Psychic Distance,Innovation, and Firm Performance

Previous research suggests that internationalization improves a firm’s ability to innovate, but the effect of internationalizing into specific target markets or destinations on the innovation ability of firms has not been fully investigated. This study examined whether the psychic distance between target market and home market affects firms’ propensity to innovate. The starting assumption was that perception of a high degree of differences and subsequent environmental uncertainty when expanding into psychically distant markets triggers strategies for interacting and integrating with the market environment. These include producing and adopting innovations to processes and products and to organizational strategy, structure, and administrative procedures to cope with the new environment and overcome uncertainties. These innovations and the associated competitive advantages can improve firm performance. Hypotheses regarding the relationships between psychic distance, innovation, and firm performance were tested here by structural equation modeling using data from 186 export ventures into 23 international markets by Swedish companies. The results indicate that the link between psychic distance and firm performance is mediated by innovation.     

Internationalisation for Survival: The Case of New Ventures

The aim is to deepen our understanding about the internationalisation–survival relationship in the case of new ventures in traditional manufacturing sectors. Hypotheses were tested through Cox’s proportional hazard regressions on a sample of 3,350 firms aged 10 years or less, from the textile-clothing and footwear industry in Spain. A vast majority of new ventures that were both established and closed down over that time are purely domestic firms. That means, a firm increases its likelihood of survival when it becomes international. The highest failure risk relates to those new ventures which are territorially agglomerated and are domestically oriented. Internationalisation is an unconditional strategy for surviving in the case of new manufacturing ventures. In addition, location and efficiency in the activity both matter when operating in international markets. Statistical tests show that an interactive effect of agglomeration and internationalisation exists, while no support for the interaction between age and internationalisation is found. Future research should investigate the trade-off between growth and survival forces to determine the optimum moment to go international and to characterise the strategic choices followed by those new ventures that survive longest.     

Managing resource-constrained innovation in emerging markets: Perspectives from a business model

This study examines the organization of resource-constrained innovation from a business model perspective. Using a multiple case study design, we demonstrate that the ability to organize resource-constrained innovation is built on cost, good-enough, frugal, and reverse innovation capabilities. Cost innovation does not always lead to a new product, rather it is a way to reduce operational costs through the value creation activities of a business model to achieve resource-constrained innovation. Good-enough innovations are developed through existing platform reengineering and localization through value creation activities. We demonstrate that frugal innovations are developed based on new product architectures and applications that can create completely new market segments to compete against non-consumption. Reverse innovations refer to frugal innovations that are characterized by higher market novelty because they create completely new market segments in developed and developing markets for value capture.     

Implications of uncertain patent rights for German start-ups’ commercialisation activities and access to external capital

Start-ups may benefit in two ways from patenting their inventions: from the appropriation value and the certification effect of patents which reveals the ventures’ ‘quality’ to investors. As long as the patent office’s grant decision is pending both benefits may not realise. We confirm for a data-set of German start-ups that pending patent applications decrease the likelihood of market launch for new ventures. Regarding the certification effect, we find that pending patent applications attract risk-seeking investors, while more cautious investors do not react upon pending patent applications.     

The Underemphasized Role of Established Firms as the Sources of Major Innovations

We argue that established firms, including industry incumbentsand diversifying entrants, play vital and underemphasized rolesas the sources of major innovations in many industries. Thestudy presents empirical evidence showing that established firmsare often sources of major innovations in the telecommunicationsand medical sectors. We conduct an exploratory investigationof how variation in the types of technical and market changeinfluence whether industry incumbents, diversifying entrantsor new companies are the sources of major innovations.     

Polarizing Effects of Early Exporting on Exit

Extant research offers limited and inconclusive findings on the effects of early exporting by new ventures. This longitudinal study examines such effects, taking into consideration the roles of competition and adaptation in international venturing and exiting. The findings alert us to the potentially negative impact of early exporting on exit. Despite the deterrent effect of exporter competition, those new ventures that engage in early international venturing are impelled to keep strategically alert and expedite their learning process, therefore prospering in the highly competitive environment. By attracting foreign investors, new ventures will be able to start exporting early, and endorsed by the knowledge advantages associated with foreign partners the rapid entrants have better continuation chances. At the same time, early exporting in a relatively less competitive environment or without foreign ownership will lead to higher exit likelihood. By highlighting the polarizing effects of early exporting in the life cycle of new ventures, this study reconciles the difference between the process model and theories on international entrepreneurship to some extent.     

