Innovation Performance Measurement Research Articles

Does Foreign Direct Investment Boost Innovation? The Case of the Visegrad and Baltic Countries

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to examine the impact of inward and outward foreign direct investment on innovation performance of the Visegrad and Baltic countries.Methodology/Approach: The study follows an open-system approach to consider the determinants of national innovation performance, taking into account both inward and outward FDI. We use two-step analysis that combines panel data regression analysis with the design of two FDI – innovation performance matrixes.Findings: The results of the study provide evidence that only outward foreign direct investment of domestic firms contributes significantly to the innovation performance of these countries and that this effect is more visible in the case of the Visegrad countries.Research Limitation/Implication: The limitations of the study are associated in particular with the selection of SII as a measure of national innovation performance. The use of this indicator is also related to the relatively short period of availability of consistent data, especially in connection with changes in the methodology of SII calculation.Originality/Value of paper: The policy implications of the paper suggest the need for stronger support of domestic bearers of cross-border capital movements in an attempt to boost national innovation performance.

The impact of employee welfare on innovation performance: Evidence from China's manufacturing corporations

A large amount of literature has addressed the significant effects of some internal and external factors on corporate innovation performance. However, no research in the field of production economics focuses on the plausible impact of employee welfare on innovation performance of manufacturing corporations. Using a large sample data from Chinese listed manufacturing corporations over the period of 2010–2017, this study investigates whether and how employee welfare affects corporate innovation performance. We find that manufacturing corporations with higher employee welfare have better innovation performances measured by three categories of patent applications and this positive relationship is mainly reflected in the level of quality of innovation but not in the quantity of it. Then, various robustness checks further show that our results are not biased by alternative measures of innovation performance or employee welfare through different regression methods. In addition, the channel tests show that the positive impacts of employee welfare on innovation performances in China's manufacturing corporations are mainly achieved by retaining outstanding employees, attracting positive media reports and increasing inventor (R&D) efficiency. Finally, we test the validity of three impact channels by using mediating effect analysis and further confirm our conclusions.

The role of innovation capacity and technology adoption towards product innovation performance measurement in micro small enterprises food industry

This study aims to measuring and revealing the role of innovation capacity and technology adoption towards product innovation performance in Micro Small Enterprises (MSEs) Food Industry. The research has applied analysis and clustering, regression and path analysis, by collecting data from a set of questionnaires to 76% of the total MSEs in food industry under the guidance of Research Unit for Natural Product Technology-Indonesia Institute of Sciences. The results demonstrated that innovation capacity variable has a significant effect which leads to a positive association with product innovation performance, as well as the existence of a significant indirect relationship through adoption technology as a mediator variable. Suggestions for conducting technology intervention in accordance with the results of regression test and clustering that are formed based on product characteristics and scale of business to improve food safety and product innovation performance are presented.

Supply chain innovation performance evaluation based on the cross-efficiency concept: case study of Supply Chain Innovation Award's winners, runner-ups and finalists

This paper suggests a DEA-based structure for efficiency evaluation of supply chain innovations considering innovation risk and performance improvement. In this model, risk paradigms of supply chain innovation and popular supply chain performance measures are considered as the input and output of CCR-output oriented model respectively. Defect of DEA in ranking the efficient units has been solved by cross-efficiency concept and a practical case study of Supply Chain Innovation Award's winners, runner-ups and finalists is implemented. The obtained results lead to develop the 'effective innovation' concept within the supply chain management field which provides an innovation with the lowest possible risk and the highest positive effect on supply chain performance measures.

Hierarchical business value of information technology: Toward a digital innovation value chain

Information technology (IT) increasingly changes the ways through which firms develop and commercialize innovation. Prior studies have mainly focused on the direct effect of IT use on innovation performance, while little is known about how IT use for different purposes in the innovation processes leads to innovation performance at the organizational level. Drawing on the routine-based absorptive capacity (AC) framework, we conceptualize IT use for knowledge search and relational search as IT-enabled internal and external AC routines and unveil the hierarchical benefits resulting from IT use for innovation. We propose a model in which firms need to purposefully use IT to search for knowledge in the new product development process or search for relationships in the collaborative innovation process, leading to first-order benefits (i.e., internal innovation benefits and open innovation benefits) and, in turn, second-order benefits (i.e., innovation performance). By using a unique data set from 1028 German firms between 2003 and 2007, we find that IT use for knowledge search enhances internal innovation benefits, whereas IT use for relational search increases open innovation benefits. More importantly, internal and open innovation benefits mediate the relationships between IT use for knowledge and relational search and various innovation performance measures. Taken together, our findings shed light on a deeper understanding of the digital innovation value chain.

