The Role of Family Management and Management Control Systems in Promoting Technological Innovation in Family SMEs

This paper seeks to resolve the controversy regarding the relationship between family management and technological innovation outcomes. In contrast to prior studies, we focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and go beyond the traditional input-output statistical analysis, by introducing the mediating effect of the use of management control systems (MCS). We also further examine heterogeneity among family firms, studying whether a greater family management influences, directly or indirectly, on technological innovation outcomes. Our results from a data consists of 199 Spanish family-owned small and medium enterprises (FSMEs) were not able to indicate a significant direct influence of the level of family management on technological innovation outcome but supported the notion that the utilization of MCS mediated the above relationship.

The Impact of Transformational Leadership Factors on Public Service Innovation Outcomes: An Evidence from Bangladesh

The aim of this research is to examine the effect of the factors of Transformational leadership on public service innovation outcomes. Survey data collected from 500 innovation officers of field level administration of Bangladesh. Results from the multiple regression analysis using SPSS indicated that there was a positive impact of Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation and Individualized Consideration on public service innovation outcomes. The finding also implies that the policy makers should build a strong strategy to put more concentration and heighten transformational leadership to enhance public service innovation outcomes.

Managing the product innovations paradox: the individual and synergistic role of the firm inside-out and outside-in marketing capability

PurposeBuilding upon the firm market orientation theories, this study aims to examine the individual and synergistic effects of the firm inside-out and outside-in marketing capability on its incremental and radical product innovation outcomes.Design/methodology/approachBy collecting cross-sectional data from 203 manufacturing firms in Pakistan, confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS and hierarchical multiple regression analysis in SPSS are performed to validate the study measurement models and test the hypothesized relationships, respectively.FindingsThe findings of this study suggest both inside-out and outside-in marketing capability critical for incremental and radical product innovation. Specifically, inside-out marketing capability is found positively associated with incremental product innovation and non-linearly (inverted U-shaped) associated with radical product innovation. Conversely, outside-in marketing capability is found positively associated with radical product innovation but non-linearly (inverted U-shaped) associated with incremental product innovation. However, the results indorse that developing synergy between the inside-out and outside-in marketing capability positively impacts both incremental and radical product innovation.Originality/valueDrawing from the firm inside-out and outside-in market orientation theories, the study extends the existing research on product innovation outcomes from the marketing capabilities perspective. Previous literature highly recognized the value of the firm market orientation and being market-driven in market-based product innovations. However, there was a lack of understanding of how the firm marketing capabilities facilitate incremental and radical product innovation. This study provides a novel understanding of the firm inside-out and outside-in marketing capability role in inducing incremental and radical product innovation which enrich and extend the current literature on firm capabilities and product innovations from a marketing perspective.

A discriminant analysis of high and low-innovative firms: the role of IT, human resources, innovation strategy, intellectual capital and environmental dynamism

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of technological, organizational and environmental factors on the level of innovation outcomes in manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the technology-organization-environment theory this paper conducts a discriminant analysis of firms’ innovation level based on a data set of manufacturing SMEs. Findings The results show that low- and high-innovative firms can be distinguished in terms of information technology (IT) knowledge and infrastructure, commitment-based human resources (HR) selection practices, exploitative innovation and organizational capital. Practical implications The study findings support the idea that innovation is a complex phenomenon explained by multiple factors. As a consequence, firms need to devote extra efforts to develop IT knowledge and infrastructure, commitment-based HR selection practices and organizational capital because these are crucial for obtaining greater innovation outcomes. In addition, the identification of exploitative innovation as a strong discriminant variable highlights that the most effective way to be a highly innovative SME is through incremental innovation, which permits the firm to capitalize as much as possible on previous exploratory efforts. Originality/value Although many studies have highlighted that innovation is more challenging for SMEs than for their larger counterparts, the vast majority of studies has been conducted in large companies. This paper extends prior literature by analyzing the discriminant variables that may distinguish between low- and high-innovative manufacturing SMEs.

Lean Management Practices’ Effects on Brazilian Firms: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

One of the key drivers for a firm's productivity growth is management. One lean management practice considered cost-effective is Kaizen. Originally from Japan, the Kaizen basic concept is continuous improvement with the involvement of the full workforce. Using a firm-level dataset from Brazil's innovation and manufacturing surveys, this paper evaluates quantitatively whether Kaizen has impacted the performance of domestic firms. Our initial results suggest a productivity premium on Kaizen adopters, yet when it materializes is not detectable in the short term. Moreover, the impact on innovation is observable after Kaizen implementation. Understanding these outcomes with a qualitative approach, our analysis highlights the importance of Kaizen on innovation, especially by improving worker's time at the production line as well as the long-term vision of Kaizen on productivity. In summary, Kaizen is not a magic wand that improves firms’ performance in a wide array of indicators yet it may boost innovation outcomes in the short term aiming to improve productivity in the long term if it is implemented carefully and persistently, as established by its basic principles.

Performance Impacts of Innovation Outcomes in Entrepreneurial New Ventures

Entrepreneurial innovation and its link to performance are attracting increasing attention among academics, entrepreneurs, and innovators alike. Our purpose is to prioritise and investigate the relative impact of distinct categories and types of innovation on multidimensional performance areas of new ventures. Accordingly, we relate the recently developed 10 Types of Innovation model to a comprehensive performance measurement framework specific to entrepreneurial new ventures and conduct empirical validation of the model for performance impacts. The 10 Types model shows reasonable psychometric properties and appears to effectively portray the innovation outcome conundrum. Our empirical evidence shows that the influence of innovation categories – configuration, offering, and experience – is substantively different across various performance criteria. Conversely, the effects of innovation types on different performance areas (financial, customer, process, and learning) do not present important variations, and thus do not seem to be contingent upon the nature of the performance measures considered.

How the timing of cooperation affects innovation outcomes: An agent-based model of postponing the coupled search process

Organizations may face the problem of whether and when they should cooperate with others to accomplish a novel task. Prior literature answers this problem based on the transaction costs of cooperation, but ignores the effect of cooperation timing on innovation outcomes. Will postponing cooperation influence innovation outcomes? We develop a conceptual agent-based search and learning model to explore this question. We find that the timing of cooperation, the initial mental representations, and the search strategy jointly determine innovation search outcomes. Agents with initial mental representations that are inclined towards suboptimal outcomes can benefit more from postponing cooperation when the search strategy is exploitative. This study inserts the practical innovation problem into the framework of adaptive learning models and provides a novel perspective from which to understand the timing of cooperation.