Failures and Coping Strategies in Indigenous Technology Capability Process

This paper reports on a theory building effort aimed at understanding persistent difficulties with efforts at developing plant-level indigenous technology in a developing country. The firms, having obtained the technology from a donor firm or a laboratory find that implementation and adaptation issues are difficult due to tacit technology knowledge and lack of technical or managerial or market-related systems and experiences. These lead to technological failures referring to situations where serious deviations from expected opportunities and outcomes occur. The failures include loss of entry opportunities, or rejection of technology by the market, or failure at improving processes. With insights offered from 92 organizations in India we identify the different technological failures that occur and ways used to overcome these problems. Exploratory results suggest four major technological failures. (1) Failure due to inappropriate choice of technology leading to longer-than-expected time for establishing production, or inefficient production process, and/or market losses due to poor image of the poorly calibrated product. (2) Failure due to inadequate planning and support for innovation occurs when firms do not invest sufficiently in plant level data collection and analysis, thus missing important avenues for incremental innovation. (3) Failures due to inappropriate processes reveal how short-term orientation and low integration amongst different functional groups thwart the firm’s adaptive and innovative abilities. (4) Finally, failure due to product‐market mismatch and inadequate market survey occurs when market desired features are not maintained, or the incorporated changes are not cost effective. The coping strategies adopted by the firms are also discussed.     

Managing Interactions between Technological and Stylistic Innovation in the Media Industries

The processes of technological innovation have been widely researched, but their interactions with another type of innovation that is particularly important in sectors like the fashion and the media content industries have been neglected: stylistic innovation. This paper puts forward the idea that a better understanding of such interactions between content and technology in the media industries might help explaining differences in the receptiveness of firms towards new technological opportunities. The nature of the interactions, so it is argued in this paper, depends on three groups of key factors at the level of the product, the organization and the industry: among them, first, the locations of the different types of innovation in the media product's components; second, organizational factors like the identity and the reputation of a firm with respect to the above types of innovation; and third, the industry-specific characteristics of the certification environment in which the firms operate. Awards are discussed as specific instantiations of micro certification environments indicating quality with respect to stylistic and/or technological product features. To round off the theoretical part, a definition of stylistic innovation is developed with reference to the key concepts discussed in this paper. Within the media sector the literary publishing industry has been chosen to provide the subject of the empirical part. Two cases related to the introduction of eBook technology are presented: one is a study of the first digital literary publisher in Europe and the other is a case study of the first international eBook award, which mixes technological and stylistic criteria. Theory and cases lead to a number of hypotheses offered as potential departure points for future research into the interactions between innovation in style and technology.     

Managing Interactions between Technological and Stylistic Innovation in the Media Industries

The processes of technological innovation have been widely researched, but their interactions with another type of innovation that is particularly important in sectors like the fashion and the media content industries have been neglected: stylistic innovation. This paper puts forward the idea that a better understanding of such interactions between content and technology in the media industries might help explaining differences in the receptiveness of firms towards new technological opportunities. The nature of the interactions, so it is argued in this paper, depends on three groups of key factors at the level of the product, the organization and the industry: among them, first, the locations of the different types of innovation in the media product's components; second, organizational factors like the identity and the reputation of a firm with respect to the above types of innovation; and third, the industry-specific characteristics of the certification environment in which the firms operate. Awards are discussed as specific instantiations of micro certification environments indicating quality with respect to stylistic and/or technological product features. To round off the theoretical part, a definition of stylistic innovation is developed with reference to the key concepts discussed in this paper. Within the media sector the literary publishing industry has been chosen to provide the subject of the empirical part. Two cases related to the introduction of eBook technology are presented: one is a study of the first digital literary publisher in Europe and the other is a case study of the first international eBook award, which mixes technological and stylistic criteria. Theory and cases lead to a number of hypotheses offered as potential departure points for future research into the interactions between innovation in style and technology.     