On Measuring Countries' Innovation Performance: Organisational Level Perspective

Innovation performance of countries is an important input for the governmental policy‑making. However, currently popular rankings such as Eurostat’s Summary Innovation Index instil one‑approach‑fits‑all perspective by clearly specifying success conditions without considering contingency factors that make each country’s situation unique. Our aim is to contrast current approach for innovation performance measurement on both country and organisational levels. We believe that the organisational level perspective can offer an inspiration for a change in the country level indicators themselves. Our study raises several concerns about the current state of the country level innovation measurement, notably exclusion of a higher number of innovation process indicators and omission of specific internal and external factors of measured countries. We propose that indicators accounting for these areas would offer more a realistic and useful picture of innovation performance.

COOPERATION FOR INNOVATION AND ITS IMPACT ON TECHNOLOGICAL AND NON-TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR EUROPEAN SMES IN TRADITIONAL MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

Drawing on a sample of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in traditional manufacturing industries from seven EU regions, this study investigates how cooperation with external organisations affects technological (product and process) innovations and non-technological (organisational and marketing) innovations as well as the commercial success of product and process innovations (i.e., innovative sales). Our empirical strategy takes into account that all four types of innovation are potentially complementary. Empirical results suggest that cooperation increases firms’ innovativeness and yields substantial commercial benefits. In particular, increasing the number of cooperation partnerships has a positive impact on all measures of innovation performance. We conclude that a portfolio approach to cooperation enhances innovation performance and that innovation support programs should be demand-led.

Supply chain innovation performance evaluation based on cross efficiency concept: Case study of Supply Chain Innovation Award’s Winners, Runner-ups and Finalists

This paper suggests a DEA-based structure for efficiency evaluation of supply chain innovations considering innovation risk and performance improvement. In this model, risk paradigms of supply chain innovation and popular supply chain performance measures are considered as the input and output of CCR-output oriented model respectively. Defect of DEA in ranking the efficient units has been solved by cross-efficiency concept and a practical case study of Supply Chain Innovation Award's winners, runner-ups and finalists is implemented. The obtained results lead to develop the 'effective innovation' concept within the supply chain management field which provides an innovation with the lowest possible risk and the highest positive effect on supply chain performance measures.

Organizational and Process Improvements of Investment Processes Administered by Courts in the Czech Republic

The goal of this paper is to identify gaps in the efficiency of investment processes of courts in the Czech Republic and to analyse their causes.The authors also suggested some innovative solutions. Preliminary literature research shows that this problem hasn´t been solved yet. Based on the results of the research, the court administration effectiveness lags behind optimum performance. Any further protraction of existing practices would cause inefficiencies and funds wasting. The court administration still operates within the framework of bureaucratic-administrative processes, the foundations of which were laid down in later Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. Moreover, the fundamentals of modern management approaches, like process management or innovation performance measurement haven´t been tackled yet. The main originality of this research lies in lack of a similar investigation to be carried out at the Ministry of Justice.

Profiles of human capital and strategic technological decisions on turbulence environment

<p>The objective of this article is to examine the absorptive capacity in the technology industry and aspires to recognize how firms can manage their strategic decisions in the turbulence contexts. In particular, we examine how organizations can strengthen their organizational contexts in order to absorb knowledge. From the knowledge management literature, this investigation extends our perception of the relationship between the human capital profiles (organization, research and development unit, and recent incorporations) and technological decision-making. Through the SEPI Foundation, a balanced panel of 1,220 Spanish industrial companies has used that answer to the Survey of Business Strategies (SBS) for a threeyear period, which signifies a total of 3,660 cases. The principal finding is the presence of high levels of human resources to understand a decision efficiency process. It also highlights its relationship to the firm’s technological committee. These contributions are notable for both researchers and practitioners. It could be stimulating to expand the study to the association between human capital profiles and other strategic technological decisions, as the preparation of an innovation plan or the measurement of innovation performance.</p>

SYNERGY OR CONFLICT? THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE, SUSTAINABILITY-RELATED INNOVATION PERFORMANCE, AND ECONOMIC INNOVATION PERFORMANCE

Despite the growing pressure to become more sustainable and the availability of managerial practices, organisations still struggle with being innovative without neglecting sustainability concerns. This paper approaches this issue from two perspectives: First, the organisations’ cultural DNA is assumed to explain differences in the sustainability-related innovation performance of firms. Drawing on the competing values framework, this research examines whether certain cultural types predispose some organisations to perform better. Second, the skepticism among managers about the economic benefits of sustainability-related innovation holds organisations back to consider sustainability concern in their innovation activities. Thus, the relationship between sustainability-related innovation performance and economic innovation performance is investigated to clarify whether they represent conflicting goals. Using multiple-respondent data of a cross-sectional firm sample and a comprehensive measure of sustainability-related innovation performance, the empirical data show that clan cultures have a negative influence on sustainability-related innovation performance, whereas hierarchy and adhocracy cultures exert positive effects. Furthermore, sustainability-related innovation performance has a moderately positive effect on economic innovation performance.

