Administrative Innovation Research Articles

Do Small Firms Possess Innovative Behavior? Evidence from Malaysia

The aim of this article is to describe patterns of innovative behaviors among small firms in Malaysia. The significant of this study lies in its attempt to differentiate innovation practices by small firms from the general innovation prescriptions which dominated by large firms. The underlying theoretical arguments for this study are based on Greiner Growth Model and Readiness Theory. Greiner model explains the role of innovation as a source of competitive advantage that support small firms’ growth, while Readiness Theory and slack resources concept explain about concentration of innovation types in small firms. This study employs case-study which involved in-depth structured interviews with eight small firms’ owners. The respondents are classified into two groups based on its’ owner social background. The first group consists of small firms owned by the ordinary social background owners and the second group consists of small firms owned by poor owners selected from a special economic empowerment program conducted by a government agency. The findings indicate that most small firms performed the administrative, incremental and product innovations. The administrative innovation is applied as perseverance reactions to market turbulent and dynamic. Nevertheless, small firms which are owned by poor owners have yet to adopt extensive innovative behavior due to their tight financial constraint. The originality of this study lies in its approach as well as the simultaneous emphasis on owners’ demographic characteristic effect, namely the social background, on innovative practices among particular small firms.

‘Organizational learning culture’: an ingenious device for promoting firm's innovativeness

The present study focuses on the relationship between organizational learning culture (OLC) and firm's innovativeness. The area of innovation as well as organizational culture is crucial for organizations and for entrepreneurs because both provide the basis for sustainable competitive advantage and improved firm performance. The notion of OLC offers a set of customs and principles that enhances imperativeness of an organization. Information acquisition, information interpretation, and behavioral and cognitive changes (BCC) were used as elements of the organizational learning process. Constructs comprising innovativeness are innovative culture, and technical and administrative innovation (innovations). Data were collected from 50 randomly selected Pakistani organizations. The results show significant and positive relationships among all hypothesized variables except for between BCC and innovations.

Rethinking the Compstat process to enhance problem-solving responses: insights from a randomized field experiment

Compstat is an important administrative innovation in policing that provides a much-needed mechanism for holding mid-level managers accountable for controlling crime rates. Research evidence suggests that Compstat is more likely to generate reactive crime control responses rather than more creative problem-solving responses. A randomized field experiment in Lowell, Massachusetts found that ‘problem-solving meetings’ produced more innovative responses to crime problems and generated stronger crime control gains when compared to the Compstat process. Analysis of qualitative data collected to monitor the implementation of the experiment revealed that important differences in meeting dynamics were associated with observed differences and suggests promising avenues to improve Compstat processes.

중소기업의 혁신활동이 기업 성과에 미치는 효과: 관리혁신과 기술혁신의 공헌도 비교

This paper reviewed the relationship between innovation(organization innovation, personnel innovation, product innovation, process innovation) and firm performance in small business. Based on the responses from 218 firms, the results of multiple regression analysis showed that personnel innovation, product innovation, and process innovation effect positively on all firm performance(sales, profit, market share, customer satisfaction), and organization innovation effects positively only on market share and customer satisfaction. The results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that technical innovation(product innovation, process innovation) effects more positively on sales, profit and customer satisfaction than administrative innovation(organization innovation, personnel innovation).

Hospital innovation and its impact on customer-perceived quality of care: a process-based evaluation approach

As competition in Taiwan's healthcare sector has increasingly become severe, hospital innovation has become well recognised as an important resource for gaining competitive advantage. This study proposed a new research model for investigating the impact of hospital innovation on customer-perceived quality of care. Hospital innovation includes both medical and administrative innovation. The measures of quality of care are defined as a process-based evaluation concept with three components: structure, process, and outcome of care. Specifically, this research intends to explore two important issues. First, we explore the impact of hospital innovation on quality of care. Next, we examine the process-based evaluation concept for its practical validity. A sample survey was conducted for collecting data from the customers of larger hospitals. The structural equation model was used to examine the data. The results showed hospital innovation indicating a great predictive power in explaining perceived quality of care. Specifically, the process of care was found to be an important mediator for creating the ultimate outcome of care from the initial structure of care.

Public Employee Acceptance of New Technological Processes: The case of an internal call centre

The present work explores employee acceptance of process innovation in a public administration from a complementary three-fold theoretical perspective, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Cognitive Model of Satisfaction (CMS) and the Satisfaction-loyalty Model (SLM). The proposed model integrates these approaches, and considers the moderating effect of employees' perceived experience with the new process. Although findings support that behavioural intentions are determined by perceived usefulness, satisfaction and attitude towards the new technology, we find that as employees' perceived experience increases, use intention becomes a routine, and the evaluation of the new process proves irrelevant in terms of usefulness or quality.

