Continuous Innovation Process Research Articles

Research on Energy-Saving Efficiency and Influencing Factors of Green and Low-Carbon Enterprises Based on Three-Stage DEA and Tobit Models

Implementing the “dual-carbon” objective has profoundly affected China’s businesses, prompting a continuous process of transformation and innovation. Green, low-carbon transformation, upgrading, and sustainable development have emerged as the means to achieve high-quality company growth, with firms playing a crucial role in achieving the “dual-carbon” target. By prioritizing firms’ green, low-carbon, and sustainable growth, not only can their economic efficiency be improved, but it also serves as a vital measure to advance high-quality development. To achieve this objective, it is crucial to analyze the elements that impact the energy-saving effectiveness of businesses to develop optimization tactics that can enhance their competitiveness. This study combines the three-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Tobit model to assess the energy-saving efficiency of green and low-carbon firms from 2018 to 2022. The analysis focuses on selected samples from various areas and industries. The study investigates the relationship between energy-saving effectiveness and different regional and industrial parameters, considering the distinct attributes of each firm and the key elements that influence its energy-saving performance. The findings indicate that green, low-carbon firms typically demonstrate suboptimal energy-saving efficiency but have considerable room for improvement. Upon considering environmental concerns, it becomes clear that the primary limitation on energy-saving performance is the lower efficiency of the enterprise scale. The energy-saving efficiency of green, low-carbon firms varies significantly across different regions and industries. On average, northern firms in the energy-saving and carbon reduction industry, as well as the resource recycling industry, have higher energy-saving efficiency compared to southern enterprises. In contrast, the environmental protection industry in southern firms demonstrates a better average energy-saving efficiency compared to their northern counterparts. Employee quality, policy support, and automation are key factors that greatly enhance the energy-saving efficiency of firms in both regions. Enterprise size has a beneficial impact on the energy-saving efficiency of southern firms but a negative impact on northern enterprises. Moreover, the industry and financial structures exert a detrimental influence on enhancing the energy-saving efficiency of green and low-carbon firms. Thus, in order to improve the energy-saving effectiveness of businesses, it is essential to utilize the elements that have a positive influence on energy-saving performance and reduce the impact of those that have negative impacts. This strategy will enhance the energy-saving efficiency of businesses and promote the development of an environmentally friendly and low-carbon society.

Evaluation of dynamic technological innovation capability in high-tech enterprises based on pythagorean fuzzy LBWA and MULTIMOORA

With the rapid development of science and technology, high-tech enterprises need to constantly carry out technological innovation to adapt to the changes in the external environment, and maintain their competitive advantages. However, the current research on technological innovation of high-tech enterprises is carried out from a static perspective, which is difficult to understand the dynamic evolution process of continuous technological innovation of high-tech enterprises in a turbulent environment. Therefore, this paper studies high-tech enterprises’ dynamic technological innovation ability from a dynamic perspective, through literature reading and the investigation of the technological innovation status of high-tech enterprises, the evaluation index system of 12 indicators under three dimensions is constructed. The multi-objective optimization by ratio analysis plus full multiplicative form (MULTIMOORA) –Level-based weight assessment (LBWA) comprehensive evaluation model based on Pythagorean fuzzy number (PFN) is proposed to evaluate the dynamic technological innovation ability of high-tech enterprises. Finally, the accuracy and reliability of the model are verified by case analysis. The result of this study shows that the ability to identify new technological knowledge and information outside the enterprise, the ability to obtain technological innovation resources, and the ability to strengthen the input of innovation resources are important factors for the dynamic technological innovation capability of enterprises, so enterprises should pay more attention from these aspects. This study provides a new comprehensive evaluation model and evaluation results can help the decision-makers find their strengths and weaknesses in time and improve them, to promote the sustainable development of high-tech enterprises.

