Encouraging and enabling action research in innovation management

Although action research offers great advantages of connecting academia and practice, it is surprisingly underutilised in innovation management. This paper, therefore, focuses on how innovation management research and researchers can more effectively and efficiently apply action research to their domain. The analysis commences with the rationale for aligning action research and innovation management before assessing the strengths and limitations of existing interdisciplinary action research approaches from an innovation management perspective. Combining and enhancing the strengths of these approaches, a new Action Innovation Management Research (AIM-R) framework is developed to assist in resolving the increasing demand for action-orientation in innovation management. AIM-R offers a structured research process for systematically applying action research as a way of encouraging rigorous research processes, while also importantly stimulating relevant practical outcomes. AIM-R specifically considers different change levels (individual, team, organisational) and objects (e.g. outcome, process, capability) critical for the multi-faceted character of innovation management. A real-world example towards the end of the article illustrates how AIM-R has been applied to a complex problem-solution space. This example adds important insights for readers wanting to apply this more engaged, but currently underutilised, innovation management research technique.     

Standards,innovation, and latecomer economic development: Conceptual issues and policy challenges

Little is known about the impact of standards on the economic development of countries which are latecomers to industrial manufacturing and innovation. Standardization is regarded primarily as a technical issue, and hence receives only limited high-level policy support.However, technical standards contribute at least as much as patents to economic growth. As a key mechanism for the diffusion of technological knowledge and due to the dominant leadership by advanced countries in patenting, technical standards have emerged in latecomer countries as an alternative to patenting. However, latecomer countries and their firms have a set of capabilities and constraints that are fundamentally different from that of advanced countries and firms. This paper argues that latecomer countries should adopt assessment criteria that are more fitted with latecomer contexts which emphasize learning effects and building dynamic capabilities. The paper discusses current issues that are essential in understanding the rise of Asian countries in standardization. We also examine the critical role that patents play for standardization and argue that “strategic patenting” to generate rents from de facto industry standards can stifle latecomer economic development.     

Moving forward quantitative research on innovation management: a call for an inductive turn on using and presenting quantitative research

Whereas innovation scholars have mainly relied on survey designs, secondary data and experiments to engage in deductive theory-testing research, I highlight that quantitative data can also be viable sources to induce theoretical insights into emerging innovation phenomena. In this paper, I discuss how scholars can use quantitative data for inductive innovation management research. First, I point to quantitative data as viable complements to enrich qualitative inductive research. Second, I point to the presence of alternative methods (e.g., cluster analyses and fsQCA) that allow using quantitative data as the core data for inductive research. Finally, I highlight the need to reduce the existing gap between how quantitative research on innovation management is executed and how it is presented in paper publications. In particular, I advocate an alternative mode of reporting that embraces the surprises and counterintuitive insights, which often emerge as scholars engage in a quantitative research journey. Together, my arguments aim to stimulate an inductive turn on quantitative research in innovation management, which can complement the existing deductive research tradition.     

Roadmapping for innovation management: evidence from Pirelli

Despite the growing interest of practitioners and scholars in technology roadmapping (TRM), our knowledge regarding how TRM can be embedded into the overall innovation process of a firm and used to enhance this process is relatively limited. This study aims to fill this gap. We describe an action research project conducted with Pirelli and the innovative approach to TRM this company developed during the 2010s to cope with the increasing complexity and dynamism of the tire industry. We show that TRM is currently fully integrated into the firm’s R&D activities and contributes to increasing the effectiveness of new product development. TRM supports the systematic gathering, sharing, and elaboration of information across the different functions and business units of Pirelli from the basic research to the commercialization of new products.     

Studying innovation processes in real-time: The promises and challenges of ethnography

This paper discusses the promises and challenges of innovation ethnographies. We depart from the notion that innovation processes are highly contingent, messy and non-linear and examine ways in which these processes have been studied. Our focus is on the challenges posed by the use of ethnographic methods to study innovation in-the-making. Our discussion is illustrated by an example culled from a longitudinal, real-time study of an innovation process in the food industry, inspired by actor-network theory (ANT) and its injunctions to focus on controversies and follow the actors. We conclude that although innovation ethnographies pose plenty of theoretical, methodological and practical challenges, they remain a promising and powerful method to map out the complex and tortuous paths of these processes.     

Resource allocation strategy for innovation portfolio management

Our study demonstrates empirically that the choice of resource allocation strategy affects innovation performance. Allocating resources to a broader range of innovation projects increases new product sales, an effect that appears to outweigh that of resource intensity. In addition, we find that the performance benefit of breadth is higher for firms that allocate resources selectively at later stages of the innovation process. This breadth‐selectiveness effect is greatest for firms intending to create relatively more novel products, departing further from their knowledge base. Based on these results, we theorize that breadth increases performance because it spreads firms' bets on unproven innovative endeavors. Limiting resource commitments by selecting out deteriorating projects prevents an escalation in the costs of breadth. This advantage increases with the uncertainty implicit in greater innovative intent. The paper thus contributes to theory of how resource allocation strategies influence performance outcomes of innovation project portfolios. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

实行项目管理，提高企业综合经济效益

章以项目管理这种现代化管理方式为核心，对实行项目管理拨要性和目的进行了系统的论述，并由此提出了提高综合经济效益的途径。     

Models with graphical representation for innovation management: a literature review

In the last decades, the management of innovation has achieved increasing importance in both academic and business environments. For the companies, an effective engagement in innovation efforts involves the adoption of management models to guide the definition of organizational processes to conduct innovation opportunities throughout the organization. In this context, graphical representations can strongly communicate the central propositions of each model, accelerating the diffusion and influence of such models in both academic and business environments. Based on an academic database search, and snowball procedure, models were selected considering the unique characteristics of their graphical representation. This article contributes to the knowledge in the field by proposing a typology of innovation management models, highlighting model's biases, gaps, strengths and weaknesses, and by identifying important tensions among models that spillover to the innovation management field in both research and practice. This article discusses conflicts regarding the limits of the innovation process (events that start and end the process and complementary approaches), the limits of focusing on processes, the differentiation of research and development and new product development activities. In the end, the article addresses emerging approaches related to radical innovation, design thinking and startups, and stresses contributions for research and practice.     