Knowledge management, innovativeness, and organizational performance: Evidence from Serbia

The importance of knowledge management and its contribution to organizational performance and innovativeness has been the subject of many studies and is increasingly gaining recognition worldwide. Our study analyses the impact of knowledge management on perceived organizational performance and innovativeness in the context of the Serbian economy. The results of the empirical research on leading Serbian firms demonstrates the direct and positive effect of knowledge management. The regression results show that knowledge management generally has a positive effect on organizational performance. Also, the results show that knowledge management is positively related to the different dimensions of organizational innovation (process innovation and administrative innovation). The mediating effects of process innovation and administrative innovation on the relationship between knowledge management and organizational performance are only partially supported.

Explorando Distintos Tipos de Innovación en Micro y Pequeñas Empresas Peruanas

This article explores the innovation phenomenon, from a multidimensional perspective, in two groups of micro and small enterprises of traditional sectors. The analysis considers demand-driven innovations such as product, marketing and market innovations as well as innovations intended to operational efficiency which include administrative and production process innovations. Data were collected from 50 businesses. In terms of demand-driven innovations, the results show that the group of furniture manufacturers mainly focuses on product innovations relegating marketing and market innovations. In contrast, the group of Pisco producers has greater diversification among these three types of innovation, and at the same time, higher concentration on each of them. Regarding efficiency-oriented innovations, both groups showed similar behavior with more introductions of production process innovations.

Organizational Predictors of Early Adopters of Innovation

This research explores how complex adaptive organizations adopt innovation. Emphasis was placed on diffusion of innovation to develop an applied research framework for assessing the attributes of organizations that accelerate the early adoption of an administrative innovation. Adopter categories were utilized to segregate all hospitals that achieved magnet status from 1994 to 2010 into four adopter categories based on year of recognition. This research focused on organizational variables that influence the rate of adoption of the magnet hospital concept. Secondary data from the American Hospital Association and the American Nurses Credentialing Center were used to conduct the analysis. Organizational complexity, size, availability of slack resources, higher staffing ratios, and not-for-profit status were the factors associated with early innovation adoption among hospitals. Suggestions for future research are provided.

AFTER 1848: THE EUROPEAN REVOLUTION IN GOVERNMENT

ABSTRACTThis paper revisits the question of the impact of the 1848 revolutions on governance and administration across the European states. Few historians would contend that the immediate post-revolutionary years saw a ‘return’ to pre-1848 conditions, but the transitions of the 1850s are usually presented as episodes within a narrative that is deemed to be specific to the respective nation-state. This paper argues that the 1850s saw a profound transformation in political and administrative practices across the continent, encompassing the emergence of new centrist political coalitions with a distinctively post-revolutionary mode of politics characterised by a technocratic vision of progress, the absorption into government of civil-society-based bodies of expertise, and changes in public information management. In short, it proposes that we need to move beyond the restrictive interpretation implied by the tenacious rubric ‘decade of reaction’ towards recognising that the 1850s were – after the Napoleonic period – the second high-water-mark in nineteenth-century political and administrative innovation across the continent. The paper argues, moreover, that these transitions took place on an authentically European basis and that they only come fully into focus when we survey the spectrum of governmental experiences across the European states. The paper closes with some reflections on the broader implications of this reappraisal for our understanding of European history in the middle and later decades of the nineteenth century.

Organizational learning, innovation, and performance in KIBS

AbstractThere is widespread agreement that organizational learning (OL) and firms' innovative culture (innovativeness) positively influence organizational innovation (OI), which ultimately fosters long-term competitiveness. However, there is more limited empirical evidence on the role of OL as a forerunner of innovativeness, or on the combined effects of OL and innovativeness on OI and how performance is ultimately improved. In this research, OI is evaluated as a firm's actual ability to regularly adopt and implement more technical and administrative innovations with a greater degree of incorporated novelty relative to their main competitors. The aim is to approach innovation from a comprehensive viewpoint and to assess the attainment of superior competitive advantage in the innovation field. Effects on performance are evaluated at both the organizational level and in the commercialization of new services by means of two different conceptual model. These models are tested on a sample of 246 knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) located in Spain. We used polychoric correlations (Lee, Poon, & Bentler, 1995), together with a robust methodological approach, to analyze categorical variables in structural equation systems in EQS. The empirical results show that OL is an important antecedent for innovativeness, and that the latter plays a key role in the adoption of more technical and administrative innovations with a greater degree of incorporated novelty. Organizational learning exerts a direct effect on administrative innovation efforts although, contrary to previous research, the mediating role of innovativeness is required for the former to affect technical innovation. The research also supports the influence of OI on the attainment of competitive advantages at the business level and in the performance of new services. The greater ability of KIBS to innovate thus constitutes an invaluable resource to foster customer performance and profitability at the business level and in the commercialization of new service offerings.

