Search results
1 – 10 of 359Haifen Lin and Jingqin Su
This paper aims to address how management practices successfully implemented somewhere else, namely adoptive management innovation, have been introduced into Chinese firms and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address how management practices successfully implemented somewhere else, namely adoptive management innovation, have been introduced into Chinese firms and then effectively implemented, or to investigate key activities of the generative mechanism through which an adoptive management innovation occurs.
Design/methodology/approach
Since the purpose of management innovation is to utilize organizational resources more efficiently and further their goals, with little intention to pursue differentiation and without any protection from patent, adoptive management innovation has been prevailing around China and even the whole world. Based on the conception of what makes adoptive management innovation unique, this paper attempts to investigate the case of the Organizational Efficiency Management of Jiangxi Mobile in China to identify key activities of adoptive management innovation and develop a two-interlinked-subprocess framework of adoption decision and implementation, aiming to offer suggestions for firms in adopting new management practices.
Findings
The results indicate that adoption of existing management practices or methods from somewhere else is a more complex and logical process rather than a simple one of knowledge transferring. It needs to integrate existing practices into new organizational context and establish their innovative value during implementation. One core element of the process framework is the emphasis on activities of problem diagnoses and realization of the fitness between management practices adopted and the new organizational context, and another one is the sequence of activities in the whole process.
Research limitations/implications
This research is constrained by at least three limitations. First, the authors' findings for the two-subprocess framework of adoptive management innovation need to be further confirmed for more organizations. Second, little attention has been paid to relative advantages of different sequence of activities. Third, when focusing on adoptive management innovation from a process perspective, this research does not address problems such as why some managers pursue innovative opportunities by introducing new practices, how contextual elements, internal elements, and top management teams affect management innovation, or how the performance of adoptive management innovation could be improved in China.
Originality/value
The findings offer some valuable insights for further research in how to explore the generative mechanism of organizational changes or innovations in China and hold important implications for management practices.
Details
Keywords
He‐Chun Wang, Jing‐Qin Su, Hui‐Ling Cao and Sai‐Nan Sun
In China the maturity of the industrial development has the demonstration and reference implications for how to achieve enterprises competitiveness among the developing industries…
Abstract
Purpose
In China the maturity of the industrial development has the demonstration and reference implications for how to achieve enterprises competitiveness among the developing industries in a country. With the development of globalization, how to improve the enterprises competitiveness has became a serious problem to be solved for Chinese enterprises. The management innovation is reasonable and appropriate to solve this problem. Compared with the independent innovation, adoptive management innovation has become the main way for enterprises to fulfill the management innovation and change the management styles under the open economy condition. The research strives to reveal the “black box” in the management innovation adoptive process and give an answer to a series of questions, such as “what is the role of entrepreneurs in management innovation adoptive process?”
Design/methodology/approach
Exploratory case study approach is taken to find the entrepreneurs' role in management innovation adoptive process of Chinese traditional industry.
Findings
This paper constructs the adoptive management innovation model from three dimensions, using exploratory case technique, which explores the key factors and mechanism of realizing management innovation adoption. Through the exploratory case analysis to verify the viewpoint which is proposed by the model: entrepreneurs played a leading role in the adoptive management innovation of non‐procedural process, and the role is the result of the mixed function of the external and internal environment. Entrepreneurs analyze and explore the new problems and opportunities, and their own experience and ability determine the cognition and explore degree towards these problems directly; entrepreneurs' integration ability of resources can be approved and accepted after the new practice has been proposed and become mature. Entrepreneur long‐term shaping on organizational resources determines whether the management innovations introduction would be really integrated into enterprise management system. The entrepreneur's typical behavior on “integration, learning and shaping” is the foundation and guarantee of adoptive management innovation, which have connective effect on adjacent stages.
Originality/value
The article describes Haier BPR process of adoptive management innovation and the adoptive management innovation mode, and analyzes the effect of entrepreneurs' role on adoptive management innovation of China's color TV industry. The Chinese color TV industry as the maturity industry has the demonstration and reference implications for how to achieve enterprises competitiveness in Chinese developing industries.
