Motivating and demotivating technical visionaries in large corporations: a comparison of perspectives

A substantial body of literature addresses the motivation of technical professionals in large corporations. Included are considerations of the motivation of subgroups, such as contrasting the motivation of scientists and engineers. Notably absent, however, is an in‐depth, multiple‐perspective consideration of both the motivation and demotivation of the small number of individuals in nearly every corporation who contribute significantly and disproportionately to the growth and profitability of the corporation. These exceptional, high‐performing technologists, whom we refer to as technical visionaries (TVs), are the drivers of breakthrough, radical innovation. Through 64 in‐depth interviews with TVs, their direct technical managers (TMs) and their human resource managers (HRMs), this research explores the similarities and differences in perception between these three groups concerning TV motivation and demotivation. TMs predominantly apply informal, personalized, and relational management motivating techniques. HRMs predominantly perceive value in the formalized, standard corporate structures and reward systems that serve the ‘typical employee’ for motivating TVs. By comparing the perspectives of TVs, TMs, and HRMs, we observe that the TMs are in strong alignment with TV perspectives on motivation and demotivation, while the HRMs are not in alignment with TV perspectives. Interestingly, both TMs and HRMs emphasize techniques most readily available to them. Most notable relative to demotivating TVs, the HRMs are least able to articulate an understanding consistent with that of the TVs. Based on these and other observations, we offer recommendations for those who manage these critical and unique technical visionaries.     

Technical risk and new product success: An empirical test in high technology business markets

Following a methodology similar to the one used in Cooper's NewProd studies, this study examines the impact of technical risk on the ability to predict new product success in high technology business markets. Cooper's original 48 new product characteristics along with 10 new items measuring technical risk are used in examining 406 actual industrial new product success and failures. The findings show the importance of the addition of technical risk assessment in predicting the potential success or failure of new high technology industrial products.     

Antecedents of Innovation Strategies in New Technology‐based Firms: Interactions between the Environment and Founder Team Composition

This research contributes to the ongoing stream of research on the integration of technical and business knowledge for successful innovation, but does so with a unique focus—that of new firm founder teams. This is in contrast to much of the existing literature, which focuses on organizational units in large firms. As part of their strategy for success, new technology‐based firms need to find an optimal balance between exploration and exploitation in their innovation activities. However, the resource constraints they typically face make it difficult for them to pursue both at the same time, which means that at any given point in time they are likely to opt for either exploration or exploitation rather than both. The purpose of this research is to investigate what influences new technology‐based firms to select one innovation strategy over another. Data collected in 145 new technology‐based firms are used to test hypotheses about how environmental conditions and founder team composition interact in their contributions to choice of innovation strategy. Based on hierarchical regression analysis of the data, the research findings suggest that teams consisting of individuals who have dissimilar backgrounds are more likely to adapt their innovation strategy to the characteristics of the environment than teams of individuals with similar backgrounds. Conversely, teams consisting of individuals with similar backgrounds are more likely to continue to follow their preferred strategy. However, as competitive intensity or environmental dynamism increases, such teams are likely to deviate from their preferred strategy.     

How business customers judge customer success management

In business-to-business markets, customer success management is gaining growing practical importance. The concept comprises customer-related activities that aim at monitoring, securing and enhancing customer success as well as the implementation of the corresponding organizational structures and processes within the supplier firm. In contrast to existing research, this article takes a customer perspective to customer success management and investigates how business customers judge respective supplier activities; first, to reveal the quality dimensions business customers apply when assessing suppliers' customer success management activities, and second, to investigate how the quality of suppliers' customer success management activities leads to business customers' perceived value. Addressing these questions, this research contributes to literature by exploring customer success management from a customer perspective. The findings elucidate that customers' perceived value in use does not simply develop over time. Rather, through the implementation of customer-related activities of customer success management, suppliers can actively influence customers' value-in-use experiences thus fostering customers' rebuy decisions. From managerial perspective, the findings support suppliers in successfully shape their customer-oriented customer success management activities as well as the necessary internal structures and processes.     

How purchasing agents handle personal risk

Purchasing agents are confronted with a myriad of stresses in their work. One of the most important stress factors faced is the perceived risk associated with making buying decisions. This article examines the concept of perceived risk from an organizational procurement perspective and presents the results of a study on percieved personal risk, experienced by industrial purchasing executives. The business implications of these findings are then discussed.     

