Abstract
The aim of this paper was to confirm the conceptual representation of innovation process by raising two interrelated questions: what is the impact of interactions on company innovation performance, and what is the relation between the design of innovation processes and company innovation performance? The aim was achieved through in-depth literature studies using the Salsa method and empirical study relying on the semi-structured interviews carried out with 24 respondents from Central and Eastern European companies. The paper presents a six-stage innovation process and the link between the design of the process, interactions within the process and innovation performance. The research suggested that designing the process to assure pre-preparation, reproducibility, information sharing, control together with managing outcome, resource interactions, external cooperation are essential from the innovation performance viewpoint. In most of the studied companies active innovation managing process was noted. The interviewees pointed out routines, formalised procedures, information sharing, transparency, reproducibility, and traceability as the key elements of improved innovation performance. Also, the role of resources interactions, benefit interactions and outcome interactions appearing at different stages of innovation process was discussed. The paper attempts to fulfil the research gap concerning the role of interactions and design of innovation process in increasing its efficiency.
Highlights
The importance of the management of innovation process in organizations has been a subject of many researchers, practitioners and policy-makers
The first one was formulated as: what is the impact of interactions on company innovation performance? The second was specified as: what is the relation between the design of innovation processes and company innovation performance? the research had both confirmatory and exploratory character
The key components of the design of innovation process in improving company innovation performance were indicated as pre-preparation, reproducibility, information and control
Summary
The importance of the management of innovation process in organizations has been a subject of many researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. Innovation performance depends on many structural and organisational factors and varies between different sectors and even between companies in the same sector (Tidd, Bessant, & Pavitt, 2005; Bozic & Rajh, 2016; Hilkevics & Hilkevics, 2017). Adams, Bessant, and Phelps (2006) showed that it depends on the range of activities such as idea generation, knowledge management, strategy, organisation and culture or commercialisation. Benesova et al (2018) based on young companies with high rate of growth studies in the Slovak Republic argue that management ability to optimise innovative processes, human resources and performance is considered to be of great importance. Benesova et al (2018) based on young companies with high rate of growth studies in the Slovak Republic argue that management ability to optimise innovative processes, human resources and performance is considered to be of great importance. Curado et al (2018) indicated that organisation learning capacity determines product innovation performance. Saunila (2017) points out that current knowledge of SMEs innovation performance measurement seems to be limited and suggests further qualitative studies to understand the relationship between different measures
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