Innovation,Competitive Position and Industry Attractiveness: A Tool to Assist SMEs

This paper reports the development of a tool to help SMEs identify more clearly their positions in their markets and to provide pointers to strategies that might lead to increased profitability. A nine‐cell matrix was constructed to form a new development based on the well‐established General Electric Co. (GE) matrix. It was proposed that companies could be positioned in one of the matrix cells as a function of two critical business indicators – competitive position and industry attractiveness. Data were gathered from a 21‐item innovation questionnaire completed by managing directors from 354 SMEs. Confirmatory factor analysis on data from the 21 items revealed two robust factors. The two factors could be labelled as the constructs ‘competitive position’ and ‘industry attractiveness’. These two constructs formed the axes of the matrix. Factor scores were calculated and used to place each company in its appropriate cell in the matrix. An individualised report was then generated and sent to each participating company. Positive feedback was received from companies who felt that the benchmarking and general pointers to strategic development included in their report provided value well in excess of their expectations.     

The Influence of Green IS Practices on Competitive Advantage: Mediation Role of Green Innovation Performance

This article explores the effect of Green information systems (Green IS) practices on Green innovations and how corporations gain competitive advantages through better performance of Green innovations (both process and product). Results based on IT firms in India indicate that Green innovation performance mediates the effect between Green IS and competitive advantage. This could imply the potential of Green IS moving beyond environmental benefits to include innovation and a chance to attain competitive advantage.     

From Creative Ideas to Innovation Performance: The Role of Assessment Criteria

This article aims to make idea screening studies even more relevant to innovation management by coupling a set of assessment criteria so that they can be used for identifying early product ideas with innovation potential. We develop a framework, which integrates the complementary theoretical perspectives from the creativity and innovation literatures. The approach draws novelty and usefulness insights from the creativity literature and combines these with novelty and market potential insights from the innovation literature. The resulting framework encompasses novelty of a product idea and its usefulness to the intended recipients, but with a distinct focus on the value to the firm that can be created through market potential. This set of criteria makes it possible to couple creative ideas for new products directly to potential innovation performance. For the study, industry and market experts made assessments of 106 student‐generated projects; these assessments underline the distinctiveness of the three criteria and support the value of each criterion's independent role in assessing the innovation potential. Two student project cases particularly shed light on the relevance of each criterion and on its unique relationship within the framework.     

创新——新的竞争力

2005年,在思科举办的一项研究中,各类商业和IT企业的635位的决策者认为创新比更好的教育更加重要,降低工资或削减公司税更有助于提升竞争力。毫不奇怪,拥有最高质量的产品或服务是他们从竞争中脱颖而出的最好方式。而且经理们可不只是嘴上说说而已,他们为创新活动投入了金钱,那     

Open Innovation and Firm Performance: The Mediating Role of Social Capital

This article examines the role of social relations and networks in open innovation settings. Building on extant open innovation literature as well as on social capital theory, we develop a model that conceptualizes social capital as a mediator between the implementation of open innovation instruments and firm performance. In doing so, this paper adds to the understanding of the role of structure and content of social relations in open innovation contexts as well as of sustainable side‐effects of open innovation. In particular, we argue that apart from a direct effect of open innovation instruments on firm performance, there is also a mediated relationship between these variables. More precisely, we propose that the implementation of open innovation instruments strengthens an organization's social capital, which is, in turn, positively related to firm performance.     

增强中国电信自主创新能力的思考

党的十六届五中全会明确提出,要把增强自主创新能力作为国家战略,致力于建设创新型国家。建设自主创新体系、打造优秀自主品牌,是提升中国电信核心竞争力的关键环节,也是强力推进企业转型战略的重大课题。自主创新的内涵自主创新,既可以理解为一种集团战略和发展道路,也可以理解为一种科技创新方式。根据中国电信发展实际,笔者认为,自主创新的内涵应该包括四方面。一是加强原始性创新。重视WiMAX,NGN,3G,FMC,IMS等技术的跟踪、研究,把握技术方向。积极参与国内和国际电信行业的技术标准制定,与国内主要电信运营企业、设备制造企业进行…     

Collaborations with Scientific Partners: The Mediating Role of the Social Context in Fostering Innovation Performance

The success of collaboration between firms and scientific partners is still debated. Although a firm's social context seems to be crucial to explain the success or failure of such collaboration in terms of innovation performance, a deep analysis of the context role is still lacking. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse whether a firm's internal climate as well as the quality of the relationships with scientific partners can mediate the relationship between collaboration and innovation performance. Results, based on survey research developed in Finland, Italy and Sweden, suggest that collaborations with scientific partners achieve good results in terms of innovation performance, through an explanation path which involves a firm's social context.     

