International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management

The paper examines the long-run relationship between venture capital and innovation in the 19 European Economic Area (EEA) countries over the period 1989–2014. We use three different indicators of venture capital (VC), such as VC at early stage investment, VC at later stage investment, and VC total investment, and seven different indicators of innovation, such as patents-residents, patents-nonresidents, patents-total, research and development expenditure, researchers in research and development activities, high-technology exports, and scientific and technical journal articles, to examine this long-run relationship. Using cointegration technique, the study warrants the support of long-run relationship between venture capital and innovation in few cases, typically with reference to a particular VC indicator and innovation indicator. Expending the Granger causality test, the study finds the presence of both bidirectional and unidirectional causality between venture capital and innovation. However, these results vary from country-to-country within the EEA countries, depending upon the types of VC indicator and innovation indicator that we use in a particular empirical exploration process. The policy implication of this study is that the economic policies should recognize the differences in the venture capital and innovation in order to maintain the sustainable development in these EEA countries.

This paper aims to explore the antecedents affecting adoption intention and behavior independently of early and late adopters of disruptive innovation (DI) in e-business microcredit context in China. The authors make an integrative overview of consumer innovation adoption relevant literature and DI theory, combined with features in e-business microcredit context, to develop a conceptual framework based on seven antecedents. A qualitative approach incorporating focus group interviews and semi-structured interviews was utilized. Findings suggest that adoption intention increases with perceived benefits or innovativeness or knowledge, thus easily becoming early adopters, and vice versa; adoption behavior is hindered with increased perceived risks, thus easily becoming late adopters, and vice versa; mass media has an impact for early adopters, herd behavior and word of mouth for late adopters but no effect for early adopters; perceived compatibility and perceived complexity have no incentives for early or late adopters. This study makes theoretical contribution to DI theory development with regard to its market diffusion and adoption from the demandside perspective, and also provides practical implications for e-business microcredit service and other internet-based financial product adoptions.

The acceptance of mobile payments has been limited. This paper, therefore, attempts to investigate the determinants of mobile payment adoption. To this end, it examines the relationships between the personality trait dimensions of the Technology Readiness Index 2.0 and the system-specific dimensions of the Technology Acceptance Model in Germany and South Africa. The model was tested using structural equation modeling. Results show that some, but not all, of the Technology Readiness Index 2.0 variables had a significant influence on the dimensions of the Technology Acceptance Model. Perceived Usefulness was the strongest predictor of the intention to use mobile payments. The factor “country” did not moderate the structural relationships.

This paper investigates the direct impact of conflict management style on two types of interpersonal conflict: task and relationship conflict between marketing and R&D personnel during the new product development (NPD) process. The findings add to the structural contingency perspective pertaining to the study of conflict and provide a wider view of the beneficial role of conflict at the interpersonal level. The results show that task conflict is positively influenced by dominating and integrating styles, but is negatively influenced by a compromising style. In addition, relationship conflict is positively influenced by a dominating style but negatively influenced by integrating, obliging, and compromising styles. Key implications for marketing and R&D personnel are that they should typically use an integrating style in order to gain benefit from task conflict. However, they should avoid or compromise with a dominating person in order to minimize destructive outcomes from relationship conflict.

This paper aims to contribute to knowledge on start-up cluster development by describing the core resource configurations in the development trajectory of start-up clusters in an emergent country. This research involves two start-up clusters in the Brazilian context. The results provide a framework formed by four stages that indicates the trajectory of start-up cluster development from the basic level, in which the most evident resources are tangible and endogenous, to the more advanced level, which comprises intangible and exogenous resources. In the fourth stage, start-up clusters improve resources, such as quality of life, cultural diversity and political and economic conditions to foster entrepreneurship and innovation.

