Corporate venture capital as a strategy for external innovation: an exploratory empirical study

By creating corporate venture capital (CVC) units, large corporations predominantly pursue strategic objectives, especially the realisation of external innovations. Theoretical and preliminary empirical results on corporate venturing suggest how to manage CVC in order to achieve strategic objectives. We analyse for a sample of 21 corporate venture units in Germany, if the respective CVC programmes pursue the strategic objective to leverage external innovation and if these programmes are managed accordingly. We find that the majority of German corporate venture programmes follow mixed objectives and are not organised and managed as suggested in the literature. We come to the conclusion that a short-term focus on financial objectives of these CVC programmes prohibits the achievement of long-term strategic benefits from external innovation.     

Configurations of resources and capabilities and their performance implications: an exploratory study on technology ventures

As one of the most widely accepted theoretical perspectives in strategy, the resource‐based view (RBV) suggests that a firm's resources underlie its ability to achieve competitive advantage. However, much of the extant work in this stream has examined the characteristics that resources must have in order to yield rents, while efforts to specify the crucial link between resources and value creation have been sparse. As a consequence, current theory is not sufficiently clear on how different kinds of resources and capabilities contribute to performance, nor does it clarify how firms can combine different resources and capabilities to achieve superior performance outcomes. Analyzing data obtained from 230 technology ventures with partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling and cluster analysis, this study seeks to improve understanding of the resource‐performance link in two main ways. Based on a careful measurement of resources and capabilities in a well‐defined functional area (sales and distribution), we first show how these resources and capabilities contribute to performance in that functional area. Second, we identify four clusters of firms that deploy different configurations of resources and capabilities. Among the four configurational solutions, two are associated with superior (equifinal) performance outcomes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The antecedents of open business models: an exploratory study of incumbent firms

Firms engage increasingly in open business models. While most research has previously focused on typologies or challenges of open business models, their specific antecedents have not been studied so far. We use data from eight open business model cases to explore this question and identify five main antecedents of open business models: (1) business model inconsistency, (2) need to create and capture new value, (3) previous experience with collaboration, (4) open business model patterns, and (5) industry convergence. Based on openness characteristics from the existing literature, we differentiate four basic types of open business models and develop an initial understanding of the relevance of the identified antecedents for each of them. We thereby provide first guidelines for practitioners in choosing the right form of business model openness for their company.     

Relational selling strategy and key account managers' relational behaviors: An exploratory study

Many companies see key account management as a potentially successful way to implement a relational strategy. Nevertheless, the literature suggests that strategy implementation at the sales force level is difficult to achieve, mainly because salespeople may not understand - nor accept - what they are requested to do. Despite their relevance, behaviors of key account managers have poorly been investigated. This article defines and tests a model of relational selling behaviors from the part of key account managers. Results show that the perception of the adoption of a relational selling strategy is associated with some specific key account managers' behaviors (customer-oriented selling, adaptive selling and team selling), but not with others (organizational citizenship behaviors). These findings suggest that potential discrepancies can exist between a relational selling strategy and its implementation at the key account manager level. Based on these results, theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Open social innovation dynamics and impact: exploratory study of a fab lab network

The aim of this research is to explore the dynamics and impact of open social innovation, within the context of fab labs and makerspaces. Using an exploratory methodology based on 12 semi‐structured interviews of fab lab founders belonging to The Centres for Maker Innovation and Technology (CMIT) programme – a network of 170 fab labs located in Eastern Europe – this research explores the impact of an adopting an open approach in relation to the different stages of social innovation (prompts, proposals, prototypes, sustaining, scaling and diffusion, systemic change) as well as social impact. The main results of this study are that while the CMIT programme provided each fab lab with similar initial conditions (identical funding, objectives and rules), the open social innovation approached adopted enabled to give birth to a wide diversity of fab labs, each being very well adapted to the local environment, social needs and constraints and able to deliver social impact in just a matter of years; a result that would be hard to achieve with a centralised top‐down approach. The study identified three types of CMITs – Education, Industry and Residential – which could be similar or different depending on the stage of social open innovation. Furthermore, this paper discusses the main difficulties social entrepreneurs encounter as a part of the open social innovation process, as well as means to overcome them. In this respect, this study adds to the literature on fab labs by providing more comprehensive view of the challenges faced by fab labs (and makerspaces) founders, as well as suggestions of strategies enabling to ensure their long‐term sustainability.     

