Narrow Results

Following the seminal work of Arrow (1962) and Nelson (1959) innovation is traditionally viewed as an individual process involving isolated agents connected only through market interactions and the outcome of this process, knowledge, is assumed to share the properties of a public good. Once produced, knowledge is supposed to spill over, i.e., to benefit other agents in the economy instantly. Departing from this approach we adopt here the view that innovation is a collective and interactive process and that knowledge is a collective good, in the sense that it flows only within networks or clubs. This shift of vision helps to improve our understanding of several points dealing with the innovation process. In this paper, we explore three of these points: the absorption of external knowledge, firms' strategies of knowledge management (secrecy versus disclosure) and innovation public policies.

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of the literature on demand-driven innovation, using a generic national innovation ecosystem map as a unifying framework. We organize the literature review around four key innovation dimensions and seven related demand-driven processes. Our review reveals that business networking which accelerates access to new markets and technologies is vital for free markets. But classical competition alone cannot sustain the creation of new technologies or innovation paths. Rather, national policy is essential in creating lead markets. On the other hand the private sector has a crucial task in leading R&D activity. We found that the relationship between R&D stock and productivity is mostly positive. With regard to cluster strategies our literature review suggests that increased variety of innovative activities strengthens regional economic growth through "spillover effects" between products and industries. Based on the literature, we found that universities are evolving to play a major role in the research of innovation. The enormous innovative potential of universities therefore should be directed toward shaping more effective tools for public–private cooperation. But innovation, whether its origin is in academe or elsewhere, must follow a standardization process in order to converge into a well-defined technology. Our paper highlights a fundamental paradox underlying pro-innovation policies: while innovators often express the desire for a liberal, open and flexible market system with minimal bureaucracy and governmental interference, to allow market-driven innovation to flourish, they often benefit greatly from a variety of governmental interventions that include direct or indirect financial support (such as tax credits).

Innovation management (IM) for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region poses unique socio-economic challenges due to the multi-faceted nature of Arab and Islamic countries. Additionally, proposals for indigenous initiatives, sustainability transitions and outward-oriented strategies in economic reform plans of the GCC add further complexity to IM scholarship and practice with imperatives to harness the potentials of these strategic visions. Yet, there is an absence of a systematic review to scrutinize IM literature on the GCC region. This paper systematically reviews the IM literature whose subject involve the GCC countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The review scrutinizes theories, trends and targets in this literature, covers the period from 1980 to 2019, and involves 110 journal papers from high quality IM-related publication outlets. Using insights from the review, the paper develops theoretical foundations for creative complementarities, institutional-pumps and a ripple model of regional innovation. The review also details some methodological, theoretical, conceptual and topical directions for future regional IM research studies.

We note the emergence of a new type of intermediary organization, which functions at system or network level, in contrast to traditional intermediary organizations that operate mainly bilaterally. These "systemic intermediaries" are important in long-term and complex changes, such as "transitions" to sustainable development, which require the coordinated effort of industry, policy makers, research institutes and others. We use the Systems of Innovation approach to characterize the roles of traditional and systemic intermediary organizations. A review of recent changes in innovation systems points to the need of more systemic efforts, such as the articulation of needs and options, the alignment of relevant actors and the support of learning processes. In a phase model of transitions additional roles of systemic intermediaries are identified. A case study of the Californian Fuel Cell Partnership shows how the efforts of systemic intermediaries in encompassing systemic innovations are useful and necessary, but not sufficient.

This article applies the concept of "innovation territories" to explain the recent export success of the Australian Wine Industry. Recent data collected from four "New World" wine producing countries are contrasted in order to investigate "innovation territories" that in the Australian context transcend geographic and policy boundaries. The international comparison shows that these territories can be mapped and their interaction compared. A major finding from the study is that one of the major contributors to Australia's success in gaining comparative advantage in this industry is the way local and national investments in R&D have transcended geographic and policy boundaries. Coordination driven by strong national policies is required to make this happen. This suggests that "knowledge intensive clusters" driven by national policies can be turned to advantage for regional development. The present study serves to sketch out how the idea of innovation territories might be operationalised for the purpose of future industry policy research.

Drawing upon data from a sample of 597 small manufacturing firms, the current paper hopes to contribute to the emerging body of empirical literature, which seeks to distinguish the characteristics of more and less innovative small firms. Importantly, in so doing, a definition of innovation is employed which, at least partially, resolves many of the difficulties associated with operationalising the relativity of "innovativeness" and which places the emphasis upon innovation as a commercial, rather than a technological, phenomenon. To this end, a number of noteworthy observations are apparent. In broad terms, the paper points to the limits of viewing innovation output as a simple function of the volume of inputs. In other words, capability appears to matter at least as much as capacity. Moreover, the findings place the means of improving innovativeness firmly within the ambit of executives and suggest that these are likely to involve internal strategising and the development of human and intellectual capital.

