Successful Organizational Innovation Research Articles

Transformational Leadership and Innovation: An Empirical Study of Direct and Indirect Effects in HR Consulting Companies

This study aims to examine the influence of transformational leadership on organizational innovation through the mediating effect of organizational learning and knowledge management in Turkish HR consulting companies. Sample is selected from small, medium size and large HR consulting companies located in Istanbul. Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping is used for data analysis. The research findings indicated that transformational leadership did not directly affect organizational innovation; transformational leadership directly affected organizational learning and knowledge management, and organizational learning directly impacted knowledge management. Besides, knowledge management directly affected organizational innovation, yet organizational learning indirectly influenced organizational innovation. Finally, transformational leadership indirectly influenced organizational innovation through the intervening effect of organizational learning and knowledge management. The results indicated that if managers in Turkish HR consulting companies practice a transformational leadership style by taking into account organizational learning and knowledge management, the chance for successful organizational innovation will highly improve.

Exploring the linkages of cognitive style and individual innovativeness

PurposeThis study aims to explore a crucial but less-understood antecedent of individual innovativeness – cognitive style.Design/methodology/approachData for this study were collected using a survey questionnaire administered to 201 individuals with industry work experience. Kolb’s learning style inventory was utilized to classify individuals into different cognitive styles. One-way ANOVA and multiple linear regression were utilized to test the hypotheses.FindingsThis study reveals that individual differences in grasping and transforming experiences significantly influence their innovativeness. Individuals whose cognitive learning styles are characterized by abstract conceptualization and active experimentation are more likely to exhibit innovativeness as compared to individuals with cognitive learning styles characterized by concrete experiences and reflective observation. Consequently, convergers who combine both the favorable modes of experience grasping and transformation are most likely to be innovative.Practical implicationsPromoting individual innovativeness is crucial for successful organizational innovation. This study reveals that an understanding of the cognitive style of the employees can help managers allocate appropriate individuals to various tasks.Originality/valueWhile it has been conceptually argued that cognition is an important antecedent of individual innovativeness, emphasis in this stream of research is predominantly on cognitive abilities. This study extends previous research by empirically testing the impact of cognitive style on individual innovativeness.

Effect of organizational factors on employees’ generation of innovative ideas

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to measure the relationship between the organizational factors that affect innovation performance and the idea generation of employees. Factors examined include: appropriate use of rewards inside the organization, management support for developing new ideas, the tolerance in accepting failures and taking risks, allocation of resources and specially the free time, and finally the organizational structure and the related centralization of decision making. Design/methodology/approach – The purpose of the study is achieved through an empirical quantitative study on the software development industry of Egypt. Findings – Results indicate that, while all factors proved to be significantly correlated with employees’ innovative ideas generation; the availability of innovation based rewards, action based managerial support and decentralized decision making proved to be the most important factors contributing to the increase of innovation ideas generated and shared by employees. Results also indicate that managers and leaders generate more ideas than junior employees. Originality/value – Understanding the organizational factors that contribute to the employee’s generation of innovative ideas enables organizations to adapt their practices towards maximizing the contribution of their employees to more successful organizational innovation.

Measuring customers' intimacy: Evidence from Indonesian service-based companies

Leadership is often regarded as the fuel to jump-start changes and improvement in organizations. At the same time, innovation is widely discussed as an important element in organizational development. In numerous theoretical discussions and stories of companies across the globe, successful organizational innovation depends on leadership. As the leadership pushes for innovation, the company's internal branding is expected to improve. This is particularly true for transformation leadership, perhaps. Such an internal branding is expected to shape much stronger employee-based brand equity (EBBE). Likewise, the company's innovation should enhance the customer intimacy by means of word of mouth. The relationships may not have been widely researched though the presence of technology has allowed increasing popularity in electronic communication and information sharing. Electronic word of mouth (eWOM), like testimonies, spreads insights and experiences for others. This affects customers' reactions to products and services. Service-based companies may have relied on eWOM to keep the traffic-inflows while maintaining intimacy with customers. This study attempts to analyze the relationships among transformational leadership, product/service innovation, internal branding, eWOM, EBBE, and customer intimacy in Indonesian service-based companies, such as; hotels and restaurants. A structural equation modeling is incorporated to note the simultaneous relationships.

