Understanding inter-organizational decision coordination

This article develops a theoretical framework to investigate the interaction and coordination of decision-making processes in a supply chain with multiple and inter-dependent suppliers and customers. Design/Methodology/Approach: Three longitudinal case studies on the decision coordination processes between a European toy supplier and three retailers. Findings: The case studies found different mental models, decision-making behaviours, coordination behaviours and ordering behaviours even though the toy supplier and the three retailers observed quite the same material flow behaviours. The study found explanations for these diverse behaviours by analyzing the mental models and decision-making behaviours of each involved party. Originality/value: The findings explain the conditions which lead to undesirable mental models and decision-making behaviours which affect the coordination of decisions among supply chain members

A study of the influence of network structural embeddedness on organization innovativeness

This paper explores the impact of network structural embeddedness of an organization on its innovativeness. Based on a survey of 104 organizations in the medium and high technology sectors in Saudi Arabia, we explored the relationships between different network characteristics (i.e. network density, centrality) and organization’s type and degree of innovativeness. Using a logistic regression analysis, the study finds that there is a positive and significant relationship between organization’s network density and centrality with both product innovation and process innovation. Additionally, the study investigated the influence of network characteristics on the degree of novelty of innovation (i.e. radical innovation). The findings reveal that having a central network position in terms of betweenness and degree centrality have a positive and significant relationship with novel innovation. However, the study results show insignificant relationship between network density and novel innovation

Assessment of rural digital imaging and creativity abilities for potential crowdsourcing case

Benefits of crowdsourcing tasks are largely reaped by urban rather than rural workers. Even if rural workers could access these web portals, tasks are in general elementary. This research aims to see whether rural crowdsourcing workers' digital imaging ability is better than urban workers, and whether creative ability leads to better imaging ability. Understanding this comparative scenario along with contextual factors (such as confidence level of manager on workers, job satisfaction and work situation) influencing these parameters helps to crowdsourcing skillful computational digital imaging jobs to rural workers. These understandings were studied by collecting data from 120 IT workers (60 each from semi-urban and rural areas) located in six states of India. Statistical analyses show that urban BPO workers’ were better than rural workers only in 2D digital imaging ability (not in 3D ability), but rural workers were better in Torrance Tests of Creativity Thinking (TTCT) test. Association between worker’s creativity and manager assessment is not aligned for rural workers. In contradict to expectation, the findings show that workers with low job satisfaction and excellent work circumstances lead to possess high creativity skills in TTCT creativity score. Next steps involve improving digital imaging and creativity abilities of workers, and aligning manager conviction on worker’s creativity

Digital transformation and managing technological obsolescence in SMEs

The fast pace of change in technology and innovation creates waves of disruption across various industries as the obsolescence puzzle has become a focal issue for firms (Del Giudice et al., 2021). Obsolescence arises when a new service, product, or technology replaces an older one. We seek to enrich the literature by investigating the digitalization journey of a high-tech, manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) to shed light on the topic. We undertook an interpretive longitudinal study between 2009 and 2020, capturing the transformation journey of an exemplary, award-winning high-tech SME in the UK that is designing and manufacturing high-end home entertainment systems including digital streaming products, music players, and speakers. This study offers important contributions to theory and practice. We conceptualize and define the link between technological obsolescence and the digital transformation process. We offer an innovative conceptual framework for managing technological obsolescence in the context of digital transformation in SMEs. In addition, our study has important implications for practice. SME managers should pay attention to developing noncognitive dynamic capabilities to effectively respond to digitalization trends by orienting their employees toward careful management of technology obsolescence in a manner unique to the firm’s history and experiences

Conceptualizing obsolescence and digital transformation

This study aims to shed light on the notion of technological obsolescence and explore its links with digital transformation to achieve adaptability and resilience. We undertook an interpretive longitudinal study between 2009 and 2020, capturing the digital transformation journey of an award-winning, UK-based high-tech SME that is designing and manufacturing high-end home entertainment systems including digital streaming products, music players, and speakers. As a contribution to literature, we conceptualize and define the link between technological obsolescence and the digital transformation process. We offer a conceptual framework to explain the interplay of the adaptive capabilities through the concepts of empirical sensitivities and habitus in the context of digital transformation in SMEs. We suggest that SME managers should pay attention to developing non-cognitive dynamic capabilities to effectively respond to digitalization trends by orienting their employees toward careful management of technology obsolescence in a manner unique to the firm’s history and experiences

