Phenomenon Of Innovation Research Articles

Fashion collaboration or collision?

PurposeThis study aims to exploit the match‐up effect to fashion collaborations by distinguishing the consumers' fit association at a cognitive and attitudinal level. It seeks to investigate the mediating role of the match‐up perception by identifying the antecedents of match‐up perception and the attitude formation in co‐marketing alliance.Design/methodology/approachA total of 273 Korean women were surveyed to compare the product/brand associations, and assess the level of match‐up perception and overall attitude toward the two fictitious co‐marketing alliance cases.FindingsThe study argued that the match‐up perception mediated between framing criteria and the attitude toward co‐marketing alliance. Usage situation, user identity, and perceived brand equity were valuable factors in the perception of alliance match‐up. This match‐up perception at a cognition level is a necessary condition prior to consumer attitude at an attitudinal level.Research limitations/implicationsThe research stimuli are limited to two fictitious alliance cases. Expanding cases to diverse product categories and brands' stimuli enhances the empirical validity. The cross‐cultural approach with diverse regions is further considered for enhancing research reliability.Originality/valueThe study exhibits an innovative fashion collaboration phenomenon. On empirically demonstrating the mediating effect of match‐up perception in the context of co‐marketing alliance, the study suggests the theoretical and practical insights in the Korean and global fashion industries.

Shanzhai manufacturing – an alternative innovation phenomenon in China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore an indigenous innovation phenomenon – entitled the Shanzhai phenomenon – which has emerged in the Chinese mobile phone industry, and to understand its value creation network and operational mechanism, as well as to recognize its policy implications in regional and industrial developments.Design/methodology/approachAlthough the Shanzhai phenomenon emerged from the end of 2008, detailed understanding of its systems and operational mechanism is still very limited, partly because of its secrecy and dynamics in the value chain operations. Based on characteristics of the Shaizhai phenomenon, the paper focuses on three levels of the phenomenon – regional historical, regional industrial specific, and typical Shanzhai mobile phone project levels – to pursue a comprehensive understanding of the Shanzhai system and its emerging environments. At the regional and industrial level, the combined approaches of interview and secondary data collection is adopted. At the Shanzhai project level, a case study approach is conducted by focusing on the project and its whole value chain, from the idea creation towards detailed product design, production and integration, as well as its distribution.FindingsChinese government has called for indigenous innovation to upgrade Chinese manufacturing capability and value creation as well as appropriation. Based on the fast growth of the Chinese indigenous mobile phone industry in the last two years, the Shanzhai manufacturing system is recognized as a new positive alternative way for Chinese manufacturing companies to achieve this aim. Behind the Shanzhai phenomenon, there is a strong globally specialized and collaborated network enabling the down‐stream Chinese small‐ and medium‐sized mobile phone companies to very quickly respond to customers' demands or lead the demands. This new type of alternative innovation system is transforming unaffordable luxury goods into affordable for normal consumers. Because of its mass volume and involvement, however, government policies to harness the energy and development direction become essential.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is just a very early stage of preliminary observation. From the methodology perspective, it provides background information about Shanzhai phenomenon and an in‐depth case study about a Shanzhai project. Comprehensive understandings of the Shanzhai phenomenon in terms of its behaviours, systems constructs and patterns, trajectories in the future and implications for policies will be achieved only at a much later date.Practical implicationsShanZhai manufacturing might be one possible alternative innovative paradigm in some sectors of China.Originality/valueThis is the first academic research paper to offer relatively comprehensive and systematic observations about the emerging ShanZhai manufacturing system in the largest developing country.

Conceptualising the entrepreneurial process using Chinese classics: a paradoxical perspective

This paper aims to build a conceptualisation of the entrepreneurial process from major Chinese classical works of thinking, a non-traditional source of management thought. In particular, it argues that a paradoxical perspective of the entrepreneurial process is an appropriate conceptualisation. It follows the perspective that there is a high component of nation-specific or culture-specific contexts in entrepreneurship. This paper covers the concept of paradox in management theory before establishing a link between paradox and the understanding of entrepreneurial phenomena in that a theory of paradoxical logic is an especially appropriate one to analyse the phenomena of creativity and innovation. Applied to two mini-case studies of Chinese entrepreneurs, it is also suggested that reconciling paradoxes is a dynamic capability that allows entrepreneurs to differentiate themselves and when used appropriately, can facilitate innovation and growth of new ventures.

