Non-technological Innovations Research Articles

Fostering technological innovation through management and marketing innovation. The human and non-technological linkage

PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the relationships between management innovation, marketing innovation, technological innovation and the personnel involved in science, technology and innovation activities.Design/methodology/approachThe work used data from the Technological Development and Innovation Survey – Colombian Industry VII 2013–2014. Six logistic regression models are tested for the analysis with 2,045 manufacturing firms.FindingsThe results suggest that the probability to pursue technological innovation diminishes in those firms that introduce management and/or marketing innovations. The same happens in firms seeking non-technological innovations with the introduction of product and process innovations. The human side, administrative and technical staff, working on innovation projects plays a key role in the success of different types of innovations.Originality/valueAt this time, there is a need for research studies with new approaches that look at innovation beyond the technological domain and focus on the human side of innovation and other important aspects such as the managerial contribution to innovation. Theoretically, the work contributes to expanding the scarce literature on the proposed relationship and, as far as is known, it is the only one with empirical data for an emerging economy such as the Colombian one. Empirically, useful information is provided for the design of strategies that seek to improve firms' innovation performance.

Technological- and Non-Technological Innovation During the Growth Phase of Industry Life Cycle: An Evidence From Vietnamese Manufacturing Enterprises

In the context of Industrial 4.0, Vietnam has emerged to play a critical role in the global supply chain while facing intense competition and fast changes. However, what drives manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam to innovate themselves and how well they perform in coping with business obstacle remains one of the central questions in the extent of studies. Therefore, this research primarily attempts to establish how innovation investment and obstacles affect technological and non-technological innovations, especially in the growth phase of the industry life cycle (ILC), with an analysis of available data obtained from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam and World Bank Enterprise Survey data with the use of descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The outcome of this article highlights that researchers and practitioners should consider the importance of the industry life cycle in the choice of technological or non-technological innovation through third significant contributions. First, the innovation investment is driven by R&D, and formal training enables both technological- and non-technological innovation. Second, the innovation obstacle related to finance, policy, competition, and regulation directly impacts the choice of innovation activities. Third, this study demonstrates that the firm’s engagement in technological- and non-technological innovation in line with innovation investment can help maintain successful post-innovation performance.

Interrelated effects of technological and non-technological innovation on firm performance in EM – A mediation analysis of Peruvian manufacturing firms

PurposeFirm innovative performance in emerging markets must take into account the peculiarities of their competitive environment. Research on the effect of innovation on firm performance focuses mainly on high-tech firms in developed countries. This study proposes a model that empirically examines how technological and non-technological innovation influence Peruvian manufacturing firms' performance.Design/methodology/approachUsing the resource-based view, a model is proposed that allows the mediation effects of technological innovation and non-technological innovation on firm performance among low and medium-low technological intensity manufacturing firms to be analyzed. The study uses structural equation modeling and mediation analysis with data from 503 Peruvian firms researched in the 2012 National Survey of Innovation.FindingsThe model's validation shows that the integrated perspective is relevant for emerging markets like Peru. Moreover, the results confirm that technological and non-technological innovation and their interrelationship are important for understanding the performance dimensions of Peruvian manufacturing firms.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature on innovation in Latin American economies, proposing and validating a model that combines the mediation effects of technological and non-technological innovation to explain the relevant dimensions of firm performance in emerging markets.

Innovation and small and medium enterprises’ performance in Cameroon

PurposeThis article attempts to explain performance through the development of innovations within small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, the authors analyse the determinants of innovation and assess the role of technological and non-technological innovations in performance.Design/methodology/approachBased on a sample of 508 Cameroonian SMEs, the PSM (propensity score matching) technique was used to reduce the selection bias inherent in this type of analysis.FindingsThe results show that technological innovation does not influence significantly the performance of SMEs, whereas non-technological innovation positively influences it. The combination of these two types of innovation leads to better performance than even accentuated development of only one type.Practical implicationsTo improve the performance of SMEs, it is necessary to adopt a comprehensive innovation policy that combines non-technological and technological innovations. In addition, it is important to intensify informations and communication technologies (ICT) promotion policies that contribute to the adoption of innovations within enterprises.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature by showing the role of technological and non-technological innovations in explaining the performance of SMEs. Moreover, unlike the existing work in sub-Saharan Africa, which is limited to testing the innovation–performance relationship, this study also determines the productivity gain generated by innovative firms compared to non-innovative ones.