Emotions and new venture judgment in China

A new venture is likely to be perceived as either an opportunity or a risk. People also vary in their subjective judgment of the probability of a new venture’s success. From an affective approach, this study investigates how people’s feelings about the outcomes of a venture affect their subjective judgment on the value and probability of founding a new business. It was found that an entrepreneur’s hope of creating a successful new venture significantly increases the attractiveness and perceived success likelihood of the new venture. Those who show less fear of failure and lower surprise for the success tend to view a new venture as an opportunity. Those who show less anger, regret, and higher contempt of failure and lower surprise of success as well as lower trait sadness judge a higher subjective probability for the success of founding a new firm. These findings reveal entrepreneurs’ initiatives in economic activities. Positive and negative implications are discussed, particularly for entrepreneurial activities in China.     

What Separates Japanese New Product Winners from Losers

Operating in the upper echelons of highly competitive, global markets, numerous Japanese firms enjoy well-deserved reputations for excellence in new product development. Despite this success, however, almost no research has been conducted to explore the keys to successful new product development in Japanese companies. For the most part, research in this area has focused on North American and European firms. X. Michael Song and Mark E. Parry address this gap with a study of 404 Japanese firms and 788 new product introductions. Their research explores the links between new product success and 10 factors: product advantage; marketing synergy; technological synergy; market potential; market competitiveness; market and technical understanding; senior management support; proficiency in the predevelopment planning process and in concept development and evaluation; proficiency in market research, market pretesting, and market launch; and technical proficiency. To avoid any cultural bias, development of the survey was preceded by in-depth case studies and focus group interviews with Japanese and American new product development teams. Although time-consuming and expensive, these preliminary steps were necessary for ensuring the validity of the survey contents and procedures. Notwithstanding the obvious cultural differences, the findings from this study suggest that Japanese new products professionals view the keys to success in much the same way as their North American counterparts. For the survey respondents, the most important success factor is product advantage. Other important success factors include predevelopment proficiency (that is, proficiency in the predevelopment planning process as well as in concept definition and evaluation) and marketing and technological synergy. Consistent with previous research on North American firms, market competitiveness was found to be the least important success factor. For managers who are trying to predict whether a project will result in a product advantage, several survey items may be useful as a checklist for assessing potential product advantage. In particular, these managers should consider whether the product offers potential for reducing consumer costs and expanding consumer capabilities, as well as the likelihood that the product offers improved quality, superior technical performance, and a superior benefit-to-cost ratio.     

Is perceived value more than value for money in professional business services?

It is well documented in the literature that customer perceived value plays an important role in understanding behavioral outcomes of business customers. However, most business-to-business research has focused on the functional dimension of perceived value, while consumer research has already advanced to a multidimensional value conceptualization. This study expands the concept of perceived value in the professional business services context to functional, emotional, and social perceived value. Based on signaling theory, we conceptualize and empirically support links between the three dimensions of perceived value and its antecedents (perceived corporate reputation, perceived corporate credibility, and perceived relationship quality) and outcomes (satisfaction and loyalty). The results of a survey involving 228 business clients reveal differences in links between value antecedents and the three perceived value dimensions: while perceived corporate credibility and relationship quality impact all dimensions, perceived corporate reputation impacts only perceived emotional value. Results of our study help in understanding how satisfaction and loyalty are viewed as perceived value outcomes; apart from functional value, emotional and social values play a significant role in the satisfaction and loyalty of professional business services clients.     

New Product Activities and Performance: The Moderating Role of Environmental Hostility

In the race to bring new products to market, a company may be tempted to cut corners in the new product development (NPD) process. And a hostile environment—that is, one marked by intense competition and rapid technological change—only heightens the pressure to reduce NPD cycle time. However, hasty completion of the NPD process may actually jeopardize a product's chances for success. In a study of Fortune 500 manufacturers of industrial products, Roger J. Calantone, Jeffrey B. Schmidt, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto explore the relationships among new product success rates, proficiency in the execution of NPD activities, and the perceived level of hostility in the competitve environment. Their study examines how proficiency in NPD activities affects the odds of success for industrial new products. Adding environmental hostility to the mix, they also investigate whether the perceived level of hostility in the competitive environment affects the relationship between NPD proficiency and success. In this way, they provide insight into the factors managers must consider when attempting to accelerate cycle time in a hostile competitive environment. The respondents to their survey—142 senior managers involved in NPD or product innovation rated environmental hostility in terms of the extent to which the firm perceives its industry as safe, rich in investment opportunity, and controllable. To assess NPD proficiency, respondents were asked about their firms' performance in predevelopment marketing and technical activities, development marketing and technical activities, and financial analysis. Respondents assessed new product performance in terms of product profitability. As expected, the responses indicate that proficiency in the performance of NPD activities increases the likelihood of new product success. Proficiency in development marketing activities produced the largest increase in likelihood of success—nearly 25 percent over that of projects in which respondents rated performance of these activities at any level below “most proficient.” More importantly, the responses indicate that a hostile competitive environment increases the impact of NPD proficiency. In other words, by improving performance of key NPD activities under hostile environmental conditions, a firm can greatly increase the likelihood of success for a new industrial product. Rather than simply cut corners in the NPD process, a firm faced with a hostile environment must strike a balance between speed and quality of execution.     

