Abstract

Startups　in　developing　economies　are　addressing　local　problems　through　creative　technologies　and　solutions.　For　large　global　companies,　the　prospect　of　working　with　such　startups　is　appealing　—　and　complicated.

Keyword

CHINA ;  INNOVATION

Abstract

The rules for business vary not only between countries, but within countries. Subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs), thus, have to consider both the national level and the local context when designing their business practices. To examine this impact, we study R&D outsourcing in four Eastern member states of the European Union and find that local R&D outsourcing is used more frequently where local institutions are strong. However, this local impact depends on the MNE's overall knowledge sourcing practice and is weaker when MNE subsidiaries’ knowledge management prioritizes external sources of knowledge.

Keyword

contractual hazards ;  EMERGING ECONOMIES ;  FOREIGN ;  GOVERNANCE ;  HOST-COUNTRY ;  INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY-RIGHTS ;  LOCATION ;  MNE subsidiaries ;  MULTINATIONAL-ENTERPRISE ;  openness to external knowledge ;  R&D outsourcing ;  STRATEGIES ;  subnational institutions ;  TECHNOLOGICAL-INNOVATION ;  TRANSITION ECONOMIES

Abstract

To develop and gain competitive advantage, Chinese manufacturers are innovating by developing solutions that include both tangible and intangible components. Service-dominant logic, which views supply chains as co-creation and resource integration networks, provides a useful perspective for investigating the roles of services, suppliers and customers in innovation. This study empirically explores how innovations are developed through services, co-creation with customers and supplier integration in China. This study uses an exploratory multiple-case-study approach. The data collection involves six manufacturing firms from the Pearl River Delta in China. We empirically identify two types of services (support services and solution services), two methods of co-creation (information acquisition and co-production) and two types of integration (internal integration and supplier integration). This study finds that support services and internal integration positively associate with information acquisition from customers. Solution services require both supplier integration and co-production with customers. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the roles of services in innovation and how to acquire resources and knowledge that is critical for innovation through collaboration with supply chain partners. The findings also provide guidelines to managers on how to use services, co-creation and integration to innovate efficiently and effectively. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V.

Keyword

Innovation ;  Services ;  Co-creation ;  Supplier integration ;  Service-dominant logic ;  MASS CUSTOMIZATION CAPABILITY ;  DOMINANT LOGIC ;  TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION ;  OPERATIONS STRATEGY ;  CHAIN INTEGRATION ;  PERFORMANCE ;  MANAGEMENT ;  CUSTOMERS ;  NETWORKS ;  QUALITY

Abstract

Purpose - Supply chains evolve and change in size, shape and configuration, and in how they are coordinated, controlled and managed. Some supply chains are mature and relatively unchanging. Some are subject to significant change. New supply chains may emerge and evolve for a variety of reasons. The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of supply chain evolution and address the question "What makes a supply chain like it is?" Design/methodology/approach - The paper analyses and develops key aspects, concepts and principal themes concerning the emergence and evolution of supply chains over their lifecycle. Findings - The paper defines the supply chain lifecycle and identifies six factors that interact and may affect a supply chain over its lifecycle - technology and innovation, economics, markets and competition, policy and regulation, procurement and sourcing, supply chain strategies and re-engineering. A number of emergent themes and propositions on factors affecting a supply chain's characteristics over its lifecycle are presented. The paper argues that a new science is needed to investigate and understand the supply chain lifecycle. Practical implications - Supply chains are critical for the world economy and essential for modern life. Understanding the supply chain lifecycle and how supply chains evolve provides new perspectives for contemporary supply chain design and management. Originality/value - The paper presents detailed analysis, critique and reflections from leading researchers on emerging, evolving and mature supply chains.

Keyword

CHINA ;  CUSTOMIZATION ;  Differentiation ;  Emergence ;  Evolution ;  INNOVATION ;  INTEGRATION ;  INTERNATIONAL CLOTHING INDUSTRY ;  Life cycle ;  LOCATION DECISION ;  MANAGEMENT ;  PERSPECTIVE ;  PRODUCT LIFE-CYCLE ;  Segmentation ;  STRATEGY ;  Supply Chain

Abstract

We theorized and tested the conditions under which cognitive team diversity is positively related to individual team member creativity. Hierarchical linear modeling results using 316 employees on 68 teams from Chinese companies indicated that a team member's creative self-efficacy moderated the relationship between cognitive team diversity and individual creativity: this relationship was positive only when creative self-efficacy was high. Further, “transformational leadership” moderated the relationship in such a way that cognitive team diversity was positively related to individual creativity only when transformational leadership was high.