Aspects of thermal strange quark production: the deconfinement and chiral phase transitions

We study the gluonic sector of the three-flavor PNJL model by obtaining the adjoint Polyakov loop and the gluon distribution function in the mean-field approximation. Besides, we explore the thermal strange quark pair-production processes, q q ¯ → s s ¯ and g g → s s ¯ , with the aid of the three-flavor PNJL model. The results help us identify the temperature where the gluonic contribution to the production rate becomes dominant, which is an innovative phenomenon compared with the result obtained in free perturbation theory.

Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation (review)

Reviewed by: Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation Sylvia Barack Fishman Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation, by Tova Hartman. Hadassah Brandeis Institute Series on Jewish Women. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England/Brandeis University Press, 2008. 162 pp. $19.95. "Orthodox feminism" is viewed by some as an oxymoron, but the paradoxical fact is that contemporary Orthodox feminism has created a whole landscape of new facts on the ground in Israel, the United States, and elsewhere. In her lively and appealing new book, Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation, Tova Hartman explores transformations in Orthodox women's relationship to Judaism, especially around their roles in public Judaism and synagogue life. Building on her own personal experiences in the creation of new styles of Orthodox worship, as well as scholarship in gender studies and sociology of the Orthodox community, Bar Ilan Professor Hartman brings the reader into a dynamic new chapter in Jewish life. The Jewish male-female binary was an important component of the matrix into which Jewish life was historically embedded. Traditional Jewish societies from medieval times onward have defined public Jewish prayer, advanced education, numerous holiday and life cycle rituals and ceremonies, and most leadership activities as male responsibilities. Judaism within its religious culture clearly distinguished between religious "performers," who were almost always men, and religious "facilitators," who were typically women. As Hartman powerfully explains, "In this society, the exclusion of women from Torah study, more than anything else, meant the marginalization of women. Because this culture was so immersed and influenced by the ongoing interpretation of canonical texts, the institutional exclusion of women from yeshiva life and Torah study prevented women from becoming full and active partners in the life of the community." Today, in contrast, Hartman's compelling story reveals that women within the Orthodox world often function as the brokers of Western values. Orthodox women have struggled to combined feminist ideals, such as individualism and self-determination, with traditional Jewish expectations, such as modest dress and family "purity" laws. Orthodox feminist innovations have been facilitated by women's new access to rabbinic scholarship. Hartman and other Orthodox feminists have rejected the concept that their behavior should be dictated by "the male gaze." They study rabbinic texts so that they can determine for themselves the full range of standards that their religious tradition can be understood to offer them. For Hartman, access to public expressions of Jewish spirituality was equally important as acquiring the intellectual tools of Jewish learning. Her [End Page 169] determination to construct a different kind of halakhic prayer environment led to one of the most celebrated changes in recent years: the creation of "partnership minyanim," traditional services that retain a mechitsah (visual separation between male and female worshipers) but that nonetheless allow women to perform all prayer functions from which they are not specifically prohibited by Jewish law. As Hartman explains in her account of the formation of congregation Shirah Hadashah in Jerusalem, women lead in many portions of the service as well as read from and are called up to aliyah Torah honors. (They do not lead during the Amidah services.) Within Orthodox communities in Israel and the United States, Shirah Hadashah and its founders have come under rabbinic fire from some segments of the community for putatively breaking the rules of men's and women's respective roles in the synagogue. The amount of the animus directed against this author and the congregation she helped to found suggests that even their enemies find the partnership minyan a powerful concept. Shirah Hadashah has influenced many outside the Orthodox community as well. Partnership minyanim, sometimes called "Orthodox egalitarian" services, have proliferated. They typically attract surprisingly large numbers of Jewish singles from Conservative and Reform backgrounds, as well as the core of Orthodox men and women who tend to create and maintain them. It is notable that Shirah Hadashah is often attended by Reform rabbinical students studying in Israel for the year. Many assert that they come because they experience the environment to be deeply joyous, moving and spiritual. Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism is a "good read," as well as an inside look at an innovative phenomenon in...