Odnos između inovacije i poslovnog učinka

The analysis of professional literature shows that many businesses measure innovation performance based on a combination of input and output indicators. The results of comparison confirmed that there are many concepts in innovation performance measurement, but they are not consistent. In scientific practice, there are also opinions that studies on indicators of innovation performance measurement are inadequate. The results indicate that most of the indicators are input-oriented and only few indicators are outputoriented. Businesses face difficulties when establishing a clear relationship between business innovation and its performance. When measuring innovation performance, there is a serious problem with a significant delay of the benefits of innovation and the complexity of the isolation of the role of innovation from other business activities with respect to the overall performance. Measuring innovative business performance can be achieved by financial indicators such as ROE, ROI and by non-financial indicators such as the number of new ideas, products, and so on. The paper aims to compare the development of innovation in the selected sector and the development of the sector's financial indicators for the identification of indicators whose development most closely corresponds to the development of innovation.

Measuring the maintenance performance through fuzzy logic and analytical hierarchy process

The paper presents an innovative maintenance performance measurement system that organisations can adopt to identify those predictors that better contribute to achieve higher maintenance standards. Adopting a multi-level, multi-criteria decomposition technique designed to identify and classify key indicators, the study aims to support firms in their decision-making process. Using the fuzzy logic technique, the elementary performance measurement is quantified. Afterwards, by implementing the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and the weighted arithmetic mean, these measures are aggregated to a holistic measure that quantifies the overall maintenance performance and identifies precisely the requirements to improve continuously and effectively the maintenance performance. Finally, the proposed model was applied to a Moroccan company leader in the chemical sector. The results show that the model effectively allows maintenance managers to properly measure and improve their maintenance performance and support managers in identifying the key actions to enhance their organisations' performance.

Measuring the maintenance performance through fuzzy logic and analytical hierarchy process

The paper presents an innovative maintenance performance measurement system that organisations can adopt to identify those predictors that better contribute to achieve higher maintenance standards. Adopting a multi-level, multi-criteria decomposition technique designed to identify and classify key indicators, the study aims to support firms in their decision-making process. Using the fuzzy logic technique, the elementary performance measurement is quantified. Afterwards, by implementing the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and the weighted arithmetic mean, these measures are aggregated to a holistic measure that quantifies the overall maintenance performance and identifies precisely the requirements to improve continuously and effectively the maintenance performance. Finally, the proposed model was applied to a Moroccan company leader in the chemical sector. The results show that the model effectively allows maintenance managers to properly measure and improve their maintenance performance and support managers in identifying the key actions to enhance their organisations' performance.

Supply chain sustainability performance measurement of small and medium sized enterprises using structural equation modeling

Sustainability of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is significant as SMEs contribute to GDP substantially in every economy. This research develops an innovative sustainable supply chain performance measurement model for SMEs. Prior researches predominantly use balanced score card (BSC) approach that presume causal relationship of criteria and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which derive efficiency of units from a few input and output criteria. While DEA is effective for policymakers, BSC is more suitable for individual SME. The proposed method that uses structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to derive the relationship of criteria and criteria weights formulates regression-type models for a specific region as well as for specific SME. The SEM-based supply chain sustainability performance measurement model is beneficial to policymakers as they can determine means for improvement at a regional level. The proposed method could also facilitate managers/owners of individual SMEs with measures for improving their supply chain sustainability performance. The method has been applied to three varied geographical locations in the UK, France and India in order to demonstrate its effectiveness.

Total productive maintenance, kaizen event, and performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine the relationship between total productive maintenance (TPM), kaizen event (KE) and innovation performance (IP) for Malaysian automotive industry using structural equation modeling (SEM).Design/methodology/approachThe samples were selected from the list of Proton and Perodua automotive industry. The number of collected respondents was 238 respondents. An SEM technique was used in the study. In order to test the reliability and validity of the instrument, reliability analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted.FindingsBased on the results, KE does not affect the relationship between TPM and IP. However, the impact of TPM on IP increases with mediating of KE for Malaysian automotive industry. Thus, this study has shown that empirical test results prove that the implementation of TPM and KE has improved the IP for Malaysian automotive industry.Research limitations/implicationsThis study only focused on the Malaysian automotive industry. The other limitation in this research is the number of factors and limited measurement in this study. Only a few TPM, KE and IP measurements were considered. By using the SEM technique, four TPM constructs, three for KE constructs and three for IP measures were developed and verified. Therefore, this study can assist the researchers and practitioners to the practice of TPM, KE and IP for Malaysian automotive industry.Originality/valueThis research provides fundamental knowledge and direction for researchers in further research as well as practitioners to constantly improve IP through the implementation of TPM and KE for Malaysian automotive industry.

