scholarly journals Innovation Drivers and Outputs for Software Firms: Literature Review and Concept Development

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Rose ◽  
Brent Furneaux

Software innovation, the ability to produce novel and useful software systems, is an important capability for software development organizations and information system developers alike. However, the software development literature has traditionally focused on automation and efficiency while the innovation literature has given relatively little consideration to the software development context. As a result, there is a gap in our understanding of how software product and process innovation can be managed. Specifically, little attention has been directed toward synthesizing prior learning or providing an integrative perspective on the key concepts and focus of software innovation research. We therefore identify 93 journal articles and conference papers within the domain of software innovation and analyse repeating patterns in this literature using content analysis and causal mapping. We identify drivers and outputs for software innovation and develop an integrated theory-oriented concept map. We then discuss the implications of this map for future research.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. 1650033 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARY BETH ROUSSEAU ◽  
BLAKE D. MATHIAS ◽  
LAURA T. MADDEN ◽  
T. RUSSELL CROOK

Although innovation is considered the lifeblood of many organisations, firms are often challenged to derive the anticipated performance benefits of innovation. Research on the performance outcomes of innovation is similarly beset with mixed results and ambiguity. Through a meta-analysis of 62 studies over 20 years, this paper confirms a strong linkage between innovation and performance and reveals several contingencies. First, we find that inconsistency across performance outcomes is driven in part by stakeholder appropriation. Second, we find that hypercompetition is persistent over time and across industries. Finally, our aggregation of the evidence shows the integration of product and process innovation yields stronger performance gains than product innovation alone, and large firms reap greater performance benefits from innovation than small firms do. We build on these findings to bring focus to areas in which managers may improve performance gains from innovation, and highlight additional areas that can be informed by future research.



2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delroy Chevers ◽  
Annette M. Mills ◽  
Evan Duggan ◽  
Stanford Moore

For software development firms to be competitive they must assure the quality of the software product. This has led many firms to adopt software process improvement (SPI) programs such as the capability maturity model integration (CMMI). However, for small software firms, especially those in developing countries with limited resources, these programs are often too cumbersome and costly to implement. To address this issue, this paper proposes a simplified SPI model for small firms (SPM-S) comprised of 10 key software development practices; with fewer practices, the proposed model should be more accessible and less costly to implement. Using data collected in four developing countries in the English-speaking Caribbean from 112 developer/user dyads, the model is evaluated with respect to its impact on software quality. The findings show that the software development process coupled with supporting technology (e.g. project management tools) significantly impact software product quality. Implications for software process improvement in small firms and future research are discussed.



2012 ◽  
pp. 201-222
Author(s):  
Yujian Fu ◽  
Zhijang Dong ◽  
Xudong He

The approach aims at solving the above problems by including the analysis and verification of two different levels of software development process–design level and implementation level-and bridging the gap between software architecture analysis and verification and the software product. In the architecture design level, to make sure the design correctness and attack the large scale of complex systems, the compositional verification is used by dividing and verifying each component individually and synthesizing them based on the driving theory. Then for those properties that cannot be verified on the design level, the design model is translated to implementation and runtime verification technique is adapted to the program. This approach can highly reduce the work on the design verification and avoid the state-explosion problem using model checking. Moreover, this approach can ensure both design and implementation correctness, and can further provide a high confident final software product. This approach is based on Software Architecture Model (SAM) that was proposed by Florida International University in 1999. SAM is a formal specification and built on the pair of component-connector with two formalisms – Petri nets and temporal logic. The ACV approach places strong demands on an organization to articulate those quality attributes of primary importance. It also requires a selection of benchmark combination points with which to verify integrated properties. The purpose of the ACV is not to commend particular architectures, but to provide a method for verification and analysis of large scale software systems in architecture level. The future research works fall in two directions. In the compositional verification of SAM model, it is possible that there is circular waiting of certain data among different component and connectors. This problem was not discussed in the current work. The translation of SAM to implementation is based on the restricted Petri nets due to the undecidable issue of high level Petri nets. In the runtime analysis of implementation, extraction of the execution trace of the program is still needed to get a white box view, and further analysis of execution can provide more information of the product correctness.



Author(s):  
Chun Zhang ◽  
Fang Wu

The increased reliance on external suppliers for generating new product and process innovation has resulted in a growing number of studies on supply chain innovation (SCI). This growing body of research, however, utilizes diverse theoretical perspectives to examine constructs relevant to SCI and has generated fragmented findings on the facilitators of SCI. In particular, although a large number of SCIs occur in a buyer–supplier relationship, the relationship characteristics that foster innovation generation remain unclear. The current study synthesizes the existing literature on innovation in buyer–supplier relationships and provides a comprehensive framework that highlights the key characteristics of a buyer–supplier relationship that foster SCIs. The study also aims to identify new opportunities for future research regarding innovation generation involving upstream suppliers.



Author(s):  
Xavier Ferre ◽  
Natalia Juristo ◽  
Ana M. Moreno

Usability has become a critical quality factor in software systems, and it has been receiving increasing attention over the last few years in the SE (software engineering) field. HCI techniques aim to increase the usability level of the final software product, but they are applied sparingly in mainstream software development, because there is very little knowledge about their existence and about how they can contribute to the activities already performed in the development process. There is a perception in the software development community that these usability-related techniques are to be applied only for the development of the visible part of the UI (user interface) after the most important part of the software system (the internals) has been designed and implemented. Nevertheless, the different paths taken by HCI and SE regarding software development have recently started to converge. First, we have noted that HCI methods are being described more formally in the direction of SE software process descriptions. Second, usability is becoming an important issue on the SE agenda, since the software products user base is ever increasing and the degree of user computer literacy is decreasing, leading to a greater demand for usability improvements in the software market. However, the convergence of HCI and SE has uncovered the need for an integration of the practices of both disciplines. This integration is a must for the development of highly usable systems. In the next two sections, we will look at how the SE field has viewed usability. Following upon this, we address the existing approaches to integration. We will then detail the pending issues that stand in the way of successful integration efforts, concluding with the presentation of an approach that might be successful in the integration endeavor.



