Innovation Literature Research Articles

Strategic leadership and team innovation: a qualitative study from the lens of leader–member exchange

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the factors influencing team innovation from the perspective of strategic leaders. The study draws from the leader–member exchange (LMX) theory to propose that the quality of exchange the leaders perceive with the team members may provide a useful cue to identify the key elements and processes that may help drive team innovation.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative study using a hybrid approach was used, and a thematic analysis was performed. The data were based on 25 interviews collected from strategic leaders using the long interview technique.FindingsThe findings revealed themes and factors influencing innovation orientation among leaders and team members. Five themes were identified, namely modeling leadership behavior, autonomy and psychological safety for teams, organizational structure and technology, innovation and the decision-making process and innovation during times of uncertainty.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the purposefully chosen sample of only leaders who were involved in the innovation process, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to corroborate the finding using a sample of teams involved in the innovation process.Practical implicationsA conceptual model is proposed with guidance for implementing innovation decisions and strategies in practice.Originality/valueWhile the strategic leadership and team innovation literature emphasizes the interaction between leaders and team members, research on how these interactions unfold is still nascent. This paper fulfills these needs from a strategic leader’s perspective.

Antecedents and outcomes of open innovation over the past 20 years: A framework and meta‐analysis

AbstractThe open innovation paradigm emphasizes that firms can improve their innovation performance by collaborating with other firms. However, there is no consensus in the open innovation literature regarding what drives firms' implementation of inbound and outbound open innovation and how the two types of open innovation influence innovation and firm performance. The present meta‐analysis synthesizes previous research to advance our understanding of open innovation by reexamining its antecedents and its moderating effects on innovation and firm performance. Using data from 157 articles, our results show that appropriation strategy, formal organizational structure, learning culture and top manager competence drive inbound open innovation, while innovation strategy, appropriation strategy, learning culture, and top manager competence drive outbound open innovation. In addition, we find that absorptive capacity positively moderates the positive impact of inbound and outbound open innovation on innovation performance. However, industry type (i.e., high‐ and low‐tech) is not found to moderate the effect of open innovation on innovation or firm performance, suggesting that both high‐ and low‐tech firms can equally reap benefits from open innovation. Furthermore, this study also partially supports the moderating effects of firm size and cultural value (individualism vs. collectivism) on the open innovation—performance relationship. These findings collectively suggest that the effects of inbound and outbound open innovation on performance are subject to contextual factors. Although this meta‐analysis does not allow us to generate new theories in the open innovation literature, it offers valuable insights to both academics and practitioners regarding factors affecting the implementation of open innovation and its performance implications.

Using PODs to integrate fire and fuels planning

Background Potential Wildfire Operational Delineations (PODs) were developed as a pre-season planning tool to promote safe and effective fire response. Past research on PODs has identified uses in an incident management context. There has been little research on how PODs are being utilised in non-incident management contexts to align forest and wildfire planning objectives. Aims We sought to understand how actors are adopting and adapting the PODs framework to inform non-incident management, and to identify facilitators, barriers and recommendations. Methods We investigated three cases, the San Juan National Forest, the San Isabel National Forest and the Washington Department of Natural Resources, through 13 semi-structured, key informant interviews. Key results We found that PODs were helpful for validating fuels treatment plans and supporting communication among agency staff, and with private landowners and collaborators. Challenges included lack of technical knowledge and skills, unclear leadership direction, potential misalignment with other forest management goals and community and agency buy-in to using PODs. Conclusions We offer insights into how PODs are being utilised within our case studies and align these findings with diffusion of innovation literature. Implications This preliminary research is important given increased funding for PODs in recent legislation and the possibility of broader adoption for fuels treatment planning in the future.

A hagyomány fogalma a huszadik századi filozófiában. Eliot, Scruton, Gadamer

In an effort to give an idea of the 20th century efforts to place the concept of tradition within philosophy, this essay reconstructs three different views on it. This is done in order to show that, although we tend to think of the century as a period of progressive advance, there was in fact a very conscious philosophical effort to consolidate and reinterpret tradition. In his literary criticism, and in particular in his essay entitled Tradition and the Individual Talent T. S. Eliot embodies a form of modernism, which does not negate the idea of a reliance on tradition. On the contrary, he tries to show that the idea of literary innovation and the genuine novelty of the genius is unimaginable without a constant reference to a canon, which is in need of reformation. The analytical philosopher, Roger Scruton connects the understanding of tradition as a guarantee of innovation as revealed by Eliot with his own thoughts of the adaptability of the tradition-based English common law, with its commonsense approach of problem-solving. Finally, the paper offers an interpretation of Gadamer’s account of prejudice, tradition, authority and application, in his own context of hermeneutics understood as a rehabilitation of tradition, as well as a very articulate choice of political and philosophical values and way of character-formation.

