Towards a multi-levelled social process perspective on firm innovation: integrating micro,meso and macro concepts of knowledge creation

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to suggest a framework for studying firm innovation processes in a social process perspective that integrates the micro, meso and macro levels of analysis, that is, the knowledge creation of individuals/communities, the knowledge coordination of organisations, and the spatial–institutional contextualisation of knowledge. For this purpose, we suggest using as a starting point the so-called Combinatorial Knowledge Bases approach, which allows merging concepts about micro practices and macro contexts in an effective way. The suggested framework pays attention to different phases in the entire innovation process, characterised by different (micro) learning modes, situated in varying (macro) contexts and delineated by organisational (meso-level) choices, therefore enabling an integrated approach to the studying of firm innovation. To illustrate the potentials of applying the framework we present a process-oriented in-depth empirical case study of an innovation, following it from idea generation to market introduction by means of an innovation biography method.     

Motivating business towards innovation: A panel data study using dynamic capability framework

National strategic dynamic capabilities refer to the nations' ability to acquire, develop, and transfer national resources into innovation. This would help provoke firms and individuals’ capabilities to sense and seize to expedite innovative performance transformation. This study suggests that through the dynamic capabilities (DC) framework, the government can increase Innovation by channelizing the economic innovation system indicators. Macroeconomic indicators from 62 countries were taken to assess the significance of indicator-based dynamic capabilities model. The results confirm that sensing and seizing indices motivate Innovation, while the cost of business negatively moderates sensing. This model suggests that governments can motivate Innovation by exploring the indicators which are determining the sensing and seizing environment of decision-makers in businesses.     

A tale of two innovation cultures: Bridging the gap between makers and manufacturers

Maker communities have been widely popularized during the last decade throughout the development of numerous shared spaces in the form of makerspaces, fab labs and hackerspaces across the globe. This phenomenon has drawn the attention of many stakeholders interested in establishing bridges with them for exploring their innovation potential. However, synergies between producer innovation and free innovation paradigms remain quite uncertain. To meet this gap, the authors provide an analysis of the 22 collaborative innovations between makers and manufacturers funded by the OPENMAKER project as well as relevant empirical evidence gathered throughout 126 semi-structured interviews. The findings of this contribution stress the misalignment of makers and manufacturers in society as well as their different values and motivations around innovation, and the lack of shared spaces. At the same time, the paper highlights the benefits that the interaction between these two communities could have for meeting societal challenges, increasing social welfare and speeding up innovation processes if proper incentives and conditions are orchestrated. In this sense, we propose a set of considerations and implications based on the empirical material gathered, for providing future directions for innovation policies and research agendas.     

How proximity matters in interactive learning and innovation: a study of the Venetian glass industry

Drawing on the literature on proximity within industrial agglomerations, the authors develop a model to explain how social, cognitive and personal proximity influences interactive learning and innovation in industrial districts. A qualitative study of the Murano glassmaking district shows that interactive learning in an industrial district occurs on both horizontal and vertical dimensions, along which proximity plays different roles. Horizontal learning takes place through social and cognitive proximity and personal distance. Vertical learning occurs through personal proximity and social and cognitive distance. This study contributes to the literature on the proximity within industrial districts by highlighting the role of personal proximity, which is largely unexplored. This paper also considers the coevolution between the proximity dimensions and provides empirical evidence of two mechanisms of coevolution: a compensation mechanism between social and cognitive proximity and a substitution mechanism between personal proximity, and cognitive and social proximities.     

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.     

Innovation at the end of the life cycle: discontinuous innovation strategies by incumbents

This paper focuses on the strategies of incumbents that seek to develop discontinuous innovations within the boundaries of a mature innovation system. Mature innovation systems do not provide support for these discontinuous innovations. This article focuses on exploring why incumbents in these setting engage in discontinuous innovation and what strategies they deploy to become successful. We analyse 10 cases of incumbents developing discontinuous innovations in the mature Dutch greenhouse horticulture sector. The results of our analysis show that the incumbents are primarily triggered by dissatisfaction with the current way of doing business and that the existing institutions are the main barrier to discontinuous innovation. In response, the incumbents try to circumvent the existing innovation system in their innovation process, but when successful also engage in changing the existing innovation system. This paper contributes to the understanding of the role of incumbents as source of discontinuous innovation in mature innovation systems.     