Details
Keywords
Adoptive innovation becomes increasingly important in today’s competitive world. However, in the presence of current economic downturn, cautions are voiced against potential…
Abstract
Adoptive innovation becomes increasingly important in today’s competitive world. However, in the presence of current economic downturn, cautions are voiced against potential risks; these innovative activities can bring to from firm to country level. Our research addresses such concerns. The research is drawn from two key streams of literature: risk management and innovation management. We developed a conceptual framework that consists of three components: risk behaviour, environmental conditions and adoptive innovative (REAI). Applying the REAI framework, we examined the risk management efficacy of adoptive innovation activities of one organisation under a historical perspective. We conclude that although adopters have a high tolerance for managing uncertainty and appetite for risk taking in line with competitors, there are two key elements that deter mine the performance of such behaviour: level of environmental turbulence and the role of senior management. It is the first time research determining the relationship between risk and adoptive innovative behaviour is being undertaken and will also provide direct guidance for managers regarding how to manage risk and uncertainty under different circumstances of their innovative practices.
Details
Keywords
Heiko Gebauer, Mirella Haldimann and Caroline Jennings Saul
The purpose of this paper is to develop a typology of management innovations.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a typology of management innovations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply a multiple-case (embedded) design, with each organization representing a case, which entails a few embedded units of analysis. Case studies are about the base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) initiatives, during which all organizations are interested in management innovations which support them in coming up with and implementing between two and four new management practices.
Findings
The findings suggest four types of management innovations: efficiency-driven, externally recommended, problem-oriented, and opportunity-oriented management innovation.
Research limitations/implications
This paper explores and analyses management innovations, rather than testing them. As with most qualitative research, the transferability of the findings is limited.
Practical implications
Managers should vigorously pursue management innovations, not only in BoP markets, but also in all markets. Practitioners must, however, ensure that they are not fully absorbed by a single type of management innovation, and recognize the importance of pursing multiple ones.
Social implications
For academics, the authors revitalize the concept of engaged scholarship.
Originality/value
Surprisingly, previous research looks either into generic or specific management innovations. The typology is original, since the typology offers a more fine-grained view on management innovations.
Details
Keywords
Haifen Lin, Mengya Chen and Jingqin Su
The purpose of this paper is to address how management innovations are implemented deeply at the most micro level of organizations, namely, organizational routines, or to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address how management innovations are implemented deeply at the most micro level of organizations, namely, organizational routines, or to investigate the process through which organizational routines evolve in implementing management innovations, with existing routines overturned and new routines created and solidified.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts an interpretive and exploratory case study on the case of Day-Definite (DD) innovation which has successfully brought Arima World Group Company Limited (HOAU) into a new value-added arena, in terms of timing, security and high service quality. Considering that DD innovation reflects a systematic innovation of the whole organization, this paper focuses on it to explore the complex implementation mechanism of management innovation. Multiple approaches were utilized during data collection to meet criteria for trustworthiness, including semi-structured interviews, archival data and observation; and the data analysis went through a five-step process.
Findings
The results confirm management innovation as a complex project concerning organizational routines which represent a central and fundamental element of organizations. Also, it finds that organizational routines evolve in innovation implementation through a three-phase process consisting of the existing-routine-domination phase, the new-routine-creation phase and -solidification phases, each exhibiting different innovation activities and characteristics of participants’ cognition and behaviors; recreation of new routines is the key for routine evolution, thus for success of management innovations.
Research limitations/implications
This research is constrained by several limitations. The set-up framework of organizational routine evolution in innovation implementation needs a further confirmation in more organizations; other elements, such as cognition of managers, resource orchestration, environmental elements or organizational culture, should be considered for the success of innovation implementation; and more attention should be paid to the potential power asymmetries among participants and its potential influence on forming shared schemata and subsequent new routines, besides interactions and role taking.
Originality/value
The findings offer some valuable insights for further research on management innovation and organizational routines and hold important implications for management practices. This research extends research on management innovation and the Kurt Lewin Change Theory and Change Model to explore innovation implementation at a most micro level; furthers research on organizational routines, especially routine dynamic theory, by holding the two-component view and exploring the process through which organizational routines evolve; and contributes to research on the relationship between organizational routines and innovations by taking an organizational routines’ perspective. It reminds managers of the depth and complication of innovation implementation.
Details
Keywords
Raphael Lissillour and Javier Alfonso Rodriguez-Escobar
Balancing exploration and exploitation is a strategic challenge for technology-based companies striving to successfully implement ambidexterity in rapidly changing markets. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Balancing exploration and exploitation is a strategic challenge for technology-based companies striving to successfully implement ambidexterity in rapidly changing markets. This study aims to look at the extent in which corporate universities can be instrumental in the cross-functional deployment of the resources, capabilities and experience needed to achieve organizational ambidexterity.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is the result of a single case study of ZTE University in China. Data from archives, direct observations, and semi-open interviews have been triangulated and analyzed with pattern matching technique.
