Technology,productivity and economic analysis

A commonly held view is that innovation, deriving directly from expenditure on research and development, brings increased productivity, lower costs, increased profitability and growth, and that these relationships form a economically virtuous circle.However, this view is not supported either by the research results reported here or by other empirical findings. A richer and deeper framework of analysis than this “mythology” provides is required for management decision making in innovation and in this and the subsequent paper the author outlines the necessary features of such a framework.A model of a “network of productivity relationships” with six components is described which traces the effects of innovation, at any point in the network, on input productivities. The model points up the futility of single input measures of innovatory effects. This network is then combined with cost factors to show the effect on categories of unit costs and on total unit cost. Finally, profitability is related to the physical and cost factors to provide managerial control ratios which offer the relevent criteria by which innovation many be appraised.The history of innovation in the U.S. Basic Steel Industry is examined in the light of the model described above and hypotheses are proposed to identify possible productivity and cost effects of innovation with a view ot improving general predictive capability of the results of any given type of innovation.     

A Social Capital Perspective of Innovation from Individuals to Nations: Where is Empirical Literature Directing Us?

Social capital is regarded as the bedrock of innovation. However, inadequate efforts have been made to synthesize the way in which different components of social capital dynamically influence innovation. This paper reviews existing empirical studies on the relationship between social capital and innovation of the individual, team, organization, city and nation. Analyses were carried out to identify consensus, discordances and gaps in the social capital–innovation connection. The findings suggested that the structural components of social capital, including ego network size, structural holes, tie strength and centrality have a significant impact on innovation. Their impact, however, tends to be moderated by contextual and intellectual factors, such as the nature and type of innovation, internal vs external ties, costs of maintaining the ties and existing intellectual capital. The relational components of social capital, trust and cognitive norms, demonstrated a consistently positive relationship with innovation across contexts. The cognitive components of social capital have not sufficiently established their contribution to innovation apart from the other two dimensions. Several insights regarding the general literature on social capital and innovation were identified, including the conceptualization of social capital, measurement of innovation, and the causal relationship between social capital and innovation. Suggestions are offered for future research agenda. Implications for managerial practices based on the study findings are also drawn.     

基于产品创新的管理集成及其实施结构体系研究

本文简单地概括了国内外产品创新中管理集成的研究现状,分析了产品创新中管理集成的内涵,揭示了管理集成与信息集成、过程集成和企业集成等相关概念之间的区别和联系,提出了基于产品创新的管理集成实施的结构体系,指出这个结构体系是由核心层、使能层和技术支撑层构成的,并对其内容进行了详细的阐述。     

Understanding innovation performance and its antecedents: A socio-cognitive model

Little attention in the previous literature has been paid to understanding employees’ factors that drive customer development knowledge and performance from the perspective of social psychology. Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study validates a research model that examines the above issue. In the setting of new product development across high-tech firms in Taiwan, this study postulates that innovation self-efficacy, role conflict, and role ambiguity influence innovation performance directly and indirectly via the mediation of customer knowledge development and innovation outcome expectation. This study contributes to the social science literature by applying social cognitive theory to the rarely explored area of innovation performance and by presenting an operationalization of role stressors (i.e., role ambiguity and role conflict) in the area. Lastly, managerial implications and limitations from the empirical findings are provided.     

Coalitions of Actors and Managerial Innovations in the Healthcare and Social Healthcare Sector

This paper studies the behavior of a variety of stakeholders around the adoption of managerial innovations desired by operational managers of health services institutions. We show that if the operational manager may cause the managerial innovation, the tool prospective is subject to power games around coalitions of actors. The study of several management situations in health services institutions enables us, using the game theory, to highlight the “winning”, “losing” and “uncertain” coalitions that can achieve operational management within the establishment to settle a managerial innovation.     

Strategic Influences of Technological Innovation in Greece

This exploratory paper analyses the ‘importance’ and ‘awareness’ of a set of established ‘strategic’ influences of technological innovation in the context of a European newly‐industrialized country. The author interviewed 105 Greek manufacturing firms (mainly SMEs) and measured their perceived innovation rate as well as 17 ‘strategic’ factors regarding top‐management practices and characteristics. Using correlation and regression analysis the initial group of factors was reduced to a subset of five ‘major importance’ influences of innovation, namely: incorporation of technology plans in the business strategy, managerial attitude towards risk, perceived intensity of competition and rate of change of customer needs, and finally status of the CEO (owner‐CEOs were associated with higher innovation rate than appointed CEOs). The ‘statistical’ results are exploratory and have to be treated with caution, as they are highly dependent on the accuracy of the respondents' perception of their company's innovation rate and top‐management practices and characteristics. The ‘statistical’ results were then compared with the managers' perception on the important factors determining innovation (also measured during the interviews). Overall the perceptual analysis confirmed the significance of the statistically important variables, with the exception of a disagreement in the direction of association between the status of the CEO and the rate of innovation. In general, top‐management characteristics proved more important ‘strategic’ influences of innovation for the Greek SMEs than corporate practices. The study also indicated that the important influences of innovation were generally scarce in the Greek institutional context. The highly innovative companies were the ones to overcome country‐specific innovation barriers such as the low supply of technology, the low level of competition and the risk‐averse national culture.     

