Innovation Deficit Research Articles

Challenges and ways forward for the Malaysian SMEs in the Halal food industry: a systematic review

With its rich Islamic cultural heritage, Malaysia has been at the forefront of the Halal food industry, presenting opportunities and challenges for its small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study offers a critical review of the multifaceted challenges faced by these SMEs in the competitive landscape of the Halal food sector. Through a review of 79 scholarly articles from Scopus and Google Scholar databases covering the years 2013 to 2023, we unearthed a spectrum of challenges. Key among them are inconsistent Halal standards and a labyrinthine certification process, compounded by barriers in international trade, financing conundrums, evolving marketing paradigms, innovation deficits, and branding complexities. In response, this research outlines strategies tailored for industry resilience and growth. Central to our recommendations is the imperative to bolster Malaysia's stature as a global Halal food nexus, emphasising cutting-edge branding techniques, leveraging the potential of e-commerce, and strategically positioning for increased Halal food exports. Drawing these insights, the study furnishes SMEs, researchers, and policymakers with a roadmap for industry evolution and underscores the importance of research in this domain.

Innovation and misconduct in the pharmaceutical industry

The relationships between innovation and firm misconduct have received little attention. We contribute to advancing understanding of misconduct in several ways. First, we find support for previous research on firm misconduct that finds that strain can contribute to unethical firm behavior. Theoretically, our contribution provides evidence in support of the novel idea that strain that results from innovation deficits promotes misconduct. We also contribute to the growing literature on ethical organizational cultures by providing evidence linking weak ethical cultures in the pharmaceutical industry with increased harm to patients. A large body of non-quantitative literature argues that many pharmaceutical firms engage in misconduct in order to promote sales and overcome innovation deficits. We find support for the conclusion that misconduct constitutes a substitute for all measurable categories of drug innovation.

Frictions in the bioeconomy? A case study of policy translations and innovation practices

AbstractBuilding on a case study of a strategic funding initiative for biotechnology research and innovation, the paper analyses how policy objectives concerning innovation and value creation are responded to within the practices of researchers and governance actors. The paper employs an analytical perspective that centres on the interrelation between policy articulations and actors’ daily work practices and provides a novel study of how innovation demands are negotiated and made sense of within the context of three different empirical sites: national policy and science governance, intermediary science governance, and research practices. The paper addresses a problematic ‘hopeful’ mode of governance in today’s policy that is based on the idea of filling innovation deficits in current practices. As an alternative to this mode, the paper argues for the need for a more empathetic and practice-oriented policy discourse on innovation and value creation.

The innovation deficit: The importance of the physical office post-COVID-19

After more than a year of dealing with the fallout from COVID-19, much has been learnt about the benefits of working from home. There is plenty of evidence for people wishing to retain at least some of the flexibility that working from home has brought post-pandemic. What has also been shown, however, is that a well-designed office is more often better than home at supporting some types of activity, especially those involving socialisation and collaboration with others. This paper takes stock of what the office is good for and argues that without opportunities to meet in unplanned ways face-to-face, innovation, the lifeblood of many businesses, is at risk. In so doing, a different way to think about the post-pandemic office is proffered — one that is designed to realise the benefits that being physically co-present can bring and thus avoid the so-called innovation deficit. By using this way of thinking, this paper concludes with an evaluation of how some organisations are already ‘reimagining’ their post-pandemic workplaces.

Intangible Assets and Labor Productivity Growth

We examine the contribution to labor productivity growth in the manufacturing sector of investment in different intangible asset categories—computerized information, innovative property, and economic competencies—for a set of 18 European countries between 1995 and 2017, as well as whether this contribution varies between different groups of countries. The motivation is to go a step further and identify which single or combination of intangible assets are relevant. The main findings can be summarized as follows. Firstly, all the three different categories of intangible assets contribute to labor productivity growth. In particular, intangible assets related to economic competences together with innovative property assets have been identified as the main drivers; specifically, advertising and marketing, organizational capital, research and development (R&D) investment, and design. Secondly, splitting the sample of European Union (EU) member states into three groups—northern, central and southern Europe—allows for the identification of a significant differentiated behavior between and within groups, in terms of the effects of investment in intangible assets on labor productivity growth. We conclude that measures promoting investment in intangibles at EU level should be accompanied by specific measures focusing on each country’s needs, for the purpose of promoting labor productivity growth. The obtained evidence suggests that the solution for the innovation deficit of some European economies consist not only of raising R&D expenditure, but also exploiting complementarities between different types of assets.

