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Radical drug innovations are of great importance to pharmaceutical firms and public health. Understanding the determinants involved in successful radical drug innovations is key to increasing this type of output in the future. The objective of this review is to search the literature for key firm-level determinants of radical drug innovation. Following a systematic literature review approach, we considered more than 4100 peer-reviewed journal articles and PhD theses, of which we included 38 in the narrative synthesis. To guide the review, we use Crossan and Apaydin’s (J Manag Stud 47:1154–1191, 2010) model of firm-level determinants of innovation for the first time within the pharmaceutical industry, which is unique due to the risks, costs, and time frames associated with radical drug innovation. We focus on three groups of determinants: leadership, managerial levers, and business processes. We find the following to be particularly important for radical drug innovation: external knowledge sourcing (managerial lever); internal knowledge management (managerial lever); ability of top leaders to innovate, as determined by educational background and professional experience (leadership); and leaders’ focus on shaping innovation and performance cultures (leadership). We offer a conceptual framework of critical determinants of radical drug innovation and highlight managerial implications. We also discuss gaps in radical drug innovation research and provide suggestions for future study. Many of the findings discussed in this paper are contradictory because they rely on different definitions and measures, which inhibits our full and accurate understanding of radical drug innovation development. More research is needed to address untested measures of radical drug innovation.

PurposeThere is general agreement on the importance of innovation to improve business performance and competitiveness. In recent years, many studies have sought to unravel what conditions are conducive to innovation. Following this trend, the present study seeks to broaden the understanding of the antecedents of radical innovation. To this end, and drawing on positive organizational psychology, the study focuses on the role of leaders and the importance of improving working conditions within companies, favoring innovation in more respectful and prosocial organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe study provides, through structural equations, empirical evidence of the relationship between leader's forgiveness and radical innovation, using altruism as an explanatory variable. The study was conducted in a population of 11,594 Spanish companies. A sample frame of 554 questionnaires from 277 different firms was obtained.FindingsResults confirm the hypotheses proposed in the model. Forgiveness, analyzed as a leader behavior, promotes altruism within companies and, in turn, radical innovation.Originality/valueThis is one of the few empirical studies that analyzes the consequences of leader's forgiveness in the organizational context.

The fast growing body of radical innovation research is fragmented and difficult to overlook. We provide an overview of the most cited journals, authors, and publications and conduct a bibliographic coupling to structure the literature landscape. We identified the following research clusters: management of radical innovations, organizational learning and knowledge, financial aspects of radical innovation, radical innovation adoption and diffusion, radical industry innovations as challenges for incumbents, and radical innovation in specific industries. Based on an in-depth content analysis of these clusters, we identify the following future research opportunities: A systematic compilation of all intra- and extra-organizational management aspects, moderators, and mediators, extending radical innovation research's epistemological basis by adding strategic foresight, further research in individual, group (team), organizational, and inter-organizational capabilities required for radical innovation, a managerial perspective on adoption and diffusion of radical innovations, applying portfolio theory and real options theory to radical innovation research, stronger research efforts on coping strategies for firms faced with competitors' radical innovations, and intensifying both industry-specific and cross-industry research.

To date, there has been little agreement in the literature on what exactly constitutes radical drug innovation and how to properly measure this important construct. Without a validated measure, our ability to understand radical drug innovations, explain their origins, and demonstrate their implications for management and health policy is limited. This paper addresses the problem of radical drug innovation measurement, provides evidence of the limitations associated with the current state of the art, and offers a new method based on German health technology assessments (HTA). Data was obtained for 147 drugs authorized by the European Medicines Agency from 2011 to 2016. The innovativeness of these drugs was assessed using current measures of radical drug innovation compared with the newly developed measure. Findings indicate that current measures of radical drug innovation are associated with very inconsistent outcomes and do not appear to measure what they purport to measure. This study argues that assessing therapeutic value (as measured by the German HTA) is particularly important, given that drug novelty alone does not conclusively indicate whether a drug will deliver therapeutic value.