Learning by exporting: A system-based review and research agenda

Over the past four decades, flourishing empirical research has attempted to establish the mechanisms and conditions underpinning improvements in exporters’ innovation and productivity via the learning-by-exporting (LBE) effect, and the domain has gained legitimacy and empirical credibility. However, the literature's findings are largely fragmented and require systematic review and analysis to draw definitive conclusions on the factors that influence the subsequent realization of learning from exporting. To fill this void, we critically examine the extant LBE research for the period 1984–2021. We systematically review 167 articles to develop a system-based taxonomy and conceptual model of LBE, which comprises five major components: system outputs (productivity and innovation), inputs (e.g., institutional factors and resources), firm-level capabilities (e.g., absorptive capacity and innovation persistence), managerial characteristics (e.g., entrepreneurship skills) and internationalization strategies. In doing so, we uncover paradoxical tensions within the system brought about by the conflicting roles of some components of the LBE system, such as firm-, industry- and country-level technological capabilities. Our review also reveals research gaps that open relevant opportunities for further research and conclusions that hold novel implications for managers and policymakers.     

知识积累、知识激活与创新能力关系研究

关于知识与创新间的关系,现有研究多强调不同类型知识对创新总体绩效的影响差异,较少关注同一知识基对创新微观过程的不同阶段是否具有同等影响。针对这一理论缺口,本研究首先建构了知识积累与基于创新微观过程的企业创新能力间关系模型,并利用问卷调查获得的419份国内企业数据、利用层次回归方法进行实证检验。研究发现：企业知识积累对创新能力具有显著提升作用,并且这种积极效应贯穿在创新的整个微观过程中;分别以内、外组织学习为特征的不同知识激活机制在促进知识贡献于创新不同阶段能力提升过程中具有不同影响。本文最后讨论了理论贡献、管理意义及局限。     

French ‘savoir-faire’ in selling arms: A new way of doing business?

In this remarkable article the authors analyse the reasons for the success of the French arms industry. In particular they note the financial and technological support given by the French Government, the independent foreign policy which the government pursues and the technological innovation which French arms producers have consistently developed. They build a picture of close collaboration between the French Government and the arms industry and demonstrate how the French arms business has been able to create a virtual monopoly of certain market segments.     

CEO Incentives,Takeover Protection and Corporate Innovation

This study examines the effects of CEO equity‐based compensation and anti‐takeover provisions on corporate innovation. Using a large sample of US firms over the period 1996–2014, we find that long‐term incentives have a stronger influence on innovation when combined with takeover threats. We also show that equity‐based compensation is more likely to spur innovation for small firms and firms in industries with high product market competition and innovation pressure. However, this effect is somewhat weaker in the presence of anti‐takeover provisions, suggesting that takeover protection encourages managerial shirking even when external competition is high. Finally, in addition to the existing evidence on the valuation effect of CEO equity‐based compensation, we identify innovation as an important channel through which managerial incentives can enhance firm value. Our results have potential implications for shareholders, managers and policymakers.     

The management of firms’ alliance network positioning: Implications for innovation

In spite of the frequent calls for a much more integrated approach, the field of management still faces the ever continuing challenges in attempting to bridge the gap between academic research and managerial actions and practices. The field of strategic alliances and firms’ networks are those among which research and practice are more diverging. Trying to cover this separation, the article presents an empirical research on automotive industry that investigates the effects on innovation performance of the position that firms occupy in the network of alliances. The hypothesis that guides this research is that innovation is generated not only from the resources that a company is able to develop internally, but also through access to resources and capabilities owned by the external companies and organizations that the firm itself is tied to through alliances and cooperation agreements. Beyond this broad argument, the paper links tightly research and practice showing way and how the quality of access to resources owned by partners is influenced by the position occupied in the network of alliances and not only by the existence of single collaborative ties. Assuming a managerial approach which relies on the milestones of network research, different types of positioning in the network of alliances are discussed and tested on their impact on innovation.     

Disentangling the effects of organizational controls on innovation

The strategy and innovation literatures argue that organizational competitiveness is contingent upon firms simultaneously pursuing both process and product innovations. A firm’s control system plays a fundamental role in this regard by managing, motivating, and coordinating employees’ behaviors for the development of its innovative capabilities. Research suggests that in order to develop successful innovation, management must use controls that align employees’ interests with those of the organization while simultaneously allowing employee autonomy to encourage creativity. These disparate functions lead to the control–autonomy dilemma. We argue that managers can address this dilemma by recognizing that the effect of controls on innovation outcomes depends, in part, on the controls’ enabling features and the type of commitment they inspire. Our findings show that employee development, which is the focus of input controls, has a direct effect on process innovation-related behaviors while specified goals, the emphasis of output controls, have a direct effect on product innovation-related behaviors. It is only through employees’ perceptions of managerial support that input controls increase product innovation-related behaviors and output controls increase process innovation-related behaviors.     

