The process of embedding new information technology artifacts into innovative design practices

The design and creation of anything innovative requires knowledge creation, which in turn often depends upon the introduction of innovative information technology (IT). Since design-related practices are deeply integrated with particular IT artifacts, it is no trivial task to migrate practice-based knowledge to unfamiliar IT artifacts. To explore the challenges associated with such migration, we develop the concept of embeddedness of IT artifacts by drawing on research that highlights the critical role of representational artifacts in knowledge, design, and distributed cognition. We then inductively analyze interview data from an in-depth case study of Frank Gehry, a world-renowned and radically innovative architect known for his use of sophisticated 3D computer-aided design (CAD) technology. By studying construction firms' transition from 2D CAD to 3D CAD, we identify four relevant themes associated with embedding new artifacts into knowledge-creating practice: (1) motivating the new artifact; (2) anchoring the new artifact in the old; (3) experimenting with the new artifact; and (4) confidence in using the new artifact. Through the generation of a process theory of embedding, we elaborate on how this perspective complements and extends research on IT adaptation and assimilation, and discuss the relevance of continuing to develop the IT embeddedness perspective given the continuing need for increased levels of IT-enabled innovation.     

IT-enabled awareness and self-directed leadership behaviors in virtual teams

Despite the pervasiveness of self-managing virtual teams, organizations find it particularly challenging to motivate virtual team members to exhibit and manage their leadership behaviors. This study contributes to virtual team leadership literature by specifically shedding light on how distinct awareness forms enabled by information technology (IT) signal important cues to virtual team members to self-lead, that is, self-direct their leadership behavior in their team. Our results reveal that IT-enabled disclosure awareness is key to inducing several leadership behaviors: directive leadership, supportive leadership and interpersonal helping. Further, for directive leadership and interpersonal helping, the relationship is contingent on IT-enabled task knowledge and IT-enabled presence awareness. At low IT-enabled task knowledge awareness or high IT-enabled presence awareness, virtual team members who perceived IT-enabled disclosure awareness employed directive leadership and interpersonal helping. Opposite results were found at high perceived IT-enabled task knowledge awareness and low perceived IT-enabled presence awareness. This research highlights the critical role played by specific awareness forms enabled by IT in motivating virtual team members to engage in self-leadership.     

企业技术中心创新管理：基于流程视角的研究框架

创新是企业获取竞争优势的最主要来源，创新管理也是近年来学界广泛研究的议题之一。本文以企业技术中心的创新管理为研究对象，提出流程视角的研究框架，探索从创意到市场的最佳创新管理模式。着重指出创意来源应包括外部大环境视角，行业视角，客户视角和公司视角，并概述创意筛选、转化的原则和模型以及创新项目管理等概念，为企业技术中心提高创新产出提供新视角。     

Information technology for sustainable supply chain management: a literature survey

In supply chain management (SCM), two topics have gained importance over the last years. On the one hand, sustainable SCM (SSCM) has become increasingly relevant and many publications have contributed to the topic. On the other hand, information technology (IT) is being progressively considered as a key enabler for efficiency in supply chains. Several research efforts have contributed to the field of IT for SSCM. However, this paper is the first recent attempt to summarise the current state of the art of how IT can affect SSCM in any structured way and to compare it with IT for ‘general’ SCM to give guidance for future research. This paper surveys 55 peer-reviewed articles that were retrieved through keyword searches (until May 2014). The analysis identifies research deficits as well as a lack of scientific discourse employing empirical techniques and a lack of investigations on the social sustainability. Additionally, possible topics for further research were derived by comparing the survey’s results with the current research on IT for ‘general’ SCM following the analysis of 631 articles. Six fields could be identified, namely output/effects of IT, machine communication and multiagents, inputs and IT-supported processing, IT-enabled interorganisational exchange, quantitative IT approaches and a sector focus.     

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.     