Examining the Development of China’s Low-Carbon Pilots: A Perspective of Non-Technological Innovation

This paper explores the non-technological innovation system for building low-carbon cities in China. It establishes a comprehensive evaluation index system and grading standards for low-carbon cities, concerning both technological innovation and non-technological innovation factors. Defining non-technological innovation factors as independent variables, GDP per capita as the main control variable, and low-carbon development and carbon productivity as dependent variables, this paper examines the contribution of non-technological innovation to the building of low-carbon cities. The result shows that non-technological innovation manifested a significant trajectory of progress. It demonstrates that the continuous improvement to non-technological innovation system should effectively promote the further development of low-carbon cities.

Service innovation and sustainable construction: Analyses of wood vis-à-vis other construction projects

Wood-based solutions are promoted for sustainable construction. In parallel, technological applications are expected to elevate construction and built environment to a new level of energy and resource efficiency, and enhance the environmental as well as human health and wellbeing impacts by smart bundling of products and services. Policies call for a profound system change in construction. Such shift necessitates technological and non-technological innovations as well as new conceptualizations. This research elaborates an analytic framework to discuss system change in the complex product systems of construction. Wood-based solutions are assessed vis-à-vis other sustainable construction projects to detect service innovation as new outputs, inputs, and processes in the markets, and consider the system change potential in evolving product-service systems (PSS). Analyses of eight projects and altogether 89 companies in Finland indicate that while wood-based solutions aim at industrial efficiency in the established construction processes, parallel sustainable construction projects and the contributing companies exemplify more versatile service innovations. The industrial efficiency unfolding from the sustainable construction niches and the company operations in the markets illustrates evolving PSS. The data exemplifies how the increasing integration leads into dismantling of operations and new configurations of tasks, and the increasing standardization due to fine-granule modularity and customization leads to increasing diversification of operations. Alternative scenarios should be explored to assess the systemic changes and their impacts on clean technology solutions. • Analytic frame to assess evolving PSS in construction complex product systems. • Conceptual elaboration on service innovation at company, project and system levels. • Wood focuses on industrial efficiency with established construction regime parameters. • Evolving PSS extend industrial wood efficiency beyond material substitution view. • Sustainability transitions call for assessing parallel PSS trajectories conjointly.

Regional innovation performance and structural conditions in Central and Eastern Europe: embracing the broad-based innovation concept

Motivation: There is plenty of evidence suggesting that the (regional) innovation systems in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are in their early beginnings and that this poses huge challenges to the implementation of the smart specialization agendas and to the efficient use of the European structural and investment funds in these countries. Our assumption is that structural differences explain to a large extent the differences in innovation performance between the CEE and non-CEE regions and that the future growth trajectories of the CEE regions should more specifically embrace the broad-based innovation concept. Aim: Our study attempts to test whether there are statistically significant differences between the CEE and non-CEE regions in each component of the European Regional Innovation Scoreboard and whether such differences can be explained by the variations in structural conditions. To this purpose, we use a discriminant factor analysis and test the correlations between the discriminant function and various structural indicators. Results: The R&D-based component of the regional innovation systems discriminates the most between the CEE and the non-CEE regions. In contrast, the differences between the two groups are minimal in terms of Non-R&D innovation expenditure, Tertiary education or Employment in Medium and High-Tech Manufacturing. On the whole, the differences in innovation performance, as reflected by the discriminant function, can be largely attributed to the differences in economic performance (GDP per capita) and in the industrial structures. All these considerations give support for the adoption of the broad-based innovation policy at the CEE level, which goes beyond the R&D investments and gives widespread support to both technological and non-technological innovation, skills upgrading or the integration into international networks and value chains.

