Mediated and Moderated Effects of Business and Project Planning on Innovation Projects in Hospitals

Based on multi‐respondent data of 130 innovation projects in hospitals, our study analyses the role of planning intensity for project success. Besides showing that also in complex service systems innovation projects are supported through planning, we contribute to innovation management research, first, by clearly differentiating between the effects of business and project planning; second, by integrating intra‐team co‐ordination as a possible mediator of the planning success relationship; and, third, by taking into account the degree of innovativeness as a relevant contingency. We apply a multi‐level regression analysis, include several control variables, and limit common source biases by a multi‐respondent empirical design. The results demonstrate that both planning types show complementary effects. Project planning increases intra‐team co‐ordination, which mediates the planning effect on project success. Business planning has a direct effect on project success. However, the moderating effects of project innovativeness are oppositional. While business planning becomes more important for higher degrees of innovativeness, the efficacy of project planning is limited to incremental innovations. We conclude with a discussion of implications for hospital and innovation management as well as future research.     

Innovation Activities by Small and Medium‐sized Manufacturing Enterprises in Tanzania

The primary aim of this research is to explore innovation activities and ascertain the relationships between these activities and growth performance of SMEs in the Tanzanian manufacturing sector. The applied model has been derived from international studies of innovation. A survey of SMEs combined with in‐depth case studies was made to study innovation practices of SMEs in the Tanzanian manufacturing sector. The results of this survey are used to compare the situation with findings of previous research. An increased level of applied change is associated with innovating SMEs, and a positive relationship between innovativeness in the SMEs with growth performance could be established. Based on the comparison of the results, recommendations are made for stimulating innovation.     

An empirical test of three mediation models for the relationship between personal innovativeness and user acceptance of technology

Understanding the drivers of technology adoption remains an important organizational problem. Our research focused on a personality trait that is relevant to the adoption of technological innovation: personal innovativeness in IT (PIIT). We examined the causal pathways by which this trait affects behavioral intention by testing three alternative models based on innovation diffusion theory, the theory of planned behavior, and an integrative perspective that combines them. Data were collected from 196 hospital administrators in South Korea. The target innovation was an e-commerce purchasing system. Testing across all three models resulted in complete mediation, indicating that PIIT is a strong predictor of intended use of IT but it exerts its influence by altering the mediators. Our integrative perspective provides a more complete account of the causal mechanisms underlying the relationships as well as unique insights that cannot be obtained with a single theory driven model.     

E-learning as innovation: Exploring innovativeness of the VET teachers’ community in Estonia

In this article, the acceptance of e-learning by teachers of vocational secondary and professional higher education institutions (hereafter: VET teachers) in Estonia has been analysed. The analysis is based on questionnaire study, carried out in 2007. The theoretical framework of the article has been inspired by Everett Rogers’ innovation diffusion theory. It appears that there exists a statistically reliable difference between innovators and the remaining adopter categories among VET teachers. One can see that in the context of the VET teachers’ working environment, a multi-dimensional innovation gap appears, embracing gaps in the actual use of e-learning tools, different types of skills and competences, access and support indicators. The model of innovativeness constructed shows that the competences are predictors of innovativeness. The development of competences related to e-learning (ICT competence, e-learning competence, pedagogical competence) and innovativeness are closely related. It will be argued that while one of the challenges for the developers of e-learning is to provide teachers with relevant continuous training as well as making efforts in developing existing support structures, we can assume that for different adopter categories among teachers different strategies and support schemes should be applied, as the values and attitudes of different groups vary.     

Antecedents of team innovation in health care teams

We extend previous research on team innovation by looking at team‐level motivations and how a prosocial team environment, indicated by the level of helping behaviour and information‐sharing, may foster innovation. Hypotheses were tested in two independent samples of health care teams (N₁ = 72 teams, N₂ = 113 teams), using self‐report measures. The examples of team innovation given by the individual team members were then rated for innovativeness by independent health care experts to avoid common method bias for the outcome variable. Subsequently, the data was aggregated and analysed at team level. The study was part of a larger data‐gathering effort on health care teams in the UK. Results supported the hypotheses of main effects of both information‐sharing and helping behaviour on team innovation and interaction effects with team size and occupational diversity. Differences in findings between types of health care teams can be attributed to differences in team tasks and functions. The results suggest ways in which helping and information‐sharing may act as buffers against constraints in team work, such as large team size or high occupational diversity in cross‐functional health care teams, and potentially turn these into resources supporting team innovation rather than acting as barriers.     

