Expanding competitive advantage through organizational culture,knowledge sharing and organizational innovation

This research empirically investigates the relationship between organizational culture, knowledge sharing, organizational innovation, and competitive advantage. Data were collected from 294 industrial managers, and PLS-SEM was used to validate data and examine the hypothesized relationships. Results revealed that organizational culture, knowledge sharing, and organizational innovation positively affect competitive advantage. More specifically, organizational culture fosters knowledge-sharing and innovation activities among the workforce and links them with high-level business processes that could be conducive to acquiring advanced manufacturing capabilities. The present study highlighted that organizational culture is indispensable for business operational success, and knowledge-sharing and organizational innovation appear to be key drivers for gaining competitive advantage.     

Steering firm performance through innovative capabilities: A contingency approach to innovation management

Today's business environment is filled with fierce competition, rapid technological changes and market uncertainty. For survival, organizations have no option but to embrace innovation both in their processes and product. Performance of innovative capabilities depends on the speed and quality of new product and processes. Contingent resource-based view is used in this study to understand the effect of innovative capabilities on various functional performances. Data was gathered from 115 senior-level managers working in engineering or marketing department of manufacturing firms. PLS-SEM is used for outer and inner measurement model validation. Results of this study reveal that process innovation and product innovation complements each other for improving innovation speed and quality. Moreover, in the case innovative products, manufacturing performance is a key to enhance marketing performance and firm competitive capabilities. This research provides various new insights for the research and development concerns and marketer for developing a successful case of introducing a new product in the market.     

Product-service system innovation capabilities: linkages between the fuzzy front end and subsequent development phases

In an attempt to remain competitive, manufacturers increasingly offer integrated product-service systems (PSSs). This transition from physical products to PSSs calls for new ways of working, for example in the product development process. However, so far only limited attention has been put on capabilities needed to succeed with PSS innovation in the very early development phases – often referred to as the fuzzy front end (FFE). This article, therefore, has a dual aim: first, to further our understanding of capabilities for PSS innovation in the FFE, and second, to determine how these capabilities are linked to PSS innovation capabilities needed in subsequent development phases. Empirical data were collected from an ongoing industrial project developing an innovative PSS offering in a large manufacturing company. Individuals connected to the project reported major challenges, both experienced in the FFE and anticipated in later phases, which provided valuable information regarding capabilities needed to succeed with the endeavour. Findings reveal four links of PSS innovation capabilities: (1) adapting vocabulary and mental models to PSS, (2) handling the ‘intangible aspect’, (3) bridging organisational structures, and (4) managing new business models. PSS innovation capabilities in the FFE are also found to be of higher order (dynamic) compared to capabilities in later development phases.     

A methodology for identifying results and impacts in technological innovation projects

As investments in policies and projects in science, technology, and innovation (STI) grow, it becomes increasingly important to determine the benefits society receives in return for the public resources thus invested. However, existing methodologies are somewhat limited in scope as they do not possess mechanisms for correctly identifying non-measurable, indirect results and impacts. This study addresses these knowledge shortcomings, and it proposes and validates an alternative method to identify the social, environmental, and economic outcomes and indirect impacts of STI projects. Findings indicate that the proposed method helps fills the gaps in knowledge about ex-post methodologies used to evaluate indirect results and impacts in STI projects. One aspect that sets the proposed method apart from the existing approaches is that it contemplates a wide range of analytical categories of indirect impacts for assessing the effects of STI projects. The principal academic and practical contribution of this study is the development of an accessible artifact that can identify the results and indirect impacts of projects in diverse areas of STI. The study extends the understanding on the methodologies to identifying results and indirect impacts of STI projects.     

Understanding innovation diffusion and adoption strategies in megaproject networks through a fuzzy system dynamic model

Innovation and knowledge diffusion in megaprojects is one of the most complicated issues in project management. Compared with conventional projects, megaprojects typically entail large-scale investments, long construction periods, and conflicting stakeholder interests, which result in a distinctive pattern of innovation diffusion. However, traditional investigation of innovation diffusion relies on subjective feedback from experts and frequently neglects inter-organizational knowledge creation, which frequently emerges in megaprojects. Therefore, this study adopted project network theory and modeled innovation diffusion in megaprojects as intra- and inter-organizational learning processes. In addition, system dynamics and fuzzy systems were combined to interpret experts’ subject options as quantitative coefficients of the project network model. This integrated model will assist in developing an insightful understanding of the mechanisms of innovation diffusion in megaprojects. Three typical network structures, namely, a traditional megaproject procurement organization (TMO), the environ megaproject organization (EMO), and an integrated megaproject organization (IMO), were examined under six management scenarios to verify the proposed analytic paradigm. Assessment of project network productivity suggested that the projectivity of the TMO was insensitive to technical and administrative innovations, the EMO could achieve substantial improvement from technical innovations, and the IMO trended incompatibly with administrative innovations. Thus, industry practitioners and project managers can design and reform agile project coordination by using the proposed quantitative model to encourage innovation adoption and reduce productivity loss at the start of newly established collaborations.     

A text-based monitoring tool for the legitimacy and guidance of technological innovation systems

Disruptive technologies have to overcome their liability of newness and transition into their growth phase by achieving compliance with existing institutions and pursuing the most promising development paths. Technological innovation system (TIS) studies examined these two issues of legitimacy and guidance of innovation activities by investigating the public discourse with manual media analyses. However, these approaches are time-consuming, prone to subjectivity biases and limited in scope. Therefore, our paper proposes an automatic text analysis methodology based on unsupervised Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling and lexicon-based sentiment analysis. By processing 3423 German newspaper articles from the Nexis Uni database, we cover the development of battery-electric vehicles (BEV) in Germany from 2009 to 2019 and identify five socio-technical aspects. Our results indicate an intact legitimacy for the TIS, with Usability, R&D, and Industry being legitimate aspects, which also exhibit strong or improving guidance. In contrast, the Infrastructure and Policy aspects have been less legitimate and weak in guidance, suggesting the need for more holistic policy measures and infrastructure expansion to establish a mass market. Our proposed methodology adds to the toolbox of methods to analyze TIS and serves as a monitoring tool to reveal contested aspects and periods in the public discourse.     

