Innovation Capability Building Research Articles

Building maritime organisational competitiveness through resource, innovation, and resilience: A resource orchestration approach

Shipping operations are increasingly challenged by disruptive events, highlighting the importance of building organisational resilience and competitiveness. To understand the deployment of key socio-technical resources to enhance competitive advantage, this study uses the resource orchestration theory to explore the effects of technological and organisational learning resources on innovation, resilience and competitiveness. The resources identified in this study include digitalisation, technology & partnership, innovation-focused human resource management, digital leadership, and organisational learning. An empirical investigation is conducted in the maritime industry. One hundred and eighty-six maritime professionals participated in an online survey. Structural equation modelling is performed to analyse the collected data. The analysis results reveal that digital and learning resources have positive influences on innovation capability. Specifically, technology collaboration & partnership have the largest impact on innovation capability, followed by digital leadership, innovation-focused human resource management, organisational learning, and digitalisation. Moreover, innovation capability both directly and indirectly positively influences completeness via organisational resilience. This study contributes theoretically by positioning the importance of structuring and bundling technological and organisation learning resources to build innovation capabilities and leveraging resources to enhance resilience and competitiveness. Moreover, this study offers managerial recommendations on how resources can be prioritised to build resilience and develop competitive advantages.

Towards innovation capability in retail services: managing the tensions of exploration and exploitation

ABSTRACT Retailing is said to be at a critical period where much higher demands are being placed on retail actors to develop their capability for explorative innovation for lasting competitive advantage. Developing innovation capabilities is a challenging pursuit, however, and is a topic that is under-researched in the retail context. This paper thus investigates tensions that emerge when retail firms pursue explorative innovation in an organisational context characterised by exploitation-oriented activity, and how these are managed through various organisational mechanisms. The findings from our multiple case study reveal how developing innovation capability in incumbent retail firms gives rise to complex tensions related to strategic intent, organisational culture and structure. These are perceived as organisational paradoxes and managed as such due to the need to balance these opposing poles, emphasising the need for balance instead of making an explicit choice. Retail incumbents establish differentiating mechanisms for innovation, complemented by various integrative mechanisms. The study shows that in order to enable explorative, radical innovation in retail firms, innovation work needs to be differentiated from that of ongoing operations, provided that integration is facilitated at operational and strategic levels. By focusing on incumbent retail firms using exploration-exploitation paradox as a theoretical lens, the study contributes with new perspectives on building innovation capability in this context. The paper gives evidence to how developing innovation capabilities lies in the management of these complex tensions as paradoxes using the combination of differentiation and integration mechanisms.

Startup engagement: a strategy framework for established companies

PurposeEstablished companies often engage with startups as a way to improve their innovation performance. While there has been extensive discussion on the reasons, modes, and expected outcomes of these initiatives, there is still a need to understand more about how corporate engagements with startups (CEwS) evolve and how they can enhance a company’s innovation capability. This study proposes a framework of engagement strategies, discussing their purposes and implications to understand the subject better.Design/methodology/approachThis study involved managers from twelve large, established companies across various sectors. The authors used a multicase approach to analyze their experiences and offer a framework for corporate-startup engagement.FindingsThe framework for corporate-startup engagement consists of four main strategies: (1) innovative improvement, (2) R&D expansion, (3) more value to corporate venture capital and (4) ecosystem articulation. The authors found that ecosystem articulation, which combines the potentials of the other three strategies, is the most sophisticated approach.Originality/valueThis study offers a systematic view of the CEwS phenomenon, identifying the various modes of engagement, the reasons for adopting each one and potential ways to advance and improve them. For managers, the study reveals the CEwS as a lever to build innovation capabilities over time.

The moderating role of technological collaboration in the relationship between absorptive capacity and servitization: an open innovation approach in high-tech industries

