Enabler Of Innovation Research Articles

Cold Microfiltration as an Enabler of Sustainable Dairy Protein Ingredient Innovation.

Classically, microfiltration (0.1–0.5 µm) of bovine skim milk is performed at warm temperatures (45–55 °C), to produce micellar casein and milk-derived whey protein ingredients. Microfiltration at these temperatures is associated with high initial permeate flux and allows for the retention of the casein fraction, resulting in a whey protein fraction of high purity. Increasingly, however, the microfiltration of skim milk and other dairy streams at low temperatures (≤20 °C) is being used in the dairy industry. The trend towards cold filtration has arisen due to associated benefits of improved microbial quality and reduced fouling, allowing for extended processing times, improved product quality and opportunities for more sustainable processing. Performing microfiltration of skim milk at low temperatures also alters the protein profile and mineral composition of the resulting processing streams, allowing for the generation of new ingredients. However, the use of low processing temperatures is associated with high mechanical energy consumption to compensate for the increased viscosity, and thermal energy consumption for inline cooling, impacting the sustainability of the process. This review will examine the differences between warm and cold microfiltration in terms of membrane performance, partitioning of bovine milk constituents, microbial growth, ingredient innovation and process sustainability.

Information Technology Investment and Commercialized Innovation Performance: Dynamic Adjustment Costs and Curvilinear Impacts

Firms’ investment in information technology (IT) has been widely considered to be a key enabler of innovation. In this study, we integrate prior findings on the augmenting pathways (where IT investment supports innovation) with a new theory explaining the suppressing pathways (where dynamic adjustment costs associated with large IT investment can be detrimental to innovation) to propose an overall inverted U-shaped relationship between IT investment and commercialized innovation performance (CIP). To test our theory, we analyze a unique panel dataset from the largest economy in Europe and discovered a curvilinear relationship between IT investment and CIP for firms across a broad spectrum of industries. Our research presents empirical evidence corroborating the augmenting and suppressing pathways linking IT investment and CIP. Our findings serve as a cautionary signal to executives, discouraging overinvestment in IT.

Technological Innovation and Strategic Leadership Axis on Competitive Advantage of Telecommunication Enterprises

The study conceptualized a relationship between technological innovation and strategic leadership on competitive advantage. Technological innovation has been posited to influence performance competitive advantage however; this position has been largely tautological and hence required more empirical testing. Although implied, the role of strategic leadership in the relationship between technological innovation and competitive advantage has been largely lacking. The study, therefore, specifically sought to determine the moderating role of strategic leadership on the relationship between technological innovation and competitive advantage of large telecommunication enterprises (LTEs) in Kenya. Significant transformations have been evident in Kenya’s telecommunication industry for the last two decades, which has resulted in intense competition, and technological innovation has become the new face of competition among these firms. The target population comprised all 83 large telecommunication enterprises in Kenya and census was used. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed in data analysis. Strategic leadership was found to have a positive and significant influence on the relationship between technological innovation and competitive advantage. It is deduced from the findings that strategic leadership would affect the strength of the relationship between technological innovation and competitive advantage. This can be attributed to the importance of organizational leadership’s role as decision makers and key enablers of technological innovation among large telecommunication enterprises. The study presented notable implications on the policy framework, the strategic management practice, and theory implications in the telecommunication industry and beyond. At policy level, the Government of Kenya would benefit from the study by ensuring that policy makers and regulatory authorities in the telecommunication sector formulate policies that would promote technological innovation and strategic leadership for enhancing competitive advantage. Managerial practitioners may consider institutionalizing innovation and leadership by creating the requisite direction and controls that enable the emergence of innovation and value creation for sustainable competitive advantage. The study findings’ implications further extended, supported, and added value on the theories adopted by the study.

Mechanisms to Engage an Online Community in Crowdsourcing: Insights from an Idea Contest in Training

Knowledge sharing is particularly important for co-creating, discussing, or acquiring innovative ideas. Crowdsourcing, as an enabler of open innovation, has raised the question about the kind of organising forms and/or managerial interventions it may require or underpin. However, there is little consensus in management studies on how to best design a crowdsourcing initiative (contest) with regard to the mechanisms to engage an online community. In this paper, starting from an exploratory case study on the project “Stati Generali della Formazione e del Lavoro” (General Assembly on Training and Work)—a crowdsourcing experience designed for a large community of professional trainers, planned and managed by University of Milano-Bicocca and AIF Academy (Associazione Italiana Formatori), a broad representative association of Italian trainers—we study the factors influencing the decision of the participants (a.k.a., solvers) to become involved (and to what extent) in a contest. The study could contribute to the debate on crowdsourcing by both underlining important governance factors involved and providing empirical evidence of the link between management strategies and crowdsourcing success.

