Internationalization, innovation and entrepreneurship: business models for new technology-based firms

New technology-based firms, particularly those that develop their business around a new technological platform, are likely to be impacted by globalization, in terms of both pace of innovation and pressure of competition. For these firms, strategic decisions and growth processes are characterized by a deep inter-relationship amongst the processes of internationalization, innovation and entrepreneurship; processes which have tended to be examined independently in distinct bodies of literature. In practice strategic decisions concern each of these processes and address issues such as organizational boundaries, location of the operational activities, what activities to focus on and selection of value partners. The business model by which firms operate needs also to accommodate the spatial dimensions indicated by globalization; and the emergence of global technology markets. Little is known to date about the extent to which business models accommodate or are adapted to internationalization, innovation and entrepreneurship. This paper presents a review of the business model literature from which a generic business model framework is derived, identifying and introducing the main elements of these processes as the firms?? focus, modus and locus. This contribution makes a clear distinction between the business model and the strategy concepts and highlights the relevance of location decisions??not considered by extant business model literature to date. While our discussion draws on the high technology new venture as our primary example, we believe our business model conceptualization has general applicability.     

基于演化博弈的绿色技术创新环境政策选择研究：政府行为VS.公众参与

在中国“双碳”目标背景下,如何通过有效的环境政策驱动绿色技术创新以缓解节能减排压力是亟需解决的重要现实问题。本文基于多主体关系分析、演化博弈理论、情景模拟仿真方法,构建政府和企业、公众和企业的两方演化博弈模型以及政府、公众和企业的三方演化博弈模型,并在此基础上,进行不同情景模式和不同执行力度下的政策模拟仿真,综合探究政府、公众、企业在绿色技术创新中的行为策略选择和系统演化轨迹。研究发现：(1)两方演化博弈模型下,企业绿色技术创新行为与其成本收益密切相关,但有效的公众参与为企业在成本小于收益情况下进行绿色技术创新行为提供了可能,即公众参与是企业改变短视行为、进行前瞻性创新的关键因素;(2)三方演化博弈模型下,政府和公众的稳态条件与单独考虑政府和单独考虑公众的稳态条件相同;但企业的稳态条件则需考虑公众举报对企业声誉带来的影响,其是企业进行绿色技术创新行为决策的重要参考因素;(3)情景模拟仿真结果表明,随着环保宣传、技术创新激励、环境管制、公众关注、公众举报强度的增加,企业绿色技术创新行为的演化速度不断加快,即不同类型的政府行为与公众参与均会对绿色技术创新有显著促进作用。总结而言,在政府行为外生引导的基础上,应着重激发公众参与的重要调节效应,从而以企业利润为抓手引导绿色技术创新行为进入内生演化路径。     

Does applying design thinking result in better new product concepts than a traditional innovation approach? An experimental comparison study

Both practitioners and researchers have developed various approaches to support product development teams in their creative process of generating new and valuable product concepts. A key concern of all innovation approaches is to translate the needs, wants and aspirations of users and customers into product and service solutions that match the underlying needs. Many existing innovation approaches focus predominantly on the translation process itself by providing support for aggregating data and making trade-off decisions between user preferences traceable. For that reason, we label these approaches user preference-driven. In contrast, over the last two decades, design thinking (DT) has emerged as an approach that assumes knowledge of user needs information to be fuzzy and unreliable; it addresses this challenge by focusing on developing user experiences through empathic in-depth user research and iterative prototyping. Consequently, we label approaches such as DT user experience-driven. Although DT has generated particular interest among both practitioners and educators, the academic literature investigating the usefulness of DT remains scarce. To help close this gap, we study the performance implications of applying DT processes and tools in terms of new product concept creativity relative to applying a traditional innovation approach. Using an experimental design and collecting quantitative data from 53 teams and their projects, we find that teams applying DT outperform the control group that applies an alternative innovation approach, namely quality function deployment (QFD), in terms of the feasibility, relevance and specificity of concepts, but not the novelty. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice.     

