Implications of Social Cohesion in Entrepreneurial Collaboration: a Conceptual Model and Research Propositions

This paper explores how the moderation of social cohesion could sustain optimal synergy in entrepreneurial collaboration. Modern firms increasingly engage entrepreneurs in the pursuit of innovation as a means to gain competitive advantage. Managers that oversee such initiatives are hesitant to interfere with the social linkages between entrepreneurs fearing that they will somehow upset the creative process. The consensus that entrepreneurs are inherently collaborative and adept at mitigating conflict also fuels this hands-off approach. Using a systematic literature review, the authors demonstrate that without moderation of social cohesion, the expectation of sustainable innovation arising from the entrepreneurial collaboration is unwise. Organisations may overspend time, money, and technological assets without successful innovation occurring. The dangers range from poor and even risky decision-making to group disintegration. This paper proposes a conceptual model and research propositions to steer future research in managerial interventions designed to moderate social cohesion towards sustaining optimal synergy amongst collaborating entrepreneurs. This paper concludes with a commentary on the implications to business, society, public policy, and teaching

Innovation Strategies of New Product Development (NPD)

Current literature indicates a high rate of New Product Development (NDP) failure. Many believe that the main reason behind such failures is the way the NPD process is managed. This includes a lack of clear project definition, too much focus on internal processes and procedures ignoring customer needs and requirements, lack of communication and knowledge transfer among various people within the organization, etc. The current study provides an analytical tool in the form of a two dimensional matrix that maps various stages of the NPD process to the existing innovation strategies. This analytical tool can then be used by business analysts to assess the degree of innovativeness of various activities involved in NPD process, as a basis for enhancing the effectiveness of the overall product development initiatives.</p

Customer-centered knowledge management: challenges and implications for knowledge-based innovation in the public transport sector

Purpose – This study aims to explore the role of knowledge management practices in supporting current and emerging passengers’ and customer needs, aiming to create value. Specifically, the research examines the importance of customer-centred knowledge management in the delivery of innovative services and practices in the public transport sector, promoting the role of interactions between mobility stakeholders and travellers. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical framework is developed and supported by the background literature on customer-centric knowledge management approaches, business model innovation, as well as on inter-organisational and network co-operations. Findings – Results show that the development of sustainable innovation and technologies in the transport sector requires knowledge management practices, which enable the access to knowledge about users’ needs, the mapping and evaluation of innovative knowledge, the promotion of knowledge-based innovation through collective approaches, as well as the acquisition and integration of new knowledge. Research limitations/implications – The conceptual framework developed in the paper remains limited to a theoretical understanding. Further research should empirically examine knowledge issues related to the intangible character and intellectual capital intensiveness of innovation in the transport sector. Practical implications – Researchers, public transport companies and public transport authorities are expected to benefit from this research, by developing mechanisms for customer-centred knowledge management, which is found to lead to innovative services and practices in the public transport sector. Another practical implication regards the adoption of knowledge management practices, leading to technological innovations in public transport, and advancing the level of sustainability in transport systems. Originality/value – The originality of this study lies in the development of a customer-focussed knowledge management framework, which provides a novel perspective of value creation in an attempt to engage researchers and practitioners from the transport industry in the conceptualisation and development of innovative solutions

Examining Whether Government Environmental Regulation Promotes Green Innovation Efficiency&mdash;Evidence from China&rsquo;s Yangtze River Economic Belt

Based on the panel data of 11 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2005 to 2018, this paper uses the SBM-DEA efficiency model with undesired output to measure the green innovation efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The panel Tobit empirical analysis model was used to quantitatively analyze the impact of three different forms of government environmental regulations on the efficiency of green innovation. The research results show that the government&rsquo;s mandatory environmental regulations and government financial subsidies for green innovation technology are two regulatory methods that positively promote the efficiency of regional green innovation, but government investment in environmental governance has a negative impact on the efficiency of regional green innovation. Then the study found that this negative impact has a significant inflection point effect: when it exceeds a certain threshold, the negative impact turns into a positive effect. At the same time, the impact of environmental regulations on the efficiency of green innovation has significant regional heterogeneity, and the three environmental regulations have a greater impact on downstream provinces and cities

An exploration of contemporary organizational artifacts and routines in a sustainable excellence context

Summarization: Organizations and their members operate in increasingly complex, dynamic and even disruptive environments, with risk and uncertainty being major challenges. To that effect, data, information, knowledge, and respective competences are increasingly instrumental in enabling and sustaining organizational intelligence that translates into resilience in the shorter and sustainable excellence in the longer term. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the artifacts and routines in a sustainable organizational excellence context. Design/methodology/approach: An extensive literature review was used to develop the context of the paper, focusing on big data and organizational intelligence for enterprise excellence and resilience. In addition, a thematic literature review method was used to study the role and impacts of routines and artifacts in organizational change, policies, structure and performance. Findings: Although many traditional management practices retain their validity, knowledge management must give a clearer view of the existing connection between firm-level competitive advantage in open economies flows and difficult-to-use knowledge assets. The proposed framework studies knowledge exploration and knowledge exploitation as organizational phenomena opposed and mutually incompatible. Originality/value: The paper presents a first attempt to study the linkages of organizational routines and artifacts as a cycle wherein knowledge acquisition and learning competencies form and enhance a firm’s organizational intelligence, leading to robust competitiveness and sustainable entrepreneurship.Presented on: Journal of Knowledge Managemen