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.     

User experience and personal innovativeness: An empirical study on the Enterprise Resource Planning systems

Although user experience and personal innovativeness are two important factors in new technology adoption, there has been no prior study to test these factors with the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) adoption. This paper investigates moderating roles of user experience on the relationship between the personal innovativeness and the ERP adoption motivations. This issue is important because if the user has more experience with the systems then the power of influence of personal innovativeness on ERP adoption motivation would be different. Thus, this paper tests these important insights of ERP systems adoption with the two different field samples with high (more than three years) and low (less than three years) user experience, based on the innovation diffusion theory, self determination theory, and different types of motivations such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. The findings, based on the PLS analysis of the model using 107 ERP end users, show that there are clear moderating effects of user experience—such as impacts of personal innovativeness on ERP systems adoption motivations are higher in case of low user experience samples, as expected. Academic and practical implications are discussed in the paper based on these empirical findings.     

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.     

Open Innovation and Firm Performance: The Mediating Role of Social Capital

This article examines the role of social relations and networks in open innovation settings. Building on extant open innovation literature as well as on social capital theory, we develop a model that conceptualizes social capital as a mediator between the implementation of open innovation instruments and firm performance. In doing so, this paper adds to the understanding of the role of structure and content of social relations in open innovation contexts as well as of sustainable side‐effects of open innovation. In particular, we argue that apart from a direct effect of open innovation instruments on firm performance, there is also a mediated relationship between these variables. More precisely, we propose that the implementation of open innovation instruments strengthens an organization's social capital, which is, in turn, positively related to firm performance.     

A Review of Employee Well‐Being and Innovativeness: An Opportunity for a Mutual Benefit

By drawing on the Job Demands and Resources Model, this review article develops a conceptual framework to advance theoretical understanding of the relationship between job‐related demands and resources, employee well‐being and innovativeness. In conditions characterized by too high levels of demands, employees may suffer from burnout. When job resources are high, they are likely to feel engaged with their work. Burnout in turn can be seen as an inhibitor of innovativeness, and work engagement as an antecedent to innovativeness, mediating the effects of resources and demands at work on innovativeness. We further argue that innovativeness can function as a resource or a demand, depending on how it is managed. In addition to understanding the dual role of innovativeness, the identification of job‐specific demands and resources is central to supporting employee well‐being and, subsequently, innovativeness. The implications of the proposed conceptual framework for academic researchers and managers are discussed.     

Neural Networks to model the innovativeness perception of co-creative firms

Value co-creation is an emerging business, marketing and innovation paradigm describing the firms aptitude to adopt practices enabling their customers to become active participants in the design and development of personalised products, services and experiences. The main objective of our contribution is to make a quantitative analysis in order to assess the relationship between value co-creation and innovation in technology-driven firms: we are using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to investigate the relationship between value co-creation and innovativeness, and Self Organising Map (SOM) models to cluster firms in terms of their degree of involvement in co-creation and innovativeness. Results from the ANN show that a strong relationship exists between value co-creation and innovativeness; furthermore, SOM are well performing in identifying cluster of firms that are more involved in co-creation values. Our work makes a methodological contribution by adopting and validating a combination of techniques that is able to address complexity and emergence in value co-creation systems.     

