Types Of Innovation Activities Research Articles

Innovation in Small-Scale Retailing

For small retailers facing significant challenges it can be argued that, in light of their restricted resources, innovation is critical for business development and competitive advantage. However, there has been a lack of research into the potential for innovation in small retailing and the types of innovative activity that can be applied. This conceptual paper uses key themes from various literature bases, including small retailing, small business innovation, services and retail innovation, to provide a future research agenda for small retailer innovation.

The impact of paternalistic leadership on innovation: an integrated model

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of paternalistic leadership on innovation.Design/methodology/approachThis paper conceptualizes an integrated model that combines the dual‐core model and ambidextrous model of innovation. Using a sample of 159 Chinese high‐tech enterprises, some hypotheses are tested.FindingsThe results show: authoritarianism has a directly negative effect on exploitative innovation and positively moderates the effectiveness of exploitative innovation; benevolence has a directly positive effect both on exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation; benevolence negatively moderates the effectiveness of exploratory innovation and positively moderates the effectiveness of exploitative innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper adopts the cross‐sectional study design, while innovation and formation of the implementation are relatively long‐term, dynamic processes. Thus, longitudinal design is a direction worth trying in follow‐up studies. Besides, using random samples affects to some extent the conclusion's generalizability.Practical implicationsProper patriarchal leadership behavior (authoritarianism/benevolence) should be employed in the face of different types of innovation activities (exploratory innovation/exploitative innovation) and at the different stages of innovative activities (innovation ideas emerging stage/innovation behavior implementation stage). If properly used, patriarchal leadership with both authoritarianism and benevolence will effectively enhance innovation performance. Conversely, it may produce negative effects.Originality/valueThis paper has studied the influence of paternalistic leadership on exploratory and exploitative innovation. Different from the existing literature, this paper based on Daft's dual‐core model and Duncan's ambidextrous model and builds an integrated model.

TrivialCV: Competitive Activities for the Classroom Integrated in a Moodle Virtual Campus

This paper describes TrivialCV, a toolkit created to facilitate the management of team-based competitive activities within the classroom. TrivialCV was designed as an instructor-oriented tool, in order to foster the organization of these types of innovative activities by facilitating the instructor's task. This goal is achieved by providing easy-to-use graphical tools and a kit of integration services that allow TrivialCV to be integrated with popular e-learning tools (e.g., Moodle-based environments). Integration is achieved by using an extensible plugin that can be generalized to support different e-Learning tools and even different external activities. The article describes the general architecture designed to integrate TrivialCV with different e-learning tools, and the specific implementation developed to integrate it with the Virtual Campus at the Complutense University (based in Moodle v1.9).

Commitment-based HR practices, different types of innovation activities and firm innovation performance

Research on human resource (HR) practices and innovation has increased in the strategic HR management literature over the last decades. Scholars suggest that commitment-based HR practices contribute to innovation performance of the firm. However, prior research puts little emphasis on the causal linkages among commitment-based HR practices, different types of innovation activities and firm innovation performance. This article opens the black box of the relationship between HR management and firm performance by examining the causal relationships among a bundle of commitment-based HR practices (i.e. a commitment-based HR system), different types of innovation activities and firm innovation performance. On the basis of a survey of 103 Turkish firms, empirical results show that a commitment-based HR system has a positive effect on process, organizational and marketing innovation activities. Furthermore, a commitment-based HR system mainly affects organizational innovation activities and shows that these innovation activities are the core drivers of process and marketing innovation activities, leading to higher rate of product innovation activities. Subsequently, product innovation activities enhance firm innovation performance, emphasizing their determinant role.

International market diversification of innovative European SMEs - what role do various innovation strategies play?

Based on a negative binomial regression analysis, this study investigates the link between various types of innovation activities and their export scope using data obtained from the European Commission for 1,053 innovative European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the manufacturing sector. Our empirical findings reveal the heterogeneous effects of product and process innovation on a firm’s export scope. The results show that firms with only product innovation have a larger export scope than SMEs with both product and process innovation or only process innovation. Firms involved in process innovation alone show a lower export scope than firms with other types of innovation activities.