DIGITAL ECONOMY. THE CONVERSION OF THE TRADITIONAL ECONOMY AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE ICT INNOVATIONS

The ability of the global economy to compete and evolve in the 21st century increasingly depends on the innovative and efficient use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Over the last decade, digitalization has improved decision-making in the global business ecosystem in a variety of contexts, and recent advances in technology transformed the business models in a way that reshapes the economic actor’s interaction with business activities. The emergent conversion of the traditional economy is changing as automation tools, process standardization, and reuse of goods along with cloud computing technology shape the global economy towards digitalization, arising the concern to ensure the development of ICT proficiency in all sectors of the economy in order to create economic balance, avoiding a potential crisis based on the innovation deficit. The speed of digital transformation in the business environment will directly affect the models of economic growth and social development in the future. The present technological revolution is a valid indicator of the civilization progress of the 21st century and the digital transformation requires an improved association of organizational e-leadership skills, innovation, and business development based on business intelligence concepts. Therefore, the reduction of e-leadership skills can be a competitive disadvantage for the industry and a constraint on potential growth. From these considerations, the aim of the paper is to examine the diffusion of business intelligence elements in the global economy, providing examples of business models that have emerged as a result of digitalization improvement, and contributes to an overview of the main features of the digital economy that have emerged in these business models. Using a methodology based on the systematic review of the literature and global analysis regarding the topic, the paper presents a framework of the role that digitalization performs in the global economy transition from analog to digital configuration.

Researching public policy in the making: the Ecuadorian Law of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

ABSTRACT Innovation policy in Ecuador is an exceptional case study that explores how knowledge used to inform design is socially embedded in relationships of political authority. In this case, it was possible to unfold the range of values and conflicts that policy actors confront in order to incorporate the innovation imperative to policy design. By opening the black box of policy design, we studied the formulation of the innovation policy problem from a bottom-up strategy led by nongovernmental actors, where innovation has become a framing device to formulate policy problems as problems of innovation. As a result, innovation has become a policy paradigm based on the hierarchization of knowledge, where expert knowledge is superior to lay knowledge. Therefore, experts can provide concrete remedies to tackle innovation deficits. This paper explains how innovation policy is driven by traveling imaginaries that once they are highly shared, they work as programmatic ideas in the policy design process. We use the innovation deficit model and policy networks to unravel the relations established by actors and institutions during the problem framing, and the negotiations of influence and domination that they exercised in order to position their programmatic ideas under the innovation imperative.

Insights into early stage of antibiotic development in small- and medium-sized enterprises: a survey of targets, costs, and durations

BackgroundAntibiotic innovation has dwindled to dangerously low levels in the past 30 years. Since resistance continues to evolve, this innovation deficit can have perilous consequences on patients. A number of new incentives have been suggested to stimulate greater antibacterial drug innovation. To design effective solutions, a greater understanding is needed of actual antibiotic discovery and development costs and timelines. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) undertake most discovery and early phase development for antibiotics and other drugs. This paper attempts to gather a better understanding of SMEs’ targets, costs, and durations related to discovery and early phase development of antibacterial therapies.MethodsDRIVE-AB, a project focused on developing new economic incentives to stimulate antibacterial innovation, held a European stakeholder meeting in February 2015. All SMEs invited to this meeting (n = 44) were subsequently sent a survey to gather more data regarding their areas of activity, completed and expected development costs and timelines, and business models.ResultsTwenty-five companies responded to the survey. Respondents were primarily small companies each focusing on developing 1 to 3 new antibiotics, focused on pathogens of public health importance. Most have not yet completed any clinical trials. They have reported ranges of discovery and development out-of-pocket costs that appear to be less expensive than other studies of general pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) costs. The duration ranges reported for completing each phase of R&D are highly variable when compared to previously published general pharmaceutical innovation average durations. However, our sample population is small and may not be fully representative of all relevant antibiotic SMEs.ConclusionsThe data collected by this study provide important insights and estimates about R&D in European SMEs focusing on antibiotics, which can be combined with other data to design incentives to stimulate antibacterial innovation. The variation implies that costs and durations are difficult to generalize due to the unique characteristics of each antibiotic project and depend on individual business strategies and circumstances.