Keyword

BEHAVIOR ;  DEMOGRAPHY ;  EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY ;  INNOVATION ;  KNOWLEDGE ;  ORGANIZATIONS ;  PERFORMANCE ;  SELF-EFFICACY ;  TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP ;  WORK GROUP DIVERSITY

Abstract

Problem solving, a process of seeking, defining, evaluating, and implementing the solutions, is considered a converter that can translate organizational inputs into valuable product and service outputs. A key challenge for the product innovation community is to answer questions about how knowledge competence and problem-solving competence develop and sustain competitive advantage. The objective of this study is to theoretically examine and empirically test an existing assumption that problem-solving competence is an important variable connecting market knowledge competence with new product performance. New product projects from 396 firms in the high-technology zones in China were used to test the study's theoretical model. The results first indicate that problem-solving speed and creativity matter in new product innovation performance by playing mediator roles between market knowledge competence and positional advantage, which in turn sustains superior performance. This new insight suggest that mere generation of market knowledge and having a marketing-research and development (R&D) interface will not affect new product performance unless project members have the ability to use the information and to interact to identify and solve complex problems speedily and creatively. Second, these results suggest that different market knowledge competences (customers, competitors, and interactions between marketing and R&D) have distinct impacts on problem-solving speed and creativity (positive, negative, or none), which underscore the need to embrace a more fine-grained notion of market knowledge competence. The results also reveal that the relative importance of some of these relationships depends on the perceived level of turbulence in the environment. First, competitor knowledge competence decreases problem-solving speed when perceived environmental turbulence is low but enhances problem-solving speed when perceived turbulence is high. Second, competitor knowledge competence has a positive relationship with new product performance when the environmental turbulence is high but no relationship when the environmental turbulence is low. Third, the positive relationship between problem-solving speed and product advantage is stronger when the perceived environmental turbulence is high than when it is low, which implies that problem solving is more important for creating product advantage when environmental turbulence is high and change is fast and unpredictable. Fourth, the negative relationship between problem-solving speed and new product performance is stronger when the perceived environmental turbulence is high than when it is low, which means that problem-solving speed is more harmful for new product performance when change is fast and unpredictable. And fifth, the positive relationship between product quality and new product performance is stronger when perceived environmental turbulence is low than when it is high, which implies that product quality may more likely lead to new product performance when the environment is stable and changes are easy to predict, analyze, and comprehend.

Keyword

ANTECEDENTS ;  CAPABILITIES ;  CENTRIPETAL FORCES ;  COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ;  DEVELOPMENT SPEED ;  INNOVATION ;  MARKET ORIENTATION ;  ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE ;  QUALITY ;  TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

Extant studies concerning the relationship between market orientation and new product performance have produced inconclusive results. Drawing on the contingency theory, the authors argue that one reason for these mixed results may be the lack of an appropriate reward system within the new product development process. This study theoretically and empirically examines the moderating role of reward systems in the relationship between market orientation and new product performance. The authors conducted interviews and surveys in China. The moderating effects suggest that Chinese firms should simultaneously use both a high-level, long-term-oriented reward system and a low-level, risk-taking reward system in order to enhance the positive effects of market orientation on new product performance. The results provide a more refined understanding of how the interplay between marketing and human resource management influences the implementation of market orientation and new product innovation. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Keyword

BUSINESS STRATEGY ;  COMPENSATION ;  cross-functional coordination ;  HIGH-TECHNOLOGY FIRMS ;  innovation ;  INNOVATION ;  INTERFACE ;  interface between marketing and HRM ;  market orientation ;  new product performance ;  PREVENTION ;  PROMOTION ;  REGULATORY FOCUS ;  reward ;  STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELS ;  VARIABLES

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to advance the understanding of the role of the strategic orientation of the firm for successful new product development (NPD), in the context of Chinese manufacturing firms. Through field research accompanied by a review of the related literature, this study identifies customer orientation and technology orientation as crucial strategic components that are important to successful new product development. This research proposes a conceptual model of strategic orientations, in which firm-internal (organizational support) and -external (environmental turbulence) factors are expected to influence strategic orientations, which, in turn, impact NPD performance. The model is tested using data collected from a large-scale survey of 232 manufacturing firms in China. The results largely support the hypotheses derived from the conceptual model. First, organizational support and environmental turbulence have a positive influence on the implementation of strategic orientations. Second, the two strategic orientations show a different pattern of performance implications.

Keyword

CAPABILITIES ;  China ;  DETERMINANTS ;  FIRMS ;  INDUSTRIAL ;  INNOVATION ;  MARKET ORIENTATION ;  New product development ;  PERFORMANCE ;  PERSPECTIVE ;  Strategic orientation ;  SUCCESS ;  UNITED-STATES

Abstract

Managers face an important strategic dilemma in product innovation: how to exploit existing product innovation competencies (competence exploitation) while avoiding their dysfunctional rigidity effects by renewing and replacing them with entirely new competencies (competence exploration). Although the resolution of what is termed the "capability-rigidity paradox" is considered a fundamental managerial task in enhancing product innovation outcomes and the firm's competitive advantage, it has received little research attention. The author argues and finds support that market orientation provides a key to this paradox. Specifically, customer and competitor orientations ensure simultaneous investments in exploiting existing product innovation competencies and exploring new ones. The author also finds that the effects of these orientations on competence exploitation and exploration are differentially moderated by interfunctional coordination and perceived market opportunity. Regarding outcomes, competence exploitation and exploration have opposing relationships with incremental and radical innovation performance. However, the relationship between competence exploration and radical innovation performance is positively moderated by interfunctional coordination. Overall, the results of this study suggest that market orientation can prevent a firm from becoming operationally efficient but strategically inefficient by simultaneously engendering competence exploitation and exploration, which are differentially related to incremental and radical product innovation outcomes.

Keyword

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ;  FIRM ;  KNOWLEDGE ;  MARKET ORIENTATION ;  ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE ;  OVERLOOKED ROLE ;  RADICAL INNOVATION ;  RESOURCE-BASED VIEW ;  STRATEGY ;  TECHNOLOGY VENTURES