International Journal of Innovation Management

In this paper, a refinement of the NPD/innovation process and its relationship with new product success is explored. Through a review of the literature, a rationale for a research model and the associations among its constructs were developed. In this study, a factor analysis was performed on data describing the proficiency by which major, traditional NPD/innovation process activities were performed. This analysis led to the development of seven parsimonious NPD/innovation process activities. This research evaluated new product success by employing four measures: profit, sales, successfully opening new markets, and successfully entering existing markets with new products. Respondents to a mail survey process directed to NPD managers in the medical instruments, heavy construction equipment, and electrical products industries provided the study's empirical data. The research model was examined by performing a Partial Least Squares (PLS) path analysis on the study data. PLS path analysis was employed to provide an answer to the research question: How does the proficiency with which new product development activities are performed relate to the market success of newly developed products? The factor analysis and subsequent PLS path analysis suggest that (1) there are seven important NPD/innovation activities that form the basis for a prudent view of new product development/innovation, (2) there is a parallel path to new product success much of which occurs after new product commercialization, and (3) NPD proficiency continues to significantly influence the market success of new products. Implications from this research are provided.

This paper seeks to improve our understanding of how network structure affects innovation outcomes in strategic innovation networks. The theoretical argument is illustrated by the case of a Swedish strategic innovation network. Asocial network analysis of the relationships between 58 network members was conducted. Roughly half of the network actors were involved in producing innovations; they had significantly larger, higher-density networks and occupied more central positions in their networks than did those not participating in the innovation or scientific work.

Prevailing theory suggests that firms that effectively protect technological discoveries from emulation will create and capture value. Despite its importance, little research has examined the specific mechanisms of how to protect technological discoveries, and have heretofore emphasized the importance of inherent resource attributes to limit competitor emulation. Using a sample of financial patents, we test theory regarding the effects of resource attributes and deployment mechanisms on resource-based emulation. Results indicate both resource attributes and deployment affect competitor action. However, the timing of emulation often depends upon contextual factors. Thus, resource deployment actions are critical to erecting sustainable resource barriers.

Based on the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) and the resource/capability perspective of innovation, this study explores the independent and complementary effects of two types of innovation capability (namely product development capability and operational capability) on market performance in a sample of 2971 Chinese industrial firms. Product development capability and operational capability have different degrees of firm specificity in terms of the technological complexity of underlying resources. We further explore industry dynamism as an important moderating effect on the relationship between different types of innovation capability and market performance. Our findings suggest that,in the Chinese firms surveyed, both product development and operational capability in innovation positively contribute to market performance. The effect of operational capability is notably stronger than that of product development capability. We also confirm the complementary effect of operational capability with product development capability in enhancing market performance. Our findings further suggest that product development capability tends to have a stronger effect on market performance when the level of industry dynamism is low, while the impact of operational capability on market performance is stronger in industries with a relatively high level of dynamism.

Web-based intermediaries that offer crowdsourcing services represent a new and promising way through which firms can leverage the power of a crowd to sustain their innovation performance. However, limited attention has been devoted thus far to understanding the relationship between the intermediaries architecture, i.e., how they deliver their service, and the innovation problems they are designed to solve. Based on an empirical base of 7 in-depth case studies, two distinct architectures, namely competition and competence searching, will be described in the paper; it will be demonstrated that each type is designed to solve specific classes of innovation problems. The paper presents important implications both for firms and web-based intermediaries. On the one hand, firms should collaborate with the web-based intermediary which presents the architecture that best fits the innovation problem to be solved. On the other hand, web-based intermediaries should be designed in coherence with the problems at hand.

This paper questions the applicability of traditional notions of intermediary activities, which are usually categorized as either brokering or networking, in cases of high uncertainty regarding technologies, markets or which actors to involve. In the case of collaborative open innovation, especially in circumstances when no single organization is able to take on the challenge alone, the activities traditionally associated with intermediation do not suffice to describe what an intermediary can do to support innovation. This paper presents two cases of intermediaries working with the early phases of traffic safety innovations, and how they have managed to develop their activities beyond solely brokering and networking, but also to take an active role in the process of joint exploration and creation of knowledge. We use a qualitative approach to analyze the two cases in order to provide examples of how rethinking intermediation activities can support open innovation in a collaborative setting. The findings suggest that intermediaries can take on a more active role, which could be described as an architect which designs prerequisites and offers leadership in the process of joint exploration and creation of knowledge.

A growing body of research acknowledges that inter-organizational networks greatly influence a firm's innovation performance. This study extends our understanding of this relationship by considering the effect of inter-organizational networks on innovation in small, knowledge-intensive companies. Based on a literature review, we formulate four propositions regarding the moderating effects of firm size and knowledge intensity on the relationship between inter-organizational networks and innovation, as well as the influence of these factors on the development of the inter-organizational networks themselves.