Public Sector’s Innovativeness: Theoretical and Methodological Perplexities

Research question: This article considers the problems of measuring public sector innovation by asking the question whether and why interpretation of the achievements regarding the public sector innovativeness might be questionable. Motivation: The most recent literature on public sector innovation reveals two perspectives. One of them is assertion that the public sector suffers an innovation deficit, while the other claims that it is actually more innovative than a common credit. Insights in the results from recent large studies of measuring public sector innovation have shown very high rates of innovations, higher than in private sector (between 50 % and 80 % of respondents have recorded at least one type innovation during the period of two years). The lack of a uniquely, or at least dominant, attitude regarding the above-mentioned standpoints represents the basic inspiration for the actualization of this problem. Idea: The aim of the paper is twofold: 1) to offer an overview of three established theoretical attempts (assimilation, demarcation and integrative) dealing with public sector innovation, in order to present the evolution of the issue; 2) to prove that the inclination to more general over contextually specific understanding of innovation (and vice versa) has an impact both on its operationalization and on the interpretation of the achievements. Findings: In spite of the fact that theoretical considerations show noticeable detachment from assimilation perspective, empirical studies still copy this approach and the associated methodology. Surveys introduced subjectivity through arbitrary interpretation of the innovation concept, choice of research techniques and respondents and using of non-measurable goals as indicators of innovation outputs. Since this has affected and overrated their outcomes, we have found that empirical studies have not provided reliable depiction of the state of affairs regarding the PSI. Contribution: Having presented theoretical and methodological arguments why relying on the assimilation approach is neither the only nor even the most adequate way to answer the question whether the public sector is more innovative than the private one, we point to the necessity of using the other two approaches, particularly integrative one in order to find a coherent method of PSI measurement.

The moderating role of absorptive capacity and the differential effects of acquisitions and alliances on Big Pharma firms' innovation performance

In the context of increased pharmaceutical innovation deficits and Big Pharma blockbusters’ patent expirations, this paper examines the moderating role of firms’ absorptive capacity in external innovation activities of Big Pharma firms. The study indicates a rising interest of Big Pharma in acquisitions of and alliances with biotechnology companies. Unfortunately, this increased interest is not reflected in the number of new drugs generated by Big Pharma. We find that acquisitions of biotech companies have negatively affected Big Pharma firms’ innovation performance on average but these acquisitions might have a positive effect at higher levels of acquiring firms’ absorptive capacity. Moreover, also acquisitions of pharma companies and alliances with biotech companies only have a positive effect on innovation performance at sufficiently high levels of absorptive capacity. The moderating role of absorptive capacity implicates that a tight integration of internal R&D efforts and (unrelated) external knowledge is crucial for harnessing complementarity effects.

Defining the brain circuits involved in psychiatric disorders: IMI-NEWMEDS.

Despite the vast amount of research on schizophrenia and depression in the past two decades, there have been few innovative drugs to treat these disorders. Precompetitive research collaborations between companies and academic groups can help tackle this innovation deficit, as illustrated by the achievements of the IMI-NEWMEDS consortium.

Barriers to Innovation in Urban Wastewater Utilities: Attitudes of Managers in California.

In many regions of the world, urban water systems will need to transition into fundamentally different forms to address current stressors and meet impending challenges-faster innovation will need to be part of these transitions. To assess the innovation deficit in urban water organizations and to identify means for supporting innovation, we surveyed wastewater utility managers in California. Our results reveal insights about the attitudes towards innovation among decision makers, and how perceptions at the level of individual managers might create disincentives for experimentation. Although managers reported feeling relatively unhindered organizationally, they also spend less time on innovation than they feel they should. The most frequently reported barriers to innovation included cost and financing; risk and risk aversion; and regulatory compliance. Considering these results in the context of prior research on innovation systems, we conclude that collective action may be required to address underinvestment in innovation.

