International Journal of Innovation Management

Formal new product development (NPD) processes have become an important tool in NPD management. However, our understanding of what makes formal NPD process implementation successful in terms of acceptance and performance is still limited. This paper contributes to an improved understanding of factors affecting the acceptance and use of formal NPD processes. Our results show that acceptance of formal NPD processes is determined by several factors, such as ease of use, transparency of discourse, continuous improvement, involvement of NPD actors, and the ability to bridge differences in thinking. Furthermore, that acceptance of formal NPD processes affects NPD performance positively. These results draw on data from a survey posted to employees working for nine large manufacturers of commercial vehicles worldwide. The results should encourage managers to consider and enhance the factors affecting acceptance. This could be done through using new media for publication to increase transparency and perceived ease of use of the NPD process. Further acceptance of the formal NPD process is increased if it mirrors an operative reality and if organisational structures for improvement of the process are implemented and inclusive to employees involved in NPD.

In this study, researchers proposed that organisational social capital (OSC) have a positive and significant impact on the employee innovative work behaviour. Three forms of OSC i.e., structural, relational and cognitive OSC proposed to have a positive and significant impact on the employee innovative work behavior. To find out how much variance each of these forms of OSC contribute in employee innovative work behaviour, correlation and multiple regression analyses were applied on a sample of 235 employees collected from an IT and computer-based service provider firm situated in China. Results and findings from these analyses significantly and positively supported the three hypotheses of this study. Moreover, structural OSC explained highest variation in dependent variable, employee innovative work behaviour, followed by cognitive and relational OSC respectively. Further, theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

This paper questions the nature of the foreign direct R&D investments in Central Europe. Do the affiliates of the multinationals still undertake adaptive R&D? Have they recently engaged in innovative R&D activities in their Central European affiliates? Because patents result from the firm's investments in basic research and applied development, we consider patent data as a good proxy of the firm's genuine inventive activity. We build a sample made of the 10 multinationals representing the most active R&D investors in the Czech Republic — the Central European leader as regards of foreign direct R&D investments — and in the major foreign direct R&D sectors — electronics, electrical equipment, machinery and motor vehicles — and assess the recent evolution of their patenting activity. We suggest that (a) even these major R&D investors still only marginally apply for patents in their Czech affiliates; (b) there is no under-evaluation of the innovation activity of the Czech affiliates due to a geographical separation of inventions — in the Czech Republic — and patent location — in Western Europe; (c) the researchers working in the Czech affiliates are still not sufficiently oriented towards innovation activities to be integrated in the patenting-oriented international teams built by the multinationals. Foreign direct R&D investments in Central Europe remain mostly production supportive and associated with the international exploitation of technology produced in the Western headquarters and affiliates. Despite the strong engagement of the Czech government towards foreign direct R&D, real innovative R&D increases very slowly.

Innovation is an ever-increasing focus for modern organizations; yet research studies on organizational culture have tended to neglect this aspect. This paper specifies the key factors characterising a company's innovation culture and examines the top managers' executed impact as organizational leaders from the individual perspective on implementing and fostering it in their respective organizations. Based on a conceptual framework, the empirically identified key factors of the (1) formal embedment, (2) climate, (3) incentives and reward allocation, (4) integration into decision process, (5) cross-hierarchical communication and (6) communication style are presented. Within the empirical study, 37 top managers of 21 leading companies in the industries of “fashion and accessories” and “watch and jewelry” were interviewed. The results indicate that the impact of top managers lag behind their potential to advance innovativeness through innovation culture, and the detected deficit represents scope for improvement. The paper concludes by highlighting the implications of the study and its limitations.

