Innovation Happens Research Articles

Disentangling the Effects of Knowledge Spillovers and Family Firm Nature on Innovative Performance: a Multilevel Approach

AbstractThe idiosyncrasies of family firms (FFs) may enable or hamper their ability to exploit the region’s knowledge spillovers. To the date, this issue has not been addressed by the literature. The purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly, to explore whether FF nature influences on firm innovative performance by acknowledging the fact that firm innovation happens in a certain location where firms are exposed to knowledge spillovers; and secondly, to analyse whether FF management plays a moderating role in the effects of regional knowledge spillovers on innovative outcomes. We used multilevel modelling and panel data methodology in a sample of 1191 Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 2009–2016. By applying multilevel analysis and panel data methods, the results indicate that being part of a family group increases innovative performance, and this effect seems to be even more important in regions with low technological or human capital resources.

The role of makerspaces in innovation processes: an exploratory study

Makerspaces democratize technology access and therefore improve the chances for innovation and entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, we know little about how innovation happens in collaborative innovation spaces like makerspaces. To unleash the full potential of makerspaces, it is essential to understand what resources and environments support innovation for makerspace users. Against this background, this research study aims to explore how different makerspace user groups leverage makerspace resources during their innovation process. To achieve this, we use the resource‐based view in combination with an open innovation perspective and examine the relevance of makerspace resources (knowledge, technology, social, and financial) during the different stages of the innovation journey (ideation, development and prototyping, commercialization and diffusion). In contrast to prior work, we focus on different makerspace user groups within an industry‐specific makerspace and investigate how open innovation strategies (inbound, outbound, and coupled) are used to leverage the makerspace resources to develop innovation projects. Since the object of investigation is broadly unexplored and complex, we use an embedded single case study approach to explore 10 different projects within a makerspace with a specific focus on photonics. Photonics is described as a so‐called enabling technology that carries a considerable potential for cross‐industry innovation. The qualitative content analysis revealed that professional and hobby users differ in their makerspace resource use and their modes of openness across the innovation journey. Furthermore, we find that makerspaces can take the role of a facilitator or incubator depending on who uses the makerspace to innovate.

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EXTRA JUDICIAL PROCEDURE OF NAME AND GENDER ALTERATION IN THE CITY OF FORTALEZA

This article aims to analyze provision n. 73 of the National Council of Justice (CNJ), 2018, which foresees sex and name alterations for transsexuals directly in the civil registry, as well as the effectiveness of this norm in the city of Fortaleza one year after its publication. The provision was before conditioned to a medical diagnosis, a surgical intervention of sexual reversion and a judicial process. Now, it allows the adaptation of trans people gender condition to their civil registry by self-declaration. Enacted ten days after the WHO removed transsexuality of its diseases and disorders list, the National Justice Council represented a meaningful advance in the field of the rights of excluded people from their citizenship due to a gender orientation and sexuality which differs from the binary man/woman orientation. In order to accomplish this article, critical gender theories in law were articulated to comprehend social and juridical struggles regarding sexuality, with a research in the Civil Registry of Fortaleza. This analysis is justified as a better knowledge of the juridical context in which this innovation happens, as well as the causes that enabled or inhibited the access of trans population to registry services, allowing the elaboration of public policies destined to amplify the number of beneficiaries by the right of civil registry alteration by self-declaration. It is verified that, despite the meaningful numbers regarding trans population in Fortaleza, it is still very a very modest number.

