Non-technical Innovations Research Articles

The effects of innovation types and customer participation on organizational performance in complex services

PurposeThis study aims to explain the effects of different types of innovations on organizational performance in terms of firms’ external effectiveness and internal efficiency. The study examines the interrelationship of technical and nontechnical innovations in complex services and the mediating effect of customer participation on the relationship between innovation type and organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on a neo-Schumpeterian model for innovation to examine the complex service setting of healthcare provision. Data from Statistics Sweden, containing 38 hospitals and 242 primary care units in Sweden, provided the study's results.FindingsThe findings show the importance of combining different types of innovations in complex services, demonstrating a mediating effect of nontechnical innovation on both the relationship between technical innovations and external effectiveness and internal efficiency. Moreover, the results show that customer participation has a positive mediating effect for technical innovation and nontechnical innovation on external effectiveness. However, there is no such significant effect on internal efficiency.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are based on self-assessment data, which has inherent limitations. The innovation data used were cross-sectional, which may lack reliability (although self-assessed data counter this risk to some extent).Practical implicationsManagers should pursue both technical and nontechnical innovations for gains in external effectiveness and internal efficiency. However, complex services call for technical innovations to be accompanied by nontechnical innovations to support positive effects. The results cause a dilemma for managing customer participation in complex services. As the results show customer participation resulting in external effectiveness, they also fail to establish an effect on internal efficiency.Originality/valueThe primary contribution is to add to the knowledge of different types of innovation in complex services by demonstrating their interdependent effects on both external effectiveness and internal efficiency. Furthermore, the study tests and advances the mediating effect of customer participation in complex services on organizational performance.

How Governance Paradigms and Other Drivers Affect Public Innovation Networks for Health Services.

The characteristics approach of the service innovation studies underpinned the new concept of public service innovation networks (PSINs). From there, we theorize a novel conceptual framework for health PSINs based on three dimensions: social characteristics, multiple actors, and functioning mode. This comprehensive approach supported a partial least squares structur-al model and an empirical experiment. Its results, from a sample collected in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, confirm the adequacy of the proposed dimensions for better under-standing health PSINs. Health PSINs positively correlate with nontechnical innovations and conventional innovation outcomes. Additionally, the model reveals significant criteria for the meta-governance of networked innovation strategies. Finally, both the theoretical framework and the accompanying empirical model support the voices for an extended use of the net-worked strategy for collaborative policy and service innovation.

IoT for Smart Cities: Machine Learning Approaches in Smart Healthcare—A Review

Smart city is a collective term for technologies and concepts that are directed toward making cities efficient, technologically more advanced, greener and more socially inclusive. These concepts include technical, economic and social innovations. This term has been tossed around by various actors in politics, business, administration and urban planning since the 2000s to establish tech-based changes and innovations in urban areas. The idea of the smart city is used in conjunction with the utilization of digital technologies and at the same time represents a reaction to the economic, social and political challenges that post-industrial societies are confronted with at the start of the new millennium. The key focus is on dealing with challenges faced by urban society, such as environmental pollution, demographic change, population growth, healthcare, the financial crisis or scarcity of resources. In a broader sense, the term also includes non-technical innovations that make urban life more sustainable. So far, the idea of using IoT-based sensor networks for healthcare applications is a promising one with the potential of minimizing inefficiencies in the existing infrastructure. A machine learning approach is key to successful implementation of the IoT-powered wireless sensor networks for this purpose since there is large amount of data to be handled intelligently. Throughout this paper, it will be discussed in detail how AI-powered IoT and WSNs are applied in the healthcare sector. This research will be a baseline study for understanding the role of the IoT in smart cities, in particular in the healthcare sector, for future research works.

Non-technical innovation and entrepreneurship in project-based small service firms

Background: Because of doubts about the sufficiency of convention indicators to continually gauge innovative outcomes at the firm level, a burgeoning stream of scholars has shifted their empirical efforts to the theoretical development of non-technical innovations. Aim: This study investigates the contribution of non-technical, innovative, entrepreneurial and marketing endeavours to the development of superior entrepreneurship through two types of firm capabilities. Setting: Over several stages, a structured questionnaire form was formulated. Firstly, an extensive review of previous similar research was performed to identify the adoptable scale items. After adjusting the scales based on the feedback from the pre-testers, the final questionnaire comprised 55 items measured on a five-point Likert-type scale. Methods: A total of 155 valid questionnaires, with the inclusion of late-responses, were obtained and this represented a response rate of 22%. Particularly, a conceptual model connecting market orientation, organisational learning, non-technical innovation and entrepreneurship was tested using partial least square path modelling. Results: In considering the criticality of innovation as the fulcrum of service-based delivery, our model advances the existing empirical approaches with a more intangible dimensionality of innovative efforts. Overall, the model distinguishes that small service firms engaging in dual modes of non-technical innovation strategically nurture intangible capabilities, which in turn provides them with enduring performance outcomes in outperforming competitors. Conclusion: The findings could assist small firms in accomplishing new value creation via non-technical innovations.