Issues of Application of Digital Twin Technologies in the Organization and Management of the Activities of Innovative Enterprises

The article is devoted to the application of digital twin technologies in the activities of innovative enterprises. The relevance of applying high technologies in all areas is justified. Features of the application of 4.0 industrial platform elements in the activity of innovative enterprises are explained. The issues of effective management of the activities of innovative enterprises where high technologies are produced have been investigated. The directions for improving the ICT infrastructure for the innovative digitization of the economy were studied. In the realization of innovation potential, the features of science and technology-intensive product production were given, and the global market of high-tech products was analyzed. The issues of innovative digital development of industrial-economic systems were investigated. Emphasis was placed on the fundamentals of the development model of industrial-economic systems based on innovative digitization processes. The stages of the formation of technical and technological paradigms for the development of industrial-economic systems are given. The application features of digital twin technologies in digital transformation processes have been explained. Attention is paid to the importance of the application of digital twin technology in increasing the efficiency of innovation activity. The process of managing innovative industrial-economic systems based on digital twin technology has been investigated. The analysis of the process of using digital twins in the management of innovative industrial-economic systems was carried out. The concept of creating a digital twin, its development, and the content of continuous innovation processes have been investigated. The importance of development of the expanded architectural system of the digital twin of the innovative production enterprise, as well as the conceptual model of the digital plant, was noted. Recommendations were given on the application of digital twin technologies in the activities of innovative enterprises.

INVESTMENT POLICY OF A METALLURGICAL COMPANY IN THE CONTEXT OF STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE ECONOMY

In the context of unprecedented geopolitical sanctions against our state, the actualization of strategic goals and objectives for the restructuring of all economic relationships comes to the fore in the development of economic entities. This, first of all, refers to the investment policy of the backbone links of the domestic economy, including ferrous metallurgy enterprises. The article analyzes the economic essence of investment policy and its constituent elements. The authors propose to consider the investment policy as a key element of the economic strategy of metallurgical companies, focused on the continuous process of innovation. With the help of the extended marketing tool PESTEL-analysis, a study of the parameters of the external investment environment of PJSC «Severstal» was conducted. This made it possible to more accurately identify the existing limitations of the effective implementation of the company's investment policy. Using the SWOT analysis method made it possible to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the company's investment environment and determine their relationship. The obtained results of the analysis formed the basis of four protostrategies, which are characterized as preliminary versions of the existing strategic goals of PJSC «Severstal» and take into account the identified advantages and disadvantages of the investment environment. The proposed protostrategies are based on taking into account the influence of a combination of factors from the external and internal environment to minimize the negative effects of the identified threats. Currently, the metallurgical industry should develop due to the timely updating of investment policy in accordance with the strategy of the companies, which will not reduce investment activity despite the problems in attracting investment and restrictions on equipment imports.

Materials are social constructs, but they also have agency

A puzzling matter about materials, particularly structural materials, is that they exhibit both a rather extraordinary extension in time, bridging over many historical and prehistorical ages, and a dynamic dimension, changing as they are in time to the point that materials may not be easily recognized as similar today as thousands of years ago. To understand this dichotomy, it is necessary to reach beyond materials science and STEM disciplines and to collect concepts and methods from SSH. Materials and energy are at the core of the physical world in which society functions: they provide the structure of the artifacts that we need, along with the ability to make and use them. They do not exist in an absolute, Aristotelian world, but are invented along historical time, by people to meet their needs, hic et nunc. Materials are social constructs, as is the “theory” (technology, science in modern language) that gives us the keys for making them. As society changes historically, people’s needs evolve and “new” materials are created on the shoulders of older ones, in a kind of evolutionary process. This is the view of social constructivism. This evolutionary metaphor is a first explanation of the continuity between, say, iron from a Roman bloomery and steel, as a contemporary commercial product. This has been formulated as the Social Cycle of Materials (SCM) by sociologists of Knowledge and Innovation, as a process of continuous innovation in which materials are socially constructed over and over again, a process often called “progress”. The continuity from old to new materials needs to be explained by some other model, however, to be fully understood: indeed, why is iron enduring so much, when it might have been displaced by another material at each evolutionary step and it didn’t. The explanation we propose is to accept that “materials have agency”, i.e. that they themselves are the actors of their own perenniality. This refers to another model, the Actor Network Theory (ANT) of Latour et al., which analyzes how change is pulled by a combined network of actors, that include people, organizations, non-human living entities and inanimate things as well.

