Co-Creative Action Research Experiments—A Careful Method for Causal Inference and Societal Impact

The rigor-versus-relevance debate in the world of academia is, by now, an old-time classic that does not seem to go away so easily. The grassroots movement Responsible Research in Business and Management, for instance, is a very active and prominent advocate of the need to change current research practices in the management domain, broadly defined. One of its main critiques is that current research practices are not apt to address day-to-day management challenges, nor do they allow such management challenges to feed into academic research. In this paper, we address this issue, and present a research design, referred to as CARE, that is aimed at building a bridge from rigor to relevance, and vice versa. In so doing, we offer a template for conducting rigorous research with immediate impact, contributing to solving issues that businesses are struggling with through a design that facilitates causal inference

Measuring new product and service portfolio advantage

The current study introduces the concept of new product and service portfolio (NPSP) advantage by creating and validating a three-dimensional measurement method that reflects novelty, meaningfulness and superiority – the three characteristics of NPSP advantage. Based on industry-wide homogeneous generalizable quantitative data from 108 manufacturing companies, the results indicate that these three characteristics of NPSP – novelty, meaningfulness and superiority – are distinct characteristics that together constitute NPSP advantage. This paper contributes to the literature on new product development, as its findings suggest that when measuring the concept of NPSP advantage, the three-dimensional construct that includes the three aforementioned characteristics has a better fit to the data than the unidimensional structure. Because it considers both new products and services, the current study offers an integrated approach to measure the desired innovation process outcome (NPSP advantage). In this way, this paper bridges the research on new product development with that on new service development.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Exclusive licensing of university technology: The effects of university prestige, technology transfer offices, and academy-industry collaboration

Exclusivity is a key concern when designing a licensing contract, yet the organizational factors that influence the exclusive provision of university licenses remain underexplored. This study provides a deeper understanding of this question by developing a balanced framework that considers both licensors (universities) and licensees (companies) in licensing deals. Furthermore, we posit that university prestige affects both a university's ability to conduct non-exclusive licensing and a firm's incentive to obtain an exclusive license, thereby shaping their joint willingness to license (non-)exclusively. We also examine how technology transfer office (TTO) experience and prior collaboration between a university and a firm moderate this relationship. To test the hypotheses, we use a dataset consisting of 6653 licensed patents owned by 117 representative Chinese universities. We find that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between university prestige and the likelihood that two parties choose exclusive licensing. Moreover, the moderating effect of TTO experience is partially supported while that of prior collaboration is fully supported. Our findings generate important implications for the relative social impacts of exclusive and non-exclusive licensing of technology inventions as well as the management of university licensing

Exclusive licensing of university technology: The effects of university prestige, technology transfer offices, and academy-industry collaboration

Exclusivity is a key concern when designing a licensing contract, yet the organizational factors that influence the exclusive provision of university licenses remain underexplored. This study provides a deeper understanding of this question by developing a balanced framework that considers both licensors (universities) and licensees (companies) in licensing deals. Furthermore, we posit that university prestige affects both a university's ability to conduct non-exclusive licensing and a firm's incentive to obtain an exclusive license, thereby shaping their joint willingness to license (non-)exclusively. We also examine how technology transfer office (TTO) experience and prior collaboration between a university and a firm moderate this relationship. To test the hypotheses, we use a dataset consisting of 6653 licensed patents owned by 117 representative Chinese universities. We find that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between university prestige and the likelihood that two parties choose exclusive licensing. Moreover, the moderating effect of TTO experience is partially supported while that of prior collaboration is fully supported. Our findings generate important implications for the relative social impacts of exclusive and non-exclusive licensing of technology inventions as well as the management of university licensing

What drives product-service integration? An abductive study of decisionmakers’ motives and value strategies

Many firms struggle to successfully translate corporate strategy into value-added solutions for customers by integrating products and services. A particular hurdle is the intrinsic motivation of the people in charge. This study contributes to the microfoundations of servitization literature by exploring what motives and strategies drive decision-makers to pursue product-service integration (PSI). Given the fragmented state of the literature, we follow an abductive approach. First, applying a behavioral strategy lens, we identify the theoretical building blocks to construct a conceptual framework. Next, we collect data of 178 small, Belgian firms to perform an exploratory quantitative analysis. Finally, we develop theory based on the results. Specifically, we find that the need for achievement and affiliation are both directly and positively associated with PSI. Also, achievement driven people are likely to pursue PSI, originating from a product leadership position. Finally, the power motive is positively associated with operational excellence, but not with PSI

Exclusive licensing of university technology: The effects of university prestige, technology transfer offices, and academy-industry collaboration

Exclusivity is a key concern when designing a licensing contract, yet the organizational factors that influence the exclusive provision of university licenses remain underexplored. This study provides a deeper understanding of this question by developing a balanced framework that considers both licensors (universities) and licensees (companies) in licensing deals. Furthermore, we posit that university prestige affects both a university's ability to conduct non-exclusive licensing and a firm's incentive to obtain an exclusive license, thereby shaping their joint willingness to license (non-)exclusively. We also examine how technology transfer office (TTO) experience and prior collaboration between a university and a firm moderate this relationship. To test the hypotheses, we use a dataset consisting of 6653 licensed patents owned by 117 representative Chinese universities. We find that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between university prestige and the likelihood that two parties choose exclusive licensing. Moreover, the moderating effect of TTO experience is partially supported while that of prior collaboration is fully supported. Our findings generate important implications for the relative social impacts of exclusive and non-exclusive licensing of technology inventions as well as the management of university licensing

Microfoundations of Servitization: An Individual-Level Perspective

When discussing servitization, the human dimension is often forgotten. Recently, the microfoundations movement is gaining traction in strategy and organization theory. Uncovering the microfoundations of servitization—that is, the influence of individual-level factors on firm-level service decisions, actions and outcomes—may further explain the heterogeneity among firms and their varying degrees of success. It also supports practitioners by unveiling the complex interactions between individual and firm-level components. In this chapter, we consult and summarize prior research about the relationship between servitization and people’s cognitions, motivations, abilities, traits, and behavior. Based on the current literature, we present a conceptual framework as inspiration for future microfoundational research

Co-Creative Action Research Experiments -: A Careful Method for Causal Inference and Societal Impact

The rigor-versus-relevance debate in the world of academia is, by now, an old-time classic that does not seem to go away so easily. The grassroots movement Responsible Research in Business and Management, for instance, is a very active and prominent advocate of the need to change current research practices in the management domain, broadly defined. One of its main critiques is that current research practices are not apt to address day-to-day management challenges, nor do they allow such management challenges to feed into academic research. In this paper, we address this issue, and present a research design, referred to as CARE, that is aimed at building a bridge from rigor to relevance, and vice versa. In so doing, we offer a template for conducting rigorous research with immediate impact, contributing to solving issues that businesses are struggling with through a design that facilitates causal inference