SOURCES OF INNOVATION CAPABILITY AND PERFORMANCE OF ICT AGGLOMERATED MSMEs IN NIGERIA

It has been established in both developed and emerging economies that geographic concentration of firms contributed in no small ways to the growth of country’s economy. However, in developing countries like Nigeria, what constitutes innovation capability needed to transform local innovation system towards indigenisation of ICT products among the ICT clustered firms is not known; and where data are available, they are somewhat outdated. This paper therefore presented empirical evidences on Innovation capability among agglomerated MSMEs in Nigeria. The research adapted the 6th Community Innovation Survey (CIS) on 228 owners of ICT clustered enterprises. It was found that nontechnical innovations were more prevalent in the clusters. It was also discovered that firms with appropriate mix of both internal and external sources of Innovation Capability performed better. The research thus added to the body of knowledge in development literature on the role of capability mix in innovation management.

Market orientation, marketing capabilities and sustainable innovation

PurposeThis study aims to observe the association between market orientation (MO), marketing capabilities and sustainable innovation and to determine the contributions of marketing capabilities, sustainable consumption and competitive advantage as mediators.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this study were collected by administering a survey, and well-defined scales were used for quantifying the data. Theories propounded by various authors were used to form the theoretical framework of the study while keeping those theories relevant to the Indian context. The study uses structural equation modelling to empirically test proposed hypothesis and research model of the relationships.FindingsThe results indicated that MO has a positive influence on marketing capabilities, including product development, communication, channel linking and pricing. The study also found, albeit with exceptions, a positive association between marketing capabilities and sustainable innovation. These exceptions were communication capability on technical innovations and channel linking capability on non-technical innovations. In addition, findings reveal that marketing capabilities fully mediate MO to performance link while sustainable consumption partially mediates the relation between sustainable innovation and competitive advantage. Competitive advantage also partially mediates marketing capabilities to performance relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThis study deals with four marketing capabilities only and uses cross-sectional data, instead of longitudinal data, that comprises data of 192 service firms in India.Originality/valueThe study sets forth empirical evidence for the argument that specific marketing capabilities lead to sustainable innovation. The study further clarifies contributions of marketing capabilities, sustainable consumption and competitive advantage as mediators in the proposed research model.

Barriers of non-technological innovation - explorative case study insight from European firms

Today, it is widely agreed that non-technical innovation significantly contributes to firms' competitive advantage. Against this backdrop, public innovation support programs are increasingly extended towards non-technological fields of innovation, like the new European framework program, Horizon 2020. Along these lines, however, the question arises whether non-technical innovations, comparably to technical innovations, are subject to firm-external barriers resulting in a suboptimal degree of innovation activities. Existing concepts like market failure and systemic failure have so far only been applied to R&D-based or technical modes of innovation like product or technical process innovation. Based on a qualitative analysis of innovation projects targeting organisational and marketing innovation in 11 European firms of different sectors, industry, and size, this paper provides pioneer insight that non-technological innovations are affected by external barriers to a comparable extent than technological innovations. The aim of the paper is to nurture further academic discussion and quantitative research on this topic as well as to improve policy makers' and innovation practioneers' understanding the specific nature of non-technological innovation processes and their firm-external barriers. Last but not least, the findings can contribute to improve and adjust existing policy instruments targeting at non-technological innovation.

Managing Product Innovation Spillover in Sourcing

When an innovator sources for an innovative product from a supplier who is also a competitor in the end market, the potential innovation spillover may be a serious concern. Will an innovation ever source from a competitor-supplier in the presence of innovation spillover? In this paper we attempt to answer this question with an emphasis on the ex-ante uncertain values of innovations, and distinguish between technical innovations which can only spill over through sourcing and non-technical innovations which can spill over through sourcing as well as in the market. We find that for both types, an innovator may strategically source from a competitor-supplier, albeit for polar-opposite motivations: for technical innovations it does so such that the latter would postpone launching the innovative product; and for non-technical innovations it does so such that the latter would immediately launch the innovative product alongside the innovator. These insights highlight the richness of and may inform sourcing decisions in the presence of innovation spillover.