Struggling to innovate? Examine your structure, systems, and culture

When it comes to driving organizational performance, innovation is widely touted as a critical capability. Whether the focus is internal and on finding ways to improve efficiency or external and on understanding what the market desires next, leaders seeking to enhance performance will rely on their company's ability to successfully bring new ideas to the fore. Unfortunately, leaders who sense their company is experiencing an innovation deficit are too often misdiagnosing its cause. Most interventions designed to increase innovation capability focus on unleashing potential among employees; however, most of the barriers to the realization of that capability are created by organizational characteristics. In this installation of Organizational Performance, we report on the successes of a number of companies in which leaders have identified the critical barriers to innovation: structure, systems, and culture. Leaders are encouraged to understand how to invest less in employee innovation capability and more in organizational readiness to support what tends to be an already quite capable workforce.

America Inc.?: innovation and enterprise in the national security state

1. The National Security State and Technology Leadership The U.S. Puzzle The Argument Re-viewing the NSS-Private Sector Relationship Existing Accounts: Discounting, Sidelining, Civilianizing the State The Approach of This Book New Thinking on the American State 2. Rise of the National Security State as Technology Enterprise Emergence (1945-1957) Growth: The Sputnik Effect (1958-1968) Crisis: Legitimation and Innovation Deficits (1969-1979) Reform and Reorientation: Beginnings (1980-1989) Reform and Reorientation: Consolidation (1990-1999) Re-visioning (2000-2012) 3. Investing in New Ventures Geopolitical Roots of the U.S. Venture Capital Industry Post-Cold War Trends: New Funds for a New Security Environment4. Beyond Serendipity: Procuring Transformative Technology Technology Procurement versus R&D: The Activist Element of Government Purchasing Spin-Off and Spin-Around-Serendipitous and Purposeful Breaching the Wall: Edging Toward Military-Commercial (Re-)Integration 5. Reorienting the Public-Private Partnership Structural Changes in the Domestic Arena Reorientation: The Quest for Commercial Viability Beyond a Military-Industrial Divide: Innovating for Both Security and Commerce 6. No More Breakthroughs? Post-9/11 Decline of the NSS Technology Enterprise? Nanotechnology: A Coordinated Effort Robotics: The Drive for Drones Clean Energy: From Laggard to Leader? Caveat: A Faltering NSS Innovation Engine? 7. Hybridization and American Antistatism The Significance of Hybridization An American Tendency? Nature of the Beast: Neither Privatization nor Outsourcing Innovation Hybrids 8. Penetrating the Myths of the Military-Commercial Relationship Four Myths Laid Bare Serendipitous Spin-Off Hidden Industrial Policy Wall of Separation and Military-Industrial Complex R&D Spending Creates Innovation Leadership The Defense Spending Question: In Search of the Holy Grail? 9. Hybrid State, Hybrid Capitalism, Great Power Turning Point Comparative Institutions and Varieties of Capitalism The American State Great Power Turning Point

How well known is the term innovation deficit?

Scientific and technical sophisticates use it increasingly, but what about journalists—and citizens—in general? Scientific and technical sophisticates use it increasingly, but what about journalists—and citizens—in general?

The emergence of an educational tool industry: Opportunities and challenges for innovation in education

The paper addresses two issues. One concerns the general conditions and procedures involved in the emergence of a tool industry. Tool industries emerge and evolve as a collection of capital goods and tool inventors and manufacturers. One of our goals is to use some of the works on historical cases to build a heuristic framework concerning the main conditions for the emergence and development of tool industries. The other issue is more factual and involves the question whether a tool industry is today emerging in the area of education. The paper describes the emergence of a population of firms specialised in developing and commercialising educational tools and instructional technologies and discuss whether this trend can be seen as part of the solution to the innovation deficit and cost disease problems in this sector?

