European Journal of Innovation Management最新文献

Purpose

Investigating the drivers that contribute to the success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is crucial for ensuring the overall growth and sustainability of a country. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of gender diversity on the Board of Directors of innovative SMEs to understand whether the presence of women on boards can improve the performance of such organizations devoted to introducing technological advancements in the product market.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts a quantitative approach, using a sample of 2,264 Italian innovative SMEs. These companies were selected from non-financial sectors and collected from Analisi informatizzata delle Aziende Italiane (AIDA), a database provided by Bureau van Dijk. An unbalanced panel data involving a period from 2016 to 2021 was used with a total of 12,173 observations.

Findings

Our findings suggest that female representation has a negative effect on a company's financial performance. Moreover, the moderation effect of sector growth opportunities confirms this negative influence since in sectors characterized by high growth opportunities, the presence of women on boards was found to have a negative outcome.

Originality/value

The main contribution of the work lies in offering a comprehensive and thorough examination of the business category of innovative SMEs. Specifically, it extends previous research through a focus on board gender diversity of innovative SMEs by examining the impact of the presence of women in their boardrooms on firm performance outcomes. Furthermore, it provides an analysis of this effect, considering both high-growth and low-growth sectors.

Purpose

Worldwide challenges impose public organizations to rethink their processes and satisfactorily meet citizens’ needs. Process mining (PM) techniques enable organizations to objectively analyse and improve their processes, by providing higher process transparency and efficiency. However, extant literature on PM applications in the public sector reveals there is still limited evidence on the opportunities and challenges perceived from PM introduction in the public sector, and on PM potential to enhance public sector digital transformation: this study aims to fill these gaps.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on Business Process Management and digital innovation fields of research, we administered a questionnaire to a sample of Italian civil servants working in different public organizations to investigate their perceptions of PM opportunities and challenges and the extent to which it can support public sector digital transformation. A three-level analysis was conducted to inspect findings with different levels of granularity, and results were analysed both descriptively and quantitatively.

Findings

We found a positive attitude towards PM introduction in the public sector, and perceived opportunities and challenges related to both the technical and the social systems. The triangulation between close-ended and open-ended questions suggests that PM could be the missing link between public sector digitalization and digital transformation. These findings can be used by policymakers to develop the best strategies to introduce PM into public organizations and support its adoption, and by researchers to further explore PM role in public sector digital transformation.

Originality/value

Despite PM claiming to push digital transformation, it is not clear if it is also true for public sector organizations. This paper addresses this gap and it is among the first attempts to explore PM from civil servants’ viewpoint to investigate their perceptions of PM opportunities and challenges, as well as the variables that influence these perceptions.

Purpose

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, innovation is the cornerstone for every organization. Knowledge management (KM) is crucial for developing sustainable competitive advantage by fostering innovation. This study aims to identify the key drivers of KM in the context of digital transformation through qualitative research.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs a qualitative approach based on in-depth interviews with senior KM officers, including chief knowledge officers and directors who spearhead KM in their respective organizations. This research identifies four key dimensions, shedding new light on the drivers of KM in the context of digital transformation.

Findings

This study’s findings reveal that the integration of important drivers from the lens of social-technical system (STS) theory is categorized into the four dimensions of KM, namely, motivation, technology, people interaction and organizational drivers. These factors jointly impact and design the effectiveness of KM in the digital age.

Originality/value

This study makes a unique contribution to the field of digital transformation. It presents a conceptual framework from the lens of the STS theory that encompasses four critical dimensions of KM: motivation, technology, people interaction and organizational dimensions, each with sub-codes. This framework can be utilized by practitioners and scholars alike.

Purpose

Referring to transaction costs theory, resource based view and social exchange theory, this paper examines the interplay between selected dimensions of suppliers’ relationships with foreign buyers, specifically relational trust, contract specificity and relationship-specific investments, as well as analyzes the effects those dimensions have on the suppliers’ product innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses survey data from 179 small- and medium-sized Polish manufacturing suppliers of high-tech products. Information was collected on dyadic relationships with their key foreign buyers and used as an input to a structural model consisting of multiple linear regressions.