User driven innovation (UDI) is a popular term in policy and corporate circles. However, it is not clear exactly what UDI means and how such practices are used across the spectrum of companies and over the innovation life cycle. The present study compares 58 UDI showcases in Finnish companies in order to analyse the diversity of UDI practices and their evolution over time. We identify five main modes of UDI and show how the ways of using UDI develop over time in individual companies. In almost half of the examined cases, the dominant mode of UDI changes at least once, and in some cases, up to three changes in dominant mode are observed. We then proceed to identify six qualitatively different ways in which companies’ orientation to UDI evolves over time. The study has implications for innovation management and policy: It calls for greater attention to UDI diversity and particularly to the management and support of the continuity of UDI efforts.

While this research largely focuses on the context of sustainability and businesses model innovation (BMI) from different aspects of business, relatively few studies conduct in-depth analysis of what key capabilities a firm needs to achieve BMI. Meanwhile, innovation policy is accounting for issues relating to business development as a tool for improving competitiveness at macro level, but little has been discussed in what way it influences on firms. This study therefore first identifies corporate key capabilities that are required towards BMI, and then adopts innovation policy as a moderator to examine its indirect effect on BMI outcomes. A structured questionnaire was designed and 287 valid samples were collected from a population comprised of 948 listed companies on Taiwan Stock Exchange. Hypotheses were tested using the structural equation modelling (SEM) in SPSS for direct path analysis and Process for indirect effects. The outcome shows that three key capabilities, including Architecture, Reputation and Innovation, are crucial for a firm to accumulate over time in reaching BMI. The findings also indicate that innovation policy can be a significant external support for firms to accelerate BMI only if they develop three key capabilities simultaneously. The results of this study may assist public authorities and company managers with a useful guideline to make relevant policies and govern businesses.

User driven innovation (UDI) is a popular term in policy and corporate circles. However, it is not clear exactly what UDI means and how such practices are used across the spectrum of companies and over the innovation life cycle. The present study compares 58 UDI showcases in Finnish companies in order to analyse the diversity of UDI practices and their evolution over time. We identify five main modes of UDI and show how the ways of using UDI develop over time in individual companies. In almost half of the examined cases, the dominant mode of UDI changes at least once, and in some cases, up to three changes in dominant mode are observed. We then proceed to identify six qualitatively different ways in which companies’ orientation to UDI evolves over time. The study has implications for innovation management and policy: It calls for greater attention to UDI diversity and particularly to the management and support of the continuity of UDI efforts.

The shift of interest in research policy towards innovation has reinforced efforts to accelerate research and innovation processes. This trend is often supported with information and communication technologies and open approaches that facilitate access to knowledge including for broad audiences. In addition to digitally enabled access, new IT also support every step in the scientific process from data collection to scientific discourse. Automated data analysis is no exception and new statistical learning systems are capable of automatically creating models of scientific data. Systems based on statistical learning have been argued to replace those built from analytic science and there are examples in human language translation and many other areas. These new methods of creating models in science have the power to durably change innovation processes. The synergies between science and IT are deeply rooted in characteristics of information and formal knowledge, and new technologies now expand these synergies to tacit knowledge as well. We are facing a new generation of researchers used to building systems from statistical models and potentially developing new attitudes to theoretical explanation. Beyond this, the new tools for science and innovation may deeply change our understanding of fundamental concepts such as knowledge and explanation as well as policy models and approaches to fostering innovation from science.

This chapter explores the policy factors which shape technological development within modern societies. In so doing, it explores in greater detail the relationship between domestic absorptive capacity and technology as well as examines the effects of emerging technologies on the domestic politics of various states, particularly in terms of state-society relations in democracies and non-democracies. We note the trends in the predictive role played by Big Data and the rise of blockchain. Importantly, the chapter observes the lowering of mobilisation costs brought on by these new technologies, while also rendering the democratic process vulnerable in new ways.

The purpose of this chapter is to present a new concept of sustainable innovation and offer analysis and constructive ideas regarding the relevance of innovation for solving wicked problems. The drivers of innovation are changing. As a result innovation policies and processes all over the world need new approaches to tap into the undiscovered innovation potential. By reviewing the literature and examples from today's innovative practices and policies we explore the transition of the concept of innovation from technological and economically measured innovation towards sustainable innovation. The concept is defined by impact orientation and systemic and inclusive approach. Sustainable innovation means innovation that balances the long-term influences of the process and the output with the needs of people, societies, the economy and the environment. In addition, sustainable innovation democratses innovation as it aims at including all people.