CBE模式及其在焊接专业教学改革中的应用探索

在基于"能力本位"教育的CBE模式启发下,结合焊接专业自身特点,从教学内容、教学方法和教学模式等方面入手就该专业的教学改革作了些许分析和阐述,皆在培养出具有较强的实践能力和一定的科研能力且能够较快较好适应社会适应岗位的中高级焊接技术人才。在教学内容上,力求做到"必需"和"够用",并及时更新补充焊接领域的新知识,加强实践教学环节并将科研和教学有机结合,以培养学生的创新能力和创新意识。在教学方法上,重视学生个体性意识,突出学生主体性意识,转被动接受为主动探求,充分发挥学生学习的主观能动性。在教学模式上,以就业为导向,以职业岗位所需能力为出发点和核心,改革单一教学模式,建立校内校外实训基地,引入国际焊接工程师资格培训认证,有效提高学生的就业适应能力。     

The effects of retail channel integration through the use of information technologies on firm performance

The ability of information technologies (ITs) to integrate activities and offerings across multiple channels offers a promising opportunity for retail firms to enhance their relationship with their customers and firm performance. Consumers value the flexibility to learn about the available offerings, complete their orders and obtain customer service across different channels in a convenient and integrated manner. Therefore, the retail industry has begun to use IT extensively to automate and integrate business processes across their traditional and online channels. This study examines the impacts of the use of IT by retail firms in integrating channel activities for selling to customers. Our research model argues that retail channel integration through IT should enhance the efficiency and innovation of a retail firm. In turn, these improvements should enhance their overall performance. We also propose that the environmental dynamism would moderate the effects of improvements in efficiency and innovation on firm performance. We draw upon recent theories in organizational resource integration and organizational learning to develop our research model and hypotheses. Based on survey data from 125 multichannel retailers in Singapore, we find that retail channel integration through the use of IT allows firms to not only be efficient in delivering the current offerings, but also be innovative in creating future offerings. Further, we find that environmental dynamism does positively moderate the effects of innovation ability on performance. Our results provide managerial insights for firms involved in digital integration not only in the retail sector but also in other service industries. These findings could also serve as a foundation for further research on service operations management for firms with both physical and online operations.     

悖论思维对创造力的“过犹不及”效应研究

悖论思维帮助个体发现对立事物间的联系,有利于创造性想法或创意的生成,但过高水平的悖论思维极易导致认知过载,使个体无暇顾及需要想象力和灵感的创造性活动。基于"过犹不及效应",本文提出悖论思维对员工创造力产生非线性影响。同时,根据能力-动机-机会(AMO)的理论框架,探索个人学习能力在这一关系中的中介作用,以及领导调节聚焦行为的调节作用。本文认为:悖论思维与员工创造力呈倒U型关系,个人学习能力在上述关系中起中介传导作用,领导促进型聚焦行为强化了变量间的间接关系,而领导防御型聚焦行为削弱了变量间的间接关系。通过对313名员工的三阶段调查分析,数据支持了本研究提出的假设。虽然适度的悖论思维有助于员工提升学习能力,但过度的悖论思维反而会降低员工学习效率进而削弱员工创造力,领导调节聚焦行为决定了员工是否能完成学习能力到创造力的转化。研究结论为员工创造力的影响因素研究提供了新思路,引导企业通过甄选员工和调整领导行为来激发员工创造力。     

How Does an Individual's Innate Preferences Impact Innovation and Creativity?

Organizational leaders commonly reward innovation and creativity and many times it is the individual with the “brilliant idea” who is recognized. The current article examines the four types of innovative ideas that lead to organizational change and effectiveness and how every person on a team plays a role in achieving the idea. As a manager or leader of people being aware of individual styles and preferences will lead to increased recognition of all innovative and creative contributions that can have a positive impact on organizational culture.     

Exploring preconditions for open innovation: Value networks in industrial firms

The open innovation model embraces the purposive flow of internal and external ideas as a foundation for innovation and network formation. While the open innovation paradigm has been successfully applied in high-tech settings, there is a lack of research on adopters of open innovation in other settings. We describe a case study conducted in a process industry setting, focusing on the LKAB mineral group as it makes a transition from a closed to a more open innovation context by adopting remote diagnostics technology. This process has resulted in the creation of new value networks. By tracing the reasoning behind the organizational transformation and studying the technology used to carry it through, we seek to explore the preconditions for open innovation and provide insight into the role of IT in the process. Our findings show that adoption of the open innovation model is grounded in developing organizational environments that are conducive to innovation, including expertise in creating a culture for knowledge sharing, building a trustful environment, and a resourceful use of IT.     

