Search

This study investigates the strategic orchestration of New Product Development (NPD) teams, focusing on how age diversity influences their innovation capabilities within the competitive landscape of firms. As firms encounter an evolving demographic landscape, the role of team composition, particularly age diversity, becomes critical in tuning innovation and market alignment. This paper synthesises the disparate findings from the innovation management literature on the impact of age diversity, employing dual theoretical perspectives: information/decision-making and similarity/categorisation. The former suggests that age diversity brings diverse knowledge that boosts innovation, while the latter indicates it might hinder social cohesion and team performance. Addressing the gaps in existing research, this study explores tenure diversity and team familiarity as moderators in the age diversity–performance relationship. It hypothesises that tenure diversity can enhance knowledge exchange and innovation but may complicate social interactions, whereas high team familiarity might restrict new idea generation by homogenising knowledge. Empirical analysis conducted on a dataset of 21,370 observations from Japanese sake breweries reveals that tenure diversity and team familiarity are critical in moderating the effects of age diversity on NPD outcomes. These findings enrich the NPD literature by highlighting the importance of demographic diversity and provide new insights into managing age-related dynamics in team settings. The study underscores the need for managerial strategies that leverage demographic diversity to enhance NPD effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation champions often play an important role in enabling sustainable development (SD). The rise of innovative ideas and technologies in the field of SD has led to major changes in the nature of adopted innovation. In turn, this calls for investigating the available knowledge on innovation champions' various roles and their influence on SD projects. This paper provides a systematic literature review on innovation champions' roles from a project-based perspective. Considering a search of 118 papers from high-quality journals, 69 peer-reviewed papers were identified as relevant and synthesised earlier knowledge on innovation champions and SD. The literature review revealed that innovation champions could have direct influence on the adoption and implementation of SD projects, which entail countless innovative products, processes, and technologies. Consequently, the findings of the research were used to develop an integrative model that associates the various roles of innovation champions to the successful implementation of SD projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to enhance our understanding of the relationship between team innovation climate within the purchasing team and the level of purchasing involvement in open innovation (OI) initiatives. Previous research in psychology and management has documented the impact of team climate on innovation capacity. Furthermore, the purchasing function has been recognised as a bridge between internal and external resources in OI. However, to date, research has not examined the link between the team innovation climate and the role of the purchasing function in OI initiatives. To address this gap, we studied a sample of 258 purchasing teams across industries in France based on a self-audit and questionnaire using established team innovation climate scales. From our analyses, four dimensions of the purchasing team climate towards innovation emerge: the team cohesiveness, the team creativity, the leader support for innovation and the institutional support for innovation. We subsequently conduct regression and necessary condition analysis. Our results show that institutional support is both necessary and positively related to involvement. Moreover, purchasing's ability to contribute to inbound OI is constrained by each of the four dimensions of the team innovation climate, to various extents. Our work thereby elucidates the individual elements and the collective impact of the team innovation climate that enable the exploitation of the innovative potential of suppliers through purchasing's bridge function between external and internal innovation actors providing new insights into the human side of OI at team level. Managerial Highlights • Team innovation climate plays an important role in the management of open innovation. • Team innovation climate influences the purchasing team's involvement in open innovation projects of its firm i.e. the way its open innovation is managed. • There are four dimensions affecting the purchasing team innovation climate: institutional support, team leader support, team creativity and team cohesiveness. • High levels of involvement of the purchasing function do not occur without at least medium levels of these four dimensions. • Only institutional support is directly and positively related to the increasing level of involvement of purchasing in open innovation initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study significantly advances innovation management literature by analysing the impact of work-life balance (WLB), organisational learning capability (OLC), and transformational leadership (TL) on product innovation performance (PIP). By employing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) combined with Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA), it clarifies the roles of these variables in Brazil's manufacturing sector. Data from 332 organisations revealed that OLC and TL are vital for enhancing PIP, while WLB, though not directly influential, is crucial for innovation. This finding offers a new understanding of WLB's role in innovation management and highlights the complexity of factors driving product innovation. Integrating NCA with PLS-SEM, this research enriches theoretical debates and provides practical insights for optimising innovation strategies. It fills a gap in the literature by analysing how these key factors interact to impact PIP, contributing to both academic research and practical innovation management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the major business environment changes, there is a growing need for management innovation to strengthen the organisation. Large enterprises such as GE, which promoted Six Sigma, and Toyota, which installed innovative production systems using the Kanban method, have rooted management innovation in their corporate cultures. However, although there are precedent cases limited to some high-tech ventures, the actual state of management innovation in low-tech small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is not well understood. Therefore, we investigated the SMEs in Japan's relatively low-tech industrial areas using structural equation modelling. This study found that collaboration with customers is an important antecedent factor for management innovation. Moreover, management innovation mediates the relationship