International Journal of Innovation Management

The impact of service innovation on customer perception has been investigated in many studies. This paper provides a unique view of service innovation by categorizing service innovation into two forms, interactive and supportive service innovations, and exploring their effects on customer satisfaction and retention in the context of telecommunication services. A dataset of 402 telecom service users from Vietnam is collected for empirical hypotheses testing of the relationships among supportive/interactive service innovation, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. The findings show that the two components of service innovation, interaction and support, are the key determinants of customer satisfaction and customer retention, which provides important information for telecom managers in service strategy planning. The study suggests that service firms should differentiate themselves by investing in supportive service innovations since interactive services are characterized by ease of copying, especially in the telecom sector, which is a highly technology-mediated environment.

This study aims to investigate the inbound open innovation and firm performance in different time periods across different organisations. Specifically, a conceptual model at firm level analysis was proposed based on literature review. The model was tested with structural equation modeling, using the empirical data which were collected from 60 research centre projects and 62 business unit projects in 2008. Results reveal the causal relationship between the implementation of inbound open innovation and the firm performance in both research centre and business unit. Comparative results showed that regarding research centre, increasing the frequency of inbound open innovation, efficient interal R&D activities and the higher degree of product newness make projects stable and efficient; consequently, the success of firm performance is achieved. As for the business unit, the frequently inbound open innovation practices are necessary for terms of generating efficiency and outcomes, and efficient inter R&D stargeties are significant conditioned by the degree of product newness, contributing to the firm performance as well.

Managing customer knowledge is a key of source for SMEs. The principal aim of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the direct effects of two specific strategic resources: customer orientation and customer knowledge management (CKM), on innovation capacity and marketing results in SMEs. The study also examines the role of innovation orientation as a mediator between customer orientation and CKM. For this purpose, a structural model was proposed and tested through an empirical investigation with variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS) using a sample made up of 210 Spanish SMEs. The findings highlight the relevance of CKM and customer orientation as important strategic resources for developing innovation capacity and marketing results, and they confirm the mediation effect of innovation orientation. Empirical evidence supports the importance of customer orientation and CKM in boosting innovation and performance. These findings have important implications for performance in SMEs.

This paper examined the nonlinear R&D-innovation relationships of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and the differences in the strength and productivity of R&D investment between low-, medium-, and high-tech industry sectors. Using 2740 firm data in South Korea, this study found that R&D investment has an inverted U-shaped relationship with registered patents such that patents increase at a decreasing rate as R&D investment increases. The relationship between R&D investment and innovative sales resulting from R&D investment in manufacturing SMEs also exhibits an inverted U-shaped form. The R&D-innovation relationship of SMEs in high-tech sectors is more strengthened such that the optimal level of R&D investment in high-tech sectors is higher than those for SMEs in low-tech sectors. This study also demonstrated that the R&D-innovation relationship for high-tech sectors is more flattened so that the diminishing returns to R&D investment is weakened with the increase of technological intensity of industry sectors.

In the era of globalisation and dynamic market, firms look for competitive advantage and survival using different sources and resources. Prior studies have indicated that Business Model Innovation (BMI) is a core driver for firm’s survival and superior performance especially in growing industries. However, the role of BMI has been discussed theoretically and exploratory while empirical studies are still lacking. Hence, this study examines the importance of BMI in SME performance and the mediating role of competitive advantage. Data were collected through structured questionnaires using a sample size of 303 manufacturing SMEs operating in the emerging market of Pakistan. Hypotheses were tested through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS.21. The results indicate that BMI has a significant positive impact on competitive advantage and SME performance. Competitive advantage partially mediates the relationship between BMI and SME performance. Firms are required to create an effective business model to acquire competitive advantage and superior financial performance. Implications for practice have been discussed.

This paper examines a digital employee-oriented innovation program at a global IT-firm. It addresses the research question: how is the generation and promotion of employee ideas organised by the management, and what are the behavioural implications in terms of participation of such an organising? Drawing on the literature on inclusive innovation and employee-driven innovation, the authors explore the extent to which ordinary employees are included in innovative processes at work. The critical discourse analysis of written and spoken text exposes inclusiveness concerning the managements’ production and distribution of innovation discourse in the initial phases of the program. However, the analysis simultaneously reveals considerable excluding elements in the ordinary employees’ consumption of this discourse in its latter phases, particularly regarding the parallel discourses “we are all innovators” and “the single winning entrepreneur”.

Setting the research background in China, this study draws on absorptive capacity, knowledge inertia and prospect theory to show the relationship between R&D capability and innovation performance which comprises exploitation and exploration. We propose that stronger R&D capability promotes exploitation performance but inhibits exploration performance. As exploitation represents immediate interest and exploration represents long-term interest, we introduce the notion of knowledge boundary spanning of R&D network to balance short-term and long-term benefits. The empirical results show that R&D capability and knowledge boundary spanning of R&D network complement each other for explorative innovation while they present trade-offs for exploitative innovation. This study contributes to existing literature on R&D capability–innovation performance, and it further extends our understanding by investigating the impact of knowledge boundary spanning of R&D network on the R&D capacity–innovation performance relationships. In addition, this study provides references on resources configuration to achieve different innovation strategies.

This paper presents three complementary perspectives on the management of front end innovation: A process model perspective, a knowledge perspective and a translational perspective. While the first two perspectives are well established in literature, we offer the translation perspective as a complementary perspective. The paper combines a literature review with an empirical examination of the application of these multiple perspectives across three cases of front end of innovation (FEI) management in mature product developing companies. While the process models represent the dominant, albeit rather simplistic perspective, they primarily serve as a reference point and communication device. Here, the knowledge perspective offers a supplementary perspective by filling the gaps left by the formal processes with informal cross boarder knowledge exchange. In comparison, the translation perspective is found to represent an emergent approach in managing FEI where process models, knowledge strategies and objects become integrated elements in more advanced navigational strategies for key players.

We analyse the effect of business model innovation (BMI) on the product innovation performance of firms, based on a dynamic capabilities theoretical framework. Our empirical study is based on a large-scale representative sample of cross-industry Swedish firms participating in three waves of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) from 2008 to 2012. We hypothesise that BMI in the form of product innovations combined with different complementary and simultaneous innovations in processes, marketing and organisation will act as isolating mechanisms towards replication by competitors, resulting in superior firm performance. Our findings provide support for such hypothesis. BMI is significantly and positively associated with superior product innovation performance. Managers should frame and align product innovations in BMI context, i.e., dynamically adapting product innovations with process, marketing and organisation innovations.

Human Resource Management (HRM) practices are considered as a possible contributor to firm success. Further research is needed in this field to address how HRM practices contribute to a firm’s ability to be creative and innovative. The first objective of this paper is to map the implementation of training and development practices for creativity and innovation (TD4CI) in manufacturing and the second is to analyse the factors that most influence this implementation. The study, based on the Spanish sub-sample of the European Manufacturing Survey, demonstrates the unexhausted potential of TD4CI as a step prior to innovation. The results show that one third of the companies currently use TD4CI and that this figure is rising. Most of the firms, however, have not put these practices into place and they have no intention of doing so. Regarding the determinants that influence the studied practices, the results show that there are some significant factors, for example new products or services being introduced within the company in the previous three years, that positively affect all the practices. Other determinants are individually significant, for instance the complexity of the product. Some factors, on the other hand, such as size or single unit production, do not appear to influence any of the practices studied so far. The value of this research lies in the up-to-date, relevant figures it provides regarding the implementation and dissemination of TD4CI.