Findings

It was discovered that trust and investments have a mutual positive impact on each other and individually contribute to the supplier’s product innovation. However, once both trust and investments were included in the model, only the latter showed significant effect. Contracts, on the other hand, showed different impact on innovation depending on how it was measured.

Practical implications

Managers should treat trust only as a mechanism to create supportive environment for investments, which exclusively have the power to improve supplier’s product innovation. Contracts’ role, in turn, should be limited to facilitating business relationships.

Originality/value

Only single quantitative studies analyzed trust, investments and contracts as determinants of supplier’s product innovation. Also, focus was not placed on high-tech SMEs in relationships with foreign buyers. As a result, our study provides unique insights on such relationships and unveils new details on an indirect link between trust and product innovation.

Purpose

This study investigates the sustainability models of non-profit and hybrid organizations, which aim to balance economic, social and environmental objectives. The research introduces the Sustainability Model Canvas to analyze these organizations and identify common patterns, unique characteristics and managerial insights to balance the triple bottom line.

Design/methodology/approach

The research utilizes the Sustainability Model Canvas to examine the sustainability models of 200 non-profit and hybrid organizations. Data were collected from secondary sources, including articles, reports and websites. The analysis was conducted using the activity system theoretical framework, which helped to identify design elements and themes within the business models of the studied organizations.

Findings

The study reveals four primary sustainability model patterns: donated income, earned income, public income and auto-generated income. An additional mixed approach pattern is identified, combining elements from the four primary patterns. The research highlights the parallels between these sustainability models and multi-sided platform business models, offering managerial suggestions for leveraging these patterns to achieve sustainability.

Research limitations/implications

The study is based on secondary data, which may limit the depth of insights compared to primary data collection. At the same time, the chance to consider hybrid organization through multi-sided platform lenses provides relevant contributions to both the literature streams.

Practical implications

The identified sustainability model patterns and managerial suggestions can serve as blueprints for non-profit and hybrid organizations aiming to design or innovate their sustainability models. The Sustainability Model Canvas offers a practical tool for organizations to visualize and balance their triple bottom line objectives.

Social implications

The research underscores the importance of integrating social and environmental considerations into business models, promoting a holistic approach to sustainability that can lead to broader social and environmental benefits.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the business model literature by extending the focus beyond traditional profit-oriented organizations to include non-profit and hybrid organizations. The introduction of the Sustainability Model Canvas provides a new tool for designing and analyzing sustainability-oriented business models. The study also suggests considering sustainability models as multi-sided platforms, offering new insights for both academic and practical applications.

Purpose

This paper focuses on managerial practices in the context of supply chain. It focuses on the innovation of monitoring and control practices and proposes a holistic approach to managing social sustainability in the supply chain, extending the point of view beyond the traditional boundaries of individual factories or their immediate suppliers.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is based on a systematic review of scientific literature on managerial practices in supply chains, with a specific focus on social sustainability. The primary goal is to identify essential measurement strategies and key indicator factors within this domain.

Findings

Our findings highlight that most of scientific literature focuses on qualitative approaches, though quantitative approaches are also used. Despite the extensive research, an under-investigated area is the use of hybrid models for measuring social sustainability in the supply chain.

Social implications

This framework is designed to identify the main categories of measurement and relative indicators for assessing social sustainability in supply chains.

Originality/value

This research proposes an innovative and integrated framework, leveraging a hybrid approach that addresses the limitations observed in existing management practices. Additionally, it provides directions for future research.

Purpose

The relationship between cooperative R&D network embeddedness and firm innovation resilience is understudied. This paper seeks to answer the questions of whether and how embedding in cooperative R&D networks improve digital firms’ innovation resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

Based upon social capital theory, this paper proposes a conceptual model with several hypotheses. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of 2,908 observations from 2005 to 2022. We measure firm innovation resilience by drawing on economic resilience and use LSM tests to assess the effect of cooperative R&D network position on innovation resilience.