This study aims to examine differences in private and government third-party logistics companies in Indonesia in terms of improving supply chain performance. In this research, supply chain performance testing is influenced by collaboration, radical innovation, and incremental innovation. The sample used is the third-party logistics industry in West Java and DKI Jakarta, totaling 100, which is divided into private third-party logistic companies and government-owned third-party logistics companies. The results showed that there are differences in the effects of collaboration. There is supply chain performance where there are differences in the influence of collaboration and radical innovation on supply chain performance between private companies and government. There is no difference in the influence of collaboration and incremental innovation on supply chain performance between private companies and the government. The findings of this study indicate that radical and incremental innovation acts as a partial mediation on the effect of collaboration on supply chain performance in private and government companies.

Empirical research has confirmed positive effects of organizational ambidexterity for companies’ long-term performance. More recent research has shifted the focus from organizational level exploration and exploitation to the individual in order to understand psychological micro-foundations of individual ambidexterity. However, our current knowledge on how knowledge flows within individual ambidexterity are initiated and affect performance outcomes is limited. This study thus strives to shed light on the topic by introducing two mechanisms, namely ambidextrous knowledge seeking and ambidextrous knowledge offering, that capture how knowledge flows within individual ambidexterity are initiated. Based on survey-data from 415 employees, findings from structural equation modeling provide first empirical evidence that the focal constructs significantly affect knowledge accumulation on the department level as well as its performance. Finally, results from additional moderation analysis indicate, that ambidextrous knowledge offering leads to higher performance effects in environments characterized by the pursuit of radical innovations, while ambidextrous knowledge seeking is rather suited for environments with a focus on innovating incrementally.

Scholars and practitioners acknowledge the role of design, and specifically design thinking, as a driver of innovation and change. Design thinking is gaining attention in the business community beyond the traditional product innovation realm and is increasingly promoted as an engine for the creation of novel user experiences, new businesses, strategic transformation, organizational and cultural change. Is it reasonable to assume that the same set of practices fits such a broad range of applications equally well? This study addresses how design thinking applications are differently framed when addressing diverse innovation purposes. Specifically, we compare two purposes: innovation of solutions, encompassing traditional product and service development projects, and innovation of direction, encompassing strategic and organizational renewal projects. Based on data collected from 146 design thinking projects conducted by European consulting firms we investigate the relationships between the design thinking practices adopted and the value generated by the projects. We then analyze how these relationships vary depending on the purpose of the innovation project, namely whether focused on innovating solutions or direction. The results show that different purposes indeed call for different practices. In projects aimed at innovating solutions, market value is positively related to capturing current user needs and envisioning future society. Conversely, in projects aimed at innovating direction, market value is positively related to challenging current assumptions.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine meetings as a form of meta-practice and investigate their role related to management control of innovation development.Design/methodology/approachThis research draws on case studies of two biotechnology firms operating in pharmaceuticals and medicine, which represent different contexts regarding the uncertainty and complexity of innovation development.FindingsThe study suggests two distinct roles of meetings in the context of innovation development: meetings as regulating and ordering; and meetings as a resource. In the first role, meetings serve as a regulative mechanism that brings together multiple elements of control into a system. Meetings as a meta-practice regulate and order by bracketing elements of innovation in time and space, rendering the innovation process more manageable and allowing actors to handle the complexity of knowledge. In the second role, meetings are used as a resource, sporadically intervening in the ongoing activities of innovation projects. The study explains how these two roles relate to the uncertainty and complexity of innovation development and have different implications for management control.Originality/valueThe study challenges the instrumental view of meetings by taking a closer look at their structuring potential in the organization. Understanding the roles of meetings provides another perspective on the functioning of management control and opens new avenues for studying the practices of control and decision-making.

This paper studies the role of technology standards in firms’ product innovation in terms of both incremental innovation (within a technology life cycle) and radical innovation (beyond the present technology cycle). We first develop a theoretical model which predicts that technology standards can be used by firms as an “insurance” hedging against the risky process of developing new products. This insurance mechanism fosters incremental innovation and product growth especially for those further away from the technological frontier. Using data from a weighted panel of UK manufacturing firms over seven years, we find that the use of technology standards over past years significantly enables a firm’s incremental innovation while also reducing its incentive to deliver radical innovation. Additionally, we show that this relationship is contingent on a firm’s R&D intensity in line with predictions of our theoretical model.