The communicative constitution of IT innovation

This paper contributes to studies of IT innovation, by approaching discourse and technology not as alternating causalities of change, but rather as constitutive to processes of change. Drawing on a communicative constitution of organization (CCO) perspective, the paper provides an analysis of oral and written evidence on innovations in the English National Programme for IT (NPfIT) from 1998 to 2011. The paper makes two key contributions to the literature. First, it offers a longitudinal empirical understanding of how IT innovation is constituted in the triadic relationship between human and nonhuman actors, and the narrative texts in which the delegation between the first two occurs. The paper explores the implications of this renewed understanding of IT innovation for IS research in sociomateriality. Second, the paper contributes to CCO-informed research by adopting a methodological approach that draws on both a historical analysis of the constitution of material objects in specific narrative texts and a rhetorical analysis of communicative actions. The paper explores the methodological implications of this approach for addressing the challenge of understanding the scaling-up of micro communicative actions to macro actions towards the constitution of IT innovation.     

王村煤矿全员创新实现模式案例研究

近些年来,全员创新成为了企业研究的热点问题,许多企业也将全员创新作为加强自身竞争力的有效途径而推行。然而在实践中真正能够实现全员创新的企业并不多见。本文主要采用文献查阅和实地调研的方式,通过剖析王村煤矿创新历程,分析其全员创新的实现案例,总结全员创新实现模式。王村煤矿立足岗位的创新项目分类,＂个人创意＋组织后援＂的流程...     

基于HHM的石油企业技术创新项目风险因素识别研究

技术创新日益成为促进经济增长和提高科技竞争力的关键,技术创新活动为石油企业在全球的金融危机中的生存和发展注入了新的力量,起着不可替代的作用。但是技术创新是一项高风险、低成功率的事业,要想技术创新取得成功,就要对技术创新的风险进行认识与防范,做到有备而战。文章在在企业调研的基础上,利用层次全息模型(HHM)进行了石油企业技术创新项目的风险因素识别,为石油企业技术创新项目的风险评价和风险监控夯实了基础。     

The relationship between information technology capability,inventory efficiency,and shareholder wealth: A firm-level empirical analysis

Inventories represent an important strategic resource for firms, with implications for shareholder wealth. As such, firms expend considerable effort in managing their inventories efficiently. Among other factors, information technology (IT) capability can play an important role in enabling inventory efficiency and financial performance. However, insight into the chain-of-effects linking IT capability, inventory efficiency, and stock market returns and risk remains limited. In this paper, we provide a conceptual model outlining the relationships between these constructs. Next, we evaluate the model using secondary information on firms from multiple industries across the 10-year time period of 2000–2009. Our analysis confirms that firms’ IT capability plays a significant role in enhancing their inventory efficiency, which, in turn, is observed to increase stock market returns. Our results also reveal that firms’ IT capability directly reduces their stock market risk and enhances their stock market returns. Taken together, these findings, along with the conceptual model that we advance, have important research and managerial implications.     

Role overload,knowledge acquisition and job satisfaction: An ambidexterity perspective on boundary-spanning activities of IT employees

Abstract

Building upon the ambidexterity perspective, this study conceptualizes boundary-spanning activities as both transactional and learning to illuminate their different effects on IT employees’ job satisfaction. Specifically, we offer an overarching theoretical framework rooted in ambidexterity by connecting the role theory and knowledge acquisition perspective to reconcile the inconsistency of extant findings. Role overload has a mediating effect on the relationship between boundary-spanning activities (both transactional and learning) and job satisfaction, whereas knowledge acquisition mediates the relationship between learning boundary-spanning activities and job satisfaction. Furthermore, high achievement motivation and learning goal orientation moderate the positive effect of learning boundary-spanning activities on job satisfaction. The quantitative analysis of IT employees in Chinese state-owned enterprises largely supports our hypotheses. We conclude this paper by discussing theoretical and managerial implications for ambidexterity, boundary spanning, and job satisfaction.     

