Search results

The impact of the e-globalization combined with staggering costs for R & D across industries has resulted in the call for new approach to innovation where openness and interconnectivity is the role. This new approach is designated as “open innovation”. The new paradigm calls for the sharing of knowledge and resources in conducting innovation activities within and among organizations. As such, one needs to re-orient the structure of the organization to meet these new requirements. On the conceptual level, it becomes a significant undertake to try to grasp how our traditional understanding of the organization can be fitted within the requirements of the open innovation when the environment of the e-globalization is taken in consideration. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the question of how organization structure theories can be coupled to the open innovation paradigm. Out of that analysis the authors propose a new theoretical framework of organizational analysis that takes both the classical knowledge and the new economic context of e-globalization.

The contemporary period is recognized by the term “new economy”, as a replacement for the “old economy”. Another term of importance is “globalization”, which is coupled to the issue of economy categorization. Humanity launched the modern age of globalization some decades ago, but we are going through a new type of globalization, e-globalization. In the e-globalization, processes are induced basically by the impact of the new tools of communication and information technologies. These dynamic processes have forced a re-thinking of the traditional innovation practices. In the paper, the authors reflect on the changes in relation to the traditional knowledge about organization structure, using a deductive approach and textual analysis and relate that to the requirements of an open innovation paradigm. In the process, the authors introduce the basics of the “theory of internetisation dynamics” as a new potential organizational theoretical framework.

From the analysis, it was found that some traditional concepts about organization structure and organizing mechanism theories are responsive to the needs of the open paradigm settings while other theories are not. However, each of these is able to contribute to one of the five components of the theory of internetisation dynamics.

The authors argue that by using the correct framework for the analysis of the organizational structure, one can propose a set of strategic steps which would help the companies to re-structure. That would save time and effort for policy-makers and managers of firms, as well as researchers active in this field of organization and organizing processes, who are focused on the open innovation transformation requirements of the firms. Running this analysis would add some input into organizational re-orientation in troubled sectors such as in pharmaceutical industries.

Small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) evaluation models lack a clear coupling to innovation and its impact on firm performance. A model which can achieve this is the Survival Index Value (SIV) model. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the ability of the SIV model to indicate and predict the performance of a company. The firm, Autoadapt AB, is an innovation‐oriented enterprise, adapting personal cars to be driven by handicapped people. The authors knew in advance about the good performance of the firm and its high efficiency in conducting its operations and expected the SIV model to reflect correctly on Autoadapt's performance. Because the handicap degree of each of the individuals who benefit from the firm activities differs from one person to another, product solutions have to be individually designed. Therefore the firm has had to pursue a high level of innovativeness and it had to abide with this policy right from the start. The product development processes in the firm needed to adapt to such strategies.

To be able to demonstrate the ability of the SIV model to indicate a positive performance due to the intensive innovation activities of Autoadapt AB, a case study approach was used. Case studies are very suited for in‐depth analysis of an object under a longer period of time. It is a widely‐used research method in firm performance studies.

The results of the SIV analysis indicated that the model is able to project correctly the performance of the object firm. At all the four levels of analysis, i.e. SI values, the SPI slope, the survival factors, and the survivability coefficients, the SIV analysis performance indicated a stable positive development of the firm through the life time of the enterprise.

Measuring performance of SMEs is an important issue. There are couple of models stemming from the traditional accountancy disciplines in use; however these models suffer from clear disadvantages. Recently a new model, the SIV model, was introduced and has shown the ability of being a better candidate for performance analysis. The paper demonstrates the ability of the SIV model to judge correctly the performance of an innovative firm.

Planning under conditions of uncertainty is more demanding than doing the same under less uncertain circumstances. Planning which is coupled to high level of uncertainty requires good strategic thinking by the planners. There are a number of methods used for planning under such circumstances. Among these methods is scenario planning. Scenario planning has been used for classical management to help organizations and firms in their decision‐making activities. One area where scenario planning has not been used intensively, according to the authors’ understanding, is in a regional development context and especially in relation to the innovation aspects and policy issues.

In this paper, the authors discuss and exemplify the possible utilization of scenario planning to promote innovation in a regional development context. They look at the hidden potential of the method and discuss the challenges of its utilization. To run their analysis, they use a number of cases from the health sector. These cases are unique because they also involved input from a number of actors of the regional innovation system.

The authors found that scenario planning is a valuable tool to deal with regional development schemes under high level of uncertainty and where diverse actors from the regional innovation system are involved.

The authors argue in this work that scenario planning has the potential to be used, at a more intense scale, in promoting innovation activities in organizations within the context of a regional development drive. Surely, scenario planning need be considered when discussing innovation in relation to introduction of new therapies, new educational schemes, and other regional development initiatives.