PurposeAbsorptive capacity, technological collaboration and servitization are analyzed to establish ways to overcome the balance between products and services in manufacturing companies. A fresh perspective is introduced by presenting a framework for innovation strategy, moving beyond product-based R&D.Design/methodology/approachThe hypotheses are tested using data on Spanish firms in the high-tech chemical and pharmaceutical industries through ordinary least squares regression analysis. The sample consists of 112 manufacturing firms included in the Spanish Survey of Business Strategies.FindingsThe results show that absorptive capacity facilitates servitization and that technological collaboration moderates the relationship between absorptive capacity and servitization. The synergies between absorptive capacity and technological collaboration for servitization are recognized from the perspective of open innovation as a way of resolving the trade-off between products and services.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should introduce more sources of collaboration by broadening the value chain perspective. Other approaches to innovation may also be considered, including relationships to process innovation.Practical implicationsThe results can provide meaningful guidance for companies to determine the key opportunities of servitization driven by absorptive capacity, and the best ways to leverage open innovation and collaboration strategies to exploit such approaches.Originality/valueThis research enriches theories on servitization, open innovation and innovative behavior. Open innovation strategy should be linked to greater servitization activity and should support an open service strategy. This approach is crucial for building innovation capabilities through technological collaboration.

Is innovation strategy a catalyst to solve social problems? The impact of R&D and non-R&D innovation strategies on the performance of social innovation-oriented firms

Innovation is essential for enterprises to discover new avenues and achieve sustainable development. The importance of research and development (R&D) and non-R&D innovation for social-innovation-oriented enterprises has been controversial, leading to a paradox in the research on these two innovation activities. To break the tension between R&D and non-R&D innovation, it is crucial for enterprises to integrate their resources, build innovation capabilities, and obtain dual performance. This study analyzes the impact of R&D and non-R&D innovation activities on the social and economic performance of enterprises guided by social innovation from 2010 to 2020. The results show that non-R&D innovation has a complementary effect on R&D innovation, which ultimately has a positive impact on both economic and social performance. Moreover, the lag effect is more significant than the current impact. The study confirms that social-innovation-oriented enterprises often face innovation resource constraints, and their choice of innovation activities can substantially influence their economic or social performance. Overall, this research provides theoretical explanations and practical insights helping social-innovation-oriented enterprises to navigate innovation paths.

Exploring the use of innovation measurement in retail organisations: a multiple case study

ABSTRACT Innovation and its management in retail organisations is an emerging field, yet the measurement of innovation in this context remains challenging and under-researched. The study investigates innovation in large Swedish retail companies, focusing on monitoring and measurement of innovation performance. Through a qualitative, multiple case study, our findings reveal that retailers are aiming to become more active innovators. They are exerting a greater control over the innovation process, implementing a range of financial and non-financial indicators that encompass inputs, outputs, and the process itself. Innovation projects serve as vehicles for experimentation and learning about how to improve the structure of innovation efforts. However, challenges still arise when strategic objectives are not aligned with performance measurements across the organisation. Nonetheless, existing performance measurement practices can support innovation capability development in retail, especially in relation to culture and competence development and utilising external knowledge for open innovation. The paper advances theory by offering insights into how retailers gain more control of innovation through measurement, contributing to the growing landscape of strategic innovation management in retail. We propose a model, informed by theoretically built framework and empirical data, to guide retail organisations in defining new measurements that promote a holistic perspective to building innovation capability.

Employment Potentials, Innovation, and R & D Expenditure in Nigeria: Evidence from Indigenous Microenterprises

This study examined employment potentials of indigenous micro-enterprises in Nigeria as an alternative approach to tackling the menace of unemployment in Nigeria. Nigeria is a country with a relatively young population, with a median age of 18 years, which is lower than the African and global averages of 20 and 31 years respectively. A youthful population suggests a strong labor force; with the labor force population of around 70 million in 2020. Providing enough productive jobs for this young demographic (aged 15-29 years) and rising labor force is a challenge; more than 30 million young Nigerians were reported to be unemployed in 2021. As a result of this rapidly growing labor force, job creation is frequently on the top burners of policymakers and governments' development agendas. The dataset employed in the study is a secondary survey data exclusively from the TETFUND Report (2020). In order to achieve our objectives, we employed ordered logit and ordered probit as well as descriptive statistics. We thus found that improved innovation capabilities of these firms were found to result in increase in their employment potentials. Also, increased investment in R&D leads to rise in employment generating potentials of these entities, and adoption of superior foreign technologies in their operations equally improves the chances of the firm to generate employment. As a result, we recommended that there is need for government to offer technical assistance to these enterprises through trainings and workshops to horn their skillsets and build innovation capabilities that result in improved employment potentials. They need to be motivated to commit a sizeable part of their lean resources into activities such as training and re-training of employees that enhance innovation capabilities and employment potentials of these entities.