between the collaboration with customers and technological innovation activities and between the former and firm performance. The explanatory power of management innovation on firm performance is weak. This paper provides deep insights into the role of management innovation in SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the antecedents and consequences of a firm's absorptive capacity for innovation management control (ACIMC). Absorptive capacity, defined as an organisational-level capability to identify, assimilate, and exploit external knowledge, has predominantly been applied to technological knowledge. In this paper, we focus on external knowledge in relation to innovation management control (IMC), a management task that combines innovation management and management control. In addition, we apply our conceptualisation of ACIMC to the development of hybrid offerings, consisting of product and service components. Results of a survey among companies in Europe support our hypotheses that ACIMC (with four dimensions: Acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation) indirectly influences financial and innovation performance through hybrid product-service IMC. This paper ends with recommendations for innovation management practice and theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore how an educational programme can be designed to support managers in learning systematic innovation practices, contributing to the Innovation Management community. Using the community of practice (CoP) concept, we developed a programme to educate managers in systematic innovation practices, including systematic innovation work, innovation climate, and the creation of innovation teams. Our contribution builds on prior studies on the CoP construct. Using a case study with a mixed-methods design, we have explored the educational experiences of ten managers and the practical outcome of their organisations' participation in the programme. Based on mixed data, we conclude that the educational programme "Management Education on Systematic Innovation Practices" (MEoSIP) supports managers' understanding of systematic innovation practices in theory and in practice. It also contributes to practitioners who can support clients in improving innovation-related abilities. Agencies can develop training programmes using CoP for other educational purposes. Further research is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of knowledge absorptive capacity (KAC) on innovation orientation in business services. An empirical analysis was conducted on two samples (scientific experts and—in the next step, business service companies). The authors applied one-way ANOVA, HSD Tukey's post hoc tests, and structural equation modelling. Approached from a knowledge-based view, this research has found that the impact of KAC on all six innovation orientation dimensions is significant and positive. This empirical evidence also supports the thesis that KAC impacts the business performance of firms. Managers should raise a company's competitive advantage by introducing an innovation orientation, which requires a high level of KAC. This study advances the literature on KAC and innovation orientation by confirming the significant impact of KAC on business performance and a firm's innovation orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital innovation has become an important focus for corporations wishing to provide novel products and services to their customers. To achieve this, firms must maintain a disruptive organisational posture and promote risk-taking behaviours. In contrast, religious executives are generally seen in the literature as risk-averse and endorse conservative values, such as traditionalism, security, and conformity. In an analysis of large U.S. firms between 2010 and 2015 and using a novel measure for the religiosity of board directors, we find that companies with higher proportions of religious board directors file fewer digital patents and receive fewer citations on their digital patents. Moreover, this study establishes firms' technological and religious environments as relevant boundary conditions. We contribute to the innovation management literature by introducing board religiosity as an antecedent to digital patenting activities in large firms and by establishing leisure activities as an indicator of the religiosity of executives. In addition, this study offers relevant organisational policy implications with respect to diversity initiatives and board decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User engagement in innovation processes is crucial for the development of sustainable healthcare. One promising user-centred approach used to integrate users' experiential knowledge in the development of innovations is the Living Lab (LL). However, we lack a systematic understanding of the processes, methods and factors that lead to more effective user engagement. The objective of this scoping review is to map and systematically present current research on user engagement in Healthcare Living Labs (HLLs) to enhance understanding and inspire future research. Our review shows that the level of user engagement is still low given the limited use of methods tailored to support it and that HLL are predominantly used in technology and clinical innovation. We offer a clearer depiction and description of the methods innovation managers could use to foster greater user engagement in HLL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This quantitative study explores the outcomes of open innovation events for solvers and how such events can be successful for such participants. Specifically, the relationships among event design, solver motivation and outcomes are studied. How such an event impacts the capability of the solver to interact with the innovation ecosystem is also presented. We discovered that design elements impact the OI event outcomes, intrinsic motivation of solvers has a moderating effect on the relationship between OI design and outcomes, and open innovation events positively affect the solvers' capacity to interact with the innovation ecosystem. Our results have implications for promoters to better design open innovation events and for solvers to ensure that they benefit from their participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To implement a circular economy (CE), companies are pushed to innovate, respectively, their business models, from a micro-perspective, and their supply chains, from a meso-perspective. Despite the increasing research on both these perspectives, there is still a knowledge gap on how companies innovate business models and supply chains for circularity. In this study, we build on innovation management, circular business model (CBM), and circular supply chain (CSC) literatures and develop a theory-based framework where circularity leads to product/process/service innovation from a micro-perspective, and to possible innovation in companies' supply chains (retaining existing chains/renewing them) from a meso-perspective. Through