Organizational innovation for SME'S: a model for Latvia

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can be a significant source of innovation in small economies. SMEs face challenges of limited capacity, personnel and resources for long-term investments. Additionally, they might not see and understand the benefits of innovation. Implementation of organizational innovation (OI) could give such enterprises an opportunity to improve competitiveness and develop other types of innovation. The purpose of this study is to develop a model, explaining OI through such factors as organizational culture (OC) and knowledge management (KM) in SMEs via an empirical study across various industries. Surveying 600 SMEs in Latvia, the authors explore the contribution of organizational factors - cooperation, trust, inclusive decision making, result orientation and long-term strategic planning, as well as knowledge management and organizational learning processes to OI performance. The authors propose a conceptual model in several steps, the current step focuses on Organizational Innovation Analysis through Regression Methods and on a final step a whole model for all kinds of Innovation outputs (not only organizational) will be designed through Structural Equation Modelling. After current analysis the influence of Human/Individual values over Organizational Innovation seems to be confirmed

A firm’s organizational innovation and organizational learning abilities

Many recent studies are dedicated to the problem of innovation as a mean of improving a firm’s overall performance. Various kinds of innovation in a firm usually are closely interrelated with each other. While the majority of studies focus on technological - product and process - innovation, the investigation of non-technological - marketing and organizational - innovation (ORI), has increasingly attracted the interest of researchers during the last decade. Organizational culture and organizational learning are important drivers of such innovation. For instance, a collaborative culture, trust and open-mindedness encourage new initiatives and ideas, while learning helps not just to improve skillsets and abilities of individual employees, but can also greatly contribute to strategic knowledge management and building a resilient, innovative organization. This study examines the relationship between a firm’s organizational learning ability and its organizational innovation performance. The authors consider such factors as Learning Intention – seeing learning as a key investment and organizational commitment to it, and Openness - open-mindedness and organizational culture open to new ideas and worldviews. This study contributes to the theory of ORI by finding the answer to the question what impact these factors could have on ORI development in a firm. The findings are based on a quantitative analysis of more than 150 small and medium-sized enterprises surveyed in Russia and Latvia. The survey questions measuring ORI performance were developed in line with the widely used definition introduced in the OECD - Eurostat Oslo Manual. The scales for organizational learning were adopted from the previous studies elaborated this area of a firm activity. The survey compared a firm’s innovation performance to that of its closest competitors. This research demonstrates that some of the elements of organizational learning positively influence ORI activity. The results also suggest that Latvian companies differ from Russian ones in terms of their organizational learning intention

Socio-economoc networks as innovation facilitators in Latvia

Bakalaura darbs „Sociāli ekonomiskie tīkli kā inovāciju veicināšanas faktors Latvijā” izstrādāts ar mērķi noskaidrot sociāli ekonomisko tīklu nozīmi inovāciju veicināšanā, ņemot vērā gan ES pieredzi, gan inovāciju tīklu veidošanas un pielietošanas iespējas Latvijā. Darbā tiek izvirzīta un, izmantojot EIS datus, pierādīta hipotēze, ka sociāli ekonomisko tīklu darbība ir nozīmīgs inovācijas veicinošs faktors. Galvenie secinājumi: ES ir labi attīstīti institucionālie sadarbības tīkli, kas veiksmīgi darbojas arī Latvijā; arvien lielāka nozīme ir sadarbībai ar zinātniskās pētniecības iestādēm, pieaug universitāšu kā inovatīvo tīklu centrālās ass loma; ES pieaug klasteru loma, Latvijā tie ir attīstības sākumstadijā; Latvijā ir uzlabojusies situācija inovāciju atbalsta centru jomā. Atslēgas vārdi: sociāli ekonomiskie tīkli, inovāciju veicināšana, sadarbība“Socio-economic networks as innovation facilitators in Latvia” aims at explaining the role of socio-economic networks in spurring innovations, analyzing EU best practices and applying them to innovation network creation and development in Latvia. Hypothesis of socio-economic networks having a substantial impact on innovation facilitation has been tested using European Scoreboard data and approved. The main conclusions from research: institutional networks are well developed in EU and successfully functioning in Latvia; collaboration with the public R&D institutions is of growing importance, universities reinforce the tendency of becoming innovation network hubs; clusters play increasingly significant role in Europe, but in Latvia they’re still in an early development stage; situation with the innovation centers in Latvia has slightly improved. Keywords: socio-economic networks; innovation facilitation; collaboration

Organizācijas kultūras un zināšanu pārvaldības ietekme uz organizatoriskām inovācijām mazos un vidējos uzņēmumos