Building Innovation Capability in the Moroccan High-Tech Manufacturing Industry: An Intellectual Capital Perspective

Building Innovation Capability in the Moroccan High-Tech Manufacturing Industry: An Intellectual Capital Perspective

Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, Non-Substitutable of Resources in Building Innovation Capability for Sustainable Development: Evidence from Creative Social Enterprises

Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, Non-Substitutable of Resources in Building Innovation Capability for Sustainable Development: Evidence from Creative Social Enterprises

From local modification to global innovation: How research units in emerging economies innovate for the world

More and more companies are turning to emerging markets as sources of global innovation to help transform business and society. However, building innovation capabilities in emerging markets is still elusive for most companies. To understand how some companies are successfully building these capabilities, we examined workers within R&D units in China across six foreign multinational corporations. In contrast with prior literature that emphasizes a structural view of who the workers interacted with to innovate, our inductive analysis highlights a behavioral view of how R&D unit personnel interact during the problem and solution search process. We identified two key behaviors associated with the problem and solution search: (1) observing customers in their everyday context, and (2) uncovering general knowledge principles from internal experts. Respectively, these behaviors helped R&D workers to question assumptions about existing products as they relate to customers and to apply useful principles from expert knowledge rather than copying solution templates. Our findings offer an alternative path to building global innovation capabilities in markets where structural constraints exist for the company.

Creating innovation capabilities for improving global health: Inventing technology for neglected tropical diseases in Brazil

Previous research on innovation capabilities in emerging economies shows knowledge networks tied to Western multinationals and national governments focused on economic growth. Less understood is the innovation capability building of emerging economies to achieve ‘good health’, an important Sustainable Development Goal. Here, we present a longitudinal study of a public research organization in an emerging economy and examine how it builds innovation capabilities for creating vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics for diseases primarily affecting the poor. We study FIOCRUZ in Brazil using archival, patent, and interview data about invention of technologies for neglected tropical diseases. We contribute novel insights into the evolution of knowledge networks, as national policy integrates innovation and health goals. We found significant diversification of local and foreign knowledge sources, and substantial creation of networks with public, private, and non-governmental organizations enabling collective invention. These R&D networks attract many multinationals to collaborate on socially driven innovation projects previously non-existent in their portfolios. The public research organization leads collaborations with multinationals and diverse partners, harnessing distributed international knowledge. Our results indicate emerging economies’ capabilities depend on elevating policies to increase health access for the poor to drive innovation and promoting local R&D to generate solutions to improve health.

Sustainability competencies and its link to innovation capabilities

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study individual sustainability competencies and its linkage toward building innovation capabilities. This study explores the interrelations between individual-level competencies with organizational-level capabilities.Design/methodology/approachThematic content analysis is used to analyze the qualitative interview data from 22 experts working in the sustainability departments of large corporations in India. The respondents were chief sustainability officers, sustainability managers or general managers responsible for driving sustainability in their organizations.FindingsThis study identifies individual sustainability competencies into two sets. First being cognitive competencies and the second being emotional competencies. The cognitive competencies identified are systems thinking, future orientation and perspective-taking (cognitive empathy). The affective or emotional competencies identified are connectedness to nature, sense of transcendence of time and empathic concern. The competencies enhanced innovation through the development of stakeholder capabilities and organizational learning capabilities.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides new insight regarding the link between both cognitive and emotional competencies and organizational capabilities for innovation.Practical implicationsThis study appraises the role of individual sustainability competencies on innovation. This study indicates the importance of developing sustainability competencies at the individual level to drive innovation.Originality/valueThis paper provides novel insights on sustainability competencies and its link with innovation. The conceptualization of competencies was made as cognitive and emotional skills. Furthermore, its relationship with innovation capabilities advance the understanding of the individual contribution to innovation.

