The Antecedents of Exploitation‐Exploration and Their Relationship with Innovation: A Study of Managers' Cognitive Maps

Based on the resource‐based view (RBV) and the dynamic capabilities (DC) approach, in this work we carry out a thorough literature review in order to identify which organizational actions and resources act as the main antecedents of exploration and exploitation. Also, by using the cognitive maps technique, we analyse to what extent these antecedents are present in managers' cognitive maps when they develop exploration or exploitation strategies, as well as when they try to develop radical and incremental innovations. Our results show that, firstly, managers develop cognitive maps that match our theoretical proposals about the organizational resources and capabilities that can lead to exploitation and exploration. Secondly, regarding innovation, although the antecedents of exploitation are used by managers as the way towards incremental innovation, some antecedents of exploration are expected to facilitate not only radical but also incremental innovations. These results provide interesting points for reflection on the topics addressed and lead us to conclude that the antecedents of exploration and exploitation should not be seen as separate ways towards different types of innovation, but as sets of resources on which to build configurations that facilitate radical or incremental innovation.     

Design‐Driven Innovation in Retailing: An Empirical Examination of New Services in Car Dealership

The paper focuses on innovation in the automotive retail industry. Innovation in service has been acknowledged as a critical source of competitive advantage and retail firms are looking for innovations that can increase their competitiveness. This notwithstanding, there are no studies that focus on whether and how design‐driven innovation (DDI) can be pursued by retail firms as an innovation strategy. In the attempt to close this gap in our understanding of innovation in retail firms, this paper discusses 104 examples of strategic innovation projects identified by automotive retail firms which operate in the UK, Germany, Italy, Serbia and Spain. The exploratory empirical analysis shows that a certain number of automotive retail firms (although not the majority) choose DDI as a strategy embodied in strategic innovation projects designed to achieve superior performance. Moreover, by following the typology proposed by Sawhney and colleagues, the analysis suggests that these projects are elicited by spatial reconfiguration and expansion, whereas temporal innovation does not seem to provide a fertile ground for DDI.     

An Exploratory Study of Entrepreneurial Creativity: Its Antecedents and Mediators in the Context of UAE Firms

In this study, we attempt to advance our understanding of the role of entrepreneurial creativity in the context of firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Through field research accompanied by a review of the related literature, this study identifies crucial antecedents of entrepreneurial creativity. The proposed model combines variables belonging to different contextual factors such as external factors (resource access, resource possession, and alertness to opportunity) and individual factors (creative self‐efficacy, expertise and intrinsic motivation). The model is tested using data from a large‐scale survey of firms in the UAE. We find that expertise and creative self‐efficacy is significantly related to entrepreneurial creativity. The results also reveal that intrinsic motivation and alertness to opportunity are the key mediators between contextual factors and entrepreneurial creativity. The findings of this study present some interesting practical implications to entrepreneurs in order to improve their creative skills.     

The Role of Dedicated Innovation Functions for Innovation Process Control and Performance – An Empirical Study among Hospitals

As health care systems evolve, innovation is becoming a key driver of performance in the hospital sector. However, innovation management has been adopted only sporadically in hospitals, and dedicated innovation functions remain in the developmental stage. Using control theory, this study develops a theoretical framework that links control mechanisms (proactiveness, innovation process formalization) and a dedicated innovation function to innovation activity and innovation performance. For the empirical analysis, data were collected from a survey of 158 German hospitals, with information provided by general hospital management. We apply a structural equation model and control for hospital characteristics such as hospital size and ownership (public/non‐profit/private). The empirical results show positive effects of formal and informal control mechanisms on innovation performance and a positive effect of informal controls on innovation activity. Moreover, a dedicated innovation function is found to positively affect innovation activity and both formal and informal control mechanisms. Based on our findings, we argue that hospital management might devote greater attention to control mechanisms to increase innovation activity and performance. Furthermore, hospital management might consider the creation and empowerment of a dedicated innovation function to take advantage of the positive effects of such a function on informal and formal controls as well as on innovation activity.     

