Antecedents of Collaborative Arrangements in the Innovation and Production System

R&D cooperation and production cooperation are regarded as two key dimensions of collaborative arrangements in the innovation and production system. Different from prior studies focusing on performance outcomes, this study emphasizes the antecedents which have impacts on firms' decisions of R&D cooperation and production cooperation. The antecedents are identified and categorized into organizational characteristics (market orientation and technological capability), technical characteristics (technology clockspeed and technology-production fit), and relational characteristics (asset specificity). Through statistical analyses on survey data of Chinese manufacturing firms, this study finds that two factors including technology clockspeed and asset specificity have significant effects on firms' decisions of R&D cooperation, while technological capability, technology clockspeed, and technology-production fit are confirmed to have significant effects on decisions of production cooperation.

Learning and Innovation in Multinational Companies from Emerging Economies

This chapter aims to illustrate the importance that learning trajectories and the building of technological capabilities have had in the internationalization and competitiveness process of the nowadays Multinational Companies from an Emerging Economy (MCEE), based on the case of CEMEX, a Mexican multinational and one of the largest cement companies of the world. The case study shows that the emergence of this company into the global markets is the result of a mix of assets and capabilities (Penrose, 1995; Bell & Pavitt, 1995; Bell, 2007) developed over a period of nearly eight decades, at whose base are productive, technological and organizational capabilities. Findings substantiate that multinationalization through mergers and acquisitions has strengthened the technological capabilities of CEMEX, as a result of the learning and knowledge sharing processes driven by the actual integration of CEMEX with the acquired companies. By establishing learning routines, CEMEX feeds an innovation process within the group.

Innovation in the Health System

This chapter discusses the main findings of five empirical studies focusing on local health innovation systems in Brazil. It focuses on the articulation of service and manufacturing segments within the Health complex and the other organizations that constitute a Local Innovation and Production System (LIPS) and discusses the learning, capacity building and innovation processes and their effective and potential impact on the local territory. The findings suggest that the types and intensity of interactions are closely related to the characteristics of what can be called a local cognitive territory. The directions of capacity building and scientific and technological evolution are directly influenced by conflicts among individuals and groups. The influence of these power relations, which are often associated with diverging private and public (collective) interests, highlights the importance of the institutional and policy dimensions for mediation and for promoting an evolution of the system that favors social inclusion and efficiency.

Data Science and Big Data Analytics in Financial Services

The chapter discusses how Financial Services organizations can take advantage of Big Data analysis for disruptive innovation through examination of a case study in the financial services industry. Popular tools for Big Data Analysis are discussed and the challenges of big data are explored as well as how these challenges can be met. The work of Hayes-Roth in Valued Information at the Right Time (VIRT) and how it applies to the case study is examined. Boyd's model of Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (OODA) is explained in relation to disruptive innovation in financial services. Future trends in big data analysis in the financial services domain are explored.

Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights

As a contribution to the open debate regarding the effect of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) on innovation, this chapter postulates that the adoption of strong IPRs is not a necessary condition to foster innovation in the plant breeding industry. The chapter studies the evolution of the soybean breeding industry in the US and Argentina and shows that regardless the level of intellectual property protection, if there is an attractive and profitable market, firms may search for different appropriability strategies rather than changing their innovative behavior. The chapter finds that the growth rates of new soybean varieties are similar in both countries and the adoption rate is faster in Argentina where the IPRs system is weaker.

Building Innovation Systems for Small-Scale Agricultural Activities in Sub-Saharan Africa

The failure of agricultural research systems to provide appropriate technologies to enhance competitiveness in small-scale agricultural activities in sub-Saharan Africa has been well documented. Recognising the peculiarities of such activities, this chapter proposes that a system of innovation where; the actors interact with each other; a combination of science- and experience-based mode of learning and innovation is used and; users provide producers of innovations with feedback will produce appropriate innovations for the sector. It is further hypothesized that the success of this system will be dependent on; the number, scope and strength of interactions among actors; brokerage activities; and an initial successful innovation system for downstream activities. The chapter also undertakes a qualitative assessment of the some-what successful Cassava and the not-so-successful palm oil sectors in Nigeria to highlight the importance of the framework and the differences between successful and ineffective innovation systems.

Low Carbon Energy Innovations Systems in Natural Resource Rich Developing Countries

The transition to low carbon economy requires deep changes in the energy systems of the great majority of developing countries. However, only a small group of these countries is engaging significant efforts to develop renewable energies. The success in the diffusion of renewable energy technologies requires dynamic systems of innovation. In this chapter we analyze the recent evolution Brazilian sugarcane innovation system that was pioneering in the development and diffusion of bioethanol. This system is increasingly challenged by the acceleration of the technological regime, which is provoked by the energy crisis and the transition to the low carbon economy. The Brazilian innovation system has different capacities to cope with this challenge. In this chapter we differentiate the agriculture subsystem, which function in a STI (Science, Technology, and Innovation) mode from the industrial subsystem, which operates in a DIU (Doing, Using, and Interacting) mode. The agricultural subsystem has demonstrated a better ability to cope with the technological challenges of the new biotech research methodologies while the capital goods industry has much less propensity to deal with the second generation technologies for bioethanol. We describe also the present ethanol supply crises and its probable causes.

Challenges to Firms' Collaborative Innovation Facing the Innovation Babel Tower

Access to different internal and external knowledge sources and learning constitute key dimensions of firms' innovation capabilities to the maintenance of their competitive advantage. The increasing emergence of new modes of innovation involving a diversity of multi-stakeholder collaborations between industry, business, academy and civil society represents a challenge not only to firms' collaborative behaviour but the way to organize, integrate and manage new innovative capabilities. In this context this chapter: a) explores and characterizes the different types of innovation ‘underlying' in the current Innovation Tower of Babel and its implications to the firms' cooperative innovation strategy and knowledge governance and b) provides examples of new target organization models, such as living labs and other ‘innovation labs' where these types of innovations are being developed.

The Barriers to Innovation Diffusion

Genetically Modified (GM) food has been positioned as a significant innovation with a huge potential for alleviating malnutrition in developing economies. Some potential beneficiaries, however, have been reluctant to accept GM food. Many countries have GM food regulations and some have banned GM organisms. This chapter focuses on barriers to diffusion of innovation and analyses the case of GM food diffusion in Sri Lanka using the Rogers's classical model of innovation diffusion. A complete ban on GM products in 2001 was later relaxed to demand only GM labelling regulations, but GM food has not gained a prominent position in the Sri Lankan market. The attributes of GM food perceived by consumers, the communication system, government responses and broader social expectations have been unfavorable to GM food diffusion. The case of GM food innovation in Sri Lanka demonstrates the very social nature of the process, involving far more than seed producers, growers and related commercial enterprises.

Multiplex Waves in the Planning of Innovation Processes in Business Systems

This chapter aims to outline the methodologies for solving the most important challenges in the field of innovation management – assessment of innovative events and activities and selection of optimal calendar periods for carrying them out. A transdisciplinary approach is used as a way of solving this problem. Basic principles of this approach, principles of building transdisciplinary models of informational and temporal order units will be covered, thereby making it possible to represent development as a multiplex or a totality of M-waves. Use of such models allows to offer special methodologies - an innovative chart of business system development. Results of a retrospective analysis of several enterprises are shown, which confirm the effectiveness of this methodical technique, and an example of building an innovative chart of development is presented, including the calculation of schedule periods for development and implementation of investment, as well as mandatory critical points and control points in the future development of business systems.