Organizational learning, innovation, and performance in KIBS

AbstractThere is widespread agreement that organizational learning (OL) and firms' innovative culture (innovativeness) positively influence organizational innovation (OI), which ultimately fosters long-term competitiveness. However, there is more limited empirical evidence on the role of OL as a forerunner of innovativeness, or on the combined effects of OL and innovativeness on OI and how performance is ultimately improved. In this research, OI is evaluated as a firm's actual ability to regularly adopt and implement more technical and administrative innovations with a greater degree of incorporated novelty relative to their main competitors. The aim is to approach innovation from a comprehensive viewpoint and to assess the attainment of superior competitive advantage in the innovation field. Effects on performance are evaluated at both the organizational level and in the commercialization of new services by means of two different conceptual model. These models are tested on a sample of 246 knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) located in Spain. We used polychoric correlations (Lee, Poon, & Bentler, 1995), together with a robust methodological approach, to analyze categorical variables in structural equation systems in EQS. The empirical results show that OL is an important antecedent for innovativeness, and that the latter plays a key role in the adoption of more technical and administrative innovations with a greater degree of incorporated novelty. Organizational learning exerts a direct effect on administrative innovation efforts although, contrary to previous research, the mediating role of innovativeness is required for the former to affect technical innovation. The research also supports the influence of OI on the attainment of competitive advantages at the business level and in the performance of new services. The greater ability of KIBS to innovate thus constitutes an invaluable resource to foster customer performance and profitability at the business level and in the commercialization of new service offerings.

Harvesting organizational knowledge and innovation practices

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of organizational knowledge and innovation practices on the outcomes of operations strategy.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a survey‐based method to test a theoretically grounded set of hypotheses using regression techniques.FindingsThe results indicate that cost, quality, delivery and flexibility outcomes are influenced by specific organizational knowledge and innovation practices. Also, the findings show that innovation performance mediate the relationship between knowledge practices and operations strategy.Practical implicationsAcquiring knowledge is not enough. Managers need to facilitate dynamics of knowledge sharing and utilization to cultivate a better level of technical and administrative innovation performance, which in turn will result in favourable operations strategy outcomes.Originality/valueThe paper is one of the first studies that highlight knowledge and innovation practices in relation to operations strategy in one study applied to a developing country context.

Institutional Influences on Information Systems Security Innovations

This research investigates information security management as an administrative innovation. Although a number of institutional theories deal with information systems (IS) innovation in organizations, most of these institutional-centered frameworks overlook external economic efficiency and internal organizational capability in the presence of pressures of institutional conformity. Using Korea as the institutional setting, our research model posits that economic-based consideration will moderate the institutional conformity pressure on information security adoption while organization capability will influence the institutional confirmation of information security assimilation. The model is empirically tested using two-stage survey data from a field study of 140 organizations in Korea. The results indicate that in addition to institutional influences, our six proposed economic-based and organizational capability moderating variables all have significant influences on the degree of the adoption and assimilation of information security management. We conclude with implications for research in the area of organizational theory and the information security management literature, and for practices regarding how managers can factor into their information security planning the key implementation variables discovered in this study. The robust setting of the study in Korean firms allows us to generalize the theory to a new context and across cultures.

Governance and Institutional Forces' Impact on Innovation Adoption: The Case of Food-Safety

This case study explores governance and institutional forces impacting the adoption timing and intensity of administrative innovations. Drawing on a sample of 171 corporate-owned and licensed retai...

Relationship between quality management practices and innovation

The purpose of this study is to examine the associations among different quality management (QM) practices and investigate which QM practices directly or indirectly relate to five types of innovation: radical product, radical process, incremental product, incremental process, and administrative innovation. We test the proposed framework and hypotheses using empirical data from ISO 9001 certified manufacturing and service firms. The results show that a set of QM practices through process management has a positive relationship with all of these five types of innovation. It was found that process management directly and positively relates to incremental, radical, and administrative innovation. Organizational capability to manage processes may play a vital role in identifying routines, establishing a learning base, and supporting innovative activities. The findings also reveal that the value of an individual QM practice is tied to other QM practices. Therefore, highlighting just one or a few QM practices or techniques may not result in creative problem solving and innovation.

Linking operations performance to knowledge management capability: the mediating role of innovation performance

The ability of an organisation to efficiently and effectively operate in a competitive environment hinges to a large extent on its knowledge capability and innovation performance. Thus, the main goal of our study is to examine this link by means of regression analysis in a sample of 124 firms. The results indicate that knowledge management capability is positively related to innovation performance which, in turn, has a positive effect on operations performance. The findings provide evidence that innovation performance plays a mediating role between knowledge management capability and operations performance. Therefore, managers need to facilitate dynamics of knowledge acquisition, sharing and application, and then utilise it to cultivate a better level of technical and administrative innovation performance, which in turn will result in favourable operations performance. The article concludes with implications and directions for future research.