Knowledge management and innovation strategy: The challenge for latecomers in emerging economies

The success of latecomer firms from the emerging economies challenges the conventional wisdom on entry timing and resource-based competence. Building on research on institutions in emerging economies and the resource-based perspective in strategic management, we propose a model to explain how resource poor latecomer firms in emerging economies catch up with the multinational incumbents. We classify latecomers based on their strategic learning intent as either emulators or blind imitators. The strategic learning intent depends on a firm’s complementary assets and its absorptive capacity. Firms that choose emulation develop flexible routines, while firms that choose blind imitation end up with rigid routines. Over time, when there is a need for resource renewal, firms that have flexible routines are better positioned to respond. We take the Chinese mobile phone industry as an exemplar to illustrate the core issues in latecomer catching up of emerging economy firms.

渠道模式创新与管理提升

一、国内玩具渠道的变化趋势1、玩具渠道运作问题分析(1)、渠道理念与模式滞后:博弈关系,冲突不断,结构和分工不合理,效能低下;(2)、经销商能力制约渠道效能:职能落后,无法承担销售、维护、推广和服务的重任;(3)、渠道管理不到位:网络有效覆盖差,日常维护流于形式,支持服务少;(4)、渠道策略与激励粗放:简单的政策和资源驱动,往往高端放货,难以区域精耕。2、国内玩具渠道环境认识     

Implementing: Alternatives,costs, and benefits

This essay provides a conceptual framework for thinking about the problem of implementing (i.e. getting things done) as part of the larger process of managing. We shall isolate some alternative approaches to that implementing problem and briefly examine the underlying beliefs, the accompanying technologies, and the attendant costs/benefits of those alternatives. We shall then make a few suggestions about appropriate alternatives for the decade ahead.     

CEO research orientation,organizational context,and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry

This study develops and tests a comprehensive framework that explains what, when, and how CEO characteristics influence firms’ innovation outcomes in R&D-intensive industries. Empirical evidence from 109 CEOs from 87 U.S.-based pharmaceutical firms over the period 2001–2013 reveals that research-oriented CEOs – those with ability and motivation for science and technology – increase their firms’ innovation outcomes. The results indicate that the CEO–innovation relationship strongly depends on the extent of CEOs’ managerial discretion, which is shaped by the organizational context. We contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the role of CEOs in firms´ innovation performance differentials.     

Firm-internal key account management networks: Framework,case study,avenues for future research

Key account management (KAM) is used for managing relationships between a supplier and its strategically important customer firms, that is, the key accounts. KAM activities typically involve a firm-internal network of actors. While there is a rich body of literature on key account managers' work with external networks in customer firms, this study focusses on the much less explored KAM activities in interaction with the firm-internal network that is required to mobilise resources and develop activities towards key accounts. The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework explaining how the firm's capability to manage the internal KAM network contributes to firm performance. We illustrate our framework using case study material and develop avenues for future research along the elements of our framework.     

Costs and benefits of an agricultural research institute

This paper represents an attempt to assess the economic impact of a publicly funded agricultural research institute in cost-benefit terms. The institute is the Scottish Plant Breeding Station which was responsible for breeding two successful main-crop potato varieties. Benefits, achieved and prospective, from new crop varieties are calculated from estimates of resources saved in producing constant crops at reduced acreages but with higher yields. Over the timescale 1951-97, costs (discounted at 10/SL to 1972) total 9-7 M/SL and benefits total 29-8 M/SL (of which 21-1 M/SL is attributable to the two successful potatoes). The net present value is estimated as 20-1 M/SL (B/C 3-1) (very probably in the range 12-37 M/SL, B/C 2-2-4-8). In discussion it is pointed out that few cost-benefit studies of agricultural research are available and that the administrative implications of the present study are far from clear. Plant breeding, in general, being largely free of environmental or welfare effects, seems to be economically attractive and socially benign; and it must become even more attractive with rising food prices and land values.     

Relationships between innovation stimulus, innovation capacity, and innovation performance

This paper examines the integration of the human and technological aspects of innovation management by modelling the innovation stimulus – innovation capacity relationship in determining innovation performance. The research framework developed in this study was tested amongst 194 managers of Australian firms. The survey responses indicate that both the relationships between innovation stimulus and innovation capacity and between innovation capacity and innovation performance are significant and strong. However, innovation stimulus does not show any direct effect on innovation performance, suggesting that its effect is mediated through innovation capacity. The overall practical implication that can be drawn from the findings is that to achieve high innovation performance, organizations first need to develop the behavioural and cultural context and practices for innovation (i.e. stimulus), and only within such conducive environments is it possible for organizations to develop innovative capacity in research and development and technology so as to more effectively deliver innovation outcomes and performance.