Technology Commercialization in Road Infrastructure: How Government Affects the Variation and Appropriability of Technology

Successful technology commercialization is important for business profitability, and government policies can help or hinder firms' success. As a regulator, government affects standard setting and the nature and scope of property rights. As a sponsor, government can empower technology commercialization by its financial support of new technology. As a first user, government can significantly enhance the chances of successful technology commercialization. And as a buyer, government accounts for a substantial part of the world economy. Previous research on government's roles in technology commercialization mainly addressed the effects of specific roles. However, there is little understanding about the combined impact of these roles on technology commercialization. This article develops a conceptual model to analyze the combined effect of these roles on technology development projects. This model is based on a review of the literature on large technical systems, technological regimes, and technology policy that enabled this study on government's diverse roles in technology commercialization. To refine the conceptual model, an in‐depth analysis of three technology development projects was conducted. The empirical findings are drawn from road infrastructure. In that sector, government is the dominant customer and first user of most new technologies. Therefore, government has to create a market for those technologies and strongly affects their viability. This research has produced several major results. First, the developed model is the first to conceptualize the relevant relationships between the various roles of government in technology commercialization. Second, this study has shown that government's behavior as a regulator and sponsor conflicts with its preferences as a buyer and user. Consequently, the support of and demand for new technology is inconsistent and uncoordinated, leaving firms with significant uncertainties in assessing market opportunities. Third, the dominant position of government as a buyer in road infrastructure weakens the effectiveness of intellectual property rights. Fourth, existing studies on technology for partially public goods are mainly historical accounts, and only a few are empirical studies on innovation processes. This study provides an in‐depth analysis of the development and commercialization of technology for partially public goods. This article concludes with policy implications and suggestions for future research. An important policy implication is that government could improve technology commercialization by either stimulating the commercialization of various competing technologies or developing various competing products based on the same technology. A central issue for future research is how firms can involve government in its diverse roles in technology commercialization. Most of the existing research on customer involvement deals with consumer and business‐to‐business markets. A better understanding of government involvement could help firms to overcome the impediments they face in dealing with government.     

How to build great research groups

Business school leaders would like to attract and keep the top research talent in order to stay competitive, attract high-potential students, and recruit the most promising young faculty. To accomplish these objectives, a successful research environment for its business academic researchers needs to be established, so that they can produce a sustainable research stream. We examine important antecedents including business school research strategy, leadership, governance, and policy, and from these we develop a set of conditions that are related to long-term success of research programs in academic business institution. As detailed illustrations, we elaborate the experiences of two active research institutions—the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group and the Contemporary Marketing Practices (CMP) Group — and discuss how each of these groups has implemented the conditions for success. We conclude with general observations on the environmental conditions most conducive to sustainable business school research, and present implications regarding the role of the journal editor as a gatekeeper.     

Perspectives on roadmaps: how organizations talk about the future

Roadmaps, in the traditional sense, are concerned mostly with space and position. In the way that industrial and public research institutions use the term, though, roadmaps reveal the time dimension of technological progress. The many and increasing applications of roadmaps have generated confusion about what they are for and what they accomplish amid the many tools and techniques of managing technology. Roadmapping is itself a trend, while it seeks to exploit the trends underlying technology. The practice has side effects, biases, and behavioral consequences that are often not visible to practitioners, and until now, were unexamined by researchers. This study provides an organizational perspective on roadmapping as currently practiced, presents the experience of several organizations that have implemented it, and evaluates the results. Using a case‐based, exploratory method the author addresses several practical questions, such as: What are the effects of roadmapping? How are they measured? Is roadmapping always appropriate? How would an organization know if it was roadmapping well? What are the various kinds of roadmaps and how do they relate to each other? In addition, some more general lessons about organizational behavior emerge from the case data. Cases were selected from several large industrial firms participating in a research consortium exploring the modern challenges and tools of technology management. These firms granted extensive access to the research team and actively participated in the analysis, demonstrating a unique and productive model of research collaboration between academic researchers and business practitioners. Central to an understanding of roadmapping behavior is noticing the tension between its dual nature. Roadmaps are both forecasts of what is possible or likely to happen, as well as plans that articulate a course of action. They are, in a sense, personal to their authors. Roadmaps can be used to align organizations in times of predictable change, but have limited insight into disruptive change. The most influential roadmaps originate as responses to perceived threats, and link the technical storyline to organizational and personal concerns. For those who would implement the technique, the article suggests practical ways to use these and other findings and offers basic definitions and vital questions for future research.     

