Direct and configurational paths of open innovation and organisational agility to business model innovation in SMEs

ABSTRACT

Discussions on opportunities and enablers have remained lacking despite the continued growth of business model innovation (BMI) research. In order to investigate the formation mechanism of BMI in small-medium enterprises (SMEs), we proposed an integrated model, which included factors derived from organisational internal resources and capabilities via the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities view (DCV). Structural equation model (SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) were utilised to test the survey data collected from 245 SMEs in China. SEM results support the hypotheses, except that on the impact of outbound open innovation on market capitalising agility and on BMI. The fsQCA analysis revealed that four configurations of open innovations and organisational agilities can sufficiently explain high levels of BMI, and two configurations of these factors lead to low BMI. The theoretical and practical implications of such findings were also provided.     

Organisational change in new ventures in Chinese context: the open innovation

This paper uses case study method to examine the acquisition process of information and funding through the implementation of open innovation (OI) in new ventures in Chinese context. We find that in the process of accessing to the marketing or technical information through OI, the most important thing for enterprises is to establish trust and cooperation with familiar partners, and trust is derived from existing social relations. In the process of funding acquisition through OI, the most important thing for enterprises is to strike a balance between gains and losses.     

Inbound open innovation in SMEs: indicators,non-financial outcomes and entry-timing

This study contributes to the literature on inbound open innovation in three ways. Firstly, it verifies the suitability of three groups of innovation activities (external information sources, cooperation and acquisition of machinery, knowledge or R&D) as indicators of open innovation, by modelling their relationship with the openness of the development of new products. Secondly, it relates these activities to three non-financial product-oriented outcomes of small and medium enterprises (SMEs): quality, product range and market share. When significant, the signs of the relationships are always positive. Thirdly, it is the first to link two streams of the literature on innovation within SMEs: open innovation and entry-timing. We distinguish between pioneers (the first to introduce innovations onto the market) and followers and find that most open innovation activities relate to the pioneering behaviour. This should be taken into consideration when designing public policies supporting innovation. Data include Spanish innovative SMEs from the Community Innovation Survey.     

Functionality development dynamism in a diffusion trajectory: A case of Japan's mobile phones development

While it is generally accepted that Information Technology (IT) has a self-propagating function which ensures that the more widespread its use, the greater its functionality, its emerging dynamism remains a black box.This paper attempts to shed some light on this dynamism through utilizing monthly trend data for the number of Japan's mobile phone subscribers over the last 12 years. A bi-logistic growth model demonstrating the diffusion trajectory initiated by both generations of mobile phones was constructed, with the goal of identifying the increase in the functionality development in the transition from traditional mobile phones with a simple communication function (1st wave mobile phone) to mobile phones with an Internet protocol function (2nd wave mobile phone).Through an empirical analysis utilizing the bi-logistic growth model, it was determined that the 2nd wave mobile phone emerged at an earlier stage of diffusion trajectory than the 1st stage mobile phone, which enabled a sustainable functionality development in Japan's mobile phones over the decade.Factors governing a dramatic decrease in mobile phones prices were analyzed, utilizing the result of the measurement of functionality development. This led to the discovery that while an increase in functionality development enhanced the price of mobile phones, this increase accelerated self-propagating diffusion, thereby enabling a dramatic reduction in prices through the effects of learning exercise and economies of scale.Based on the foregoing findings, the driving forces of self-propagating functionality development were analyzed, and it was determined that effective utilization of potential resources in innovation (e.g., assimilation of spillover technology and learning effects) is the key driving forces behind self-propagating functionality development.     

Influence of open innovation strategies on employment dynamics: evidence for Spanish manufacturing firms

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we explore the influence of different modes of openness of innovative firms on employment growth. Using a panel database of Spanish manufacturing firms during the period 1998–2015, we analyze the influence open innovation (OI) strategies on employment distinguishing by type of external partner. The main objective of the research is to know whether opening innovation strategy contributes to employment taken into account another firm capabilities and sectorial technological opportunities. For this purpose, a two-step procedure is specified. Firstly, a random-effect computes the effects of OI on the innovation probability. In the second step, the variation of innovativeness due to openness on GMM-system estimation controlling by potential endogeneity and unobserved firm heterogeneity is used. The results support that the influence of open strategy on employment growth is positive. Moreover, the employment depends on the breadth of OI measured by the number of out-inbound relationships. Finally, the employment consequences are different for each mode of open strategy.     