Launch decisions and competitive reactions: an exploratory market signaling study

When firms launch a new product into the marketplace they often aim to find a balance between building scale and provoking extensive and quick competitive reactions. Competitors react to new products when they perceive the product introduction as hostile, committed or when they feel that the product entry will have a large impact on their profitability. The present study develops a framework that shows how strong and fast incumbents react to perceived market signals resulting from a new product's launch decisions (broad targeting, penetration pricing, advertising intensity and product advantage). The strength of the relationships between the launch decisions and the perceived market signals was expected to depend on one industry characteristic (i.e., market growth) and on one entrant characteristic (i.e., aggressive reputation). We distinguished three market signals in our framework: hostility, commitment and consequences. Signal hostility refers to the extent to which the approach used by an acting firm to introduce the new product is perceived hostile whereas the commitment signal refers to the extent to which incumbents perceive the entrant firm to be committed to the new product introduction. The consequence signal is defined as the incumbents' perception of the impact of a new product entry on their profitability. We tested our framework using cross‐sectional data provided by 73 managers in The Netherlands who recently reacted to a new product entry. The results clearly reveal which launch decisions create which market signals. For example, incumbents consider high advantage new products hostile and consequential. Penetration pricing and an intense advertising campaign are also considered hostile, especially in fast growing markets. Broad targeting is not perceived hostile, especially not when used by entrants with an aggressive reputation. In addition, this study explored the impact of three perceived market signals on the strength and speed of competitive reaction. The results reveal that perceived signals of hostility and commitment positively impact the strength of reaction, whereas the perceived consequence signal positively impacts the speed of reaction. The article concludes with the implications of our study for managers and academics. The relevance to managers was assessed from both the perspective of the incumbent firm that must defend, and that of the rival firm that is introducing the new product.     

Organisational culture in the age of the Internet: an exploratory study

Through an exploratory study of a large financial services organisation, this study finds that the idiosyncratic nature of the Internet and Internet operations point to a range of implications for both the interaction of organisational subcultures and the internal and external perceptions of organisational culture.     

The role of digital technologies in open innovation processes: an exploratory multiple case study analysis

Digital transformation has undoubtedly become a key enabler of innovation as evidenced by the numerous firms that use digital technologies to manage their innovation processes. This issue is even more relevant today when innovation processes have become more open and require greater resources in the different implementation phases to capture and transfer knowledge within and outside the firm's boundaries. This implies additional challenges in managing the increasing amount of knowledge and information flows. Accordingly, digital technologies can be used and implemented to manage open innovation processes through easier access and sharing the knowledge created and transferred. Nevertheless, literature in these fields does not provide a structured view of how and why digital technologies are used to manage innovation processes in an open perspective. This paper aims to bridge this gap by adopting the theoretical lenses of change management to identify the managerial actions at organizational and process level that companies perform to implement digital technologies in their open innovation processes. Accordingly, the paper investigates how and why these managerial actions required for and enabled by digital technologies help firms to develop and nurture open innovation. From an empirical point of view, the exploratory multiple case study analyzes nine firms operating in different industries and varying in size, market share, and organizational structure.     