Exploring the impact of technological competence development on speed and NPD program performance

With growing levels of competition across industries, technological competence is increasingly viewed as crucial for businesses to maintain their long-term competitive advantage. Although there are many theoretical arguments about how firms' competences can yield competitive advantage and performance improvement, we have a limited understanding of where the capabilities originate in the context of NPD or what kind of product portfolios, internal climate and strategic alignment are required to build them. Moreover, empirical evidence for technological competence development is limited and comes primarily from case studies, anecdotal evidence, and management impressions. Accordingly, this research addresses these gaps by presenting and testing a conceptual model of technological competence development in NPD. This study makes advances in applying a dynamic capability approach to technological competence development in NPD, and investigates the impact of innovative climate, technological alignment, and project portfolio management on technological competence development as well as NPD speed. Moreover, the factors that might influence NPD program performance are also investigated. The analysis, based on data collected from 164 firms, shows that a firm's innovative climate, technological alignment and portfolio management are positively associated with technological competence development. While technological alignment was found to be negatively related to NPD speed, portfolio management and technological competence development were found to have positive effects on speed. However, innovative climate had no significant impact on speed. Moreover, technological competence development and portfolio management were found to be positively related to NPD program performance. Finally, the authors found no support for the relationship between speed and NPD program performance

A Bibliometric Review of the Innovation Intermediary: Mapping Roles and Setting a Research Agenda

The development of innovation management practices toward openness and emerging socio-economic models have changed the roles and supporting activities of innovation intermediaries. This paper aims to review the extant research to explore the role of innovation intermediaries, map the current knowledge and outline a future research agenda. Utilizing the novel quantitative literature review approach of bibliographic coupling, examining 164 journal articles, the paper presents a robust analysis of the intellectual streams and key concepts underpinning innovation intermediaries. This is the first time that a quantitative review method has been used to analyses this research area and it provides an opportunity for new insights to complement previous qualitative reviews. This paper makes a contribution to the on-going debate by proposing a framework that explains the role of innovation intermediaries: knowledge broker, knowledge transfer enabler, orchestrator, and open innovation facilitator, and the functions embedded with the roles at different levels of unit analysis, i.e., firm, industry, and national. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the framework and details key areas for future research.Output Status: Forthcomin

A Bibliometric Review of the Innovation Intermediary: Mapping Roles and Setting a Research Agenda

The development of innovation management practices toward openness and emerging socio-economic models have changed the roles and supporting activities of innovation intermediaries. This paper aims to review the extant research to explore the role of innovation intermediaries, map the current knowledge and outline a future research agenda. Utilizing the novel quantitative literature review approach of bibliographic coupling, examining 164 journal articles, the paper presents a robust analysis of the intellectual streams and key concepts underpinning innovation intermediaries. This is the first time that a quantitative review method has been used to analyses this research area and it provides an opportunity for new insights to complement previous qualitative reviews. This paper makes a contribution to the on-going debate by proposing a framework that explains the role of innovation intermediaries: knowledge broker, knowledge transfer enabler, orchestrator, and open innovation facilitator, and the functions embedded with the roles at different levels of unit analysis, i.e., firm, industry, and national. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the framework and details key areas for future research

The network orchestration role of accelerators for value creation

Corporate accelerators are becoming increasingly important in introducing innovative methods for companies to generate value. Despite their growing importance, the specifics of their activities in value creation, especially in orchestrating and managing network collaborations for companies and startups, are still poorly understood. This study attempts to fill this knowledge gap by describing a set of orchestration activities that shape the synergy between companies and startups in an accelerator program and correlating these activities with value creation. Empirical evidence was collected through a qualitative case study of a corporate accelerator program. The results show that orchestration activities inherent in the accelerator's network are critical to driving value creation. We identified five such orchestration activities: 1) knowledge mobility and innovation sustainability, which leads to novelty; 2) innovation appropriability and 3) network stability for lock-in, keeping members in the network and increasing relationship quality; 4) innovation coherence as a source of complementarity; and, 5) leveraging resources for efficiency. Additionally, our research shows that value for startups begins with expanding their network reach, which encourages the development of new skills, the introduction of novel concepts, and the expansion of existing knowledge. The findings from this study contribute to the theoretical discourse on the importance of network orchestration in the context of corporate accelerators. By integrating orchestration activities into the broader network narrative, we gain insights into the central connecting role of accelerators and their practical relevance