An Intelligent Method for Lead User Identification in Customer Collaborative Product Innovation

For customer collaborative product innovation (CCPI), lead users are powerful enablers of product innovation. Identifying lead users is vital to successfully carrying out CCPI. In this paper, in order to overcome the shortcomings of traditional evaluation methods, a novel intelligent method is proposed to identify lead users efficiently based on the cost-sensitive learning and support vector machine theory. To this end, the characteristics of lead users in CCPI are first analyzed and concluded in-depth. On its basis, considering the sample misidentification cost and identification accuracy rate, an improved cost-sensitive learning support vector machine (ICS-SVM) method for lead user identification in CCPI is further proposed. A real case is provided to illustrate the effectiveness and advantages of the ICS-SVM method on lead user identification in CCPI. The case results show that the ICS-SVM method can effectively identify lead users in CCPI. This work contributes to user innovation literature by proposing a new way of identifying highly valuable lead users and offers a decision support for the efficient user management in CCPI.

Mutual Learning in Innovation and Co-Creation Processes: Integrating Technological and Social Innovation

New digital solutions are often lacking integration and acceptance by potential users. Therefore, only a small amount of innovative software solutions is really in use. The article describes a co-creation process by integrating end-users and relevant stakeholders right in the beginning in a social innovation process. Within this process, technology is seen as an enabler of innovation getting its relevance from new social practices of the people using it (e.g. working practices). Against the background of EU funded projects conducted by the authors (GT-VET, GREEN STAR, COCOP, and ROBOHARSH) the relevance of mutual learning processes of engineers / researchers / trainers on the one side and end-users / beneficiaries / learners on the other side will become evident. Moreover, new (digital and analogue) skills of employees have been identified as key for a successful digital transformation. Thereby, this article shows a twofold perspective on social innovation in education: new skills demands for employees and mutual learning processes of developers and users/stakeholders. To obtain needed skills, traditional innovation practices have to be changed by setting up a social innovation process. Such a process design has to include stakeholder and user involvement beyond pure feedback on a new technology. Co-creation means that experience, knowledge and ideas of users will be considered to ensure high usability and impact of the new technology framed by organisational and people related measures. In this respect, the innovation process and the innovation itself is much more than technological functionality–it is a contribution to new social practices and performances of the people that innovate and use the technology.

Implementing digitally enabled collaborative innovation: A case study of online and offline interaction in the German automotive industry

In the context of implementing collaborative innovation, a range of digitally enabled infrastructures impact core organizational activities. Automotive manufacturing is one such industry where competitors now openly collaborate, facilitated through new technologies, in an effort to enhance collective innovation systems. We conducted a longitudinal case study of the first open innovation network in the German automotive industry to determine how online and offline channels interact to fuel firms' joint search for external ideas. Delving into the physical, virtual and cognitive enablers of collaborative innovation, our findings suggest that, while online platforms can help to facilitate knowledge sharing processes that promote collaborative innovation, firms implementing digitally enabled collaborative ideation need to develop additional mechanisms based on stronger offline interactions. As such, our findings contribute to a better understanding of how online technologies can facilitate knowledge sharing processes to enhance collaborative innovation.

Frugal innovation enablers, critical success factors and barriers: A systematic review

This study aims to develop a model for the enablers, critical success factors (CSF) and barriers to frugal innovation (FI). A systematic literature review (SLR) conducted on 372 documentaries of five databases and semistructured interviews conducted with active industrial and academic experts in the innovation field. Then, factors obtained from SLR and interviews placed in two questionnaires with Likert spectrum and the questionnaires were submitted to 200 convenient samples to determine the importance of factors and then ranked through the Friedman test. Based on the findings, ‘optimization of energy consumption in industries, collaborating with local companies, management supports, paying attention to the needs of the local market and reducing the profit margin’ are among the enablers and CSFs of FI. ‘Lack of business acumen among local partners, senior management reluctances, challenging in R&D, challenges of prototyping in product development and currency fluctuations’ are among the barriers of FI.

