Close-tie entrepreneurial inspiration and business survival

Some people start a business because they are inspired to do so by entrepreneurial relatives and friends. Is this positive? The assumption is that the more entrepreneurial their parents or close friends are, the more motivated they will be to emulate them and their success. However, start-up inspiration from entrepreneurial family or friends may not necessarily boost the chances of survival

The age of the consumer innovator

Consumers increasingly generate product innovations themselves, a fact that has important consequences for companies and how they organise their R&D. It also highlights the need for a new perspective on the role played by customers in product development

The Rich or the Poor?: Personal resources, do-it-yourself, and innovation in the household sector

Household sector innovation is significant in scale and scope. Thus far, it has been studied in isolation and with mixed evidence regarding the role of personal resources (consumers' income and discretionary time). We recognize that household sector innovation is embedded in the broader phenomenon of do-it-yourself (DIY) by consumers, as the literature reveals conceptual similarities, parallel motivations, and antecedents. The main distinction is that, whereas DIY goods may replicate existing products, household sector innovation is restricted to goods embodying a novel function. We explore if studying household sector innovation and DIY in an integrated framework helps to resolve previous inconsistent evidence on the role of personal resources. Based on a neoclassical model in which agents optimize their time allocation, we hypothesize that income and discretionary time positively relate to their DIY output, but—given that agents develop DIY goods—we hypothesize that income negatively relates to innovation. For discretionary time, we formulate a research question regarding its effect on innovation which we answer empirically. Our findings suggest that consumers with more personal resources derive more process benefits from DIY but that these benefits crowd out individuals' focus on the function of their objects, hence, the likelihood of developing innovations. Survey data from the United Arab Emirates (n = 2728) confirm our suppositions, showing that the relationship between personal resources and household sector innovation is more refined than suggested by previous studies

How to bridge the nurse innovation-diffusion gap?: An in-depth case study of Create4Care

Introduction: Nurses frequently innovate in response to operational failures, regulations, procedures, and/or other workflow barriers that prevent them from delivering high-quality patient care. Unfortunately, most nurse innovations do not diffuse to a broader audience, depriving other nurses from taking advantage of solutions that have already been developed elsewhere. This under-diffusion is problematic from a societal and welfare point of view. The goal of this paper is to understand how diffusion shortage of nurse innovations can be reduced. Methods: We develop a qualitative case study of a medical makerspace at the largest academic hospital in the Netherlands. This medical makerspace reported unusually high rates of nurse innovation diffusion. Our data collection includes on-site observations, archival data, secondary data, and fifteen in-depth interviews with key informants. Qualitative coding procedures and a combination of deductive and inductive reasoning are used to analyze the data. Results: Our data show that personal, organizational, regulatory, and market barriers prevent nurses from further developing and diffusion their innovations in an anticipatory manner. That is, because nurses expect that transforming an initial solution into an innovation that can be shared with others will be too time consuming and difficult they do not proceed with the further development. The medical makerspace that we investigated adequately addresses this problem by developing an innovation ecosystem that largely takes over the innovation and diffusion process. Discussion: We provide a concrete example of how a medical makerspace, and innovation support systems in a broader sense, can be designed to more adequately address the nurse innovation-diffusion gap. The two main elements of the practical solution that we identified are: (1) Support systems should facilitate that others may lead the development and diffusion of innovations and (2) The support system should promote that actors integrate their functional specializations within an innovation ecosystem. We make two theoretical contributions. First, we contribute to understanding barriers in the nurse innovation-diffusion process from a psychological point. Second, we identified that an ecosystem perspective is beneficial to develop innovation support systems in which diffusion occurs more often

Heroes of diffusion: Making user innovations widely available

User innovations are often valuable to other people, but fail to diffuse because users lack incentives to do a dissemination effort. Past research recognized that users sometimes spur diffusion themselves, and that producers may search for and commercialize user innovations. In this study we identify a third type of actor who fills the void between initial solution and broad dissemination - without being a potential user or commercial diffuser himself. We document a case study at an academic hospital where workers created and institutionalized a system to support and disseminate user innovations developed by nurses. They proactively created a network with makerspace facilities, without being asked or instructed to do so. These workers fulfilled a disseminator role: they continued to develop user innovations to make adoption easy, explored commercial pathways, mobilized peer demand, and created favorable project conditions. Interestingly, the diffusion system was institutionalized by job crafting, securing budgets, embedding diffusion activities in the organization chart, and developing strategic relationships. Disseminators were motivated by self-actualization, enjoyment, reputation advancement, and altruism towards the nursing community; they strived to become ‘heroes of diffusion’. We conclude that a disseminator role in-between user innovators, and peer adopters and commercial producers, represents an alternative mechanism for user innovations to spread widely, and opens opportunities for new research

Treating Speech Anxiety in Youth:A Randomized Controlled Microtrial Testing the Efficacy of Exposure Only versus Exposure Combined with Anxiety Management Strategies

Contains fulltext : 239184.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)CBT for anxious youth usually combines anxiety management strategies (AMS) with exposure, with exposure assumed to be critical for treatment success. To limit therapy time while retaining effectiveness, one might optimize CBT by restricting treatment to necessary components. This study tested whether devoting all sessions to exposure is more effective in reducing speech anxiety in youth than devoting half to AMS including cognitive or relaxation strategies and half to exposure. After a 6-week waitlist period, adolescents with speech anxiety (N = 65; age 12-15; 42 girls) were randomized to a 5-session in-school group-based CBT training consisting of either (1) exposure-only (EXP+EXP) or (2) cognitive strategies followed by exposure (COG+EXP) or (3) relaxation strategies followed by exposure (REL+EXP). Clinical interviews, speech tests, and self-report measures were assessed at pretest, posttest, and follow-up. For all conditions (a) the intervention period resulted in a stronger decline of speech anxiety than waitlist period; (b) there was a large sized reduction of speech anxiety that was maintained at six-week follow-up; (c) there was no meaningful difference in the efficacy of EXP+EXP versus COG+EXP or REL+EXP. These findings suggest that devoting all sessions to exposure is not more effective than combining exposure with AMS. AMS appeared neither necessary for CBT to be effective, nor necessary for youth to tolerate exposure. This indicates that CBT can be optimized by restricting treatment to exposure.18 p

Determinants of product innovation in small firms: A comparison across industries

Contains fulltext : 157335.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)A plethora of studies has investigated the determinants of product innovation in small firms, suggesting product, firm, market and innovation process factors as its key drivers of success. Variations across industries relating to the determinants of product innovation are often suspected, but due to a lack of data this area is under-researched. In case of major differences much previous work will be flawed. Drawing upon of database of 1250 small firms across seven industries, this paper explores if any differences are found in the presence and impact of various firm-level determinants. Controlling for size and age differences, the analysis reveals some major differences to the extent small firms use innovative practices, and their connection with new product introductions.36 p

The importance of measuring household sector innovation

Empirical evidence shows that consumers can innovate as well as producers They spend considerable time and money and collaboratively develop substantial projects, which enhance social welfare. Household sector innovation is also important in developing countries. We summarize recent insights on how household sector innovation can be measured. In social surveys we can directly measure consumer innovation. Firm surveys can be modified to better capture if and how commercial organizations absorb household sector innovations