Developing a conceptual framework for integrating risk management in the innovation project

Increased competition, rapidly changing technology and customer expectations have caused the innovation process to become more complex and uncertain. This study examines the possible benefits of integrating some of the concepts of risk management into the innovation project. However, adopting rigorous risk management at every stage of the innovation process could be costly: some risk management could be valuable, but too much, or inappropriate risk management might stifle innovation. There are many separate models for innovation and risk management. This study develops a combined theoretical model which aims to help the understanding of appropriate risk management in innovation. The theoretical model is based on the classic innovation process but emphasises critical decision points and information needs at various stages, with various possible contributions from risk management. The stage-gate innovation process model, with its emphasis on decisions, provides a basis for incorporating risk management with decisions related to criteria and information needs; this stage-gate model was employed in the study as the core of a theoretical model combining innovation and risk management. The theoretical model was tested in a series of empirical case studies in the United Kingdom and Iran. These involved 40 detailed interviews in five medium-large companies from a variety of industries. The case studies suggest that the combined model of risk and innovation management should be relevant across diverse industries: staff from different countries (UK and Iran), industries and functional backgrounds could all relate to it and the theoretical model provided a useful structure for developing a more detailed understanding of the possible roles and implementation of risk management in innovation. The study suggests that there is no simple guidance that companies can apply in all situations. The choice of risk management techniques varies with different innovation projects, the characteristics of the particular industry and the environment. In addition, different aspects of the risk management system are useful in different stages of the innovation project and attempting to apply a standard technique throughout the innovation project could lead to failure. A prime example is in the creativity stage: simple risk identification at this stage may be useful but more rigorous risk analysis may be stifle creativity. More rigorous risk analysis may be more appropriate in the later stages of the innovation process. Companies can use this theoretical model to help people appreciate the possible contribution of risk management at the different stages of the innovation project

Identifying of Entrepreneurship Behaviors: Case of Country in Transition Economy

Successful companies recognize that the most important elements in the organization are the ability to use the creativity of managers and their employees through the recognition of their behaviors. One of the most important strategies for developing Entrepreneurship in organizations is to improve and enhance the Entrepreneurial behavior of employees and sustainable supply chain management, but what is to be deduced from the review of the history of the research is that most of the research in the field of Entrepreneurship personality has featured them. Less focused on behaviors, especially in developing countries and transition economies. The research is part of a series of research that seeks to identify and identify the components of Entrepreneurial behavior in the organization in Iran as a developing country, which is one of the economies in transition. This research is a qualitative research in which a thematic analysis approach has been used. The statistical community of this research is capable of employing 170 employers. The findings of the study showed that 27 components of Entrepreneurial behaviors in the organization, including 10 personality-based Entrepreneurial behaviors and 17 effective Entrepreneurial behaviors from the environment

Investigating the Effects of Firm Affective Commitment to Loyal Customers on the Customers’ Citizenship Behavior Considering the Mediating Role of Customers’ Affective Commitment to the Firm (Case Study of Mellat Bank Branches in Neishabour City)

Nowadays, the complex and dynamic field of the banking industry has faced challenges such as expanding competition, raising awareness and expectations of the customers. The low costs of changing the main bank for the customers and joining rival banks can be a result of the lack of loyalty programs in banks in order to bring about values for their customers. In fact, banks can increase their switching cost by creating loyalty in the customers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of organization’s effective commitment to loyal customers on their citizenship behavior regarding the mediating role of effective commitment of loyal customers among Mellat Bank Branches in Neishabour. This study is applied in terms of the purpose and is a descriptive and surveying study in terms of collecting data. Data collection was done using a questionnaire. The statistical population of the research is those customers of Mellat bank branches in Neyshabur who have been cooperating with the bank for at least 3 years. The sample size consists of 240 customers chosen based on simple randomized sampling. Data analysis was done based on structural equation modeling and using Amos software. The results of the research indicated that the organization’s effective commitment to loyal customers has a significant effect on their citizenship behavior considering the mediating role of customer’s effective commitment

Explanation Ethical Leadership Components in Islamic Republic of Iran's Defense Industry Organization with a Qualitative Approach

