Petra C. de Weerd-Nederhof

Tools for the Improvement of Organizational Learning Processes in Innovation.

Learning is an essential part of innovation, including the need to internalize and disseminate information and to reduce the duplication of research activities, both technological and organizational. Using a theoretically based framework that places emphasis on the interpretative dimension of organizational learning and centers on learning processes, descriptive accounts of organizational learning in the context of R&D-intensive companies were produced. From these case studies, specific learning tools or mechanisms were identified: job rotation, innovation process planning (activities, responsibilities, networks, sharing assumptions) and (product innovation) project review. Overall findings point to an organizational learning process which involves a high degree of parallelism and depends on the knowledge base of the organization.

Balanced matrix structure and new product development process at Texas Instruments Materials and Controls Division

exas Instruments is a global player in thesemiconductor business. One of its divisions isMaterials and Controls (M&C), with European head-quarters in Almelo, the Netherlands. All the com-pany’s products are customer-specific. Productfunctionality and durability are qualifiers in the marketplace. Competition is mostly based on product price.Furthermore, delivery reliability is essential. Relativeto competition, the company is performing well on allthese indicators.Recently, product life cycles started to shorten. Thisrequired the company to look deeply into its time-to-market and, as its products are engineered to order,particularly new product development (NPD) leadtime. The company soon realised that its traditionalfunctional hierarchy would not allow a radical reduc-tion of time-to-market. In 1995 it was thereforedecided to change from the functional structure to aBalanced Matrix structure and to adopt a new projectmanagement procedure called the New Product Devel-opment Process – NPDP, in order to speed up NPDprojects by a factor two.The objective of the present paper is to describe andevaluate the design and implementation of, and thecompany’s experiences with, the new NPD organisa-tion and procedure and the contribution of the newsituation to the company’s performance in the marketplace. Based on that, lessons will be drawn for thetheory and practice of NPD management.

Senior Management Support in the New Product Development Process

This paper studies the relationship between senior management support to new product development activities by means of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of questionnaire and interview data collected in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The quantitative analysis showed that there is a small to medium association between senior management support to new product development and project performance in the dimensions of time, cost, and end product quality. The qualitative analysis suggests that these weak links could be explained by separating the influence of senior management support on new product development activities into direct and indirect effects. Direct effects include issues such as the use of multifunctional senior teams and process champions, whereas indirect effects include issues such as organization mission and goals, and learning and knowledge management systems.

Innovation practices success in China: the use of innovation mechanisms in Chinese SOEs

Purpose: The climate for technical innovation has been improving in the past few years in China. This paper describes a case research concerning technical innovation practices success in three Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the manufacturing industry. This is executed by applying a technical innovation audit tool based on ‘Western’ good practices. Methodology: Studies on technical innovation in the Chinese SOEs started in the 1990s, but most investigations in this field were based on statistical survey and mathematical modelling. In this research, case study research method, including such strategies as open-ended, in-depth questions, intensive interviews and observations, are applied for the validity of information. Findings: The data and results reveal that the investigated Chinese SOEs have already some mechanisms for innovation in place. But there is still room for improvement and enhancement with respect to the effect on innovation success. It is also concluded that benchmarking (through the application of the technical innovation audit tool) does guide the Chinese management toward deciding which innovation mechanisms to adopt so as to provide the basics for innovation success. Additionally, based on the case studies the interesting conclusion could be drawn: In the context of the Chinese economy in transition, the case companies with less openness to the market (i.e. with high government involvement) have a more widespread use of innovation mechanisms. Practical Implication: The last finding seems to contradict the positive relationship between market focus and innovativeness as suggested in ‘Western’ innovation management theories. For clarification we relate this to the way the SOEs deal with their adaptive cycle, thereby considering their way of dealing with (increased) complexity as compared to ‘Western’ companies (complexity absorption versus reduction). The considered cases are embedded in the institutional setting of China in transition. Therefore, the conclusions and findings enrich the theory of transition by revealing the point that entering an open market abruptly may not be the solution for SOEs, which are rooted in a socialist economy, to become more competitive and more innovative. This was mostly elaborated through the influence of the two main stakeholders (i.e. government and customer/end user) on the openness of the SOEs and their use of innovation mechanisms in China, the largest socialist system of the world. Originality/Value: This paper is based on a doctoral research project, containing reliable, first hand data from the practice

