International Journal of Innovation Management

Design is increasingly gaining recognition as a fruitful means to improve business performance. Technology-based firms are an important source of innovation, and therefore it is important to develop a means to study the relationship between technology-based firms' emphasis on design as an element of innovation and their performance. This article develops a model for evaluating technology-based firms' design emphasis. The model is based on a synthesis approach to studying innovation in both services and manufacturing and a three-dimensional definition of design.

The application of the model is demonstrated using a set of new technology-based firms. The empirical study confirms the appropriateness of using the synthesis approach for studying design as an element of innovation in technology-based firms. The application of the model provides a classification which can be used as a basis for studying the relationship between design emphasis and performance.

Programs to decrease cost and to increase operational efficiency may reduce a company's ability to innovate, by reducing organisational slack. Previous research on the relationship between organisational slack and innovation has been at level of the firm and has neglected the processes underlying the relationship, which takes place at the level of product development projects. In this paper, we identify organisational slack and its influences at the level of the product development project. Through exploratory case research in high-velocity industries, two influences on organisational slack are identified: customer interaction and top management control. We also identify two categories of organisational slack at the product development project level: project deliverables and human competences. The two influencing variables and the two categories of organisational slack all have an effect on the knowledge creation taking place inside the projects and therefore ultimately innovation.

A number of Indian pharmaceutical firms have achieved high levels of success globally in product and process development. They are competing effectively in the generic pharmaceutical markets of the USA and Europe. They have progressively accumulated process development and manufacturing capabilities which meet the stringent criteria of the US and European Union regulators, and have also acquired drug "discovery" skills to a level which has gained some recognition from major Western pharmaceutical companies. This paper analyses evidence from a range of documentary sources in order to elucidate how two of the leading Indian companies have accumulated the intellectual and social capital which has enabled this degree of innovative success. It finds evidence that environmental factors have opened up opportunities which drew on the firms' early capabilities, while requiring additional skills. In response, these firms have invested in expanding their initial internal competences through a number of routes, including hiring Indian-born, Western-trained scientists and industry executives, membership of an internationally oriented industry association, etc. As their profits and reputations have grown, they have also been able to access external knowledge through Western alliances and acquisitions. It concludes that they have built a broad business and technical knowledge-base and very wide networks, which have been effectively integrated thus far in pursuit of business objectives, but raises the question of whether they should now adopt a more focused approach.

Although theoretical approaches to research and development (R&D) performance measurement are widespread, empirical investigations into the application of these theories are far less diffused. Therefore, we started a research project aimed at studying the R&D performance measurement practices adopted by Italian technology-intensive firms. This paper discusses the earliest empirical results of the project; it deeply investigates the experience of an Italian contract research organisation in designing a system of performance measures for its research activities.

The studied case is interesting for the following reasons: (i) it witnesses the increased interest by technology-intensive companies towards R&D performance measurement; (ii) it enlightens the lack of consolidated practices capable of guiding the design of an appropriate performance measurement system; (iii) it elaborates a practical framework that can help fill this gap. In fact, a systematic approach for linking different contextual variables (i.e. the company's strategy, the type of R&D activity undertaken, the purpose of the measurement and the R&D unit's organisational structure) to the critical design choices (i.e. the choice of the performance indicators and the structure of the system) is suggested.

The increasing importance of innovation for companies, mergers and acquisitions, and the strengthening of project structures are leading to numerous rationalisations in the organisation of the research function. Although few works have analysed company R&D organisation and its impact on innovation performance, we elaborate on the concepts of economy of scope and absorptive capacity, introduced to compare the efficiency of various firms' R&D, so as to analyse the organisation of R&D departments. We focus on inter-project learning and argue that it must be viewed as an organisational question. "Organising by problem" constitutes a new means of cross-project learning and of enhancing absorptive capacity.