Role Models for Radical Innovations in Times of Open Innovation

In this paper, we study the influence of innovator roles in highly innovative ventures. In order to obtain a differentiated picture we take into account the degree of innovativeness as a moderating variable. To test our hypotheses we use a sample of 146 highly innovative new product development projects. We choose a rigorous sampling design and apply state‐of‐the‐art measures for the degree of innovativeness. Furthermore, we apply multi‐trait‐multi‐method methodology (MTMM) to enhance the validity of our study. The results show that innovator roles have a strong influence on innovation success but these influences are positively and negatively moderated by innovativeness. The moderating influences depend on the type of innovativeness. Remarkably, with increasing technological innovativeness innovator roles which create inter‐organizational links with the outside world appear to be more important than intra‐organizational linker roles, and support from high‐ranked organizational members turns out to have a significant negative effect on project success with higher degrees of technological innovativeness. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed and consequences for innovation research and innovation management are shown.     

Employee acceptance of disruptive service innovations at the frontline: The role of collective sensemaking processes

Acceptance of service innovation by frontline employees is a challenging issue, especially if such innovations have the potential to disrupt existing value creation models and individual competencies. Disruptive service innovations are often (1) characterized by a high degree of innovativeness related to significant changes in technology and in the market and (2) may be introduced by technology manufacturers as new service market entrants that cause a competitive threat to the existing service provision. We argue that such innovations challenge frontline employees' focus on routines and standardized service operating procedures. The perceived threat and resulting high levels of uncertainty may inhibit innovation acceptance. Our study follows a collective sensemaking perspective, paying special attention to investigating the moderating role of (1) the exchange of operational information within a workgroup and (2) a firm's entrepreneurial orientation. Whereas the former may increase frontline employees' preference for incremental improvements, the latter may help to increase the acceptance level of potentially more disruptive innovations. We test our theoretically derived hypotheses with an experimental vignette study of 671 frontline employees in the field of audiology, a health care market particularly affected by both more radical and market entrant innovations. Results show that a high degree of innovativeness has a negative effect on innovation acceptance. Frontline employees accept radical innovations less readily than incremental innovations. A competitive threat from new technology manufacturers in the supply chain does not lead to a lower innovation acceptance level. The moderation results indicate significant effects of both information exchange and entrepreneurial orientation. Intensive information exchange within the workgroup strengthens the negative relationship between the degree of innovativeness and innovation acceptance. In contrast, a high degree of entrepreneurial orientation weakens the negative relationship between a competitive threat and innovation acceptance.     

SME Network Characteristics vs. Product Innovativeness: How to Achieve High Innovation Performance

Small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) must on the one hand innovate for company survival with the appropriate degree of product innovativeness, and on the other they need to collaborate and focus on core competences for efficiency matters. This research examines the relation of network characteristics and product innovativeness on innovation performance in SMEs. We tested hypotheses on the relationship between these three variables via data gathered from 60 SMEs, active in the medical devices sector. In this context we aim to offer consensus on the theoretical and empirical question of whether or not network characteristics and product innovativeness have a direct effect on innovation performance of SMEs. Results show no significant direct effect of product innovativeness on innovation performance. A positive interaction effect of multiple network characteristics on innovation performance was found, which confirms the significant importance of network configuration on innovation performance for SMEs. It indicates that, for SMEs in a highly regulated sector like the medical devices sector, the interaction of network characteristics is of crucial importance for high innovation performance. It is the combination of network characteristics that counts.     

Skills,scope and success: An empirical look at the start‐up process in creative industries in Germany

Creative industries comprise enterprises focusing on the creation, production and distribution of creative or cultural goods and services. Following an explorative empirical approach, we analyse start‐ups in creative industries regarding three issues along the start‐up process: (1) personal characteristics of creative entrepreneurs, (2) their use of labour and capital as input factors, and (3) start‐up success as measured by start‐up survival, degree of innovativeness and change in household income. Based on individual‐level data from the KfW Start‐up Monitor, a large‐scale survey on entrepreneurship in Germany, our regression results show that entrepreneurs in creative industries tend to be younger and better educated than entrepreneurs in other economic sectors. Businesses in creative industries are prevalently started on a small scale, as part‐time occupations, and with less financial resources. Yet they show a higher persistence and an above‐average degree of innovativeness.     

