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Previous studies on innovation tend to view innovation as consisting of a creative phase of novel and useful ideas, and a non-creative, or at least a less creative phase, as this considered to be the mere implementation and validation of the initially created ideas. In contrast, this paper aims to stress on the significance of the process of validating a new idea as being a creative, learning, exploratory process that shapes the degree of novelty of the innovation as a whole.

In driving this argument, this study deductively builds on a theoretical pre-understanding derived from extant literature related to management innovation and organizational legitimacy, and inductively draws on information gleaned from three in-depth case studies.

The study shows that the validation phase in the innovation process is a creative process, rather than just being a set of activities that relate to the mere execution of the created ideas. Viewing the validation process as an exploratory search for new knowledge, this study establishes a relationship between the form of knowledge mobilized, vertically within an organization or horizontally from outside, and the form of legitimation required. Validation based on internally generated knowledge is effective in terms of achieving pragmatic (efficiency-driven) objectives. Inter-organizational knowledge inflows are associated with cognitive legitimacy – a form of legitimacy that leads to changes in the stakeholders’ beliefs about a the product. In contradistinction, horizontal, socio–cultural inflows of knowledge are likely to improve on the product itself, thereby generating more traction for validation.

This research is based on data collected from three firms only.

The idea developed here can provide business organizations a better understanding of the validation process of management innovations. This study suggests that successful innovation often requires managers to be prepared to seek knowledge beyond the confines of their own organizations.

This study contributes in three ways: it submits that there is a dynamic interplay between the moments of creation and validation, which is largely shaped by the novelty of the mobilized knowledge, depending on whether it is internal top–down or external horizontal; relatedly, the effectiveness of validation is shaped by the novelty of the knowledge garnered to justify the initial ideas; and the present paper has extended Suchman’s (1995) framework by linking the effectiveness of the various forms of legitimacy to the source of knowledge mobilized in the validation process.

The paper aims to examine the nature of competition within an industry by proposing and examining three separate sources of competitive heterogeneity: the strategies that industry members use, the performance that they obtain, and how effectively the strategies are utilized to obtain such performance results.

To do so, a restricted latent structure finite mixture model is devised that can quantify the contribution of these three potential sources of heterogeneity in the formulation of latent competitive groups within an industry. The paper illustrate this modeling framework with respect to COMPUSTAT strategy and performance data collected for public banks in the USA.

The paper shows how traditional conceptualizations via strategic or performance groups are inadequate to fully represent intra‐industry heterogeneity.

This research paper proposes a new class of restricted finite mixture‐based models, which fit a variety of alternative forms/models of heterogeneity. Information heuristics are developed to indicate “best model.”

The purpose of this paper is to use an eco-friendly service concept framework to demonstrate the effect of credible eco-certification signaling.

The authors examine a cross-sectional data set consisting of 2,481 hotel sites across the US. The authors measure the performance of the operations component of eco-friendly service by operations-driven resource efficiency (ODF), and the performance of the marketing component by customer-driven resource efficiency (CDF). A series of multivariate regressions compare these two resource efficiency measures between credibly eco-certified hotel sites and others.

The results indicate that credible eco-certifications achieve the signaling effect. Eco-certified hotels outperform others in both ODF and CDF measures; and eco-certified hotels still achieve higher CDF after controlling for ODF.

The findings suggest that eco-friendly service design requires not only eco-friendly operations but also a built-in credible signaling mechanism. This mechanism engages the customers in eco-friendly service coproduction and in doing so integrates the operations and marketing components of eco-friendly service strategy through eco-certifications.

This study is among the first to demonstrate empirically the signaling effect of credible eco-certifications in services. It increases understanding of eco-friendly service design and delivery by exploring the role of credible eco-certifications in linking customer benefits with the service organization's strategic intent.

This paper aims to explain the modern unintended human-personal self-destruction and the importance of diverse society-specific holistic cultures (“native cultures”) and social value systems as the remedy.

This paper is a viewpoint, as both the explanation and the proposed remedy are based on the present author’s historical, theoretical and normative considerations.

First, the author’s interpretation of pre-modern to modern Western societies reveals that some important pre-modern Western values are given to the modern era as part of the market value system. Second, some Mercantilist ideas have strong influences on Classical economic theory and methodology. Third, the modern Western value system – the market value system – corresponds to the Core Synergism of Modern Civilization or the complex driving force of Modern Civilization.

This paper is designed to facilitate reflection on the excessive emphasis on economic/market values.

The present author’s normative framework for social value system (“integral harmony”) is used for explaining a likely remedy of the unintended human-personal self-destruction. Also, for solving the human-personal predicament, this article integrates native culture, balance and harmony into economic thinking to promote sustainable development for a viable human future. Concluding remarks provide a summary for clarification of the remedy.

This paper aims at studying the concept of innovation ecosystems and investigating the factors affecting them based on their interrelationships with respect to different innovation archetypes.

The methodology is based on using multivariate statistical analysis of the inter-correlations among a number of variables which led to extracting a reduced set of new significant factors that affect China’s innovation ecosystem.

The results showed that innovation archetypes differ significantly with respect to the majority of the new factors.

Through identifying these challenges, decision-makers can develop a better understanding of the variables affecting each archetype of innovation and act accordingly.

The study is the first to fill the gap of addressing a large number of variables affecting innovation and analyzing their interrelationships.

While a substantial number of studies have examined information behaviour, most centred on choice of information source, student information behaviour, information behaviour of women, environmental uncertainty and scanning behaviour of top-level hotel executives. However, little is known about how the small and medium enterprise (SME) managers scan, seek, gather, document and use information relevant for emerging information and communication technology (EICT) adoption decision-making. This paper aims to examine the key success factors influencing SME manager’s information behaviour on EICT adoption decision-making.

