Development Of Radical Innovations Research Articles

The effects of the functional and geographical breadth of collaborations on radical innovation performance: the moderating role of firm size

PurposeDue to the constantly increasing competitiveness along with the complexity of knowledge, firms perceive collaboration as a key strategy that preserves firms' radical innovation performance. In this context, this paper aims to examine how firms’ partners’ diversity in open innovation activities influences the development of radical innovations, critical for social development. In particular, this study analyzes how the functional and geographical breadth of the firm’s collaboration portfolio affects its radical innovation performance. Furthermore, it also explores the role of firm size as a moderator in the relationships proposed.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs panel data analysis, using a sample of 4,677 Spanish firms, with data sourced from the PITEC database.FindingsThe results of this study show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the functional and the geographical breadth of collaborations and the firms’ radical innovation performance. Moreover, this study finds partial support for the moderating role of firm size, in the sense that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large firms vary in their optimal number of diversity of partners.Originality/valueThis research provides a better understanding on how partners’ functional and geographical diversity, along with organizational characteristics such as firm size, affect how firms benefit from collaboration for innovation. This study shows that both SMEs and large firms experience diminishing returns when their collaboration networks become overly diverse in pursuit of radical innovation, due to increased costs. However, in SMEs, the turning point occurs at a later stage, consistent with the idea that small firms need broader functional networks to access complementary and novel resources they usually lack.

Opportunity enhancing human resource practices and radical innovation: The mediating role of exploration

Aim/purpose – This study evaluates the influence of opportunity-enhancing human resource practices on radical innovation and examines the mediating role of exploration capability in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses were formulated to determine the rela- tionship between opportunity-enhancing human resource practices and radical innova- tion, as well as the mediating role that exploration capability plays in this relationship. These were tested in 168 Colombian companies from the telecommunications and chem- ical-pharmaceutical sectors using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) via the Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique. Findings – The study indicates that opportunity-enhancing human resource practices positively and significantly influence radical innovation. In addition, this relationship is mediated by exploration capability. Research implications/limitations – Organizations should implement opportunity- -enhancing human resource practices to support radical innovation development. These practices provide employees with opportunities to explore relevant knowledge and tech- nologies necessary for radical innovation. Originality/value/contribution – Identifying and testing a specific group of human resource practices that facilitate radical innovation is one of the most significant gaps in the scientific literature on the relationship between human resource practices and innova- tion. According to this article, opportunity-enhancing human resource practices facilitate radical innovation in organizations. Furthermore, previous research has not examined the relationship between opportunity-enhancing human resource practices, exploration capa- bility, and radical innovation. Keywords: exploration capability, radical innovation, opportunity-enhancing HR prac- tices, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). JEL Classification: O3, M1.

Use of Enabling Levers and Constraining Levers to Radical Innovation: Intervention of Knowledge Sharing and Technological Turbulence

Purpose: This study investigates how the absorptive management control system affects in the development of radical innovation. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of using different types of management control (enabling levers and constraining levers) on radical innovation, which is mediated by knowledge sharing and moderated by technological turbulence.
 
 Methods: This study uses a methodology partial least squares structural equation modeling and qualitative comparative analysis have been applied to a sample of 253 Indonesian startups. 
 
 Results and Conclusion: Enabling levers and constraining levers have an influence in generating the necessary knowledge sharing for a company to transfer information within, which affects the production of radical innovation, meaning innovation that is in line with market development and demand. Technological turbulence, as a moderator, has a relationship between knowledge sharing and radical innovation.
 
 Implication of research: The results can be useful for managers of startups in the traction stage, as the research highlights different management controls and possible combinations that can be used to drive radical innovation. Additionally, the research highlights the role of knowledge sharing in promoting radical innovation, especially in the context of technological turbulence.

Do open innovation practices in firms promote sustainability?

