Science and Innovations: Variety of the Relationships

The purpose of the article is to analyze the relationship between scientific research and different types of innovation. For this, it is shown that the innovation process has a systemic character, and science is present as an integral element in the implementation of each of the considered types of innovations – production, organizational and social. A brief description of these types is given and it is shown that the contribution of science is carried out at different stages of the innovation process, considered as a process of solving a particular problem. The most significant contribution of sciences (especially natural) is to industrial innovation; social sciences have some potential to contribute to organizational innovations; the problems,that are subjects of social innovations have no scientific solving whereby the social sciences can only provide the development of options for innovations, but not the choice among them.

COVID-19 – An Opportunity to Improve Access to Primary Care Through Organizational Innovations?

Background COVID-19 catalyzed a rapid and substantial reorganization of primary care, accelerating the spread of existing strategies and fostering a proliferation of innovations. Access to primary care is an essential component of a health care system, particularly during a pandemic. We describe organizational innovations aiming to improve access to primary care and related contextual changes, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in two Canadian provinces, Quebec and Nova Scotia.MethodsWe conducted a multiple case studies, based on 63 semi-structured interviews (n=33 in Quebec, n=30 in Nova Scotia) conducted between October 2020 and May 2021 and a review of related internal documents from both jurisdictions. We recruited a diverse range of provincial and regional stakeholders (e.g., policymakers, decision-makers, family physicians, nurses) involved in reorganizing primary care during COVID-19 using purposeful sampling (e.g., based on role, region). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis was conducted in NVivo12. Emerging results were discussed by team members to identify salient themes and organized into logic models.Results We identified and analyzed six organizational innovations. Four of these - centralized public online booking systems, centralized access centers for unattached patients, and interim primary care clinics for unattached patients and community connector to health and social services for older adults – pre-dated COVID-19 but were accelerated by the pandemic context. The remaining two innovations were created to specifically address pandemic-related needs: COVID-19 hotlines and COVID dedicated primary healthcare clinics. Innovation spread and proliferation was influenced by several factors such as a strengthened sense of community amongst providers, decreased patient demand at the beginning of the first wave, renewed policy and provider interest in population-wide access (versus attachment of patients only), suspended performance targets (e.g., continuity ≥80%) in Quebec, in modality of care delivery, modified fee codes, and greater regional flexibility to implement tailored innovations.Conclusion COVID-19 accelerated the uptake and creation of organizational innovations to potentially improve access to primary healthcare, removing, at least temporarily, certain longstanding barriers. Many stakeholders believed this reorganization would have positive impacts on access to primary care after COVID-19. Further studies should analyze the effectiveness and sustainability of innovations adapted, developed, and implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The effects of importing activities on technological and non-technological innovation: evidence from Chilean firms

PurposeThe authors analyzed the effects of importing activities on both technological and non-technological innovation in Chile. They contribute to the literature by hypothesizing and testing the idea that importing activities can foster the introduction of product, process, marketing and organizational innovations in emerging market firms.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a combination of two economic surveys that included 1,347 Chilean companies. To test their hypotheses, they applied a variant of the Crépon-Duguet-Mairesse (CDM) model (Crépon et al., 1998) accounting for technological and non-technological innovation outputs. Specifically, four alternative innovation output indicators were used to measure the introduction of product, process, marketing and organizational innovations.FindingsThe results revealed that importing activities had positive effects on technological and non-technological innovation. Importers showed a significant advantage in the introduction of product, marketing and organizational innovations. Firms that both import and export (i.e. two-way traders) had an even greater advantage in the introduction of new or significantly improved products.Originality/valueThe authors demonstrated a relationship between importing activities and both technological and non-technological innovation that is novel and relevant, particularly at a historical moment when COVID-19 poses huge economic challenges to emerging market firms. As trade disruptions caused by the pandemic have predisposed some governments to favor protectionist policies, the authors warn that erecting barriers against imports can hamper the innovative success of local businesses.

The financialisation of the fishing industry

Successive technical and organizational innovations have modelled the current structure and composition of the fishing industry. The market structure varies considerably between countries and the fish species they catch. There is a generalised global convergence towards an industrial-outsourced model, in which companies occupy a central and basic position in economic strategies. Two predominant key trends are identified: financialisation and the monopolisation of fishing areas. This paper begins with an analysis of the fishing sector from the perspective of the presence of investment funds that hold stakes in companies specialising in a principal region of Europe.

AN EXAMINATION OF THE IMPACT OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP ON INDIVIDUAL CREATIVITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATIONS IN THE ICT INDUSTRY IN VIETNAM

Purpose of the study: In the present study, information was obtained from 245 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) organizations from Vietnam using a market-oriented criterion to assess individual creativity, ethical leadership, and organizational innovation. Methodology: The absolute, as well as intended influences of ethical leaderships over the creativities along with innovations, were investigated using modelling that is multilevel plus tiered regressions analysis. We also tested the direct and indirect effects of ethical leadership on creativity and innovation using multilevel modelling and hierarchical regression analyses, respectively. Main Findings: The results showed ethical leadership is a strong indicator of both human and organizational imagination. On the corporate levels, observations suggest that ethical leadership remains closely correlated with organizational innovations. The results also suggest that ethical leadership is an essential method for promoting entrepreneurship and advancing growth in both emerging countries and newly developed industries. Applications of this study: On the corporate levels, observations suggest that ethical leadership remains closely correlated with organizational innovations. Novelty/Originality of this study: The study’s key part remains essentially to examine creativity as a possible intermediary in favour of the ethical leadership’s organizational interconnections, in which a markets-focused standard is used as a surrogate for innovations at the organizational level.

About some trends in the development of agricultural cooperatives in Canada

The article presents the results of the analysis and generalization of the experience of the development of agricultural cooperatives in Canada (a country with a centuries-old history of agricultural cooperation), its successful cooperative practices at various historical stages (including the present). Within the framework of the presented study, a number of important scientific conclusions were obtained, including: 1) generalization of trends in the evolution of Canadian farms (as active participants in agricultural cooperation) and characteristics of their current state; 2) specification of technological and organizational innovations undertaken by Canadian agricultural cooperatives to strengthen their competitive position; 3) identification of promising trends in the development of agricultural cooperation in Canada, reflecting both the essential transformations of the phenomenon under consideration (agricultural cooperative), and fluctuations of its environment; 4) determining the importance of using foreign (Canadian) cooperative experience for the development of agricultural cooperation in Russia. The presented material is distinguished by the novelty of approaches, the adequacy of the research tools used, and the representativeness of the statistical data used. The factors of the effective functioning of Canadian agricultural cooperatives scientifi cally substantiated in the study, as well as the basic principles of their modern models, are advisable to use (as international experience) in the development of the domestic system of agricultural cooperation in a modern (global, mobile, unstable, unpredictable) environment, taking into account its new challenges. The conclusions obtained in the course of the work and the conclusions proposed by the authors are of both scientific interest (for further theoretical and empirical research) and practical significance (for specialists interested in the creation and successful functioning of domestic agricultural cooperatives).