Facilitating SME Innovation Capability through Business Networking

Innovation processes can be regarded as complex, dynamic, and a result of cumulative dynamic interaction and learning processes involving many actors. In this setting, private small‐ and medium‐sized businesses (SMEs) can be considered a key factor – as generators of new ideas, as entrepreneurs carrying out new ventures, and as partners for other local actors. This study focuses on the SME networks and their ability to participate in innovative processes directed at new value creation. We present a case study of the development of a young innovation network. Our focus in the case study is on the SME's ability to carry out innovation and new value creation in a network. The key contribution of the study centers on the new understanding of the way SME innovation could be promoted through facilitated network development.     

The role of industry infrastructure in telehealth innovations: a multi-level analysis of a telestroke program

The information-intensive nature of the healthcare industry and the potential of information technology (IT) to reduce costs and improve quality of services have increased the focus on IT-based innovations. Yet, our ability to understand and manage how IT-based innovations unfold in the context of healthcare is still limited. In this paper, we apply Van de Ven's industry infrastructure framework to investigate a telehealth innovation that provides remote medical assistance to stroke patients in a network of collaborating hospitals. The resulting multi-level analysis contributes to understanding the innovation by revealing a highly complex process of interactions between key stakeholders and healthcare industry infrastructure. Despite the innovation's strong potential, the process is mainly push-driven with minimal pull from potential adopters. Moreover, the push is created by a small group of medical innovators with limited technological and financial resources and little infrastructural support. The study contributes with contextual insights into the telehealth innovation, suggesting complementary explanations of why the healthcare industry despite considerable investments continues to lag behind other industries in adoption of IT-based innovations. The study also adapts Van de Ven's framework by applying it to a single case of innovation rather than as originally conceived to several instances of an innovation within an industry. The analysis shows how some of the components of the framework were adapted to and interpreted in the context of telehealth innovations.     

Networks for Innovation – But What Networks and What Innovation?

Innovation is a social and interactive process in which collaboration and exchange of knowledge and information play crucial roles. Two conflicting hypotheses have been raised in previous research: Burt's structural hole hypothesis and the density hypothesis. In brief, the former of these hypotheses builds upon arguments for open network structures in the acquisition of innovation; the latter one builds upon arguments for closed network structures for innovation. To shed some light on this state of confusion, this paper tests these two conflicting hypotheses on two separate measures of innovation in a service industry setting. One innovation measure is more incremental in nature and regards the implementation of employees' ideas. The other innovation measure is more radical in nature and regards new services. Findings suggest that social network measures are, indeed, powerful predictors of innovation and, further, that the impact of these are likely to be radically different depending upon the type and measure of innovation. Consequently, this paper recommends caution when studying the impact of social network measures upon innovation, and that more fine‐grained measurements in particular are needed rather than focusing upon inter‐relationships of an overly general and superficial nature.     

SMEs' Preference for Innovation Networks: A Choice Experimental Approach

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the importance of selected characteristics of innovation networks in affecting the decision of food SMEs when joining such networks. The paper develops and tests a series of hypotheses through a choice experiment exercise ran on a sample of 231 firms in six EU countries. The results showed that SMEs prefer networks that are composed of manufacturers and supply chain members, where information is shared confidentially among network partners, and when the network provides support to help the firm build its own networks of partners for innovation. In addition, SMEs' choice of the network is also affected by the interaction between specific network attributes and two firm characteristics, i.e. the firm's collaborative experience and innovation objectives. Based on the results, we conclude that the success of inter‐organizational networks depends on the fit between the network's design and the innovation and networking behaviour of the firms.     

Tourism multi‐sided platforms and the social innovation trajectory: The case of Airbnb

Multi‐sided platforms (MSPs) have recently gained significant attention due to their disruptive innovation capacity, which is introducing deep changes in several industries. Previous work has studied how MSPs grow and design the development of their business models (BMs). However, none of the previous work has studied how these MSPs innovate their BM by leveraging and implementing social innovations. In this paper we aim at filling this gap. In particular, we focus on the tourism sector and, using the theoretical lens of business model innovation (BMI), we explore the Airbnb case study with a qualitative approach. We identify three main stages that characterized the innovation of the Airbnb's BM. Each of them presents specific peculiarities that have been analyzed. Our study offers new insights to understand how the BM of the MSPs is evolving toward a more sophisticated one that includes also a deeper orientation toward sustainable and social goals.     

