Innovation Literature Research Articles

Effects of blockchain technology (BT) on the university librarians and libraries: a systematic literature review (SLR)

PurposeThe objectives of the study were to identify the effects of blockchain technology (BT) on the university librarians, the impact of BT on the university library services and to reveal the challenges to adopt BT in the university libraries.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review was applied to address the objectives of the study. Around 25 studies published in peer-reviewed journals were selected to conduct the study.FindingsThe findings of the study revealed that blockchain technology (BT) has positive effects on the university librarians as it assists them in digital resources management, provision of integrated library services, effective records management and continued professional development. The study also displayed that BT has a positive impact on the university libraries through effective information management, user privacy, collaboration, technological innovation and access control. Results also revealed that technical issues, financial constraints, security problems, skill issues and sociocultural issues created challenges to adopt BT in the university libraries.Originality/valueThe study has offered theoretical implications for future investigators through the provision of innovative literature on the prospectus and challenges associated with blockchain in the context of librarianship. The study has also provided practical implications for management bodies by offering recommendations for the successful adoption of blockchain in the university libraries. Additionally, a framework has been developed to adopt BT successfully in the university libraries for the delivery of smart library services to library patrons.

Entrepreneurial performance and marketing analytics: the role of new product innovation

PurposePrevious studies focus on the direct effects of marketing analytics on entrepreneurial performance, but few explore the underlying mechanisms. Drawing on affordance theory, this study explores pathways through new product innovation (NPI) for the effects of marketing analytics on business performance. NPI is a market-based innovation concept comprising customer- and competitor-driven NPD and incremental innovation.Design/methodology/approachUsing survey data collected from UK-based entrepreneurial firms operating in the IT and telecoms industries, we apply confirmatory factor analysis and a sequential structural equation model to test the mediating role of NPI in the effect of marketing analytics on market performance and financial performance.FindingsThe results show that marketing analytics enhances business performance through competitor-driven but not customer-driven NPD. Although using marketing analytics to generate customer knowledge for existing product innovation may enhance market performance, this positive effect becomes negative when competitor-driven NPD is undertaken to improve existing product innovation.Originality/valueThis study makes significant contributions to the innovation and NPD literature. It delves deeper into the existing view on the positive contributions of customer engagement to business value creation, revealing the significance of competitor knowledge to enhance business performance through marketing analytics, particularly in the context of IT and telecoms entrepreneurial firms.

Eco-innovation and financial performance nexus: Does company size matter?

Nowadays, there is an increasing recognition of the value of eco-innovation in both academic and practical spheres. Establishing the connection between eco-innovation and corporate performance is highly important. This paper aimed to analyze the correlation between eco-innovation, corporate performance, and company size. To accomplish this goal, the paper collected unique data from 383 global non-financial companies using the Refinitiv Eikon database from 2013 to 2022. This paper uses fixed effect and (generalized method of moment) GMM techniques to overcome possible endogeneity concerns. The strong empirical results display a positive relationship between eco-innovation and corporate performance. Importantly, this paper discovered that the size of companies significantly magnifies the effect of eco-innovation on corporate performance. Our findings are still robust to endogeneity concerns. The results confirm that prioritizing eco-innovation can benefit larger companies in multiple ways, including boosting productivity, avoiding penalties, expanding into new markets, improving green image, and gaining a competitive edge, all of which ultimately enhance corporate performance. Additionally, the extensive evaluation by stakeholders enables these larger corporations to generate increased profits. This paper aims to contribute the innovation literature by exploring an under-explored topic using extensive panel data and offering practical guidance for non-financial firm stakeholders. The implications of the findings have various impacts on future research and policy development. Furthermore, this paper aims to assist policymakers in establishing impactful mechanisms and guidelines that foster ecologically conscious attitudes. The conclusion assists managers in grasping the importance of context-based eco-innovation.