A Functional Perspective on the Emergence of Dominant Designs

Abstract Models of long-term product innovation depict the trajectory of products through an evolutionary selection metaphor in which product designs converge toward a dominant design. The product innovation literature favors trajectory descriptions based on the physical architecture of products while neglecting to account for the functional architecture. This paper offers a new way to explain the life cycle of product innovation by identifying motifs that describe a product’s functions. Functional motifs are recurrent function blocks across multiple generations of designs for a product. A collection of functional motifs defines the functional architecture of the product. Using some key examples from innovations in sewing machines, the paper illustrates the occurrence of motifs as the basis for detecting the emergence of a dominant design. Patents related to the sewing machine over 177 years are analyzed to identify functional motifs characterizing the evolution and convergence toward a dominant design. Results show that motifs do not change over long periods once a dominant design emerges, even though components continue to change. This observation confirms a view of dominant designs as a technological frame but refutes the notion that design no longer matters in the era of incremental change. These motifs refine our understanding of how designs evolve along a particular path over the course of product innovation.

Achieving ‘step changes’ in science and innovation: Towards ‘Pasteur’s paddock’?

​The Request for Proposals for New Zealand’s National Science Challenges (NSCs) emphasises that successful proposals should ‘represent a significant step change in undertaking research and delivering impact’ (MBIE 2014). How can a ‘step change’ be achieved within NSCs where new funding is small compared to realigned funding? In a video released on 4 February 2014, the Minister for Science and Innovation suggests an expectation that ‘additionality’ will play a key role, with ‘collaborative’ and ‘multidisciplinary’ endeavour as important compo-nents of these ‘mission-led’ Challenges (Joyce 2014). This brief communication reviews and describes a timely synthesis of two important components of the science and innovation literature relevant to the ‘step change’ and ‘additionality’ expectations in NSCs.

Small cities: Regional motors or sponges? The case of Inland County, Norway

In the innovation and regional development literature, regional areas that lie between prosperous core regions and struggling peripheral areas have been largely neglected, both theoretically and empirically, in recent innovation and regional research. In this paper, we analyse the role that small cities play as agents in regional development in their hinterland. Are they catalysts for growth, or do they drain the surrounding cities and villages? One concept or analytical tool that deals with this issue more explicitly is ‘sponge cities’, which refers to small and medium-sized cities that appear to ‘soak up’ talent and resources from the surrounding hinterland. By adopting and expanding this largely unexplored concept, we analyse the role of regional cities in the Norwegian context. Building on the original concept, we believe that adding commuting to migration patterns provides a more nuanced and precise assessment of whether small cities and regional centres are a blessing or a curse for their hinterlands. Using regional data, we classify cities as ‘motors’ (those that positively affect the hinterland thanks to well-balanced commuting and migration patterns at various spatial scales) or ‘sponges’ (those that soak up people from surrounding areas through migration). Further expanding our analysis, we label a third group of municipalities as ‘local mobilizers’, as they seem to have the potential to influence positively the growth of adjacent areas, and a fourth group as ‘moderate attractors’, which show moderately positive external commuting and migration flows.

Development banks and state-led investments: new research questions

ABSTRACT The aim of the article is to bring in the concept of governance and financial bureaucracies into the discussion on financing of innovation and development. The article refers to national development banks as the example of state-backed investors who make investment decisions in line with policy priorities (to prioritized sectors, technologies and development projects). While building on the examples of public development banks, the article seeks to conceptualize the governance of public strategic investments through the notion of a state-led ‘investment function’. In doing so, the article seeks complementarity of the concepts that derive from economics and innovation literature on one hand and public policy and governance literature on the other hand. This study suggests that the governance of state-led investments can be understood as a combination of financial policies, institutions and organizational routines that translate into capacities of respective public bureaucratic structures to make financing decisions.

