Team familiarity—Boon for routines,bane for innovation? A review and future research agenda

Teams play a vital role in achieving an organization's goals, so achieving high levels of team familiarity is regarded as essential to HRM strategies. This paper aims to stimulate the debate on team familiarity: the effectiveness, antecedents, outcomes, and theoretical underpinnings. Our systematic literature review uses a VOSviewer-based bibliometric analysis, combined with qualitative thematic analysis. The current dominant viewpoint is that team familiarity leads to positive performance outputs at work, higher team performance and organizational success. Existing studies also agree that familiarity enhances team cognition and takes time to develop. However, we reveal that existing studies use a limited range of theoretical underpinnings, remain vague on the meaning of “time” and “how long it takes for teams to become familiar”, and avoid critical discussions on potential counterproductive outcomes that may lead to a decline in team performance. Based on these gaps, we suggest advancing the team familiarity literature and provide ideas for future research. Overall, we argue that whereas team familiarity is favorable for routine and structured contexts, it might be less effective for innovative task environments. Our future research agenda also suggests 1) advancing the theoretical underpinnings around team relationships, social roles, and team formation; 2) engaging in discussion on the key antecedent “time”, with longitudinal studies to reveal which moments matter most in devolving team familiarity; 3) considering positive social outcomes for individuals and groups; and importantly, 4) contributing fresh knowledge on potential counterproductive outcomes and U-shaped developments in innovation work.     

Observing discussion forums and product innovation – A way to create consumer value? Case heart-rate monitors

This paper demonstrates how discussion forums can be used in product innovation to create value with consumers. The literature shows the value of sport addicts and hobbyists as innovators in product innovation, consequently this study is also related and relevant to sports activities. It is an empirical study based on substantial qualitative data collected from 28 discussion forums, of which 20 of the longest discussions were chosen for qualitative analysis. This paper complements the academic literature by providing information about consumer value creation in discussion forums without company interaction. The discussions contain basic, performance and excitement factors, of which performance factors are the most abundant. Both product improvement ideas and consumers eager to participate in innovation can be found in the discussions. A key to success for a company is a systematic plan showing the potential use of the extensive information in the discussions. This paper introduces closed company innovative forums which are maintained or product innovation evangelists to direct the discussion and keep consumers interested in participation. This is a new means to find out and further develop promising ideas for product innovation with consumers.     

The distinctiveness of the European tradition in entrepreneurship research

Several previous studies have investigated creativity as an enhancer of innovation, their results showing that there is a positive relationship between the organizational creative climate and innovation. However, no research has been conducted on whether there is a saturation point beyond which an increase in creativity makes innovation performance decrease. In this article, we question the traditional positive relationship between creativity and innovation, and suggest that such a relationship is not linear, but has instead an inverted U-shape due to a saturation effect. We have developed a conceptual model to explain innovation performance considering creativity and network centrality, and it has been tested in the ceramic industrial cluster in Spain. Empirical findings support the inverted U-shaped relationship between creativity and innovation. The implications of these results in relation to creativity and innovation theory and practices are discussed.     

Networked creativity: a structured management framework for stimulating innovation

The effect of today's turbulent environment means that organisations need to improve their competitive advantage and swiftly respond to changing technology and markets. An organisation's ability to continuously innovate its products and business systems is essential to its future success. However, this ability to stimulate innovation is highly dependent upon the stock of potential ideas and problem solutions, which is available to feed the innovation process. These ‘seedlings of innovation’ are the product of the creative processes of an organisation. Whilst continuous, sustainable innovation is an essential competitive capability for future organisational success, to date the creative process has been allowed to operate in an ‘ad hoc’ and serendipitous fashion. Continuous innovation means that organisations need to be able to effectively manage their creative processes to ensure their innovation process has a plentiful supply of good ideas and solutions. To this end, a framework for enhancing networked creativity is presented as a means towards the effective management of the creative process within organisations.     

Re-innovation: The construct, measurement, and validation

There has been substantial research in the area of innovation, which is widely regarded as a powerful weapon to create competitive advantage. One important reason of the substantial research in innovation is the presence of valid and reliable measures of key innovation characteristics, such as radical, incremental, or disruptiveness innovation. Re-innovation, an extension of innovation, is renowned for its potential in creating competitive advantage with reduced cost and time implications. Unfortunately, very little research in re-innovation has been conducted, possibly because to date it still lacks a psychometrically valid measure. There is also a lack of research on convergent and discriminant validities of the re-innovation construct, resulting in the impossibility to discriminate re-innovation characteristics from radical or incremental innovation characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to develop a valid and reliable scale for measuring the construct of re-innovation. To test its reliability and discriminant and convergent validities, we used data collected from 294 general managers of SBUs in 89 electronics-related companies in Taiwan and performed a series of analyses. The reliability measures, exploratory factor analyses, confirmatory factor analyses, and convergent and discriminant validity tests strongly support our scale. In addition, nomological validity is demonstrated. Hence, this study distinguishes the re-innovation from radical and incremental innovation constructs. Finally, discussion, limitations, and future research are presented.     