This study deploys a qualitative approach to exploring 16 key success factors shaping SME managers’ information behaviour on EICT adoption decision-making. More specifically, the study adopted both unstructured and semi-structured interviews with 20 small business managers drawn purposeful from Crunch Database.

This study develops an extended technology, organisation and environment framework by incorporating the information context which helped to unravel 16 key success factors influencing small business managers’ information behaviour on EICT. From the technology context, uncertainty driven, compatibility, replacement of legacy technology, relative advantages, lack of technical know-how and perceived affordability fit for purpose influence SME managers’ information behaviour. Users’ acceptance information, efficiency driven, owner’s support shape the organisation context of perceived information need; competitor’s intelligence gathering, customer’s information gathering provider credibility and government policy influence the environmental context of perceived information need; and finally, perceived information sources credibility, herding event, testimonial and openness to other people’s ideas and experiences are shaped by the information context.

Qualitative research is normally subjective, interpretive and limited on the sample used. Because of the limited number of interviews, the generalisation of the framework and the finding is difficult. Therefore, the finding and the framework need to be established across broader population. The findings are vital considering the fact that small business managers are limited in knowledge and the study may improve the way and manner they go about seeking and gathering information relevant in adopting new ICT.

This research provides further insight into SME managers’ information behaviour by developing a framework and identifying main factors influencing SMEs information behaviours on EICT. Therefore, understanding such factors will enrich their knowledge on some of the factors that may shape their decisions during EICT adoption decision to make effective decision.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that synergy between firms and local institutions may lead to success even in an economic environment which cannot offer competitive advantages to high tech industrial clustering. However, the condition for such a complex result is convergence between cluster‐based regional development policy, the related industry national strategy and the central government preferential policy for less developed areas.

The experiences selected as case studies are the Xi'an National Civil Aerospace Base in Shaanxi Province (China) and CampaniAerospace in Campania region (Italy). As information was gathered both through policy documents (China and Italy) and direct interviews to cluster's stakeholders (Italy), the outcome is, according to the criteria suggested by Eisenhardt and Yin, a qualitative research. Comparing economic data provided by the respective countries' Statistical Offices, the authors assessed that Shaanxi Province and the Campania region share a “peripheral” position within their respective national context. Starting from this, the authors analyzed the formal documents which reported the experience of the two clusters.

The finding is that the outcome (the status of cluster which is assumed as “a value in itself”) of the convergence between firms' will to gain agglomeration advantages and the policymakers' plan to redress interregional economic disparities is definitely not an efficiency‐driven process. In the high tech sectors which are very sensitive to the increasing competition for technology on the international market, the pursuit of efficiency may, on the contrary, be dissipated.

As attested by the comparative literature, aims and performance of industrial clusters differ in accordance with the stage of economic development as well as the institutional and regulatory framework. The paper demonstrates, however, that in the take‐off stage, it is the position occupied by the host region within the national context which determines the behaviour of the actors concerned as well as the outcome of their commitment.

Recently, the entry of new players has prompted significant restructuring in the Australian coal market with value migrating away from the existing fragmented, traditional production/export model characterised by competing operators generally using 'common user' infrastructure facilities to new, fully integrated supply chains creating a multi-tiered production-consumer framework.

This paper argues that not only are coal markets restructuring but they are doing so within the framework of a significant paradigm shift towards efficiency-seeking and efficiency-driven mechanisms. Value innovation and a deregulated market are enabling operators to enter the industry seeking and implementing end-to-end control of the supply chain - and, in so doing, capturing the significant gains of integration.

This paper explores these changes within the framework of integrative efficiency - a product of end-to-end control by a single party, derived from a number of companies, or chain elements, working cooperatively rather than competitively, or a single operator vertically integrating the chain from point of production to point of consumption to capture and deliver significantly higher value. The paper focuses attention on this paradigmatic shift in a brief though detailed case study of a major new industry entrant into export coal chains from the rapidly developing Galilee Basin in northern Queensland. It examines the dynamics and implications of this shift in the context of chain efficiency and value innovation

The US General Accounts Office (GAO) study is, arguably, the first Western attempt at linking TQM and bottom‐line results. The study focused on the top 20 scorers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) in the period of 1988‐89. Following the findings of the GAO study, the Bradford study was conducted in order to establish whether similar patterns of behaviour were emerging within European companies which are pioneering TQM and trying to enhance competitiveness. The information used for this analysis was focused on “hard” bottom‐line business indicators. The performance indicators chosen reflect business performance both in the short term and the long term. They include both “softer” or people‐related measures, such as employee trends and remuneration, and “hard” measures such as those which are efficiency‐driven. The sample of 29 companies studied was chosen on the basis of good knowledge of their TQM programmes. The analysis was conducted over a five‐year span, since it was assumed that this would be a reasonable period for TQM implementation to start to yield to positive results.

Globalization is rapidly integrating markets, universalizing Western materialism, and weakening the capacity of national states to safeguard local values and institutions. While some, principally the World Bank (1999) regard integrating world markets as an efficiency‐driven process, spreading the benefits of technical innovation and information technologies around the world, many are skeptical. Skeptics include in particular social scientists writing from a Non‐Western and Islamic perspective (Ismail 1999, Rajee 2000). If globalization is indeed a threat to the Nation‐State, then it would follow that small states would be the most vulnerable. At a minimum, it is significant to inquire whether globalization threatens the survival and sustainability of small states.