Findings
This study analyzed the development of capabilities allowing the strategic combinations of exploration and exploitation, and to clearly witness how the corporate university was dynamically linked with those development.
Originality/value
The empirical results offer new insights on the most relevant capabilities for technology-based companies and notably those that are more likely to be exploited through a corporate university.
Details
Keywords
Eco-labeling will grow in importance as natural resources grow scarcer and environmental concerns increase. The purpose of this study considers team collaboration (TC) and…
Abstract
Purpose
Eco-labeling will grow in importance as natural resources grow scarcer and environmental concerns increase. The purpose of this study considers team collaboration (TC) and integration capability (IC) to examine the possible effects of team member’s shared vision (SV) on the performance of marketing eco-labeled products.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretical perspectives on SV, IC and TC were studied to evaluate the development of eco-labeled products and to improve their marketing performance. A total of 247 eco-label products were sampled; confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used for statistical analysis.
Findings
The results demonstrate that team members’ SV is positively correlated with TC. Both TC and IC are positively correlated with the performance of eco-labeled product marketing, but SV does not correlate positively with IC. The results herein also demonstrate that TC significantly mediates the effect of SV on the performance of eco-labeled product marketing.
Research limitations/implications
Firstly, this research aimed to study the effects of SV, TC and IC, particularly on the performance of marketing eco-labeled products. The analysis on other organizational performance, for example, human resource management performance or financial performance can be further studied. Secondly, further study of different products is necessary as different eco-labeled products have dissimilar product life cycle patterns. As human environmental concern grows, firms engaging in the manufacture of eco-labeling products will increase significantly and cover many different products. The analyses on different products or applications require further study to elucidate diverse management strategies.
Practical implications
An effective SV can rapidly clarify the goals and directions associated with eco-labeled marketing performance. Managers with high expectations of marketing performance can improve marketing performance when they clearly share eco-labeled product development objectives and directions. Proper IC and TC are also essential to the performance of eco-labeled product marketing.
Originality/value
This study introduces the concept of SV to explain the relationship between TC and IC as they pertain to eco-labeling product marketing. A theory of eco-labeling marketing is also presented.
Details
Keywords
Krisztina Demeter, Dávid Losonci and Judit Nagy
The authors’ main objective is to examine the resource alteration underlying the digital manufacturing transformation. The authors rely on the adaptation aspect of dynamic…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors’ main objective is to examine the resource alteration underlying the digital manufacturing transformation. The authors rely on the adaptation aspect of dynamic capabilities (DC) theory and their analysis shows how and why a factory adapts its resources and capabilities during digital transformation.
Design/methodology/approach
To grasp the change, the authors apply the longitudinal case study method within a revelatory case setting. The digital transformation is detailed from the perspective of a subsidiary that has played a key role in the division's digital transformation.
Findings
Analysing the revealed four stages of the transformation through the lenses of the DC components of adaptation (sensing capability, absorptive capacity, integrative capability, relational capability), this study suggests a sequence with unbalanced characteristics. Each stage starts with sensing capability, each component appears during each stage and each stage is dominated by a different component. Relying on the path dependency concept, the authors also present that the interplay between lean as an old resource stock and digital manufacturing as a new resource stock is rather a necessity, especially at the beginning of the transformation (at a corporation that pursues lean for years).
Practical implications
Digital strategy development is rather an intermediate element of the transformation, since committed personnel (or maybe their network) start bottom-up and coordinate initiatives as they sense the opportunities in the environment. Top managers should rely on their accumulated knowledge and involve them into the transfer coalition in the top-down phase of digitalization. The authors’ case also underlines that starting to experiment with novel technologies requires a solid (and usually expensive) technological and human basis. Finally, process improvement focussed developments at a high-performing factory might be just enough to deal with ever-demanding customer expectations.
Originality/value
This study is among the firsts in operations management that relies on the DC theory to follow up the digital transformation of a factory. A further valuable contribution is that the adaptation process is examined in a longitudinal case study.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how internal-driven management innovation (IDMI) takes shape, which highlights the objective-oriented and problem-oriented property of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how internal-driven management innovation (IDMI) takes shape, which highlights the objective-oriented and problem-oriented property of the innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a case study of a new practice called 11X integration strategy in Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings Limited, a Chinese pharmaceutical group in Guangdong province, through applying Grounded Theory the authors get a concise systematic framework of generation process that is more practical and more understandable than the counterparts in current literature.