DRIVERS OF ECO-INNOVATION IN CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

Eco-innovation is defined as any form of innovation aiming at significant and demonstrable progress towards the goal of sustainable development, through reducing impacts on the environment or achieving a more efficient and responsible use of natural resources, including energy. The chemical industry is usually considered one of the most polluting industries. Ensuring safe production, transport and handling of its products, with care for the environment and in full accordance with regulations, is of key importance for the image and reputation of today s chemical industry. Most chemical companies have been developing and introducing eco-innovations in an attempt to change this negative image. Using a sample of 544 companies in the Spanish chemical industry, we study the factors that have driven these companies to move towards this type of innovation activities. Our empirical research shows that intra-group sources of innovations, together with clients and industry associations are the main driving forces of eco-innovation in the chemical industry. Furthermore our model establishes that innovations in products, services, manufacturing methods and logistical systems are positively related to the achievement of environmental objectives.

Innovation in SMEs – Findings from Romania

The present paper has as a starting point the close relationship existing between entrepreneurial activity, innovations and the development of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Most SMEs result from implementing the entrepreneurial spirit, through which the entrepreneurs' activity is conducted in different domains. One aspect of utmost importance is the innovation in SMEs as an indicator of the entrepreneurial activity, on the one hand and as a contributor to the organization's performance, on the other hand. Therefore, we will study and analyse the SMEs innovation activity over a period of time as an indication of how entrepreneurship evolved and manifested in Romania as a European country that integrated relatively recently into the European Union. The paper envisages looking at how innovations in SMEs from Romania evolved in the period 2003/2004 - 2010/2011. The innovative activities in SMEs are examined from a dynamic perspective and the analysis is based on the study of a number of aspects related to innovations, such as: types of innovative activities, investments in innovations, the intensity of renewing the existing products, the use of IT, the use of the Internet, etc. Based on these findings, the paper attempts to characterize the innovative activities in Romanian SMEs and their evolution in time with emphasis on the recent period.

Political institutional structure influences on innovative activity

This study draws upon previous research on political institutions to examine country-level measures of innovative activity over a ten-year period within 24 developed nations. Investigating the relationship between political institutional structures and two types of innovative activity (i.e., basic and applied) reveals that political institutions have an important role in determining the number and nature of innovative opportunities for firms and entrepreneurs. Findings suggest that countries with political institutional structures characterized by weak state authority and corporatist societies generate greater levels of basic innovative activity. Further, national political institutions typified by strong state authority and corporatist societies were found to create higher levels of applied innovative activity.

Innovative actions and innovation (in)capabilities of Russian industrial companies: a further extension of observations

This article reports the results of a further extension of a quasi-longitudinal survey among top corporate executives in Russian industry, presenting a snapshot of current innovation actions and innovation capabilities of Russian enterprises. Through comparison of the responses from the 2004 and 2010 surveys, changes in the business and management of Russian companies are examined. The perceived abilities to perform particular stages of innovation projects have significantly increased and Russian companies successfully use contractors for various types of innovation activity. However, the intensity of innovations remains low and the resources that can be utilised to create innovations at Russian CEOs' disposal remain limited as few actual innovation projects satisfy the criteria imposed by Russian owners to improve the overall profitability of the firm. The owner's criteria for evaluating innovation effectiveness particularly impede radical product innovations and breakthrough innovations in production technologies. The results of this study indicate that the relationship between the perception of innovative capabilities by CEOs and the intensity of innovations proved to be a valuable research construct and this suggests that comparative study of innovation capabilities of firms in emerging and developed economies would be a profitable extension of this research.

What Determines Innovation in the Manufacturing Sector? Evidence from Pakistan.