SME network characteristics vs. product innovativeness: how to achieve high innovation performance

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must on the one hand innovate for company survival with the appropriate degree of product innovativeness, and on the other they need to collaborate and focus on core competences for efficiency matters. This research examines the relation of network characteristics and product innovativeness on innovation performance in SMEs. We tested hypotheses on the relationship between these three variables via data gathered from 60 SMEs, active in the medical devices sector. In this context we aim to offer consensus on the theoretical and empirical question of whether or not network characteristics and product innovativeness have a direct effect on innovation performance of SMEs. Results show no significant direct effect of product innovativeness on innovation performance. A positive interaction effect of multiple network characteristics on innovation performance was found, which confirms the significant importance of network configuration on innovation performance for SMEs. It indicates that, for SMEs in a highly regulated sector like the medical devices sector, the interaction of network characteristics is of crucial importance for high innovation performance. It is the combination of network characteristics that counts

Managing Tensions in a High-tech Start-up

Answering the question of how enabling technology-based firms manage tensions in their development process, we focus on tensions related to balancing the need to explore new developments for future performance, with the need to exploit existing capabilities to generate sufficient value in the short term. Based on social system theory, we suggest that entrepreneurs use four types of functions to develop their business: goal attainment, pattern maintenance, social networking and economic optimization. Building sustainable firms requires the development of all four functions and the related types of capital (strategic, cultural, economic and social) up to a certain minimum; they must then be balanced in such a way that the exploration-exploitation tension can be dealt with adequately.Through a case study of the development of a sound measuring sensor, we illustrate the four types of functions and the accumulation of capitals by exploring a set of three propositions.

The “dos and don'ts” of writing a journal article

Purpose – During work as reviewers and editors of journals authors are often faced the same types of problems in many articles. The purpose of this piece is to give some guidelines on typical problems that lead to rejection, and how to avoid these.Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses journal article design and offers some methodology viewpoints; in particular about the differences between a PhD thesis aim and a scientific journal article. It focuses on some typical mistakes found in reviewing papers.Findings – The paper finds that the main criteria to getting published are that the article must include original, empirical research.Originality/value – Following these guidelines the review process of articles will be smoother and the amount of rejects should diminish. Especially young researchers can find good suggestions about how to write a paper for the Journal of Workplace Learning.

Design of a research performance measurement system. The case of NIAB

At NIAB, a UK based company that provides research, services and information to the agricultural and food sector, a system has been designed that helps to assess and manage the growing research programme of the company. Since the company was ‘privatised’ four years ago, research activities have increased and moved away from solely applied research to a mix of applied and more fundamental research. Being a key element of the new developed company strategy, research now plays an increasing important role in broadening the scope of the company and keeping current services competitive by driving innovation. All research at NIAB is externally funded. In this paper we report on the process to design NIAB’s performance measurement system, for which the Performance measurement system Systematic Design Approach was used. The design process was started with an elaborate structured problem analysis of the research process and its inter and extra–organisational context. Based upon this analysis, firstly a conceptual and secondly a detail design of a performance measurement system was made. To maximise the leverage from research, the system has been designed to optimise the value delivered to the funder as well as the value delivered to internal customers in the form of knowledge that drives innovation.

Successful New Product Development by Optimizing Development Process Effectiveness in Highly Regulated Sectors: The Case of the Spanish Medical Devices Sector

Innovation is a key driver of sustainable competitive advantage and one of the key challenges for small-and medium-sized companies (SMEs) (O’Regan et al., 2006). Therefore, SMEs need to remain active in new product development (NPD). It is difficult for SMEs1 in regulated sectors to development new products, because heavy regulatory involvement imposes a number of difficulties on the NPD process. Products have to meet these strict regulations in terms of quality, safety, functionality, and manufacturability, which makes it difficult for SMEs to differentiate in terms of the effectiveness of the product concepts. However, there are big differences in the NPD performance of SMEs. Then, the questions are (1) how do SMEs in regulated sectors distinguish themselves in terms of innovation performance? And, (2) how can SMEs in regulated sectors be successful in NPD?