Are graduates’ intrapreneurial skills optimally used for innovation?

This paper studies the extent to which higher education graduates with higher intrapreneurial skills – creative, brokering, and championing skills – are more involved in innovation. Crucially, we differentiate between graduates employed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations and those employed in business occupations. Using data on higher education graduates from 11 European countries, we find that, in both STEM and business occupations, high levels of creative skills are important to involvement in innovation. Higher levels of brokering skills are particularly important for graduates employed in STEM occupations, whereas higher levels of championing skills are particularly important for those in business occupations. We find, however, that the innovative potential of graduates with higher levels of intrapreneurial skills is not optimally utilized for innovation. Our study provides valuable insights for those selecting graduates for STEM and business occupations based on specific intrapreneurial skills to foster both product and process innovation, as well as for those in charge of designing higher education study curricula.     

Infrastructure Disruption in ‘Silicon Savannah’: Exploring the Idea of the Creative Class and their Relation to Quality of Place in Nairobi,Kenya

Debates around urbanization, infrastructure disruption and the creative class rarely appear alongside each other in research on African cities. This article connects these different narratives, which are currently exerting their influence on the future direction of these cities. The economic value of the creative class is that their work centres on innovation—a quality seen as essential to ‘new-economy’ urban growth. Quality of place (that which makes ‘New York New York’) is said to attract the creative class to certain cities, as lifestyle amenities are valued as much as employment opportunities. Nairobi is an example of an African city currently attracting both Kenyan and expatriate creative class workers, particularly in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. In this article we take Richard Florida's creative class theory as a departure point to offer insights into why this group chooses to live in Nairobi and to describe Nairobi's quality of place, with a particular focus on infrastructure disruption. The case study reveals that Nairobi's quality of place differs fundamentally from the normative attributes prescribed by creative class theory and, in some instances, it is considered to be highly frustrating and unattractive.     

Innovation for Inclusive Growth: Towards a Theoretical Framework and a Research Agenda

Inclusive innovation, which we define as innovation that benefits the disenfranchised, is a process as well as a performance outcome. Consideration of inclusive innovation points to inequalities that may arise in the development and commercialization of innovations, and also acknowledges the inequalities that may occur as a result of value creation and capture. We outline opportunities for the development of theory and empirical research around this construct in the fields of entrepreneurship, strategy, and marketing. We aim for a synthesis in views of inclusive innovation and call for future research that deals directly with value creation and the distributional consequences of innovation.     

The antecedents of SME innovativeness in an emerging transition economy

Understanding forces that contribute to the success of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is very important, as these enterprises are vital for both developed and developing economies. Since innovativeness is among the most important means through which such businesses contribute to economic growth, numerous research studies were conducted to determine which factors positively impact SME's innovative efforts. This is an even more important issue for developing economies, where SMEs are often faced with inadequate infrastructure. Since there is a lack of studies on SME innovation in developing economies, often policy in such countries is based on findings from developed countries.In this paper, we explore factors that drive innovation activities in SMEs in a small emerging transition economy (Croatia), and compare it with findings from developed economies. In addition to factors used in most previous studies, we consider market scope, firm's market orientation and presence of strategic, managerial and marketing changes. We find that most factors that were found to be important in developed economies are important in developing economies as well. In addition to that, market scope was discovered to be a very important factor in both product and process innovation. Implementing corporate changes has positive impact on radical product innovation while implementing new organizational structures has positive effect on incremental innovation. When investigating determinants of product innovation, we distinguish new products of low novelty from new products of high novelty, and show that they need to be supported by different policies. To gain additional insight in innovation efforts, we examine obstacles to innovation. We find that firms that report facing obstacles are not less likely to innovate less, which suggests that innovators are able to work around obstacles without damaging effects to innovation. This study is based on a postal survey of 448 SMEs in Croatia, which was performed in 2004.     