From green HRM practices to green innovation performance: a mediation-moderation model

According to contemporary innovation literature, green performance management (GPM) is critical to improving green innovation results. Yet, few researchers have examined the relationship between green organizational innovation and HRM. This study explores the direct and indirect impacts of green recruiting and selection (GRS), green training and development (GTD), green compensation and benefits (GCB), and green innovation performance (GIP), with the function of GPM serving as a mediator and the effect of stakeholder pressure (SP) and green Culture (GC) serving as a moderator, respectively, of these factors on developing market small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). Using a questionnaire survey, we gathered data from 380 SMEs in the industrial sector. We applied the partial least squares (PLS) path modelling technique (PLS-SEM) to test the study’s assumptions. According to the study, GPM mediates the effects of GRS, GTD, and GCB on green innovation performance. Results also point to a moderating effect of GC on the effects of green recruitment and selection, training and development, and remuneration and benefits on green performance management. Moreover, Stakeholder pressure moderates the effect of green performance management on the effectiveness of green innovation. The results point to important implications for theory and practice.

Risk-Reward in Economics: Academic Career Genealogy

In academia, fostering innovation through interdisciplinary knowledge recombination is essential for growth. However, the balance between novelty and skepticism poses challenges, particularly for early-stage researchers lacking established social capital. While prior studies suggest diverse academic training enhances career prospects, this quantitative genealogical analysis challenges this notion. Drawing on the Family Tree of Trade Economists database, this study finds that having multiple supervisors and diverse academic ancestry doesn’t guarantee academic success. Surprisingly, the presence of academic siblings (shared supervisors) significantly increases the likelihood of securing a tenured position, whereas academic cousins (shared grand-supervisors) show no significant impact. This study, at the nexus of innovation and organizational management literature, informs doctoral students aiming for academic success by emphasizing the strategic choice of affiliations.

Enablers and impact of social innovation in higher education institutes: a futuristic perspective

Purpose Social innovation is a nascent field. Within research on social innovation, the context of higher education has largely been ignored. To better understand social innovation, it is important to explore factors that facilitate social innovation in universities’ context. There is little research on enablers of social innovation in universities and the impacts of social innovation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand the enablers of social innovation in the Saudi Arabian context. Moreover, the impacts of social innovation projects are also explored. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was used to carry out this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, and content analysis was performed. Findings Data revealed that institutional commitment, mission, active collaborations, curriculum, support, training, community university engagement offices, university social impact offices and reward and evaluation were among critical enablers. The impact of social innovation in terms of social, institutional, economic and community specific was also reported. Originality/value Research on the enablers and outcomes of social innovation in the higher education context is limited. This study adds to the innovation literature by investigating what processes and factors (enablers) can help universities to engage in social innovation initiatives and what are the outcomes (impact) of engaging in social innovation. Findings of the study have important policy implications.

Examining intellectual capital and knowledge absorptive capacity for high innovative performance

AbstractIn the contemporaneous business environment, intangible assets and capabilities are building blocks of an organization's innovative performance. Despite the rising importance of absorptive capacity in knowledge management and innovation literature, there has been limited focus on its dimensions, such as knowledge acquisition, assimilation, and transformation, particularly in relation to intellectual capital (IC) and innovative performance. This research unravels the mediating role played by the dimensions of absorptive capacity in connecting IC to innovative performance. This research offers a novel combination of individual mediation effects of absorptive capacity components on the relationship between IC and innovative performance. Data for this cross‐sectional research were gathered from 295 organizations through a Likert scale questionnaire. This research employs partial least square‐structural equation modeling to analyze the individual mediating pathways of absorptive capacity. This study shows that knowledge acquisition adversely influences the relationship between IC and innovative performance, which challenges conventional wisdom. Conversely, all other mediation paths, including knowledge assimilation, transformation, and exploitation, exhibit a positive influence on innovative performance. Furthermore, this study also offers valuable managerial implications and suggests potential areas for future research.

The Effects of Top Management Team External Social Capital on Firm's Openness: Exploring the Mediating Role of Strategic Knowledge Integration

Going from the knowledge-based view of the firm, we designed a framework to describe top management team's (TMT) external social capital as a determinant of the depth and breadth of external knowledge search strategies in open innovation and Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) innovation performance. Besides, we examined the significance of strategic knowledge integration in external knowledge search strategies and innovation performance. Using a sample of 252 Kenyan manufacturing SMEs, the authors applied partial least square to a structural equation model to test the suggested hypotheses. The findings reveal that firms with intense, more frequent, and closer TMT external social capital with external knowledge sources can enhance the stock of externally acquired knowledge, showing that TMT's external social capital plays a crucial role in facilitating the breadth and depth of external knowledge search strategies. The article also finds that external knowledge search breadth is more affected by TMT's external social capital, whereas strategic knowledge integration mediates external knowledge search practices and innovation performance. Therefore, firms with a good ability to identify new opportunities and dynamic strategic businesses tend to be more innovative. This article contributes to social capital and open innovation literature by analyzing two critical determinants: external social capital and strategic knowledge integration. This article attempts to address these gaps in the literature by linking TMT's external social capital, the search for external knowledge, and strategic knowledge integration to innovation performance.