Sustainable ICT: An essential enabler of sustainable research and innovations in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

Globally, sustainable Information and Communication Technology (ICT) innovations are significant in realizing sustainable research and innovations in tertiary institutions. Despite this laudable global impact of ICT on research and innovations, poor ICT policies and practices, coupled with bad economy that plagued sustainable ICT innovations in Nigeria have hindered sustainable research and innovations in tertiary institutions. This study adopted the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as the study conceptual framework. UTAUT model postulates that users’ acceptance behaviour toward a technology is determined by users’ decision to use a technology, and the perceived benefits thereof. The authors explored a narrative review, analysis, and synthesis of vast works of literature that revealed significant information on impact of sustainable ICT on sustainable research and innovations in Nigeria. The authors also extracted peer-reviewed articles within the last five years from electronic databases using some keywords such as “ICT impact on research innovations”, “ICT adoption in tertiary institutions”, “ICT usability Trends ”, and so on. The results from this study revealed that strict adherence to ICT policies, laws, guidelines, and sustainability, coupled with good formulation and communication of same, are the major impact of sustainable ICT that can leverage research and innovations in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Results from this study may increase understanding, minimize corrupt practices and encourage value for ICTs that can positively impact research and innovations in tertiary institutions for economic development in Nigerian.

Sustainable ICT: An essential enabler of sustainable research and innovations in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

Sustainable ICT: An essential enabler of sustainable research and innovations in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

Orchestrating Innovation Network: Case of Sustainable Transportation Technology

Currently, the transportation sectors are heading into the advancement of sustainable transportation technology to tackle the issue of unsustainable transportation system which leads to various drawbacks in the future. One of the innovation in sustainable transportation technology is the development of electric vehicle (EV). However, there are noticeable difference between sustainable transportation system and conventional transportation system that requires a massive and synchronous network of related stakeholders to keep innovating and catch up with the progression. On the other side, transportation sector is one of the sector with the massive development that has the consequences of high risk and uncertainty, which leads to the tendency of innovation avoidance. Therefore, the innovation network of EV needs to be nurtured to ensure its sustainability. From the previous study on various sectors, the innovation strategy focuses on two matters: innovation target and actor integration. The latter purpose is required to be conducted in an inclusive manner by engaging people from inside or outside the organization. In the case of innovation in sustainable transportation, the vertical approach plays a significant role in terms of fostering technological advancement. The main solution to reach this objective is through the well-established research ecosystem, which significantly supported by R&D investment by the government. The government takes the role of the innovation strategy implementer to establish a strong research network. Besides as the R&D funder and the hub between researcher and industry, the government also take a role to keep the dynamics of an ecosystem through interaction stimulation, while also engage the innovation results to be relevant with the social, technological, environmental, and economic problems. Moreover, the research center also takes an important role in the ecosystem, such as to engage reiteratively with the industry, become the open-innovation enabler, have the dedicated research agenda, become the multidisciplinary innovation enabler, collaborate with multi-stakeholders, has core research infrastructure, and become the innovation cultural hub. While the country’s industrialization demand keep rising, the research center could consistently become the intermediaries in conducting the research and build the relationship with other non-industry actor. This way, the high risk and uncertainty of innovation could be reduced.

Multicultural skills in open innovation: relational leadership enabling knowledge sourcing and sharing

PurposeIn this paper, the authors argue that multicultural skills and relational leadership act as enablers for open innovation, and thereby examine the process through which teams can utilize multicultural skills to support the development of relational leadership and knowledge sourcing and sharing (KSS) through individual interaction and relationship building. The authors address the following research question: How does relational leadership enable open innovation (OI) among employees with multicultural skills?Design/methodology/approachThis paper applies a multi-level approach (team and individual level) and builds on interviews with 20 employees, middle and senior managers with multicultural experiences, working in open innovation environments.FindingsThe authors’ findings shed light on the process through which social exchange relationships among team members (e.g. R&D teams) and knowledge exchange partners are enhanced by the use of multicultural skills and support the development of relational leadership to facilitate KSS and ultimately OI. The decision for participants to collaborate and source and share knowledge is motivated by individual reward (such as establishing network or long-lasting contacts), skill acquisition (such as learning or personal growth in decision-making) and a sense of reciprocity and drive for group gain. The authors encourage greater human resource (HR) manager support for relational leadership and the development and use of multicultural skills to promote KSS.Research limitations/implicationsDespite the value of our findings, this paper is not without limitations. The authors explained that the focus of this study design was on the work activities of the participants and their skill development and not specific projects or organizations. It was outside the scope of this study to examine variations across organizations and individuals as the authors wanted to focus on multicultural skills and relational leadership as enablers for OI. The authors recommend that future studies extend our research by unpacking how various boundary conditions including relational leadership and multicultural skills impact KSS and OI over the life cycle of innovation teams within large multinational organizations, across countries and ethnicities.Practical implicationsThe study’s findings provide managers with improved understandings of how to enable an individual's willingness and readiness to source and share knowledge through multicultural skills and relational leadership. Managers need to ensure that human resource management (HRM) practices celebrate multicultural skills and support relational leadership in innovation teams. The authors suggest managers engaged in OI consider the components of social exchange as described by Meeker (1971) and utilize reciprocity, group gain, rationality and status consistency to support the emergence relational leadership and KSS in innovation teams.Originality/valueIn this paper, the authors contribute to the dearth of literature on the boundary conditions for OI by examining the role of relational leadership and characteristics/skills of the workforce, namely multicultural skills and contribute to the scarce research on the role of employees with multicultural skills and their impact on OI and present multicultural skills/experiences and relational leadership as enablers for OI.