不同产业技术背景的制造企业知识产权能力发展策略——来自丝丽雅、二重和长虹的案例研究

采用多案例研究方法,讨论了分别处于纺织行业、重型装备制造行业、信息家电行业的丝丽雅、二重和长虹这三家制造企业在全球化竞争中的技术能力发展路径,以及利用知识产权获得竞争优势的机会,进而给出了不同产业技术背景下中国制造企业的知识产权能力发展策略。研究表明:有重点地选择特定技术和产品开展持续的研发,是作为"后来者"的我国制造企业发展创新能力、获得后来者优势的有效途径;"后来者"企业有机会利用知识产权赢得创新所得,但不同产业技术背景的企业的知识产权能力发展策略存在较大差异。     

企业技术多样性、实质性社会责任信息披露与创新扩散

技术多样性是企业创新能力的重要表征，但现有研究对于技术多样性与创新扩散的关系存在争议。对此，区分相关和不相关技术多样性对创新扩散的异质性影响，并检验实质性社会责任信息披露作为一种信号传递机制对上述关系的调节作用。基于2008—2017年中国研发密集型上市企业数据进行实证分析，结果发现：相关技术多样性能够积极影响创新扩散；不相关技术多样性对创新扩散的影响存在滞后效应；实质性社会责任信息披露正向调节不相关技术多样性与创新扩散的关系。结论丰富了创新扩散理论与实证研究，可为企业创新实践提供决策依据。     

后发企业技术创新的演化动力机制研究-以华为早期(1988-1995年)研发为例

以演化经济学和系统动力学视角,综合运用文献分析和访谈等研究方法,对华为早期技术研发进行系统性分析,建立后发企业技术创新及其演化的系统动力模型。研究发现：新产品开发是资本增长的动力,技术创新是产品开发的动力,人才和研发组织是技术创新的动力,同时人才也是组织结构优化的动力,而发挥人才价值的关键是人才激励;市场既为后发企业提供不断进化的市场动力,也传递先发企业和后发企业的竞争压力,促使后发企业不断产品开发和集成创新,供应商为后发企业快速进入市场并对关键技术进行模块化创新提供动力;企业家和研发组织把外部动力和压力转化为内部动力,使内部动力及进化选择机制与外部市场竞争协调一致。     

Coupling relationships and synergistic mechanisms between technology management capability and technological capability in product innovation: a simulation study

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the dynamic co-evolution of technology management capability and technological capability in the system of product innovation. It is motivated by the increasing attention that product innovation has received recently, as it is considered one of the most important factors that can bring about competitive advantages for firms to compete with their rivals in the current competitive business environment. Framing the system of product innovation as a complex adaptive system and focusing on the roles of technology management capability and technological capability in the system, the most suitable synergistic mechanisms between technology management capability and technological capability that can make the system reach the highest fitness under their diverse coupling relationships are identified by means of NK fitness landscape model. The simulation results show that there are matches between the coupling relationships among the elements of technology management capability and technological capability and their synergistic mechanisms in the system of product innovation. This paper provides a better understanding of the relationships between technology management capability and technological capability and managerial implications for firms to innovate products successfully and promptly and thus improve their competitive advantages.     

Assessing the Effectiveness of Technology Policy--A Long-Term View

Innovation policy is increasingly concerned with mobilising a broad range of resources to support the development of firm-level technological capability. It is aimed at dealing with 'market failure', which arises when firms are confronted with technological challenges in which they lack the necessary experience or resources. Both internal agency and independent evaluation of such innovation policies are routinely undertaken but most are conducted during the lifetime of the programmes or soon after they have ended. There are few examples of such evaluations being able to take a long-term perspective. This paper explores the impacts of a UK government technology programme on the process and product application of microelectronic technologies (MAP) that ran between 1978 and 1986. Via interviews with a sample of firms who participated in scheme, the research explored their subsequent use of microelectronics, government support schemes and expert consultants. The study argues for more regular long-term reviews of technology promoting schemes as an aid to learning and capability enhancement in policy-making.     

Technology and worker coopratives: some UK evidence and a framework for investigation

This paper considers the relationship between cooperatives i n the 'new wave' and the technology they use. Data and examples from the UK are presented to show that there is no general support either for the 'optimistic' hypothesis that cooperatives are necessarily able to make humanizing choices about technology or for the 'pessimistic' hypothesis that they are completely constrained by technology. A framework is developed for analysing the factors which may or may not allow technological choices. The paper goes on to form a new hypothesis in two parts: firstly, that small firms i n general have more freedom to make choices about technology the more they have independence from large firms and the market, and the more they are i n areas of product innovation, particularly IT-based innovation; secondly, given a degree of freedom to make such choices, the choice is more likely to be made successfully in the direction of humanizing uses of technology the more there is potential for identif;cation between job, product and social or political aims. The paper concludes by describing a research project now under way exploring the relative importance of these factors in established UK worker cooperatives.     