Unveiling dimensions of organizational culture: an exploratory study in Malaysian R&D organizations

Previous literature indicated that research and development (R&D) activities are influenced, to a large extent, by the culture of the organization. While these studies have identified elements of culture that are conducive to R&D, identifying the existing dimensions of organizational culture in Malaysian R&D organizations has not been empirically explored. The measures for this study were originally developed for the sole purpose of capturing cultural aspects in R&D organizations in the Malaysian context. These measures were developed based on the relevant issues discovered from exploratory case studies and nine categories of cultural values identified from the literature. A sample of employees (n = 198) from 45 R&D organizations took part in this study. Factor analysis was adopted to uncover common underlying dimensions (factors) of the organizational culture construct. The findings suggest that the organizational culture construct in R&D organizations may best be represented through a structure of eight factors. The eight factors are teamwork and knowledge sharing, empowerment and recognition, conformity and impediments to R&D, risk‐taking, customer orientation, autonomy, social networking, and organizational design. Despite some methodological issues that arose from this study, this model has the potential to become a management instrument to measure the underlying culture in R&D organizations. R&D managers can deploy this model to establish the baseline level of research culture in their respective units and thus provide the foundation for management initiatives to drive R&D activities. This model can also be used as benchmarking parameters when an R&D organization intends to evaluate various aspects of their organizational culture in relation to others that are considered to be leaders in the industry.     

Building dynamic capabilities for innovation: an exploratory study of key management practices

While both the innovation literature and the dynamic capabilities perspective identify loose processes as most appropriate for high uncertainty domains, this produces little reassurance to organizations seeking to improve their ability to commercialize innovations. This paper takes the position that practices for managing innovation project leaders are a key component of an organization's dynamic capabilities for innovation. Our comparative case analysis of divisions of two established Korean organizations suggests that managerial practices include the deployment of entrepreneurial resources having particular skills, characteristics, and motivation. In addition, we identify the relational and decision support roles of managers.     

Socializing behaviors in business-to-business selling: an exploratory study from the Republic of Ireland

For many salespeople in business-to-business industries, client entertainment is an integral part of their daily duties. Despite this anecdotal knowledge, few studies have so far attempted to examine the potential benefits and drawbacks of socializing with clients in a systematic manner. Presenting the results of a qualitative investigation, this paper shows that when approached strategically, socializing with clients can have positive effects on both the exchange as well as the relational aspects of the buyer-seller interaction. In particular, results indicate that some elements of a close buyer-seller relationship are formed as a result of the holistic experience with the other person and may only be established through interaction outside the office environment. The paper thus proposes that socializing strategies represent a unique tool in a salesperson's relationship selling toolkit—a tool that warrants increased attention in both sales practice and research.     

The employment effects of new technology and organizational change: an empirical study

Studies of the relationship between technological change and employment are placed in a conceptual framework prior to an empirical study of the direct employment effects of new technology and a comparison with the effects of organizational change. It shows that the latter are considerably greater than the former, though both are relatively minor.     

Innovation among suppliers to automobile manufacturers: an exploratory study of barriers and facilitators1

This paper reports on an exploratory study of the barriers and facilitators that affect technological innovation by suppliers to the automotive industry and the adoption of such innovations by the industry. The specific focus in the study was on key decision and action points in the life of specific innovations or potential innovations (ideas for new products) which may affect their successful development and marketing. The major source of data for this study was in the form of brief cases obtained from interviews of managers and technical personnel in suppliers to the automotive industry. These cases related to specific projects engaged in or ideas proposed by the responding firms or others in their sector of the industry which were aimed at the introduction of new or improved products, components, systems, materials, designs, etc., to the automotive industry. The information and data for this study were collected by means of structured interviews with 15 managers in 13 first level supplier firms to the automotive industry. A total of 32 innovations were investigated and a corresponding number of 32 cases and additional information on barriers and facilitators were generated for these 32 innovations. In general it was found that the most important barriers and facilitators to innovating were federal laws and regulations. Overall, the two types of decisions that are made in the automotive supplier's environment which appear consistently throughout these cases are (1) the automotive customer's decision to accept, encourage development of, or adopt innovations, and (2) the government's decision to mandate changes in safety, environment or energy-relatedregulations or legislation. The policy implications of the results of this study are discussed as they relate to an evolving model of the effects of potential federal intervention in the R&D/innovation process.     