Drivers and consequences of green product and process innovation: A systematic review,conceptual framework,and future outlook

Drawing clear conclusions from the literature on green innovation is challenging, due to its sheer breadth and the inconsistent insights it offers. This study systematically addresses this issue by conducting a systematic literature review of articles on innovation in green products and processes, with the aim of enhancing conceptual clarity and consistency, thus, advancing theory and research. This study reviewed 195 articles relating to both green product and process innovation published during 1991–2016. The articles were analyzed in terms of key attributes of green product and process innovation using content analysis. Based on the analysis, this study identifies the key drivers and consequences, mediators and moderators and develops a conceptual framework of green product and process innovation. It also discusses the limitations and main theories of green innovation literature, and articulates potential paths for future research.     

Building strategic agility through user-driven innovation: the case of the Finnish public service sector

This paper investigates how to build strategic agility through the lens of user-driven innovation. Drawing on survey data collected in the public service sector in Finland, our study suggests that the strategic rigidity of public service organisations, assessed according to their strategic sensitivity, resource fluidity and leadership unity, can hamper their effective adoption of the user-driven innovation approach to build strategic agility. We propose a 4C model of building strategic agility through user-driven innovation, addressing the need of taking actions in four areas: commitment, competences, communications and climate. Our research highlights that actions in the four dimensions, which are closely interlinked and reinforce each other, should involve actors at different levels both internally and externally.     

基于QFD和SIT的产品创新设计方法

针对产品在激烈的市场竞争中取得成功必须符合用户需求且具有创新性的现状,基于对用户需求和创新策略的系统分析,提出了一种基于QFD和SIT的产品创新设计方法.该方法通过挖掘目标产品的顾客需求,借助QFD质量屋分析顾客需求并获得技术特征间的关系,针对负相关应用SIT理论进行创造性求解,从而快速地获得相应的技术解决途径和方案....     

A generic framework of intelligent adaptive learning systems: from learning effectiveness to training transfer

This paper provides guidance for adaptive learning systems designers by reviewing the evolution of learning theories and their associated progress, which is enabled by computers, artificial intelligence and augmented cognition. A generic conceptual framework of intelligent adaptive learning systems is discussed in detail for individualised learning. The utility of such design methodologies is illustrated through an example of a customised intelligent tutoring system for improvised explosive device disposal operator training. This testbed approach is the first phase of truly determining the utility and effectiveness of intelligent adaptive learning systems for multiple fields of use in the ever complicated spectrum of society's education and training needs.     

The idiosyncrasy and dynamism of technological innovation across industries: patent citation analysis

In general, the structural and behavioral patterns of technological innovation are idiosyncratic across industrial sectors and dynamic over time. Yet, despite voluminous amounts of previous research, patterns of innovation are hard to standardize or theorize. The objectives of this article are two-fold. One is to investigate distinctive and changing patterns of technological innovation across industries and observe dynamic trends over time. The other is to identify patterns of relationships among industries and examine the roles of respective industries. To this end, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) patent database was used and patent citation analysis applied. The idiosyncratic differences among industrial sectors are highlighted, especially between conventional manufacturing sectors and science-based sectors. We also found changing trends in technological knowledge flows across industries.     

Detection of interferences in an additive manufacturing process: an experimental study integrating methods of feature selection and machine learning

Additive manufacturing becomes a more and more important technology for production, mainly driven by the ability to realise extremely complex structures using multiple materials but without assembly or excessive waste. Nevertheless, like any high-precision technology additive manufacturing responds to interferences during the manufacturing process. These interferences – like vibrations – might lead to deviations in product quality, becoming manifest for instance in a reduced lifetime of a product or application issues. This study targets the issue of detecting such interferences during a manufacturing process in an exemplary experimental setup. Collection of data using current sensor technology directly on a 3D-printer enables a quantitative detection of interferences. The evaluation provides insights into the effectiveness of the realised application-oriented setup, the effort required for equipping a manufacturing system with sensors, and the effort for acquisition and processing the data. These insights are of practical utility for organisations dealing with additive manufacturing: the chosen approach for detecting interferences shows promising results, reaching interference detection rates of up to 100% depending on the applied data processing configuration.     

Innovation capability in Australian manufacturing organisations: an exploratory study

This paper reports on the results of a comparative case study of innovation capability in Australian manufacturing companies. Following a review of the salient literature in the field, six case studies were undertaken with organisations having a degree of variance across company size, ownership type and industry sector. All the cases reflected a history of successful innovation and the managers were interviewed about the attributes of innovation and the ways in which sustained innovation was manifested in their organisations. Based on the interview data, a model of innovation capability was developed with a view to identifying attributes common to systematic and sustained innovation. These companies derived competitive advantage from differentiation through their innovation. The implications of the model for manufacturing organisations in general, and their managers in particular, are subsequently discussed.     