Creativity and Innovation in Haute Cuisine: Towards a Systemic Model

The contribution of this study is an increased understanding of personal creativity and the innovation process in haute cuisine, a validation of the socio‐cultural systems view of creativity and a model that accounts for the socio‐cultural dimensions of haute cuisine. In this paper we discuss existing views that conceptualize creativity and innovation in this sector as a sequential developmental process following the principles of operations management. However, based on in‐depth interviews with world‐renowned chefs, we argue for a systemic rather than sequential developmental process view. The reason for this is that the chefs interviewed understand the ‘creativity part’ of the innovation process as an embodied experience often guided by intuition and the ‘innovation part’ as a process of social evaluation greatly dependent on the perception, knowledge and value judgement of the testers from the leading restaurant guides. The main implications of the findings go beyond the haute cuisine sector and open areas for future research on creativity and intuition more generally.     

The Antecedents of Individual Innovative Behaviour in Temporary Group Innovation

This study examines the antecedents of individual innovative behaviour in short‐term innovation camp conditions. Innovation is increasingly a joint activity conducted in various kinds of temporary settings that collect widely diverse people together for a brief time to work on a particular problem. As innovativeness of interplaying individuals is key for the success of collaborative innovation, it is important to study what factors enhance individual innovative behaviour in temporary settings. Data from 103 innovation camp participants were the basis of PLS‐SEM analysis. Results show that individual creative self‐efficacy, perceived task orientation and experimentation have significant effects on individual innovative behaviour. In contrast, participative safety, support for innovation, and vision are not associated with individual innovativeness. These findings suggest that the antecedents of individual innovativeness in temporary settings differ from those identified in conventional groups, pointing to a new field for future research.     

Transforming teaching and learning: embedding ICT into everyday classroom practices

Drawing on socio‐cultural theory, this paper describes how teams of teachers and researchers have developed ways of embedding information and communications technology (ICT) into everyday classroom practices to enhance learning. The focus is on teaching and learning across a range of subjects: English, history, geography, mathematics, modern foreign languages, music and science. The influence of young people's out‐of‐school uses of ICT on in‐school learning is discussed. The creative tension between idiosyncratic and institutional knowledge construction is emphasised and we argue that this is exacerbated by the use of ICT in the classroom.     

The role of information governance in big data analytics driven innovation

The age of big data analytics is now here, with companies increasingly investing in big data initiatives to foster innovation and outperform competition. Nevertheless, while researchers and practitioners started to examine the shifts that these technologies entail and their overall business value, it is still unclear whether and under what conditions they drive innovation. To address this gap, this study draws on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and information governance theory to explore the interplay between a firm’s big data analytics capabilities (BDACs) and their information governance practices in shaping innovation capabilities. We argue that a firm’s BDAC helps enhance two distinct types of innovative capabilities, incremental and radical capabilities, and that information governance positively moderates this relationship. To examine our research model, we analyzed survey data collected from 175 IT and business managers. Results from partial least squares structural equation modelling analysis reveal that BDACs have a positive and significant effect on both incremental and radical innovative capabilities. Our analysis also highlights the important role of information governance, as it positively moderates the relationship between BDAC’s and a firm’s radical innovative capability, while there is a nonsignificant moderating effect for incremental innovation capabilities. Finally, we examine the effect of environmental uncertainty conditions in our model and find that information governance and BDACs have amplified effects under conditions of high environmental dynamism.     

User behaviour towards protective information technologies: the role of national cultural differences

Computer technologies that protect data and systems from viruses, unauthorized access, disruptions, spyware and other threats have become increasingly important in the globally networked economy and society. Yet little is known about user attitudes and behaviour towards this category of information technologies. Comparative studies across different cultures in this context are even rarer. In this study, we examine the cross-cultural differences between South Korea and the United States in user behaviour towards protective information technologies. We develop a theoretical model of user behaviour based on the framework of the theory of planned behaviour and national cultural dimensions and indices. We posit that cultural factors moderate the strength of the relationships in the behavioural model in the context of protective information technologies. The model was then empirically tested using structural equation modelling techniques in conjunction with multi-group analysis. Most of the hypothesized moderating effects of national cultural factors were found to be statistically significant. Our findings suggest that cultural factors should be considered in order to design effective information security policies, practices and technologies in global networks where multiple cultures coexist. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.