Indriķis Laube latviešu rakstniecībā

The article analyses the literary works of the writer and publicist Indriķis Laube (1841–1889) in Latvian literary culture in the 1870s and 1880s. The aim of this article is to analyse the significance of Laube’s literary activity and describe his contribution to Latvian prose fiction, humorous satirical literature and journalism. Methodologically, the article employs the approach of the social history of literature by highlighting the interaction between social change and literary innovations. Summarising the information about Laube’s work scattered in publications so far, the article identifies the main research questions for further studies of his work, formulates those aspects of Laube’s work that are connected with the political and national transformations in the period after the Young Latvian movement in the 1860s, and also offers to locate Laube’s place among his contemporaries. The story “Smiltnieku Andrejs” is interpreted as Laube’s main work in the article, which depicts a Latvian peasant’s intellectual and professional growth in the interaction between German and Russian cultural impulses. In addition, attention is paid to issues of women’s emancipation in Laube’s works, as well as to his humorous prose, in which the social and political problems of his time are addressed. Laube is described as a typical representative of his era, who has combined the autodidact’s ambition to popularise scientific and cultural affairs with the work of a literary critic. At the same time, Laube occupies a special place in the landscape of the Latvian national culture of his time due to the fact that, being born in a German-Latvian family and raised in a German environment, he made a conscious decision to become a Latvian and get involved in the national revival movement.

Perceived value of microfinance and SME performance: The role of exploratory innovation

This study examines how perceived value of microfinance and exploratory innovation affect small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) performance in the context of a developing nation. Drawing on the strategic innovation and microfinance literature, we hypothesize that (1) perceived value of microfinance affects exploratory innovation and SME performance, and (2) exploratory innovation serves as an effective mechanism through which microfinance enhances SME performance. We employ partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test our hypotheses. Using a sample of 581 Ghanaian SMEs with microfinance, the results of the PLS-SEM support our hypotheses. We further conducted a qualitative analysis of comments provided by the SMEs (n = 144) to gain a deeper understanding of exploratory innovation in developing economies. Our findings show that SMEs purposefully attempt to strengthen their exploratory innovation in microfinance. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings as well as future research avenues.

Enhancing social well-being through social innovation approach and design expertise: a case study for social innovation in a local district in Turkey

Design-driven scenarios can play a critical role in enhancing social and environmental well-being and creating sustainable solutions for better living conditions and sustainable futures. With this starting point, this study aims to use traditional knowledge as a source for sustainable development and a sustainable way of living by examining, empowering, and promoting local and traditional values through social innovation approach and design expertise. The main motivation of the study is to construct an intended link between traditional knowledge and a sustainable future for societies. The research was conducted by examining a multi-cultural local district in Turkey and its traditional and sustainable habits and proposing development ideas based on the social innovation literature and authors’ design expertise. The proposed ideas involve different approaches such as an ecosystem that promotes co-creation, women’s employment, symbiotic production processes, and digital marketing platforms for local products.

The Renewal of a Concept: Analyzing “Innovation” Through The Five Contexts Framework

In Cooper’s and White’s “Distinguished Performances: The Educative Role of Disciplines in Qualitative Research in Education” published in the International Review of Qualitative Research (2009), Cooper and White describe programs of research that led them to develop “The Five Contexts,” a analytical framework for conducting, understanding, and interpreting qualitative research in education and in other disciplines (169). That article ends with a question: “How can we delve more deeply into The Five Contexts to develop greater understanding of issues that cross disciplinary lines?” (185). This paper applies The Five Contexts framework to a theoretical analysis of the term “innovation”. As education researchers embarking on a research project on innovation in social sciences and humanities education, Cooper and Waterman view innovation literature, especially the work of Benoît Godin, through the lenses of The Five Contexts—autobiographical, historical, political, postmodern, and philosophical. The discussion provides a critical analysis of the term “innovation” in the educational context. It suggests that the concept of innovation in education may be due for a renewal, in the sense of a return of the old as new and a broader concept of innovation beyond information technology, which is becoming status quo. This paper provides an example of employing The Five Contexts analytical framework as a tool for theoretical analysis, with “innovation” as the concept being explored.

Do R&D intensity and capacity utilisation matter for SMEs' innovations within the CEE region? Testing moderating roles of different ownership structures.