Knowledge‐brokering activities as enactors of innovative constructive deviance in open R&D projects

Despite the two sides of deviant behaviors and the fact that knowledge brokers are sometimes presented in a negative light due to their unique position, this article unveils from an innovation perspective how these two intricate individual‐level concepts bring positive outcomes in complex environments. While previous work has highlighted the positive impact of constructive workplace deviance on organizations and their members, research on the antecedents of such deviance is scarce. We use knowledge brokers as an unexplored and pertinent means of enacting innovative constructive deviance. Indeed, knowledge brokering supports innovation by connecting, recombining, and transferring disconnected pools of ideas. A case study of a high‐tech company was conducted. We focused on three B2C and B2B co‐creation projects as one of the main open innovation strategies. The results suggest that knowledge‐brokering activities with customers or partner firms enact innovative constructive deviance in different ways and accelerate creativity and innovation within the organization. This paper contributes to the debate on deviant behaviors and brokering activities within the open innovation paradigm. We enrich the microfoundational perspective of the open innovation literature, shed light on the determinants of innovative constructive deviance, and provide empirical evidence of the relationship between brokering activities and deviant behavior. On a managerial level, the findings suggest that knowledge‐brokering activities among multiple stakeholders foster innovative behaviors within co‐creation projects.

The knowledge and innovation challenges of ChatGPT: A scoping review

This study has several objectives. Firstly, the authors adopt a scoping review of extant research to identify common emerging themes in the ChatGPT model. Secondly, the manuscript explores the emerging innovation and knowledge management challenges by problematizing gaps that need to be explored. This study setting comprises a comprehensive scoping review and analysis of the ChatGPT and related literature. Based on a substantive content analysis of 652 articles between the years 2018 and 2023, four themes emerged from the literature that present gaps to be explored in future research. The technology acceptance model (TAM) grounds the theoretical framework to explore the emerging themes and potential user satisfaction criteria. In addition, this is the first study to broaden the TAM innovation literature by applying knowledge generation criteria to assess the extent to which ChatGPT would satisfy expected user sensemaking represented by know-that, know-how, know-why, and care-why knowledge. Two research questions assessed the findings against TAM and knowledge generation criteria. Based on the emerging gaps identified, the review found that by applying TAM, user satisfaction is not expected to be high especially when applied in educational settings given specific learner needs in complex learning situations. While aspects of user knowledge is expected to increase exponentially, the quality of the information generated by ChatGPT is not expected to result in high user know-why knowledge and complex system understanding. At a time when generative AI models are challenging traditional scientific means of delivering education pedagogy in driving student and user learning, this study has important implications for the future of the ChatGPT model application within educational and broader settings.

Failure is an option: How failure can lead to disruptive innovations

We analyze how a failure-embracing mentality can lead to disruptive innovations. Grounded in the extensive data obtained from the study of space industry leader SpaceX and its revolution of reusable rocket boosters, we suggest that appropriate organizational processes can be highly effective in generating technological disruptive innovations. Our results mainly contribute to the identification of the foundational elements that need to be in place, as well as to the definition of sequential actions to be executed, for a successful innovation cycle. In the former, the organization must ensure that appropriate knowledge management mechanisms have been implemented, and that the individuals involved are prepared for the innovation process. In the latter, the detection and analysis of failure, followed by an optimization of further experiments and an adjustment of the roadmap, must proceed iteratively and sequentially to build upon the cumulative experience gained. These findings are important because they suggest that successful disruptive innovation is not fortuitous but can be achieved through systematic processes. Moreover, we bring a different perspective to a popular literature stream which to date had focused on why incumbent firms were successful or not in responding to disruptive innovations, rather than on how failure can be leveraged to successfully introduce in the market a disruptive innovation. In addition to the contributions to the learning by failure and disruptive innovation literatures, this work also adds to the very limited managerial studies of the fast-growing and increasingly relevant New Space Economy.

