International Journal of Innovation Management

We investigate the influence of innovations, creative organisational climate and culture on competitiveness and performance of firms. Data came from a survey of 135 Saudi Arabian executives. Findings indicate that incremental innovations directly influence the performance of Saudi Arabian firms. We found significant influence of firms’ working environment on their competitiveness, which in turn directly influences their performance. The overall results of this study point to the need of firms in Saudi Arabia to improve their innovativeness, competitiveness, and performance in the light of the recent drop in oil prices that has resulted in drastic reduction in the country’s revenues.

We investigate the impact of management control mechanisms on the success of new product launches in high-technology small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We argue that internal management controls will alleviate problems associated with product newness. Using survey data from 76 SMEs we find newness to the firm to be negatively related to product launch success, while the use of informal and formal controls have positive effects. Furthermore, informal controls within the SME moderate the negative relationship between newness and launch success. The results add to the debate on the impact of control mechanisms on innovative activities in SMEs.

Innovation partnerships can be a double-edged sword. While they are important vehicles for learning and value creation, such partnerships also increase a firm’s vulnerability to unintended knowledge leakage and imitation by others. In this study, we go beyond previous research by studying the imitation threats induced by innovation partnership portfolios rather than individual alliances. Drawing on the resource-based view, we develop and test a model that links salient structural attributes of partnership portfolios and distinct forms of imitation. Results from our analysis of 803 German manufacturing firms support our prediction that a firm’s probability of being imitated increases with the partnership variety of its portfolio. We also find that firms can mitigate this threat by carefully selecting innovation partners and using appropriation mechanisms.

We examine the role of participants’ interactions in innovation contests. In contrast to the dominant view of a competitive organisation of innovation contests, we suggest that, especially for ideation projects, a collaborative setting may be beneficial in terms of the amount of ideation activity and the quality of the generated ideas. Using two experiments, we show the usefulness of a collaborative approach when two particular conditions are met: first, the overall effort must be compensated according to performance criteria in such a way that participants are aware of the impact of their actions. Thus, the reward mechanism has to ensure that all contributors to a specific idea benefit from their involvement. Second, the host has to provide feedback throughout the contest to make it clear for participants what idea(s) to focus on. Our results show that, while the elaboration effort can be increased by introducing a collaborative reward mechanism alone, the best results are achieved when both conditions are met.

Innovation is accelerated by heterogeneous knowledge, which is obtained in open innovation. We investigate whether there are limits to the beneficial degree of openness. Conceiving innovator group size as a trade-off between knowledge heterogeneity and coordination costs for innovating groups, we theorise about the impact of group size on innovative performance. We hypothesise that openness and internationalisation positively moderate this relationship, but that the positive effects are limited by the trade-off between knowledge heterogeneity and coordination costs. Through an empirical investigation using a large set of international patent data, we find support for our conceptual development and are able to conclude how many individuals those groups contain that generate the most innovative performance. Groups of three inventors have the most positive impact, and groups of two to eight inventors also generate positive effects. Science-based industries however allow for bigger groups than other industries, and supplier-dominated industries have smaller beneficial group sizes.

Relational view argues that buying companies should integrate supplier resources in new product development (NPD) projects to realise competitive advantages. Due to decoupling of modules and the associated opportunity to allocate development activities to upstream suppliers, modular product architectures are considered to be a driving factor for the integration of supplier resources. Module developments are associated with substantial investments, long-term orientation and risks across product families for the buying firm. Therefore, supplier integration for module development is highly critical. Regardless of the relevance, research has not yet analysed, which supplier competence are considered as antecedents for successful module developments with suppliers. To close the identified gap, this paper analysed case companies from the automotive, agriculture equipment and rail vehicle industry. Technical, organisational and relationship aspects are identified as critical success factors. The results contribute to theory by adding to relational view the finding that competences for successful collaborations differ in accordance to the level of interaction between suppliers and buying firms. Moreover, this study provides a model and an evaluation scheme that helps practitioners to allocate the best suitable development role to suppliers within module developments.

This paper explores the intricacies of various determinants that can be used to systematise open innovation processes as the functional streaming of knowledge, both inbound and outbound, to expedite internal innovation and extricate the market for external use of innovation. Drawing on extant open innovation literature and data collected from organisations on the list of Thomas Reuters Derwent World Patents Index covering North America, Europe, Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North African for their open innovation practices, a model was developed that conceptualises the systematisation of open innovation processes toward commercial activities. The results show that the systematisation of open innovation requires a balancing act of knowledge exploration (KET) and exploitation (KEL) ambidexterity for commercialisation of the firm, and that a relationship exists between these variables. Using the contingency-based approach to organisational development, the paper adds to the understanding of the role of open innovation processes, systematisation, content and context as well as the research and development aspect of open innovation.

Innovation management falls short in solving urgent societal problems, if it neglects the power of networks and the values of their constituent actors. Even though network and business model innovation have been acknowledged as innovation categories in their own right, their problem-solving potential remains unexplored. In this article, we argue that purposeful innovation requires considering the shared values of those engaging in innovation processes, where values are understood as subjective notions of the desirable. Values-based innovation can motivate the development of new networks and business models that address complex societal problems, such as the unsustainability of current forms of energy supply. We present a theoretical framework and facilitation methods for values-based network and business model innovation. Both have been applied in an exemplary workshop on regional energy networks in Germany. Reflecting upon the lessons learned from theory and practice, we conclude that crucial starting points for systemic sustainability innovations can be found in values-based networks and business models.

The purpose of this research is to describe the effects of intellectual capital (IC) and Absorptive Capacity (ACAP) on Innovation capability (INC). Through a comprehensive literature review constructs were developed. Structural equation modelling (SEM) used to test research hypotheses based on a sample of 160 top and middle managers of SAIPA Company in Tehran. The data collection instrument of this research was standard questionnaire. The reliability of this questionnaire was proved by Cronbach’s $\alpha$. The results showed that IC have a significant effect on ACAP and innovation capability. Path coefficients of human capital (HC) and potential ACAP (0.40) showed that HC have a biggest impact on potential ACAP than organisational capital (OC) and social capital. Also path coefficients of OC and actualised ACAP (0.30) showed that OC have a biggest impact on actualised ACAP than HC and social capital. Finally, loading of product innovation (PR INV) was 0.50 and it showed that PR INV is the best variable and measurement for describing INC in SAIPA Company.

Achieving effective innovation is a complex task and during this process, firms [especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)] often face obstacles. However, research into obstacles to innovation focusing on SMEs is very scarce. In this study, we propose a theoretical framework for describing these obstacles to innovation and investigate their influence on the innovative performance of SMEs. Data were collected in 2013 through face-to-face interviews with executives of 49 technology SMEs from Germany. The semi-structured interviews were designed on the basis of scales for measuring innovativeness, financial/competitive performance and obstacles to innovation, next to purely open questions. We find that the internal obstacles, lack of know-how, capacity overloading, unclear roles and tasks as well as the external obstacle governmental bureaucracy negatively influence innovative performance of SMEs. However, in contrast to prior findings, this study shows that cooperation ties of firms might also negatively influence the innovative performance.