Coping with Diversity in Alliances for Innovation: The Role of Relational Social Capital and Knowledge Codifiability

Alliances are increasingly considered a key element for innovation, especially in knowledge‐intensive firms. While this is true, the mere membership to alliances does not explain innovation performance, and thus the alliance's characteristics that determine high performance must be examined. This research address the question of how the diversity of partners in a certain alliance for innovation affects innovation performance, and how this influence can be moderated by certain characteristics, such as the relational dimension of social capital and the type of knowledge shared among partners. The empirical analysis of a sample of 90 biotech companies shows that there is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between alliance partner diversity and innovation performance and confirms the positive moderating effects of relational social capital and knowledge codifiability. These findings contribute to the current research on alliances for innovation by providing empirical evidence on why some alliances perform better than others. Also, the results suggest that the study of alliance partner diversity, as a determinant of alliance performance, should not be addressed in isolation.     

考虑内生溢出与R&D投入的创新模式选择

为获取竞争优势,企业在资源和能力有限的条件下需要对创新模式作出合理的选择。本文运用演化博弈理论对企业的创新模式选择进行了分析,在此基础上探讨了内生溢出、R&D投入对创新模式选择的影响。结果表明,内生溢出与R&D投入对创新模式选择的影响效应是相反的:对方企业内生溢出的增大会导致本企业选择颠覆性创新模式的可能性增大,选择渐进性创新模式的可能性减小;而R&D投入的增大会导致企业选择渐进性创新模式的可能性增大,选择颠覆性创新模式的可能性减小。     

面向开放式团队知识创新的动态标签关联网研究

知识创新是企业提高核心竞争力最重要的手段之一。当今世界经济一体化,全球创新方向正在向开放式创新转变。开放式创新环境下,跨组织、跨地域的开放式创新团队成为知识创新的主要载体。社会化标签能够使团队成员按照自己对知识的认知方式进行知识交互与协作,有利于促进开放式团队知识创新。但是由于标签标注的自由性,如何建立标签之间的关联关系以更有效地支持开放式环境中基于标签的知识管理与知识创新成为该领域的关键议题。本文研究并提出了面向开放式团队知识创新的动态标签关联网方法,并对该方法进行了应用研究,通过比较实验组和对照组的应用结果,可以发现面向开放式团队知识创新的动态标签关联网方法能够动态地展示标签之间的关联关系,从而支持开放式环境中的团队知识创新。     

The multilevel approach to organizational issues of the firm—A critical review

This paper critically reviews the progress and state of multilevel decomposition models for the firm and its management. The presentation introduces and summarizes the fundamental ideas and also gives concise statements concerning advanced developments. The pricing approach, and the budgeting approaches are the two approaches considered. For managerial planning, initial starting solutions, iteration processes, and stopping rules are important algorithmic and organizational considerations. Further, in decentralized organizations, the motivations for cheating in planning, incentives for innovation, and reactions to uncertainty require attention. For these approaches one concludes that further theoretical work designed especially for managerial relevance needs to be developed. Despite these deficiencies, the practitioner need not wait for all the answers as the currently employed methods of pricing and budgeting for planning suffer the same deficiencies, and yet lack the power to choose better plans as the multilevel decomposition approach offers.     

Learning from suppliers: a framework for operation innovation in small and medium sized enterprises

Abstract

Inter-firm learning though partnering with suppliers is often considered as a relatively cheap way to develop the knowledge necessary for innovating operations procedures. SMEs may benefit, especially from the inflow of information, as they face multiple restrictions on innovating manufacturing or delivery processes due to their small size and limited resources. Based on the two studies – a logistic regression analysis and a configuration analysis – evidence was found that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) need to integrate knowledge sources in distinct knowledge configurations. In particular, it is shown that an operation process innovation (OPI) strategy for SME is incomplete if it does not find a way to combine internal and external knowledge to innovate operation procedures. The main contribution of this paper is to uncover the precise composition of effective knowledge configurations, which leads to 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.     

The Management of Innovation in Project-Based Firms

How relevant are traditional innovation ideas for project-based firms? This paper asks if project-based firms provide a context supportive of innovation or indeed if they view it as useful. Based on research in firms from a variety of sectors, including telecommunications, information systems, computers, financial services and engineering, procurement and construction, the paper reveals that the very project control systems around which the firms operate serve to stifle innovation. Project-based firms—regardless of sector—prioritise efficient management of projects, tolerating the use of slack resources only when absolutely necessary. Finally innovation is not seen as universally useful, but primarily as costly and dangerous. It concludes that the space at which ‘innovation’ and ‘projects’ comes together is still dominated by ideas on how to correctly manage projects, rather than how to effectively manage innovation. Innovation of ideas on managing innovation projects may be merited.     