Innovation systems and affordances in climate smart agriculture

There is significant international investment and effort in the development, piloting and upscaling of climate smart agriculture (CSA), with particular emphasis on delivering benefits to smallholder farmers through programmes of CSA interventions. However, there is poor understanding of how smallholder farmers access beneficial outcomes from changes in agricultural practices, beyond narrow and simplistic metrics, such as adoption rates and yield increases. Furthermore, binary notions of adopters and non-adopters provides a poor basis for understanding innovation within complex farming systems. By integrating an innovation systems perspective with the theory of affordances, we explore how agricultural innovation happens in the context of two CSA interventions in the Tanga Region of Tanzania, to examine who has access to, and is able to benefit from interventions, who does not, and why. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data involving over 200 participants, we demonstrate how innovation processes in this context are diverse and non-linear, and discuss how potential outcomes derived from programmes are shaped by farmers’ affordances. We argue that common programme reporting metrics fail to account for the dynamic and nonlinearity of innovation processes and risk overlooking unintended outcomes of interventions. We propose that interventions should be conceived with an appreciation of context and affordances from the outset, to support how they engage with the least capable from the very beginning.

Making Digital Innovation Happen: A Chief Information Officer Issue Selling Perspective

We encourage chief information officers (CIOs) to play more active roles in organizational level strategy making in the digital era and examine how CIOs could lead their organizations’ digital innovation initiatives. We propose that it is the CIO’s effectiveness in issue selling (i.e., the acts that are directed toward affecting top management teams’ (TMT) attention to and understanding of strategic issues), rather than his or her structural position, that directly influences the level of organizational digital innovation success. Nevertheless, CIO structural power should not be overlooked because it could amplify (i.e., positively moderate) the impact of CIO issue selling to digital innovation outcomes. In addition, we identify four enabling forces of CIO issue selling effectiveness: (1) CIO strategic decision-making authority, (2) CIO/TMT partnership, (3) CIO information technologies (IT)–related strategic knowledge, and (4) CIO political savvy. Matched-pair survey data collected from senior business and IT executives of 179 organizations largely support the research hypotheses.

Disruptive innovation, the episteme and technology-enhanced learning in higher education

This paper combines the theory of disruptive innovation with Foucault's concept of the episteme, in order to analyse the extent to which the integration of Foucauldian analysis clarifies understandings of disruptive innovation; the process by which innovation happens; and its applications in higher education. The theory of disruptive innovation is summarized, as is the episteme, and the idea of skeuomorphic design is used to link disruptive innovation and the episteme, showing how innovation can happen. Disruptive innovation, the episteme and skeuomorphic design are applied to three, specific technologies – Second Life, the massive open online course and the virtual learning environment – arguing that all three offer little or no innovation. The paper contributes to studies on innovation in technology-enhanced learning by applying a novel theoretical framework with the potential for new and predictive insights. The paper links disruptive innovation with Foucault's concept of the episteme and with skeuomorphic design to argue for the emergence of a new, neoliberal episteme in which technology itself is central.

Reclaiming the New, Remaking the Local: Shenzhen at 40

“Without the Party, New China would not exist.” – song and lyrics by Cao Huoxing (曹火星), 1943. The spectre of the new haunts China. The ideological force of the new is such that Shenzhen is celebrated for being both a place where innovation happens, and a city that is able to constantly renew itself. During his speech celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ), for example, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping affirmed Reform and Opening Up, the Guangdon...

Boundary-spanning for managing digital innovation in the AEC sector

ABSTRACT Managing projects in Architecture, Engineering, Construction (AEC) undergoes a digital transformation as novel technologies emerge. Digital technologies, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), push this transformation. Innovation happens in firms and project-based organisations where agents shape how digital technologies are adopted and implemented. This study offers insights into agents of digital innovation, by conducting engaged scholarship within the case study of one large international multi-disciplinary consultancy. The study first builds upon qualitative data collected by interviewing digital agents. Additional data, for triangulation and research validation, were collected from an internal online platform. The analysis revealed a disconnect between digital agents’ technical background, skills and their managerial routines. These individuals crossed professional, hierarchical and organisational boundaries, showed multi-membership and held fluid identities. This has implications for the interfaces between organisational behaviour and projects. The study concludes with suggestions for AEC organisations to reap the benefits of digitalisation.