AbstractThe purpose of the present study is to introduce those characteristics of ethical leaders. This research uses an interpretive philosophy, a qualitative approach, and a grounded strategy based on Glaser’s emergent approach. The study population was the Defense Industries Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In addition, comprehensive interviews were conducted with 22 senior and ethical managers of the organization who were knowledgeable about the components and characteristics of ethical leaders. The sampling method was based on snowball sampling. Since the data were collected using interview method, the data analysis method was based on the Glaser’s coding method, and the results of interview analysis and coding in two stages of actual and theoretical coding showed that ethical leadership components included religiosity, ethical personality, being revolutionary and having analytical insights. Each of these components comprises categories that totaled 4 components, 43 categories, and 698 concepts. Overall, considering the ethical leadership components in this indigenous study, ethical leaders in this organization have characteristics that encourage Defense Industries Organization executives to achieve these benchmarks to cope with enemy threats as well as international and economic constraints and attain organizational excellence as well as modernization and transformation in the organization so that they can drive organization employees toward organizational goals with better motivation and more efforts.IntroductionEthics and ethical leadership is one of the topics that has always been of interest to individuals and organizations and has recently been extensively studied and researched as an interesting topic (Laajalahti, 2018). The abundance of research in this area is evidence of the importance of ethics (Maroto-Sánchez, 2012). On the other hand, one of the issues that has been the concern of organizations and researchers for the past four decades is leadership styles. It is also important for government and government agencies to examine the issue of organizational ethics (Joseph et al., 2009), because research results indicate that the weakness of organizational ethics will reduce the sense of responsibility in the organization, reduce productivity, increase organizational costs and lead to the spread of unethical behavior in the organization (Duh et al., 2010). Therefore, due to the importance of ethical issues in the workplace (Caza et al., 2004), ethics has become an essential element in organizations (Trevino & Nelson, 2016), because ethical leadership can influence the formation of an ethical environment in an organization, which in turn affects and reduces deviant behavior in the workplace.Theoretical frameworkExperts and scholars have examined the term leadership from various perspectives and provided various definitions of it. Mohammed et al. (2014: 89) consider the leadership as an essential and dynamic element of employee satisfaction and organizational performance that is seen as an important issue in employee job satisfaction and as a critical factor for organizational success. Ho et al. (H2016: 160) define leadership as a process of social effectiveness through which the leader seeks to create a voluntary participation of followers to achieve the organization's interests and goals. Some others have also identified the leader as a determinative, motivating, driving, mobilizing, influential person for followers to make them perform their tasks to achieve specific organizational goals (Elbaz & Haddoud, 2017).Ethical leadership, through demonstrating ethical behavior and consequently the development of ethical behavior, leads to commitment in followers (Caldwell, 2017). Ethical leadership was conceptualized by Brown, Treviño, and Harrison (Brow, et al., 2005) as follows: demonstrating normative appropriate behavior through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and promoting such behavior for followers through empowerment, decision making, and two-way communication. Kalahan (1998) also provide a definition of theoretical normative ethics, especially virtue ethics, which focuses on the actions and practices of ethical factors, which is in line with the definition of Brown et al. (2005). The definition of ethical leadership provided by Brown, Treviño, and Harrison (Brown et al., 2005) has been accepted as the benchmark definition and has therefore been used by subsequent researchers (Brown & Treviño, 2014; Neubert et al., 2009; Piccolo et al., 2010; Stouten et al., 2012).Materials and MethodsThis research uses an interpretive philosophy, a qualitative approach, and a grounded strategy with an emergent approach, and its analysis method is based on the Glaser’s coding approach. Trustworthiness of the findings (validity and reliability) of the research was also assessed through four criteria of Guba and Lincoln that included validity, transferability, reliability, and verifiability.According to the examinations by the researchers of this study in relation to the interrelations between the concepts, it seems that in this study, the "dimensions" family in the emergent approach may best combine concepts and categories. The model of this study is embedded in the “dimension coding family”. As mentioned, the components of ethical leadership include 4 components, 43 categories, and 698 codes or concepts. The first component is religiosity, the second one is ethical personality, the third is to be revolutionary, and the last one is to have analytical insights.Case StudyThe study population is the Defense Industries Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact, the study population consisted of the employees and experts of the Defense Industries Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran who had theoretical and practical knowledge of the subject matter and had sufficient dominance over the examined phenomenon and had experienced ethical leadership.ConclusionEthical leadership generally consists of the components that efforts are made to achieve them. These components are in the form of traits that moral leaders possess. However, these components do not exist in all ethical leaders, but an ethical leader must possess all these components to necessarily and sufficiently benefit from these qualities, otherwise he may not fully implement ethical leadership. However, some traits per se enable one to become an ethical leader. For example, the religiosity feature can improve other features.Another component of ethical leadership is ethical character. Consistent with the results of this study, one author described the dimensions of ethical leadership as honesty, compassion, and fairness (Karami et al., 2016). Kalshoven (2011) also consider some aspects of ethical leadership as fairness, honesty, ethical guidance, democracy, and power sharing.Other characteristics of ethical leaders include being revolutionary and having analytical insights. A revolutionary leader puts the values ​​of the revolution at the forefront. With the insight and vision gained through his competencies, this leader can make the best decisions at the right time and properly guide employees and the organization as a leading person