Technology and worker coopratives: some UK evidence and a framework for investigation

This paper considers the relationship between cooperatives i n the ‘new wave’ and the technology they use. Data and examples from the UK are presented to show that there is no general support either for the ‘optimistic’ hypothesis that cooperatives are necessarily able to make humanizing choices about technology or for the ‘pessimistic’ hypothesis that they are completely constrained by technology. A framework is developed for analysing the factors which may or may not allow technological choices. The paper goes on to form a new hypothesis in two parts: firstly, that small firms i n general have more freedom to make choices about technology the more they have independence from large firms and the market, and the more they are i n areas of product innovation, particularly IT-based innovation; secondly, given a degree of freedom to make such choices, the choice is more likely to be made successfully in the direction of humanizing uses of technology the more there is potential for identif;cation between job, product and social or political aims. The paper concludes by describing a research project now under way exploring the relative importance of these factors in established UK worker cooperatives.     

市场轨道理论溯源:技术轨道与市场颠覆

基于"创新"概念的内涵和外延的丰富性,提出拓宽轨道理论的新构想,将研究焦点从"技术视角"延伸至"市场视角"。认为:市场轨道的理论源头是技术轨道理论和市场颠覆理论;基于市场轨道演化的创新产品或服务可获取侵蚀或替代现有市场的市场渗透机会,即新市场逐渐侵蚀已有的主流市场空间,甚至全面颠覆原有的主流市场;市场轨道的特性和效应与技术轨道具有对称性。     

企业突破性技术创新的技术轨道与市场轨道分析

随着经济不断发展、产品生命周期不断缩短、技术创新速度不断加快,打破原来创新轨道的突破性技术创新研究备受关注。企业不仅要判断好当前的技术范式的生命周期阶段,而且要辨析、预测未来的主导技术范式,而且企业应该正确地进行突破性技术创新的时机预测和把握;企业突破性技术创新产品需要努力地寻求低端市场的突破口进而向高端市场慢慢接近并逐渐取得市场的主导地位,同时企业突破性技术和产品需要挖掘潜在的用户市场并培养他们成为主流用户,使企业获得更多的利润,提升企业竞争力。     

DOUBLE‐SIDED ADVERSE SELECTION IN THE PRODUCT MARKET AND THE ROLE OF THE INSURANCE MARKET*

I investigate the interrelation between a product market and an insurance market when adverse‐selection problems exist both in consumers and in firms. Firms offer warranties for product failures. Consumers may further purchase first‐party insurance for the residual risks of product failures. Given that the insurance market exists, two types of equilibria are possible: (a) Different firm types offer different pooling warranties attracting both good and bad consumer types or (b) good firms attract only bad consumers and bad firms attract both types of consumers. I discuss the existence and the efficiency implication of the insurance market.     

The relation between the average complexity of high-tech products and their diversity: An empirical test of evolutionary models

What is the relation between the average level of complexity that characterizes a product's technology, and the degree of diversity of that technology across rival firms? Evolutionary theories of innovation and technical advance are consistent with either a direct or an inverse relation. The issue thus becomes an empirical one. This paper uses a unique database containing detailed quantitative data on the specifications of 12 high-tech product groups for the U.S., Japan and selected European countries, for 1982, for both products and processes. It is found that the more complex the technology, the less diverse is the technology of rival firms that produce the product. This is consistent with the following evolutionary process: Economies of scale and scope inherent in high-level technologies require firms who adopt them to dispose entirely of older technologies, in order to remain competitive; at the same time, older, simpler technologies continue to exist and permit wide diversities among firms who pursue “niche” market strategies.     