Changes in sales call frequency: A longitudinal examination of the consequences in the supplier-customer relationship

Sales calls are one of the most valuable and expensive resources available to industrial sales managers. The main purpose of this research was to look at the relationship between an increase in sales call frequency and some important outcomes in the buyer-seller relationship. To do so, we adopted a longitudinal research design where data from 357 customers of one industrial supplier were obtained over a two-year period of time. Results indicated that an increase in call frequency has a positive effect on sales volume, perceived service quality, perceived value for money and overall customer satisfaction. Furthermore, these effects tend to diminish as relationships become longer, and are stronger at higher levels of hierarchy in the buying company.     

Innovation strategy and sanctioned conflict: a new edge in innovation?

Teamwork and harmony are worthy objectives, but a healthy dose of conflict also plays an important role in fostering innovation. In their pursuit of teamwork and harmony, companies run the risk of suppressing the creative tension that brings vitality to new-product development (NPD) efforts. Furthermore, a firm's choice of innovation strategy may have a significant effect on the organization's capability for managing conflict. Using results from a survey of 290 marketing and R&D managers from U.S. firms in the electronics industries, Barbara Dyer and X. Michael Song explore the link between strategy and conflict, and the effect this link has on NPD success. Their study examines the following issues: the influence of business strategy on specific conflict-handling behaviors; the relationship between those conflict-handling behaviors and positive conflict outcomes; and the relationship between constructive conflict and new-product success. The study classifies firms predominantly pursuing a more aggressive NPD strategy as prospectors and less aggressive firms as defenders. Three conflict-handling mechanisms are identified: integrating behaviors, forcing behaviors, and avoiding behaviors. Compared to the prospector firms, the defender firms in this study perceived significantly higher levels of conflict in their organizations. In handling conflict, the prospector firms perceived a higher level of integrative behavior than the defender firms. The defenders perceived higher levels of forcing and avoiding conflict behaviors. The study identifies a strong, positive relationship between integrative behaviors and constructive conflict. Positive relationships are also identified between constructive conflict and the success of cross-functional relationships, as well as between constructive conflict and NPD business success. For the firms in this study, the results indicate that strategy is associated with the conflict-handling mechanisms the firm uses. For example, the results suggest that an NPD manager in a prospector firm will encounter high use of integrative behaviors, a high number of complex conflicts, a relatively low level of perceived conflict, a high level of formalization, and frequent exchanges of written and verbal communication among the firm's personnel. The results suggest that managers may help to create an environment conducive to NPD success by assessing their firms' strategies, emphasizing integrative conflict-handling behaviors, and employing formalization of organizational procedures.     

The characteristics of successful innovators and technically progressive firms (with some comments on innovation research)

Abstract. Parallel with the growing realization by modern economists of the role that technical change plays in economic growth there has, during the last twenty years or so, and particularly during the last decade, been an upsurge of interest in research relating to technological innovation. (Mansfield, 1968a; Minasian, 1969; Aukraust, 1969; Thurow, 1971; Mansfield, 1968b). This has led to a number of studies which have aimed at discovering factors associated with success and failure in industrial innovation and the characteristics of technically progressive firms : as a result of this, there now exists a considerable and impressive body of empirical knowledge concerning successful and unsuccessful innovators. This paper briefly reviews the results of some of the more important of these innovation studies, and attempts to highlight areas of agreement between them, both concerning factors associated with success in innovation, and factors associated with failure and delay. It then comments on some of the limitations of the studies, and offers several suggestions concerning aspects of future innovation research which might go some way towards overcoming these limitations. The paper does not pretend to offer any startlingly original data or theory (although the textile machinery results are new—see Tables 1 and 2), but rather it is intended for use as an 'innovation checklist' for the busy manager and as a preliminary guide for those who are unfamiliar with the innovation literature.     

Success Factors Of High-Tech SBUs: Towards a Conceptual Model Based on the Israeli Electronics and Computers Industry

Of the few studies that have been performed on success and failure of business units in industrial organizations, most were based on marketing and financial data collected in the PIMS program. This study explores the factors contributing to success and failure of high-tech business units. It is based on a survey conducted in the electronics and computers industry in Israel. The article argues that the success of business units in this industry should not be measured in financial terms only. There are two additional dimensions to success: positioning in the market and preparing the necessary assets and infrastructure for future development, manufacturing and marketing of new products.Some unique success and failure factors, other than those revealed in studies at the product level, were found to contribute to the success of high-tech business units.     