Promocijas darbā novērtēta organizācijas kultūras (OK) un zināšanu pārvaldības (ZP) ietekme uz organizatorisko inovāciju (OI) — uzņēmējdarbības prakses, darba vietu organizācijas un ārējo attiecību – ieviešanu mikro, mazos un vidējos uzņēmumos (MVU), balstoties uz literatūras analīzi un 600 Latvijas MVU pētījumu. Profesionālā attīstība, stratēģiskā plānošana, zināšanu radīšana, pielietošana, novērtēšana un atjaunošana tajā noteikti kā galvenie OI veicinošie faktori, ierosināta metodika OI ieviešanas rādītāja novērtēšanai un konceptuālais OK, ZP un OI savstarpējo attiecību modelis. Rezultāti apstiprina, ka MVU, ko vairāk raksturo inovācijas veicinoša OK un ZP ir lielāka varbūtība ieviest OI, un OI ieviešana veicina MVU inovētspēju un konkurētspēju. Organizatoriskās inovācijas, organizācijas kultūra, zināšanu pārvaldība, MVU, inovētspēja.The doctoral thesis assesses, how organizational culture (OC) and knowledge management (KM) impact introduction of organizational innovation (OI) - business practices, workplace organization and external relations - in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based on literature analysis and 600 Latvian SMEs study. It identifies professional development, strategic planning, knowledge creation, application, assessment and updating as key OI enhancing factors, proposes an OI introduction measure assessment method and a conceptual model for OC, KM and OI relationship. The results confirm that SMEs more characterized by innovation enhancing OC and KM are more likely to introduce OI, and that OI benefits SME innovativeness and competitiveness. Organizational innovation, organizational culture, knowledge management, SME, innovativeness

Socio-cultural factors and international competitiveness

Socio-cultural factors – shared values, norms and attitudes are significant, but less acknowledged sources of international competitiveness. Previous studies have found socio-cultural factors positively affecting various aspects of international competitiveness – entrepreneurship, innovation, productivity and international cooperation. These factors are more sustainable and less affected by external environment changes in comparison with the traditional factors. Socio-cultural factors provide an opportunity to develop competitiveness strategies based on unique advantages. This research aims to explore the impact of socio-cultural factors on international competiveness in small, open economies. Analysing relationship between 400 socio-cultural indicators and competitiveness indicators such as productivity, economic development, business and government efficiency, innovation capacity and infrastructure in 37 countries, six socio-cultural factors have emerged: Collectivism and Hierarchy; Future, Cooperation and Performance Orientation, Self-expression, Monochronism and Rationality, Economic Orientation and Social structure. The first factor – Collectivism and Hierarchy – tends to reduce the international competitiveness; the other five affect it positively

Ethical Behavior and Organizational Innovation: Analysis of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Latvia

Innovations can provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) a significant competitive advantage considering the ambiguous business environment. SMEs may face lower capacity and more constrained funding for long-term investments, however, understanding innovation in a broader sense and looking into organizational structures, behaviors and processes, SMEs have an opportunity to become more competitive. This study analyzes the impact of ethical behavior as a part of an organizational culture on organizational innovation performance in SMEs. Six hundred SMEs in Latvia were surveyed to assess whether employees follow the principles of business ethics in their work and what is the organizational innovation performance in these enterprises. We found that more ethical behavior leads to better organizational innovation performance, and that the size of enterprise is the most significant factor affecting this relationship. The study proposes insights that contribute to theoretical and practical discussions on fostering small businesses innovation in small economies

European Socio-cultural Change and Generational Diversity in the Post-Soviet Workforce.

In times of increased retirement age and senior employees staying in workforce longer, successfully managing generational differences in the workforce forms an increasingly important challenge for modern day management. In many ways, generations may vary in attitudes and approaches, reflecting deeper differences in their core values. This might be particularly true for the Post-Soviet countries, where earlier generations were educated and started their careers within a completely different socio-economic system. In this study we explore differences in approaches towards values and attitudes amongst four generations of retail sector employees – starting from those, who were still to great extent exposed to pre-Soviet values, continuing with employees, who started their careers during the Soviet times, and ending with those, who were educated and entered the workforce after the collapse of the Soviet Union. 208 Latvian service employees were surveyed to assess their personal values and likelihood of dishonest and unethical behavior from four generations currently active in the workforce - Post-War generation, Early Gen X, Transition generation and Millennials. We confirmed that despite dual morality and ambiguous ethics in the Soviet Union, older generations reported higher likelihood of honest behavior than younger generations. And Post-War and Early Generation X also rated honesty and responsibility higher as their personal values. We also found significant differences between Early Generation X and the Transition generation in a post-Soviet context