The aim of this study is to analyse the effects of barriers to innovation on firms’ propensity to engage in radical and incremental innovations. We look at innovative and potentially innovative firms and estimate the effect of three types of barriers—financial, knowledge and competition—on the propensity to radical innovation new to the world, radical innovation new to the market and incremental innovation. An empirical study has been performed, drawing on data collected from the German Mannheim Innovation Panel covering the period from 2014 to 2016. Empirical results reveal heterogeneous effects of barriers depending on the degree of radicalness. In particular, knowledge and competition barriers are an impediment to radical innovation, whereas financial and knowledge barriers reduce a probability of incremental innovation. Based on the findings, we discuss policy recommendations for mitigating barriers to innovation conditional on the degree of radicalness.

PurposeThe objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between leaders' forgiveness and organizational performance using radical innovation as an explanatory variable.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted in a sample frame of 11,594 Spanish companies. A total of 600 valid questionnaires were obtained. The structural equations were used to validate the proposed hypotheses.FindingsResults confirmed the hypotheses proposed in the model: the authors provided, through structural equations, empirical evidence of the relationship between leaders' forgiveness and organizational performance, mediated by radical innovation. Leaders' forgiveness promotes radical innovation and, in turn, performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample of companies is heterogeneous in terms of firm turnover, size and age. The study is focused on radical innovation.Practical implicationsThe present study may help to develop more humane policies to manage human resources, by taking into account employees' feelings and needs.Originality/valueThe business field is closer to competitive values and has traditionally underestimated the importance of leaders' forgiveness. This is one of the few studies that empirically analyze the consequences of leaders' forgiveness within organizations.

The aim of this paper is to adopt the absorptive capacity (ACAP) framework to understand radical innovation in industrial districts (IDs), adopting a multi-level perspective. By performing a longitudinal case study on an ID that has successfully introduced a radical innovation – the plastic ski boot innovation developed within the Montebelluna Sportsystem district in Italy – the paper highlights how key elements of the ACAP framework (i.e. its components, antecedents, and contingent factors) allow understanding wherein IDs might indeed successfully introduce radical innovations, and what are the specificities as respect as considering a single organisation as unit of analysis. Important policy implications arise, regarding how to support IDs competitiveness and resilience thanks to radical innovation.

Innovations in healthcare help efforts to deliver effective and efficient services, an increasing policy imperative at a time of decreasing financial resources, ageing population and increasing exp...

Considering the universal competitive pressures, it is imperative for the organizations to be more dynamic and innovative. The viability of companies is dependent on innovation and organizational culture is regarded as an important component in realizing the objective of product innovation. The study examines the association between ambidextrous organizational culture and product innovation outcomes through mediation of contextual ambidexterity. By pursuing the snowball sampling technique, pre-established structural questionnaires were distributed among the top management of IT and Telecom sector, 125 valid questionnaires were considered for data analysis purpose. The collected data was analyzed using Smart PLS software and measurement model was assessed with respect to reliability and validity. Structural model was assessed for hypothesis testing using bootstrapping technique. Results indicated that organizational diversity significantly and positively affect new product innovation outcomes i.e., incremental, radical product innovation, and speed to market, whereas shared vision positively affect incremental product innovation. Indirect effects results indicated that significant positive partial mediation of contextual ambidexterity exists between organizational diversity and new product innovation outcomes, i.e., radical innovation and speed to market. Whereas full and significant positive mediation role of contextual ambidexterity exists between shared vision and new product innovation outcomes i.e., radical innovation outcomes and speed to market. At last, no significant mediation role of contextual ambidexterity exists between organizational diversity and incremental innovation outcomes.

PurposeThe main purpose of this study is to increase the scholarly understanding of managerial growth aspirations in small firms. Research has shown that managers' aspirations are important to ensure firms' growth, but researchers know less of where their aspirations come from and how variation in these aspirations shapes organizational outcomes. By focusing on two growth strategies of particular importance for small firms – innovation and internationalization – the authors map out how managers' ambitious aspirations may create negative organizational effects and also how they may counteract such effects.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs structural equation modeling (SEM) on a sample of 249 Norwegian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).FindingsThe findings of this study suggest that managerial experience is associated with high aspirations as well as high change effectiveness on the managerial team. The authors find that ambitious growth aspirations are associated with exploration in the form of radical innovation but also lead to reduced employee well-being. Managers' level of perceived change effectiveness, on the other hand, is positively associated with radical innovation and also raises employee well-being.Research limitations/implicationsThis study highlights the positive and negative effects of managerial aspirations on different organizational outcomes. Further, it shows that managerial teams working effectively together in the face of change is important for the well-being of employees. Results confirm the positive relationship between aspirations for growth and applied growth strategies in organizations. The data sample is, however, extracted from one country only, and the authors cannot exclude the possibility that findings will be different elsewhere.Practical implicationsTo ensure successful growth, managers should combine ambitious aspirations with attention to the top management team's (TMT) experience levels and change effectiveness. Assessment of possible needs for development and adjustments could ensure growth processes with limited negative effects for employee well-being.Originality/valueBy distinguishing between growth through international sales (exploitation) and growth through a more change-intensive strategy of radical innovation (exploration), the authors investigate how variations in managerial aspirations and perceptions influence organizational growth processes. This paper paints a unique picture of how managers can be both the cause and cure of employee well-being in change-demanding situations.