Characteristics and diffusion of technological innovations

The paper examines fourteen post war innovations; five in the flour milling industry, four in the malting industry, and five in the dairy industry. The major work has been carried out in the flour milling industry, with supportive studies in the malting and dairy industries. Examination is made of the characteristics of the innovations as perceived by technical managers who are in a position to influence adoption or non-adoption. The research sets out to study the relationship between the perceived characteristics of the innovations and their diffusion times. It is hoped that the results will be of value to engineering designers and marketing managers in the capital equipment manufacturing industries by enabling them to develop a clearer understanding of adoptors and non-adoptors of innovations and also to study the inter-relationships between different sectors of the industries which they serve. Two forms of profiles of the characteristics of innovations are presented.     

Blockchain as a cutting-edge technology impacting business: A systematic literature review perspective

As one of the most disruptive technological innovations, blockchain technology has received extensive attention from academia and industry. Although many scholars have reviewed the existing blockchain research, most of the previous review articles focused on the application of technology or blockchain in specific industries or scenarios, and lacked a comprehensive review of the application of blockchain technology in the business field. Based on a systematic literature review approach and cluster analysis, this study quantitatively analyzed 2830 papers obtained from the Web of Science to fill this gap. By constructing a three-layer research framework, this research enumerates the infrastructure and protocols of blockchain technology in detail, and on this basis develops a three-subjects value creation model. The model highlights that business value can be created from transactions, crypto-economic models, and analytical and automated processes in the interaction of organizations, individuals, and technologies. Different blockchain-based applications solve different kinds of economic problems, including information storage/sharing, consensus generation and governance. This study expands the blockchain literature and deepens our understanding of how blockchain technology affects organizations and individuals in the business world. The newly proposed research framework can inspire practitioners and managers to discover opportunities for business model innovation. This work provides a solid research foundation and practical guidance for academics and practitioners who are interested in blockchain-based business.     

Who do you care about? Scientists’ personality traits and perceived impact on beneficiaries

We investigate the roots of scientists' perceptions of the impact of their work by examining stable psychological characteristics such as personality traits. An analysis of personality traits highlights the effects of policies related to gender equality, allocation of research time and skills acquisition. It improves our understanding of the conflicts related to scientists’ perceptions of the impact of their research on beneficiaries. For example, conscientiousness increases the perceived impact on clinical beneficiaries, but reduces the perceived impact on industrial beneficiaries. Organizational scientific freedom increases the effects of personality traits on perceived impact on beneficiaries such that scientists affiliated to a university are less likely than colleagues working in other research settings to perceive the simultaneous impact of their work on both industrial and clinical beneficiaries.     

Technology Sharing in Manufacturing Business Groups

Technology represents the primordial force for companies and organizations in securing long‐term competitiveness. In the intensive search to access new technology, organizations are more and more looking beyond the borders of the focal firm and becoming involved in various networks with suppliers, consultants, partners, and others. However, the distinction between the focal firm, on the one hand, and networks, on the other, is in this paper argued to be too extensive without intermediating nuances. Less focus is given to an in‐between perspective configured by business groups or concerns here defined as parent corporations with subsidiary companies. It is this perspective of business groups with characteristics between individual firms and open networks that is of interest in this paper. The focus is on manufacturing business groups in which the companies will typically have individual as well as common technologies. The research aim is to develop a framework to be used as an analytical tool for understanding and organizing technology sharing in manufacturing business groups. The research approach was to study technology sharing in a natural setting combining multiple in‐depth sources of evidence in a clinical research setting. A prestudy identified key dimensions in classifying cases leading to four clusters of typified cases. Data were gathered from meetings with 24 managers from various research and development (R&D) units who met regularly every other week during seven months, in‐depth interviews, internal documents and protocols, and workshops. Following the clinical field‐study approach, findings are theoretically validated in relation to literature. The analysis identifies and depicts four different types of technology‐sharing scenarios in manufacturing business groups. Each type has particular characteristics of its own. The four scenarios together provide a synthesized portfolio with different types of dimensions. A first dimension makes a distinction between sharing new technology development versus existing technology. Another distinguishes between technologies aimed at the whole business group and those aimed at specific segments. The two dimensions together comprise four different types of technology‐sharing alternatives. Each one of them can be used at the focal firm, and together, they are applicable from a business group perspective comprising technology‐sharing portfolios of manufacturing business groups.