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.     

Entrepreneurship,innovation and economic growth

The linkages among entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and economic growth are only vaguely understood presently. This paper is an attempt to improve that understanding. The first step in establishing the linkages requires the formulation of knowledge about the psychological make-up of entrepreneurs. These questions are pertinent: What motivates humans to become entrepreneurs? Are entrepreneurs “rational economic men”? How important are monetary rewards to entrepreneurial creativity ? The second step requires information about how the human brain functions. The brain is bi-hemispheric and both sides of the brain play an important role in human decision-making. Nevertheless, we have a cultural bias in favor of the functions performed by the brain's left side. The third step requires an understanding of the process of creation and innovation. Several stages in this process have been identified. The stages of preparation, incubation, and illumination involve the brain's right hemisphere while the verification stage involves the left hemisphere. The final step integrates the first three. We assume that entrepreneurship is an essential determinant of economic growth, that the entrepreneurial function involves creation and innovation, and that entrepreneurship can be taught. This article is intended to provoke thinking and research incorporating new insights from several disciplines. These insights appear to bear more on entrepreneurship than is generally acknowledged.     

Renaissance of case research as a scientific method

Since the seminal article by Eisenhardt (1989), scholarly interest in case research has mushroomed in operations management and organization sciences. Volumes of methodological texts are matched with a massive amount of empirical research that seeks to apply and further develop case research as a scientific method. What is missing from this literature is a treatment of the methodological diversity of case research. In this paper, we seek to unveil this heterogeneity by describing three distinct methodological accounts of case study: theory generation, theory testing, and theory elaboration. Each approach has its own idiosyncrasies, in particular when it comes to the interplay between theory and empirics. A typical case research incorporates both existing theories and empirical data to varying degrees. In light of this heterogeneity, we re-interpret key aspects of extant contributions and discuss guidelines for future case research. We propose that ultimately, case research rigor is determined by attention to idiosyncrasy and transparency of reasoning. We conclude by arguing that we have witnessed in the past 25 years in organization research what amounts to the Renaissance of case research.     

地方高校经管类专业多维创新实践平台建设研究

随着我国高等教育体制改革的深化发展,地方高校在人才培养和科技创新方面发挥着越来越重要的作用,极大地推动了地区经济的发展。地方高校将培养理论和实践相结合的应用型人才作为其人才培养的目标和要求。本文以地方高校的经管类专业为研究对象,研究和分析了其在专业实践教学中存在的一系列问题,并提出了构建实践教学体系和运行模式的设想。     

The effects of IT-enabled supply chain process change on job and process outcomes: A longitudinal investigation

Prior research on information technology (IT)-enabled supply chain management (SCM) has primarily focused on macro-level issues (e.g., IT capabilities related to SCM, and SCM design and optimization) and outcomes (e.g., firm performance). There has been limited research that focuses on micro-level outcomes related to employees who actually execute SCM processes in organizations. These employee-level outcomes are important because successful implementation of SCM systems and processes hinges on SCM employees’ support and commitment. I develop and test a model positing that SCM employees’ perceptions of changes in their work process characteristics, i.e., process complexity and process rigidity, following a new SCM system implementation will influence their job outcomes, i.e., job performance, job satisfaction, job anxiety, and job security, and their perceptions of process outcomes, i.e., process performance and relationship quality. The model incorporates a holistic appraisal of the extent of change—change radicalness—as a mechanism between work process characteristics and outcomes. The model is supported in three studies conducted in the context of three different SCM system implementations (N = 278, 282, and 304, respectively). In particular, I found that individuals perceived a significant change in their work process characteristics following an SCM system implementation, and changes in work process characteristics had a significant impact on job and process outcomes. These findings contribute to the information systems and operations management literatures and their intersections by offering insights on challenges related to IT-enabled SCM innovation implementation in organizations.