Matching of technological forecasting technique to a technology using fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making methods: Case study from the aerospace industry

Given the accelerating pace of technological advances and environmental changes, technology-based companies are required to predict and understand future events in their environments. However, there is a wide range of forecasting methods creating confusion on which method to use. This paper demonstrates the selection of an appropriate technique for technology forecasting in the Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO). To this end, a review of the literature was first reviewed to extract the proper criteria for selecting a forecasting method. Next, the SWARA and fuzzy MUTLIMOORA methods were used to evaluate and prioritize a total of twelve forecasting methods proposed for the case study. The results suggested that the Delphi method for technology forecasting in the IAIO. Scenario writing and the relevance tree are the next proper alternatives that can be used.     

Identifying barriers to wind energy diffusion in Colombia: A function analysis of the technological innovation system and the wider context

By utilizing only half of its total technical wind energy potential, Colombia would be able to supply the entire country's demand for electricity. Yet, Colombia has an installed capacity of 19.5 MW from wind power, representing about 0.4% of the total technical potential. In this paper, the slow diffusion of wind energy in Colombia is analyzed, by evaluating the functions of the Technological Innovation System (TIS) along with the influence of the wider context (Landscape Factors). A combination of expert evaluations (structured and semi-structured interviews) and a history event analysis revealed existing weaknesses in the TIS functions and influence from the wider context (landscape level). Several factors at the landscape level were found to have a significant influence on the TIS functions for wind energy in Colombia. Policy recommendations are provided to address barriers in order to advance the diffusion of wind energy in Colombia.     

A fuzzy knowledge based method for maintenance planning in a power system

The inspection planning in electric power industry is used to assess the safety and reliability of system components and to increase the ability of failure situation identification before it actually occurs. It reflects the implications of the available information on the operational and maintenance history of the system. The output is a ranked list of components, with the most critical ones at the top, which indicates the selection of the components to be inspected.In this paper, we demonstrate the use of a fuzzy relational database model for manipulating the data required for the criticality component ranking in thermal power systems inspection planning, incorporating criteria concerning aspects of safety and reliability, economy, variable operational conditions and environmental impacts. Often, qualitative thresholds and linguistic terms are used for the component criticality analysis. Fuzzy linguistic terms for criteria definitions along with fuzzy inference mechanisms allow the exploitation of the operators' expertise.The proposed database model ensures the representation and handling of the aforementioned fuzzy information and additionally offers to the user the functionality for specifying the precision degree by which the conditions involved in a query are satisfied.In order to illustrate the behavior of the model, a case study is given using real inspection data.     

Development of a product design and supply-chain fulfillment system for discontinuous innovation

Given the lengthy product development lifecycle process, high cost, and low success rate, many firms avoid considering discontinuous innovation strategies, in spite of their increase in frequency and importance in many markets. Even with advances in automation and technology, many of the techniques being utilised in product development are relatively unchanged, and the definition of discontinuous innovation itself lacks a structural component. To address this problem, the authors developed a methodology for generative customisation to implement discontinuous innovation. Using the emerging technologies of generative design and agent-based modelling, the authors developed a methodology to create product inventions and measure product innovations using a complex adaptive system (CAS) model. This appears to be the first model that represents a complex adaptive system environment to measure the success of discontinuous innovation in the development of a market equilibrium agent model.     

Optimum shape design of arch dams for earthquake loading using a fuzzy inference system and wavelet neural networks

An efficient methodology is proposed to find the optimum shape of arch dams considering fluid-structure interaction subject to earthquake loading. The earthquake load is considered by time variant ground acceleration applied in the upstream–downstream direction of the arch dam. The optimization is carried out by particle swarm optimization, employing real values of design variables. To reduce the computational cost of the optimization process, two strategies are adopted. In the first strategy, the most influential design variables on arch-dam response from original variables are selected using an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system. In the second, arch-dam response is predicted by a properly trained wavelet radial basis function neural network employing the influential design variables as the inputs. In order to assess the effectiveness of the suggested methodology, a real arch dam is considered as a test example. The numerical results demonstrate the computational advantages of the proposed methodology for the optimal design of arch dams.     

A novel proportional-derivative (PD) law based fuzzy logic principles assisted controller for simultaneously controlling indoor temperature and humidity using a direct expansion (DX) air conditioning (A/C) system

A novel Proportional-Derivative (PD)law based Fuzzy Logic Controller (PFC) for a variable speed (VS) direct expansion (DX) air conditioning (A/C) system has been developed. There were two coupled control loops in this controller, i.e., varying supply fan speed to control indoor dry-bulb temperature (T_db), and compressor speed indoor wet-bulb temperature (T_wb). To weaken the coupling effect between the two loops, fuzzy logic principles were deployed. Furthermore, a PD law was used instead of a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) law, in the PFC, which helped simplify not only calculation but also the structure of the PFC. The controller developed was validated by carrying out the controllability tests with the experimental conditions covering the normal operational range of a VS DX A/C system. The experimental results of the controllability tests suggested that the novel PFC developed is capable of realizing the simultaneous control of indoor temperature and humidity satisfactorily, in terms of control accuracy and sensitivity.