From knowledge sourcing to firms’ productivity: investigating innovation value chain of Indonesian manufacturing firms

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the innovation value chain (IVC) that encompasses knowledge sourcing, transformation and exploitation activities among Indonesian manufacturing firms by using data from the Indonesia Innovation Survey. Design/methodology/approach A simple approach of single equation Probit model, Logit regression and Tobit regression are used in the first, second and third stages of IVC consecutively. Findings This study finds the existence of a synergistic relationship between internal and external sources of knowledge as well as among external sources of knowledge. In terms of the second link of the IVC, internal R&D plays an important role that positively influences knowledge transformation into all types of innovation and innovation success. External knowledge that has a similar pattern in shaping innovation mainly comes from market and open sources. Scientific institutions tend to contribute to innovation negatively, and few positive impacts on process innovation are observed from government R&D and non-profit R&D institutions. Informal knowledge is more likely to influence technological than non-technological innovation. Research limitations/implications Finally, the limitations of this study need to be acknowledged. Issues related to firms’ sectors have not been discussed in this study, and as a result, sectors’ effects on the three links of IVC cannot be detected. This study is a cross-sectional in nature, as a result, the dynamic of Indonesian manufacturing firms’ IVC is missing. Hence, future studies may address this limitation by conducting a longitudinal study. Originality/value This study is different from the previous IVC studies owing to the following reasons. Firstly, in this study, a broader source of knowledge is tested. Secondly, the wider innovation (technological and non-technological innovation) is also assessed.

Effect of determinants of innovation on economic growth in Sub Saharan Africa

The currently observed incorporation of hidden and non-technological innovations, together with the emergence of the modern day fourth industrial revolution is actually contributing to change in our understanding of innovation and its measured contributions to success in entrepreneurship. This study provides a quantitative longitudinal study of the determinants of innovation, their role in entrepreneurship innovation capacity and how they collectively add value to economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. The study used fixed effects with country dummies in the analysis where Stata software was used. The empirical results indicated that capital for domestic investment, labour, innovation and foreign direct were positively and significantly correlated with economic growth in SSA. It was concluded that the above variables were positively and significantly correlated with economic growth in SSA. It is recommended that respective countries should put in mechanisms to capitalize from the positive benefits of the above on the economy. This could be through increased investments in tertiary institutions and reduction of bureaucracy and corruption that will not only increase high quality production through increased labour productivity, but will also foster fair competition in the markets. Keywords: entrepreneurship, innovation, economic growth, Sub-Saharan Africa

Environmental objectives and non-technological innovation in Spanish manufacturing SMEs

Environmental issues are currently the order of the day in political, social, and industrial circles. Companies are under pressure to integrate environmental objectives into their strategies, including their innovation activities. However, measuring the impact of this ecological commitment on the results of innovation within the context of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises is an unexplored topic. This study was designed to explore the influence of environmental innovation objectives on marketing and organizational innovation outcomes. To this end, data from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel were used to study 2995 companies during the period from 2011 to 2013. A logit analysis with a marginal effects approach was used to test and validate the research model and proposed hypotheses.The results confirmed that the four environmental objectives analyzed (lower material consumption, less energy expenditure, reduction in environmental impact, and compliance with environmental standards) generally had a positive influence on an organizational and marketing innovation. Specifically, compliance with environmental regulations was the main driver of a better performance in non-technological innovation. These findings suggested that the ecological commitment shown by this type of company may increase their competitive advantage and strengthen the connection between technological and non-technological innovation activities. Practical implications for managers are suggested, along with some proposals for future research.

Carrots or Sticks: Which Policies Matter the Most in Sustainable Resource Management?

Green growth has resulted from resource management, setting the speed for sustainable development. Eco-innovations are essential for the improvement of a firm’s performance with societal gains, demanding special attention from policy makers. This paper deals with the effect of policy actions on the enhancement of eco-innovation adoption. The Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2012–2014 is used to estimate the impact of ‘carrots’ and ‘sticks’ on innovations with ecological benefits. In addition, the impact of a firm’s structural characteristics in ecological strategies is investigated. Regulations and taxes enhance eco-innovation, but grants are only relevant in the case of eco-innovations with external benefits. The firm dimension and non-technological innovation also increase the eco-innovation propensity. Embedding policy actions with environmental concerns will enhance social responsibility and promote resource preservation, providing waste as an economic value. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to appraise the effectiveness of the different policy instruments applied in the adoption of innovation with ecological benefits with both internal and external benefits. Secondly, it aims to identify which firm characteristics determine these managerial strategies. Hopefully, light will be cast on the topic so that public and private decision-makers will be given recommendations for policy package design working towards smart and green growth.