Creative Discovery: Reconsidering the Relationship Between Entrepreneurship and Innovation

The severe recession of 2008–09 has brought to the fore deep concerns regarding the U.S. economy’s ability to continue to grow, let alone to keep pace with emerging nations such as India and China. The scale of job losses and the woes of sectors that are emblematic of the recession—particularly finance and automakers— have left many worrying about a bleak American economic future. Even those who expect a return to growth worry about the United States’ capacity to supply two essential ingredients: innovation and entrepreneurship. Such concerns have spurred increasing investment in broadband Internet connections, additional funding for research and development (R&D), and the largest-ever federal investment in public education—all steps meant to help build a new foundation for economic growth. Public-sector efforts of this type are nothing new in U.S. history. They date back at least to the Morrill and Hatch acts in the late 1800s and continue through the massive expansion of federal investment in R&D after World War II. 1 Such actions are generally credited with helping to ignite bursts of innovation and maintain steady rates of economic growth. In its renewed efforts today, the United States joins Singapore, the European Union, and others in forming deliberate strategies to provide what are considered semipublic goods: the knowledge and the people necessary for productive firms to innovate, create jobs, and boost economic growth. 2 It’s far from clear, however, whether the phenomena of innovation and entrepreneurship are adequately understood for these entities to be making such large commitments. Over the past several years, the work of the Kauffman Foundation has focused on understanding these phenomena and thereby seeking to create more successful entrepreneurs in the United States. During that time, the Foundation has conducted extensive research and developed mechanisms, such as the iBridge Network, to increase the pace of entrepreneurship. 3 Now, with lingering questions about the U.S. economy’s capacity to grow, concerns over the one to two billion people who remain in poverty around the world, and increasing interest in different types of entrepreneurship and innovation, the Foundation has embarked on a newly ambi

Democratizing Innovation: The Evolving Phenomenon of User Innovation

Almost 30 years ago, researchers began a systematic study of innovation by end users and user firms. At that time, the phenomenon was generally regarded as a minor oddity. Today, it is clear that user-centered innovation is a very powerful and general phenomenon. It is rapidly growing due to continuing advances in computing and communication technologies. It is becoming both an important rival to and an important feedstock for manufacturer-centered innovation in many fields. In this article, I provide an overview of what the international research community now understands about user-centered innovation.

The Diversity of Innovation in the European Union: Mapping Latent Dimensions and Regional Profiles

Regional innovation systems are a relevant approach when analysing territories from either a theoretical or an operational point of view. In the last few years, the development of several different comparisons of innovative profiles of sub-national level demonstrates the interest in this paradigm. The article proposes, through an analysis of 175 regions, a typology of regional innovative profiles to understand the diversity of innovation in the European Union. Multivariate statistics were used to find the dimensions underlying the innovation phenomena and to create homogenous groups of regions that display similar profiles. First, Factorial Analysis was used to reduce regional indicators to their latent dimensions (Technological Innovation, Human Capital, Economic Structure and Labour Market Availability). Second, a hierarchical analysis of clusters was undertaken, resulting in five groupings of regions (Disadvantaged Regions, Average Regions, Central Regions, Large Economic Centres and Innovating Regions). The results of the study are compared with other relevant analyses and some consensual ideas are achieved. Physical proximity still has a relevant impact on innovation processes. The planning and policy-making of innovation must take into account this profile diversity and should originate actions adapted to each specific context. With a political agenda such as Lisbon's, which intends to create a competitive territory, the focus on an indicator such as gross domestic product is extremely inadequate for fundamental decisions related to financing regional policy. More meaningful analysis like the one carried out in the article could be an example to evaluate future regional budgets in terms of European regional policy.

Innovative processes and procedural rationality. Innovations as outcomes of a sequence of strategic actions

The aim of this paper is to frame the process and/or product innovation phenomenon in the perspective of the relationship between economic decisions and cognition. The author believes that the best way to interpret this relationship is to make use of Herbert Simon's procedural rationality approach. In fact, this approach is framed within the more general approach of bounded rationality that is here used to emphasize how innovations have the task of responding to issues of environmental uncertainty and computational complexity that businesses have to face.