a multiple-case study of Finnish and Italian CE pioneer companies, we validate this framework, find evidence on interplay between CBM and CSC innovation, and identify innovation strategy variants. The framework contributes to innovation management, CBM, and CSC literature works, and encourages managers willing to adopt circularity to consider innovating simultaneously both their business models and supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital transformation is crucial for the healthcare sector, yet research shows that it also possesses a series of challenges at system-, organisational-, and individual levels, which require balancing. In this study, we adopt paradox theory to understand the balancing practices and requirements for digitalisation in healthcare. Based on gaps in previous research and practice, this paper aims to explore what characterises the different kinds of tensions and organisational paradoxes related to digital transformation. Also, this paper discusses how balancing practices in digital transformation are constrained and enabled. The paper is based on a project run in co-production between researchers at the Mälardalen University and project partners at a healthcare Region in Sweden. In the findings, two kinds of tensions are identified in digital transformation initiatives: Divergence at different organisational levels and competing demands between past, present and future needs. The divergent views are characterised by being latent while the competing demands are characterised by being salient to the organisation. This is followed by a discussion about balancing practices enabling digital ambidexterity and spurring virtuous cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring that innovations are implemented organisation-wide remains a critical business challenge for organisations. This study identifies how organisations can improve the effectiveness of innovations and specifies the effects of innovation implementation antecedents and capabilities. By applying a mixed method approach, using data from 42 semi-structured interviews and 125 questionnaire participants, we develop a new framework for understanding the mechanisms that underlie and enhance effective innovation implementation. The results emphasise that achieving high and consistent use of innovations requires organisations to focus on organisational members and their individual characteristics, rather than on organisational design. Additionally, implementation leadership serves as a central mediator to explain the framework's relationships. Furthermore, a middle management-driven approach that combines implementation leadership and dialogue facilitates the effective implementation of innovation. In conclusion, our study contributes to innovation implementation research by presenting a framework to guide future research, whilst helping practitioners to implement innovations more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Values-based management and evidence-based innovation management both improve a company's innovation performance. However, there are no systematic studies of how combining values-based and evidence-based innovation management influences the innovation culture in mid-sized B2B companies. In this exploratory case study, we describe how a longitudinal analysis of innovation culture and a values-based initiative were combined in a 7-step approach, which was applied in a global mid-sized B2B manufacturer of drug-delivery systems and pharmaceutical components over a three-year period. The results of the longitudinal innovation culture survey and the analysis of front-end innovation key performance indicators provided insight into the positive impact of new normative company values on the organisation's innovation culture as well as on the effectiveness of the idea generation process. The exploratory case study demonstrates how a customised combination of values-based and evidence-based innovation management elements can systematically strengthen an organisation's innovation culture and the effectiveness of its idea generation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how values-based innovation (VBI) management can facilitate the development of business models and their constitutive components. It analyses the case of the green search engine, Ecosia, to demonstrate and further differentiate the theoretical framework of VBI management. According to the VBI management framework, the development of sustainable business models cannot be appropriately managed and researched without considering values and normative orientations. Ecosia's case highlights that the continuous reconsideration and negotiation of values is integral to the management of business model innovation (BMI) and contributes to the development and specification of business model components. Thus, the case confirms and contributes to a more in-depth understanding of the role values play in managing innovation and demonstrates some of the challenges encountered in the daily practice of VBI management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although values in business have a long history, only recently has their pivotal role in innovation and its management become a topic attracting growing attention from both researchers and practitioners. Values-based innovation management is developing into a vibrant field of studies and practice with increasing relevance for innovation managers and entrepreneurs, providing a powerful toolbox of new methods and applications as well as having societal impact. We survey the state-of-the-art discussions in the field, including related concepts and methods and values-based approaches in areas such as innovation consulting and education, business modelling and entrepreneurship. As an introduction to the papers in IJIM's Special Issue on Managing Values for Innovation, this editorial paper revisits and repositions some widespread assumptions about the nature, functions and potential of values in innovation contexts. We show to what extent values are an inevitable moment of innovation-related activities, requiring contributions from diverse stakeholders in normative, strategic and operational management dimensions. We illustrate their practicality to promote rather than handicap innovation and clarify their potential to change and assume different meanings rather than being static entities. The explanatory power of a values-based approach, its generative potential and its emancipatory impact motivate further research and development. Future avenues for research and development include impact management studies, attention to different levels of values and advancing the methodology and available tools to manage values for innovation in order to achieve more desirable outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main aim of this paper is to analyse the association between management and technological innovations. Specifically, we determine whether organisational innovations influence technological ones or vice versa. Design/approach: This study is drawn from a sample of listed firms on the SBF120 index and French Community Innovation Surveys (CIS) carried out between 2004 and 2016. Findings: Our study provides the following: First, we show that the introduction of new technological innovations could stimulate organisational changes in a firm's structure. Second, the adoption of new management practices is likely to increase the introduction of new processes, however, it is not sufficient to favour the development of new or significantly improved products. Research limitations/implications: We studied different types of innovations, but we have ignored other forms of non-technological innovation, such as marketing innovations. It would be interesting to analyse the interaction between marketing and technological innovations. Practical implications: From a business perspective, we emphasise that firms should introduce new organisational methods in the firm's business practices, workplace organisation, or external relations, and adopt managerial transformations to boost their innovation potential. Originality/value: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that looks at the dynamic character between organisational and technological innovations, especially through a longitudinal study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on challenges regarding managerial behaviour and productivity in the context of digitalisation. It is neither understood precisely how managerial behaviours transcribe digital strategy into economic success nor how opportunities from digital innovations are transferred into productivity. A systematic literature review (SLR) is applied to acquire an organised overview of the research question "How does managerial behaviour concerning digital innovations change productivity?" The outcomes of this paper are threefold: (1) The research question will be answered by showing several aspects managers can make use of to influence productivity. In this regard knowledge, change management and data-driven behaviours, the creation of collaborative settings, and (customer) co-creative aspects are of particular importance. (2) Executives will be motivated to reflect and calibrate their own practices. (3) The Gutenberg rooted framework of production factors is used to discuss the results and six suggestions are made to transform the model to digital readiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisational agility, a specific dynamic capability, constitutes a key success factor in today's dynamic business environments. However, it is unclear whether and how firms' knowledge-based capital enables organisational agility. Moreover, mechanisms through which organisational agility translates knowledge-based capital into innovation performance are poorly understood. This study fills these gaps by investigating direct effects of knowledge-based capital (i.e., human, social, and organisational capital) on organisational agility and, in turn, indirect effects on radical and incremental innovation performance. Leveraging survey data from 385 German firms, this study contributes to the organisational agility and the strategic innovation management literature. First, our analysis validates human and social capital as antecedents of organisational agility, yielding evidence for the premises of the knowledge-based view in a novel context. Second, it substantiates the dynamic capability view as a pivotal theoretical lens for explaining the mechanisms underlying the relationships between firms' knowledge-based capital, organisational agility, and incremental innovation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically examines how risk-taking and risk management affect open innovation (OI) and innovation performance in terms of new product or service success (NPS) and new product or service innovativeness (NPI) and analyses how OI is related to innovation performance and firm performance, utilising a combination of survey and secondary data. To test the proposed hypotheses, we perform structural equation modelling (SEM) based on a sample of 309 German firms. Our findings show that a higher level of risk-taking, as well as more extensive risk management, is associated with an increased OI intensity. Additionally, we find that supporting a positive attitude towards risk-taking, implementing risk management and engaging in OI increases the innovation performance of a firm. However, we can only detect an indirect relationship between OI and firm performance. Overall, our findings contribute to research on drivers and outcomes of OI and drivers of innovation and firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although psychological safety has been long recognised as critical in the context of information sharing, risk-taking, collaboration, and the process of organisational learning, its effects on absorptive capacity (ACAP) have not yet been theorised and empirically tested. Consequently, the present study's objective is to fill this important research gap by explaining the role of psychological safety in the context of two dimensions of ACAP–potential ACAP (PACAP) and realised ACAP (RACAP). To empirically test the hypothesised model, this study uses survey data that were collected in the healthcare industry. The study's results confirm some of the main assumptions. Consequently, the paper's findings advance past research on innovation management by expanding our understanding of how business organisations could better utilise their internal resources to support the development of innovative capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary innovation management studies on collaboration dynamics and value appropriation lack coherent theoretical articulations and underlying conceptual foundations. It is challenging to manage collaborative value creation without a proper understanding of the dynamic connections between collaboration for and appropriation of innovation. This study conducts a systematic literature review to uncover the dynamic connections between innovation-related value appropriation and collaboration. Topic modelling, a machine-learning-based text analysis method, is applied to a corpus of 270 scholarly articles to uncover relevant elements. Additionally, 77 articles are selected for an in-depth content analysis to examine the elements in a more detailed manner. With these steps, the study contributes to the literature by illustrating and elaborating the role of dynamics of collaboration in value appropriation, and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Actor-network theory (ANT) represents a research paradigm applicable to innovation management (IM) research. Its unique ontology of second-degree objectivity through symmetry can be combined with many research contexts, methods, and concepts. This paper summarises the insights from a literature review of 299 Web of Science articles on both ANT and IM. The meta-features of all articles are analysed to identify 25 articles for in-depth analysis. Three ANT literature streams are