The role of external information sources in organizational innovation in Nigeria

Traditionally, the focus of strategic management studies has been on technological innovation. However, recent studies have shown rising importance of non-technological innovation to firms’ productivity, especially in developing country contexts. One limitation in empirical firm innovation analyses this study attempts to resolve, is the role of information sources in driving non-technological (organizational) innovation in a developing country context. Developing countries rely on knowledge from external sources to make up for their deficiencies in R&D capability to drive their innovation efforts. Using pooled, cross-sectional data from two rounds of Nigeria’s Innovation Surveys, this study assesses the role of external information sources in organizational innovation practices in Nigeria. A comparative analysis of the manufacturing and service sectors was also undertaken. Using a multivariate probit analysis, our results provide strong evidence of heterogeneity in firms’ information sources used in implementing organizational innovation practices in Nigeria. Most information sources which drive organizational innovation practices in manufacturing firms do not have an impact on service firms. The study recommends sector-specific polices to drive organizational innovation in developing countries.

HEd-INNOSERV: perceived service innovation scale for the higher education sector

PurposeThe study aims to emphasize the need for an exclusive theory, approach and measurement scale for service innovation. In the past three decades, the importance of services and service-related industry has grown tremendously. Well-established scales used for research in manufacturing cannot be directly adopted and measured in the service industry. This article follows the synthesis approach by including both technological and non-technological typologies for measuring service innovation. This is followed by reporting the effect of service innovation on outcome performances. The context of the study is the higher education sector.Design/methodology/approachAn integrated research design was used to collect data from students in various parts of south India. In total, two focus group discussions and three in-depth interviews were conducted for item generation. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed for the reliability and validity of the scale. The study developed the HEd-INNOSERV scale consisting of seven dimensions comprising 34 items.FindingsThe study developed the HEd-INNOSERV scale consisting of seven dimensions comprising 34 items. The empirical results demonstrate that the scale is reliable, valid and generalizable across higher education institutions (HEIs). The scope for future research is to develop a generalized scale that can measure across the entire service sector.Research limitations/implicationsThe scale shall help researchers in testing the conceptual models earlier developed in the service innovation domain. Similarly, HEIs could measure their stakeholders' perceptions of their innovation activity. Further, the result indicates that innovation enhances the reputation of the institution, which ultimately results in positive word of mouth.Practical implicationsCommercialization of the scale by developing an appropriate algorithm would help institutions in measuring their innovation-led initiatives continually and establish quality and standards. The scale can be used complementarily with other measures adopted from regulatory and rating agencies.Originality/valueThe HEd-INNOSERV scale shall help in optimizing the existing business processes of HEIs by helping them consciously introduce appropriate technological and non-technological innovations.

Specificities of environmental innovation dynamics in service firms: the French case

This paper analyzes the determinants of environmental innovation in service activities, as well as regulatory dimension and its influence on the environmental performance of service activities. An econometric model is built using the “Community Innovation Survey 2008” (CIS 2008). Results show that environmental innovations in services are integrated into both technological and non-technological innovations. The specificities of eco-innovation in service activities compared to manufacturing firms leads to eco-innovation the environmental benefit of which occurs during final consumption of the product rather than during the production process. If cost reduction is a main determinant for all sectors, the role of regulation differs according to the sector: strong for trade and transport, the influence of regulation is minor for the others service sectors.

Contexto de la innovación en la ruralidad española: el caso del Arrozal Andaluz

En este artículo se realiza un análisis estadístico descriptivo sobre la relación de la producción de arroz con la fijación de la población rural al territorio en España. Se ha recurrido a los datos proporcionados por FAOSTAT (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), el Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) y el Instituto de Estadística y Cartografía de Andalucía. Los resultados muestran que la innovación tecnológica y no tecnológica basada en una producción sostenible ha facilitado el incremento del rendimiento en la producción del cultivo del arroz, evitando procesos de despoblamiento rural en los municipios de estudio.

Openness of Technological and Nontechnological Innovations

Research on open innovation has mainly focused on the management of flows of knowledge sources across organizational boundaries and its effect on technological (product and process) innovations. This article aims to extend the study of open innovation to nontechnological (organizational and marketing) innovations. We argue that extending the study of open innovation to nontechnological innovations gives an opportunity to create a theoretical bridge between the emerging open innovation literature and the expansive literature on organizational innovation, with useful implications for managerial practice. Empirical models are estimated using 3,977 firms from three consecutive panels of Chilean’s Community Innovation Survey, 2009-2014. The findings suggest that external sources have a u-shape relationship with technological innovations but a direct relationship with nontechnological innovations, showing that the limits of external knowledge sources on innovation outcome depend on the type of innovation organizations pursue. We discuss the implications of the findings and propose a conceptual model for future research.