突破性创新与突破性创新设计研究综述

目的 将突破性创新设计从突破性创新与创新设计研究中分离出来进行专题分析。方法 采用跨学科横向关联的方法,通过文献检索,分析技术创新管理领域关于突破性创新的研究成果,并归纳了3个主题。分析了设计与工程设计、创新设计的特征,并将创新设计分为3类,其中一类是突破性创新设计,最后对突破性创新设计所涉及内容进行文献分析。结论 实现了Leifer等提出的突破性创新的3个基本特征,这些特征的实现也是突破性创新设计成功的参考。突破性创新设计是创新设计的一类,其关键是通过已有跨学科效应或跨行业技术的搜索与应用,实现核心技术的突破。突破性创新设计过程包括机遇识别、突破性技术实现等关键阶段,在C–TRIZ框架下已构建了几种过程模型,并可供企业参考。技术创新管理领域中关于突破性创新的研究,为突破性创新设计提供特征参考,两类研究属于不同领域,但可形成上下游关系。这种观点为创新设计跨学科研究提供了一种新思路。     

Hybrid modeling approach to market deployment planning: an application to a natural disaster relief supply business venture

In today’s fast-paced global economy, entrepreneurs increasingly tend to holistically design their business ventures during the early stages of business creation. This tendency highlights the need for an efficient and systematic approach to market deployment planning due to the dynamic and complex nature of current markets and the evolving significance of global strategic positioning. Traditional market expansion planning is no longer adequate for fast-paced contexts. This paper introduces a hybrid modelling approach in order to develop a market deployment roadmap. Based on market pertinent databases, the proposed approach uses self-organising maps for market clustering and an optimisation model for market deployment road mapping within each cluster. The approach is illustrated through its application to market deployment road mapping for a business venture specialising in natural disaster supply relief. Dealing with real case studies with exploiting the vast database have not received much attention in disaster relief planning context. Hence, this study provides a novel contribution to humanitarian relief planning considering the role of the business ventures in relief operation and their business model simultaneously.     

Innovation assessment in traditional industries. A proposal of aesthetic innovation indicators

Innovative activities are fundamental to the competitiveness strategies of the firms in a globalized market. Their assessment, using indicators such as those utilized in the Community Innovation Survey (CIS), shows significant sectoral dispersion. Traditional industries are in a weak position because the innovation they are involved in is mainly aesthetic, which is not really addressed in innovation surveys. In this work, we review the various criticisms levelled at existing indicators and propose some new indicators that would capture the types of innovations that are conducted by the traditional industries. This work is based on a study of the features of traditional industries and the concept of aesthetic novelty. The proposed indicators are tested in the Spanish footwear industry.     

New product development in new ventures: the quest for resources

Innovation and new product development (NPD) are becoming more important as strategic initiatives. Yet, innovation creates challenges for most existing organisations, thus leading to the emergence of new ventures (NVs) as vehicles to deliver innovation. NVs present owners and management with unique opportunities and challenges. On one hand, the NV can focus its attention on specific innovation(s) without having to compete with other goals and departments for resource access. Resources are critical to the successful development and launch of new products and can come from financial lenders and/or suppliers. However, because they are new and because their only asset of worth is the highly risky innovation, NVs are at a strong disadvantage in securing access to these resources. This study explores the effectiveness of using personal equity investments as a strategy for securing access and for enhancing NPD success. Using signalling theory as the theoretical framework and data from 745 NPD projects representing manufacturing innovations, this study finds that equity investment is particularly successful in its NPD impact although not impactful with suppliers. As a signal, it can be argued that equity is a strong, high-quality signal. Reasons for these findings and directions for future research are provided.     