AbstractInnovative technologies hold the promise of a sustainable future. There is tremendous need for innovations that not only create new technologies, but also solve grand challenges this planet faces. The urgent demand for technologies spilling over sustainable values requires innovation that is open and collaborative. However, uncertainty remains whether open innovation actually promotes sustainability. We thus examine a novel perspective on the relationship between open innovation and sustainable value creation at a firm level. We ask whether inbound innovation practices such as university–industry collaboration and intellectual property in‐licensing in alignment with firm internal R&D foster sustainability.By applying a multilinear regression model on a sample of Danish firms, we found a positive effect on sustainability when firms innovate based on in‐license IP from other firms. But we did not find any correlation between university–industry collaboration and sustainability; however, it turned into a significant negative moderation effect when the firm size was added. Therefore, we conclude that smaller firms are more prompt to develop sustainable technologies, and university entrepreneurship could be a very important impetus for sustainable innovations. We also proved that firm internal R&D activities and development of radical innovations are significant predictors for sustainability. Thus, we conclude that inbound open innovation practices only partly contribute to sustainable value creation. Therefore, we suggest that combination of internal R&D with IP in‐licensing and streaming for radical innovation, whether internally developed or in‐licensed, should become embedded in the firms'' efforts for sustainability.

Strategic orientations and radical innovation in Chinese SMEs: The role of network ties

The primary purpose of this article is to examine how entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation affect radical innovation and assess how such effects are conditional on two types of network ties (i.e., social network ties and business network ties). A survey of 171 small and medium firms in China shows that both entrepreneurial and market orientation facilitates the development of radical innovation. Further, both social ties and business ties enhance the effect of strategic factors on radical innovation.

Geographic search, potential absorptive capacity and radical innovation performance: the moderating role of collaborative network

PurposeA firm's geographic boundaries represent an important demarcation line when searching for new knowledge. Prior research on geographic search has generated conflicting results concerning its influence on firm innovation outcomes. The purpose of this study is to fill the gap by examining how and under which conditions geographic search affects firm radical innovation performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study hypothesizes a positive association between a firm's geographic search and radical innovation performance, which is mediated by potential absorptive capacity (PAC). It further proposes that the influence of geographic search on PAC will be moderated by a firm's collaborative network. Drawing on a random sample of 286 Chinese manufacturing firms, the theoretical model is tested.FindingsThe study's results show a positive relationship between geographic search and radical innovation performance, which is partially mediated by PAC. Moreover, attributes of collaborative networks (i.e. diverse location of and strong relational ties with partners) are observed to enhance the positive effect of geographic search on PAC.Originality/valueThis paper advances the understanding of how and when firms can better capture the benefits of geographic search in the development of radical innovation.

Towards an ambidextrous innovation management maturity model

Digtalization is leading to wide-ranging changes for the economy and is considered as one of the main drivers of innovation. Ever-shorter innovation cycles, high volatility and increased cost pressure are just some of the effects that companies have to face as a result of digitalization. In order to remain competitive in the long term, companies not only have to continuously develop existing products and services, but also exploit the innovation potential of new technologies. This poses new challenges for innovation management, since the company must work on the development of radical or even disruptive innovations in addition to the popular development of incremental innovations. The simultaneous promotion of incremental and radical innovations is also known as ambidexterity. The development of incremental innovations has been established for years in most companies. However, many companies do not have the required know-how about the development of radical innovations and the realization of ambidexterity. One important step on the way to an ambidextrous innovation management is the analysis of the initial situation in the company. Often there is uncertainty about which areas and tasks have to be considered and should be designed in the sense of ambidexterity. Therefore, this paper develops a maturity model for an ambidextrous innovation management. For this purpose, a systematic literature analysis of existing maturity models in innovation management will be conducted and its understanding of innovation will be compared. Since most maturity models do not explicitly differentiate between radical innovations or primarily consider incremental innovations, requirements for the innovation management of radical innovations and ambidexterity were derived in the course of a further systematic literature analysis. Based on this database, a maturity model for an ambidextrous innovation management could be derived, which is subdivided into 26 tasks with 5 different levels each.

THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR OF PROJECT MANAGER IN MANAGING THE FUZZY FRONT END IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF RADICAL AND INCREMENTAL INNOVATION

Existing theories of organisational behaviour have addressed the relationship between the role of leadership behaviour of project manager and outcomes of subordinates in developing new products (e.g., improving innovation speed and new product performance). However, only a small number of researchers have investigated the impact of leadership behaviour on the fuzzy front end. Specifically, the role of leadership behaviour in reducing uncertainty in the fuzzy front end for each innovation type has been largely overlooked. Apart from employing the path-goal theory and using survey research, this research collects data from the food & beverage, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries in Thailand ([Formula: see text]) and analyses the data with structural equation modeling. Our results can contribute how the leadership behaviour of project manager impacts on development of each type of product innovation. The findings reveal that the directive path-goal behaviour of project managers helps to reduce uncertainty in the fuzzy front end during incremental innovation development. In contrast, achievement-oriented behaviour of project managers helps to reduce uncertainty in the fuzzy front end during radical innovation development. Additionally, reducing uncertainty in the fuzzy front end can enhance the new product performance of these two types of innovation.

Innovative business development: identifying and supporting future radical innovators

As the corporate environment becomes more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, companies are challenged to simultaneously adapt to multiple scenarios, develop radical innovations and destroy past successes. This flexible, i.e. agile and user-oriented, exploration must be ensured by exploiting already established efficiencies ("ambidextry"). However, most German SMEs do not engage in both radical and evolutionary innovations. Therefore, they tend to be disrupted. By investigating existing models regarding vuca-resilience and the development of radical innovations it was found that no practical guideline exists that provides established companies with VUCA-foresight in order to collaborate with radical innovators and thus achieve ambidextry. In order to close that gap, experts of five German companies were interviewed regarding their company’s innovation behaviour. Based on the interviews as well as scientific approaches regarding VUCA-resilience and the development of radical innovations a ten-step guideline has been derived. The success of the model has been proofed by three German SMEs that initially pushed little or no radical innovation and subsequently even founded their own company builders. Since this paper only shows the ideal way for established companies to achieve ambidextry with the help of radical innovators, further research is needed to provide solutions for non-ideal cases. Additional validation can be achieved in which the model is not only validated by German SMEs, but also by companies of other sizes and countries.

Inter-partner control, trust, and radical innovation of IJVs in China: A contingent governance perspective

International joint ventures (IJVs) in emerging markets need to develop radical innovation to compete successfully in the rapidly changing business landscapes there. Taking a contingent governance perspective, this study examines how formal and social governance mechanisms, namely inter-partner control and inter-partner trust, affect radical innovation development in IJVs through knowledge acquisition and integration, and how emerging market institutional governance structures moderate the effectiveness of the two internal governance mechanisms. Based on a sample of 181 IJVs in China, we find that both inter-partner control and inter-partner trust promote IJV radical innovation; moreover, legal enforceability weakens the impact of inter-partner control but strengthens that of inter-partner trust on IJV radical innovation; likewise, government intervention risk weakens the positive role of inter-partner control yet strengthens that of inter-partner trust. This study extends both the innovation and IJV governance literature by connecting governance mechanisms to IJV radical innovation and uncovering important institutional contingencies.

The influence of motivational factors on ongoing product design decisions

Ongoing product design has been defined as a complex problem solving task that is central for the development of new products. Despite its importance, existing work has mostly focused on studying how designers' creativity at the initial stages of design influences the development of radical innovations. However, the role of non-creativity related mechanisms at later stages is still not well understood. Our contribution is to analyze how motivational factors influence non-creative tasks in ongoing incremental design processes. We use an agent based simulation model in which designers improve an existing product by making design modifications based on customers' feedback on product attributes. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, we argue that designers' motivations (promotion focus vs prevention focus) influence the way they search for solutions. We find that, in complex tasks, customer feedback acts as a situational factor that biases designers' decisions, making promotion focused problem-solving more effective than prevention-focused one.

The Development of Radical Innovation with the Digital Gift

This study proposes portal website to provide digital gift as the attempt to develop radical innovation by offering interactive and dynamic interaction between customer and community. The application is expected to contain a high degree of new knowledge, although it begin with the foundation of determining the physical gift to be deliver at certain time and location to specific person. The process can be executed after the membership have been done, thus it allow the integration phase as the replacement of product or even the money with the specific form of digital gift. Thus, this study present the first phase of the development by presenting the portal website as the digital platform for digital gift.