The Role of Public Comprehensive Universities in Closing the Innovation Deficit

An ambitious initiative by the University of North Carolina Wilmington demonstrates how public nonresearch universities can help close the US innovation deficit by encouraging local entrepreneurship and regional economic development. The Web extra at http://youtu.be/-FOmleTOlak is a video interview in which Computer magazine Advisory Panel member Alf Weaver interviews Chancellor Gary L. Miller about an ambitious initiative by the University of North Carolina Wilmington that demonstrates how public nonresearch universities can help close the US innovation deficit by encouraging local entrepreneurship and regional economic development.

Collaborative Pre-competitive Preclinical Drug Discovery with Academics and Pharma/Biotech Partners at Sanford|Burnham: Infrastructure, Capabilities & Operational models

There has been increased concern that the current "blockbuster" model of drug discovery and development practiced by "Big Pharma" are unsustainable in terms of cost (> $1 billion/approved drug) and time to market (10 - 15 years). The recent mergers and acquisitions (M&A), shuttering of internal research programs, closure of "redundant" sites of operations, senior management turnover and continued workforce reductions among the top 10 major pharmaceutical companies reflect draconian responses to reduce costs. However, the resultant exodus of intellectual capital, loss in motivation and momentum, and exit from early stage discovery programs by pharmaceutical companies has contributed to an "innovation deficit". Disease advocacy groups, investment communities and the government are calling for new innovative business models to address this deficit. In particular they are looking towards academia and clinical trials centers to catalyze new innovations in translational research. Indeed over the last decade many academic institutions have launched drug discovery centers largely comprising high-throughput screening (HTS) to accelerate "translational" research. A major impetus for this "open innovation" effort has been the National Institutes of Health (NIH) "Roadmap" and Molecular Libraries Initiative/Program (MLI/MLP), which is in its last year, and will be transitioned into the National Center for the Advancement of Translational Sciences (NCATS). With the end of Roadmap funding, general reduction in Federal government funding and its recent sequestration, academic drug discovery centers are being challenged to become selfsustaining, adding financial value, while remaining aligned with the missions of their respective academic non-profit institutions. We describe herein, a brief history of our bi-coastal Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics (Prebys Center) at the Sanford|Burnham Medical Research Institute (SBMRI), the key components of its infrastructure, core competencies of its fully integrated drug discovery expertise, best practices adopted in our day-to-day operations, and finally some of our current funding and collaboration and/or strategic alliance models for pre-competitive drug discovery with other academic/clinical partners, other governmental agencies, and with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Search of novel model for integrative medicine

This article provides global and Indian scenario with strengths and limitations of present health care system. Affordability, accessibility and availability of health care coupled with disproportionate growth and double burden of diseases have become major concerns in India. This article emphasizes need for mindset change from illness-disease-drug centric curative to person-health-wellness centric preventive and promotive approaches. It highlights innovation deficit faced pharmaceutical industry and drugs being withdrawn from market for safety reasons. Medical pluralism is a growing trend and people are exploring various options including modern, traditional, complementary and alternative medicine. In such a situation, knowledge from Ayurveda, yoga, Chinese medicine and acupuncture may play an important role. We can evolve a suitable model by integrating modern and traditional systems of medicine for affordable health care. In the larger interest of global community, Indian and Chinese systems should share knowledge and experiences for mutual intellectual enrichments and work together to evolve a novel model of integrative medicine.

The Innovation Deficit in Urban Water: The Need for an Integrated Perspective on Institutions, Organizations, and Technology

Interaction between institutional change and technological change poses important constraints on transitions of urban water systems to a state that can meet future needs. Research on urban water and other technology-dependent systems provides insights that are valuable to technology researchers interested in assuring that their efforts will have an impact. In the context of research on institutional change, innovation is the development, application, diffusion, and utilization of new knowledge and technology. This definition is intentionally inclusive: technological innovation will play a key role in reinvention of urban water systems, but is only part of what is necessary. Innovation usually depends on context, such that major changes to infrastructure include not only the technological inventions that drive greater efficiencies and physical transformations of water treatment and delivery systems, but also the political, cultural, social, and economic factors that hinder and enable such changes. On the basis of past and present changes in urban water systems, institutional innovation will be of similar importance to technological innovation in urban water reinvention. To solve current urban water infrastructure challenges, technology-focused researchers need to recognize the intertwined nature of technologies and institutions and the social systems that control change.