Due to added mobility and the increase in international students worldwide, as well as the current problem regarding the counterfeiting of diplomas and the selling of fraudulent certificates, we propose a technological solution. Namely, to ally blockchain technology to higher education certificates and diplomas, to make the process of checking for academic qualifications more facilitated and transparent. Employers of graduates, as well as higher education institutions which evaluate course applicants, would benefit. Perhaps equally as important, students applying for international degree programs would have their lives simplified. There is an increased pressure to ensure the legitimacy and authenticity of certifications and diplomas—and preferably without the current “hassle” of getting diplomas recognized by official entities. New technological advances, with the development of blockchain and smart contracts, with their characteristics of immutability, decentralization, security, traceability, and consensus, may be considered an excellent match to implement a robust and reliable anti-fraud solution to issue digital diplomas. Radical innovations, such as linking blockchain and higher education diplomas, involve significant change and novelty. Linking blockchain and higher education diplomas could potentially positively impact and benefit millions of people worldwide, especially the younger generations. This study involved a literature review and the searching of the Scopus database (refereed publications) for the following concepts: blockchain and diploma. Existing literature is recent, with most articles (25) published between 2019 and 2020, with 4 in 2018 and only 1 in 2017. This was aligned with our expectations since the development of blockchain utilization outside financial and crypto-assets industries is recent, and it is known as “Blockchain 3.0”. We can additionally affirm that the topic is attracting attention and efforts from researchers worldwide and that some higher education institutions have already implemented ad hoc solutions. As it is, the sector lacks a unified response to the problem of automatic and reliable higher education diploma certification.

This paper focuses on patterns of innovation and the R&D strategy of automobile companies for technological changes. Tushman and Anderson (1986) pointed out that there are two types of technological changes: incremental technological change and radical technological change. In particular, radical technological change may largely affect existing companies and new entrants for gaining competitive advantage in the emerging market. To examine this proposition, we use the patent information of existing automobile company (Toyota) and new entrants (Tesla, BYD) to analyze their R&D strategies on electric vehicle by social network analysis and cluster analysis. The analyses in this paper include the following: (1) To capture the radical and incremental technological changes from each company’s R&D projects, and visualize these changes, (2) To examine the relationship between technological discontinuities and the R&D strategies of automobile companies. We conclude that patterns of corporate R&D strategy that cope with the threat of radical technological changes differ from company in automobile industry, and we suggest the reason that cause this difference.

We advance the premise that to navigate crisis, rather than reactively cutting costs by culling middle management, top managers can benefit from enabling radical change initiatives by middle managers. Contextualizing this idea to the marketing function and the COVID-19 crisis, we ask: How can Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) support marketing middle managers (MMMs) in initiating radical change in crisis situations? We take the position that marketing managers' distinctive functional influence on radical change is in driving product and service innovations that are new-to-the-firm. We then argue that crisis situations present an opportunity for top and middle managers to rethink assumptions about ‘who does what’ in radical change initiatives from the marketing function, focusing on the underemphasized possibility of MMMs initiating change and CMOs implementing. Building on recent findings on ‘change role reversal’, we unpack the notion that change initiatives may be most effective when middle managers initiate, while top managers implement. This unconventional change route would see CMOs taking a deliberate and supportive back seat in navigating crisis, while MMMs take the wheel in driving radical change initiatives. We identify duties and hurdles to a change role reversal— approach faced by MMMs throughout three stages of innovation-enabled radical change proposed by Burgelman (1991; variation-selection-retention) and chart corresponding roles that CMOs can play to support MMMs: advisor, judge, and guardian. Three tangible final questions addressed to CMOs guide managerial applications, while considerations outside scope are also discussed., Highlights • We advance the position that the current crisis is an opportunity to rethink strategic and tactical roles of Chief Marketing Officers and marketing middle managers in radical innovation and change. • We advance the case for change role reversal to navigate change, executives need to encourage and support marketing middle managers to initiate innovation-led change. • We chart three supporting roles that Chief Marketing Officers need to play to address hurdles faced by marketing middle managers in different phases of radical change initiation: Advisor, judge, and guardian. • We outline specific challenges faced by CMOs in effectuating a change role reversal approach to navigate crisis. • Limitations and supporting activities to effectuate a reverse role change strategy are presented.

