Housing supply chain model for innovation: research report

The aim of this research is to undertake a case study analysis of successful delivery of an innovation to the Australian housing construction industry. This study is conducted on the “innovator group”; that is, the group that created the idea of an innovation for the housing sector and then were intimately involved in creation, development and diffusion. It is apparent that there were key players involved in this process which are representative of various organisations along the supply chain – designer, developer, subcontractor and supplier. Much rhetoric states that integration of the supply chain actors will solve construction problems, however, in reality we know little beyond this in the Australian context as there has been little research conducted previously. This study will examine in detail the process undertaken by this particular group to deliver an innovation to the housing sector which required an integrated construction supply chain model. This report was published by the Australian Housing Supply Chain Alliance and written by Professor Kerry London, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University with Research Fellow, Jessica Siva

Consumer innovativeness: a marketing approach

By innovativeness we mean the predisposition of a consumer to adopt a product earlier than most others. Various studies have shown that across product categories, innovators tend to be: opinion leaders, risk takers, more likely to obtain information from mass media than through word of mouth, open to new ideas and change, relatively young etc. Marketers want to identify the segment of the market that is most likely to adopt a new product when it is the first introduced. This article describes we ask some key questions about the nature of innovativeness and try to make a correlation between characteristics of the innovators and innovativeness.innovativeness, new product, opinion leaders, risk takers.

Open, distributed and user-centered: Towards a paradigm shift in innovation policy

Today's innovation policies ignore that innovation is increasingly open, distributed and user-centered. In this paper we introduce the user-centered model as an alternative paradigm of how innovation 'works'. We discuss how it differs from traditional, linear producer-centered model, argue why it is legitimate to develop policies in support of it, and provide specific directions. �

The Diffusion of Informal Knowledge and Innovation Performance: A sectoral approach

This paper tries to quantify the effect of diffusion of informal knowledge on the innovative performance of European firms using data derived from the 3rd Community Innovation Survey. When firms are asked whether or not they have introduced new products or processes, they were also asked to which degree such innovations were developed in-house. These degrees were captured by the CIS variables InPdtW and InPcsW. These variables ranged from 1 (Mainly done by the firm) to 3 (Mainly done by other enterprises). The focus of this paper is to investigate the impact of diffusion of informal knowledge. We combine the previous variables with another variable which reflects firms that were not doing any formal collaboration with other institutions. If an innovative firm has no formal collaboration arrangements and the innovation has not been done mainly by the firm, then diffusion of informal knowledge is considered to be the main driver of the innovation. The idea is that informal channels are accessible to all firms. This paper tries to quantify the impact of such flows of knowledge on firms' innovation performance. To do this, a two step procedure is followed: -In a first step, a latent variable for diffusion of informal knowledge is defined and estimated based on firms' characteristics. -In a second step, the latent diffusion variable is introduced as a regressor in a probit/tobit model.Knowledge flows, innovation, dynamic equations, sectoral innovation, CIS

Understanding innovators' experiences of barriers and facilitators in implementation and diffusion of healthcare service innovations: A qualitative study

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund - Copyright @ 2011 Barnett et al.Background: Healthcare service innovations are considered to play a pivotal role in improving organisational efficiency and responding effectively to healthcare needs. Nevertheless, healthcare organisations encounter major difficulties in sustaining and diffusing innovations, especially those which concern the organisation and delivery of healthcare services. The purpose of the present study was to explore how healthcare innovators of process-based initiatives perceived and made sense of factors that either facilitated or obstructed the innovation implementation and diffusion. Methods: A qualitative study was designed. Fifteen primary and secondary healthcare organisations in the UK, which had received health service awards for successfully generating and implementing service innovations, were studied. In-depth, semi structured interviews were conducted with the organisational representatives who conceived and led the development process. The data were recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed. Results: Four main themes were identified in the analysis of the data: the role of evidence, the function of inter-organisational partnerships, the influence of human-based resources, and the impact of contextual factors. "Hard" evidence operated as a proof of effectiveness, a means of dissemination and a pre-requisite for the initiation of innovation. Inter-organisational partnerships and people-based resources, such as champions, were considered an integral part of the process of developing, establishing and diffusing the innovations. Finally, contextual influences, both intra-organisational and extra-organisational were seen as critical in either impeding or facilitating innovators' efforts. Conclusions: A range of factors of different combinations and co-occurrence were pointed out by the innovators as they were reflecting on their experiences of implementing, stabilising and diffusing novel service initiatives. Even though the innovations studied were of various contents and originated from diverse organisational contexts, innovators' accounts converged to the significant role of the evidential base of success, the inter-personal and inter-organisational networks, and the inner and outer context. The innovators, operating themselves as important champions and being often willing to lead constructive efforts of implementation to different contexts, can contribute to the promulgation and spread of the novelties significantly.This research was supported financially by the Multidisciplinary Assessment of Technology Centre for Healthcare (MATCH)

The Role of Flagship Firms, External Actors and Support Institutions in the Emergence of Successful Export Activities in Brazil: Two Industrial Cluster Studies

This paper examines the process by which firms in a cluster start to export based on systemic interactions and the process of diffusion of exporting as a business strategy within the cluster. Two Brazilian manufacturing industries are studied, and within each one a geographic cluster was identified as the origin of dynamic export growth. Players in each industrial cluster, as well as other significant players, were interviewed or identified using secondary sources, and extensive secondary data research was undertaken to study clusters’ historical development. Detailed analysis and a comparison of the two experiences made it possible to draw some general conclusions concerning the similarities and differences between the two clusters in terms of the adoption and diffusion of exporting.Cluster, Exports, Innovation, Brazil

The language and social behavior of innovators

Innovators are creative people who can conjure the ground-breaking ideas that represent the main engine of innovative organizations. Past research has extensively investigated who innovators are and how they behave in work-related activities. In this paper, we suggest that it is necessary to analyze how innovators behave in other contexts, such as in informal communication spaces, where knowledge is shared without formal structure, rules, and work obligations. Drawing on communication and network theory, we analyze about 38,000 posts available in the intranet forum of a large multinational company. From this, we explain how innovators differ from other employees in terms of social network behavior and language characteristics. Through text mining, we find that innovators write more, use a more complex language, introduce new concepts/ideas, and use positive but factual-based language. Understanding how innovators behave and communicate can support the decision-making processes of managers who want to foster innovation