How Award‐Winning SMEs Manage the Barriers to Innovation

Much attention has been focused on increasing the so‐called ‘innovation quotient’ of national manufacturing economies. In particular, there has been widespread interest in revealing and examining those barriers that impede innovation, the suggestion being that the removal of such barriers constitutes a prerequisite for successful innovation. This study reports on the experiences of eight firms who had received a UK Design Council ‘millennium product’ award for ‘groundbreaking’ innovation. The implication of the award is that these firms should have overcome any barriers they faced and therefore act as exemplars of how to manage innovative new product development. However, the research shows that the firms were as likely to ignore barriers as they were to address them. Living with a barrier as an alternative to overcoming it is clearly an acceptable strategy for a number of these award winners. The study reports on how the firms managed the various barriers that they encountered.     

基于应用能力与创新意识培养的实践教学体系设计

根据应用型本科院校计算机及相关专业教学的特点,在分析IT行业的调研数据以及本校软件设计相关课程体系和实践体系的基础上,本文提出基于应用能力与创新意识培养的实践教学体系观点,结合本校计算机及相关专业的教学实际,在软件设计相关课程方面取得了初步的效果。     

Promoting the Innovation Activity of SMEs; the Greek Experience

Programmes for stimulating innovation in Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) in Greece have been examined. Problems of innovation development, lack of funds, and marketing have been identified. The case is followed by comments from researchers with experience of entrepreneurship in various different countries.     

HR Contribution to IT Innovation Implementation: Results of Three Case Studies

The theoretical and empirical investigation of information technologies (IT) innovation implementations reveals that they lack conceptual and practical support from HRM professionals. The HRM practices undertaken by HR professionals are not even discussed. We argue that HR departments should contribute to IT innovation projects by being responsible for explicitly defining job tasks that have to be automated, establishing a rewards system for those who have to learn and use a new technology and analysing the training needs of the users and providing them with adequate training. HRM should more actively intervene in IT innovation projects. Such intervention would, we believe, foster compatibility between the prior intentions of information technology, the strategies and practices, the individual users’ needs in it and the adoption of IT by the users.     

性能测试工具能力评估框架研究

随着分布式应用系统的广泛使用,对性能测试的要求越来越高,而性能测试通常都需要借助于自动化性能测试工具才能实现.但是,评估工具的能力成熟度从而为选择恰当的工具提供依据,仍然是性能测试人员面临的主要困难.为解决这个问题,本文提出了一个框架,从如下三个方面评估性能测试工具的能力：可靠性,测试能力和资源管理能力.每个评估方面都由一组评估特性组成.最后,以目前市场上最流行的三种产品为例进行了分析和比较.     

Teamwork and Organizational Innovation: The Moderating Role of the HRM Context

Evidence is accumulating on the role of teams in shaping a variety of business outcomes, but our knowledge on the effect of teamwork on organizational innovation is still evolving. This study examines whether the extent to which two staff groups are organized in teams (production staff and management/administrative staff) affects organizational innovation and whether human resource management (HRM) systems, which can be of facilitating or constraining nature, enhance the teamwork/innovation relationships. Hypotheses were tested with lagged and longitudinal data derived from 18 to 45 organizations from the UK manufacturing sector. Results suggest that the more widespread the use of teamwork in organizations, the higher the level of organizational innovation. Furthermore, this effect depends, particularly for production teams, on the overall quality of the HRM systems that exist in their organizations. Teamwork/innovation relationships are further moderated (for management and administrative teams) by an HRM practice that provides teams with time for thoughtful reflection. Thus, HRM systems can be of more or less facilitating or constraining nature for teams in organizations.     