Nurturing innovation and creativity in educational practice: principles for supporting faculty peer learning through campus design

While much work has focused on pedagogical innovation processes within universities, less has been said of the processes and cultures which foster and give rise to creativity within higher education and the ways in which faculty members are encouraged to develop their pedagogy across disciplines and within their departments. This paper examines the ways campus spaces at a UK university are utilised by staff for peer learning and the barriers and affordances for innovation and creativity in educational practice. Utilising an interdisciplinary design, this paper suggests that the various spaces available to university teaching staff are able to be further utilised to support creative practice and peer learning, presented as four design principles: innovation happens in everyday spaces, communal spaces need social functions, forums have different scales, and collaborative spaces require a collective culture. The normalising of a culture of innovation requires both physical and behavioural adjustments to the use of space, suggesting that both faculty and institutions need to work together to reimagine spaces for faculty peer learning.

Towards the science of managing for innovation: the beginning

Some might argue that ever so nimble and responsive innovation paradigms can rarely be managed scientifically. We propose a more inclusive perspective. Science of managing for innovation has certain characteristics which we identify through the acronym “ROTRUS”- Real-world, Observable, Testable, Replicable, Uncertain and Social. Real-world refers to the notion that innovation happens in practical settings, be bound by resources and capabilities. This real-world is the context in which the observable events occur. To progress the understanding of formative predictors and their impact on innovation, the innovation events need to be observable. This may be challenging if we are to believe that much of the innovation is driven by heuristics (see e.g. Lopez-Vega, Tell and Vanhaverbeke, 2016; Nisch and Veer, 2018). Observable evidence in our perspective does not mean it needs to be capable of being observed but includes events or phenomenon that were observed. In this sense, managerial heuristics once actioned become observed evidence, such that observable evidence is any evidence that can be or has been experienced by one or many, regardless of whether this can be observed by a third party. (...)

Revisiting Rogers: the diffusion of his innovation development process as a normative framework for innovation managers, students and scholars

Innovation has evolved into a core management function for most organizations. Business managers, regardless of sector or firm size, now require an understanding of and practice with the innovation process in order to develop a competence with navigating its winding path. To effectively engage in innovation processes, individuals require a distinct set of knowledge, aptitude and skills, or key innovative competencies. This paper examines a broad multidisciplinary literature focused on how innovation happens and the normative elements of its process, to inform key innovative competencies across its many phases. Through document analysis, empirically-based innovation process theories and models are examined with the intent to discover and propose a normative framework. The literature review provides a broad classification of innovation process descriptions and phases reflecting Everett Rogers’ original innovation-development process (IDP). Rogers’ IDP is proposed as a normative framework from which individual innovative competencies are identified and classified. Both the framework and typology are proposed as guides for innovation process understanding, participation and management. For innovation researchers and educators, this article suggests an innovation process normative framework may act as a recipe for further research on innovative competencies and innovation management pedagogical models.

Examining innovation as process: Action research in journalism studies

In this article, we discuss how ‘action research’ as an experiential research approach allows us to address challenges encountered in researching a converged and digital media landscape. We draw on our experiences as researchers, co-developers and marketeers in the European Union-funded Innovation Action project ‘INnovative Journalism: Enhanced Creativity Tools’ (INJECT) aimed at developing a technological tool for journalism. In this media innovation process, as in other media practices, longstanding delineations no longer hold, due to converging professional disciplines and blurring roles of users and producers. First, we discuss four features of innovation in the current ‘digital’ media landscape that come with specific methodological requirements: (a) the iterative nature of innovation; (b) converged practices, professions and roles; (c) the dispersed geographic nature of media production and innovation processes and (d) the impact of human and non-human actors. We suggest action research as a possible answer to these requirements of the digital media landscape. Drawing on our experiences in the INJECT project, we illustrate how adopting an action research approach provides insight into the non-linear, iterative and converged character of innovation processes by highlighting: (a) how innovation happens at various moments, in various places and by various people; (b) how perceptions and enactments of professions change over time and (c) how roles are (re)combined and expanded in such a way that clear delineation is not easy. Ultimately, we argue that experiencing convergence through action research enables us to do justice to the complexity of the current media landscape.

