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1 – 10 of over 38000Soroush Maghsoudi, Colin Duffield and David Wilson
Innovation is at the heart of today's competitive economy. The infrastructure industry of a nation plays a crucial role in its economic development and having understood…
Abstract
Innovation is at the heart of today's competitive economy. The infrastructure industry of a nation plays a crucial role in its economic development and having understood innovation, and its impacts are very important in the current turbulent economic environment. Innovation and infrastructure are both referred to as two main factors to getting competitive internationally; therefore, having innovation evaluated has become one of the priorities for most governments and organizations. Innovation is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon and is very difficult to measure. The aim of this paper is to develop a framework to evaluate innovation and its benefits in infrastructure projects. For this purpose, a systematic review approach was adopted to review past and current models and frameworks in the literature related to the field of innovation and measurement. As the literature is very fragmented and lacks consensus on innovation measurement, it was intended to develop a comprehensive framework with a holistic attitude in mind in order to consider as many as possible interacting elements of the innovation process. The results showed that having a clear understanding of innovation requires evaluating not only inputs and intermediate outputs of the process, but also necessitates evaluation of what happens in the process of innovation, as well as longer term benefits. The proposed framework is developed in the context of infrastructure projects, and it consolidated necessary measuring aspects of innovation, especially the risk of impacts in the process. This area of research is new and relatively unstudied in the context of infrastructure. However, this study begins to scratch the surface of a large area of research that can act as the first step toward more reliable evaluation of innovation in infrastructure projects.
Soroush Maghsoudi, Colin Duffield and David Wilson
Unlike manufacturing and research and developments, major infrastructure projects rarely emphasize or drive their objectives on the basis of innovation. This is in part because of…
Abstract
Purpose
Unlike manufacturing and research and developments, major infrastructure projects rarely emphasize or drive their objectives on the basis of innovation. This is in part because of a risk-averse culture, yet conceivably great benefits and opportunities are being lost because of this behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The case for focusing on innovation in infrastructure projects is that the reasons driving innovation are not fully understood, and this impedes the effective implementation of lessons learned for the numerous innovative projects into practice more generally. The purpose of this study was to discover how innovation is produced and captured in major infrastructure projects in Australia and to understand how innovation may be replicated for future projects through refinement of design, project management, finance and procurement.
Findings
Engineering and project managers may find this paper helpful to better understand how innovation might happen in infrastructure projects and what different forms it can take.
Originality/value
The findings of this study demonstrate that people and culture drive consistent successful infrastructure outcomes more than simply the development of new products or processes.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide conceptual foundations for a study exploring the capacity of hard infrastructure and amenities to influence the socio‐economic imprint of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide conceptual foundations for a study exploring the capacity of hard infrastructure and amenities to influence the socio‐economic imprint of urban spaces. The paper argues that some urban developments are more economically efficient in generating innovation and knowledge than others.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the debate between urban density and infrastructure. Drawing on empirical evidence and economic production theory, it explores the spatial links between economic growth, innovation and knowledge productivity. It argues that the growing role of human capital in the production process has linked productivity to a city's mix and levels of infrastructure and amenities. It reviews five key infrastructure types for knowledge‐based developments.
Findings
This paper finds that the positive contribution of density to urban vibrancy and human connectivity is constrained by a city's infrastructure and amenity levels. It concludes that urban development cognisant of an appropriate mix and level of infrastructure and amenities will more likely enhance regional knowledge development and innovation than those which are not.
Social implications
The evidence presented in this paper has a broad range of strategic and practical socio‐economic implications, and contributes towards understanding how urban form can leverage social aspects of a city for economic growth.
Originality/value
Using an inter‐disciplinarian approach, this paper provides invaluable insights into the types of infrastructure and importance of urban form for knowledge‐based development. It contends that well‐planned knowledge‐based developments can be leveraged to ensure the successful implementation and delivery of national innovation and productivity priorities.
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Peter R.A. Oeij, Tinka Van Vuuren, Steven Dhondt, Jeff Gaspersz and Ernest M.M. De Vroome
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether insights into high reliability organizations (HROs) are useful for innovation management teams. HRO teams can keep failure to a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether insights into high reliability organizations (HROs) are useful for innovation management teams. HRO teams can keep failure to a minimum level due to high alertness and resilience. Project teams working on innovation management could benefit from HRO principles and thus reduce their chances of failure.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey among in total 260 team members and team leaders of project teams in innovation management was conducted to study the relation between, on the one hand, organizational features of HROs (“mindful infrastructure”) and HRO principles (adjusted as “innovation resilience behaviour”, IRB), and on the other hand, between mindful infrastructure and IRB and project outcomes.
