept should be broadened to encompass the role performed by embedded network ties.     

物化型技术进步对异质性劳动就业存在偏向吗?——来自关联行业视角的经验证据

现阶段物化型技术进步的就业效应已经成为经验文献关注的焦点,本文重点关注对异质性技能劳动就业的偏向影响及关联行业物化型技术对本行业就业的影响。本文利用中国2002~2015年行业投入产出数据,测算38个行业物化型技术水平,考察物化型技术进步对本行业和关联行业高、中、低技能劳动就业的偏向影响效应及影响机制。研究发现:(1)样本期内物化型技术整体表现为抑制就业,但对不同水平技能劳动就业会产生异质性水平影响,表现为抑制低技能劳动就业,促进中、高技能劳动就业,这是替代效应和生产率效应共同作用的结果。(2)关联行业物化型技术进步会对本行业的就业产生非对称垂直影响,下游行业物化型技术进步会显著促进本行业就业,尤其是促进低技能劳动就业,主要源自共谋效应的主导作用。(3)行业间物化型技术水平、技术进步率及其就业效应差异明显,就业抑制效应在农业与制造业最为显著,在采掘和公共事业、服务业、健康和教育业影响较小。     

Incremental and systemic innovation strategies: reflections of technical choice

This paper addresses the relationship between design strategies and the range of alternative technical solutions available to designers. The relationship between systemic and incremental change is examined in the light of examples taken from the aircraft industry and the modernisation of Britain's railways. The use of the term ‘systemic’ rather than ‘radical’ is explained.