Radical Innovation with Limited Resources in High‐Turbulent Markets: The Role of Lean Innovation Capability

How do firms radically innovate with limited resources in high‐turbulent environments? We examine this question via in‐depth comparative case studies of ten start‐up firms in diverse high‐turbulent markets. Evidence shows that the perceived value of resources depends on two contextual factors: market type and business model type. More interestingly, firms that see resource limitation as an enabler rather than an inhibitor seem to have a distinct capability that we call lean innovation capability. It is defined as a distinct capability that reflects a firm's ability to experiment with ideas that meet core customer needs by constantly iterating the initial offering with the purpose of validating the learning through continuous market feedback to achieve sustainable performance. The three main qualities of these companies are (1) adopting abductive reasoning, (2) embracing a validity‐driven approach, and (3) operating in the overlapping spaces of fundamental customer needs, business viability and technological feasibility. Lean firms adopt design‐thinking methodology and act like bricoleurs, such as make‐do by applying combinations of the available resources through rapid prototyping to new problems and opportunities in an experimental way. Briefly, lean innovation capability enables firms to manage limited resources by reconfiguring and reallocating existing resources, and, thereby, helps empower resource‐limited radical innovation.     

Exploring Relationships among Proactiveness,Risk‐Taking and Innovation Output in Family and Non‐Family Firms

In an empirical investigation of 532 Finnish firms, and using the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) literature to frame our arguments, we demonstrate that relationships among proactivity, risk‐taking and innovation output differ in family and non‐family firms. Specifically, we find evidence that risk‐taking does not affect innovation output in family firms, whereas in non‐family firms, innovation output is increased through risk‐taking. Also, proactive family firms influence their innovation output more positively than proactive non‐family firms do. This study adds important new insights to the growing knowledge of EO, which are discussed in the following for both academic and business audiences.     

基于PLX9030的网络性能测试卡设计与实现

PCI技术是一种独立于处理器的高性能总线技术,在数据采集、仪器仪表等领域广泛应用。主要介绍了基PLX9030的网络性能测试卡的设计实现过程,对测试卡的功能和组成,PLX9030总线设计,EEPKOM配置和加载流程进行了述,重点论述了软硬件设计和板卡调试,包括驱动程序编写,PCI控制DPRAM读写操作的EPLD时序设计。通过测试板卡的功应用,为今后虚拟仪器的研制提供了设计思路和借鉴经验。     

An Empirical Study on Functional Diversity and Innovation in SMEs

Functional diversity among managerial teams can foster innovation. This empirical study considers two types of function diversities: dominant function diversity, which measures the range of function specialization available across the top management team, and intrapersonal function diversity, which measures the range of function experience within each individual in the management team. Data collected from small and medium‐sized enterprises in Singapore show that intrapersonal function diversity has a positive impact on innovation, but that this impact is reduced for bigger firms. Dominant function diversity has a negative effect on innovation for firms that are growing.     

Historical Trajectories of Innovation and Competitiveness: Hong Kong Firms and their China Linkages

Hong Kong manufacturing firms have been competing in world markets since the 1950’s. Their success has been based on low cost and flexible production and an ability to meet very tight delivery schedules as many of their products are short run fashion items for which consumer demand can be fickle. The opening of China in 1978 has enabled Hong Kong firms to sustain their cost advantages in world markets for a further twenty years. However, the rapid economic development of South China in particular, to which Hong Kong is adjacent, and the competition from lower cost economies in Southeast Asia is leading to pressures on Hong Kong manufacturers to rethink their strategies. Ambitions to continue to compete among world class manufacturers has become a survival strategy. The focus of this paper is to identify and explain the historical development of innovation in the strategies of Hong Kong firms to enable them to continue to dominate niche markets in Europe and the USA and develop a presence in the China market.     

Exploration and Exploitation within Firms: The Impact of CEOs' Cognitive Style on Incremental and Radical Innovation Performance

Previous studies have provided valuable insights into how environmental and organizational factors may influence levels of explorative and exploitative innovation in firms. At the same time, scholars suggest that individual characteristics, such as cognitive and behavioural inclinations of top executives, might also have significant impact on the ability of a firm to engage in explorative and exploitative activities. The importance of the CEO is of interest, especially in medium‐sized companies, where the CEO appears to be most influential. Very few studies, however, have quantitatively examined the relationship between individual characteristics of top managers and firm‐level exploration and exploitation. Most of the existing research focuses on observable managerial characteristics and the composition of top management teams. Therefore, some important psychological issues may have been bypassed. This study complements prior research in two fundamental ways. First, whereas previous studies focus on extrinsic organizational factors that influence individual exploration and exploitation, we rely on insights from cognitive psychology to hypothesize a relationship between intrinsic factors (i.e., cognitive style) and individuals' tendency for exploration versus exploitation. Second, whereas existing research remains silent on the implications of individual CEO characteristics for firm performance, we hypothesize a relationship between CEOs' tendency for exploration or exploitation and firm‐level innovation performance.     

