The Role of Users in the Development of Applications Software

Meeting the needs of users has always been the goal of product developers. Recently, however, the important role of users as developers of new products has become more fully recognized. In many industries, it seems, users are actually a dominant part in the innovation process. To discover the part played by users in developing new computer software, Chris Voss traces the development path of a large number of software applications. He finds some particular circumstances where users lead the development of new products. This article and another that follows provide another view of software innovation to go with the preceding article by Glenn Bacon.     

The Neglect of Technology Management

The economic and industrial problems of the past ten years have raised serious questions about the way managers are trained. Critics have suggested that business schools should do a better job in such areas as manufacturing management, ethics, human resource management, and long term financial analysis. John Crisp argues that in a competitive world, the effective management of technological innovation is a key activity. From his perspective , managers of industrial enterprises in Australia, and elsewhere, have a legacy of attitudes, sensitivities, and techniques which leaves them ill-equipped to deal with the new competition. His proposals for improving the education of managers are provocative.     

Diffusion at Sub-National Levels: A Regional Analysis of New Product Growth

Nearly all studies of diffusion in the business literature focus attention on the rate of diffusion over time. In contrast, William Redmond draws our attention to spatial dimensions of innovation diffusion. His research examines sub-national units within the U.S. for differences in diffusion rates and relates there differences to relevant variables representing socioeconomic characteristics. Sales data on color TV and VCRs reveal differences in regional diffusion rates; these differences are associated with purchasing power, age, and mobility. This approach extends diffusion research into spatial dimensions and has implications for both adoption and diffusion theories.     

Resource orchestration for team‐based innovation: a case study of the interplay between teams,customers, and top management

The resource orchestration concept has attracted considerable interest in contemporary innovation research. However, resource orchestration is a manager‐centric framework and not all of its components necessarily reflect the value‐creation processes of organizations focusing on team‐based innovation. Drawing on a single‐case study of an innovative Swedish software company, we illustrate the roles of autonomous teams, customers, and top managers in orchestrating resources for team‐based innovation. Moreover, we introduce the concept of resource flocculation to describe how key actors co‐orchestrate various resource orchestration processes. The study contributes to research on resource orchestration by adapting the model to the conditions characterizing team‐based innovation, and to research on team‐based innovation by addressing how innovative teams are related to overall resource orchestration processes and, ultimately, organizational innovation outcomes.     

Innovation in the Systems Business: Dynamics of Autonomy and Cooperation

Even though the many hardware and software components that comprise a useful computer system are developed and offered as individual products, the required technical integration of these provides unique challenges for R&D management. New function, especially that provided by software, usually results from prototypes that are not well integrated with the existing product line. This article examines the problems of managing the conflicting demands of market-based autonomy and systems requirements for integration. The idea about software innovation is an interesting complement to the two articles that follow.     

Software innovativeness. A comparison between proprietary and Free/Open Source solutions offered by Italian SMEs

Innovation processes taking place in the software sector are already widely debated. The widespread success of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) raises new research issues, dealing with whether and how the free circulation of ideas championed by the movement and its collective management of intellectual property rights fosters innovation. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature by addressing the following research questions: are programs based on FOSS solutions more innovative than proprietary ones, and, if so, which innovation dimensions are typical of the FOSS production mode? Based on a sample of 134 software solutions produced by Italian Small and Medium Enterprises and using a methodology frequently applied in technology management to evaluate innovativeness of products and services, this exploratory study provides initial insights into what happens when alternative metrics are used to observe complex innovation processes in the software market.     

Innovation in acceptable doses: problems of supplementing educational technology innovations in firms

This paper gives the interim results of a research study of innovation in educational technology, and of obstacles to such innovation, based on interviews with senior management in 160 major firms. The special characteristics of innovation in this area are considered, including the duality between hardware and software, and the need to proceed by large steps. An analysis is made of the nature and sources of resistance to innovation, and of the possible means of overcoming it, including 'gatekeeper' activities. It is concluded that simple analyses and solutions are unlikely to be successful, and that a multi-dimensional approach is required.     

How Experienced Product Innovators Organize

It seems that reorganizing the product development function is a common and regularly administered solution to any perceived new product malaise. It's as though new product managers keep seeking some perfect form of organization that will lift their work to new levels of success. This article helps with the search. Axel Johne believes that experience can be a good teacher so he examined how experienced product innovators organize, in comparison to firms which are not so experienced. His results are interesting to all managers who wonder how product innovation can best be managed.     