Innovation framework for control system integrators: a pathway to seize new services opportunities in the context of Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 presents a significant opportunity for control system integrators (CSIs) service innovation as there will be a wide range of new services to be implemented in the automation of industries, where CSI are considered key players. This paper investigated how service innovation happens, what are the drivers and dynamic capabilities for CSI to innovate, proposing an innovation framework grounded in research and in real business practices. The methodology used was a multiple case study approach based on interviews with three of the most experienced CSI companies in Brazil. Our main findings indicate that CSI innovation is boosted by specific innovation drivers that were differential for these companies because they have developed a set of dynamic capabilities throughout their individual histories. By using our proposed framework, CSI may have a reliable tool to guide their service innovation management.

Innovation framework for control system integrators: a pathway to seize new services opportunities in the context of Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 presents a significant opportunity for control system integrators (CSIs) service innovation as there will be a wide range of new services to be implemented in the automation of industries, where CSI are considered key players. This paper investigated how service innovation happens, what are the drivers and dynamic capabilities for CSI to innovate, proposing an innovation framework grounded in research and in real business practices. The methodology used was a multiple case study approach based on interviews with three of the most experienced CSI companies in Brazil. Our main findings indicate that CSI innovation is boosted by specific innovation drivers that were differential for these companies because they have developed a set of dynamic capabilities throughout their individual histories. By using our proposed framework, CSI may have a reliable tool to guide their service innovation management.

Facilitating Out-of-the-Box Solutions

Facilitating Out-of-the-Box Solutions

Moda e tecnologia: a inevitável conexão que moldará o futuro

A tecnologia modifica os processos e a internet revoluciona todos os campos da sociedade, especialmente o da moda. Precisamos ser capazes de entender como a inovação acontece na sociedade para poder prever e perceber como as mudanças irão afetar nossas vidas. Vivemos hoje o grande desenvolvimento da utilização da inteligência artificial (IA). Dessa forma, devemos repensar o conceito de cognição e a convergência entre tecnologia e moda não apenas em termos da capacidade de uso, mas também em como os dispositivos interagem com as pessoas e máquinas. Macrotendências podem ser entendidas e aproveitadas para enfrentar as mudanças tecnológicas, culturais e sociais que tendem a ser inevitáveis.

Policy innovations in India: an exploration of their successful diffusion

Innovation in policy-making is seldom observed and requires robust exploration of the process of innovation. Innovation is carried out by policy entrepreneurs, both within and outside of the government, while implementation occurs through the executive branch of the government. Diffusion of innovation happens over a period of time involving myriad actors. The process of innovation in policies is to be understood with the precursors, enablers and disablers of the innovation leading to its diffusion. The objective of this paper is to determine the conditions for successful diffusion of innovation. The authors have followed a grounded theory approach to develop a theoretical model which would help policymakers to innovate in social policies. They took in-depth interviews of policy-makers who have been involved in an innovative policy and analysed government documents as well peer reviewed research papers. The interviews and document analysis were used to figure out the precursors, enabling and disabling factors for policy innovations. This allowed the authors to come up with the conditions of successful diffusion of an innovative policy. The paper concludes with recommendations for diffusing a policy innovation in a better way.

Policy innovations in India: an exploration of their successful diffusion

Innovation in policy-making is seldom observed and requires robust exploration of the process of innovation. Innovation is carried out by policy entrepreneurs, both within and outside of the government, while implementation occurs through the executive branch of the government. Diffusion of innovation happens over a period of time involving myriad actors. The process of innovation in policies is to be understood with the precursors, enablers and disablers of the innovation leading to its diffusion. The objective of this paper is to determine the conditions for successful diffusion of innovation. The authors have followed a grounded theory approach to develop a theoretical model which would help policymakers to innovate in social policies. They took in-depth interviews of policy-makers who have been involved in an innovative policy and analysed government documents as well peer reviewed research papers. The interviews and document analysis were used to figure out the precursors, enabling and disabling factors for policy innovations. This allowed the authors to come up with the conditions of successful diffusion of an innovative policy. The paper concludes with recommendations for diffusing a policy innovation in a better way.

