Matching demand and supply in the agricultural knowledge infrastructure: Experiences with innovation intermediaries

The privatization of agricultural research and extension establishments worldwide has led to the development of a market for services designed to support agricultural innovation. However, due to market and systemic failures, both supply side and demand side parties in this market have experienced constraints in effecting transactions and establishing the necessary relationships to engage in demand-driven innovation processes. To mitigate these constraints, a field of intermediary organizations has emerged to assist agricultural entrepreneurs to articulate demand, forge linkages with those that can provide innovation support services, and manage innovation processes. This article aims to give an overview of the different kinds of the so-called innovation intermediaries that have emerged in The Netherlands and to report on their contributions and the tensions that are being experienced with regard to their functioning. The article concludes with a discussion in which it is argued that the state should play a role as a ‘market facilitator’, by funding such innovation intermediaries.     

Collective action for market chain innovation in the Andes

The Papa Andina network employs collective action in two novel approaches for fostering market chain innovation. The participatory market chain approach (PMCA) and stakeholder platforms engage small potato producers together with market agents and agricultural service providers in group activities to identify common interests, share market knowledge and develop new business opportunities. These forms of collective action have generated commercial, technological and institutional innovations, and created new market niches for Andean native potatoes grown by poor farmers in remote highland areas. These innovations have benefited small farmers as well as other market chain actors. This paper describes Papa Andina’s experiences with collective action for market chain innovation. It then discusses the implications of these experiences for the understanding of collective action and the policy implications for research and development organizations.     

Innovation promoters — A multiple case study

This paper empirically examines the role of innovation promoters in loosely-coupled inter-organisational innovation projects. With a starting point from existing literature on innovation promoters, it seeks to develop a theoretical framework for analysing the particular challenges of inter-organisational innovation projects. Data from seven inter-organisational innovation projects provides the empirical setting of the paper, and these data are analysed on the basis of an inductive, interpretive approach. The paper results in the development of four types of innovation promoters (power, expert, process and relationship). In addition, the results indicate the substantial challenges of dividing the labour between several promoters in inter-organisational innovation projects. The paper concludes with some managerial and research implications.     

Winning through innovation and marketing: Lessons from Australia and Vietnam

We examine the role of innovation and marketing, two functional capabilities that have the capacity to play a major role in creating superior marketplace performance in firms. Our study of the two capabilities and firms' marketplace performance also takes into account the contribution of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and market orientation (MO) to our focal functional capabilities and marketplace performance. The results of a study of firms in Australia and Vietnam show innovation capability, marketing capability mediate the effects of the firm's MO on its marketplace performance. The results also show that the interaction of innovation and marketing capabilities significantly influences firms' marketplace performance more than they do individually. Finally, our results show that MO partially mediates the relationship between EO and innovation and marketing capabilities.     

Building competences for new customer value creation: An exploratory study

Recent marketing literature suggests companies to become market driving (proactive business logic, changing the rules of the market) instead of market driven (reactive business logic, customer-led). This transformation implies that companies are able to boost their capacity to create new customer value. Based on survey data of business-to-business markets, we advance a tentative model that links competence development to new customer value creation. Although exploratory in its nature, our study exhibits that companies should build three types of competences: marketing practices for external knowledge absorption, general organizational competences and supply chain/network competences. Using cluster analysis, we are able to further link these competences to the capacity of new value creation. Four clusters are detected with different degrees of expertise in new value creation and each displaying their own profile of competences. Becoming market driving requires an integrated and balanced view on marketing practices.     

Managing innovation networks: Exploratory evidence from ICT, biotechnology and nanotechnology networks

This study examines the management of innovation networks which has enjoyed increased recognition in the marketing literature due to its growing prominence and relevance. By testing a causal model relating network factors to outcomes, the study contributes to theory development on managing innovation at the net level of analysis. Consequently, it contributes to the respective marketing literatures on new product development, open innovation, industrial marketing and its emerging network management sub-stream. It also offers a methodological contribution as respondents include key players from businesses, government agencies, research organizations and universities rather than from only one focal organization as studies in extant literature have predominantly done. Findings are based on 219 responses from Australian high technology networks, namely, information and communications technology and biotechnology/nanotechnology. The study offers valuable implications for marketing managers involved in new product development and innovation concerning strategies for managing their inter-organizational innovation initiatives effectively.     

Innovation and integration in the agri-food industry

We deal with the link between innovation and market structure using the empirical example of the Danish agri-food industry. Vertical integration may resolve hold-up problems and here we test for the importance of vertical integration and networks on innovation. We further examine the effects of network relationships on innovation behaviour. We use data from an extensive survey of 444 Danish firms over two years, 2000 and 2005 to estimate a bootstrapped zero-inflated Poisson regression model. The first and most significant result is that organization matters. Further we find that vertical integration as well as contractual arrangements are significant determinants for firms’ innovation behaviour. The direction of integration is important as well. Also, economies of size seem to play an important role. Similarly, the export orientation of the firm is a significant determinant of innovation whereas the sector the firm is operating in is not significant for its innovation behaviour.     