Nanotechnology-interdisciplinarity, patterns of collaboration and differences in application

Nanotechnology is a novel technological field said to be one of the key technologies in the 21st century revoltionizing information technology, materials and medicine. Bibliometric quantification is a way to show the emergence of a new technology.Braun et al.¹ could establish an exponential growth pattern of publications in nano-science and technology starting in the early 1990s. Using their study as basis we intend to further characterize nanotechnology using bibliometric as well as patent data. We can show that the share of boundary-spanning publications is exceptionally high in the field of nanotechnology. Our co-authorship analysis indicates that countries follow different patterns of collaboration. Some countries tend to have bilateral relations while others collaborate with a much larger array of nations. Patent data in combination with bibliometric reveals differences in the application of science. In our conclusion we raise a number of questions requiring an analysis using also other types of data. Still, a closer investigation and disaggregation of bibliometric data may come up with additional findings.     

Innovation and Dominant Design in Mobile Telephony

We document the evolution of product innovation and features in the mobile telephone handset market. We distinguish between two types of product innovation: vertical and horizontal innovation. Using data on mobile telephone handsets from 1990 to 2003, we study the emergence of a dominant design in vertical and horizontal innovations and find that, while vertical product characteristics converged to some extent, no dominant design emerged. For horizontal product characteristics, some horizontal innovations remained differentiated, whereas others were adopted in all new handset models, thus forming a dominant design in horizontal product features. We explain this pattern using the concept of dominant design and results from the theoretical literature on the incentives for horizontal and vertical differentiation.     

The innovative behaviour of Italian firms: A survey on technological innovation and R&D

This paper is based on the findings of a survey on technological innovation in the Italian industry.All Italian manufacturing firms were screened in the analysis and, at the end of a screening process, 8,220 of them, which had introduced relevant technological innovations over the period 1981–1985, filled out either a mail questionnaire or were covered through a personal interview.Data and preliminary comments on the following problem-areas are set in the paper: type of innovation introduced in the firm (product, process), impact of innovations on the firm's products and sales, cost of innovation, technological relevance of innovations introduced, impact of innovations on the utilization of input factors, factors linked to the introduction of innovation, performance of R & D.Data show that technological innovation is a complex aspect of company life; it relates to both products and production processes: in more than half of the cases firms introduced both product and process innovations, whereas only products or processes were introduced in about 20 per cent of cases, respectively. It is also apparent that the majority of innovations are new only for the firm, and that only a limited share are new for the sector or for the country. Looking at the techno-scientific quality of the innovations introduced, quite often innovations were classified as technical improvements or enhancements, and in a very limited number of cases they were considered as applications of a scientific breakthrough.The breakdown of the innovation costs shows that, on average, more than half of the cost is attributed to investment (machinery, equipment, etc) one fourth to engineering and design activity, one fifth to R & D and the remaining 5 per cent to marketing activities.The most important factor linked to the introduction of innovation appears to be the acquisition of plant and machinery. This confirms the result of previous analyses which show that the introduction of new technologies hinges upon new machinery and equipment, often the sole means for the acquisition of technology produced by other economic agents — a diffusion and adaptation process is occurring. R & D was mentioned in a limited number of cases.In the paper a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the R & D performed by the firm is reported. In particular, it is shown that the number of R & D performing manufacturing firms is more than double that which emerges from the annual survey on research and development activities carried out by the Italian Central Statistical Office.     

Defining strategies to improve success of technology transfer efforts: An integrated tool for risk assessment

Science Based Innovation relies on effective Technology Transfer efforts. Defining strategies that increase high-technology projects success in the market is a necessary and challenging activity. This comprises elements like market uncertainty and the need for timely decision making within an environment of limited resources (economic, time, human, among others). In this context, Technology Intelligence (TI) generates useful knowledge to reduce risk and improve decision making. This work provides a tool to identify and qualitatively measure different risks; highlighted by previous TI activities. Such risks, their level and mitigation alternatives are also discussed. Furthermore, we create a simple, yet useful tool to calculate a risk score for technology projects at early stages of development. This tool was developed in a Technology Transfer Office to foster the development of entrepreneurial ventures.     