Technical research innovations of the US national security system

Since the Second World War the US defense has been a major participant in the development of radical innovations in information and communication technologies (ICT’s), most famously probably the digital computer and the internet. A regularly present, but less known creator of R&D innovations is the intelligence community. To understand the role and impact of defense and intelligence-related research for driving ICT innovations, we analyzed which technological paradigms were promoted by US defense and intelligence agencies and the development of these research trajectories over time. Using bibliographic analysis, we clustered 82,239 scientific papers funded by the US national security system, published between 2009–2017, in research fronts, and after that aggregated the research fronts into technological paradigms. Our analysis identified main technological paradigms promoted by the US defense’s sectoral system of innovation, such as quantum science and graphene as fields that could generate high impact in the new generation of radical technologies. The efforts of intelligence agencies was highly concentrated on quantum science, social forecasting, computer cognition and signal processing. Our research highlights the role of US security players in shaping research fields.

There's More Than One Perspective to Take Into Account for Successful Customer Integration Into Radical New Product Innovation: A Framework and Research Agenda

Over the past few decades, the impact of customer integration on radical new product (RNP) innovation has been extensively investigated. To date, this important topic presents inconsistent empirical findings that must be converged. In this paper, our systematic literature review addresses these inconsistencies by taking a consolidated view of customer integration's effects on the development of RNPs. This extensive review of 153 empirical papers has two main objectives. First, we provide the primary reasons for inconsistent findings by scrutinizing the operationalizations of customer types (i.e., current customers, potential customers, ordinary users, or users with domain-specific skills) and RNPs (i.e., technological innovativeness, or both technological and market innovativeness) used in the studies, as well as the different perspectives on customer integration [i.e., customer-based idea evaluation, participation in direct and indirect idea generation, research and development (R&D) partnerships with customers, having a customer orientation, and disseminating customer knowledge via R&D-marketing collaborations]. Second, we present a synthesized view on factors in the sphere of the innovating company and the customer that influence customer integration's success along three phases of the radical innovation development process (i.e., discovery, incubation, and acceleration). Finally, we present avenues for future research and discuss managerial implications of our synthesized view.

Incentives, Resources and Combinations of Innovation Radicalness and Innovation Speed

AbstractAlthough scholars have independently explored the antecedents of innovation radicalness and innovation speed, this study's focus on combinations of radicalness and speed offers a number of new insights. Drawing on a comparative case study approach of ten innovation departments of large organizations, the authors’ findings provide evidence that intrinsic rewards trigger innovation radicalness, but the simultaneous presence of extrinsic rewards diminishes innovation speed. Further, the authors show that the availability of high levels of non‐financial resources increases innovation radicalness, but the additional provision of high levels of financial resources leads to a slower process of developing these radical innovations to market. The analysis also uncovers the mechanisms by which extrinsic rewards and financial resources slow down the development of radical innovations. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the literature on innovation management and managerial practice.

Open innovation: on the influence of internal and external collaboration on degree of newness

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test the effect of internal and external collaboration on the degree of newness (incremental/radical) in innovation projects. This adds to the understanding of the particular patterns of open innovation (OI) and what characterizes the innovation emerging through this approach.Design/methodology/approachTests are performed on the effect of internal and external collaboration on the degree of newness (incremental/radical) in innovation projects. This adds to the understanding of the particular patterns of OI and what characterizes the innovation emerging through this approach. The empirical analysis is based on a data set including responses from 512 Danish engineers.FindingsThe results show that external collaboration has significantly different effects on the degree of newness depending on the type of external partners involved, and they also show that radical innovation output is positively related to involving the R&D department (internal) and universities (external involvement) and negatively related to involving suppliers.Originality/valueThe results provide a more detailed understanding of how different OI patterns affect the development of incremental vs radical innovation in existing organizations. In particular, three findings add new insights into how OI affects innovation to reach the highest degree of newness: high importance of collaboration with external partners with distinct interests and skills; low reliance on existing customers and suppliers for the development of radical innovation; and narrow and focused internal involvement rather than broad internal involvement.