Development of performance indicators for sustainable enterprises

The sustainable development of industrial enterprises presupposes a qualitatively new investment level aimed at the transition to the cleanest, least resourceintensive and most waste-free production possible through a continuous process of innovation and investment projects implementation. At the same time, the current conditions for real investment are generally associated with increasing uncertainty (in particular, due to globalisation and progressive technical development), and therefore are accompanied by a high risk level, which certainly affects the ongoing projects results. The purpose of this study is to develop indicators for assessing the enterprises effectiveness, taking into account the changing external environment, the processes of transition to sustainable development of the economy. The methods of analysis, synthesis and generalisation have been applyed. The results can serve as a justification for the widely used today in practice and in economic science, but insufficiently substantiated position that in market conditions the economic efficiency of an income-generating object can be assessed by its market value. The asset owner is always interested in increasing the market value, therefore, it is generally accepted that an increase in the market value over a certain period is also an indicator of the economic efficiency of the object use by the owner, and vice versa, a decrease in the market value of a facility indicates the presence of factors impeding effective operations.

Fostering Innovative SMEs in a Developing Country: The ALI Program Experience

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an essential economic role through income and employment generation as well as reducing inequalities. In this regard, continuous innovation is a pillar for guaranteeing SMEs’ survival worldwide. In Brazil, the ALI Program (Portuguese acronym for Local Innovation Agent) trains groups of SMEs to implement a continuous innovation process based on agile methodologies. This paper applied focus group methodology to investigate whether, after participating in the program, SMEs practice some innovation processes in their business and the difficulties perceived by entrepreneurs in incorporating innovation processes into their ventures. Based on the extant literature and on the focus group, it was observed that SMEs see innovation as a risk, fear innovating because of tradition, family, and/or generational context, and do not see innovation as a process suitable to be systematized with agile tools. In addition, factors such as the age of the SMEs’ leaders, the age of the SMEs, the gender of the SMEs’ leaders, and the nature of the SMEs (family business or not) may affect their openness to innovation. Recommendations are stated for practitioners (such as ALIs) to improve their training quality, policymakers to improve and create similar programs, and researchers interested in future research directions.

How Nonlinear Science Leads to Continuous Innovation in an Academic and Productive High-Tech Community

In this contribution, the fundamental importance that Nonlinear Science gave and is giving to a community of researchers from both university and private companies in terms of innovation and advanced knowledge will be explained. In the literature it is not often discussed the development and the history of researcher groups and the decisive role that some events positively address the scientific community and the development of the territory. Today, after more decades, the authors remark the impact that Nonlinear Science had on their community, leading to a continuous innovation process in academic research groups and in high technology companies. The genesis of this process is reported and detailed in the paper.

Action Implementation and Performance Assessment with Continuous Improvement and Innovation Process in Sharptooth Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Small Businesses in South Africa

Continuous Improvement and Innovation (CI&I) is a business management strategy that concentrates thinking and action on the things that makes the real difference. Performance assessment is the most significant step in CI&I, as it analyses and reports on outcomes – it reveals which goals have been achieved and which are still to be achieved. Emerging aquaculture farmers are not searching for handouts; they want to compete on a commercial scale. Aquaculture can only attract investors if it becomes profitable and viable. As part of the research reported here, role-players in sharptooth catfish businesses attended focus group discussions, and were equipped to implement actions and assess their own performance. The performance assessment process was followed to monitor the action that had been taken and to report results. Mechanisms such as action monitoring and support; observation; the formulation of questions and ideas; identifying opportunities; performance assessment; and achievement stacker were applied to assess the achieved outcomes. The study led to the identification of markets and potential customers; signed orders; access to processing plants; the printing of business material (e.g., stickers); training; and the completion of new ponds. Questionnaires were sent out and completed. An experiment with earthworms and tilapia fry used as catfish feed was completed successfully. In conclusion, the outcomes of this study have revealed a need for further research that would assist small businesses in the catfish industry in growing and becoming profitable.

Impact of CO2 emissions on GDP per capita, FDI, forest area and government spending on education in Indonesia 1991-2020: The GMM methods

The economy is considered an efficient way to materialize, but the relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth has not been systematically explained. In this study, we will build a model that formalizes the interaction between CO2 emissions and GDP per Capita, FDI, Forest Area and Government Spending on Education used to revisit the trade-off between economic growth and the environment or a green economy. The model captures an essential feature of the continuous innovation process, which is path dependencies. First, this research will create a data analysis using the System GMM Estimation. Second, we will evaluate GDP per Capita, FDI, Forest Area and Government Spending on Education spending on green growth. The results of this study are expected to be a government policy to increase green economic growth.