Not Only Individualism: The Effects of Long-Term Orientation and Other Cultural Variables on National Innovation Success

This article re-examines the effects of culture on national innovation rates. Pointing to the innovation success of some East Asian countries, it argues that the cultural dimension of individualism is not able to fully account for the role of culture in national innovativeness, and there is a need to include a wider set of cultural factors in the analysis. Several competing measures of national innovation performance over the last decade and Hofstede’s measures of culture, as well as their recently revised versions proposed by Minkov and collaborators, are employed to test the hypotheses. The findings show that, apart from individualism, long-term orientation, and flexibility, the dimensions omitted in the prior studies are positive and strong cultural predictors of national innovation intensity, whereas the role of other cultural factors finds little empirical support. The study suggests that there is no single pattern for the impact of culture on national innovation rates that should be taken into account in seeking effective innovation strategies and policies. It also highlights the need to advance the understanding of the causal mechanism between culture and innovativeness to guide further theoretical and empirical analysis.

On the meaning of innovation performance: Is the synthetic indicator of the Innovation Union Scoreboard flawed?

The European Union (EU) annually publishes an Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) as a tool to measure the innovation performance of EU Member States by means of a composite index, called the Summary Innovation Index (SII). The SII is constituted by an average of 25 indicators. The SII is claimed to rank Member States according to their innovation performance. This means that the higher the average value of the 25 indicators, the better the innovation performance is said to be. The first purpose of this article is to assess whether the SII constitutes a meaningful measure of innovation performance. Our conclusion is that it does not. Our second purpose is to develop alternative, productivity or efficiency-based, measures of innovation system performance based on a simple index number, and complement it with advanced and robust nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis techniques. By doing so, the article offers a critical review of the SII, and proposes to put more emphasis on the identification of and relation between input and output innovation indicators. The data provided by the 2014 and 2015 editions of the IUS are here used to analyze the innovation performance of all 28 EU national innovation systems. A theoretical background and reasons for selecting the indicators used are presented, and our new ranking of the innovation performance using bias-corrected efficiency scores of all EU countries is calculated. We find that the results differ substantially between the SII and the ranking based on our method, with significant consequences for the design of innovation policies. (Less)

The relationship regulator: a buyer-supplier collaborative performance measurement system

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose an innovative buyer-supplier performance measurement system (PMS) (called relationship regulator – RelReg), aimed at stimulating collaboration on mutual performance. The RelReg is described all throughout the phases of its lifecycle: first, design features and visual representation of the new measurement framework are reported; second, guidelines on how to implement, use and review the system are provided, highlighting the role of the buyer and the supplier at each step.Design/methodology/approachA theory building and testing approach is applied. The RelReg developed features primarily ground on previous scientific contributions matched with empirical evidence collected through case studies, workshops and focus groups. The resulting conceptual model is then validated through a dyadic buyer-supplier case study.FindingsTwo conceptual frameworks are provided: the RelReg dashboard – a multidimensional PMS; and the RelReg lifecycle – set of activities to be performed by both the buyer and the supplier all along the adoption process. Moreover, empirical insights on relevant issues to be considered when adopting the RelReg are reported.Originality/valueThe RelReg represents an innovative and smart tool, allowing buyer-supplier dyads to collaborate on relationship performance.

Organizational Ambidexterity, Performance and Knowledge Management: Empirical Evidence from the Energy and Pharmaceutical Sectors

Purpose: Several types of organizational ambidexterity proposed in the relevant literature were quantitatively analyzed in the paper. Considered ambidexterity strategies was justified by different types of knowledge management that may be applied in each case for their successful implementation. Knowledge Management is considered an institutional system which is in place in almost all companies but used differently. Yet effective knowledge management is a major driver of sustainable company development, it’s among the essential ingredients for effective use of companies knowledge and competencies as well as for strategy development and competitive intelligence. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical analysis of different ambidexterity strategies for the energy and pharmaceuticals sectors was provided. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) method was applied to estimate organizational ambidexterity using innovation performance measures. The DEA score based on entrepreneurial intensity input and short term and long term performance acted as a proxy for organizational ambidexterity. Sustainability and product ambidexterity were also considered as the key factors of organizational ambidexterity. Results: Estimations strongly associate organizational ambidexterity with efficiency of the company in both sectors examined here. Positive relation between performance and organizational ambidexterity for energy sector were discovered. At the same time orientation towards sustainability disrupts performance of pharmaceutical companies. The analysis provided in the paper provides indication for coupling knowledge management and organizational ambidexterity. Originality/value: The new approach for measurement of organizational ambidexterity using DEA is proposed in the paper. Different strategies including product ambidexterity and sustainability are estimated and their performances are compared. Knowledge management practices are used to justify the choice of ambidexterity strategies.