Findings
From the results it could be concluded that mindful infrastructure associates with IRB, and that IRB has a mediating role in the relation between mindful infrastructure and project outcomes. Innovation management project teams can thus learn from the practice of HRO teams.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, HRO-thinking has not been applied to team behaviour in innovation management. A fruitful transfer of insights from the domain of safety and crisis management seems applicable to the domain of innovation.
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Simona Popa, Pedro Soto-Acosta and Euripidis Loukis
In recent years, there has been much debate about the value generated by the firms’ investments in information technology (IT). Although literature suggests that technology itself…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, there has been much debate about the value generated by the firms’ investments in information technology (IT). Although literature suggests that technology itself will rarely create superiority, web infrastructure can be critical for knowledge sharing and the formation of virtual teams to execute innovation processes which, in turn, may enhance e-innovation and business value. Building on these antecedents, the purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how web infrastructure and e-innovation can create business value by complementing each other.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm this paper develops a conceptual model to assess the effects of web infrastructure and e-innovation on business value as well as the complementarity between these resources. To test the associated hypotheses, a regression model was estimated and tested on a large sample of Spanish firms from different industries.
Findings
The results show that web infrastructure is not positively related to business value, but on the contrary e-innovation has a positive impact on business value. However, support for complementarity between web infrastructure and e-innovation was not found.
Originality/value
The present study tests the RBV logic, arguing that not all IT resources are source of competitive advantage. In the same vein, this study shows that e-innovation, as it requires combination of IT infrastructure with other unique intangible resources, is much more difficult to imitate, leading to competitive advantages.
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Jao-Hong Cheng, Mu-Chung Chen and Chung-Ming Huang
– This paper aims to examine the factors influencing innovation performance and implementation in inter-organizational relationships.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the factors influencing innovation performance and implementation in inter-organizational relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
A novel research model comprises five research hypotheses with four constructs, including information technology infrastructure flexibility, institutional orientation, dynamic capabilities and innovation performance. The hypotheses are tested on data collected from 260 of the top 1,000 Taiwanese manufacturing firms in 2011 listed by Business Weekly in Taiwan, using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The study provides insight into how supply chain members should reinforce their dynamic capabilities and relational and institutional view of relational governance so as to improve their value-based relationships and in turn enhance innovation performance.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical study is conducted on supply chains, with data collected from Taiwan's manufacturing firms. With the research model developed, cross-industrial studies can be conducted to investigate whether differences exist in relation to the inter-relationship effects that affect inter-organizational innovation performance.
Practical implications
The study provides useful insights into how supply chain members should reinforce their value-based relationships by focusing on activities that would enhance information technology infrastructure flexibility and institutional orientation, and improve activities that would reinforce the activities of dynamic capabilities, in order to achieve the competitive advantage of inter-organizational innovation performance.
Originality/value
The novel research model developed may serve as a starting point for future theoretical and empirical research and measures for describing and modeling the role of value-based relationships from the relational and institutional view of relational governance and dynamic capabilities, which is not dealt with in previous studies.
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Rishabh Rajan, Sanjay Dhir and Sushil
In the rapidly changing business world, innovation plays a vital role for organizations to gain a competitive advantage. Various factors associated with technology management and…
Abstract
Purpose
In the rapidly changing business world, innovation plays a vital role for organizations to gain a competitive advantage. Various factors associated with technology management and innovations in organizations are diverse in the existing literature. Therefore, there is a need to bridge these gaps in the fitting proportions toward innovations within organizations. The primary objective of this study is to identify, explain and interpret the relationships between the identified technology-related factors that are important for innovations in organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, a modified total interpretive structural modeling (M-TISM) methodology was used to examine and analyze the various interactions between identified factors for innovations in organizations. However, the argumentation of the links is relatively weak in M-TISM. In order to compensate for this, M-TISM is additionally altered by an “Argumentation-based Modified TISM”. Hence, this research strengthens the modified TISM methodology by incorporating argumentation and total interpretation of the relationships between the identified factors.
Findings
A total of six major factors were identified using a literature review. Results suggest that workforce technical skills, technological infrastructure, technological alliances, technology transfer and top management support have an impact on innovation in organizations. Results also suggest that top management support and the technological infrastructure of an organization have a greater impact on innovation.
Research limitations/implications
For policymakers and practitioners, this study provides a suggestive list of critical factors, which may help to develop policies or guidelines for improving innovation in organizations. Policymakers should focus on technological infrastructure and collaborations to enhance innovations and productions within the organizations. For academicians, this study provides a modified TISM model that shows the impact of technology-related factors on innovations. Future researchers could expand this study by adding a greater number of technological factors and validate this model in other industries.
