Innovation Management

The chapter aims to demonstrate how important the administration of innovation is as a competitive strategy in business. In order to clarify the objectives of these studies, the authors show the importance of the administration of inovation in small business to present the advantages and disvantages of the process related administration of innovation and how it can make a competitive administration of innovation strategic point. The methodological approach was the quantitative and qualitative, descriptive and purpose applied to a case study in the company which served as sample survey, with the participation of 9 employees, including 2 managers and 7 employees. As a result, it is evaluated that 86% approve and 14% disapprove of innovation management and its benefits in developing processes and ensuring a satisfactory standard of competitiveness. The chapter reveals how making this tool can change businesses in a positive way, making the company more competitive and giving the managers more agility and precision in their processes.

The Influence of Knowledge Management Process Supported With Organizational Strategies on Organizational Performance via Organizational Innovation and Technology

In this chapter, the authors aim to investigate the impact of knowledge management and strategy configuration coherence on İstanbul stock market businesses' innovation and organizational performance through a quantitative analysis carried out on a sample of 203 İstanbul stock market businesses. This study also identified the relationship of organizational performance from the standpoint of the balanced scorecard, which includes the customer-related, internal business process and perceptual financial aspects of organizational performance in İstanbul stock market businesses context. A survey was administered and a sample of 203 middle managers was analyzed using partial least squares (PLS-Smart 2.0) for inferential analysis and SPSS version 22 for descriptive insights. The results of the study revealed that business strategies influence the knowledge management processes fully or partially. Knowledge management processes influence the innovation partially. Innovation influences the organizational performance fully. Knowledge management processes and technology influence the organizational performance partially. Knowledge management processes, technology, and business strategies influence the organizational performance partially.

Impact Assessment of Policies and Practices for Agile Software Process Improvement

This chapter proposes the application of computer simulation models for the evaluation of software quality improvement through the implementation of policies and practices of software development processes and performing the measurement of the evolution of the quality through the Six Sigma methodology. In order to provide decision makers of process improvement, a model of dynamic simulation of systems was proposed. Model validation was performed using data collected from various projects developed in an information technology company headquartered in Belo Horizonte-MG. The models mentioned in this chapter are able to provide the decision makers a tooling of process improvement able to perform predictions, predictions, analysis of “what if” scenarios in the model. As a result of this work, a dynamic simulation model of systems capable of performing the evaluation of software quality in Sigma level is found. Also, there are comparisons and analyses of actual data of software development projects with the simulation data of the models presented. The earnings with the new version of the case exceed by more than 50% the Sigma level, the quality of software developed, and reduction of more than 55% of the time of development of the project.

Innovation Competencies to Potentiate Global Trade

In this chapter, the authors will analyze the concept of competencies and their importance as a driver for global trade growth. The relevance of this research is based on the approach to theories of organizational innovation articulating them with the theories of competencies development. To formulate the research problem, two analytical dimensions were considered: innovation and competencies anchored to the following research question, What are the innovation competencies that can boost global trade? Based on the literature review of recent research (2013-2017), the authors investigated and identified the competencies needed to develop a culture of innovation in organizations. The main goal of this study is centered on the research of more relevant competencies which can contribute to organization innovation processes and develop global trade.

The Creation of a Context to Knowledge Management and Innovation

In spite of a contemporary discussion about the management of knowledge and the deep use of technologies focused on architecture, organization and knowledge detection based on organization inner data analysis, as well as public data available on the internet, it is necessary a critic look above the organization knowledge creation processes even as the load of tacit knowledge there is in an organization. It is observed that the evolution of technologies, such as mobile computing, the web, besides the architecture of the computers and their ability of handling and storage data, has brought to the information economy or the age of knowledge, diverting focus on people, the central axis of organizational knowledge, and their ability to reason, infer, make decisions, and above them all the processes of knowledge creation focused on the collaborative solution of problems and generation of innovation based on the socialization of knowledge.

Information Systems for the Management of the Organizations

This chapter investigates the key concepts of information systems, as well as the role of information in the information management activities, in terms of supporting decision making by different organizations' managers in the literature of information sciences and business sciences. The information has become, in the global economy, a source of value for organizations, assuming a key role in contributing to the development of the performance of the same. The relationship of information management with business management helps the process of decision making.

An Approach to Knowledge Management With an E-Learning Platform

Knowledge management is still a problem for many organizations and at two different levels: tacit knowledge, which typically resides in the head of each individual and gets lost for the organizations when a person goes to work with a different company; and explicit knowledge, which presents growing costs for its dissemination in the organization. In the chapter, the author proposes a model to address those problems, taking for base the SECI (socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization) model, originally developed for knowledge management, together with an e-learning platform and a set of activities as tools to implement a working solution. Such models have the ability to solve organizational knowledge problems, implementing a knowledge management process, allowing the transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.

The Importance of Logistics Dimension in Information Management

The evolution of management processes and the speed of the markets have highlighted the increasingly evident need for sharing of information and knowledge between the different economic agents. The competitiveness of economic organizations in a relational economic environment requires quality information. This feature is a critical success factor in the performance of economic activities. Organizations should seek to understand the internal and external dynamics inherent to the realization of their economic activities, identifying the various partners involved, and integrating their information systems, among others. The Volkswagen Autoeuropa is a reference to the management and economic organizations in which is evident the importance of information in the development of its activities with its partners and its centrality in the operation of the entire production chain. The objective of this study is to highlight the importance of logistics vision on the architecture of information systems, with reference to the case of Volkswagen Autoeuropa.

Information Management and the Competitive Advantages

This chapter reflects the result of the analysis of the importance of information management in organizational innovation and the generation of competitive advantages in a cooperative of aromatic and medicinal plants production. Information is the main resource of management. It is important to assume that information becomes useful only after it has been analyzed, treated, and shared. It is then that it will be available to be disseminated and shared within the organization. Cooperatives in Portugal are a form of organization through which the cooperators seek economic and commercial benefits through the resources, information, and knowledge sharing. The analysis seeks to show how the information management is carried out in this institution, in view of its relevance to competitiveness in the sector where it is inserted, seeking to support the creation of instruments that facilitate its treatment by the management and the respective availability to the various stakeholders.

Challenges of the Implementation of Research, Development, and Innovation Standards

This chapter analyzes the challenges faced by a glass bottle manufacturer when incorporating the research, development, and innovation (RDI) standards into the firm's integrated management systems. Based on a case study, this chapter explores how the firm managed to incorporate the new standards into the already set of integrated management system based on the ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001 standards that the firm has managed to internalize in its continuous improvement process. In order to incorporate this new RDI management system, the firm developed a set of three procedures that involve an ideas management and opportunity evaluation procedure, a production knowledge interface management procedure, and an RDI project management system. These three procedures are now internalized as part of the integrated management system.