François de Callières and the Marquis de Torcy’s “Political Academy”: New Evidence

In March 1712, Jean Baptiste de Colbert, Marquis de Torcy, minister and secretary of state for foreign affairs, (1) founded a special institution--the Academie Politique--for the training of future diplomats. A gifted negotiator himself, Torcy was anxious to truly professionalize the king's service in diplomacy at a time when under pressure both at home and abroad, (partly due to the Spanish Succession crisis), the government of France, with unprecedented demands placed upon its national (including diplomatic) resources, was becoming increasingly bureaucratized. (2) In addition, the exactions of war and its aftermath had revealed glaring deficiencies in France's diplomatic preparedness--not least the uneven capacities of her diplomatic agents--all too often novice court favourites, their appointment determined by patronage rather than professional expertise. (3) Historically, Torcy's initiative was not wholly unprecedented, for Phillip II of Spain had earlier attempted to establish a similar training school, as had the papacy with the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, founded in Rome in 1701. Also, earlier in France, Richelieu had established a royal military academy that served as a model for the numerous privately organized academies d'equitation favoured by young aristocrats, while Louvois had attempted to form instructional regiments where cadets would acquire professional training as well as liberal arts instruction. (4) Somewhat later, in 1747, Frederick II set up a temporary training center to prepare, in this case, non-nobles for lower level diplomatic posts and, later still, an academy was set up at Strasbourg, directed by Carl Adam Koch, which numbered among its members Talleyrand, Metternich, and Benjamin Constant. (5) Even so, Torcy's vision of a professional school for diplomats was novel; indeed, the very concept of diplomacy as a distinct profession in its own right proved an unorthodox departure from traditional assumptions. (6) We now perceive an emerging sense of professionalism--a response in tuna to the realization that diplomacy had become a permanent and vital activity in the life of the state. The same intensity of interstate coexistence that fueled dynastic conflicts also fostered the refinement of collaborative devices on a continental scale: an increase in the number of permanently resident ambassadors and the spread, if not growing effectiveness, of the bureaucratic agencies directing and coordinating their work. Accordingly, diplomacy had become a permanent activity in the life of the state. Like the military, clergy, and judiciary, diplomats gradually acquired the character of professionals with their own ceremonial rules of conduct, methods, and corporate identity. As the diplomat became professional, diplomacy experienced more continuing development as an altogether distinctive enterprise and subject of study. French diplomacy, in particular, came to acquire a reputation for excellence--characterized by negotiating flair, a unique style, resourcefulness, and administrative innovation--providing a compelling model for other states. To augment these advantages, Torcy envisaged a permanent repository or depot for the vast amount of official documents and records of past events that regular diplomacy generated; documents to be centralized, classified and bound becoming a forum for historical research readily available in the Louvre for close analysis by prospective academy recruits. (7) Beyond these resources, central to the Political Academy's function as a teaching institution, Torcy's goal was perfecting the stature of French diplomacy. He also called upon planning consultants to assist in devising a program of study based on their respective areas of interest, expertise, and first-hand experience. Inevitably, he enlisted members of his own secretariat at Versailles: men such as the Abbe Jean Baptiste Dubos; (8) the Abbe Joachim Legrand, who was familiar with John Locke's educational ideas; (9) and Jean Yves de St. …

Administrative Justice and Innovation: Beyond the Adversarial/Inquisitorial Dichotomy

The purpose of this paper is to explore the various mechanisms and processes through which tribunals can assume a greater role in hearings than they have in the traditional adversarial process. As the papers in this collection by Robin Creyke and Robert Thomas illustrate, the idea that tribunals should be understood in terms of their similarity to (or deviation from) a court hearing, in which the judge is a neutral and passive arbiter, is giving way to a new paradigm in the Commonwealth in which an accessible administrative hearing featuring active adjudicators is a norm, not the exception. At the same time, any administrative proceeding which is not adversarial is too often simply lumped together as – inquisitorial.‖ An inquisitorial proceeding is generally one where the decision-maker engages in fact finding. We suggest most administrative proceedings may be located somewhere between the model of the courtroom and the model of the inquiry and that these hybrids and halfway houses merit more attention.

La configuración del saber administrativo público. Un análisis desde el rol de las doctrinas en la argumentación administrativa

El artículo está estructurado en tres apartados. En el primero, se muestra el papel de las doctrinas administrativas en la configuración del saber administrativo; En el segundo, se enuncian los procesos de innovación administrativa (construcción de cadenas de argumentos), y en el tercer apartado, se explicitan las formas de saber administrativo, que surgen con ocasión de la formalización e institucionalización de los argumentos administrativos.