Existing innovation literature has assumed that the relationship between firms' R&D intensity and innovation take place without the interplay of other organizational factors. However, the reality differs, and research to date has shown that other factors affecting firms' innovation need to be considered. This is important especially in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries, which are highly dependent on both internal and external R&D and are associated with an inability to use R&D resources effectively. This study therefore responds to calls for further analysis, especially within the CEE region, and focuses on the role of two factors affecting SMEs' innovativeness and their effects, which have been mixed so far. First, we investigate the effects of SMEs' R&D intensity and capacity utilisation on product innovation. Second, we reveal the moderating role of SMEs' different ownership structures (ownership concentration; private/public ownership; family/non-family ownership) in the relationship between R&D intensity and product innovation. We confirm that CEE SMEs' ownership concentration and private ownership moderate the relationship between R&D intensity and product innovation. In contrast, we reject our hypothesis expecting that family ownership of SMEs can significantly moderate the relationship between R&D intensity and product innovation. Interestingly, we also show that the relationship between capacity utilisation and innovation is non-linear (inverted U-shaped). This study makes a significant contribution in the form of analysis within the CEE region, whose innovation systems are seen to be weak, and it is therefore necessary to bring new knowledge and recommendations to managers and public policymakers.

Innovation in finance: a bibliometric and content-analysis study

PurposeFinance continuously evolves as the technological innovation progresses in the society. Numerous prior studies have discussed emerging financial services due to this innovation. However, limited scholarly work has evaluated the trends and state of the art of financial innovation. Therefore, this study aims to review recent literature on financial innovation by using a bibliometric and content-analysis approach.Design/methodology/approachDocuments for this study are sampled from financial innovation, a journal focusing on recent innovations in finance. A total of 354 peer-reviewed articles published in eight years (2015–2022) are first examined and mapped using the bibliometrix package in RStudio software. Furthermore, content analysis was performed to investigate the adopted research methods and types, and produce directions for future studies.FindingsThe trend of financial innovation research kept increasing, with China as the leader in publication quantity, affiliation productivity and paper citation acquisition. Topics related to “FinTech,” “Bitcoin” and “Covid-19” have been the most discussed topics by financial innovation researchers. FinTech and Bitcoin studies are expected to grow in emerging countries like China, India and Pakistan. The study also indicates that most financial innovation studies use quantitative research methods and are categorized as empirical papers.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the finance literature by comprehensively evaluating current research on financial innovation using one specific journal in the field. Also, this study examines financial innovation literature using different approaches from previous bibliometric financial innovation studies.

The development of Innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems in cities: An institutional work approach

The innovation literature is growing rapidly, and a primary concern revolves around the contexts that foster and enhance innovation and entrepreneurial outcomes. Research on innovation environments still requires further development. This paper sheds light on fostering and developing innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems in cities from the institutional work perspective, emphasizing the need to institutionalize collaboration. The paper employs the case study method with a process data approach. The study took place in two Latin American cities, Porto Alegre and Florianópolis, within a cultural context characterized by a non-cooperative background. The findings are linked to the institutionalization of collaboration in the development of innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems, unfolding in three phases involving three groups of roles: leaders, supporters, and the community. The practices are associated with the leader's group in the first phase (Preparing for Collaboration). The second phase (Strengthening Collaboration) expands the practices and adjusts the focus to the supporter's group. Additionally, the third phase (Disseminating Collaboration) continues to broaden the scope and gains relevance for the community's group. Therefore, the evolution of the phases is connected to the expansion of the range of institutionalization practices and a focus on the most active roles. These results carry significant implications for the theory and practice of innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem emergence, offering insights into the phases and roles critical for fostering innovation environments. Furthermore, they can provide practical guidance for other cities or regions aiming to cultivate robust innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Dynamic control of a firm’s process innovation with knowledge accumulation in a vertically differentiated monopoly

This paper explores a multiproduct firm’s process innovation of high-and low-quality goods with knowledge accumulation in a vertically differentiated monopoly. We show that: (i) the system admits a saddle-point steady-state equilibrium under firm decision-making and social planner adjustment, respectively; (ii) the firm’s learning rates of knowledge accumulation of process innovation call for more intense efforts in both directions; (iii) there is a substitution between the process innovation for these two kinds of goods; (iv) the social incentive towards both kinds of innovation efforts is always larger than the private incentive characterizing the profit-seeking firm. Our contribution extends the dynamic innovation literature that focuses on single-good and considers the effects of corresponding knowledge accumulation on process innovation of these two kinds of goods. Further, this theoretical work contributes to the design of efficient innovation effort strategies for firms’ process innovation with corresponding knowledge accumulation in a vertically differentiated monopoly market.

Naguib Mahfouz: A Nobel Laureate Shaping the Legacy of Arabic Literature

Naguib Mahfouz, one of Egypt’s most celebrated novelists, is a cornerstone of modern Arabic literature. His remarkable contributions to the literary world earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988, making him the first Arabic-language writer to receive this prestigious accolade. Mahfouz’s literary career began in the 1930s when he published his debut novel, “The Absurdity of Destiny”. Over several decades, he produced impressive work that included over 50 novels, numerous short stories, and plays. His writings often explored profound themes such as existential dilemmas, social and political dynamics, and the intricate nature of human relationships.A hallmark of Mahfouz’s storytelling is his deep engagement with Egyptian society, vividly portraying thelives, struggles, and aspirations of ordinary people. His iconic “Cairo Trilogy”, which includes “Palace Walk” (Bayn al-Qaṣrayn), “Palace of Desire” (Qaṣr al-Shawq), and “Sugar Street” (Sukkariya), is a monumental achievement in Arabic literature. This trilogy offers a sweeping narrative of family life across three generations while capturing the cultural, social, and political shifts in Egypt from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. Through his masterful use of language and insightful exploration of human experiences, Mahfouz’s work transcended regional boundaries, earning him international recognition and cementing his legacy as a literary pioneer. His profound influence continues to inspire readers and writers around the globe.

Innovation as a Differentiation Strategy: Its Differential Substitution Effects on Corporate Social Responsibility

The engineering management literature has long acknowledged that innovation is the most significant differentiation strategy for firms to achieve competitiveness and hence firm performance. More recently, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is recognized as another differentiation strategy which also contributes to firm performance. However, the joint performance effects of innovation and CSR have not been sufficiently investigated, particularly on the interplay between different types of innovation and CSR. This study classifies innovation into solitary and collaborative innovation as well as incremental and radical innovation to examine their differential effects. Employing a panel dataset of 2377 Chinese manufacturing firms during the period of 2010–2019, we discover that there exists an inverted U-shaped CSR–performance relationship. More importantly, we reveal that collaborative innovation has a stronger attenuating effect on the inverted U-shaped performance effect of CSR than solitary innovation. Similarly, radical innovation has a stronger attenuating effect than incremental innovation. Our research advances the innovation and CSR literature by providing novel insights regarding how different types of innovation alter the curvilinear performance effect of CSR in an emerging economy.

Research on performance feedback path under the influence of organizational restructuring

In diverse and changing environments, organizations often need to reorganize their teams in order to adapt to market changes, improve performance and promote innovation. Team restructuring involves the merging, realignment, or reorganization of different departments or teams, usually accompanied by reassignment of personnel, changes in roles, and new job requirements. The innovation and organizational theory literatures argue that implementing radical innovation can be facilitated or hindered by the organization’s structural design (Abraham YNahm, 2003), a process in which the integration of elements and performance feedback become crucial factors that affect the success of the team and employee satisfaction. team success and employee satisfaction. Specialization, formalization, informal social relations and link mechanisms have positive significant effects on innovation capability (Mohammad Iranmanesh, 2021) The purpose of this paper is to analyze the feedback paths of factor integration and performance outputs of reorganized teams in the hope of providing a multifactorial theoretical support for reorganized teams and finding positive feedbacks of performance outputs.

Archive: "Founded on Facts": Correcting Misattribution of the Novels Monima (1802) and Margaretta (1807)

Abstract: Using archival and genealogical sources, this study corrects the long-standing misattribution of the American novels Monima; or, The Beggar Girl (1802) and Margaretta; or, The Intricacies of the Heart (1807) to Martha Meredith Read. Their true author, Mary Endress Ralston (1772–1850), is introduced as a bilingual Pennsylvania German Lutheran literary pioneer.

Transformation and Innovation of Chinese Modern and Contemporary Literature in the Context of the Digital Age

Abstract With the rapid development of digital technology, Chinese modern and contemporary literature is facing unprecedented challenges of transformation and innovation, and how to realize the innovation of literature in the context of the digital era has become the key. This study adopts a combination of natural language processing and knowledge mapping to analyze literary works’ narrative vein and character relationships. The research process includes text preprocessing, constructing co-occurrence matrix, LDA topic model analysis, knowledge graph construction and narrative line visualization. The results show that the performance of characters, emotions and plots in modern and contemporary literary works has significant characteristics, and the co-occurrence analysis reveals the close connection between literary works. Through clustering analysis and association rule mining, a significant correlation was found between the style of literary works and narrative content. It is concluded that Chinese modern and contemporary literature shows diverse narrative styles and thematic contents in the digital transformation, an important revelation for literary innovation and development.