Nudge Management in Healthcare Organizations: Causes and Motives

Background: A nudge can cause favorable behavioral changes in line with organizational goals and even increase productivity, satisfaction with, and trust in healthcare organizations. Nurses must make sound and fast decisions to meet patient needs and perform the necessary interventions as they have limited time to stop and logically analyze what actions they must take. Besides, sometimes people make decisions that are not bad for them, but they need to receive help to make better choices. Hence, nudging strategies can help them to make more effective decisions. To this end, the present study aimed to identify the reasons for using nudges in healthcare organizations.Methods: Following interpretive philosophy and a qualitative approach, the present study sought to identify the reasons for using nudges. This study was conducted using a grounded theory approach based on Colaizzi’s seven-step data analysis method. The research population included nurses working in private and public hospitals in Kerman. The participants were 15 nurses who were selected through purposive sampling until the data were saturated.Results: Data analysis showed people tend to use nudges for individual reasons such as minimizing mistakes at work, reducing stress, valuable changes, decreasing the risk of criticism, reducing the halo effect and stereotyping errors, preserving the personality, not losing freedom, cognitive limitations, increasing the probability of accepting the message, and maintaining relationships; managerial reasons such as flexible and gradual nature of nudges, risk management, extra-role behaviors, safety, the elimination of unnecessary formalities, ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and behavior management; and finally organizational reasons such as increasing productivity, creating a favorable climate, promoting a culture of criticism, win-win strategy, increasing trust in the organization, and risk management tools.Conclusion: The data in this study revealed that staff in healthcare organizations tend to use nudges for individual, managerial, and organizational reasons. An awareness of these reasons helps healthcare organizations to use nudging strategies in emergencies and in a limited period to change employees’ behavior in line with organizational goals and policies

Integrating risk management in the innovation project

Purpose - While innovation has many similarities to other forms of projects it is characterised by a high failure rate and the need to stimulate creativity. More explicit risk management could help in achieving success in innovation projects. However, too much or inappropriate risk management might stifle the creativity that is core to innovation. So, what project risk management should be applied and where in the innovation project? Design/methodology/approach - A theoretical framework is proposed which combines the generic innovation process with project risk management. The framework was used to analyse the current attitudes to managing innovation risk in a series of companies. Findings - The decision points of the stage-gate innovation process model provide an effective interface for incorporating project risk concepts. The general concepts appear most relevant to innovation management though it is useful to customise them to emphasise the particular characteristics of innovation projects. The experience of using the resultant combined model in a number of diverse case studies indicates the relevance of the model in understanding attitudes towards risk management in innovation. The analysis of the case study companies suggested that risk management needs to be applied in differential manner: simple, unobtrusive techniques early in the innovation life cycle with more substantial, quantitative methods being considered for later stages. Research limitations/implications - It would be useful to extend this research by examining more case studies from other countries and industries. Practical implications - The combined innovation and risk management model provides a framework that diverse companies can appreciate. The framework offers a basis for discussing the most appropriate form of risk management in different innovation-based industries. Originality/value - Although there are many separate models for innovation and project risk management described in the literature, there is very little discussion about explicitly combining these theories. This paper aims to help fill this gap in the knowledge

The impact of social network on the innovative behavior of it professionals: what is the role of sharing mistakes?

In today’s competitive world, organizations need constant innovations in products, services and processes in order to grow and survive. Key of Innovation is in the innovative behavior of organization employees. Various factors affect the innovative behavior of the staff. The existence of a social network among the employees is one of the factors which can affect this behavior. Despite this fact, the way it affects is one of the major issues in the society of IT professionals. The aim of the research is investigating the mediatory role of sharing mistakes in the impact of social network on innovative behavior of IT professionals. In order to evaluate the research variables, a questionnaire of 18 questions has been used. This questionnaire has been distributed among 210 IT professionals in Mashhad. To analyze the data, structural equation modeling has been used. The results of this research showed that social network has positive impact on sharing mistakes. Also sharing mistakes has impact on generating and promoting ideas. In addition sharing mistakes mediates the impact of social network on generating and promoting ideas. Finally, in the conclusion of the scientific achievement of this research, one can refer to the fact that to promote and develop the IT companies in this competitive industry, innovation is needed. Innovation is created by the innovative employees. To behave innovatively, the employees should have contact through social network, yet if the social network leads the employees to share their mistakes, it would enhance the innovative behavior to a greater extent

The Effects of Collaboration and Egalitarian on Innovation Performance

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the mediating effect of knowledge absorptive capacity on the relationship between social capital-enhancing HR (egalitarian and collaboration) and innovation performance. The purpose of this study is applied and its method is a descriptive survey. The data collection tool is a questionnaire. The statistical population of the study is food companies in Toos industrial zone of Mashhad. From this statistical population, 102 companies were selected by simple random sampling. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and Smart PLS software were used to analyze the data and hypotheses of this study. The findings show that the implementation of egalitarian and collaboration policies has a direct and significant impact on organizational innovation performance and the organizational knowledge absorptive capacity plays a mediating role in the relationship between egalitarian and collaboration

Investigating the effect of Affective Commitment on Employees’ Resistance to Change through the Mediating Role of Attitudes and Readiness for Change

Organizations have to innovate and change in current dynamic and complex environment. Organizational change studies show that employees don’t associate in organizational changes and resist to change most of the times. Resistance to change will result to the failure in changing plans. In this study, we are going to investigate the effect of affective commitment on resistance to change through the mediating role of attitudes toward change and readiness for change among the Mellat Bank employees of Mashhad. The descriptive-survey research strategy has been used to conduct study. Data was collected by a standard measurement and was performed by employing AMOS and SPSS. Face validity and content validity were used for testing the validity of measurement and Cronbach’s Alpha for testing the reliability of data. The findings suggest that affective commitment has effects on Resistance to change. Furthermore, the mediating role of attitude towards change and readiness for change-as one of the neglected cases in previous studies-was confirmed