Развитие физической культуры и спорта региона в контексте социального предпринимательства

This paper represents the development of ideas on social entrepreneurship, which is defined as a legally enforceable activity on production of goods and (or) services aimed at the solution or mitigation of social problems through sustainable and financially successful organizational innovation, providing the further spread of the experience of social impact. The characteristics on the foreign experience of this phenomenon are given. Points of social entrepreneurship impact in the Russian society are defined. It is suggested to consider entrepreneurial activity in the sphere of physical culture and sports as a form of social entrepreneurship. It is proved that the characteristics of entrepreneurship in the sphere of physical culture and sport are appropriate to be provided in the context of general issues and trends in the development of this sector in a particular region. On the example of Sverdlovsk region as a region with good sporting tradition, common trends and factors of development of entrepreneurship in the sphere of physical culture and sports of the Russian regions are identified. Ways of solving existing problems are proposed.

Investigating the design process: participatory design in agile software development

PurposeThis paper aims to explore a case of customer and user participation in an agile software development project, which produced a tailor‐made information system for workplace support as a step towards a theory of participatory design in agile software development.Design/methodology/approachBased on an integrated framework for user participation derived from the participatory design literature the research was performed as a case study and semi‐structured, open‐ended interviews were conducted with about a third of the development team and with a representative sample of key players and future users in the customer organization. The interview data were supplemented with company and project documents.FindingsThe paper found genuine customer and user participation carried out by onsite customers and by other operational staff in the form of direct and indirect participation and with functional and democratic empowerment. The onsite customers played informative, consultative and participative roles. The analysis revealed that planning games, user stories and story cards, working software and acceptance tests structured the customer and user participation. This form of user participation supported a balance between flexibility and project progress and resulted in a project and a product which were considered a success by the customer and the development organization. The analysis showed that the integrative framework for user participation can also fruitfully be used in a new context to understand what participatory design is and how, when and where it can be performed as an instance of a design process in agile development. As such the paper contributes to an analytical and a design theory of participatory design in agile development. Furthermore the paper explicates why participatory design contributes to the successful completion of the investigated project. By drawing on innovation theory it was found that participatory design in agile development bears the characteristics of a successful organizational innovation. Grounding further explanations in complex adaptive systems theory the paper provides an additional argument why participatory design despite some identified challenges fosters project staff to successfully carry out the agile development project.Originality/valueThe paper presents an exploratory, empirical study of an understudied phenomenon and contributes to theory building.

Potential of Telemedicine in Pediatric Primary Care

1. Kenneth M. McConnochie, MD, MPH* 1. *Professor of Pediatrics and Director, Health-e-Access Telemedicine Program, The University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry, Rochester, NY Invalidating assumptions about space and time, telemedicine holds profound implications for health care. Much about the current structure and organization of health services reflects the assumption that patient and clinician must be in the same place at the same time. Yet telemedicine commonly eliminates geography as a barrier to access, and much exchange of information need not occur synchronously. The potential for specific telemedicine applications to enable quality health care has been demonstrated using commercially available technology. The opportunity for children, families, and primary care pediatricians to gain from the access and effectiveness proffered by telemedicine hinges on its acceptance and adoption in the health-care system. Adoption, in turn, depends on successful organizational innovation, especially reimbursement from insurance organizations. This discussion emphasizes the potential benefits of telemedicine in primary care pediatric practice and the challenge of integrating this tool into that setting. In our view, the greatest promise for benefiting children and families lies in integrating telemedicine into primary care. Telemedicine is defined by the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) as “the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications for the health and education of the patient or healthcare provider and for the purpose of improving patient care.” Although encompassing many applications beyond our purview (eg, teledermatology, telepathology, educational teleconferences, telecardiology, telemental health, virtual critical care units), (1) this broad definition is notable from the perspective of the primary care pediatrician because it rightfully includes practice via telephone. From a clinical perspective, telephone practice and more advanced forms of telemedicine are close kin because a required competency for both is the ability to judge whether available information is sufficient for diagnosis and management. As in telephone practice, the need to refer to a traditional, in-person care setting for hands-on, laboratory, or imaging evaluation is always …