Regional Competitiveness Under New Perspectives

The term has been used in conceptually distinct ways at the firm, regional and national levels. After primarily reviewing existing concepts at the national level, we introduce a new definition of regional adapting definitions used in the academic literature. Specifically, we connect competitiveness with new perspectives on a more socially inclusive and ecologically sustainable growth path, as envisaged in the WWWforEurope research program, in which 33 European research groups are taking part. Evaluating requires both an input assessment (costs, productivity, economic structure, capabilities) and an outcome assessment. We define regional outcome as the ability of a region to deliver Beyond GDP goals. For regions in industrialized countries, this ability depends on innovation, education, institutions, social cohesion and ecological ambition. Given this new perspective (of broader Beyond GDP goals), social investments and ecological ambitions should not be considered costs, but rather drivers of competitiveness. This is compatible with a new innovation policy fostering non-technical innovations and a new industrial policy supporting societal goals. Applying this concept to European regions, we show which regions take the high road to and compare our results with the existing literature.

Diffusion of innovation concepts in Portuguese manufacturing companies

This paper focuses on the diffusion of innovation concepts in Portuguese manufacturing companies. Based on the literature, the concepts of technical and non-technical innovations are explored and three purposes guide our study: (i) to what extent technological and organizational innovation concepts are diffused in Portuguese manufacturing companies; (ii) how the use of technological innovation concepts are interrelated with the use of organizational innovation concepts; and (iii) to what extent Portuguese companies since 2009 have introduced product innovation and product-related service innovation. Data were collected from 62 companies participating in the European Manufacturing Survey (EMS) 2012 and findings indicate that: (i) Portuguese manufacturing companies are more organizationally innovation oriented where quality and price are quoted as the most important competitive factors, whilst service offerings and service sales attain far less rank; (ii) technological innovation concepts are significantly related to organizational innovation; and (iii) product innovation has a higher diffusion level than product-related services.

Capabilities, innovation and competitive advantage

This special issue was aimed at advancing the literature examining the role of capabilities in innovation-based competitive strategy. Whilst the innovation literature has over the years moved away from its ‘product innovation’ pre-occupation to capture the role of other forms of innovation in value creation, the capability view has progressed from its ‘rigid’ or ‘static’ view to a ‘dynamic’ view in an effort to capture market dynamism. Despite the recent theoretical advancements the dynamic capability view still lacks a strong empirical base. Contributors to the capability literature over the recent years have adopted multiple research methods to capture capabilities that include cross-sectional designs, case studies and longitudinal studies. Within this backdrop, the articles that were selected for this special issue covers both conceptual and empirical approaches to examine the relationship between capabilities and technical and non-technical innovations and performance outcomes. This essay provides a future research agenda to advance this promising research field. It highlights the need for clearer conceptualizations and development of measures of dynamic capabilities, environmental conditions that underpin the development of dynamic capabilities within the firm and research into the much debated relationship between dynamic capabilities and competitive advantage and organizational performance.

Analysis of Innovation Concepts in Slovenian Manufacturing Companies

Competitive advantages of manufacturing companies are not only generated by R&D based product innovations, but also by technical and non-technical process innovations aiming to modernise manufacturing processes. This paper presents the use of selected innovation concepts in Slovenian manufacturing companies. Later we analyse the relationship of the use of selected technical and organisational innovation concepts and companies’ performance indicators. The results show that R&D expenses and innovation concepts are not always correlated and that there is a difference in utilising innovation concepts between low, medium and high-tech industries. The data were obtained with The European Manufacturing Survey (EMS) that was conducted in 2009 within nine European countries. For the purpose of this paper the data of Slovenian manufacturing companies have been used.

From Risky Business to Big Business

OVERVIEW:Since the 1978 creation of a speech synthesis chip for its Speak'n Spell™ learning aid, and the introduction four years later of the industry's first general-purpose digital signal processor, Texas Instruments has turned the remarkably innovative technology of digital signal processing into a profitable business. Today, DSP accounts for nearly 40 percent of TI's overall semiconductor revenue ($8.1 billion in 1997) and is expected to fuel the company's growth well into the next century. In addition to the necessary technical innovations, nontechnical innovations involving the creation of university and third-party programs, as well as greater communication with customers, helped to turn TI into a provider of complete solutions rather than just a product manufacturer.