This study analysed the behaviour of a sample of manufacturing firms in Pakistan in order to understand what determines innovative activity employing a panel data set for the years 2002 and 2006-07. Probit estimation results reveal that size of the firm and human resource quality are important internal factors that increase the likelihood of a firm innovating. Interestingly, whether a firm is exporting or not has no bearing. However, post innovating there is a large increase in number of firms who export. Externally, presence in a geographic cluster is important though further analysis reveals that the impact varies according to firm size. Size per se does not increase likelihood of innovating for medium sized firm who only have an advantage over small sized firms when present in a cluster. Large firms on the other hand continue to have an advantage and the advantage further increases with presence in a cluster. Finally, analysis by product and process innovators reveals that the characteristics of firms undertaking the two types of innovative activity are similar. The only noteworthy difference being that process innovation does not benefit from presence of a firm in a cluster which might be attributable to the more visible nature of product innovation which benefits from technological spillovers that are a characteristic of presence in a cluster. JEL classifications: O14, O31, O33, L6 Keywords: Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentive, Developing Countries, Industry Study

Innovation and Productivity in the Argentine Manufacturing Sector

This paper adapts the Crepon, Duguet, and Mairesse (1998) approach to estimate the relationship between innovation and productivity and the realities of innovative activities in developing countries. Panel data for Argentina during the period 1998-2004 to estimate a structural model in which different types of firms' innovative behavior - including in-house activities and the incorporation of external technologies - feeds into the probability of achieving successful results in product and process innovation, which in turn explains labor productivity. The endogeneity of this three-stage process is controlled for. The results suggest that all types of innovative activities are relevant to explain success in product and process innovation, and both are important factors to explain labor productivity. Moreover, investing systematically in RD implies an extra payoff in labor productivity. These results suggest that investing in different types of innovative activities - and not only in RD - and doing in-house activities systematically contribute to firms' innovative and economic performance.

Exploration and exploitation across three resource classes

PurposeLong‐run corporate success requires engagement in two types of innovative activities: exploitation and exploration. However, earlier research has focused on exploration and exploitation concerning a firm's technologies. The purpose of the present article is to explicitly examine exploration and exploitation related to customers and markets.Design/methodology/approachThe article is conceptual in nature, based on marketing, strategic management, and organization literatures.FindingsThe article explains the logic of exploration‐exploitation with respect to two market‐related resource classes – the firm's knowledge of markets and customers (market/customer intelligence) and market actors' knowledge of and bonds to the firm (brands/bonds) – as viewed in combination with the resource class of technologies, processes, and products (technologies/processes). The distinction of these three resource classes enables a three‐dimensional conceptualization of the ideal types of a firm's business development projects, which are seen as combinations of exploration and exploitation of resources across the three classes. The article also introduces the notions of multidimensionality of exploration‐exploitation within the resource classes and relativity of resource newness.Originality/valueThe article explicates how firms can orient their exploration and exploitation strategies not only on the technology dimension but also on the dimensions of market/customer intelligence and brands/bonds.

Exploratory innovation, exploitative innovation, and performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of a firm's innovation activities on performance, and focus on the internal fit and external fit of two types of innovation activities – exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts the survey data of 397 enterprises in eastern, middle, and western China. The business strategy attributes analysis based on strategic orientation of business enterprises (STROBE) scale was used to classify the business strategy types, and hierarchical regression analyses were employed to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show: both exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation have a positive effect on firm performance; the internal fit between exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation, whether it is fit as moderating or fit as matching, has no significant effect on firm performance; the fit between innovation activity and firm business strategy has significant effect on firm performance, therefore, exploratory innovation activity fits defenders and exploitative innovation activity fits prospectors; and the fit between the innovation activity and external environment has a slight effect on firm performance. Environmental competitiveness can enhance exploratory innovation outcome but diminish exploitative innovation outcome.Originality/valueThe paper has supplied the empirical evidence discovered in the context of China to the theoretical views of exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation, and achieved some results which differ from the ones drawn by similar researches done abroad.