直接融资结构对经济增长的非线性影响

伴随着中国经济的高速发展,实体经济结构与金融结构难以匹配的问题日益严重,大量中小企业日益增长的融资需求无法得到满足。股权融资与债券融资结构优化问题成为企业融资决策的普遍难题。本文致力于研究直接融资结构即股权融资和债券融资的比例对于中国经济增长的影响。首先,本文通过内生增长理论模型研究了直接融资结构与经济增长之间的动态关系。然后,基于2002-2019年间中国的相关数据,对技术创新变量进行中介效应检验,验证直接融资结构对于经济增长的作用路径。研究发现：直接融资结构对中国经济增长的影响呈现非线性效应;直接融资结构是通过促进技术创新来进一步促进经济增长;目前,中国仍处于需要提高股权融资占比来促进经济快速增长的阶段。     

主动性-被动性员工创新行为:基于分布式领导的作用机制研究

员工创新是企业创新驱动的重要推动力和提升其核心竞争力的关键。当前中国组织情境中，存在着两种不同性质的员工创新行为：主动性员工创新行为和被动性员工创新行为，两者所产生的创新绩效存在巨大差异。然而，现有文献对被动性员工创新行为研究不足，理论研究已经无法适应实践的需要，因此，有必要将两种不同性质的员工创新行为放在一个框架下进行研究，以丰富创新行为的研究内涵。本文以新兴的领导发展取向——分布式领导为切入点，引入组织支持感作为中介变量，上下级关系和价值观匹配作为调节变量，构建了分布式领导对主动性-被动性员工创新行为的作用模型。为了验证该模型，以408名知识型员工为研究对象，通过多元回归分析的方法进行检验，研究结果发现：分布式领导对主动性员工创新行为具有正向影响，对被动性员工创新行为具有负向影响；组织支持感在分布式领导与主动性-被动性员工创新行为之间起中介作用；上下级关系和价值观匹配正向调节分布式领导与组织支持感之间的关系，并进一步验证了有调节的中介作用。同时，上下级关系和价值观匹配交互调节了分布式领导与组织支持感之间的关系。本文研究为解构中国创新管理实践中纷杂多样的创新行为提供了理论诠释，丰富了中国情境下的创新管理理论。     

Towards an adaptive framework of low-end innovation capability – A systematic review and multiple case study analysis

Low-end innovations, defined as new products or services that expand a market by addressing consumers with a low willingness or ability to pay, have a dual purpose – they can be a prerequisite for firm survival and growth and a major driver of societal change. To overcome the scattered nature of existing low-end innovation research and its lack of an explicit capability conceptualization, which limits academia's ability to move extant knowledge about the domain forward and limits firms' abilities to reliably produce successful low-end innovations, we present the results of a systematic review of the literature (99 journal articles) and a multiple case study analysis (7 cases). The resulting framework helps understand what constitutes a low-end innovation capability. The findings show that firms need a specific and interdependent capability set consisting of internal dimensions (low-end culture and commitment, integrated cost-reducing innovation, high volume scaling), interface dimensions (distant customer needs acquisition, iteration, total solution development) and external dimensions (access creation, low-end support networking) to cope with low-end markets' unique characteristics. The study also identifies market- and firm-specific contingencies for each capability dimension and analyzes the relationship between low-end and “regular” innovation capability.     

Framing the multifaceted nature of design thinking in addressing different innovation purposes

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.     

执着人生写就中国特色创新管理理论——我国著名管理学家许庆瑞教授学术思想回顾

许庆瑞教授是杰出的技术创新管理研究专家和创新管理教育家,是我国技术创新管理理论的重要开创者和奠基人,也是我国管理科学领域重要开拓者.本文较系统地回顾许庆瑞教授在创新管理领域的理论贡献和学术成就,把他的创新学术思想分为创新理论倡导、二次创新理论、组合创新理论和全面创新管理理论四个阶段,并回顾这四个阶段的主要学术观点和学术成就,以及他在推进我国技术创新工程方面的重要贡献,旨在为我国创新管理领域的深入研究,为构筑起具有中国特色的创新理论提供参照和启迪.     