The management of knowledge assets is crucial for gaining competitive advantage and has a huge strategic importance for the firms. Knowledge management has become one of the emerging fields in today’s research world and has turned out to be a major concern for the organizations as it plays a crucial role in the growth and development of the organization. Knowledge management is a new concept that is why it is gaining increased attention among small and large organizations. In this study three important knowledge management practices are discussed and the necessary insights regarding knowledge management processes and their positive impacts within an organization are provided. The study also brings forth the relationships which knowledge management processes have with radical innovation in small and medium enterprises. The explanatory method of research and quantitative type of research to test the hypothesis of research was used to carry out the study and survey type was involved by using questionnaire. The knowledge management and innovation instruments were adapted from previous researchers. This study’s target population consisted of small and medium-sized enterprises that included service sectors in Quetta, Balochistan. A convenient sampling was applied to collect the necessary data from SMEs. A total of 850 firms were communicated and requested to participate in this survey but 300 (35.6% response rate) accepted to fill out the survey questionnaire. The study utilized structural equation modelling to examine numerous complex cause and effect relationships between variables. The results indicate a positive association between Knowledge management processes and radical innovation. The positive link between Knowledge management processes and innovation indicates the importance and value of knowledge management in achieving competitive advantage through innovation.

Shadow networks can play an important role in facilitating transitions toward more sustainable and resilient social-ecological systems. Yet, few studies have explored the microdynamics of shadow networks to understand what makes them more or less effective in sustainability transitions. This article examines stakeholder roles and social influence in support of radical innovations over time in a shadow network focused on urban water sustainability in the Colorado River basin. Using qualitative analysis of meeting transcripts and social network analysis, we analyzed the roles of stakeholders from market, government, and scientific sectors in advocating for and influencing other shadow-network members to consider incremental and radical innovations over a 5-year period. The results show that, in our case, stakeholders from the market sector suggested most of the radical innovations. Government-aligned stakeholders mostly supported others' suggestions and facilitated support for niche innovations to become more widespread. Science stakeholders were supportive of others' proposals but were never the source of new ideas for radical innovations; they focused more on interrogating the evidence for and efficacy of others' proposals. These results illustrate how shadow networks can nurture support for radical innovations over time, even when most network members are aligned with the current regime. This research yields new insights about shadow networks in sustainability transitions, and points to the need for more focused analysis of stakeholder roles and social influences within shadow networks to help understand how radical innovations gain support and become better institutionalized.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between open innovation (OI) and radical and incremental innovation success in knowledge-based companies. The company’s human resources and organizational learning capability are considered as the fundamental nexus of this relationship.Design/methodology/approachAt the conceptual level, the paper analyzes the relationships between dynamic capabilities and OI and between OI and innovation success. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used to study how innovation is implemented in 29 companies.FindingsFsQCA identifies combinations of factors that facilitate incremental innovations. These combinations reveal the path to implementing company policies that enable incremental innovation and foster radical innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThe nature of the study sample means that the findings should be generalized with precaution. The most valuable implication is the identification of combinations of factors that help companies manage innovation.Originality/valueScarce literature links organizational learning factors and OI to different types of innovation. The use of fsQCA to analyze the cases also marks a breakthrough in the innovation literature.