The effect of work ethic on employees' individual innovation behavior

The present study examines the previously untested effect of work ethic on individual innovation behavior. These entrenched personal values that may remain unaffected by organizational constitution are suggested to shape a person's inclination to engage in innovative action. Deploying partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM), we show that being self‐reliant and time‐efficient positively influences employees' innovation behavior, while an attitude toward hard work and leisure has a negative impact. Moreover, self‐reliance, leisure orientation, and centrality of work are positively moderated by fair salary, a specific form of relational reward that previously has been identified as an antecedent of motivation. The work at hand thus contributes to extant research by enhancing knowledge about the antecedents of innovative behavior, showing that inherent work‐related values matter. As such, the study demonstrates the importance of considering the linkage of personal differences and motivational factors when examining the complex processes of individual innovation behavior.     

Antecedents of Network Capability and Their Effects on Innovation Performance: An Empirical Test of Hi‐tech Firms in China

A firm's competitive advantage can come not only from internal resources but also from inter‐firm innovation networks. This paper shows that network capabilities (i.e., network visioning capability, network constructing capability, network operating capability and network centring capability) are special skills that enable values residing in network resources. Based on a sample of 211 Chinese hi‐tech firms and by applying structural equation modelling, network capabilities are found to have a positive relationship with innovation performance. Four antecedents of network capabilities – IT maturity, openness of culture, the management system involved and experience with network activities – are also identified in the research and empirically tested. The results of this study provide a new framework that describes how networked firms can gain a competitive advantage.     

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.     

Resources,state ownership and innovation capability: Evidence from Chinese automakers

Promoting innovation has been a major task for both business practitioners and governments in emerging markets. Based on the resource‐based view, this study examines the contributing factors of firms' innovation capability and the contingent role of state ownership. Utilizing data on 102 Chinese automobile firms, we found that financial resources, R&D human capital, innovation leadership, collaborative culture, and government support positively relate to firms' innovation capability. Moreover, the firm's ownership type serves as a boundary condition for the resource–capability relationship. The significance of different resources in developing innovation capability vary for firms with different ownership types. In particular, government support and R&D human capital have stronger effects in promoting non‐state‐owned enterprises' innovation capability. From a practical standpoint, developing innovation capability should consider the critical role of ownership. Specifically, while state‐owned enterprises can capitalize on organizational and financial resources to enhance innovation capability, it is also important for them to transform bureaucratized systems into more market‐orientated ones and facilitate the effective utilization of R&D human capital and government support.     

Fostering creativity through critical thinking: The case of business start‐up simulations

Research suggests a positive link between critical thinking and creativity. However, this relationship has not been measured in an empirical study. This study aims to explore whether critical thinking can serve to enhance creativity and whether creativity positively mediates the relationship between critical thinking and business performance. In this study, we analyse these relationships within the entrepreneurial context of a web‐based business start‐up simulation. We examined data from 26 teams of three to four senior business students and found partial support for our hypotheses. Critical thinking positively influenced creativity, measured as the total number of unique product designs. Creativity (unique product designs) also positively mediated the link between critical thinking and performance. This effect, however, did not exist when creativity was assessed through advertisement designs. This research contributes to entrepreneurship and innovation management by demonstrating the importance of critical thinking as a basis for creativity and testing this relationship in a business start‐up simulation context.     

How does perceived retail service innovativeness affect retail patronage intentions?

This study aims to conceptualize the effects of perceived retailer service innovativeness (PRSI), perceived service advantage, customer emotional satisfaction, and attitudes to retail patronage intentions. The proposed model is examined by structural equation modelling (SEM) using 1,386 samples from three retail formats in Taiwan. Results suggest that PRSI can be used as a strategic tool to create competitive advantage and customer satisfaction. PRSI is a critical antecedent factor that affects store patronage intentions through material‐based and experience‐based routes. This study affirms that a retailer's ability to offer service innovations, especially free in‐store services, may not immediately increase the financial performance of firms; however, it can change a consumer's attitude towards the store by becoming a critical determinant of success of the retailing system. The research model can be utilized by other retail studies, especially in this era of increased competition when innovation has become a critical strategic tool for differentiation.     