网络效应市场的技术创新障碍及策略分析

在网络效应市场,技术创新对企业竞争力有着重要的影响。然而由于网络效应的作用,需求曲线发生改变,使市场均衡表现出"赢者通吃"的特征。这意味着,如果一项新技术的用户规模达不到临界容量,正反馈效应的存在将会使该技术被市场所抛弃。静态博弈和动态博弈的分析结果都表明,用户为了避免网络规模减小带来的效用损失,对新技术的采用往往采取观望态度,这将导致新技术难以达到最小网络规模要求的临界容量,也就无法取代旧技术的统治地位。为了加快新技术的扩散速度并成功战胜旧技术,企业在进行技术创新时应采取有效的技术创新策略:一是要采取合适的技术兼容策略;二是要鼓励和授权其他厂商使用自己的技术标准;三是要吸引辅助配套厂商共同进行技术研发。     

企业创新倾向、吸收能力与跨界技术并购创新绩效—— 一项模糊集定性比较分析

在吸收理论的基础上，结合行业技术环境和企业双元创新倾向，提出跨界技术并购企业创新绩效实现机制的整合性分析框架，并使用fsQCA对107个上市公司跨界技术并购案例进行构型研究。结果发现，在高创新绩效构型中，主并企业创新倾向与吸收能力不同维度间存在差异化匹配关系；企业潜在吸收能力与现实吸收能力间具有一定的替代关系，技术基础广度和吸收转化投入强度对于创新绩效提高相对重要；丰富的外部技术资源更有助于创新绩效提升。研究结论拓展了吸收能力理论，丰富了跨界技术并购领域实证证据，可为不同特征企业制定跨界技术并购决策提供参考依据。     

Patterns of innovation diffusion and technological competition in Portuguese manufacturing and service industries

This article uses data from the Portuguese Community Innovation Survey (CIS III) to analyse the inter‐industry heterogeneity in the diffusion of innovations and level of technological competition in Portuguese manufacturing and service industries. The industries are classified with reference to the relationship between the level of participation in innovation and the strategies of innovative firms. Methods of multivariate statistics are used to synthesize the data and to group the observations into subsets. Four distinctive innovation patterns are identified, defined along the following dimensions: output‐orientation of innovation, importance of disembodied innovation, role of technologically advanced innovation and level of innovation opportunities. It is also found that high levels of technological competition tend to occur in sectors with relatively low dimension, productivity and overall investment.     

Competition,Rivalry And Innovative Behaviour ∗

This paper is an empirical study of the importance of competition and rivalry in explaining innovative behaviour by software firms. The paper distinguishes between two notions of competition. One in which rivalry occurs due the possession of greater market power, and the other in which rivalry occurs due to diffennces in the abilities of firms. In addition the paper also decomposes changes in the extent of innovation due to the activities of firms that are innovators and due to changes in the probability of innovating. Competition always influences the extent of innovation by changing the propensity of firms to innovate.     

On the diffusion of toilets as bottom of the pyramid innovation: Lessons from sanitation entrepreneurs

There is an emerging body of literature on product innovations for the poor at the bottom of the income pyramid. However, there is little on why delivery systems succeed or fail in this context and the present paper attempts to fill this void by examining why and how sanitation entrepreneurs are succeeding in India to diffuse toilets — an innovation for rural households, which never had access to one before. The literature is analyzed and confronted with the actual field practices. We demonstrate that the common thread that unifies progressive sanitation entrepreneurs is their adoption of a ‘market based approach’. There are market failures stemming from the demand side due to problems in expression of demand and its mismatch with the perceived value of the innovation. In response, sanitation entrepreneurs go beyond the standard linear model of assessing need and appropriateness of technology. They create innovations in ‘technological design’ as well as in the ‘delivery platforms’ to include practices for ‘accompaniment’, ‘sustainable maintenance’ and ‘generation of knowledge'. Thus, they make-up for sluggish or missing markets and informational asymmetries to ensure sustained use of toilets.     

基于科学的创新失败挽救：扩展适应视角

基于科学的创新具有失败率极高的特点，对其失败（项目）进行挽救可减少创新资源浪费，提升相关产业创新绩效，具有可观的经济价值和社会意义。采用多案例方法，从扩展适应视角研究发现，基于科学的创新失败挽救过程由新功能意义建构、基于扩展适应的商业化实现及持续扩展适应3个阶段构成；在基于科学的创新领域，扩展适应是一种重要的失败挽救机制；机缘巧合触发基于扩展适应的挽救机会形成，已存在扩展适应的创新生态系统是挽救创新失败的实现条件，多次、持续的扩展适应可不断挖掘和释放失败项目的创新价值。结论可丰富基于科学的创新和创新失败挽救相关理论研究，为创新管理实践、政策制定等提供理论参考。