Building Innovation Capability for the Sustainability of Rancabuaya Village Craft Weavers

The research studies how innovation capability can be nurtured within community of artisans through design tool development. Innovation capability has generated widespread interest both academically and practically. However previous works have mostly been performed at profit organizations with few discussed at community level, especially in artisans’ community who are struggling to create innovative product and have lost their competitiveness in the market. The research focusing on a unique case, Rancabuaya Village, Tangerang, Indonesia. The research used qualitative exploratory study design with single case study. Data collection methods used in the study were in-depth interviews, literature study and documentation. Innovation capability is key for long term sustainability and need to be nurtured in community sectors. To accelerate the innovation capability building process in informal setting, the study proposes a design tool to facilitate idea generation for new product development in community of artisans. The design tool is developed with design thinking process: empathize, define, ideation, prototyping and testing. The design tools as the study result are the bamboo and rattan idea book, a book consisting of a mood board and a compilation of different weaving patterns from each component of a weaving object. The book aims to foster the idea management and creativity within a community of artisans, two determinants that are found to be essential for building innovation capability. This research contributes on two main ways: first, it provides an understanding that nurturing innovation capability in community artisans setting necessitates strategic management initiatives such as: a product development strategy, an idea sharing system, and a collaborative culture, this has not been profoundly explored by the present literature; and second, it employs design thinking as an analytical framework that provides a human-centered approach to the process of building innovation capability and ensures that the tool developed is rooted in the needs of the artisan community.

Tapping into emerging markets: EMNEs' strategies for innovation capability building

AbstractResearch SummaryThis article explores EMNEs' innovation capability building in emerging markets. The paper provides a longitudinal account of how the Brazilian cosmetics firm Natura transitioned from scant to ample innovation resources and processes. Building on the institution‐based view and the resource‐based view, we explain how EMNEs' innovation capability building is anchored in open innovation and collaborative nonmarket strategies. The paper reveals a unique pattern of innovation capability building based on a combination of local and global open innovation processes and harnessing the country characteristics over time. It is shown how combining open innovation and collaborative nonmarket strategies can help mitigate weak formal and informal institutions in emerging markets. The study offers an integrated framework explaining innovation capability building and the effects on the institutional setting.Managerial SummaryThe increase of well‐known EMNEs has raised interest in understanding how these firms build sustainable innovation capabilities. Based on a longitudinal study of the Brazilian‐based cosmetics firm Natura, this paper shows how an open innovation strategy can be used to tap into home‐market natural resources and connect to the global setting. This innovation capability process involves traditional market‐based strategies like inter‐organizational collaborations but also nonmarket strategies, such as developing local relationships, supporting socio‐biodiversity, and contributing to local society. The findings point at the importance of developing an overall innovation strategy, directing attention to innovation processes, engaging in recursive practice in innovation projects, responding to the market and nonmarket environments, and linking the emerging market institutional setting and the global market context.

Building Innovation Capabilities on Collaboration and Market Orientation for Improving Marketing Performance of Wood Furniture Craft

This research aims to test the direct influence of market orientation and innovation capabilities collaboration, with relationship marketing orientation and excellence as mediating variables, on the marketing performance of the micro industry of wood furniture handicrafts. The data was collected using questionnaires submitted by 242 people, and the analysis was carried out using SmartPLS software. The significant impact of collaborative innovation ability and relational marketing orientation on market orientation was shown to have no effect on competitive advantage. The innovation capabilities of collaborating are known to have no significant impact on marketing performance. Competitive advantage has a relationship with marketing performance, and relational marketing orientation has a significant impact on the ability of collaborative innovation. It was also found that relationship marketing orientation has a significant effect on marketing performance. This study is related to improving the marketing performance of the micro industry of wood furniture handicrafts, which has a limited scope, so the results of this study can't be generalized. It was also difficult to determine if there was any bias from the respondents. The marketing orientation of relationships and competitive advantages have contributed significantly to marketing performance. The wood furniture handicraft micro industry must improve collaboration capabilities with dealers and customers and use this as a strategic component to improve the marketing performance of the woodcraft industry. The novelty of this research is related to the capability of collaboration innovation, which is able to improve the marketing performance of small industries.

Building innovation capabilities through human resources practices

PurposeConsidering the distressingly low rate of success in introducing radical new products, the purpose of this paper is to reinforce the importance of taking human resources beyond administrative activity leading to stronger innovation performance and the greater use of its people. In particular, this paper highlights three persistent fallacies in human resource practices: need for creativity; efficiency of bottom-up efforts; and monetary incentives for product innovations and to learn from innovative organizations about how to deal with these fallacies.Design/methodology/approachThis paper details the correlation between culture, confidence, support mechanisms through HR, and innovation by reviewing innovation cases in high-performing organizations.FindingsProblem definition, pragmatism and leadership represent critical innovation determinants. As a strategic partner HR can offer support to tackle the three described fallacies of product innovations.Originality/valueThis paper suggests a practical means for helping HR professionals to better understand how some simple organizational rules can effectively build innovation capabilities.