Responsible Social Robotics and the Dilemma of Control

Social robotic platforms are increasingly entering into human social practices, but to date the question of control and direction of innovation processes surrounding social robotics is still highly debated. In this paper I seek to make a two-fold contribution. Firstly, I critically discuss the “Collingridge Dilemma”, also known as the “dilemma of control” in Science and Technologies Studies, and contemporary efforts to address such a dilemma. I demonstrate how such efforts have neglected some wider implications of the dilemma, whose relevance is instead crucial for addressing ethical implications in social robotics. Secondly, to help improve the understanding of control in social robotics, I investigate two guiding principles that have been identified in responsible innovation literature, e.g., inclusion and responsiveness, and I identify potential methods and paradigms to put them into practice. The general aim of this paper is thus to bridge the gap between the theoretical assumptions of responsible innovation and its realisation in practice, as well as to explicitly integrate social robotics with an ethical dimension that can improve the inclusiveness, transdisciplinarity, and social sustainability of this emerging field.

Does the Collaboration of Digitalization Foster Regional Green Development?

The collaboration of digitalization refers to a comprehensive digital governance system that achieves cross-regional digital industrialization and deep integration of industrial digitization through the construction of digital infrastructure, which paves the way toward regional sustainability. However, little is known about whether and to what extent regional digital collaboration contributes to green development. Furthermore, the specific role of digital collaboration in greening the regional economy and society remains unexplored. Thus, this paper tests the relationship between digital collaboration, business environment, and regional green development by using data from 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2022. The findings suggest that: (1) the hysteresis phenomenon of the “green dividend effect” response to regional digital collaboration is present; (2) digital collaboration in eastern cities positively impacted (but lagged) the greening of the economy and society, but cities in central and western regions negatively impact this process; (3) the business environment mediates the relationship between the lagged digital collaboration and regional green development, and it positively moderates the relationship between both the current and lagged digital collaboration and regional green development. By elucidating the relationship between digital collaboration, business environment, and regional green development, contributions have been made to previous digital innovation literature, and management insights have been provided for how regions can promote green development in the digital age.

Does Personal Innovativeness Affect Sustainable Waste Behaviour? The Mediating Role of Creative Reuse

Purpose – The success of businesses and governments in developing and implementing sustainable waste management policies depends on the habits of individual users. Innovative personality traits, creative reuse, and sustainable waste behaviours of product and service users play a significant role in achieving circular economy practices. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of creative reuse in the effect of personal innovativeness on sustainable waste behaviour. Design/methodology/approach – Primary data was used in the research, and data were collected via questionnaires from individuals living in Türkiye over 18 years old. The research data was obtained by creating a link containing the survey questions in the electronic environment and sending it to the participants via the Internet through various social media platforms. 373 people participated in the research. The structural equation model was applied as the research method. SPSS and SmartPLS 4 package programs were used for statistical analysis. Findings – It has been found that creative reuse has a partial mediating effect between personal innovativeness and sustainable waste behaviour. Research limitations/implications – In future studies, the model can be expanded by including different variables in the research model. Moreover, suppose the survey is applied to a wider audience with more diverse socio-economic characteristics and in different age groups. In that case, strategies can be developed for people at different levels by analyzing according to age groups. Furthermore, similar studies can be conducted in different countries, allowing for cross-country comparisons to be made. Practical implications – The main research results emphasize the importance for organizations to consider boosting users’ personal innovation traits by offering creativity-enhancing practices such as open innovation platforms. Furthermore, it can be suggested that considering the significance of revising sustainable production strategies by innovating through collaboration platforms with users. Originality/value – This study has a unique value that contributes to the field of sustainability by combining personal innovativeness and creativity, which are an essential part of the innovation literature, with reuse, a vital element of the circular economy.

Close to competitor? How geographic proximity impacts small firm innovation

ABSTRACT While innovation literature has extensively explored geographic proximity, limited attention has been devoted to geographic proximity with competitor. In this study, we build a framework to elucidate how geographic proximity with competitor impacts small firm innovation, based on the theoretical perspectives of the liability of smallness and knowledge spillovers. We propose that geographic proximity with competitor has a U-shaped relationship on R&D intensity and a moderating effect on R&D intensity-small firm innovation relationship. Moreover, we propose that industrial park entry moderates the effect of geographic proximity with competitor on R&D intensity. Based on a sample of 673 firms from the China Micro and Small Enterprise Survey (CMES), our results underscore the relevance of geographic proximity with competitors for small firm innovation. Our study advances existing literature by contextualising geographic proximity within a competitive framework and investigating the role of geographic proximity with competitor across the two stages of small firm innovation.