Management Capability: Perspectives from New Zealand Small Firms

Management Capability: Perspectives from New Zealand Small Firms

Configurations of knowledge transfer relations: An empirically based taxonomy and its determinants

We focus in this study on sets of inter-organizational relationships (IORs) by applying a configurational approach that includes both the diversity and the intensity of knowledge transfer IORs. We use a latent class cluster analysis to empirically explore the kinds of IORs configurations. We then use antecedents derived from the IOR literature to explain firm membership in those configurations. Our tests allow us to identify four configurations ranging from isolated innovators to innovating firms embedded in diverse and deep sets of IORs. We show that internal knowledge use by firms, and the types of innovative activities in which they engage, are strong predictors of firm membership in different configurations.

Non-R&D Innovation in Indian Organized Factory Enterprises

The system of organized business enterprise is amongst the important actors of the national innovation system. Given the wide variations in ownership, size, nature of competition, there would be similar differences in the depth and types of innovative activities. The economic dynamics of this group of enterprises is very diverse, allowing investigation into changes happening beyond an individual enterprise. For instance, within the manufacturing group of relatively large enterprises, changes towards improved performances that could be described as innovative can be portrayed at three levels of (1) units (2) sector and (3) inter sector. All the 3 levels of innovation have dissimilar inputs and those at sector and inter sector levels are often macro in nature, flowing out of public policies.

Product and process innovation: Persistence and complementarities

Abstract Using a Spanish database, we have explored the role of persistence in the decision of firms to implement product and process innovations and to develop those innovations. We assume that a company that is continuously engaged in some type of innovation activity will be encouraged to innovate, either for investment reasons or to enhance its market image. Because of the effects of persistence (state dependence) could be contaminated by unobserved heterogeneity, we use panel data, and make an effort to separate these effects. We demonstrate that persistence is important in both innovation decisions. Persistence in innovation increases at least 15% the probability to develop more innovations. A second important result is that the introduction of the alternative innovation increases the probability to innovate in a range from 2 to 4%; it implies that complementarities between innovations are also important in the decision to continue innovating in terms of absorbed synergies and capacities generated by the firm.

THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FOREIGN COMPETITION, ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY AND PIONEERING INNOVATION: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION IN CANADA

The relationship between competition and innovation has drawn great attention from economists and strategic management researchers. However, the empirical evidence for this relationship remains inconsistent. On the one hand, the Schumpeterian viewpoint credits that the large firms with substantial monopoly market power have resources and incentives to innovate. On the other hand, it is also possible for a monopolist to have incentives to suppress subsequent innovations. It is suggested by Baldwin and Scott (1987) and Tang (2006) that the relationship between competition and innovation is dependent on the competition context and specific type of innovation activities. In this study, we investigate the relationship between foreign competition and pioneering innovation and consider the moderating role of absorptive capacity for this relationship, using the Canadian Innovation Data. We find a U-shaped relationship between foreign competition and pioneering innovation: when foreign competition increases from a low to a moderate level, the likelihood of pioneering innovation decreases. However, the likelihood of pioneering innovation increases when foreign competition continues to increase from a moderate to a high level. We also found evidence that absorptive capacity may positively moderate the relationship between foreign competition and pioneering innovation.

Schumpeterian cycles with pro-cyclical R&D

Recent empirical work finds that R&D expenditures are quite pro-cyclical even for firms that are not credit-constrained during downturns. This has been taken as strong evidence against Schumpeterian-style theories of business cycles that emphasize the idea that downturns in production may be good times to allocate labor towards innovative activities. Here we argue that the pro-cyclicality of R&D investment is in fact quite consistent with at least one of these theories. In our analysis we emphasize three key features of R&D investment relative to other types of innovative activity: (1) it uses knowledge intensively, (2) it is a long-term investment with uncertain applications, and (3) it suffers from diminishing returns over time.

Entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana: enterprising Africa

This study adopts a multi-level theoretical framework to examine data from 496 entrepreneurs in Ghana. Seven types of innovation activity are analysed against three categories of variables: the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the internal competencies of the firm, and firm location. Across all respondents, the incidence of incremental innovation was far greater than novel innovation. The extent of innovation was related to the education level of the entrepreneur. Firm size and involvement in exporting were positively related to innovation, but firm growth is less systematically so. Innovation was greater in firms located in conurbations compared to firms located in large and small towns. We conclude with suggestions for policy to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana.