International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management

Applying exploratory qualitative methodologies such as interviews and focus groups, we examine the role of IT vendors in health IT adoption in nursing homes in Texas. We identify three roles pertaining to IT vendors in various adoption stages — information sources and financiers, strategic consultants, and educators in the initiation, implementation, and the institutionalization phases, respectively. Thus, vendors could be a critical factor in the health IT adoption, but nursing home management must critically evaluate not only the services, but also the strategic partnerships offered by the vendors. This is because their business interests may not address nursing homes’ distinctive need, and may prevent integration and institutionalization of health IT. As such, this research has important implications for technology adoption by nursing facilities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a comprehensive model of international tourists’ intentions to use mobile food information (MFI). The study compares the intentions of independent tourists and package tourists focusing on the influences of mobile design qualities and tourists’ perceptions. The model is based on the technology acceptance model. The results revealed that the proposed model more efficiently predicted intention in groups of independent tourists than in groups of package tour. Furthermore, there are some differences between these groups. The proposed model could contribute to future collaboration between tourist agents and mobile-based developers to achieve the implementation of MFI.

The present paper investigates the role of research and development (R&D) cooperation in firm innovation. In particular, we evaluate the direct impact of cooperation on firm innovation and its moderating effect on the relationship between internal R&D and innovation. The empirical analysis is based on a large sample of Italian firms drawn from the Sixth Community Innovation Survey. We estimate a multivariate probit model which takes into account the complementarity of different types of innovation and the heterogeneity in the choice of cooperation partners. The estimation results indicate a strong and positive effect of non-competitive collaborations with suppliers, clients and private research institutes on the different types of firm innovation. Collaborations with universities enhance organizational innovations but have weak effects on the other types of innovations. Also cooperation with competitors positively affects firms’ innovations, especially in the case of organizational innovations. On the other hand, moderating effects are scant and restricted to some forms of non-competitive cooperation.

This paper investigates the relationships among supply chain participants’ involvement at various stages of new product development (NPD) and a firm’s innovation outcomes in terms of number of new product introduction and new product radicalness. A total of 107 questionnaires were collected from a cross-sectional survey of NPD managers. Results show significant impacts of suppliers’ and customers’ involvement on the firm innovation outcomes in the various NPD stages. Suppliers’ involvement in the firm NPD process influences negatively or is not related to firm innovation success in the various NPD stages. However, customers’ involvement affects positively or is not related to firm innovation success in the various NPD stages. This indicates that the distinct features of the various NPD stages make customer or supplier involvement more or less appropriate at each stage. Therefore, this paper provides significant managerial implications for supply chain practitioners regarding with whom, when, and how they set up supply chain strategy to improve their innovation performance.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of education and research quality provided by local educational institutions on the innovative adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) by the workforce in Saudi Arabia. The study tests whether this influence is mediated by domestic competition and/or the level of ICT penetration. A model was developed and tested using data collected from 119 CEOs of foreign companies in diverse local business sectors. The data is analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that educational quality exhibited a lesser contribution to the ICT adoption compared to research quality. These results are analyzed in terms of business environment, market constraints and pedagogical approaches in schools and universities.

Innovation projects are prone to “escalation of commitment” (the tendency to continue projects even if it is clear that they will be unsuccessful). In this study, we introduce a construct measuring the escalation prevention potential (EPP) of innovation projects as perceived by individuals in the organization. EPP consists of three components: (i) goals, (ii) process, and (iii) ability, to shield projects from escalation to commitment. A survey was conducted among 1062 clinicians working in hospitals implementing Electronic Medical Records. The empirical results show that the three theoretical components of EPP sum up to a single measure. Four organizational characteristics of organizations (organizational routines, authentic leadership, employee involvement and support staff quality) explain a large share of the variation in EPP.

Research on innovative technological methods in SMEs’ production processes is progressively receiving attention. However, little is known about the emerging phenomenon of additive manufacturing (AM), which may represent a significant strategic lever for fostering a company’s competitiveness and performance, especially for SMEs. Our aim is to investigate the effects of AM on SMEs’ production process, in order to better understand the relative outcomes of such an innovative technique. We used latent content analysis for empirically analyzing SMEs present in one of the most important Italian gold jewelry districts. Our findings suggest that the AM introduction in a company’s production process effectively results in many positive outcomes, such as process innovation, customer satisfaction, costs, revenues, profits, and competitive advantage. Specifically, there is a positive linkage between AM and a company’s performance. Hence, such an innovative technique may be interpreted as a viable growth strategy for SMEs. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Although new product development is associated with high failure rates, it is still the most natural measure for firms to grow and by that expand their market position. Therefore, firms need to optimally align product functions to the needs of their target customer. By conducting an online survey with 179 participants, this paper identifies the most commonly applied need identification techniques. We can show that analyzing internal data and external reports today is the most commonly used method, at least in the German-speaking world. Still, interacting with customers via different approaches is perceived as the most beneficial approach, at the same time being very resource-demanding. In contrast to most scientific studies analyzing this topic, we furthermore identify reasons for refusing certain methods, e.g. because of lack of knowledge and resources or severe resistance within the organizations. Additionally, we derive academic and practical information from the input of the survey data for an improved application in the future.

This paper describes the application of a combination of TRIZ and Bass modeling to forecast the technology growth projections for one of the wearable devices, fitness trackers. For the TRIZ modeling, the fitness tracking system was divided into three subsystems and each was analyzed as per the technology trends from current literature. The subsystems’ combined assessment was then visualized via a radar plot. The analysis showed the technology to be in an emergent state with primary growth in the hardware and software subsystem areas. The Bass model showed the market peaking at eight and saturating in 15 years.