Democracy of Climate and Climate for Democracy: the Evolution of Quadruple and Quintuple Helix Innovation Systems

Quadruple and Quintuple Helix innovation systems are based on democracy and ecology. Two propositions are here key: (1) without a democracy or knowledge democracy, the further advancement of knowledge and innovation are seriously constrained, so in that sense, knowledge and innovation evolution depend on democracy and knowledge democracy; (2) ecology and environmental protection represent a necessity and challenge for humanity, but they also act as drivers for further knowledge and innovation (this should lead to a win–win situation for ecology and innovation). Therefore, for an innovation system to be a Quadruple/Quintuple Helix innovation system, the political regime hosting these helixes needs to be democratic in essence, not just in form. The next stage in evolution of innovation systems may be that this also will require a “democracy of climate” (promoting a social, cultural, economic, and political “climate for democracy”), where democracies as innovation enablers are creating innovation that regard the ecology as a crucial driver for further innovation and for responsible innovation.

Building digitally-enabled process innovation in the process industries: A dynamic capabilities approach

Digitalization and industry 4.0 technologies promise to provide many novel opportunities and benefits to industrial firms, such as increased product quality, process reliability, and improved flexibility and productivity. Although digitalization shows great potential from a technological perspective, many process industry firms still face challenges in utilizing it for process innovations. Hence, this study aims to understand how process industry firms develop and implement new process innovations today and identify improvement opportunities through the better adoption and implementation of digitalization. The study adopted a multiple case study design in two steel manufacturing firms and developed a framework for building digitally-enabled process innovation using dynamic capabilities. The framework consists of 19 dynamic capabilities in total: 8 related to traditional process innovation and 11 related to digitally enabled process innovation. The study found four key challenges in process innovation (i.e., poor data strategy and readiness, lack of standardisation practices for change, competence and culture gaps, and ad-hoc problem solving) and four key enablers for digitally-enabled process innovation (i.e., infrastructure and methodological definition, preparation for predictive and analytical readiness, proactive management practices, and plan for a digital matureness for each function and department). The study's detailed empirical insights provide new understandings regarding required dynamic capabilities for the smoother transformation of a firm from the traditional process innovation to the digitally enabled process innovation. The dynamic capabilities are limitedly explored in the research of the process industries in the context of process innovation and digitalization. Thus, this study makes essential contributions to the theory of process innovation in process industries and strategic management by providing rich empirical insights from the steel sector.

Reflecting on knowledge management as an enabler of innovation in project-based construction firms

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the ways innovation becomes enabled through knowledge management and sharing which has important implications for establishing and sustaining the culture of innovative thinking in project-based construction firms. This study adopts a reflective practitioner perspective to explore this relationship.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the construction sector professionals whose roles are most relevant in the connection between innovation and knowledge management. Thematic analysis and cognitive mapping techniques were used to analyse the interview data.FindingsThe research findings indicate that due to the complexity of project-based construction firms, a more holistic approach to knowledge management and organisational learning at the firm level is required. This would enable a culture of continuous and coordinated knowledge flow that facilitates innovation and continuous improvement in project-based firms.Practical implicationsThis paper has important implications for practising managers in project-based construction firms. By better understanding the ways organisational knowledge can be managed to become an enabler of innovation would allow to build and enhance firms’ innovative capabilities, individual and team competencies. There is a real need for innovation knowledge managers as formal job positions in the construction sector.Originality/valueThis study contributes to construction innovation and project management research and practice by providing insights into establishing and sustaining the culture of learning and innovative thinking.

Drivers and Indicators of Innovation to Educational Software

Software is usually considered enabler for innovation in education. Thus, it is necessary to investigate: What leads to innovation in education and which, therefore, should be considered in the development of educational software? How to support decision-making for choosing software to be used in teaching and learning? How to evaluate software that enables, transforms, or supports innovation in education? In order to answer these questions, a research work was conducted that resulted in an approach called DEISE, which is concerned with drivers that lead to innovation in education and indicators that measure the fostering of software to skills need to students for 21st century learning. Through a web system developed for technological support to the DEISE approach, a set of educational software was evaluated by educators and the results show the index of innovation in education for each evaluated software and a comparison between educational software of similar purpose.