Cross‐Divisional Innovation in the Large Corporation: Thoughts and Evidence on Its Value and the Role of the Early Stages of Innovation

Forty‐five years after Ansoff's seminal work on synergies, many multi‐divisional corporations still struggle to create additional value. Therefore, it is surprising that in times of open innovation, little research has been conducted on the impact of cross‐divisional product development. In our paper, we derive conceptual arguments for the relevance of joint initiatives and examine the role of cross‐divisional collaboration in the early stages of the innovation process. Our research model is tested using a quantitative survey in 110 multi‐divisional firms. We find that the extent of collaboration in the early stages of innovation strongly determines the impact of cross‐divisional products on corporate success. To achieve collaboration, our results highlight the relevance of appropriate integration mechanisms and incentives.     

Creating Ideas for Innovation: Effects of Organizational Distance on Knowledge Creation Processes

Innovation is to a large extent considered a social and communicative process, and input from other individuals potentially improves the generation of novel and valuable ideas also in the early stages of idea creation and development. Both colleagues inside organizations and external parties have frequently been proposed as important sources of information and knowledge within this part of the innovation process. Other contributions addressing social networks and innovation bring into focus the potentially negative effects that certain network structures may have on innovation, pointing to inconsistencies in received theory. In order to address these inconsistencies, an empirical study of ideation in a Swedish multinational firm was performed, taking into account two different knowledge creation processes – combination and in‐depth analysis – and their inter‐relationships with organizational distance between contributing individuals. Data was collected using a survey and was analysed using regression models. It was found that different levels of organizational distance correlate with different knowledge creation processes. In‐depth analysis occurred more often with employees' close colleagues, whereas the combination of existing ideas and information was more frequent in interaction with employees' close colleagues and with external parties. Both these interaction patterns were also found to be positive for the generation of patents, whereas no such relationship could be seen when individuals interacted with colleagues in other departments in the same firm. The findings have implications for theory on cognitive distance, and also suggest that management needs to facilitate different types of collaboration and networking when aiming to facilitate and support ideation, taking into consideration the type of innovation aimed for, as well as its supporting knowledge creation processes.     

User knowledge utilization in innovation of complex products and systems: An absorptive capacity perspective

Firms tap into user knowledge to learn about the users’ needs. While users have been recognized as a valuable source of knowledge for innovation, few studies have investigated how their knowledge is integrated into innovation processes in the context of complex products and systems (CoPS). The purpose of this study is to reveal the practices of CoPS manufacturers to facilitate user knowledge utilization for innovation. We investigate two case companies, a medical device manufacturer and an aircraft manufacturer, and report on seven managerial practices for utilizing user knowledge. We adopt the absorptive capacity model in structuring our findings and elaborate three of the model's sub‐capabilities (recognition of the value of user knowledge, acquisition of user knowledge, and assimilation/transformation of user knowledge) by proposing that each is associated with a distinct managerial goal and related practices: (1) Sensitizing the organization to the innovation potential of user knowledge, (2) identifying and gaining access to suitable user knowledge, and (3) analyzing and interpreting user knowledge and integrating it into product development. Our study contributes to the innovation management literature by analyzing the capabilities required to utilize user knowledge throughout the CoPS innovation process.     

The Early Bird Gets the Worm,But the Second Mouse Gets the Cheese: Non‐Technological Innovation in Creative Industries

In the context of economic turmoil, firms in the creative industries (CIs) must make fast decisions as to when to break through with innovations. This paper discusses non‐technological, organizational innovation of early‐adopters, first movers and early followers in order to overcome persistent economic decline, and the implication of different strategies for innovation success. The strategic principle of the pioneer's advantage rests on pre‐emption – the premise that ‘the early bird gets the worm’ and this often applies to business model innovation (BMI). ‘But the second mouse gets the cheese’ points at early followers who may have a more systematic, strategic approach towards innovation. Greater understanding of the advantages of each strategic approach and their significance for innovation performance is critical for CIs where unpredictability and the accelerating pace of change pervade the decisions concerning innovation. Drawing on five exemplary cases of archaeological firms in Spain, this paper explores different innovation process dynamics. The study develops a contingency model where pioneers who challenge their current business model, may be outperformed by early followers who incorporate complementary management innovation (MI) initiatives into the BMI.     

