Innovativeness and new product success: insights from the cumulative evidence

The field of product innovation has expanded rapidly and clear insights regarding the relationship between product innovativeness and new product performance have become more elusive and difficult to discern through qualitative reviews of the literature. To offer much needed clarity, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of 95 correlations on product innovativeness and new product performance that were recorded from 32 studies on the topic. The findings reveal that although the average correlation of 0.24 for innovativeness with performance is small to moderate in size, the relationship is more substantial when various measurement and contextual elements are considered. For example, innovativeness measures that include a meaningfulness dimension yield stronger estimates of relationship strength. The findings also reveal that innovativeness today may not represent the same competitive advantage as in previous years unless the focus is on products rather than services, and specifically, new-to-the-market rather than new-to-the-firm products. Thus, innovativeness can be particularly relevant to new product success but only under certain conditions.

Organizational Culture,Innovativeness, Market Orientation and Firm Performance in South Africa: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

ABSTRACT

For a sample of South African firms, this paper analyzes the relationships of firm performance and a set of organizational measures which includes organizational culture and climate, market orientation and innovativeness. These organizational measures are drawn from three different disciplines–organizational behavior, strategy and economics. The replicative study is framed in an extended model of competing organizational values which have been used in 13 countries including three transition economies (Vietnam, China and Russia). The work has also been done under a variety of conditions–for example, the US in a period of study growth, Thailand during the Asian Crisis and Hong Kong after the handover to China. Comparisons are made between South African results and those of firms from a group of five industrial countries. Market Orientation is the most important explainer of performance of the South African firms, and Innovativeness is also important. Specific elements of Organizational Culture are apparently less important in South Africa than elsewhere.     

Intellectual capital and innovativeness in software development firms: the moderating role of firm size

Abstract

We examine the effect of intellectual capital on firms’ innovativeness and the moderating role of firm size in software development firms in Kenya. Using moderated regression analysis, we found support for the proposition that human and social capital enhance firms’ innovativeness. We did not, however, find any significant effect of organizational capital on firms’ innovativeness. The results from the moderated regression suggest that the smaller the firm, the stronger the influence of intellectual capital on firms’ innovativeness. The results therefore indicate that human and social capital are critical in the innovation process and so firms that neglect these capitals are unlikely to realize the potential to innovate particularly in software development firms.     

A model of sustainable household technology acceptance

There is an expanding range of technologies used in a residential setting to enable sustainable living, including ‘smart’ technology that uses learning and connectivity to modify household behaviours. Understanding what drives the adoption of sustainable household technology will allow product developers, marketers and policy makers to use technology to reduce the environmental impact of homes. Based on the United Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, a model that explains predictors of intention to adopt sustainable household technology was developed and tested via an online survey of 592 US consumers. The results from structural equation modelling demonstrate that product attributes of sustainable household technology including performance, compatibleness and hedonic expectancy as well as consumer characteristics, in specific, sustainable innovativeness significantly predicts adoption intent. Conversely, the model testing shows that effort expectancy as well as social pressure and environmentalism are not significant predictors of adoption intention Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Antecedents and outcomes of fashion innovativeness in retailing

Challenging market conditions force the fashion industry to find new ways of introducing new products, adjusting and stimulating unplanned purchases within fashion stores. Fashion innovativeness and visual merchandising play a key role in this challenge. This study examines how fashion innovativeness is related to motivational factors for shopping and actual unplanned purchases in fashion retailing. It also investigates the moderating effect of visual merchandising on the relationship between fashion innovativeness and unplanned purchases. The data, obtained through a consumer survey, were analysed using factor analyses and structural equation modelling. The results show that fashion innovativeness is positively affected by sexual attraction, shopping for recreation, recognition enhancement, and aesthetic expression, and positively influences unplanned purchases. The link between fashion innovativeness and unplanned purchases is moderated by visual merchandising. This study also provides recommendations for retailers on increasing unplanned purchases in their stores using the concept of fashion innovativeness.     

The impact of retail buyer innovativeness on suppliers’ adaptive selling in Japanese buyer–supplier relationships

Abstract

We investigate the critical role of retail buyer innovativeness in Japanese buyer–supplier relationships and explore its link to suppliers’ adaptive selling, cooperative relationships, and retail competitiveness. Further, we examine how process conflict between merchandizing and store divisions moderates the relationship between retail buyer innovativeness and suppliers’ adaptive selling. This study employs a structural equation model using survey data from 246 heads of merchandizing divisions at Japanese retail companies. Our findings highlight the importance of both mitigating process conflict and facilitating suppliers’ adaptive selling in order to improve Japanese retailers’ competitiveness, especially when buyers are highly innovative.     

A cognitive model to predict domain-specific consumer innovativeness

Marketers who launch innovative products need to identify consumers who are willing to learn about, buy, and use these innovations. To optimize marketing campaigns, practitioners need to know the characteristics of this key segment in the diffusion process. Previous research, however, provides confounding results about antecedents of innovativeness because of two limitations: (1) previous studies have conceptualized innovativeness on different levels of abstraction (2) previous studies have not taken into account the influence of the product category. The present paper suggests a conceptual framework to overcome these shortcomings. Based on this framework, the paper suggests a theoretically founded cognitive model of domain-specific innovativeness for a product category with a utilitarian benefit. This model is empirically tested in the field of automotive interior. To this end, 521 German car drivers were surveyed. The results of structural equation modeling show that domain-specific innovativeness for utilitarian products is mainly influenced by specific need for cognition, special interest media usage and domain-specific opinion leadership.     

The Role of External Relationships for LSP Innovativeness: A Contingency Approach

Innovativeness is key to the success of logistics service providers (LSPs) and as LSPs often lack competencies for innovation internally, external relations as sources to acquire knowledge relevant for innovation are important. To the authors' knowledge, there is no research identifying the relevant knowledge sources for LSP innovativeness. Based on contingency theory, we develop a conceptual model on the relevance of different external relations in the context of the innovation focus of the LSP. Thus, we extend insights from previous studies that have only discussed the benefits of external knowledge acquisition in general and outline how to use existing business relations of an LSP to facilitate different types of innovation. The hypothesized model is tested based on survey data from 201 LSPs using structural equation modeling. The findings support the model and outline that better relationships with external service firms or other LSPs are not important for internal process improvements and innovations for existing customers, but very valuable for innovations targeting new customer business, while good relations to customers even show a slight tendency to hamper the development of innovations for new customer business. In addition, it is shown that innovativeness is a strong driver of LSP firm performance.     

‘Organizational learning culture’: an ingenious device for promoting firm's innovativeness

The present study focuses on the relationship between organizational learning culture (OLC) and firm's innovativeness. The area of innovation as well as organizational culture is crucial for organizations and for entrepreneurs because both provide the basis for sustainable competitive advantage and improved firm performance. The notion of OLC offers a set of customs and principles that enhances imperativeness of an organization. Information acquisition, information interpretation, and behavioral and cognitive changes (BCC) were used as elements of the organizational learning process. Constructs comprising innovativeness are innovative culture, and technical and administrative innovation (innovations). Data were collected from 50 randomly selected Pakistani organizations. The results show significant and positive relationships among all hypothesized variables except for between BCC and innovations.     

高职公共英语课程学习策略分析

在公共英语课堂教学中,部分学生在英语学习策略方面存在诸多不足之处,导致学习英语多年,但收效甚微。本文从学生学习实践过程中待改进方面及创新高职公共英语教学改革两大方面入手,就如何提高公共英语教学质量,使学生有效利用一年时间尽快掌握英语技能提出有效措施。