Literature on the champion theory proposes the informal character of the champion’s role and also notes difficulties in institutionalizing it. Nevertheless, formally institutionalized roles that seem to fit the description of a champion can be recognized in organizations, especially as enablers of open innovation activities. However, research cannot answer how this institutionalization occurs and which factors influence it. To answer these questions, we investigate a unique single case in which a champion role was institutionalized in the purchasing department of a multinational company. The new role’s task is to identify, select, and integrate supplier innovations. Our results indicate that the informal role of the champion can be successfully institutionalized when certain success factors are considered, which are management commitment, use of success stories, and matching of champions with research and development teams. We contribute to innovation management literature by using the well-established champion theory to explain how and why large multinational companies formally establish the role of the innovation champion. Our research offers pathways for further research about both, the antecedents and the consequences of role formalization. Practitioners can build on the success factors derived in this study when formally implementing innovation champions as enablers of open innovation activities.

Convergence of internet and mobile technologies has fueled growth in service innovations in the telecommunication sector. Digitization has transformed telecommunication value chain from linear to nonlinear web, presenting the role of telecom operators in a dilemma. Objective of the research is to understand the dynamics of technology and service innovation for development of mobile value-added services (VAS). We study the process of service innovation in select mobile VAS in India and map their delivery process on enhanced telecom operations map (eTOM) framework. Our findings indicate challenges in managing sector-crossing service innovations effectively, presenting an opportunity to extend the existing framework.

This paper aims to introduce a qualitative indicator to measure innovation performance of Turkish firms by using firm-level data collected by Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) in 2008 and 2009. We propose a new indicator to measure the innovation performance which is simply based on the perception of firms regarding to the impacts of innovation. In order to create performance indicators, we conduct a factor analysis to group the firms’ perceptions on the impacts of innovation. Factor analysis gives us product and process-oriented impacts of innovation. There are significant differences among product innovators, process innovators and firms engaged in both product and process innovations with respect to their perceptions on product and process-oriented impacts of innovation. Among these three groups, product- and process-oriented impacts provide a highest value for the firms that perform both product and process innovations. As far as the link between firm characteristics and the impact of innovation is considered, there is a significant difference between small and large firms with respect to their perceptions on product-oriented impact of innovation. While product-oriented impact is larger for small firms, large firms focus more on process-oriented impact. Anova results also indicate that perceptions on process-oriented impact significantly differ among exporter firms, domestic market-oriented firms and firms being active in internal and external markets. Process-oriented impact generates results in favor of exporting firms.

Processes of convergence strongly influence the development of several industries and modern technologies as the example of convergence of the computer and telecommunication industry into one sector of information and communications technology (ICT) shows. These convergences are a substantial uncertainty for established companies in both established areas. Ubiquitous healthcare is a current trend in health technology which might be the expression of such a convergence. Therefore, the question whether this trend is an expression of an overall industry convergence between the ICT and the health sector is investigated in this study. Publication and patent data-based analyses are carried out for that purpose. An industry/technology sector classification as well as an IPC-co-classification analysis reveal clear signs of convergence between the ICT and health sector on the scientific and technology level. The results are critically discussed and theoretical and practical implications are given.

This study investigates the factors influencing the Chinese manufacturing industry’s innovation and industrial performance utilizing a panel data approach on a sample of Chinese manufacturing enterprises over the period of 2008–2013. The industries were grouped according to related sectors into five groups, a general group was also created which included the whole data sample. The study found that research and development (R&D) expenditure positively influenced the growth of product innovation and industrial performance, but not necessarily knowledge innovation and export performance. Also, expenditure on new product development had a positive impact on both innovation and industrial performance. The growth of patent application was discovered to be influenced by an R&D project and foreign patent license. Finally, the number of enterprises and firm size (i.e. number of employees) contributed positively to the industrial output performance. The findings suggest that industrial R&D and new product development influences the success of product innovation and sales performance. The study recommends that the government should set up policies that will stimulate industrial R&D, while supporting technology transfers from foreign partners. Most importantly, government policies on the development of the industry should be addressed on a sectorial level and not a “one-size-fit-all” type of policy.