Company technology strategy

Abstract
The authors report the results of a small-scale study of the attitudes of 174 British companies to managing their technology. Their data sources were replies to a questionnaire and interviews with 18 senior managers of the respondent companies. They relate their findings to current academic thinking about technolgy strategy, of which a bibliography and critical review is presented in the paper.
The results showed that the firms in the survey did not give much specific attention to technology when formulating their strategies. Some do not have a clear notion of what is meant by 'their technology', and others have difficulty in deciding its character. In any case a 'firm's technology' is usually seen as a cluster of technologies, which is enmeshed in a network of external technologies such as those practised by suppliers and customers, rather than as a single entity. After in-house R&D the most often used forms of technology acquisition are licensing-in and contract R&D. The import of technology presents difficulties, such as codifying it in usable form and making sure that there are in-house staff capable of using it.
The authors conclude overall that few firms in the sample can assess their technological strengths and weaknesses or clearly conceptualize their situation. They remark that academic approaches to technology strategy are oversimplified and do not sufficiently address the main problems in this area, which are to help managers to understand the nature of their technology position and the technological network of which their firm forms a part.     

Green innovation in technology and innovation management – an exploratory literature review

The importance of green innovation management is growing both in practice and in academia. This paper provides a current overview of the existing body of literature in the field of green innovations, identifying the most active scholars, institutions and relevant publications. It also contributes to a clarification of the concept ‘green innovation’. The review explains that three different notions of green, eco/ecological and environmental innovation are used largely synonymously, while the notion of sustainable innovation broadens the concept and includes a social dimension. According to this review, the most active scholars are situated in Europe (especially the Netherlands, Italy and Germany). A ranking is provided of innovation management journals by their total number of green innovation publications. The paper stimulates discussion about the adequacy of research in this subject area (managing green innovation) and the dearth of comprehensive literature reviews.     

The ecosystem as helix: an exploratory theory-building study of regional co-opetitive entrepreneurial ecosystems as Quadruple/Quintuple Helix Innovation Models

Regions are increasingly being viewed as eco-systemic agglomerations of organizational and institutional entities or stakeholders with socio-technical, socio-economic, and socio-political conflicting as well as converging (co-opetitive) goals, priorities, expectations, and behaviors that they pursue via entrepreneurial development, exploration, exploitation, and deployment actions, reactions and interactions. In this context, our paper aims to explore and profile the nature and dynamics of the Quadruple/Quintuple Helix Innovation System Model or Framework (government, university, industry, civil society, environment) as an enabler and enactor of regional co-opetitive entrepreneurial ecosystems which we conceptualize as fractal, multi-level, multi-modal, multi-nodal, and multi-lateral configurations of dynamic tangible and intangible assets within the resource-based view and the new theory of the growth of the firm. Co-opetitive fractal innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems are defined and discussed, and examples of regional innovation policies and programs are presented. Furthermore, the concept of multi-level innovation systems is analyzed, taking into account the existence of knowledge clusters and innovation networks, while alternative aggregations of multi-level innovation systems are proposed based on their spatial (geographical) and non-spatial (research-based) functional properties.     

Indicators of discontinuous technological change: an exploratory study of two discontinuities in the machine tool industry

The objective of this paper is to explore the extent to which a set of indicators of technological and industrial change can act as warning signals for technical change. A particular kind of technical change can give a new substitute such price/performance attributes that it is taken into the reach of mass market segments. Two processes of discontinuous technical change in the machine tool industry are analysed using patent data, bibliometrics, data on new entrants, relative price changes and diffusion data. In the first case (the transition from conventional to CNC machine tools) relative prices and new entrants were the first indicators to react whilst patents and bibliometrics increased in activity in parallel with the large scale diffusion of CNC machine tools. In the second case (the transition from CNC machine tools to flexible manufacturing systems) new entrants and publishing preceded the large scale diffusion by some years. The different patterns between the two cases and between these and what can be found in the literature, suggest that more work needs to be done to understand the conditions under which changes in each of the indicators can be used as a warning signal. The paper is concluded by a brief discussion which may form the basis for some further work in that direction.