经济发展中制度创新的逻辑

本文从经济发展中制度创新所面临的实际问题出发，在界定和明确经济发展中制度创新若干基本概念的基础上，分析了已有经济发展理论和事实中的制度创新问题，并进一步深入探讨了市场经济的核心内涵是市场制度。继而分析出市场制度创新的逻辑要点以及我国市场制度创新的特殊性和基本要求。以期能为经济发展中的制度创新及相关研究提供一些基础性启发。     

Assessing the appropriate grassroots technological innovation for sustainable development

ABSTRACT

Grassroots technological innovation (GRTI) is perceived as a source of sustainable development while addressing local problems and needs of people belonging to the bottom of the economic pyramid. The fostering of sustainable development develops a need for scientific evaluation and subsequent diffusion of GRTI to ameliorate the livelihood of grassroots communities. It is, hence, the purpose of this research to assess the relative performance of different GRTIs with respect to economic, social, and environmental benefits. The empirical data for this study comprised of 32 GRTIs from the three different rural non-farm sectors in the Indian context. Analytical hierarchy process is used for deducing the relative assessment of the selected GRTI against the aforementioned performance criteria. The findings of this study offer imperative insights into the field of technology diffusion and development at the grassroots level and suggest recommendations for sustainable policy formulation.     

How knowledge flow affects Korean ICT manufacturing firm performance: a focus on open innovation strategy

The paper presents an integrated viewpoint of technological innovation strategy by considering both the firm and industry levels. Further, we provide a new open innovation framework by adopting a knowledge flow perspective using patent citation information. Finally, we consider a firm’s outbound open innovation performance using cites per patent information together with financial performance to look at both the practical and the potential effects of technological innovation strategy. Through these analyses, this study examines determinants of open technology innovation activity in the information and communication technology manufacturing industry in Korea and draws managerial and policy implications for effective industry promotion and improvement of technology innovation capability.     

The reverse tragedy of the commons: an exploratory account of incentives for under-exploitation in an open innovation environment*

This paper presents an empirical account of a phenomenon that we refer to as the ‘reverse tragedy of the commons’ in open innovation. The name signifies the ‘under-exploitation’ of intellectual property (IP) under weak appropriability. The name is this graphic because the tragedy is costly, and can also render IP effectively worthless and block innovation in the short to medium term. We propose that the tragedy is borne out of the interaction between enterprise characteristics, a competitive setting and the framework that is set by the policy intervention. This finding is pertinent to policy-makers with regard to the design of research, development and innovation instruments, as well as managers who must determine how to implement open practices in innovation.     

Search practices for discontinuous innovation: scale development and construct validation

Managing innovation and particularly searching for new ideas in a steady state environment is really different than in discontinuous conditions where traditional practices and routines may prove ineffective. This paper reviews and empirically explores the field of search strategies and practices for discontinuous innovation and, for the first time, tests the validity of a ‘discontinuous innovation (DI) search capacity’ construct. Based on a comprehensive literature review on the innovation search stage and on the evidence of more than 80 case studies reported by the Discontinuous Innovation Laboratory, a questionnaire was developed and submitted to a 500 high-tech firm sample. Four DI search dimensions were identified, each consisting of a bundle of interrelated yet distinct practices. We empirically tested the DI search capacity and measured it as a second-order construct by using the structural equation modelling.     

国内外金融创新进展及其在中国的发展趋势

当前中国金融市场进入了全面开放时期,国内外金融机构将在同一个市场环境和同一套监管规则下直接竞争。在新的竞争形势下,实体经济对金融服务的需求量正在迅速扩大,需求层次也在不断提高,金融创新将进入全新的发展时期。本文在对国内外金融创新现状做出全面分析和评价的基础上,从金融业务创新、金融体制改革的深化、资产证券化和证券投资机构化、衍生金融工具市场发展和混业经营等多个角度,探讨了中国金融创新的发展趋势。     

Acquisition through innovation tournaments in high-tech industries: a comparative perspective

Acquisition of innovative firms is a widely observed phenomenon in high-tech industries. On the basis of distinct advantages of large and small firms, in this paper, we build a tournament model with possible acquisition activity of large firms to derive hypotheses on interdependencies between acquisition frequency and post-acquisition success rates. We find empirical support for our hypotheses that (1) acquisitions increase overall innovation output and (2) that the number of acquisitions is higher in industries with larger heterogeneity between established firms and young start-ups. However, our third hypothesis derived from the formal model that innovation success following from acquisitions varies across industries is only partially confirmed.     

Beyond absorptive capacity in open innovation process: the relationships between openness,capacities and firm performance

The literature has shown that open innovation (OI) can be a winning strategy in improving firm performance. However, in order to adopt and implement it, managers need to resolve practical problems, such as understanding the role played by OI capacities and openness on firm performance. In response to these needs, this study aims to investigate the hierarchical relationships between openness, OI capacities and performance using a structural equation model approach. This paper also attempts to compare the levels of openness between firms in different industries to discover similarities and differences in OI phenomena. The analysis of data obtained from a survey of Korean firms shows significant interrelations between openness, OI capacities and firm performance. Our results go further in developing understanding of the building blocks on which successful OI is built and particularly suggest that desorptive capacity which underpins the out-bound OI process, is in turn strongly supported by knowledge management capacity. It is hoped that the results of this study can enrich our understanding of the OI mechanism and provide managerial and policy implications.     