Exploring Enabling Factors for Innovation Outcomes. A Firm-Level Analysis

Major innovation research has been primarily focused on developed countries, creating a gap in the literature related to innovation processes in emerging markets, such as Latin America. Even as some studies are aimed toward this region, their approach is usually only from the standpoint of an R&D funding perspective. This paper aims to discuss the relationship between resources for innovation and sources of innovation with innovation outcomes, using a sample of Peruvian companies, which received public funds oriented to the developing of innovative activities. Results found evidence that the presence of resources for innovation and sources of innovation have a positive influence on innovation outcomes. Moreover, resources for innovation are related to non-technological innovation, with internal R&D being the most carried out by companies even when it is not related to product nor process innovation. While sources of innovation are related to product innovation, firms demonstrated an incipient use of inter-firm collaboration strategies as its sources it.

Analyzing the Medium-Low and Low- Technology Firms’ Innovative Behavior in an Emerging Economy

Objective. Design a model that shows what factors favor the development of technological innovation in manufacturing companies of medium-low and low technological intensity. Methodology. A sample of 1106 manufacturing companies that participated in the innovation surveys in 2012 and 2015 was used, applying the partial structural equations approach and estimating the invariance between the two groups. Results. The results of this study from the structural model, which allow obtaining the positive and statistically significant coefficients, which allow empirically validating the hypotheses. Conclusions. It was evidenced that non-technological innovation, absorption capacity and technologicalacquisition favor technological innovation in companies with low technological intensity.This article confirms that manufacturing companies should guide efforts to improve their capacity for innovation.

The Effect of Diversified Credit Sources on SMEs’ Multiple Innovation Activities

Small and medium-sized enterprises have become the main force of innovation in China, but whether the diversified financial structures（formal and informal credit）promote enterprises’ multiple innovation activities is ambiguous. Based on the 2018 Survey Data of Enterprise Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Guangdong Province, this paper splits the credit sources of small industrial and commercial enterprises into three types: formal loan, informal loan, and credit between supply chains, to test which financial service will promote enterprises’ innovation activities, including technological and non-technological innovations. It finds that: （1）Enterprises who can get（more）loans from the formal sector are more likely to choose technological innovation; those who can get loans from the informal sector are more likely to choose non-technological innovation, i.e., innovating the business model or coping with environmental regulations, etc.（2）Enterprises who can get credit from supply chains may benefit the most types of innovation, but the formal and informal loan will promote multiple innovations.（3）To sum up, the formal financial sector plays a more important role on enterprises’ technological innovation activities than the other two informal sources.Further study shows that different financial services affect enterprises’ innovation through different channels. One channel is that formal loan will increase the investment in research and development（R&D）, and then promote technological innovation. The other is to smooth the cash flow mechanism. Informal credit, especially the supply chain credit, may ease the liquidity constraint of enterprises, and then stimulate the innovation behavior indirectly. The results are robust after using instrumental variables（IV-Probit）and considering the heterogeneous bias of enterprises and entrepreneurs.This conclusion may indicate that financial services can benefit small business innovation in China, but formal credit and informal credit have complementary advantages. We hope that this finding can inspire financial policy decisions, and contribute to the small business innovation literature.

Effects of innovation strategies on export performance: New empirical evidence from developing market firms

Scholars are increasingly emphasizing the importance of investing in a broad innovation strategy when pursuing competitive advantage and growth in foreign markets. However, the majority of existing studies focus mainly on developed economies with high shares of innovative firms. What remains largely underexplored is the heterogeneous impacts of innovation types on SMEs' performances, especially in developing countries. We fill this research gap by using firm-level data from the lower-middle income country of Nigeria. We empirically explore the individual and joint impacts of technological and non-technological innovations on the export performance of SMEs. First, we find that product innovation has a negative impact, whereas process innovation leads to increased export performance. We also find that marketing innovation has a positive effect on export performance. Besides, the joint effects of product, process, and marketing innovations are significant, albeit with heterogeneous impacts on the export performance. Furthermore, we find that the innovation-export performance relationship is influenced by external innovation collaborations. The findings have implications for an efficient design of public policy instruments that aim to promote firm innovation in developing countries.