Innovation in container shipping organisations: impact of intra- and inter-organisational connectedness

Abstract

This article discusses the impacts of customer involvement, supplier involvement, employee involvement and multi-functional collaboration on the innovativeness of container shipping companies. It also considers the relationship between innovativeness and its impacts on business performance. The results of the structural equation modelling analysis used to explain these relationships indicate that container shipping companies rely on internal resources for business service innovation, while neither customer nor supplier involvement have any influence on their innovativeness. This suggests further analysis is needed concerning stakeholder inputs and innovation types with respect to different business-to-business services considering that it has positive impacts on both the financial and customer service performance of container shipping companies. With reference to these findings, managers might want to consider interdependencies between different stakeholders in collaborative innovation. Involving customers by using sales or marketing professionals as mediums might yield to better results in terms of effective customer involvement.