Which Tangible and Intangible Assets Matter for Innovation Speed in Start‐Ups?*

The launch of the first product is an important event for start‐ups, because it takes the new venture closer to growth, profitability, and financial independence. The new product development (NPD) literature mainly focuses its attention on NPD processes in large firms. In this article insights on the antecedents on innovation speed in large firms are combined with resource‐based theory and insights from the entrepreneurship literature to develop hypotheses concerning the antecedents of innovation speed in start‐ups. In particular, tangible assets such as starting capital and the stage of product development at founding and intangible assets such as team tenure, experience of founders, and collaborations with third parties are considered as important antecedents for innovation speed in start‐ups. A unique data set on research‐based start‐ups (RBSUs) was collected, and event‐history analyses were used to test the hypotheses. The rich qualitative data on the individual companies are used to explain the statistical findings. This article shows that RBSUs differ significantly in their starting conditions. The impact of starting conditions on innovation speed differs between software and other companies. Although intuition suggests that start‐ups that are further in the product development cycle at founding launch their first product faster, our data indicate that software firms starting with a beta version experience slower product launch. The amount of initial financing has no significant effect on innovation speed. Next, it is shown that team tenure and experience of founders leads to faster product launch. Contrary to expectations, alliances with other firms do not significantly affect innovation speed, and collaborations with universities are associated with longer development times.     

Challenges of open innovation: the paradox of firm investment in open-source software

Open innovation is a powerful framework encompassing the generation, capture, and employment of intellectual property at the firm level. We identify three fundamental challenges for firms in applying the concept of open innovation: finding creative ways to exploit internal innovation, incorporating external innovation into internal development, and motivating outsiders to supply an ongoing stream of external innovations. This latter challenge involves a paradox, why would firms spend money on R&D efforts if the results of these efforts are available to rival firms? To explore these challenges, we examine the activity of firms in open‐source software to support their innovation strategies. Firms involved in open‐source software often make investments that will be shared with real and potential rivals. We identify four strategies firms employ – pooled R&D/product development, spinouts, selling complements and attracting donated complements – and discuss how they address the three key challenges of open innovation. We conclude with suggestions for how similar strategies may apply in other industries and offer some possible avenues for future research on open innovation.     

Asia’s national innovation systems: Institutional adaptability and rigidity in the face of global innovation challenges

This paper explores several features of, and changes in, innovation capacity in Asia. The growth of technology-based industries has been a critically important element of Asian industrial development and has required extensive institutional support for the diffusion of innovation and technological learning. As a number of Asian countries reach the global technological frontier they need to develop new capabilities for creating “radical” innovations in order to sustain their international competitiveness. Using the analytical frameworks of national innovation systems and varieties of capitalism, the paper reviews some systemic and environmental factors encouraging and constraining these developments. By referring to illustrative case studies of institutional evolution within Taiwan’s national innovation system and technological entrepreneurship in Korea, the paper argues that whilst there are major developments in models of innovation support, emulating those found in liberal market economies, enduring cultural legacies can remain influential. It highlights the central importance of social as well as economic institutional adaptation. Some management and policy implications of this attribute are considered, and a future research agenda is proposed.

The Need for a Field of Study of Implementation of Innovations

The study of innovation has been approached from many disciplines and from the point of view of different real life problems. As a result, we have a series of clusters of knowledge that are related but seldom integrated. Chris Voss suggests it is time we closed at least one of these gaps. He suggests there should be a field of study should be established that will build a bridge between work on the process of innovation and work on the diffusion of innovation. He presents a starting point for the new field of study.     

The field of radical innovation: Making sense of organizational cultures and radical innovation

Organic organizational structures and cultures facilitate innovation because they allow organizations to shift their understanding of what a product, service or technology means. Yet, organic organizations may have to instill mechanistic structures and bureaucratic processes if they produce successful radical innovations. Thus, the basis of innovation can be undermined by its consequences. To explore this issue, this paper analyzes data from an ongoing longitudinal case study of a SME digital-design agency that developed a radical innovation for the market research industry. The paper observes that founders of the organization shifted their position to become managers as a result of their radical innovation and that other members of the organization have, consequently, re-evaluated their attitude toward the organization. To conceptualize our findings we turn to the work of Pierre Bourdieu. His notion of fields—which structure experiences and are, themselves, structured by experiences—offers a framework to understand the dynamics within an organization that occur as a result of a successful radical innovation. The contribution of our paper is: theoretically, we relate the discussion of innovation to wider social theories of practice and, thus, introduce temporal and cultural dynamics into the account of radical innovation; methodologically, we provide an example of a longitudinal study; and, in managerial terms, we indicate where divisions occur within an organization concerning the construction of meaning between managers and employees after a radical innovation.     

