Influencing Indicators Determination - Precondition for Successful Innovation Management in Mechanical Industry

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish the most important influencing parameters concerning innovation processes aimed at achieving improved business performance in the machinery and equipment manufacturing industry in Slovenia. A five steps research methodology was applied. Initially, a group of variables among the statistical data was selected, and then some additional variables were defined. In the third step, the variables were dispersed among the following categories: input, process, indirect output and direct output variables. In the fourth step, reciprocal correlations among particular variables were calculated prior to the final selection of the most important correlations and their interpretation. The influential input and process variables were estimated, and these indicate not only the sequence of activities but also particular areas where additional effort needs to be invested in innovation. The research limitations are related to statistical methodology since the used correlation coefficient itself does not provide any information on the direction of the cause-effect relation. Further limitations are connected with statistical data failing to cover all the important topics related to the innovation performance within a company. There are also some misleading questions/definitions in the SURS/Eurostat which partially result in subjective results. The time delay factor also represents one of the limitations of the study. Namely, a change in certain influencing parameters (e.g. R&D expenditure) normally requires a certain period of time to actually come into effect. The findings also represent a set of suggested guidelines in which enterprises, national policy leaders and also supporting environment organisations should put their efforts. The way of analysing and interpreting the data deriving from the mechanical industry are new. Besides, the results and conclusion are also original and may be applied by the aforementioned target groups