Beyond the Generation of Ideas: Virtual Idea Campaigns to Spur Creativity and Innovation

Firms striving to maintain high rates of innovation need a continuous flow of new ideas. This is resulting in the establishment by large firms of IT platforms to generate ideas for innovation, and to encourage employees and customers to participate in innovation contests. However, there has been little published research on the use of IT platforms for idea generation by employees, and it is unclear whether they facilitate in‐house innovation. The purpose is to investigate how firms use IT platforms internally to generate ideas, and how their use contributes to the innovation process in large firms. We rely on data from two collaborative research projects in the automotive industry: Volvo Cars and Renault. We found that both firms used IT platforms as campaigns to promote innovation and to involve employees in the innovation process. The findings suggest that these virtual idea campaigns support innovation in large firms mainly by (1) encouraging employee creativity in idea generation and (2) involving employees and top managers simultaneously in the innovation process. This paper contributes to idea management systems theory by highlighting the importance of virtual idea campaigns for the firm's innovation process, and their dual role.     

Innovation among different classes of software development organizations

Software development organizations (SDOs) innovate in diverse ways. In this paper, based on an extensive review of innovation typologies, we develop a theory‐driven typology of SDO innovator classes. We theorize about the driving forces behind these classes, with specific attention given to knowledge‐based dispositions that relate to the SDO's knowledge‐based competencies in technology appropriation, technology generation, and network intensity within ecological niches. Through a survey of 136 SDOs, which adopted Internet technologies during 1995‐2006, we empirically verify that these classes also determine different ways that SDOs innovate around software services they provide to their clients. Our findings suggest that the knowledge‐based dispositions of different SDO innovator classes impact how they innovate. Overall, the study involves theorizing around different types of innovation behaviours and associated knowledge‐based factors that influence the way SDOs innovate.     

Customer Integration during Innovation Development: An Exploratory Study in the Logistics Service Industry

Previous research has shown that though customer integration during innovation development can enhance companies' innovation performance, it can also harm innovativeness. A possible reason for these contradicting findings is that innovation development is a dynamic process that requires different tasks. Thus, a more fine‐grained picture of how customer‐oriented companies engage in customer integration throughout the entire innovation development process is necessary. This article contributes to the innovation and marketing literature by providing insights into how companies co‐create knowledge about customer needs relevant for innovation development. Using a multiple case study design, this study examines four substantive cases that illustrate the activities logistics service providers undertake to integrate customers during the process of idea generation, development and implementation. The results show that companies focus on both proactive and reactive customer integration during idea generation and implementation but refrain from reactive customer integration during development.     

Marriage,Social Networks,and Health at Older Ages

Social relationships in older adulthood have strong connections to health and wellbeing. Connections with social network members and with spouses and long-term partners in particular, have an especially important impact on health. We highlight recent research from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a nationally representative, longitudinal study of aging in America, to describe the different ways health is produced in social contexts. We first discuss how social network characteristics and marital relationships influence health outcomes and sexuality, and then move on to recent findings about the ways health shapes an individual’s social world. We find that features of a social network, apart from simply its size, have strong effects on health behaviors, and that changes in network composition are associated with changes in health. We show that marriage is uniquely protective against damaging biological processes, and that the quality of a marriage influences health and well-being in nuanced ways. Finally we find that health status is associated with the ability to manage one's social network, and that health status affects the quality of one's marriage. We focus our discussion on new data from Wave 2 that enables researchers to explore how changes in social networks and partner relationships affect health and well-being during the last third of life.     

Performance management of public–private collaboration in innovation

The open innovation literature has highlighted that more focus should be placed on non‐pecuniary sources such as public research institutes (PRIs) and their performance management (PM), while innovation network studies have highlighted the growing importance of universities and PRIs in public‐private research partnerships. Building on PM capability and portfolio management perspectives, this research aims is to examine the relationship between knowledge resources and collaboration outcome in such public‐private collaborations, and the mediating role of senior management team's (SMT) ability to govern project portfolio approval and management processes. Examining 153 innovation commercialization collaboration projects between PRIs and firms in Singapore, our study has made several significant contributions to the existing research on innovation and performance in public‐private partnership. First, we empirically demonstrate that there is a direct positive relationship between PRIs' knowledge resources and collaboration outcome. Second, our findings establish that the PRIs' SMT ability to govern project portfolio processes mediates this positive relationship. Third, this research highlights that the SMT ability to govern project portfolio processes fully mediates the conversion of market knowledge into innovation. Only partial mediation is observed in the case of technological knowledge, which directly creates value by virtue of generating discoveries or breakthroughs.