Findings

The results indicate that cooperative R&D network centrality has a positive impact on firm innovation resilience and that the structural holes of the cooperative R&D network have an inverted U-shaped relationship with firm innovation resilience. Moreover, technological turbulence negatively moderates the relationship between centrality and firm innovation resilience while also steepening the inverted U-shaped relationship between structural holes and firm innovation resilience. Market turbulence positively moderates the relationship between centrality and firm innovation resilience. However, the moderating effect of market turbulence on the inverted U-shaped relationship between structural holes and firm innovation resilience is not significant.

Research limitations/implications

Innovators' knowledge needs, bounded rationality, interests, and even organizational environments change over time, thus prompting them to constantly seek new opportunities to exchange and integrate knowledge, meet new beneficial partners, maintain beneficial cooperation, or terminate unhelpful cooperation. The utility of the network structure has dynamic characteristics. Only by considering the dynamics of the network can research on the mechanism of network structure be more complete, accurate and convincing. Therefore, future research can pay more attention to the relationship between dynamic networks and firm innovation resilience.

Practical implications

Firms should actively embed themselves in the cooperative R&D network and occupy a beneficial network position. By joining the cooperative R&D network, firms can gain resource advantages and enhance their ability to resist external shocks and improve innovation resilience.

Originality/value

This research advances our understanding of the antecedents of firm innovation resilience through the lens of organizational cooperation and uncovers the boundary conditions under which network embeddedness influences innovation resilience, thereby further enriching the theoretical framework of innovation resilience.

Purpose

The paper positions social and technological innovation as pivotal counterforces to conservative resistance against change, particularly in light of the recurrent economic and technological upheavals characterizing the present shape of capitalism.

Design/methodology/approach

The research adopts a qualitative methodology, rooted in a comparative case study approach, offering a critical retrospective analysis of societal disruptions and transformations. Central to this methodological framework is the construct of sensemaking, which is characterized as the process by which collective entities retrospectively develop plausible narratives that rationalize their experiences. The approach is informed by the dynamics of socio-ecological systems, which are understood to undergo cyclical phases of growth, stabilization, collapse, and regeneration.

Findings

The study shows evidence that resilience and adaptability are more authentically gauged by socio-technological responses to cyclical disruptions and recoveries. It delineates sensemaking as a crucial socioecological mechanism through which elicitation emerges and societies and organizations navigate these cycles, forging shared narratives from collective experiences that are driven by plausibility rather than mere accuracy.

Practical implications

The research calls for the development of policies that synthesize disruptive innovations with strategies for social cohesion. Such policies must ensure the protection of the socioeconomic texture from implicit structural precariousness arising from innovation. The ability to integrate and institutionalize change is emphasized as crucial, demanding a synergy between innovative creativity, new normative frameworks, and the preservation of fundamental societal values.

Originality/value

The paper challenges reductionist technological interpretations of societal changes, advocating for a holistic perspective that accounts for the redistributive and elicitation roles as vital to the evolution of socio-economic systems. The value of this research lies in its comprehensive framing of these transformations, underscoring the importance of a multi-faceted understanding in the effective management of socioeconomic change.

Purpose

Applying critical analysis as the methodological framework for assessing the literature, the review seeks to present a summary and evaluation of the existing body of knowledge. This approach helps to establish the basis for developing forthcoming recommendations.

Design/methodology/approach

The articles were selected through a Systematic Literature Review following the PRISMA guidelines, and utilising Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, and the Education Resources Information Center database. Field taxonomy is presented based on the outcomes.

Findings

Through a critical review, we offer narrative arguments that document the shortcomings in the existing literature by scrutinising study designs and highlighting suboptimal approaches. Finally, we issue a call to action for future research, envisioning its potential to reorient and reconstruct the field while enhancing the quality of future studies. This proactive stance aims to foster the development of more competent and insightful perspectives, theories, and policy recommendations within design thinking in management education and training.

Practical implications

The research in this field holds significant potential for providing valuable practical and policy insights, contingent upon the rigorous and thorough execution of studies.

Originality/value

This article presents a robust critical review of 57 state-of-the-art articles investigating design thinking in the context of management education and training.