International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management

The online auction has become an important channel for procurement and sourcing management. As firms often expect lower procurement prices through online auctions, how the prices are determined in online auctions should be of major interest to procurement managers and supply chain researchers. Despite the abundant empirical studies on online auction prices, an aggregated view is still absent. This study fills this gap with a review of extant studies. More specifically, this study provides summaries of all major theories behind online auction pricing, defines and analyzes often encountered econometric issues, and discusses how the treatments of these issues have been operationalized. Towards the end, existing findings on determinants of online auction prices are integrated and examined. The purpose of this study is to provide a convenient and precise package of current studies for researchers and professionals.

Involving users in new product design and development is in itself not a new phenomenon. Academic research on the subject, however, is relatively new. Since this new millennium research on user involvement in innovations has multiplied, exhibiting that firms who actively involve users in their innovation process can benefit from this initiative, even though literature also warns us for relying too much and too actively on the participation of customers in innovation. However, research is mainly descriptive and explanatory of nature, and is seldom a prescription for firm managers on what to do should they decide to involve their customers in an innovation initiative.

This paper addresses this omission in literature and tries to give some first building blocks for a protocol for firms that want to involve their customers in innovations. This protocol will be the result of the author's further research on literature, previously executed projects by the author, expert interviews and a design and development process, in continuation of this paper.

Organizations need to share and acquire new information to sustain competitive advantage in complex environment. They communicate through IT-based integrated systems to fasten communication and knowledge sharing for the creation of innovative products. Firms are, thus, extending their operations to integrate strategic knowledge from partners in the product development process. In this paper, we present a case study related to process innovation in an aerospace firm integrating its information systems with one of its partners to facilitate the design of the models of a complex product. We investigate on the strategy followed to integrate the information systems, the types of these latter, on their success factors and their impact on the product development. The case study provides important insights on the integration of information systems for product design outsourcing.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the dynamics between traditional and emerging new industries in converging industry environments. The paper identifies different convergence types and utilizes the framework to analyze the evolution of printed intelligence and RFID markets. The primary source of information is based on the main RFID industry players, patents, and 12 semistructured interviews conducted by the research group. The results reveal that the emerging industry is in the early stages of evolution where market dynamics are driven by complementary technological convergence and the previously distinct technological trajectories of industries have started to overlap. In parallel with convergence, a restructuring of industries is taking place in the near future.

A changing industry structure in the media and ICT industries requires not only new collaborative organizational forms but also new resources and capabilities to manage the new business. The objective of this paper is to create and test a framework for assessing the robustness of the firm's business model enabled by its resources in future scenarios. We have used a media delivery service as a case service platform. The framework includes building industry scenarios, defining the market environments in the different scenarios, business concept and resource mapping and connecting the business concepts and resources to the scenarios.

Roadmapping provides a visual canvas upon which a depiction of business strategy can be articulated and shared both within and between organizations. In this regard, roadmaps can be considered as boundary objects because they are used to forge the links between the differing stakeholders and communicate their shared viewpoints. Typically, the format of the roadmap is that of a skeletal structure consisting of a time-based axis against layers of functional perspectives (e.g., market, product, technology). However, in the later stages of the strategic planning and development activity, there is a need to clearly represent the options identified and embed the associated quantitative measures in the roadmap so as to provide greater assistance in the decision-making process. This is critical since options embody flexibility. From a program management perspective such flexibility is typically manifested through making decisions as to whether to defer, abandon, switch, expand/contract different project elements; for instance, choosing to terminate specific R&D, design or procurement activities. Such decisions are made upon evolving market, product and technology conditions. For example, customer needs, operational requirements, product functionalities and performance levels, technology availability and maturity. In order to visually represent options in terms of decision-point timing and size of investment, this paper presents an initial set of visual objects that could be overlaid on the canvas of a roadmap. To illustrate their use, a real-world case study is presented. A fully populated options-based roadmap, containing a set of alternative futures, is described. It is intended that this roadmap acts as a graphical prototype form for visually depicting options and associated investment appraisal information.

This paper focuses on assessing the modes of research and development (R&D) collaboration and technological lifecycles in the Finnish pulp and paper industry. This traditional manufacturing industry is currently undergoing changes due to market and technological developments. By discussing industrial and technological lifecycles, this paper aims to establish the extent to which these changes affect the R&D collaboration networks in the industry. The paper also provides insight regarding how the incumbents in this industry change their innovation activities in the face of a new science-based technology — nanotechnology — which is argued to have a significant impact on innovative activities in many traditional and high-tech industries. The results suggest that the Finnish pulp and paper industry is adapting to the changing innovation environment by increasing internal R&D investment and by extending and diversifying its R&D collaboration networks. The results also indicate that nanotechnology is seen as a potential new source of business for the pulp and paper industry but that investment will be required, particularly in absorptive capacity, to take advantage of these new technologies.

In the work the problem of sustainable development of production, i.e., an optimum choice of parameter values of technological process with the purpose of minimization of risk of obtaining production of not planed quality also incorrect making decision about quality of production and maximization of profit of production at the guaranteed social and economic effects is formalized. Different statements of the problem depending on the put ultimate purpose are considered. The general method of solution of the put task using Bayesian approach of testing many hypotheses is offered.