Refocusing: How Design Can Help Industry Address New Challenges

The tools of design can help industry escape outdated frameworks and address a new, more complex set of questions and challenges. It is common for leaders of large companies and other organizations to feel frustrated by the way innovation happens--or doesn't--in their organizations. They wonder why development of a new offering takes longer than planned, why ideas that start with a bold vision become normalized, why they always seem to be a step behind the market-leading offerings. They are faced with the ironic situation of having an unprecedented ability to make almost anything but being uncertain about what to make. These frustrations are not isolated problems that can be solved in an ad hoc manner. They are symptoms of organizational friction, caused by using a previous era's management norms to solve problems that belong to a new era. The current manifestation of this friction is the use of industrial-age frameworks and methods--developed to support competitive advantage based on economies of scale--to solve today's very different problems. The central challenge for management in the era of economies of scale was increasing the certainty of their bets when investing in ever-larger factories, distribution channels, advertising campaigns, and related elements of mass production for mass markets. But industrial-age practices that supported this need are strained by current needs and solutions, which require variety and responsiveness. It is the equivalent of racing forward while looking backwards. One example of the effect of looking at a new technology or a new market through yesterday's lenses is the evolution of the telephone. An early vision of the telephone saw it as a tool to allow people to listen to concerts from neighboring villages; this vision was a direct, even logical extension of the live orchestral performances most small towns offered. It seemed natural people would want to expand access to these popular events. The telephone was envisioned as an individual communication tool only after this idea failed, but even then its advocates envisioned a phone installed on every block in large cities. It did not occur to anyone that the device should be tied to particular places, that people would want to talk to friends and family from their homes, while working in the kitchen or lounging in the parlor. There was no evidence to support such a vision--because people had no idea such a thing could be possible. And to prove just how strong old frameworks run, we still call that device a telephone, even though most people no longer use their phones primarily for talking to each other. Executives envisage the future through the lenses of the present, imagining that the current markets and industry will continue indefinitely. And that may work for a while, but winning the future--sticking around for the long term--requires continuously adapting to the emerging future, identifying and adopting the frameworks and approaches needed to address challenges and opportunities that are seldom stable. We saw this during the Second Industrial Revolution. As a string of technology breakthroughs enabled new markets of unprecedented scale, new frameworks were needed to help organizations evolve from small companies serving local markets to large organizations serving international markets. That need drove a transformation in the patterns of daily life and the processes by which organizations were governed. New professions like advertising and marketing emerged. New business methods were invented to help executives deal with the new challenges inherent in large companies. University of Chicago professor John McKinsey wrote a book proposing that budgets could go beyond describing the results of the past year to serving as a framework for planning operations for the upcoming year; his idea was so revolutionary and attracted so much attention that he founded a consulting company to help companies make plans with more rigor and certainty--and McKinsey & Company remains influential today. …

A contractor's perspective on diversity

As a contractor, it is difficult to become an employer of choice. A reputation for and history of attracting and retaining the best of breed people is much harder to forge in an environment where additional layers of cost make the difference between winning and losing business. Yet, it is through a variety of perspectives, gender, and culture that stimulation, productivity, creativity and, innovation happens. All of which are essential to building advantages necessary in today’s market. It is one thing to have stated policies to employ people irrespective of gender, nationality, background, age, physical ability, or sexual orientation. It is quite another to have the necessary business practices and cultural norms that accommodate a diverse range of people. These support networks add additional layers of cost onto any business, and as a contractor, they filter through into contracts. A competitive environment where total costs is the first and foremost consideration takes away the ability to forge shared value for our industry and communities at large. To embrace Diversity in our industry, it is necessary for supply chains to work together with the common goal of improving the participation of a diverse group of people and industry participants having the ability to provide the support networks enabling them to do their best.