Design thinking comprises an approach to problem solving that uses tools traditionally utilized by designers of commercial products, processes, and environments (e.g., designing a new car or the layout of a new airport). While design thinking was originally introduced as an approach that would work best when infused into the culture of an organization, most early studies of design thinking focused on identifying the specific tools and methods that might be used to solve management problems. Only recently have researchers examined how the implementation of design thinking might relate to organizational-level constructs, such as organizational culture. In this review, we examine empirical research (mostly from the past decade) that relates the practice of design thinking to the development of culture in organizations. Through this review, we identify how the use of specific design thinking tools supports the development of specific organizational cultures and vice versa. In addition, we identify how using design thinking tools produces emotional experiences and physical artifacts that help users to understand why and how specific cultures support the effective use of specific tools. Together, our review findings suggest that the experiential nature of design thinking tools and cultures (i.e., that they require people to actively engage in hands-on work) allows them to support one another. On the basis of this insight, we develop a general framework for organizing design thinking research and identify a number of avenues for future research that might advance our understanding of design thinking in organizational contexts.

Purpose Since the 2008 financial crisis, the financial industry is in need of innovation to increase stability and improve quality of services. The purpose of this paper is to explore internal barriers that influence the effectiveness of projects within large financial services firms focussing on potentially disruptive and radical innovations. While literature has generally focused on barriers within traditional technology and manufacturing firms, few researchers have identified barriers for these type of firms. Design/methodology/approach A framework of internal barriers was developed and validated by means of an explorative case study. Data were collected at a European bank by exploring how innovation is organized and what barriers influence effectiveness of eight innovation projects. Findings Six items were identified as key barrier for potentially disruptive and radical innovations (e.g. traditional risk-avoidance focus, and inertia caused by systems architecture). As such, in the sample these were more important than traditionally defined barriers such as sources of finance, and lacking exploration competences. Research limitations/implications Based on a small number of projects within one firm, the results highlight the need for more in-depth research on the effects of barriers and how barriers can be overcome within this industry. Originality/value The results show that there is a discrepancy between the societal demand for radical change within the financial industry and the ability of large financial services firms to innovate. The study identifies which unique internal barriers hamper potentially disruptive and radical innovation in large financial services firms.

Because technology pushed product development projects are risky and failure rates are high, the success factors are valuable knowledge for the management of development-intensive firms. This paper provides a comparison of success factor weighting between hardware and software product development projects in the ICT industry improving existing success factor research. We analyze qualitatively interview data from nine intentionally selected start-up firms and identify which success factors were clearly supported by HW and SW firms, and in which area different types of firms could benchmark each other. The practical aim of this paper is that it helps management to recognize the real actions needed to reduce product development risks in HW and SW projects.

International coopetition has rarely been studied in relation to innovation. Further exploration of effects of international coopetition, i.e. the pursuit of simultaneous cooperation and competition, on a firm’s innovation performance is especially important as such a relationship is challenging with a high propensity to fail. This observation formed the point of departure for this study, which aims to increase the understanding of the effects of international coopetition on firm innovativeness and how these effects are conditioned on the magnitude of the organizational adjustments a firm introduces. We use an unbalanced panel of 9,839 firms that participated in four waves of the Swedish Community Innovation Survey between 2008 and 2014 as our empirical base. We illustrate that firms that cooperate with competitors internationally are more likely to exhibit higher propensity to introduce radical innovations, yet this effect is conditioned upon the magnitude of organizational adjustments. Overall, our study contributes to the understanding of the implications of international coopetition and what a firm needs to benefit from it.

