Andrea Schenker-Wicki

Cooperating with External Partners: The Importance of Diversity for Innovation Performance

Innovations are rarely generated in complete isolation. Due to inherent uncertainty, high knowledge requirements, and high financial investments, many firms search for external partners to develop new products and processes. However, there is an ongoing debate as to whether firms who cooperate with diverse external partners such as suppliers, customers and governmental research institutions see increased innovation performance as compared to firms who cooperate with a less diverse range of collaborators. This paper investigates how diversity in cooperation networks affects firms innovation performance output as measured by sales share of innovative products. To address this question, the authors analyze a large-scale sample of microdata from Swiss firms from four waves (1999, 2002, 2005, and 2008) of the Swiss innovation survey using panel data analysis. The findings suggest that firms with greater diversity in their cooperation network benefit by generating new product innovations, and that small firms benefit more from diversity of collaborators as compared to other firm sizes. The study further detects a curvilinear relationship between diversity of collaborator types and innovation performance, and emphasizes the importance of appropriate HRM and knowledge management policies and practices to provide firms with an effective mechanism for maximizing benefits from a diversified cooperation network.

Cooperating with external partners: The importance of diversity for innovation performance

Innovations are rarely generated in complete isolation. Due to the inherent uncertainty, the manifold underlying knowledge base and high financial investments, firms seek to integrate external partners for the generation of new products and processes. However there is an ongoing debate whether firms, which develop their innovations in close cooperation with external partners, such as suppliers, customers and governmental research institutions, can benefit with respect to innovation performance in contrast to firms which cooperate less. This paper aims at investigating how diversity in cooperation partners effects the firms output innovation performance in terms of generated sales with innovative products. To address this question the authors analyze a large-scale sample of microdata from Swiss firms derived from four waves (1999, 2002, 2005, and 2008) of the Swiss innovation survey data according to the European Community Innovation Survey, applying a panel data analysis. The findings suggest, that firms with a higher diversity in cooperation partners could benefit in generating new product innovations.

Can System Dynamics Learn from Social Network Analysis

This article deals with the analysis of large or complex system dynamics (SD) models, exploring the benefits of a multimethodological approach to model analysis. We compare model analysis results from SD and social network analysis (SNA) by deploying SNA techniques on a pertinent example from the SD literature — the world dynamics model. Although SNA is a clearly distinct method from SD in that it focuses on social actors and their interrelationships, we contend that SD can indeed learn from SNA, particularly in terms of model structure analysis. Our argumentation follows renowned system dynamicists who acknowledge the potential of SD to synthesize and advance theories in social science at both the conceptual and technical levels.

How Managers Can Deal with Complex Issues: A Semi-Quantitative Analysis Method of Causal Loop Diagrams Based on Matrices

The increasing complexity of the modern world creates both higher risks and new interdependencies in the socioeconomic environment. To cope with these challenges powerful new tools must be applied to find sustainable solutions. System dynamics is a field that offers potential assistance in dealing with complex issues. However, managers and politicians often lack the knowledge and necessary skills to apply quantitative methods in their decision-making process. In contrast, qualitative approaches are easily understood and handled but have limited capacities for analysis. To address this gap, we have developed a bundle of tools tailored for managers and politicians facing complex problems. These tools enable executives to recognize effective levers and assess potential consequences of specific interventions in a highly interconnected system. The approach detailed here equips decision makers with a powerful method to develop, test, and communicate strategies to find long-term sustainable solutions for complex issues in business and society.

Unmastered risks: from crisis to catastrophe: an economic and management insight

In contrast to sociology, economics, and above all, business economics has not yet discovered disaster management as a research topic even though this subject affects many areas of economics due to its interdisciplinary character. The enormous economic losses suffered by private parties, businesses and public institutions in crisis events, the huge amounts of money which are spent in disaster prevention, as well as the challenges that providing emergency management and disaster control present, contain many issues and have an increasing social and economic relevance. This article takes a close look at the concept of disaster from an economic and management point of view to mitigate the impact on human beings and environment. Based on the rational choice approach the study analyzes the state of preparedness that is mainly responsible for good or poor disaster prevention and presents a theoretical framework for a comprehensive disaster management including examples of practical applications. The conclusion outlines several important areas of future research in business economics.

The Effectiveness of Public R&D Subsidies and the Role of Collaboration

This study investigates the efficacy of public R&D support. Compared to most existing studies, we do not stop at substitution effects or general innovation outcome measures, but we are interested in knowing where the policy effect is highest: on innovation close to the market (i.e. incremental innovation) or on innovation that is still far from the market and hence more risky and radical. Using firm level data from the period 1999 to 2011, we find that the policy hits where the market failure is highest, that is, for radical innovation. Taking into account that the Swiss funding agency encourages collaboration, we find no evidence that the impact of the policy is positively effected by various R&D collaboration patterns.

Making Sustainable Strategy in Complex Management Environments: Proposition for a Systemic and Practice-Oriented Methodology

The increasing complexity of the modern world creates both higher risks and new interdependencies in the socioeconomic environment. To cope with these challenges powerful new tools must be applied to find sustainable solutions. System dynamics is a field that offers potential assistance in dealing with complex issues. However, managers and politicians often lack the knowledge and necessary skills to apply quantitative methods in their decision-making process. In contrast, qualitative approaches are easily understood and handled but have limited capacities for analysis. To address this gap, we have developed a bundle of tools tailored for managers and politicians facing complex problems. These tools enable executives to recognize effective levers and assess potential consequences of specific interventions in a highly interconnected system. The approach detailed here equips decision makers with a powerful method to develop, test, and communicate strategies to find long-term sustainable solutions for complex issues in business and society.