An employee-focused human resource management perspective for the management of global virtual teams

Abstract

The number of global virtual teams (GVTs) has increased in recent years due to globalization of business, improved information and communication technology, and higher innovation needs. Practitioners expect GVTs to be creative, innovative, and high-performing. However, GVT members suffer from interpersonal problems, stress, and misunderstandings based on cultural differences. It is therefore important that the HRM function intervenes in the functioning of GVTs. HRM and GVT research has mostly focused on instrumental practices to improve performance, but globalization and the dynamic business environment require international organizations to adopt new HRM perspectives. To advance research on GVTs and HRM, we draw on the job demands-resources model and research on quality of work life to introduce an employee-focused HRM perspective for the management of GVTs. This new perspective focuses explicitly on improving employee wellbeing in GVTs. We develop a novel theoretical framework that provides HR practitioners and leaders with several employee-focused management tools such as flexible work practices, international training and development opportunities, and fair pay and procedures. These tools are likely to help GVT members to cope with job demands and to improve their wellbeing, and are particularly useful for GVTs due to their interpersonal problems, stressful environment, and cultural differences.     

Contributions of design emphasis,design resources and design excellence to market performance in technology-based service innovation

The value of design in product innovation is widely acknowledged and supported by empirical research, although extant research tends to focus solely on the role of designers, or design excellence, or design emphasis. Design in the context of service innovation is less well understood. Technology-based firms are viewed as key loci of innovation and, indeed, this innovation is not limited to product innovation, even though many of the stereotypes that come to mind have to do with the development of ever more technologically advanced ‘widgets’. In response to the gaps in current literature, this work takes a holistic approach to measuring design and examines how design resources (designers), design emphasis (emphasis on aesthetics and experience) and the outcomes of design (design excellence) jointly contribute to market performance in technology-based firms engaged in service innovation. Based on a survey conducted among managers of 176 technology-based service firms and evaluations of design excellence by design experts, the findings suggest that design emphasis and design resources both contribute to market performance. Surprisingly, design excellence is not found to contribute to market performance and possible reasons for this are discussed.     

Developing leaders for creative efforts: A domain-based approach to leadership development

As we move into the 21st century, innovation, sustained innovation, has become a critical determinant of organizational success and survival. Although we know much about potential influences on innovation, little is known about the actions that should be taken to develop the people who must lead these efforts. In the present paper, we present a model of the capacities and capabilities people need to lead creative efforts. A selection, optimization, and compensation model is used to specify the kind of interventions that might provide a basis for developing these capacities and capabilities. The implications of these observations are discussed with respect to both the relevance of available leadership development techniques and the unique needs of people asked to lead creative efforts.     

Relationships among open innovation,innovative performance,government support and firm size: Comparing Brazilian firms embracing different levels of radicalism in innovation

This work extends knowledge concerning the relationships among open innovation, innovative performance and government support for innovation within Brazilian firms. Data were obtained from two different firm samples (Sample A, on incremental innovation, and Sample B, on radical innovation). The main research results are as follows. First, in considering government support for innovation, Sample B, based on radical innovation, played a superior and stronger role than Sample A. Secondly, for both samples, the cooperation of external firms has a positive effect on firms’ innovative performance, which was positively controlled by the size of the firms. Thirdly, in general, radical innovation requires synergy and a more intense focus regarding the constructs considered therein. This work also adds value in methodological terms, as this is the first research to have tested different models of samples with different levels of radicalism in innovation.     

Does high-speed railway promote urban innovation? Evidence from China

Empirical discussion in the existing literature on the relationship between transportation infrastructure and innovation remains limited. As one of the most important transport infrastructures, China's high-speed railway (HSR) has greatly compressed the space-time distance and strengthened the linkages between cities, which may contribute to innovation activities. Using the panel data of 285 Chinese prefecture-level and above cities and employing the difference-in-differences (DID) model, this paper examines the impact of HSR opening and HSR service intensity on the urban innovation. Propensity score matching (PSM) together with DID (PSM-DID) method is utilized to address the potential estimation biases. The empirical results demonstrate that HSR has significantly improved the level of urban innovation. Heterogeneity analysis finds that the promotion effects of HSR on innovation are more remarkable in peripheral and small cities. Moreover, the effects of HSR on cities far away from the central and large cities are with higher significance and greater magnitude than cities close to central and large cities. For cities near central and large cities, the service intensity of HSR is more likely to improve their innovation level. In addition, we further find that service industries and private enterprises benefit more from the effect of HSR in promoting innovation. This study can provide robust evidence for the effect of HSR on promoting urban innovation, as well as policy enlightenment for innovation growth and sustainable economic development.     