面向企业创新的区域创新平台及其结构模型研究

文章在分析区域创新平台构建的驱动力基础上,指出构建创新平台是化解我国创新领域各种矛盾的必然,考察了平台和创新平台的概念演化,提出并阐述了区域创新平台的内涵,分析了区域创新平台的构成要素,并据此构建了区域创新平台的结构模型,认为区域创新平台是核心价值网络、可控性支持网络和不可控性支持网络上不同要素之间相互连接的集成,并运用杭州市区域创新平台的案例验证了区域创新平台的内涵与结构。     

江苏战略性新兴产业开放创新平台建设研究

产业创新平台建设是我国发展战略性新兴产业的重要举措,文章在阐明创新平台本质和特征的基础上,概括了江苏省战略性新兴产业发展状况,分析了产业创新平台建设运营情况及存在的问题,进一步探讨加强产业创新平台建设的策略。     

Actor roles and role patterns influencing innovation in living labs

Innovation networks are embodied and shaped by their participants. This paper examines actors' roles in living labs, which are defined as networks of open innovation. The study utilizes four approaches to roles: structuralist, symbolic interactionist, resource-based, and action-based approaches. Our empirical analysis of 26 living labs in four different countries identifies a number of actor roles associated with open innovation. In addition, it reveals four role patterns characteristic of living labs: (i) ambidexterity, (ii) reciprocity, (iii) temporality, and (iv) multiplicity. These patterns distinguish actor collaboration in networks characterized by heterogeneous actors, the coexistence of individual and shared motives, high degree of openness, and user involvement. Scholars and practitioners of innovation learn that understanding of role patterns in living labs can contribute to building, utilization, and orchestration of open innovation networks.     

大宗商品电子商务发展趋势及模式创新

当前,电商行业在与传统行业进行着广泛的融合,如何提高整体供应链的效益决定着企业未来的生命力。介绍了煤炭行业电子商务的概况,并就新环境下煤炭等大宗商品电子商务的发展趋势及创新模式进行简要分析,指出今后煤炭行业要在完善诚信体系、支付体系、物流体系尤其是在构建信息安全体系和诚信体系建设方面下功夫,以促进全国煤炭领域电子商务的发展。     

ICT-enabled system innovations in public services: Experiences from intelligent transport systems

Public transport is confronted with major challenges such as climate change and congestion. This paper discusses how these major challenges are addressed by means of ICT-enabled system innovations in public services. Recent developments in ICT enable the realisation of novel solutions for public transport that can be subsumed under the headline of intelligent transport systems (ITS). However, while the advances in information and communication technology are very fast, the transformation of transport systems and infrastructures tends to take a long time. In parallel, public sector reforms of the past decade, often characterised by the introduction of New Public Management principles, have changed the organisational and institutional conditions for transport service provision and innovation, with the private sector playing an increasingly prominent role. Public–private innovation networks in services (ServPPINs) have been suggested as a concept to foster the realisation of system innovations.This paper analyses the conditions, determinants and instruments for managing ServPPINs successfully, by comparing four cases of ServPPINs in intelligent transport systems, which all aim at establishing system innovations. The four cases are: ITS Vienna Region, a dynamic intermodal traffic information service; compano, a novel ride-sharing scheme in Austria; SIS, a real-time traffic information services, displays and management system in Oslo; and Flexus, an electronic ticket system for public transportation in Oslo.The paper shows the importance of organisational and institutional conditions of ServPPINs for realising these system innovations, and the crucial role of entrepreneurial individuals, both in public and private sector organisations. It also points to the importance of making clear strategic choices at the right moments in time in the course of the life-cycle of ServPPINs.     

网络状产业链的价值创新协同与平台领导

在网络状产业链中,创新由分散的模块生产商和互补品生产商独立进行,传统的一体化组织模式不再适用,需要新的创新组织形式。平台领导者通过一系列的策略,协调网络状产业链各参与主体的价值创新行为。本文将防降价均衡(UPE)用于网络状产业链价值创新的动态博弈过程中,揭示平台领导者实现模块标准升级的相关策略与模块和网络等技术参数的匹配关系。平台领导企业通过模块规则的知识产权策略、互补品创新的横向兼容决策、标准升级的纵向兼容决策等,形成封闭策略组合和开放策略组合,协同模块生产商、互补品生产商的行为,实现价值创新协同,通过最终顾客价值的创造,吸引消费者购买新产品,实现标准的升级。     

包装工程专业学生科技创新平台的建设与实践

学生科技创新平台是包装工程专业实践教学的一个重要组成部分,是培养学生创新能力的一个重要环节。如何根据包装工程专业的特点来搭建科技创新平台并组织和引导学生积极参加创新活动中去,本文提出了一种适于包装专业学生科技创新平台建设的“4个结合”的建设理念并针对每个结合的给出了其特定的内涵。     

Innovation patterns and policy implications of ADSL penetration in Korea: A case study

Korea has been leading the world in broadband Internet access services since 1999. Based on an in-depth case analysis of the penetration of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) in Korea, the present study explores the patterns of decision making and interactions among key innovation actors, such as the government, Internet service providers, equipment providers, and content providers, using a conceptual framework wherein models of innovation systems and decision making under uncertainty are combined. The results revealed that the Korean government played a pivotal role in the creation of the ADSL-based Internet service market by providing a strong vision for this emerging service, building a coalition among various key actors, and stimulating initial market needs and supply of necessary equipment during the early period of higher uncertainty. As the level of uncertainty decreased with market evolution, however, the role of industrial actors and their market competition became more important to the rapid growth of the ADSL market. Based on these findings, policy and managerial implications are proposed.