企业和科研机构的合作创新效应——基于制造业数据的实证分析

利用1998-2006年间中国制造业的相关数据,采用回归方法研究了企业和科研机构的合作创新效应。研究发现：从行业层面来看,目前中国企业和科研机构的合作研发经费投入对创新的技术产出和经济产出的影响存在着滞后效应,并且这一影响显著为负。导致这一现象的主要原因在于目前的合作创新中存在着诸多问题,制约了合作创新效应的释放。完善合作创新机制是加快科技创新速度、提高自主创新能力的有效途径。     

基于产业集群升级的创新网络核心节点能力传递研究

在集群创新网络中,核心节点企业的创新能力较其他企业更强,研究核心节点企业创新能力传递对于集群升级至关重要。本文提出创新网络核心节点企业创新能力传递强度概念,并构建其概念模型。通过实证研究发现,创新网络核心节点企业创新能力传递强度对集群升级具有显著的正向影响,其中,创新能力传递速度和创新能力传递深度对集群升级促进作用显著;集群其他节点企业创新吸收能力调节了创新网络核心节点企业创新能力传递强度与集群升级的关系,并指出了研究结论的实践意义。     

The impact of state shares on corporate innovation strategy and performance in China

This paper examines the impact of state shares on corporate innovation strategy and performance in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Through an investigation of 541 publicly traded companies in five high-tech industries during the period between 2000 and 2005, we find that the presence of state shares have a positive effect on the corporate choice of a process innovation strategy over a product innovation one. However, this relationship is moderated by the overall ownership concentration ratio. Moreover, our findings suggest that companies with large state shares prefer to conduct innovations independently rather than collaboratively with others, and they usually achieve better innovation performance. These findings indicate that the government play a role as both an investor and a resource allocation coordinator and therefore complicate the relationship between ownership structure and corporate innovation activities.

An innovation activity model for Very Small Entities in the software sector: an empirical study

Innovation management is a subdiscipline of management that studies the rules that govern the generation, diffusion, adoption of innovation, and relationships between innovation inputs and outputs. A great number of innovative products and services depend on software. In the software industry, many small entities act as subcontractors that develop components that are later integrated into larger industrial systems. However, these small entities do not have the resources needed to support long-term R&D activities and they also lack innovation management models which makes the planning and execution of innovation management difficult. These same small enterprises face similar challenges in the software development process. However, the ISO/IEC 29110 standard provides small enterprises with a clear path in implementing a systematic software development process. The planning and execution of innovation management activities may also benefit from a similar approach. This article describes an innovation activity model suited to the characteristics of small entities whose main stream of revenue is software development. Using the existing literature, standards, and the practical experience of companies with a successful history of developing innovative software-based products, this study identifies the activities and practices that lead to the development of innovative products. Interfaces between innovation management activities, software development processes, and work products are also identified.     

产业链整合对建筑工业化协同创新绩效的影响研究

市场竞争日趋激烈，创新过程日益复杂，协同创新成为主流的创新范式。而我国建筑工业化正处于创新驱动发展不足的初级阶段，如何通过产业链整合实现建筑工业化的协同创新，进而提高创新绩效是值得研究的问题。本文从产业链整合着手，探讨建筑工业化的技术链整合、产品链整合、创新协同性、创新绩效之间的相互影响关系。首先根据理论分析提出假设，然后运用26家代表性企业的278份问卷作为样本数据进行验证。实证分析表明：产业链整合对创新协同性、创新绩效均有正向显著作用；技术链整合在产品链与创新协同性之间、创新协同性在产业链整合与创新绩效之间起完全中介作用；政策在产品链整合与创新协同性之间起正向调节作用，而在技术链整合与创新协同性之间的调节作用却不显著。研究结论对于建筑工业化政策制定、产业链完善、企业管理等方面具有重要意义，同时展望了需要进一步关注的方向。     

Extending private‐collective innovation: a case study

The private‐collective innovation model proposes incentives for individuals and firms to privately invest resources to create public goods innovations. Such innovations are characterized by non‐rivalry and non‐exclusivity in consumption. Examples include open source software, user‐generated media products, drug formulas, and sport equipment designs. There is still limited empirical research on private‐collective innovation. We present a case study to (1) provide empirical evidence of a case of private‐collective innovation, showing specific benefits, and (2) to extend the private‐collective innovation model by analyzing the hidden costs for the company involved. We examine the development of the Nokia Internet Tablet, which builds on both proprietary and open source software development, and that involves both Nokia developers and volunteers who are not employed by the company. Seven benefits for Nokia are identified, as are five hidden costs: difficulty to differentiate, guarding business secrets, reducing community entry barriers, giving up control, and organizational inertia. We examine the actions taken by the management to mitigate these costs throughout the development period.