A Window of Opportunity: Radical Versus Repurposing Innovation Under Conditions of Environmental Uncertainty and Crisis.

In this article, we extend the innovation literature by examining how firms respond to crisis, specifically exogenous crises. At their early onset, crises may represent a window of opportunity for innovation, but it is not equally allocated across firms. We created a unique database of 636 biopharmaceutical firms, from 24 countries and territories, developing innovative treatments during the early outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis to study this phenomenon. We found that firms acted strategically to the shifting external environment and attempted to capitalize on the opportunity by pursuing different but complementary innovation strategies (i.e., radical versus repurposed). The successful outcome of a chosen strategy was highly dependent upon a firm's accumulated knowledge resources, which varied in degree of diversity (i.e., homogeneous versus heterogeneous). We found that firms with more focused R&D (i.e., homogeneous knowledge) developed more radical innovations, whereas firms with more diverse R&D (i.e., heterogeneous knowledge) repurposed innovations. We controlled for firm size (small versus large), firm age (startup versus mature), and country classification (developing versus emerging). We also controlled for a firm's prior knowledge and expertise in coronavirus research and found that it did not influence innovation. Our results suggest that this unique period of environmental uncertainty and crisis created a window of opportunity and a level playing field for innovation.

Research versus development, external knowledge, and firm innovation

AbstractWhile the positive influence of external knowledge on firm innovation is widely recognized, our understanding of the interplay between the quest for external knowledge and internally conducted research and development (R&D) remains incomplete. Previous research has identified certain conditions that shape the synergy between internal and external knowledge, such as the institutional origin of the external knowledge and the overall scale of the firm's internal R&D activities. In this study, we focus on an important but not yet considered dimension and analyze whether the returns from external knowledge sourcing are contingent upon a firm's internal involvement in basic or applied research as opposed to development. We argue that engaging in research, while supporting a firm's absorptive capacity, leads overall to lower benefits from seeking external knowledge because of knowledge crowding out and spillover effects. We test our predictions using a representative panel dataset from Spain (Panel de Innovación Tecnológica [PITEC]) and show that the benefits of external knowledge decrease for higher shares of internal research investment. This substitution effect is particularly pronounced in settings where sector‐level appropriability is limited and in nonhigh‐tech sectors. We contribute to the innovation literature by underscoring the important role of the nature of internal R&D efforts in shaping firms' capacity to benefit from external knowledge sources.

Green Innovation for Small-to Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs): Systematic Literature Review

The green innovation literature of the past few decades is not only interesting for research due to its high level of environmental awareness and the provision of green products and services, but also because of its widespread and important applications. This study aims to determine research trends related to the adoption of green innovation, especially in SMEs during 2013-2023 by using Systematic Literature Review techniques. The result of this research identifies the key elements factors of GI for managers and ultimately serve as an important reference to help formulate GI activity strategies. This research can serve as a foundation for scientific development so that the number of studies related to new topics related to green innovation also continues to increase

Scaling for social impact: understanding social innovation through local empowerment strategies

PurposeThis paper aims to provide a nuanced understanding of philosophies underpinning social innovation based on the action research strategies applied in the field.Design/methodology/approachLiterature review was conducted to identify action research strategies referred to in the social innovation literature. Through stratified purposive sampling, the authors then selected nonprofit organizations, each closely associated with one of the strategies. Qualitative content analysis was applied to documents published by these organizations for an in-depth exploration of how the action research strategies frame the three dimensions of social innovation, namely, the product, process and empowerment dimensions.FindingsThe authors identified four broad action research strategies referred to in the social innovation literature. Each strategy inspires four distinct narratives of social innovation centered around key concepts: prototyping, evidence, asset-building and co-creation.Research limitations/implicationsThe methodology used is characterized by depth rather than scope. Although diverse types of documents were used, the documents are limited to publications by four institutions. A deductive approach using the categories should be used in future empirical research.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the discussion about different schools and research agendas in the field of social innovation. In particular, the authors examine the action research strategies adopted in the field, shedding light on incompatible views and strategies within certain research clusters while identifying common ground between authors belonging to different schools.