The Role of Dedicated Innovation Functions for Innovation Process Control and Performance – An Empirical Study among Hospitals

As health care systems evolve, innovation is becoming a key driver of performance in the hospital sector. However, innovation management has been adopted only sporadically in hospitals, and dedicated innovation functions remain in the developmental stage. Using control theory, this study develops a theoretical framework that links control mechanisms (proactiveness, innovation process formalization) and a dedicated innovation function to innovation activity and innovation performance. For the empirical analysis, data were collected from a survey of 158 German hospitals, with information provided by general hospital management. We apply a structural equation model and control for hospital characteristics such as hospital size and ownership (public/non‐profit/private). The empirical results show positive effects of formal and informal control mechanisms on innovation performance and a positive effect of informal controls on innovation activity. Moreover, a dedicated innovation function is found to positively affect innovation activity and both formal and informal control mechanisms. Based on our findings, we argue that hospital management might devote greater attention to control mechanisms to increase innovation activity and performance. Furthermore, hospital management might consider the creation and empowerment of a dedicated innovation function to take advantage of the positive effects of such a function on informal and formal controls as well as on innovation activity.     

Developing Innovation Capabilities: A Longitudinal Study of a Project at Volvo Cars

Many large firms are struggling to alter and develop their organizational capabilities. There are several discussions in the literature on what these capabilities comprise, and that there is a need to develop them. However, less attention has been paid to how companies can develop these capabilities in practice. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to organizational capability theory by providing insights derived from an empirical study of how organizational capabilities for innovation are developed in large firms, and how these findings compare to the theory. The paper is based on a longitudinal study of Volvo Cars conducted as a long‐term collaborative research project. The authors were involved in a project called Vision 2020, which extended over a period of two and a half years, the findings from which highlight several activities that enabled the changes required for the development of organizational capabilities. The need to develop ‘management capability’ in terms of both cognition and the propensity to act is especially highlighted.     

The Role of Knowledge Management in the Innovation Process

We argue that current concepts of knowledge management and organizational learning are, by themselves, limited in their ability to improve organizational effectiveness. We show how these concepts may be usefully integrated with organizational creativity and innovation within a single framework that combines the apprehension of knowledge with the creative utilization of such knowledge. Field research and experience are described showing how this framework has been applied to achieve measurable improvements in effectiveness in a wide range of organizations.     

The Impact of Technological Opportunities and Innovative Capabilities on Firms’ Output Innovation

In this study, we analyse the effect that external sources of knowledge and absorptive capacity exert on a firm's output innovation. In addition, we examine the moderating influence of absorptive capacity on the effect that technological opportunities have on output innovation. Empirical research was carried out on a sample of 91 Spanish firms from the ceramic tile industry. Absorptive capacity is operationalized by ‘systematic or continuous R&D’ and output innovation by ‘percentage of sales from new products’. Technological opportunities are divided into several industry and non‐industry related variables. Our results show the positive effect that both the industry's technological opportunities and a systematic approach to R&D exert on output innovation. Moreover, firms with a systematic approach to R&D usually achieve higher innovation output than firms which do not follow this approach. The innovation results of this second group decrease as a result of embedded technology acquisition.     

Innovation through Performance Analysis: Teambuilding and the Development of Performance Indicators

Although the research literature has long recognized performance appraisal as an important individually-oriented development tool, the developmental benefits of performance evaluation at the work-unit or group level have generally been overlooked. This paper examines these benefits, emphasizing particularly the team-building potential inherent in developing and using a set of appropriate, unit-level performance indicators. The problems related to the development of such indicators, and methods for minimizing these difficulties, are also considered.     

National Personality Profiles and Innovation: The Role of Cultural Practices

This study investigates the relationship between personality factors, cultural practices, and innovativeness on the national level. Hitherto no study has been done which considers these factors simultaneously. We argue that the relationship between national aggregated personality factors and the level of national innovation is mediated by national cultural practices. Our model is based on three arguments: First, Five Factor theory and cultural theory state that the national personality profile of a country influences its cultural practices. Second, person‐environment‐fit theory argues that personality factors can best manifest themselves in an appropriate environment. Third, in contrast to the individual level, we argue that on the national level cultural practices may not act as a moderator but as a mediator. Based on the triangulation of three datasets, we subsequently test our model on a sample of N = 33 countries. Our results demonstrate that innovation‐relevant national personality profiles are closely linked with innovation‐relevant national cultural practices. Further, we show that national cultural practices mediate the relationship between national personality profiles and national innovativeness. Additionally, we reveal that the recently proposed relationship between nationally aggregated personality profiles and national innovativeness virtually disappears as soon as national cultural practices are integrated into the model.