Linking CIO–CMO Communication and Product Innovation via Virtual Customer Environment Engagement: A Moderated Mediation Study

Intuitively, we would expect that CIO–CMO communication plays a minimal role in product innovation performance, because product innovation is primarily driven by firms’ market orientation, knowledge of customer needs and cross-functional integration among marketing, R&D and operations management. In a sharp contrast to this perspective, we propose that CIO–CMO communication increases product innovation performance through enhancing virtual customer environment (VCE) engagement. Such proposed effects are supported by two studies with different samples (i.e. MBA alumni in Study 1 and a representative sample in Study 2) and different performance measures (i.e. subjective ratings in Study 1 and objective sales data in Study 2). Furthermore, the effect of CIO–CMO communication on product innovation performance via VCE engagement is contingent upon two situational factors, namely marketing–IT integration policy and market uncertainty. The effect of CIO–CMO communication on product innovation performance via VCE engagement is positive and significant when marketing–IT integration policy is strong or when market uncertainty is high, but not when marketing–IT integration policy is weak or when market uncertainty is low. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications of these findings are discussed, especially on how managers can capitalize on CIO–CMO communication and VCE engagement to enhance the success of new product innovation.     

中国企业横向整合管理模式研究及其理论模型

面对经济转型期的特殊制度因素和市场因素的制约,实施横向整合战略的中国企业在管理模式选择和设计方面做出了适宜的变通。针对此过程中所面临的特殊情境和管理实践,明确了企业横向整合管理模式的权变维度,从制度基础理论、市场基础理论和资源基础理论3个角度分析了企业横向整合管理模式选择的主要影响因素,梳理了其权变维度与权变情境变量之间的逻辑关系,构建了企业横向整合管理模式的研究模型。     

Global innovation performance: Strategic challenges for multinational corporations

In the emerging knowledge economy many companies are forced to access globally dispersed technological and market knowledge to maintain their competitive advantage. A conceptual model is presented to analyze the relationship between the globalization of the innovation function and firm performance. Longitudinal data from 10 multinational companies are used to support the proposed model. The analysis concludes that the relationship between global innovation reach and firm performance is concave and time lagged. The results suggest the strategic importance of globalization decisions. The managerial implications are structured in five distinctive strategic challenges to successfully manage global innovation.     

Enhancing organisational commitment through task significance: the moderating role of openness to experience

Researchers have extensively explored the factors influencing employees’ organisational commitment. However, few studies make an explicit distinction between different commitment types when exploring its determinants, and the scholarly attention to individual differences is also limited. In this paper, we confirm that developing managerial interventions to enhance task significance can be useful to promote organisational commitment, but this relationship is contingent on the commitment type and the employees’ openness to experience. We focus on two forms of organisational commitment: affective and continuance commitment. Our study shows that task significance is a better predictor of affective commitment than continuance commitment. We also find that increasing task significance is particularly good to promote more continuance commitment among employees with low levels of openness to experience. Based on data gathered from a sample of 403 employees working in Spanish firms, we find support for these ideas and develop practical implications.     

中资银行国际化的资源驱动机制:一个跨案例比较研究

针对近些年中资银行日益活跃的FDI现象以及现有研究的不足,采用理论分析和跨案例比较相结合的研究方法,解释了中资银行国际化的驱动机制。研究发现:关系资源、国际市场声誉以及管理认知等是驱动中资银行国际化的关键资源。此外,通过对案例间差异的进一步分析。发现了驱动资源之间的互补关系,以及管理认知对驱动资源与国际化之间关系的影响:当管理者既有的认知与国际化目标不吻合时,驱动资源向国际市场的有效配置就会减少,进而降低其对国际化的驱动效应。研究结论对中资银行国际化具有现实指导意义,对今后研究其他转型经济国家或者其他行业的FDI现象也有所启示。     

Innovation development in biopharmaceutical start-up firms: An Italian case study

The aim of this paper is to analyze the business models and the strategic competences of the new Italian biopharmaceutical firms allowing them to successfully overcome the initial stages of starting up. A multiple case studies methodology was used. In particular, a thorough analysis of four Italian biopharmaceutical firms that have recently started up and shown significant innovative output was carried out. The results of this study revealed that the start-up success factors consist of competencies that are distinct and different depending on the type of business models founded: the excellence in quality, the ability to create and manage relationship networks, the technical and managerial capabilities are the strategical competences emerging from the case studies examined.