Cross‐Functional Conflict,Conflict Handling Behaviours and New Product Performance in Spanish Firms

This paper posits an antecedents and consequences model of constructive conflict (or the benefits derived from cross‐functional conflict). The managers of a sample of innovating Spanish firms perceive positive changes when the parties in conflict: (1) exchange information to solve problems; (2) emphasize their common interests; and (3) make an effort to maintain good relations. The results of the study also indicate that collaborating to seek a solution to conflicts between areas indirectly influences the new product programme performance through constructive conflict.     

Individuals’ Innovation Response Behaviour: A Framework of Antecedents and Opportunities for Future Research

Innovation response behaviour is defined as individuals’ novelty‐supporting or novelty‐impeding action when navigating innovation initiatives through the organization. A typology of innovation response behaviour is developed, distinguishing between active and passive modes of conduct for novelty‐supporting and novelty‐impeding behaviour, respectively. The antecedents of innovation response behaviour are delineated based on West and Farr's five‐factor model of individual innovation. Moreover, we argue that within organizational contexts, individuals often fail to implement their ideas due to innovation barriers, perceived as factors that are beyond their control. Based on the theory of planned behaviour, we reveal how these barriers influence individuals’ intentional and exhibited innovation response behaviour. Propositions about proximal and distal antecedents of individuals’ innovation response behaviour are derived. Proposing a research framework to study the organizational process of innovation from an actor‐based perspective, this paper intends to link existing research on individual innovation with the process of innovation at the organizational level, explicitly accounting for the socio‐political dynamics and arising managerial problems associated with successful innovation implementation within organizational realities. Implications for research in innovation management are discussed and avenues for future research outlined.     

Antecedents and consequences of perceived value in Mobile Government continuance use: An empirical research in China

This paper examines the antecedents and consequences of perceived value in m-government continuance use. Drawing upon service science studies and Chinese m-government context, a research model is constructed by extending the technology acceptance model (TAM). Data collected from a field survey of 326 m-government users are analyzed to test the proposed hypotheses. The results indicate that perceived value is strongly influenced by mobility, perceived usefulness and security, which is, in turn, significant impact on satisfaction and trust in technology, trust in agent and trust in government. These results contribute to drawing attention to the important role of perceived value in m-government continuance use and providing a new view that supplements to the extant technology acceptance research.     

Group‐in‐a‐Box Meta‐Layouts for Topological Clusters and Attribute‐Based Groups: Space‐Efficient Visualizations of Network Communities and Their Ties

An important part of network analysis is understanding community structures like topological clusters and attribute‐based groups. Standard approaches for showing communities using colour, shape, rectangular bounding boxes, convex hulls or force‐directed layout algorithms remain valuable, however our Group‐in‐a‐Box meta‐layouts add a fresh strategy for presenting community membership, internal structure and inter‐cluster relationships. This paper extends the basic Group‐in‐a‐Box meta‐layout, which uses a Treemap substrate of rectangular regions whose size is proportional to community size. When there are numerous inter‐community relationships, the proposed extensions help users view them more clearly: (1) the Croissant–Doughnut meta‐layout applies empirically determined rules for box arrangement to improve space utilization while still showing inter‐community relationships, and (2) the Force‐Directed layout arranges community boxes based on their aggregate ties at the cost of additional space. Our free and open source reference implementation in NodeXL includes heuristics to choose what we have found to be the preferable Group‐in‐a‐Box meta‐layout to show networks with varying numbers or sizes of communities. Case study examples, a pilot comparative user preference study (nine participants), and a readability measure‐based evaluation of 309 Twitter networks demonstrate the utility of the proposed meta‐layouts.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Interaction Quality in Virtual End‐User Communities

Research has identified virtual communities as a valuable source of innovation. This study aims to provide an understanding of what makes some end‐user communities more successful in creating innovations than others. Specifically, we explore how the attractiveness of innovations is influenced by the quality of interaction between the community members. Additionally, we consider trust in benevolent behaviour and competition for reputation, as well as their interaction effect, as being possible antecedents of interaction quality. Drawing on data collected through a web‐based survey, this study explores the innovation activities of 127 virtual end‐user communities within the fields of sports, car and motorbike tuning and model building. The findings confirm that interaction quality is positively related to the innovativeness of virtual communities. As regards the antecedents of interaction quality, the analysis indicates that trust is a key prerequisite to co‐operative behaviour among the members of virtual communities. The level of competition, however, only affects interaction quality if a high level of trust is present among members. The results highlight the need to create an environment that facilitates interaction among the members of innovation communities. Furthermore, community managers should ensure that a minimum level of trust is established within the community before stimulating competition.     