The study on which this paper is based examined the effect of transformational and transactional leadership styles as well as the effect of each component of transformational and transactional leadership on innovative behaviour. A sample of 3 180 respondents from 52 South African companies participated in this research. Two main hypotheses and six sub-hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis with and without interaction terms. The results indicate that it is useful to utilise both transformational and transactional leadership styles to enhance employees' innovative behaviour. The study substantiated the expected positive relationship between transformational and transactional leadership style and innovative behaviour. Furthermore, the results showed that amongst the components of these leadership styles, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and contingent reward positively influence innovative behaviour. The results showed no relationship between individual consideration, management-by-exception and innovative behaviour. Contrary to expectations, the results revealed a negative relationship between idealised influence and innovative behaviour. Recommendations and suggestions for further research are provided.

When conjoint experiments are applied to study complex decision making that wears many attributes, this sometimes results in problems of information overload and respondent burden, potentially weakening the validity of such experiments. To reduce the impact of these potential problems, an integrated hierarchical survey design (IHSD) to be used with Kano model for large conjoint analysis has been suggested. The author compared the utility of mobile phone's attributes for each market by analysing empirical data which wear obtained from 5,400 respondents (1,800 respondents per country) in UK, Saudi Arabia, and Philippines. In total 2,400 respondents in four segments. Firstly, UK showed importance mainly towards Camera, Memory_size, LTE, Brand, FM_transmitter which are the necessary things for a good smart phone. Secondly, Philippines revealed choice largely towards Camera, Brand, External_momory, Mobile_TV, and NFC. Finally, Saudi Arabia selected primarily Brand, Camera, External_memory, 3G, and GPS. The results of this study were successfully implemented for product planning, product development, and marketing strategy in terms of price setting, features prioritising, and optimal designing for new products in the mobile phone company.

Profit-oriented transfer activities have become a center piece of STI policies. There is little understanding tough of how companies facing financial headwind re-adjust their knowledge transfer activities in the light of economic downturn. This paper studies influence factors for transfer revenues during the years 2009, 2010 and 2012 in around 1000 Russian Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs). The data shows that in times of crisis, quality-related variables like scientific papers, patents or successful application for competitive research funds were no longer positively correlated to transfer revenues. Also recruitment strategies or long-standing relationships between customer organizations and RTOs had no influence. The paper concludes that RTOs are in a very weak position if economic outlooks are darkening and require public financial support to maintain their ability to continuously provide their services once until the economy will recovers.

The current paper presents a theoretical model where rational decision makers (DMs) observe credible signals regarding the existence of technologically superior products and generate the demand structure determining their evolution within the market. We will illustrate how consumers may stick to an inferior product when market frictions or their own expectations dictate them to do so. This will be the case even if the newcomer firm credibly guarantees an improvement upon the main characteristics of the incumbent product. Indeed, the prevalence of a suboptimal technology can be the result of the correct choice being made at a given point in time. Moreover, we will compute the expected prevalence of a given product in the market when information regarding the existence of a technologically superior product spreads across consumers following different diffusion processes. The consequences derived from the existence of path dependence phenomena will be analysed from a dynamic perspective by explicitly accounting for the emergence of network effects that may take place after firms signal the availability of a technologically superior set of products.

There has been a lack of empirical research on how firms integrate different types of network benefits to facilitate innovation ambidexterity. This study examines how different types of network ties (business and political) influence innovation ambidexterity. Using a sample of 264 Chinese industrial firms, we find that business ties are significantly associated with innovation ambidexterity. The results also show that although the direct effect of political ties on innovation ambidexterity is insignificant, political ties interact significantly with business ties to foster innovation ambidexterity.

Researchers have proposed that scarce resources are the main factor hindering product innovation in small companies. However, despite scarce resources, small companies do innovate, so the research question is: How do small companies manage resource scarcity in product innovation? To answer the research question a multiple case study of three small established companies and their product innovation was used, including interviews and observations over a period of five months. The small companies were found to use many different bootstrapping methods in combination within their product innovation. The methods can be classified into three different functional categories: bootstrapping methods for increasing resources, for using existing resources more efficiently, and those for securing a fast payback on resources put into product innovation. Due to their resource scarcity, the studied companies also favoured an innovation strategy only involving new products done with known technology and targeting existing markets. This strategy seems to avoid unsuccessful innovation but at the same time exclude technologically radical innovation.