Findings
First, this paper uncovers five stages and two parallel sub processes in the generation process of IDMI. The sub processes involves practical exploration process (i.e. primary activities) carried out by the internal change agents and theoretical support process (i.e. support activities) carried out by the external change agents. Second, by adopting a process perspective the authors are able to demonstrate how the different activities in both types of processes are combined over time in an intertwined way.
Research limitations/implications
First, the case the authors studied is embedded in the context of China’s transitional economy, and the single case study limits us to make comparisons of the generation process of management innovation between different market economies. Second, the external-driven management innovation is still a field untouched. Third, in the research the authors explore the issues of how new management innovation is generated and implemented, but the authors do not systematically research on why different companies exhibit different levels of management innovativeness.
Practical implications
First, the findings suggest that firms should consciously and systematically invest in IDMI to create sustainable competitive advantage. Second, the process framework provides a clear guidance to the managers in Chinese state-owned enterprises who are engaged in developing or adopting management innovation. Third, the study indicates the managers in Chinese company should be aware of the importance of external change agents to IDMI. Fourth, this study could facilitate the enterprises to develop or adopt management innovation based on their real needs rather than just “jumping on the bandwagon” when adopting certain new management skills.
Originality/value
This study offers a new generation framework by identifying possible facilitators of IDMI that does not yet exist in extant literatures, and the two sub processes – the practical exploration process and the theoretical support process – deepen the understanding of the generation mechanisms of IDMI. Furthermore, the study contributes to reaching a better understanding of management innovation in the context of transitional economy such as China.
Details
Keywords
Daniel Paulino Teixeira Lopes, Naldeir dos Santos Vieira, Allan Claudius Queiroz Barbosa and Cristina Parente
The purpose of this paper is to discuss recent developments in the fields of management innovation and social innovation, in order to discover any possible convergences and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss recent developments in the fields of management innovation and social innovation, in order to discover any possible convergences and divergences between them.
Design/methodology/approach
By examining the state of the art of the literature in both fields of study, this paper proposes a framework of theoretical approaches, conceptual dimensions, goals and objectives, processes, agents, outcomes, methods, and literature gaps.
Findings
There are substantial differences between management and social innovation in terms of theoretical and conceptual foundations. Although both share similarities given the relevance of technology and their focus on social relations, their generation and diffusion processes, among their other characteristics, are distinct.
Research limitations/implications
As this is a theoretical paper concerning innovations that involve social elements at their core, the challenge is to incorporate technological innovation into the theoretical framework. This would help empirically oriented research on more types of innovation.
Practical implications
The agenda of practitioners, scholars, government, and civil society should take different types of innovation into account, particularly those that go beyond technology.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to a better understanding of innovations that go beyond technology, by analysing innovations (i.e. management and social innovation) that involve social aspects at their core. Few researchers have analysed these types of innovations jointly.
Objetivo
O objetivo deste artigo consiste em discutir os avanços mais recentes nos campos da inovação gerencial e da inovação social, na busca de possíveis aspectos convergentes e divergentes entre essas temáticas.
Desenho/metodologia/abordagem
Ao examinar o estado da arte da literatura em ambas as temáticas, propõe-se um framework de abordagens teóricas, dimensões conceituais, metas e objetivos, processos, agentes, resultados, métodos e lacunas da literatura.
Resultados
Há diferenças substanciais entre inovação gerencial e social em termos de fundamentos teóricos e conceituais. Embora ambas compartilhem semelhanças, dado o seu foco nas relações sociais e a relevância da tecnologia, seus processos de geração e difusão, entre outras características, são distintos.
Limitações/implicações da pesquisa
Como se trata de um artigo teórico sobre inovações que envolvem elementos sociais em sua essência, o desafio é incorporar a inovação tecnológica no framework teórico. Isso ajudaria pesquisas empiricamente orientadas sobre mais tipos de inovação.
Implicações práticas
A agenda de profissionais, acadêmicos, governo e sociedade civil deve levar em conta diferentes tipos de inovação, particularmente aquelas que vão além da tecnologia.
Originalidade/valor
Este artigo contribui para uma melhor compreensão das inovações que vão além da tecnologia, ao analisar inovações (no caso, as gerenciais e sociais) que possuem aspectos sociais como elementos centrais. Poucos pesquisadores analisaram conjuntamente esses tipos de inovações.
Details