Sustaining the life insurance industry in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) continues to change the ways of doing business across industries, organisations around the world are grappling with the unprecedented challenges imposed by radical and widespread technological change. In the face of this dilemma, the South African life insurance industry has remained remarkably resilient, exhibiting very little adaptation in terms of structural, cultural, or business model innovation. However, the stable environmental conditions that once enabled this position for incumbent organisations are weakening. Transformational change, like that in the adjacent financial services industry, is imminent and adaptation on the part of incumbent insurers will be vital to sustaining relevance. This research examines the organisational beliefs and capabilities of South African insurance companies regarding the 4IR in order to gauge the current challenges within the broader industry. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 senior leaders and decisionmakers from across the industry. A qualitative inductive analysis shows the inhibitors and enablers of digital innovation within the organisations. The pervasive lack of trust, agility, and urgency within the sector are cited as inhibitors of digital innovation. Enablers include a continuous learning mindset within the organisation, partnerships within the broader ecosystem, and the role of senior leaders for shaping cultural attitudes and structures. Overall, these findings show a disparity between what insurers know they must do to proactively lead change, enact digital innovation, and remain relevant, and what they are actually executing. Recommendations are provided for addressing this gap.
 Keywords: Fourth Industrial Revolution; life insurance; strategy; leadership; agility

Floating down the river: Vietnamese community-led social innovation

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the barriers facing social enterprise-led community energy projects in Vietnam, to understand the barriers and enablers of social innovation in transitioning economies. In doing so, this paper seeks to identify whether the Vietnamese ecosystem is conducive to sustainable community energy projects and social innovation more broadly.Design/methodology/approachThis paper used a qualitative, case study-based methodology to explore institutional barriers to social innovation in the context of three community-led energy projects in Northern Vietnam. Interviews and focus groups were undertaken with 17 individual stakeholders within or engaged with the three case studies. The qualitative data used was analysed using constant comparative method, a method of analysis based in grounded theory that allows for iterative analysis of the data gathered.FindingsSocial enterprises and their beneficiaries are reliant on their ability to network, but with the Vietnamese government actively involved in the markets, there are significant barriers standing in the way of these networking opportunities. Communities with little political capital are alienated from state institutions, whereas enterprises that offer alternative solutions to governmental priorities are seen as competitors by political agents.Originality/valueApplying Granovetter’s theory of “embeddedness” and Herold et al.’s (2019) and Popov et al.’s (2016) theories on institutional centrality and power distribution, this paper seeks to add to our understanding on the impact large, hegemonic institutions can have on the networking ability of social enterprises and their beneficiaries.

Investigating actors and enablers of innovation using a service ecosystem lens: a modelling approach

The study developed a conceptual model of service innovation viewed through a service ecosystem lens, and empirically validated the model using data gathered from 334 managers in the tourism industry of the United Arab Emirates. A mixed methods approach was used. Three significant factors emerged as direct antecedents of innovation, namely dyadic interactions between: customers and employees, the firm and its partners, and the firm and its competitors. Further, two 'enablers', technological and organisational support, reinforced these interactions. This study contributes to the emerging literature in two ways - operationalising the service ecosystem construct and examining the impact of dyadic interactions between actors within the ecosystem on service innovation. The findings and discussions provide managers in the UAE tourism industry with a holistic view of the innovation trajectory, helping them to identify critical enablers and manage key actor interactions in the ecosystem.

IT Governance as Drivers of Dynamic Capabilities to Gain Corporate Performance Under the Effects of Environmental Dynamism

For researchers and practitioners, there is an important central question to answer, how information technology (IT) governance can help organizations survive and thrive in constantly changing business environments. To address this issue, this study examines the influence of IT governance on dynamic capabilities to sustain corporate performance under environmental dynamism. Tests of the proposed model were performed using survey data from 147 Brazilian firms to support the hypotheses. The results demonstrated that IT governance is a core enabler of dynamic capabilities innovation and operational capabilities for corporate performance gains. The heterogeneity tests also showed that the firm's orientation strategy of prospector and analyzer, under conditions of high dynamism environmental, increased the value of IT governance to enable innovation capability, while the impact of IT governance-enabled operational capabilities under low dynamism, amplified the firm's orientation strategy of defender and reactor. For practical application, this study indicated that managers should be knowledgeable about how IT governance capability plays a fundamental role to enable dynamic capabilities and generate economic payoffs