Digital portfolio: a tool for learning physics

The digital portfolio is a student-student, student-teacher interaction tool where formative assessment plays an important role in the learning of physics, with which the progress of students is monitored, the entire training process is evaluated and supported of the student, according to the planning and contents of the physics course. Therefore, this article describes the use of the digital portfolio as a tool for learning in students of a teacher training program in natural sciences and environmental education at a public university in Colombia. It is a quantitative study with a non-experimental design. The research subjects were students taking the subject of basic physics. The results indicate that students perceive the portfolio as a tool that allows monitoring and reflection of their learning and favor the integration of what they have learned, which supports the use of this tool, in accordance with the results of evaluation of the students’ formative process. However, the use of the portfolio requires a continuous process of change and innovation, monitoring and permanent feedback between the teacher and the students.

Social Entrepreneurship Model Based on Quadruple Helix Collaboration: Economic Empowerment in Disabilities Community

Social entrepreneurship is a process of continuous innovation in classifying different social problems to overcome social problems and meet social needs. The social entrepreneurship approach is very promising in creating new opportunities for individuals with disabilities in the emerging industry. The conceptual contribution to developing a theory that explains the relationship between constructions has been less underlined. Thus, this study aims to identify different models and how they work and propose a conceptual model of social entrepreneurship to empower the economy in disability communities. This study uses descriptive analysis by conducting various literature syntheses to understand the contribution of entrepreneurship in social development. Based on discussion and analysis, new model propositions consider the value of co-creation stakeholders and supporting ecosystems such as academics, government, profit, and non-profit organizations and communities (quadruple helix concept). Overall, this study provides a conceptual framework that enables an understanding of the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship growth and its role in empowering community disabilities. Also, this research also tries to facilitate the stakeholders involved to contribute to the empowerment of community disabilities.

Toward a Business Resilience Framework for Startups

Covid-19 has had a significant impact on the disruption of the global economic sector, including for startup businesses. This encourages entrepreneurs to carry out a continuous innovation process to become more ambidextrous and continue to innovate in an effort to futureproof their business. The paper aims to provide a business resilience framework by exploring capability (innovation ambidexterity, dynamic capability, and technology capability), behavior (agile leadership), and knowledge (knowledge stock) in startup businesses. This study uses a literature review synthesis to gain a greater understanding of startup resilience and its implementation. This study also uses a case study approach in building a framework by obtaining data from semi-structured interviews with three startups owners in Indonesia. This preliminary research has identified four propositions that will be used to develop questionnaires and data collection instruments. Thus, this study provides new insights on how startups can overcome contradictory pressures for business resilience in anticipating, dealing with, and emerging from business turbulence due to the Covid-19 pandemic by considering the factors proposed in this study. The implications and recommendations of this study are also discussed in detail.

Підготовка учителя до використання інноваційних технологій в освітньому процесі закладу середньої освіти

In the conditions of innovative development of education of Ukraine, the question of innovative readiness of teachers for pedagogical activity became aggravated. The analysis of the state of preparation of teachers for innovative activity allowed to conclude that modern realities require the application of innovative approaches, both to teacher training and to the essence of pedagogical activity, which manifests itself in different directions: internal and external diversification of secondary and high education. Accordingly, the requirements for education are changing - it is becoming more flexible, accessible and applicable, focusing on how to teach to think, create, analyze, generate new ideas and find solutions. It is obvious that the transition to a new model of education eliminates the passive role of participants in the educational process. The rapid pace of development of modern society, dynamism and continuous innovation processes lead to the fact that a high level of knowledge of the subject and mastery of its teaching methods can no longer fully characterize the current level of professional training of future teachers. Understanding these processes has led to the need to explore the main ways of training future teachers of a qualitatively new type: teachers-creators, teachers-innovators, teachers-researchers, ready for creative pedagogical and technological activities, independent scientific research; capable of interprofessional communication, transdisciplinary synthesis of knowledge, combination of basic research with practical problem solving, self-development and self-improvement, real and virtual entry into professional work. Innovative pedagogical activity of teachers was considere.d in two aspects: the improvement of educational process, through development and realization of new educational programs, the development of new directions of activity and ideas, creation and implementation of innovative projects, the implementation of pedagogical innovations.