identified: descriptive, managerial proactive, and participatory proactive. These three streams are found to differ in terms of their specific methods, concepts, and research contexts. An additional subset of the 10 most cited articles is used to validate the findings. We suggest that IM researchers should select a specific ANT approach based on the context and the theorised hypothesis of their research. Knowledge of the options within ANT and how they can be applied to different IM contexts can help IM researchers in maximising research outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in regulation trigger changes in the innovation environments. They may block specific development trajectories, but they may simultaneously inspire and stimulate completely new openings. In this study, we look into regulation that aims to address environmental problems and facilitate creation and diffusion of sustainable technologies and processes as we examine the responses of innovators to the regulation on plastic use and production—specifically, the so-called SUP-directive. A multiple-case study comprising six companies suggests that companies manage (with) the regulation-induced innovation and needs for change by adopting three distinctive strategies: (1) proactive change orientation, (2) reactive opportunity capturing, or (3) reactive survival mode. Acknowledging that sustainability-oriented regulation may push companies with environmentally friendly innovation activities and solutions towards reactive survival mode highlights the need for managerial agility in adjusting the solutions and the ability to adopt parallel innovation strategies. Observing the strategies adopted by innovators also is informative when evaluating whether the regulation meets its profound goals and intended effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-functional intra-firm cooperation is crucial for a firm's new product development (NPD) process and innovation success. Nevertheless, neither current innovation nor management control literature does provide empirical evidence on whether and how the cooperation between innovation and management control departments affects outcomes of the NPD process. Thus, this paper intends to close this research gap by studying the effect of innovation-management control cooperation (IMCC) across multiple NPD process stages on NPD process effectiveness and its consequences for a firm's innovation and financial success. A multiple-informant data set was collected including 109 dyadic data sets from employees at project and top management level and combined with secondary data assessing financial success. The results show that IMCC exerts a positive effect on NPD process effectiveness. More specifically, the effect can be best described as u-shaped, being strongest in the concept development and implementation stage, but weaker in the product development stage of the NPD process. Furthermore, our findings show that innovation success mediates the relationship between NPD process effectiveness and financial success thereby explaining the contradictory findings of past research concerning the link between NPD and financial success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the relationship between strategic flexibility and absorptive capacity — past literature recognised the two constructs as critical in the context of a firm's responsiveness to imminent exogenous changes. Consequently, the objective of this paper is to put forward a set of new hypotheses that empirically test the effects of two dimensions of absorptive capacity, potential and realised absorptive capacity, on strategic flexibility in the context of business performance. In this way, the study aims to contribute to past research on strategy and innovation management by explaining when strategic flexibility could lead to better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study established the social and economic human resource management (HRM) systems and analysed their respective impacts and interplay on the innovation capability and product innovation. With 1,940 longitudinal samples over five waves, the results show that the effects of the social HRM system on the capability and performance of innovation are much stronger than the effect of the economic HRM system on innovation capability and product innovation. The findings also show that no congruence effects between the social and economic HRM systems on the innovation capability and product innovation were found in that the combined effects of the two HRM systems are not maximised when the levels of the two HRM systems are in agreement. Further, findings suggest that the main effects of the social HRM system can be supplemented with the economic HRM system in that the effects of the social HRM system tend to increase as the level of the economic HRM system increases. This study contributes to the understanding of the HRM system that has traditionally pursued one best bundle of HRM practices regardless of underlying principles and assumptions on human nature and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual-level innovativeness is widely acknowledged to be critical to the success of an organisation's innovation, and understanding the related nuances is therefore important. The goal of this study is to add to existing knowledge on how managerial characteristics influence employee innovativeness. Specifically, we address the role of leader–member exchange (LMX) in predicting the three components of employee innovative work behaviour (IWB) — idea generation, idea promotion, and idea implementation. LMX denotes the quality of the relationship between an employee and his/her immediate supervisor and is a significant predictor of many employee attitudes and behaviours. Studies examining the direct and joint effects of LMX and other organisational characteristics on employee creativity and employee IWB have shown the LMX construct has a significant effect on employee innovativeness. However, a more nuanced view on the effects of LMX on the various components of IWB — idea generation, idea promotion, and idea implementation — is missing. Moreover, most research to date on LMX and innovation has focused on the potential linear connections between LMX and employee innovation-related outcomes, leaving the possible opportunities associated with low-quality LMX under-explored. This is a shortcoming, as a growing body of literature demonstrates that, under specific conditions, not only high but also low-quality LMX can be conducive for various employee outcomes. Analysing survey data collected from 93 employees of a knowledge-intensive service company, our study shows U-shaped and linear relationships between LMX and varying components of IWB. We further test an earlier presented assumption that perceived organisational support for innovation may emerge as a powerful contextual condition in relationships between employee innovativeness and its antecedents. We find that LMX and organisational support for innovation have a joint positive