国外先进地区区域创新发展的实践及启示

区域创新发展是当前引领经济发展的重要模式。区域创新发展的实践推动了区域创新理论研究的深入,并在更广大的范围内推动了区域发展实践。研究分析了美国硅谷、欧盟、日韩在区域创新发展方面的做法,并对促进区域创新发展提出建议。     

我国农业可持续发展与制度创新互动机制探析

农业发展是农业制度创新的前提,制度创新对农业可持续发展又起着决定性作用.通过采用系统论的基本理论,将资源、经济、社会、环境四个子系统耦合成的农业可持续发展系统与制度创新视为复合系统,从静态机制和动态机制两个方面分析了农业可持续发展与制度创新的互动机制,论证了农业可持续发展与制度创新在农民持续增收上协同,农民利益协调与制度创新不足存在矛盾,农业可持续发展与制度创新互动的基础是农业资源配置与利用,农民优化配置和合理利用资源是农业可持续发展与制度创新良性互动的关键.最后,总结了农业可持续发展与制度创新互动的主要实践路径.     

Financing of innovation: national development banks in newly industrialized countries of East Asia

Abstract

Contemporary literature on innovation tends to overlook the issue of financing, whereas financial history suggests that banks have been essential to financing of new industries. Emerging literature ondevelopment banking, although inspiring, remains focused on financing policies. The article aims to rearticulate a coevolutionary nature of industrial and financial interests, following the works of Schumpeter and Minsky, by looking at the 4 cases of national development banks, tasked with long-term financing of industries, from newly industrialized countries of East Asia—South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. The study suggests that innovation in finance, as well as organizational innovation in financial institutions, represent essential elements of financing of innovative activities. Further, organizational innovation in financial institutions, such as development banks, might signify a disposition to face uncertainty, which characterizes economic and technological unknowns inherent in financing of innovation.     

Management regimes in science-based innovation: control and uncertainty during early phases of new drug development

The international pharmaceutical industry is facing a challenge in terms of being able to deliver new and innovative drugs at lower cost. During the last 10 years, a range of new scientific procedures and technologies has been introduced into the industry, partially derived from the advancement of genomics research. However, to date, few have resulted in new registered drugs. In addition to the new technologies, various managerial techniques and methods have been introduced with the intention of increasing the transparency of operations. This paper reports on a study of how scientists during the early phases of new drug development conceive of this present management regime emphasising quantitative output. Thinking of new drug development as an intellectual pursuit in order to understand the elementary mechanisms of the biological organisms on the molecular level, scientists call for an understanding and adjustment of the managerial techniques structuring this work, accompanied by ambiguities and uncertainty.     

Explicating the market dimension in the study of digital innovation: a management framework for digital innovation

Digital innovation is gaining momentum among academics and business practitioners. Featuring increasingly cross-industry and multi-actor innovation processes, digital innovation reveals the inherent technology bias in the dominant perspectives on innovation. This study aims to transfer the focus from technology-centred ideas of digital innovation to a more balanced concept in which digital innovation is conceptualised as a combination of multiple needs and solutions linked to various actors and their behaviours. The study builds on a longitudinal case study. The article contributes by providing a partial response to the explicit calls for strategic frameworks that capture the process of digital innovation. Furthermore, the article explicates the market dimension of digital innovation and extends the analysis of the market dimension from a limited view of customer information and user knowledge to further include needs, actions, and behaviours of market actors directly or indirectly using, complementing, or substituting the digital innovation and innovation process.     

Welfare and growth impacts of innovation policies in a small, open economy; an applied general equilibrium analysis

We explore how innovation incentives in a small, open economy should be designed in order to achieve the highest welfare and growth. The computable general equilibrium model we develop for the purpose allows for research and development (R&D)-driven endogenous technological change embodied in varieties of capital. We study policy alternatives targeted towards R&D, capital varieties formation, and domestic investments in capital varieties. Subsidising domestic investments, thereby excluding stimuli to world market deliveries, generates less R&D, capital formation, economic growth, and welfare than do the other alternatives, reflecting that the domestic market for capital varieties is limited. In spite of breeding stronger economic growth, a higher number of patents, and a higher share of R&D in total production, direct R&D support generates slightly less welfare than subsidising formation of capital varieties. The costs in terms of welfare relates to a lower production within each variety firm, which in presence of mark-up pricing results in efficiency losses.     

New product and service launching in new ventures: a multilevel approach to innovation antecedents

Macro-economic policies such as public financing seek to push the development and introduction of innovations; however, entrepreneurs also need support in their ‘day-to-day’ activities to improve their capability to launch innovations. As this micro-level perspective is rarely studied, we analyze both the micro and macro levels by examining the effects of the entrepreneurs’ individual intention to innovate and public financing. Additionally, we include the meso level, representing entrepreneurs’ network. Entrepreneurs are embedded in social spheres in which they capture resources and identify opportunities. But not all entrepreneurs are equally well supported, and some tend to be completely isolated. We thus focus on multilevel factors explaining new product or service launching in new ventures. Drawing on data of 48,251 French new ventures, we reveal that innovation intention and public financing positively impact new ventures’ product and service innovation launching, while entrepreneurs’ isolation has a negative effect. We also highlight two interaction effects that enhance the multilevel effects of innovation antecedents.