基于企业生命周期的组织创新要素与技术创新要素协同模式研究

为解决我国企业技术创新高投入低产出的问题,本文提出了同时实施与技术创新具有互补性的组织创新的必要性。以组织创新与技术创新内部复杂相关关系作为研究对象,深入分析了不同企业生命周期阶段组织创新与技术创新协同的不同导向关系。构建企业出生、成长、成熟与蜕变阶段的组织创新要素与技术创新要素协同模型,并应用129家企业的问卷调研数据对理论模型进行验证。研究将有助于管理者深入理解企业不同生命阶段的创新行为,并据此科学地实施组织创新与技术创新来延长企业的生命周期。     

The integration of TQM and technology/R&D management in determining quality and innovation performance

This paper presents an empirical study which examines the co-alignment between Total Quality Management (TQM) and technology/research and development (R&D) management in predicting organizational performance in terms of quality and innovation. This study improves our understanding of the relationship between TQM and innovation based on the following two major issues. First, this study contributes to the understanding of the co-alignment between TQM and technology management along with R&D management by bridging the gap between the two areas which are often addressed in a separate fashion. Second, this study also examines the impact of the integration between TQM and technology/R&D on quality and innovation performance which have been considered as the primary sources of a competitive advantage. The empirical data was drawn from 194 Australian organizations and analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. The findings indicate that TQM shows a strong predictive power against quality performance but no significant relationship against innovation performance. On the other hand, technology and R&D management shows a significant relationship with quality performance but at a lower level than that of TQM, and shows much stronger relationship with innovation performance. In addition, there is strong and positive correlation between TQM and technology/R&D management. The major implication of this study is that technology/R&D management is an appropriate resource to be used in harmony with TQM to enhance organizational performance, particularly innovation.     

Using Cognitive Mapping in Management Research: Decisions about Technical Innovation

Case studies of firms attempting to adopt a particular type of technological innovation have demonstrated that the process of technological innovation may be mediated by decision-makers' access to knowledge and by their cognitions—reflected in belief systems. This paper highlights the importance of cognitions in decisions about technological innovation. However, cognitive processes have been under emphasized in empirical work on technological innovation and part of the problem may have been lack of availability of research tools and techniques with which to explore cognitions. Cognitive mapping methodologies are reviewed in terms of their potential to fill this gap in the research into technological innovation. The paper discusses these methodologies, evaluates their limitations and argues that a distinction should be made between cognitive maps and the output of mapping techniques. This paper concludes that cognitive mapping may provide a useful addition to existing management research tools provided researchers are clear about what is revealed by the particular methodology used.     

Was ist interkulturelles Coaching? 20 Jahre und (k)ein bisschen Klarheit

Looking at the articles and books published in German and English it becomes obvious that intercultural coaching has become a field of expertise just as leadership or conflict coaching. However, the developments in the scholarly debate about intercultural and cross-cultural communication have not expanded into coaching. To avoid constrictions coaching needs to be combined systematically with a dynamic and cohesive notion of culture. Inspired by the theories of transformative learning and the sociology of knowledge three methodological meta-perspectives are introduced to reflect and use cultures in coaching. A practical coaching example illustrates how these culture reflexive perspectives can be handled. Lastly, coaching itself needs to be considered as a culture bound format.     

The evolution of intellectual property strategy in innovation ecosystems: Uncovering complementary and substitute appropriability regimes

In this article, we attempt to extend and nuance the debate on intellectual property (IP) strategy, appropriation, and open innovation in dynamic and systemic innovation contexts. We present the case of four generations of mobile telecommunications systems (covering the period 1980–2015), and describe and analyze the co-evolution of strategic IP management and innovation ecosystems. Throughout this development, technologies and technological relationships were governed with different and shifting degrees of formality. Simultaneously, firms differentiated technology accessibility across actors and technologies to benefit from openness and appropriation of innovation. Our analysis shows that the discussion of competitiveness and appropriability needs to be expanded from the focal appropriability regime and complementary assets to the larger context of the innovation ecosystem and its cooperative and competitive actor relations, with dispersed complementary and substitute assets and technologies. Consequently, the shaping of complementary and substitute appropriability regimes is central when strategizing in dynamic and systemic innovation contexts. This holds important implications for the management of open innovation, innovation ecosystems, platforms, and coopetition.