Is Perceived Creativity‐Reward Contingency Good for Creativity? The Role of Challenge and Threat Appraisals

To address the complex effect of perceived reward for creativity on creative performance, we examined the role of cognitive appraisal as an individual difference variable. An individual's appraisal of reward for creativity, including challenge appraisal (perceived potential for recognition, growth, or mastery) and threat appraisal (perceived potential for revealing incompetence and damaging self‐respect), is hypothesized to shape the effects of perceived reward for creativity. We further expect creativity‐related intrinsic motivation to play a mediating role in the perceived reward‐creativity relationship. The results of a three‐wave field study showed that when challenge appraisal was high, perceived reward was positively related to creative performance through creativity‐related intrinsic motivation, whereas when threat appraisal was high, perceived reward was negatively related to creative performance through creativity‐related intrinsic motivation. A similar analysis showed that intrinsic task motivation was not able to channel the moderating effect of perceived reward and individual appraisal on creative performance. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Bibliometric Analysis of Digital Innovation from 1998 to 2016

Digital technologies are ubiquitous in our everyday lives. They have been widely embedded into the core processes of services and products, as well as into the operations of many organizations. These digital technologies bring many changes to our work and lifestyles, to the organization of companies, and even to the structures of whole industries. Thus, digital innovation is a research hotspot. This study investigates the development of digital innovation research using a bibliometric method with visual mapping. The status of digital innovation research is analyzed through citation analysis. Influential references, authors, and top-tier journals are identified. The literature’s intellectual structure is mapped through co-word analysis. In addition, co-citation network analysis is used to describe the evolution of digital innovation research, and cluster analysis of the main research stream is conducted. Several research topics addressed by recent papers are also discussed. Finally, cross-country comparisons reveal that the US is currently taking the leading role and that China is a newcomer with potential contributions to make in this research area.     

创业机会的创新性、员工心理授权与企业绩效的实证研究

创业活动源于创业者对创业机会的识别,而创业机会的创新性强弱则介于模仿性机会和创新性机会之间,过往研究认为创业机会的创新性与企业绩效正相关。但心理授权理论认为员工对工作认知的不同将影响到其行为,故需考虑员工心理授权的调节作用,毕竟对创新机会的开发利用需要员工共同努力。研究发现,创业机会的创新性确实对企业绩效有显著的正向影响;而且心理授权的4个维度因子,即员工对自身能力的认知、影响力的认知、工作意义的认知以及工作自主性的认知均对企业绩效具有显著的正向影响,说明提升员工的心理授权感受将有助于提升绩效。还发现,员工对自身能力的认知、工作意义的认知以及工作自主性的认知均显著正向调节了创业机会创新性与企业绩效的关系,只有员工对自身影响力的认知的调节作用不显著。研究结论有助于从外部客观创业机会和内部员工心理授权感知两个过程看待企业绩效的提升,全面理解企业绩效的发生机制。     

The more funding the better? The moderating role of knowledge stock on the effects of different government-funded research projects on firm innovation in Chinese cultural and creative industries

Based on prior research, this study attempts to examine how effectively government-funded research projects (GFPs) can facilitate firm innovation in the cultural and creative industry (CCI), as well as the internal organizational contingency associated with the effects of GFPs. Specifically, this paper differentiates two types of GFP -- central-government-funded projects (CGFPs) and local-government-funded research projects (LGFPs) -- and explore how effectively the two types of GFP affect two types of firm innovation, i.e., radical innovation and incremental innovation. Based on an empirical study of the panel data of Chinese innovative firms related to the CCI, this paper finds that CGFPs have an inverted U-shaped effect on both firms’ radical innovation and incremental innovation in the CCI, while LGFPs have an inverted U-shaped effect on firms’ incremental innovation, but they have no significant effects on firms’ radical innovation. The effects of both CGFPs and LGFPs are moderated by firms’ knowledge stock.     

浅谈产品创新求生存

价值工程是以提高产品(或作业)价值和有效利用资源为目的,通过有组织的创造性工作,寻求用最低的寿命周期成本,可靠地实现使用者所需功能的一种管理技术。只有加强产品创新,加速机械产品的机电液一体化进程,提高产品的技术含量,积极加大研发资金,研究和开发新产品,才能在竞争日益激烈的国际工程机械市场上立于不败之地。产品的创新一定要结合市场需求和产品成本等一起考虑。下面对产品创新提出个人的一些建议。     

How can organizations use wikis for innovation?

Wikis were first developed over 15 years ago. Research has shown that organizational or corporate wikis are sustainable and can be beneficial to organizations particularly in improving work processes, collaboration and knowledge management. However, there has been little research done to show how organizations can use wikis to support innovation processes. To bridge this gap, this paper explores how wikis can be used in different stages of innovation. We review existing literature as well as analyze case studies of wikis deployed in four organizations in order to highlight how wikis can be used to address challenges of knowledge management and collaboration in different stages of innovation from idea generation to commercialization. In particular, we propose a model that explains how wikis require a clear purpose for their use, a culture of collaboration, and integration within a formal innovation process.