2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 356-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan L. Skiver

While successful performance in terms of cost savings for firms expanding beyond their home boundaries has been well noted in the literature. Other factors, such as product and process innovation gained through this global process, have not been well examined. The aim of this study is to answer four specific research questions: 1) What are the reasons for going global in today’s economy? 2) How can a global supply chain lead to increased innovation? 3) What are the specific ways that companies can gain product and process innovation in a global supply chain? 4) What is a model that can be examined for future research?This literature review examines areas of human resource management and supply chain management through the theory of absorptive capacity in a rapidly expanding global environment. In addressing the four main questions, this review will present emerging research issues for global supply chains.



2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangelos Psomas ◽  
Dimitrios Kafetzopoulos ◽  
Katerina Gotzamani

Purpose The present study focuses on two basic determinants of company innovation, namely, quality practices of top management and process quality management. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of these determinants on product and process innovation. Determining the impact of these dimensions of innovation on the market performance of a company is also an aim of the present study. Design/methodology/approach A research study was carried out on a sample of 433 Greek manufacturing and service companies. Data were obtained through a structured questionnaire from the chief executive officers of the companies. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are applied to extract and validate all the latent factors considered in the suggested model, while their relationships are determined through structural equation modeling. Findings The analysis of the empirical data shows that both the dimensions of company innovation examined in the present study (product and process innovation) are positively influenced by the quality practices of top management and process quality management. Improving these two dimensions of company innovation, in turn, results in increased market performance. Research limitations/implications First, the sample of the responding manufacturing and service Greek companies which includes both small and medium-sized enterprises and large companies and which operate in circumstances of financial crisis; second, the subjective data collected from only one company representative; and third, the examination of only two factors influencing company innovation, are the main limitations of the present study. Based on these limitations, future research studies are recommended. Practical implications The empirically validated theoretical model of the present study can guide the policy makers of a company to select a quality management and innovation strategy through which the company can lay the foundations to increase its market performance, and thus, overcome the current economic downturn and financial crisis. Researchers can also use the suggested valid model as an assessment tool, a benchmarking tool and a tool for the design of their future research studies. Originality/value The present study contributes to the literature by determining a valid model that describes simultaneously the relationships between quality management factors, product and process innovation and market performance. This is also the first study reflecting Greek companies’ efforts to withstand the current downturn and penetrate the market through innovation.



Author(s):  
Jingyu Kim ◽  
Sungwon Kang ◽  
Jihyun Lee

Software traceability is the ability to provide trace information on requirements, design, and implementation of a system. It helps stakeholders understand the many associations of software artifacts created during a software development project. End-to-end traceability refers to linkage of all artifacts in the entire lifecycle of a software development project. Its goal is to provide stakeholders of the software development with trace information in order to analyze impacts due to changes in a software system. Compared to that of a single product, the end-to-end traceability of software product line is more complicated because Software Product Line Development (SPLD) requires two separate but intimately related phases of domain engineering and application engineering. Various SPLD traceability approaches have been proposed in the past. However, thus far no research work on SPLD traceability has focused on SPLD end-to-end traceability. This paper defines SPLD end-to-end traceability and evaluates the existing SPLD traceability approaches from SPLD end-to-end traceability perspectives. We surveyed studies on SPLD traceability methods, traceability mechanisms used in major SPLD approaches, and software traceability survey papers. We compared the existing SPLD traceability approaches based on Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Through the survey, we found that none of the SPLD traceability studies fully supports SPLD end-to-end traceability, and there are unexplored research areas of SPLD end-to-end traceability in the existing SPLD traceability studies. The contribution of this paper is that it presents future research directions that give research guidelines for each unexplored research area in SPLD end-to-end traceability. Finally, based on the research directions, this paper suggests future research opportunities for SPLD end-to-end traceability.



Author(s):  
V. A. Fedorova ◽  
T. A. Moiseeva ◽  
E. V. Poddubnaya

Currently, software is used in many areas of human activity. But the developers of software systems often have problems that leads to exceeding the time and budget of development, as well as reduces the quality and security of software. The paper proposes a methodology developed by the authors, which allows you to standardize the process of creating software. The proposed approach greatly facilitates the organization of the process of collective development and management of software development, improves the quality of the developed software, reduces the risks of the developer and the customer and also reduces the time spent on the creation of software and the cost of its development. The developed technique fully standardizes the software development process, from the moment of creation of specification and ending with the introduction and support of the software product.



2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 103-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keng Siau ◽  
Yuhong Tian

The global open source movement has provided software users with more choices, lower software acquisition cost, more flexible software customization, and possibly higher quality software product. Although the development of open source software is dynamic and it encourages innovations, the process can be chaotic and involve members around the globe. An Open Source Software Development (OSSD) process model to enhance the survivability of OSSD projects is needed. This research uses the grounded theory approach to derive a Phase-Role-Skill-Responsibility (PRSR) OSSD process model. The three OSSD process phases -- Launch Stage, Before the First Release, and Between Releases -- address the characteristics of the OSSD process as well as factors that influence the OSSD process. In the PRSR model, different roles/actors are required to have different skills and responsibilities corresponding to each of the three OSSD process phases. This qualitative research contributes to the software development literature as well as open source practice.



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