Identification of Enhancing Factors for Increasing The Power Competitiveness of Small Medium Industry of Batik in Sidoarjo District With Integration of Green Innovation Approach and ISM

This research was conducted at the Small and Medium Industry (IKM) of batik in the district of Sidoarjo, which is one of 15 districts in East Java who chose One Village One Product (OVOP) as strategies increase the power of competitiveness. There are many problems with SME batik ranging from resources, production processes to product sales, which affect the chosen competitiveness strategy. The respondents were entrepreneurs, the office of SMEs, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the sub-district, and the village. This research aims to identify the inhibiting factors of increasing competitiveness in the small and medium batik industry in the district of Sidoarjo. The data collection process uses a questionnaire compiled with the Green Innovation approach with five main variables, Green Resource, Green Process, Green Product, Green Innovation, and Competitive Advantage. Green Innovation is a process of continuous innovation that considers the integration of the environment, finance, social systems in the company from the stage of ideas through research and development and commercialization that affect new products, services, technology, business, and organizational models. Determination of alternatives and strategy analysis using the Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) approach is a method that uses the opinions of experts on the questionnaire that has been distributed. Based on the analysis results, 14 inhibiting factors and six priority levels were obtained, with the highest value of the power driver in the training and outreach factor (10) as the main inhibiting factor in increasing competitiveness. Therefore, it requires the involvement of all parties related to the batik SMEs to improve their competitiveness and the strategies they choose.

ECONOMIC PROCESSES OF INNOVATION DEVELOPMENT BASED ON THE NATIONAL TECHNOLOGICAL INITIATIVE

In the article the author views economic and managerial issues of development of innovative activities of industrial enterprises based on the implementation of economic processes of the National technological initiative; presents the parameters of NTI implementation; shows that the effectiveness of innovative development of industry determines the creation of future markets, allowing enterprises to shape the image of the future of industry, to carry out a continuous and complex innovation process, the production of innovations, their commercialization and market demand. The author substantiates the relevance of implementing the processes of innovative development of the industrial complex of the region on the basis of NTI, which consists in the fact that the creation of innovations and their commercialization allowed enterprises to have a leading position among similar manufacturers, creating products with a high level of knowledge intensity, thereby forming new technological markets. NTI stimulates the development of new markets, determining the forecast of economic development. Innovative development of the region's industrial complex on the basis of NTI involves the creation of an integration grouping of the industrial sector on the basis of the innovation ecosystem. The most significant result of the research is the development of a model and an algorithm for evaluating the innovative ecosystem of the industrial complex of the region based on NTI. The model reflects that the development of STI projects is carried out through the innovation support infrastructure. In order to implement innovative STI projects, a regional ecosystem of innovation support is being created on the basis of industrial clusters. The main importance in the ecosystem is the network connections of participants in innovative processes and their technological capabilities (points of technological growth). In the article it is shown that the strategy for implementing STI to create new markets and technologies is based on the innovative activity of industrial complexes. In the model of the proposed ecosystem of innovative support for the industrial complex of the region based on NTI, an algorithm for evaluating the effectiveness of its functioning has been developed.

Architectural and City-Planning Aspects of Innovation Hubs Formation in the Context of Creative Urban Regeneration (On the Case of Ukrainian Cities)

Cities have become the key arenas of territorial competitiveness in the context of creative economy development and continuous innovation processes in all the spheres of social life. Functioning as a community of knowledge, innovation, creativity and learning, modern cities are becoming more dynamic, complex, diverse and open. In this context, new urban strategies and trends need to be taken into account. The concepts of “innovation hub” and “creative city” as a result of the process of creative urban regeneration are covered in the paper. The article states that innovative creative spaces provide unique opportunities to accelerate the generation and diffusion of innovation, especially through effective communication channels and a positive innovation ecosystem. The article covers the topic of architectural and functional aspects and design tendencies of innovative hubs in the structure of a creative city. The research material includes the architectural analysis of existing innovation hubs in Ukraine.