Introduction to a special issue on ‘Building innovation capabilities for sustainable industrialization in Africa: status and prospects’

ABSTRACT The special issue of Innovation and Development on ‘Building innovation capabilities for sustainable industrialization in Africa … ’, presents a series of articles on building local technological capabilities and their implications for formulating and implementing policies in Africa’s industrialization agenda. Despite the high potential of Africa in advancing its industrialization mainly in resource-intensive sectors, progress remains low. Empirical evidence on the reasons for this problem is inadequate and patchy. Articles in this special issue address the gaps by delving into empirical issues ranging from sector-specific innovation capabilities to national systems of innovation. Based on first-hand data collected from South Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Rwanda, the articles unravelled key structural and systemic problems behind Africa’s dismal progress in developing technological and industrial capabilities. Together, these articles advance our understanding of how to improve the effectiveness of innovations, industrial policies, and coordination for inclusive and sustainable industrialization.

Did transformational, transactional leadership style and organizational learning influence innovation capabilities of school teachers during covid-19 pandemic?

This study aims to analyze and calculate the influence of transformational, transactional leadership and organizational learning on the innovation capabilities of teachers in Islamic schools in Jakarta during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research uses quantitative methods and data collection was carried out by simple random sampling electronically using an online questionnaire to the population of teachers in Islamic schools in Jakarta at the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the questionnaire were returned and valid as many as 140 respondents. Data processing using SEM method with SmartPLS 3.0 software. The results of this study indicate that transformational leadership has a positive and significant effect on the innovation capabilities of teachers. Transactional leadership has a positive and significant effect on teachers' innovation abilities. The learning organization has a positive and significant effect on the innovation ability of teachers. Novelty of this new research proposes a model for building innovation capabilities among teachers through transformational and transactional leadership and organizational learning. This research can be used as a reference for future research and can be applied in other places.

Does Knowledge Sharing Increase Innovation Capability? Answer from Indonesian Company

Nowadays, there are a lot of innovations being discussed, conducted in a seminar, written, and explained in a small to a large classroom and also a meeting room. Innovation is related with the essentials of surviving in the middle of industrial era 4.0. Innovation is unable to be separated with the personal knowledge, in which both of them need a good and continuous management. This research aimed to measure the tacit influence and explicit knowledge towards innovation capability as well as answering research questions regarding the impact of knowledge sharing to improve innovation capability in the manufacturing industry. Data collection is done through a simple random sampling technique given to 610 employees in packaging industries in Indonesia. The questionnaire results that were given back and were valid have a number of 393 samples. Data processing was used SEM method with SmartPLS 3.0 software. The result of this research concluded that explicit and tacit knowledge have positive impact towards innovation capability. This new research proposed a model for building innovation capability in packaging industries through tacit and explicit knowledge transfer. This research could pave the way to improve readiness index to packaging industries in facing the era of industrial revolution 4.0.

Harnessing innovation policy for industrial decarbonization: Capabilities and manufacturing in the wind and solar power sectors of China and India

This study examines how technological characteristics influence the impacts of policy on innovation with respect to wind turbine and solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing industries in China and India. The analysis draws on patent applications and government policies in the aforementioned industries from 2000–2017. Wind power and solar PV patents in China have increased rapidly since the mid-2000s, whereas patent numbers in India have remained low. Between 2000–2017, wind turbine was a design-intensive and cost-competitive technology. Consequently, building innovation capabilities in the wind turbine industry required technology-push policies to support research and development and tacit knowledge transfer, and demand-pull policies to create a sizeable, predictable, and performance-oriented domestic market. Solar PV was considered to be a manufacturing-intensive and more expensive technology. Thus, the PV manufacturing industry benefited from technology-push policies that promoted export-oriented manufacturing. While the domestic market played a supplementary role, demand-pull policies that focused on guaranteed investment returns (feed-in tariffs) helped to improve the innovation performance in solar PV. China balanced the implementation of technology-push and demand-pull policies that met these technology-specific requirements. On the contrary, India’s inadequate technology-push policies led to a lag in innovation in wind power and solar PV. Thus, policymakers need to strike a balance between technology-push and demand-pull policies, particularly by integrating innovation policies into a policy mix, and focus on technological characteristics as they determine the nature of the technological learning required to develop innovation capabilities.