José Albors

Innovation management techniques and tools: a review from theory and practice

Knowledge is considered to be an economic driver in todays economy. It has become a commodity, a resource that can be packed and transferred. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the scope, trends and major actors (firms, organizations, government, consultants, academia, etc.) in the development and use of methods to manage innovation in a knowledge-driven economy. The paper identifies the main innovation management techniques (IMTs) aiming at the improvement of firm competitiveness by means of knowledge management. It will specifically focus on those IMTs for which knowledge is a relevant part of the innovation process. The research study, based on a survey at the European level, concludes that a knowledge-driven economy affects the innovation process and approach. The traditional idea that innovation is based on research (technology-push theory) and interaction between firms and other actors has been replaced by the current social network theory of innovation, where knowledge plays a crucial role in fostering innovation. Simultaneously, organizations in both public and private sectors have launched initiatives to develop methodologies and tools to support business innovation management. Higher education establishments, business schools and consulting companies are developing innovative and adequate methodologies and tools, while public authorities are designing and setting up education and training schemes aimed at disseminating best practices among all kinds of businesses.

Networking and Technology Transfer in the Spanish Ceramic Tiles Cluster: Its Role in the Sector Competitiveness

The ceramic tile cluster industry in Spain has actually a global turnover of approximately 3.000 M Euros of which a 60% is exported. Its annual growth has been around a steady 20% the last five tears. In spite of the traditional Italian technology leadership, the clusterization of this industry in Spain (90% of the producers are located in a 40 km geographical circle) has altered these traditional R&D roles. The increasing rate of technology transfer and co-operation, which is taking place, especially in the product development area, has enabled this change. This paper will aim to analyze the cluster competitiveness and the technology formal and informal cooperation networks, which have been established during the last twenty years in the industry and especially in the enamelling and decoration sub sector. A critical variable relates to product and design development. An outstanding fact has been the technology demand-pull movement exerted from the producers (200 firms mostly SMEs) and the consequent quick product development cycles observed in the latest sectoral fairs.

Application of the KISA concept to innovation dynamics and its impact on firms’ performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the analysis of firms’ innovative activities from the knowledge‐intensive service activities (KISA) point of view and analyse their relation to the firms’ competitive performance in the case of a mature industry, the Spanish ceramic tile cluster.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a field survey. Through a selection of variables multivariable tests were applied to map the industry from the KISA standpoint and evaluate the impact of certain knowledge intensive service activities on innovation and performance.Findings – Internal and external knowledge‐intensive service activities were related to their output in terms of innovation, competitive advantages and economic performance.Research limitations/implications – Further research must consider and segment customers, suppliers, and other firms in the industry as other sources of KIBS.Practical implications – Understanding how firms access and employ the variety of innovation‐related ...

ERP Software selection processes: A case study in the metal transformation sector

When a firm decides to implement ERP softwares, the resulting consequences can pervade all levels, includ- ing organization, process, control and available information. Therefore, the first decision to be made is which ERP solution must be adopted from a wide range of offers and vendors. To this end, this paper describes a methodology based on multi-criteria factors that directly affects the process to help managers make this de- cision. This methodology has been applied to a medium-size company in the Spanish metal transformation sector which is interested in updating its IT capabilities in order to obtain greater control of and better infor- mation about business, thus achieving a competitive advantage. The paper proposes a decision matrix which takes into account all critical factors in ERP selection.

Design and development challenges for an E2E DRM content business integration platform

Current studies on Digital Rights Management (DRM) have focused on controlling access to and copies of contents, centered exclusively on the end of the value chain (end users). This focus has been oriented towards security and encryption as a means of solving the issue of illegal copying by purchasers. In this paper, we propose End-to-End Digital Rights Management (E2E DRM) that involves the protection of the content throughout the entire value chain. This concept is given form in the new technologies for representing intellectual property (IP) which, in a secure and unequivocal manner, identify the content at each point in the value chain: from the author to the end user, the content is identifiable in any of the transactions and statuses through which it passes. The key concept which E2E DRM must provide is not only the governability of access and copying, but also that of all the processes associated with the content business. We establish an E2E DRM model and architecture, and propose the R&D management of its design and implementation that makes it possible to protect content from content creator to purchaser. Finally, the paper also analyzes their impact from a global perspective.

The complex role of cluster agents in the development of automo-tive industry in Spain

The development and recuperation of automotive industry in Spain has not been properly analysed. Without national OEMs and a very low internal demand the sector has shown strong symptoms of sustainability and growth. The sector is creating permanent and vauable jobs and seems to be an exception to the Spanish industrial decline. The Spanish automotive industry is agglomerated around seven clusters in the North, east and center of Spain. This aticle will try to aalnyse those factors that could explain the sector´s strenght from the pont of view of clusters. We hypothesize that a combination of cluster agents role and its capabilities contribute to the survival and competitiveness of the industry and overcome its weaknesses. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/ICBM.2015.1329

University-industry technology transfer models: an empirical analysis

The challenge of public innovation policies are related with the transfer of technology from the university to the industry. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the underlying factors in the process of transferring technology from university to industry. Findings point to strategic importance of critical factors as the definition of common objectives, cooperation, motivation, and the elimination of technical and legal barriers. These challenges must have implications in the incorporation of cooperative aspects of research projects in the design of public innovation policies.

Evaluación de programas de difusión de alta tecnología: modelización y evidencia empírica en el caso del Programa GAME en España

Este trabajo contribuye a la comprension de la difusion de la alta tecnologia combinando las teorias existentes al respecto con el uso de la metodologia value mapping. El articulo aporta un analisis empirico sobre las variables que contribuyen a rellenar los huecos de la investigacion en la evaluacion de los programas de difusion de alta tecnologia. Con este objetivo se ha utilizado la evaluacion de la iniciativa GAME del IV Programa Marco de I+D de la Comision Europea, cuya finalidad era difundir la tecnologia relativa a microelectronica entre las empresas espanolas. Utilizando un total de cien casos y empleando metodos de analisis multivariante se ha desarrollado un modelo que con dos variables compuestas contribuye a explicar y entender la difusion de la tecnologia, asi como su absorcion y los flujos asociados a su transferencia. La metodologia estadistica aplicada complementa al metodo value mapping y proporciona una robustez en los resultados que normalmente no son proporcionados por metodos de evaluacion clasicos. Esto tambien refuerza al metodo value mapping como un instrumento adecuado para evaluar proyectos de alta tecnologia con ciertas modificaciones al enfoque original debido a la incertidumbre asociada a las curvas de discontinuidad tecnologica, asi como a las condiciones cambiantes en las economias de escala.