Clusterization of the Economic Space as a Factor in the Growth of the National Economy Competitiveness

The paper is dedicated to the study of the features of cluster development in Russia. The methodological base of the study includes a set of concepts and theories of special organization of the economy, cluster development concept, theories of network economy and open innovations. We have proved that economy clusterization is a mechanism of efficient productional, science and technological and innovative cooperation of real economy sector enterprises in conditions of strategical tasks of its competitiveness increase. The analysis of the stages of cluster development allowed us to ascertain the initial level of the process being considered under the progressive dynamics of the main functional indicators and increase of business motivation to the economic interaction. There were singled out the main factors of cooperation inside clusters for Russian conditions. We have presented a review of the key directions and events of national economy clusterization. Decentralization of cluster development management contributes to the strengthening of regional economic systems and active advancement of regional cluster initiatives. The creation of digital intracluster interaction platforms in the regions of presence is proposed. It has been noted that to stimulate the process of continuous innovation in clusters of state subsidies allocated to date, it is not enough. The practical significance of the results lies in the possibility of their use in the development of development strategies and programs at the regional and national levels.

CURRENT STATE OF INNOVATIVE ACTIVITY OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES IN UKRAINE

The development of human civilization is characterized by the evolutionary nature of transformations. The driving force behind this process has always been innovation. They are the main tool for coping with crisis phenomena, the emergence of which signals the need for change. Transformational processes of the world economy have an innovative nature: with global innovations the continuity of technological processes is involved, which causes fundamental changes in the system of socio-economic relations. The problem of development of innovation activity is especially relevant for Ukraine in the context of its integration into the world economy and the course of socio-economic transformation processes in the state. The formation of an effective innovative economy is the main means of ensuring balanced socio-economic development and the acquisition of appropriate positions. Research on innovation and innovation is developing dynamically. Foreign and domestic scientists and practitioners believe that one of the main factors of economic development is innovation and innovation. Innovation is recognized as a leading factor in socio-economic growth. Thanks to innovations, science has become a major productive force, and knowledge is a major asset. The development of individual settlements, cities, countries and whole regions of the world is directly related to certain types of activities that are decisive at one or another of its stages. The experience of the developed countries of the world shows that the development and stimulation of innovation activity is a guarantee of economic growth of both the individual enterprise and the economy of the country as a whole. Continuous innovation process is a condition for ensuring high competitiveness of both individual companies and national economies. Increasing the innovation activity of enterprises and intensifying the production of innovative products today is a condition of social and economic well-being in each state. Innovation activity is a key factor in increasing the efficiency of production, one of the components of the successful operation of the enterprise, therefore the intensification of the dynamics of economic growth of Ukraine’s economy implies the innovation of industrial enterprises. Consequently, the article thoroughly explored the peculiarities of development and financing of innovation activity in Ukraine, and suggested ways of activating innovation activity in the regions of Ukraine and directions of improving its financial support. Key words: innovation, innovation activity, intensification, state innovation policy.

Research-Based Learning in Initial Teacher Education in Catalonia

The teaching profession is undergoing significant changes, some of which are imposed by the new paradigm of education. This new context marks the shift from the teachers’ position as ‘knowledge users’ towards the more complex position of ‘knowledge creators’. In this new professional culture adapted to a changing society, teaching as a profession is understood as undergoing a continuous transformation and innovation process, while the professionals in the educational field appear to be research users and research promoters able to think thoroughly about their own professional needs and the new topics arising in their field. There is, therefore, a shift from a passive to an active position, enabling educators to become aware of how complex their field is and to understand that it cannot be acknowledged and managed from outside the social, cultural, historical, philosophical, and psychological contexts shaping it. Taking into consideration the characteristics of the new professional culture, this paper is focused on the development of research skills as one of the teachers’ core skills. The study is framed at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where the Student Perception Research Integration Questionnaire (SPRIQ) of Visser-Wijnveen et al. (2015) was applied to measure students’ perception of research integration in university courses (n=113). Additionally, analysis of the documents on the syllabus of each course of the BA in Primary Education programme was applied to review the research component of initial teacher education curricula. Findings from students’ responses show that they are more consumers than producers of research. We emphasise the importance of student teachers being able to both consume as well as produce research in order to develop professionally.