Patent activities of the Czech enterprises – an international comparison

Abstract The Czech enterprise sector shows in a long term a significantly lower patent activity in comparison with both the most innovation-intensive EU economies, and the EU-15 average. The topic of this contribution is a comparison of the quality and the volume of the industrial property rights created in the Czech enterprises with a selected EU-15 countries classified as innovation leaders, strong and moderate innovators. Two new EU members, namely Poland and Hungary, were also included in the comparisons. The analysis shows that the number of the international patent applications registered by enterprises with the EPO and under the PCT treaty is by more than one order lower in comparison with both the innovation-intensive countries like Denmark, Germany, or Netherlands and the countries whose innovation performance is comparable to the Czech Republic. The Czech enterprises unlike their counterparts in the innovation-intensive countries register the priority applications with the home country patent office and only a small fraction is subsequently registered with EPO and under the PCT. Also the size of the patent families and subsequent citations of the Czech patents by other patent applications lags behind the innovation-intensive countries. The low patenting activity of the Czech enterprises correlates with a low expenditure on R&D. The Czech enterprises are somehow limited in the creation of knowledge giving rise to internationally competitive products which would demand international industrial property claims. The analysis also indicates that patent applications co-authored by Czech inventors are extensively owned by foreign corporations. The Czech enterprises produce a larger fraction of patents in collaboration with research organizations than foreign ones. It indicates that enterprises are interested in tapping in the research capacity of the universities and governmental R&D establishment. The detail analysis of the data in the national R&D Information System indicates that the number of patents created by enterprises supported by applied R&D programs is currently rather low. Beside the stimulation of the Czech enterprises to the in-house R&D spending it is necessary to support long-term strategic alliances of enterprises with research organizations. It will create a fertile environment for the development of radical innovations which are a key factor for the increase of international competitiveness and market shares.

Customers involvement and firm absorptive capacity in radical innovation: The case of technological spin-offs

This study investigates how the absorptive capacity of scientific spin-offs affects the benefits and challenges of customer involvement in the development of radical innovations. We conducted 36 interviews in 3 spin-offs over 4years to collect data regarding customer involvement in the development of radical innovations. The findings show the importance of spin-offs developing both potential and realized absorptive capacities to internalize customer knowledge and technology emergence awareness and to simultaneously offset customers' lack of technical knowledge in formulating their needs. Both market and technical knowledge appeared to be important for spin-offs, and these were available from both customers and the parent research center. The findings' main implication is spin-offs need a blending capability to balance between (1) market and technical knowledge, (2) market-pull and technology-push approaches, (3) the involvement of customers and parent research centers, and (4) potential and realized absorptive capacities. This study contributes a conceptual framework on the blending capability of customer involvement in the development of radical innovations and a set of propositions for future research.

Going the extra mile: Managing individual motivation in radical innovation development

Developing radical innovations is highly demanding because of high uncertainties which give rise to unanticipated problems and discoveries. Managing individual motivation is therefore an important component of the radical innovation capability. This study presents a theoretical model of managing individual motivation in radical innovation development. The model is tested and elaborated by investigating four incumbent companies. The findings indicate that managers may influence the initial level of individual motivation and its effect on the success in development tasks by assigning external goals and providing organizational support. These methods can be found at multiple levels: individuals, project teams, and the organization.

Sources of technological innovation: Radical and incremental innovation problem-driven to support competitive advantage of firms

ABSTRACTA fundamental problem in the field of management of technology is how firms develop radical and incremental innovations that sustain the competitive advantage in markets. Current frameworks provide some explanations but the general sources of major and minor technological breakthroughs are hardly known. The study here confronts this problem by developing a conceptual framework of problem-driven innovation. The inductive study of the pharmaceutical industry (focusing on ground-breaking drugs for lung cancer treatment) seems to show that the co-evolution of consequential problems and their solutions induce the emergence and development of radical innovations. In fact, firms have a strong incentive to find innovative solutions to unsolved problems in order to achieve the prospect of a (temporary) profit monopoly and competitive advantage in markets characterised by technological dynamisms. The theoretical framework of this study can be generalised to explain one of the sources of innovation that supports technological and industrial change in a Schumpeterian world of innovation-based competition.