Increasing interest in health and well-being is likely to drive a growth in demand for products that have positive effects on health. Consumers' acceptance of and willingness to buy functional foods has been widely studied, but there has not been research on consumers' attitudes towards innovative non-edible products with health effects. This study examines how older consumers perceive functional foods and novel non-edible health-enhancing products, how willing they are to purchase such products, and how health orientation influences their views. As an example of a ‘radical' innovation, consumers' acceptance of rubbing their hands in a specific soil-based mixture to modulate the immune system is explored. The research material, 13 thematic interviews, was collected in Lahti region, Finland, in 2015. The study indicates that the older consumers' market is not homogeneous. Based on a qualitative, in-depth approach, the study distinguishes four consumer segments with different lay understandings of health and attitudes towards health-enhancing products, which influence people's willingness to purchase such products. The segments are health-seeking consumers, cautious consumers, critical consumers, and natural health consumers. Various motives and barriers for using products with health claims are also identified. The case of rubbing hands in organic soil-based mixture indicates the difficulty of predicting which consumer segment will first adopt this kind of ‘radical' innovation. The results highlight that the credence qualities of a novel product must be communicated and advertised before entering the market while also taking into account the sensory properties of the product. ‘Radical innovations' must be in a form that consumers can easily accept. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Purpose In today’s knowledge economy the ability to innovate and develop new products is a key factor to sustain firm performance. Within this context, analysing the role of different components of intellectual capital (IC) becomes of foremost importance, as well as an under-investigated issue for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of human, organisational and relational capital (RC) on radical innovation performance (RIP), as well as to examine whether organisational capital (OC) and RC mediate the relationship between human capital (HC) and RIP and whether OC moderates the relationship between RC and RIP. Design/methodology/approach The methodology consisted of a factor analysis and different regression models to test for mediation and moderation. The analyses are carried out on a sample of 150 micro firms and SMEs involved in the production of machinery or instruments and located in Italy. Findings Results show that HC is directly associated to RIP, as well as OC and RC that totally mediate the relationship between HC and RIP. Moreover, OC positively moderates the relationship between RC and RIP. Originality/value This study is particularly interesting because it adopts an overarching perspective on IC testing the interplay between the different components of IC. In addition, it focusses on the SME context which is under-investigated as far as IC and performance measurement is concerned.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T17:34:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-01-02 The literature on new product development (NPD) contains several studies of management practices involved in different types of innovation. However, few studies focus on how cross-functional integration affects incremental and radical innovation product projects. The purpose of this study is to explore this aspect, from a qualitative perspective, through case studies of four high-tech firms in Brazil. Eight NPD projects were studied. The findings suggest that radical and incremental innovation NPD projects require different management practices in the studied cases. In incremental NPD projects, greater integration efforts may not be necessary. However, the following practices should be adopted in projects involving radical innovation product projects: intense involvement of technical teams, flexibility in the early stages of NPD, and geographical separation between the development team and other departments of the firm. Moreover, the application of these same practices in projects of incremental innovation in NPD may not bring positive results. Production Engineering Department São Paulo State University–UNESP Management and Business College Federal University of Uberlândia Department of Industrial Engineering and Management School of Engineering Jönköping University Department of Industrial Engineering and Management University of Gävle Production Engineering Department São Paulo State University–UNESP

Knowledge across several segments appears to be a necessary ingredient to innovation in the case of an architectural shift. Innovative firms utilize their knowledge stock to confront the competitive market. This paper demonstrates that exploitation of accumulated knowledge leads to architectural innovation. Ironically, in the new development of products with a short life cycle, when a firm discards its accumulated knowledge, innovation can be the result. After architecture technology is fully emerged, the utilization of architectural knowledge is one of the critical innovations. Based on the findings, architectural changing from sequential rotation flip into simultaneous vibration feeding flip in Pick and Place is a result of discarding the existing accumulated knowledge. This paper enhances our understanding of how architectural innovation occurs.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of tacit knowledge in incremental innovation, which has hitherto been neglected. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative case analysis was used to focus on two large Japanese pharmaceutical companies’ development of new antihypertensive drugs. The study uses interview data and documentary research materials to explore the knowledge bases of the companies’ research teams as they refined an existing drug to produce new products – a process of incremental innovation. Findings Explicit knowledge (chemical structure of preceding drug) was used in both successful and failed cases of drug discovery. In the two successful cases, the tacit knowledge of key researchers, based on their long-term experience of related research, provided insight into developing compounds with good in vivo efficacy, which led to successful clinical development. Practical implications The findings suggest that tacit knowledge may play an important role in incremental innovation processes, and that its influence on product development should be considered in such ways as team and organization structure. Originality/value This study addresses a gap in the literature regarding the impact of tacit knowledge on incremental innovation processes. It is often assumed that incremental innovation is based on existing technology. This study suggests that tacit knowledge may play a hitherto largely unrecognized role in incremental product development.

Through structural equations, this study provides empirical evidence of the positive effect of servant leadership on radical innovation, using organizational learning capability as a mediator variable. The study is based on a sampling frame of 402 Spanish companies, which are characterized by the excellent management of their human resources. 142 different firms participated in the study, and 2 questionnaires were obtained per company. Data were collected between 2010 and 2015. Human resource and innovation managers participated by answering the questionnaires during telephone interviews. All the hypotheses were validated. Servant leadership has a positive effect on organizational learning capability, while the effect of the latter construct on radical innovation is also positive. This study has implications for the literature on leadership, innovation and organizational learning. In addition, it has practical applications, suggesting how to foster innovative organizational performance by improving workplace conditions.