Team Coordination in Escalating Situations: An Empirical Study Using Mid‐Fidelity Simulation

The performance of teams, with different levels of domain and crisis management experience, managing unexpected and escalating situations was observed using a mid‐fidelity ship‐bridge simulation and analysed by applying the central concepts of joint activity coordination as well as Woods's theory building on data overload. The coordination strategies used by the teams were evaluated by applying coordination process indicators and the concept of control. The paper discusses how different aspects of team coordination in unexpected and escalating situations, e.g. that teams that maintain a high level of control in escalating situations, avoid or minimize the effects of data overload by using explicit and agreed‐upon goals rather than sharing as much incoming information as possible. The results presented in this paper show the benefits of applying a broad set of theoretical concepts to shed light on the actual demands that escalating situations pose on people's data processing capacities and processes. It also provides guidance on the successful performance of teams in such situations and thus support for the development of successful strategies for their management.     

Performance Prediction and Analysis of BOINC Projects: An Empirical Study with EmBOINC

Middleware systems for volunteer computing convert a set of computers that is large and diverse (in terms of hardware, software, availability, reliability, and trustworthiness) into a unified computing resource. This involves a number of scheduling policies and parameters, which have a large impact on the throughput and other performance metrics. How can we study and refine these policies? Experimentation in the context of a working project is problematic, and it is difficult to accurately model complex middleware in a conventional simulator. Instead, we use an approach in which the policies being studied are “emulated”, using parts of the actual middleware. In this paper we describe EmBOINC, an emulator based on the BOINC middleware system. EmBOINC simulates a population of volunteered clients (including heterogeneity, churn, availability, and reliability) and emulates the BOINC server components. After describing the design of EmBOINC and its validation, we present three case studies in which the impact of different scheduling policies are quantified in terms of throughput, latency, and starvation metrics.     

The Effects of Other‐Generated and System‐Generated Cues on Adolescents' Perceived Attractiveness on Social Network Sites

The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent other‐generated and system‐generated cues on social network sites (SNS) influence the popularity and attractiveness of adolescents. In a 2 (friends' physical attractiveness: attractive, unattractive) ×2 (friends' wall postings: positive, negative) ×3 (number of friends: low, average, high) factorial experiment, 497 high school students between 12 and 15 years of age were randomly assigned to one of the twelve experimental conditions. Results revealed that the profile owner of a SNS was perceived as being more attractive when the profile includes attractive friends and positive wall postings. The profile owners' number of friends did not affect the perceived attractiveness of the profile‐owner, only the perceived extraversion.     

Ideas and Implementation: The Effective Implementation of Novel Marketing Programmes in Small‐ to Medium‐Sized Greek Firms

The purpose of the present study is to identify the potential contribution that a firm's climate supporting creativity can make towards understanding the effective implementation of novel marketing programmes. Specifically, a conceptual model is developed and empirically tested with Bayesian path analysis, using data obtained from managers of 87 Greek firms. Results suggest that a firm's climate that supports creativity has an indirect effect on marketing programme implementation effectiveness through marketing programme novelty. Additionally, climate for creativity moderates the relationship between marketing programme novelty and marketing programme implementation effectiveness such that the indirect effect of climate for creativity on marketing programme implementation effectiveness was found significant for levels of climate moderate to low, but not when the level of climate for creativity was high. Recommendations for further research are discussed.     

一种分布式并行服务器模型的性能分析与改进

设计一个分布式并行服务器,必需全面考虑网络层和应用层流量以及响应特性对性能的影响。分布式并行服务器模型（DPS）具有良好的响应特性和较强的服务能力,对它进行了全面的分析,重点研究了网络层流量对模型性能的影响,并且在理论分析和实验测试的基础上,将网络层流量和应用层流量按协议栈分布式处理,提出了改进的DPS模型。改进的DPS模型能够更好的处理网络层流量,有效地改善模型的性能。