effect on the components of employee IWB. These findings extend innovation management theorising and provide advice for managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to explore the inclusive involvement of non-R&D and non-managerial employees' in processes of innovation. It answers a contemporary call for research to investigate a wider scope of organisations in the quest for understanding the interaction between employees and managers in employee-driven innovation (EDI). Based on a qualitative research study of two global corporations, this paper poses the following research question: How does the EDI approach manifest as a new management practice and thereby influence the interaction between employees and managers? By applying a critical discourse analysis, findings reveal that the production, distribution, and consumption of the EDI discourse are pervaded by a dynamic tension in the power relation between the top-level management and employees. While management enforces the impression that the EDI process is inclusive and engaging, employees remain critical to the contrasting way it is communicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The constant generation of innovation is a major factor in explaining a firm's long-term success. Accordingly, previous literatures have identified several organisational, processual, and cultural factors that enable firms to promote successful innovation. Although these success factors appear to be rather different, most of them revolve around continuity, competence, or cooperation. As little prior research has focused on the complexity and interdependence of these various interlinked theoretical concepts, we adopt a configurational and longitudinal approach to analyse the effect of continuity, competence, and cooperation on the innovation performance of a firm on short-, mid-, and long-term bases. Based on a longitudinal data set that captures the innovation behaviour of 220 firms from 2009 to 2015, we find that continuity is the basic requirement for constant innovation performance. In addition, cooperation is likely to be supportive of innovation performance in the short term, while competence supports innovation performance in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically analyses the effects of five critical success factors on the front end of innovation and new product development success. Data from a self-developed questionnaire on a cross-industry sample of 77 German-based small- and medium-sized firms were collected through an online survey. Accouting for factors not included in previous studies, the results indicate that strategic alignment, creative encouragement, and external collaboration are the key predictors of front-end success. Surprisingly, the impact of process formalisation and the importance of cross-functional collaboration for front-end success could not be supported. We conject that collaboration in the front end of innovation must exceed simple communication and information exchange to significantly effect front-end success. Managerial implications of this study include the need for an internal search for ideas by fostering employees' creative abilities while simultaneously remaining open to external input. Also, activities in the front end of innovation should be aligned with the organisation's overall business strategy to promote successful ideation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In search of innovation, incumbent firms are leveraging the creativity, knowledge and capabilities of corporate accelerators and are boosting their innovation engines by collaborating with startups. While this form of collaboration network with its heterogeneous partners is theoretically compelling and growing in popularity practically, the majority of corporate accelerators fails to deliver the desired results. Existing research still lacks an in-depth exploration of corporate accelerators explaining and suggesting how failure and challenges of incumbent firms can be overcome. Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and innovation experts across industries and within one of Europe's biggest corporate accelerators. This study contributes to the field of open innovation and collaboration networks by expanding our knowledge about challenges of corporate accelerators and in particular to decode the difficulties that occur during the different phases of accelerator programmes. Based on the findings, guidelines for practitioners are presented to enhance organisational learning and innovation performance for incumbent firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lean Startup approach and its related Minimum Viable Product thinking is one of the key trends not only in entrepreneurship, but also in more and more established companies. Before this background, this paper experimentally investigates whether and how the Lean Startup approach improves innovation processes in established companies. For this, the overall experiment had 23 participants, the outcome was then matched against a control group and evaluated through a survey with 146 representatives of the target group of the product. The results show that the Lean Startup approach outperforms the traditional approach and that this method improves the success rate of innovation ideas and thus supports the learning philosophy within established companies. Moreover, the experiment revealed a superior performance, especially relating to financial output. Based on these results, implications for research and companies are discussed, as well as limitations and further research suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a conceptual model to analyse the role of quality orientation and collaborations in firms' management innovation, and also the impact of management innovation to product, process and marketing innovation. Moreover, the analysis considers organisational size as a key moderating factor in order to investigate whether the relationships among the model factors vary between small and medium size firms. To achieve these objectives an empirical survey was conducted among 429 firms. The structural relationships among the latent factors were determined through SEM. The findings show that the probability of success increases when firms use quality orientation and collaboration to support management innovation efforts. In addition, the findings suggest that management innovation positively affects product, process and marketing innovation while the organisational size acts as a moderator in the relationships among quality orientation, collaborations, management innovation, — product, process and marketing innovation, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ISO56002 international standard for managing innovation systems was published in 2019. In this paper, we review the rationale, the key features, and the evidence base for this new standard. The primary objective of the standard is to promote the professionalisation of the field by providing a framework for management and organisational