Systematically mapping innovations in electricity using startups: A comprehensive database analysis

Technology innovation is recognized as one of the main enablers of sustainable development and the transition towards a low-carbon future. Anticipating innovation trajectories could help decision-makers develop new capabilities to take advantage of incremental and disruptive innovations. This paper maps the current innovation that is taking place in the electricity sector using a bottom-up approach by analyzing the value proposition pursued by startups worldwide.We compiled a database of 320 startups whose focus is the electricity sector. We classified these startups according to their business propositions in the context of megatrends disrupting the electricity sector. From analyzing this dataset, we find the following. Photovoltaic generation (PV) is the primary technology for decarbonization. Innovation within PV focuses on developing more resistant materials, panels that are easier to install, or maintain. These innovations do not need an updated regulatory-market structure of the industry to be deployed. Digitalization is the key disruptive/breakthrough innovation. It has the potential to reshape businesses and the regulatory-market structure. Storage technologies can be very disruptive for the power sector, but the innovation we observe in storage technology is incremental. This includes batteries that last longer, that charge in shorter periods of time, or that use other less expensive raw materials, or more energy density –more kilowatt-hours per kilogram.     

基于双三次曲面片的三维接触面光滑方法

该文提出了一种基于双三次曲面片的适用于结构和非结构网格的三维接触面光滑方法。此光滑方法中,仅仅依靠网格节点坐标和法向定义了双三次曲面片,并由此构造出曲面片之间切平面连续,曲面片内C1连续的三维光滑接触面。在构造的光滑接触面上,设计了接触搜索方法用以确定接触发生的位置,并且依据罚函数接触算法,计算节点的穿透深度和接触作用力。算例结果显示光滑接触面确保了滑动节点的接触力的连续变化,提高了计算的收敛性。     

Assessing hypermutation operators of a clonal selection algorithm for the unequal area facility layout problem

A mutation operator is critical for the performance of a clonal selection algorithm (CSA) since it diversifies the search directions and avoids early convergence to local optima. This article introduces a CSA approach for the unequal area facility layout problem (UAFLP) with flexible bay structure. A new encoding, the use of mutation types with different combinations, and different static and dynamic mutation application strategies are also proposed. In addition, a guideline in parameter optimization of the CSA is provided. An experimental study is performed on five cases of the UAFLP. It is concluded that the hypermutation types studied in this article, especially the inverse mutation followed by pairwise mutation, can be used to obtain good results within short computation times.     

I'll Find it Where I Can: Exploring the Role of Resource and Financial Constraints in Search Behaviour among Innovators

The search for new knowledge is often driven by problems that firms face in their innovative activities. Although a considerable effort has been made to explore the search for innovation, little attention has been placed on the concept of problemistic search. Indeed, there are only few studies that examine how the challenges that firms face in their innovation processes shape the nature and direction of their search activities. Using the Finnish Innovation Survey, this study explores the impact of different types of problems on the use of internal and external knowledge sources. The results show that firms under resource constraints tend to use external sources of knowledge in their search activities rather than internal ones. However, those firms who are constrained by finance tend to search both internally and externally. The paper explores the implications of these results for theory and future empirical research.     

民族文化元素在陶瓷装饰中的应用

目的探究民族文化元素在陶瓷装饰中的应用方向及实践。方法基于丰富而广泛的民族文化资源,从中选取一些具有典型性的传统纹样、传统绘画及书法作为主要研究对象,分别对云纹、龙凤纹、工笔画、木版画和书法等元素在陶瓷装饰中的应用进行探究,总结相关的设计策略,并借助具体的相关设计案例展开深入的分析与展望,指出要想使陶瓷装饰艺术在激烈的市场竞争中一席之地,必须进行继承性创新,丰富其文化底蕴和民族特性。结论将民族文化元素与陶瓷装饰艺术相结合,能够构成新的视觉意义,在丰富陶瓷装饰形式和内涵的基础上,实现美的艺术效果,既给人以愉悦的感官体验,又能够很好地传承与发展优秀的民族文化形式,从而促成两者的良性发展。     

3D physical modeling of anisotropic grain growth at high temperature in local strong magnetic force field

A new mechanism based on the effect of local magnetic forces on diffusing ions around a growing ferromagnetic precipitate is proposed. A 3D simulation based only on physical parameters is undertaken in which main assumption is of interface limited growth controlled by the effect of both curvature and local magnetic field distortion. Although usually neglected in magnetic field effect mechanisms, it is shown that these local magnetic forces acting on a single paramagnetic ion can change markedly affect the growth process and induce strong shape anisotropy.