低碳经济：理念·实践·创新

根据我国的能源消耗及CO2排放现状,提出应从产业结构调整、能源结构调整、科技创新、消费过程优化及政策法规支持5个方面开展工作,阐述了各方面所能采取的举措,重点分析了一些具有实践价值的科技创新方向.     

A supply chain sustainability innovation framework and evaluation methodology

Sustainability is hinged on innovation. The importance of sustainable innovation management in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) cannot be underestimated. Studies on SSCM have emphasised the need for sustainable innovation in achieving sustainability but none provide deep insights into sustainable innovation management in SSCM implementation. This lack of research depth stimulates this study to identify and investigate criteria for sustainable supply chain management innovation advancement. This paper proposes a sustainable innovation criteria framework for investigating sustainable supply chains in manufacturing companies. To exemplify the applicability and efficiency of the proposed framework, a sample of five Indian manufacturing companies are used to evaluate and prioritise the sustainable innovation management criteria, using the ‘best–worst’ multi-criteria decision-making (BW-MCDM) model. The criteria weights for all companies from BWM are aggregated, averaged and used for ranking. The respondent managers viewed ‘financial availability for innovation’ as the most important sustainable innovation sub-criteria. The results of the study will inform industrial managers, practitioners and decision-makers on which criteria to focus on during the implementation stage, to increase sustainability in manufacturing supply chains, and further advance corporate and supply chain sustainable development. The framework may also serve as a theoretical construct for a future empirical study on sustainable supply chain innovation in the manufacturing sector. This paper sets the stage for further research in sustainable innovation practices in the manufacturing sector and its supply chains.     

Agglomeration and innovation of knowledge intensive business services

ABSTRACT

For some time now, the research focusing on Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) has been very active. Observing that knowledge as a production factor is only becoming more and more pronounced, this focus is well-grounded. It is therefore important to examine how these knowledge-hubs gain and propagate their knowledge. We hypothesize that KIBS (as many other sectors) benefit from intra-industry knowledge spillovers facilitated by geographical concentration. Our focus is the innovative capacity of KIBS, which we measure through trademarks registered by KIBS firms. While there may be several mechanisms facilitating knowledge spillovers, we can identify local intra-sectoral labor mobility as one. Accessibility measures are used to assess the geographical attenuation of the spillover effects. Results show that the distance decay of spillovers is fast. Only local concentrations of KIBS seem to be of importance. Over longer distances, we instead observe negative consequences for trademarking, indicating possible spatial competition effects.     

Knowledge dynamics as drivers of innovation in Haute Cuisine and culinary services

This paper analyses current innovation processes in Haute Cuisine and develops new insights into the nature of Haute Cuisine innovation and its institutional and organisational preconditions. The paper proposes an innovation paradigm that explains the roles of symbolic, synthetic and analytical knowledge during the various phases of innovation and challenges the innovation activity in Haute Cuisine as a linear model. It also explains the continuum between tacit and explicit knowledge throughout the innovation process. Symbolic knowledge has instilled Haute Cuisine and culinary tendencies, is a key element in its marketing and has allowed local cuisine to be branded internationally. The article aims to fill a research gap that has recently arisen on the existing tensions between idea creation and exploitation in Haute Cuisine innovation. The role of science appears as a tool that supports a chef’s creativity but does not substitute or drive it. This paper fulfills an identified need to study the innovation processes of Haute Cuisine to which academia has dedicated scarce attention. The paper analyses a case study, with a strong institutional focus, a complex and relevant example of the innovation tendencies in Haute Cuisine. It presents a rich case that comprises the complete process from the original inspiration to the final commercialisation.     

基于用户模型的产品创新设计服务平台框架

 鉴于目前产品创新设计服务平台的设计用户类型众多、资源形式复杂,不同用户要快速、准确地获取其所需信息比较困难,提出了一种基于用户模型的产品创新设计服务平台框架并实现了相应系统的开发．通过建立基于本体的用户模型以获取用户兴趣,为平台用户提供3种方式获取不同用户的兴趣．基于用户模型构建了包括用户层、应用服务层、个性化操作层及资源层四个层面的平台架构,并为用户提供基于用户需求的特定服务流程,从而能够辅助用户有效获取所需信息,实现对用户设计过程的支持．