practice. The standard was developed by a wide range of stakeholders, including consultants and professional associations, and therefore features most of the elements we would expect from such a high-level, generic approach: strategy, organisation, leadership, planning, support, process, performance evaluation, and improvement. We examine the empirical base for each of these components in this paper. We also identify some critical shortcomings, such as the implicit adoption of a linear model, lack of specific tools to support practice, or any significant variation in application by sector or context. Finally, we recommend how the standard could be improved and implemented in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successfully developing a new product, service or production process for commercial purposes involves complex and dynamic changes, and therefore requires conditions of knowledge management that fosters innovation. In this sense, processes by which knowledge is created and exploited in the firm constitute key competence and source of innovation capabilities. The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between conditions of knowledge management and innovation capability. The sample consists of 102 Colombian new technology-based firms. According to results, conditions of knowledge management has a positive effect on innovation capability, specifically flexible structure, information and communications technology, strategic purpose, and competitive environment. The results help firms, especially those that require a lot of knowledge and carry out their activities in uncertain and dynamic environments, to management and understand how the processes of innovation capability are influenced by the conditions of knowledge management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living labs (LLs) are becoming an increasingly popular approach to engage in open innovation. Although applications and influence of LLs have grown rapidly over the last decade, the landscape of LL research remains largely unclear and underexplored. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop a consolidated understanding of this research field and to detect the potential areas of fragmentation and isolation. Through a systematic review of the scholarly literature on LLs, this study applies bibliometric methods on a dataset of 411 journal articles. The results of this study reveal the diverse and fragmented nature of the LL field, with contributions spanning across different disciplines and application domains. Despite such fragmentation, some clusters of scholars and publications are identified as well as influential contributions. Given the nascent state of the literature, the role of special issues in shaping the evolution of the LL debate is prominent. This study provides a map to practitioners to investigate and learn from the application of LLs in diverse fields. This aspect is particularly important in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, which stresses the key role of open and collaborative approaches to innovation, making the use of LLs increasingly relevant for governments, companies, public organisations and individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a reaction to the rapidly changing environment, organisations increasingly use agile project management (APM) methods to develop innovation. The associated process changes necessitate the adaption of organisational structures and control systems. This study draws on Simon's Levers-of-Control framework (LOC) to explore the impact of different control levers on innovation project performance. Based on a survey of 316 project managers and product owners, the results suggest that the use of interactive project control systems and project-internal belief systems has a positive impact on the innovation outcome, regardless of the degree of agility of the project. Furthermore, we reveal that a strong project environment leads to increased use of control mechanisms on the project level and has a conducive impact on innovation project performance. The study is among the first to apply the LOC on the project level and integrate it into the agile context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital disruption leads to high-level risk in innovation management that will impact established firms in disrupted industries. This study investigates the key variables to enhance innovation performance (IP) in a disruptive environment by applying strategic entrepreneurship framework from [Hitt, MA, DG Sirmon, RD Ireland and CA Trahms (2011). Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating value for individuals, organizations, and society. Academic of Management Executive, 25(5), 57–75]. This study sampled the managers of two largest established firms in telecommunication and banking industries in Indonesia. Both industries are in top five of the most disrupted industries. Entrepreneurial leadership (EL) is essential in formulating innovation strategy. This leadership variable has multicollinearity with that of entrepreneurial culture (EC). It indicates that both variables are symbiotic. While in implementing innovation strategy, the configuring core innovation capabilities that combine exploring the opportunity and exploiting the firm's advantage enhance the IP. Due to core rigidities, this configuring core innovation capabilities should not be orchestrated with collaborative innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been established in both developed and emerging economies that geographic concentration of firms contributed in no small ways to the growth of country's economy. However, in developing countries like Nigeria, what constitutes innovation capability needed to transform local innovation system towards indigenisation of ICT products among the ICT clustered firms is not known; and where data are available, they are somewhat outdated. This paper therefore presented empirical evidences on Innovation capability among agglomerated MSMEs in Nigeria. The research adapted the 6th Community Innovation Survey (CIS) on 228 owners of ICT clustered enterprises. It was found that nontechnical innovations were more prevalent in the clusters. It was also discovered that firms with appropriate mix of both internal and external sources of Innovation Capability performed better. The research thus added to the body of knowledge in development literature on the role of capability mix in innovation management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper theorises about the behaviour of firms engaged in complex product systems innovation and engineering under the lean startup/minimum viable product process. In doing so, it fills a gap in the literature at the intersection of innovation management and behavioural economics. By deconstructing the concept of commercial value, we assemble, define and structure the relationships among seven values that innovation teams encounter along the path of innovation. Then, we demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed framework by applying it to the case of algorithmic financial systems. The model of capability developed for this domain may have broader applicability. For innovations where performance is probabilistic and achieves a steady state, capability can define what counts as "good enough" commercial value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While investigating organisational factors related to a firm's ability to innovate, this study identifies two new antecedents of absorptive capacity. Drawing from literatures on innovation management and organisational studies, the paper puts forward a model linking absorptive capacity to a unit's cognitive diversity and cohesiveness, empirically testing their effects on potential absorptive capacity (PACAP) and realised absorptive capacity (RACAP). Statistical tests are conducted using original survey data collected in the healthcare industry. Future research and implications for practitioners are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the concept of open innovation has gained much attention in the field of innovation management, few studies have so far theorized how such initiatives are being enacted in practice. This study is based on an inductive empirical analysis of how AstraZeneca, a large biopharmaceutical corporation, implemented an open innovation initiative called BioVentureHub. In the paper we introduce a theoretical model of open innovation enactment based on four interrelated processes. Three of these processes — conceptualization, mobilization, and operationalization — include activities related to preparing for open innovation, what we call open innovation groundwork. The fourth process — facilitation — involves translating the groundwork into actual open innovation. The study contributes to the broader open innovation domain by its detailed account and theorizing of how open innovation is established in practice. Our methodological approach complements the previous research on open innovation that mostly are based on retrospective accounts or are conceptual in nature. Moreover, the study contributes by illustrating a novel initiative from the life science industry, where open innovation is frequently discussed but where still only a few empirical examples are found in academic literature [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, manufacturers could usually choose from several suppliers who would be more than willing to engage in innovation processes with them. However, more often the situation arises that a supplier has a dominant position because of a clear leadership or even exclusivity in a certain technology. How should the buying companies handle such situations when a supplier can choose the customer to collaborate with, rather than cueing in front of the customer's door? This paper focuses on how a buying company may best handle this situation of innovating with dominant suppliers. The methodology used is a case study that compares, from an original equipment manufacturer's perspective, two implemented supplier innovations with different expirations — a success case and a failure. Findings lead to three main propositions: First, firms may benefit from carefully analysing and designing the buyer–supplier constellation in innovation processes and not only the quality of the innovation. Drawing back on attractiveness theory grounded in social exchange theory may provide clues on how to do so. Second, in case of a dominant supplier situation, traditional innovation management processes may fail and need to be amended by a dedicated innovation process with a different order of steps. In the case of supplier dominance, it is essential to first analyse the supplier constellation, and then make the decision for the innovation path to follow — and not the other way around. Third, in the fight for getting access to a supplier's innovation, a speed-up process with the buying company may be a tool for outperforming other buyers competing for the same supplier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore how knowledge sharing impacts innovation across generations of a family firm. We argue that each generation contributes to the knowledge pool differently, and there can be different levels of hostility towards sharing knowledge that can impact a family firm's ability to innovate. We present two models distinguishing the source of knowledge from the receiver of knowledge for each generation. When the senior generation is the source of knowledge, business tends to be as per usual. Conversely, when the source of knowledge is the next generation, this can lead to new approaches to doing business being introduced, with potential for innovation activities and outcomes. We suggest that to minimise hoarding and rejection of knowledge, strategies need to be in place to avoid redundancy in the knowledge production and problem-solving processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific research and innovation management practice have emphasised the important role of individual competencies in meeting the challenges of the digital transformation. However, it still lacks empirical studies that strive to determine how certain competencies of employees might affect the success of the digital transformation itself. In order to empirically determine the individual contribution of specific employee competencies to a successful digital transformation in terms of a high Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) usage performance, a quantitative study among German component manufacturers of the capital goods industry was conducted. Drawing upon a sample of 284 employees, our results reveal that high developed cognitive and processual competencies of individuals promote the digital transformation processes of a firm. Surprisingly, social competencies have only a little influence. Furthermore, our findings also confirmed that a high IIoT usage performance is beneficial for a firm, significantly enhancing divisional success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of plans, as objects, in the formation of new innovation practice in organisations. A vocabulary for analysis is developed from innovation object theory. First, findings from an ethnographic study in a hospital organisation show that a plan serves several functions depending on its activation for use: a checklist of past practice (tertiary object), an opener for debates over current practice (secondary object) and a trigger for future practice development (primary object). Second, a framework is offered that shows how a plan supports different functionalities (evaluating, debating, further exploring) in a temporal dynamics of practice formation. Third, thus, plans play a significant role not only in planning activities, but also as connectors that shape and patch together pieces of past, present and future into what actually become new organisational practice. Finally, implications for innovation theory and management are drawn from these novel contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]