Originality/value
This study fills a gap in the literature by interpreting the various relationships among the identified factors and innovations. The model has been validated through a panel of seven experts from the Indian automotive industry of multiple organizations. This study is useful in the automobile industry as it determines what and how technology-related factors affect innovations, process improvement and R&D production for organizations.
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The rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT) over the past decade has enabled heterogeneous economic sectors to be more integrated, leading to a…
Abstract
Purpose
The rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT) over the past decade has enabled heterogeneous economic sectors to be more integrated, leading to a significant effect on nation’s growth across OECD countries. The objective of this study is to estimate the short run and long run inter-linkages among ICT, innovation technology, globalization, and economic growth for the period 1996-2017 in OECD countries.
Design/methodology/approach
This research provides some sophisticated methodologies by using principal component analysis to construct ICT and innovation indices and follow up by employing the panel cointegration test, pooled mean group regression, fully modified ordinary least squares and dynamic ordinary least squares as sophisticated estimation techniques, panel Granger causality and forecast error variance decomposition to examine the robustness of the causal association in the findings.
Findings
The empirical results herein suggest that ICT, innovation and globalization positively contribute to economic growth, while the causality findings reveal strong endogenous relationships among both ICT mobile and internet use, innovation development, globalization and economic growth in both short and long run. The findings further imply that OECD countries have yet to promote economic growth from ICT infrastructure expansion, the enlargement of technology innovation and the spread of globalization.
Practical implications
The particular policy recommendation is to reinforce the investment and establishment of a reliable ICT infrastructure as well as innovation technology to create sustained economic growth in this progressively interconnected world.
Originality/value
This study is valuable from policy and decision-makers’ perspective, as it highlights the significance of ICT infrastructure development, innovation enlargement and globalization to elevate the economic growth in OECD countries.
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Samer Al-Shami, Mohammed Hariri Bakri, Hayder Adil and Abdullah Al Mamun
Previous studies equated information technology (IT) with the notion of effective resources. ITs improved firms’ competitive advantage and innovativeness. Yet, far fewer studies…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous studies equated information technology (IT) with the notion of effective resources. ITs improved firms’ competitive advantage and innovativeness. Yet, far fewer studies investigated types of IT competencies that corresponded to innovation capabilities, particularly in developing countries. The aim of this paper is to provide an investigation concerning the types of IT competencies and examine their influence on the innovation capabilities across high-tech firms.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was randomly distributed to 274 respondents across four main sectors of Malaysian high-tech firms. The main sectors were electric and electronic, aerospace, computers and office machinery and pharmaceuticals. A structural equation model, Amos, was used to analyse data.
Findings
Three findings were surmised. First, IT competencies driven by IT infrastructure, alignment, management affected high-tech firms’ innovation capabilities. Second, absorptive capacity (AC) partially determined the relationship between IT infrastructure and IT alignment and innovation capabilities. AC also determined the relationship between IT management and innovation capabilities. The significance of IT competencies in the improvement of innovation capabilities was presented as a key predictor in bolstering high-tech manufacturing firms’ competitive advantage.
Originality/value
Two points on novelty were presented. First, by conceptualising IT competencies from resource-based theory (RBV), a shift in understanding RBV was presented. Second, alternative key predictors concerning how IT competencies could improve aspects of AC and innovation capabilities were presented.
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Information and communication technology (ICT) has the potential to address and reduce income inequality. However, since 1980, income inequality in the United States has caused…
Abstract
Purpose
Information and communication technology (ICT) has the potential to address and reduce income inequality. However, since 1980, income inequality in the United States has caused concerns for researchers, policymakers and the public. Entrepreneurs and managers can take advantage of information technologies, while those in the middle and the bottom see fewer benefits. Meanwhile, countries such as Iceland are more capable of using ICT infrastructure to reduce income inequality, which contributes to the well-being of its citizens. This research study explores the relationship between infrastructure diffusion and income inequality through Rogers’s diffusion of innovations theory.
Design/methodology/approach
To answer the research questions, the author assessed the data through a series of regression analyses using SPSS. The authors used Power BI software to chart the relationships between ICT infrastructure diffusion and income inequality by country and in the United States by state and region.
Findings
The results show diffusion of innovations theory’s tenets do not necessarily hold, because a significant negative relationship exists between infrastructure diffusion and income inequality, especially in countries with emerging economies. In the United States, this relationship significantly differs by region.
Originality/value
This research contributes to research by expanding economic and sociology work to the IS domain, while providing conflicting evidence for diffusion of innovations theory. The research also provides suggestions for practice, such as more focused ICT infrastructure investments and regulations.
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