Innovation regional planning and latent dimensions: the case of the Algarve region

Regional innovation systems (RSI) concept is an important theoretical framework to analyse regional profiles of regions when trying to understand Innovation but it has also been used by practioners to design and implement policies. This study hopes to contribute to the understanding of the Algarve RSI, a peripheral Portuguese region in the National and European framework, where an economic growth is supported by Tourism, which leaves it out of the group of poorest regions when the GDPpc indicator is taken in account. The regional profile, the comparison with the other European regions and the characterisation of RSI following developed typologies are discussed in this paper. Through the analysis of 175 regions of the EU 15 the study seeks to find the dimensions underlying the innovative phenomena and to create homogeneous groups of regions that display similar profiles. Factorial Analysis was used to reduce the dimension of data from a barrage of regional indicators such as: Critical Mass of Territories, Economic Performance, Level of Wealth, Employment Market, Sectoral Structure of the Economy, Age Group Structure, Education and Training, Technological Employment, R&D and Patents. Having determined the four main factors with significant results (Technological Innovation, Human Capital, Economic Structure and Availability of the Employment Market) what followed was a hierarchical analysis of Clusters, resulting in five groupings of regions: Disadvantaged Regions, Average Regions, Central Regions, Large Economic Centres and Innovating Regions. A synthesis of the recent Regional Innovation Strategies for the Algarve is presented including previous experiences (Ettirse and INOVAlgarve) and the Algarve’s Regional Innovation Plan, which will try to create a pathway for regional development supported by knowledge-based activities for a more diversified regional economy.

Status quo der theoretischen und empirischen Innovationskulturforschung sowie Konstruktkonzeptualisierung des Phänomens Innovationskultur

An innovation orientated corporate culture is often seen as a driving force for the development and implementation of innovative products and processes. In the theoretical discussion concerning the culture of innovation phenomena a general accepted definition and a clear understanding concerning the content of such a culture seems not to exist. From analyzing conceptual papers and empirical studies, an integrative summary of the previous researches is developed in order to identify the main dimensions of an innovation orientated culture. This systematical approach provides a framework for further analysis and exploration of a culture of innovation.

Innovation At and Across Multiple Levels of Analysis

In this introductory article for the Special Issue on Innovation At and Across Multiple Levels of Analysis, we review major streams of extant research on innovation to establish a clear role for multilevel theory and research within this domain. We then examine and illustrate two fundamental and complementary approaches for investigating multilevel linkages—bottom-up emergent processes and top-down processes. In a brief commentary on each paper in the special issue, we overview the conceptual questions addressed by the research, identify the particular model of multilevel effects that serves as its foundation, and suggest how the use of multilevel models provides insights that help us better understand how innovation phenomena at one level of analysis are linked to those at another, thus providing a richer and more complete perspective on innovation. We conclude by identifying major methodological and applied contributions of the special issue and suggesting future research directions for the study of innovation at and across multiple levels of analysis.

Developing a Culture for Entrepreneurship in the East of England

Most UK Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) have committed themselves to developing an Enterprise Strategy for their region. This commitment is mainly in response to the current Labour government's keenness to see enterprise and entrepreneurship at the centre of any economic development agenda. Pro-entrepreneurship policies have been embraced as a means of generating economic growth and diversity, ensuring competitive markets, helping the unemployed to create jobs for themselves, countering poverty and welfare dependency, encouraging labour market flexibility and drawing individuals out of informal economic activity. The regional dimension of economic regeneration has been influenced, in part, by increasing interest in the local ramifications of national innovation and entrepreneurship policies, and also by growing awareness of the local or regional phenomenon of enterprise creation and innovation. The authors examine the connection between R&D activities in universities and the creation of new businesses (in particular ICT firms), and especially the role that social capital plays in fostering these relationships or connections. Preliminary empirical analyses suggest the importance of university–high-tech industry social capital in generating technology based start-ups. The findings suggest a case for fostering ‘connectedness’ between research universities and high-technology firms in regions with interest in technology-based entrepreneurship.

Innovation and Imitation as Sources of Sustainable Competitive Advantage

The present study fills some of the void in the literature on the concept and phenomenon of innovation and imitation. Basing our arguments on features that the literature indicates are characteristics of innovation, we delimit the concepts of innovation and imitation. Using these features and considering a company’s degree of entrepreneurial and market orientation, we devise a typology of companies ranging from radical innovators to strict imitators. We also argue that some key factors and the choice of appropriate strategy determine whether innovative and imitative companies can obtain and maintain their sustainable competitive advantages.

Barriers to user innovation: moving towards a paradigm of 'licence to innovate'?

Research into the phenomenon of user innovation has been sprouting in recent years like seeds after a rainy spring. Users have been found to be an important source of innovation in many different industries. An investigation of the barriers that users face when attempting to innovate is nevertheless lacking completely. In this paper, we attempt to fill this gap by discussing various factors that can prevent users from innovating. The evolution of the seed-breeding industry will be used for illustration purposes. We will argue that the barriers to user innovation seem to be progressing, potentially indicating that a paradigm change may be imminent.

Fostering product innovation in industry networks: the mediating role of knowledge integration

The locus of innovation has shifted from single entrepreneurial firms to groups of networked firms. Inter-organizational cooperation rather than competition to exploit the value of knowledge through new product innovation lies at the heart of the knowledge-based economy. This paper focuses on the phenomenon of network product innovation and the holistic integration of distributed knowledge across organizational boundaries to foster production innovation. A new construct, knowledge integration, is found to have a strong positive impact on new product performance. Resource complementarity, market orientation, and information sharing are three antecedents that positively affect knowledge integration across organizational boundaries. Survey data also suggest that knowledge integration serves as a mediator between the three antecedents and product innovation performance. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.

Democratizing innovation: The evolving phenomenon of user innovation

Almost 30 years ago, researchers began a systematic study of innovation by end users and user firms. At that time, the phenomenon was generally regarded as a minor oddity. Today, it is clear that user-centered innovation is a very powerful and general phenomenon. It is rapidly growing due to continuing advances in computing and communication technologies. It is becoming both an important rival to and an important feedstock for manufacturer-centered innovation in many fields. In this article, I provide an overview of what the international research community now understands about user-centered innovation.

Trademarks as an indicator of innovation and industrial change

As innovation becomes an ever more central issue for the development of firms and world economies, so the need for improved assessments of innovative performance grows more urgent. This paper suggests that trademark analysis can contribute in capturing relevant aspects of innovation phenomena and the process of industrial change. We propose trademarks as a complementary indicator in the portfolio of available empirical tools of innovation studies and industrial dynamics. Our empirical exploration is based on a study of community trade marks (CTM), an intellectual property right granted in the European Union, and draws on recent research on trademarking trends in Portugal. Quantitative as well as qualitative data, including survey data from a representative sample of Portuguese manufacturing and services firms, are used to identify the advantages and limitations of this indicator.

On strategies of educational innovation: Between substitution and transformation

The innovation of education seems to be self-evident. Boosted by a wide range of new technologies, educational institutes all over the world are innovating their educational systems, in order to extend their services, to improve their performances or to reduce costs. The apparent self-evidence of educational innovation hardly prompts the educational staff to reflect on the very idea of innovation and its consequences. This paper treats the basic principles that support the phenomenon of technology-induced educational innovation. It aims to contribute to a better insight and understanding of its implications to anyone engaged in education. It also aims to effect a growing awareness of the premises on technology and to support the right attitude to realise improvements in practice. The paper goes into strategies of change, while discussing both substitutional and transformational strategies. It explains its supposed differences by referring to the philosophical frameworks of Jaspers, Heidegger and Borgmann. Starting from Borgmann's "devices paradigm", four principles for educational innovations are formulated, referring to the transparency and interactivity of educational technologies, the socio-cultural significance of products, the importance of values beyond efficiency and the political bias involved with technological innovation.

Modes de coopération et transformations de l'action publique au niveau local. Le cas de la France

The theme of public policy transformation is approached through an analysis of the coordination methods used by public actors who construct jointly managed public policies at the local level. First, we examine the coordination methods from the angle of the evolution of the representations of public intervention, through the study of path dependence and innovation phenomena. Then, the different types of rules structuring the coordinations are compared using the concepts of power and constraint, in order to explain how State and territorial community action is evolving in France. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]