Vangelis Souitaris

Technological trajectories as moderators of firm-level determinants of innovation

Pavitt [Research Policy 13 (1984) 343] identified different patterns of technological change (technological trajectories) in four sectoral classes of industrial firms. This paper tests the applicability of Pavitt’s taxonomy (which derived from an economic perspective) to moderate the inconsistent results of the management literature on the determinants of technological innovation. An empirical test in a sample of 105 Greek companies showed that firms in different trajectories of Pavitt’s taxonomy had differences in the rate of technological innovation. ‘Specialised suppliers’ and ‘science-based’ firms were found to have higher rates of innovation than ‘supplier dominated’ and ‘scale intensive’ ones. Most importantly, different variables proved to be significantly associated with innovation for each category of firms: innovation for ‘supplier dominated’ firms was related to the competitive environment, acquisition of information, technology strategy, risk attitude and internal co-ordination. For ‘scale intensive’ firms, the important determinants were related to the ability to raise funding and the education and experience of personnel. For ‘specialised suppliers’, innovation was associated with high growth rate and exporting as well as training and incentives offered to the employees to contribute towards innovation. ‘Science-based’ firms depended upon technology-related variables, education and experience of personnel, growth in profitability and panel discussions with lead customers. The application of Pavitt’s model can resolve the apparent problem of inconsistent results in the management research on the determinants of technological innovation.

Firm-Specific Competencies Determining Technological Innovation: A Survey in Greece

This paper investigates the ‘importance’ and ‘awareness’ of firm–specific competencies as determinants of technological innovation in the context of a European newly industrialised country. A literature–based portfolio model was developed including 17 established innovation–determining factors, related to the firm’s technical, market, human resource and organisational competencies. The ‘importance’ of those factors as determinants of innovation in the Greek industry was tested with a survey of 105 manufacturing firms. Using correlation and regression analyses the author classified the competencies into ‘major importance’, ‘moderate importance’ and ‘unimportant’ ones. ‘Major importance’ determinants of innovation included the intensity of R&D, strength in marketing, proportion of university graduates and engineers in the staff, proportion of staff with managerial responsibility, proportion of professional staff with previous experience in another company and incentives offered to the employees to contribute to innovation. The ‘awareness’ of the important competencies differentiating Greek innovative companies was tested by comparing the above ‘objective’ results with the perceptions of the responding managers. The perceptual analysis confirmed the importance of the statistically–driven variables at the aggregated level. At the level of the individual variables, a number of inconsistencies were identified. The managers overestimated the importance of international work experience of professional staff and of training and underestimated the importance of the potential contribution of shop–floor employees. Relating the results to the Greek institutional context, the study’s general finding was that the important determinants of innovation were scarce in the Greek business environment. The highly innovative companies were the ones to overcome country–specific innovation barriers, such as negligible industrial R&D, general weakness in marketing, outdated educational system, limited labour mobility and cultural problems with involving shop–floor employees in the innovation process.

Entrepreneurship in the public sector: a framework of analysis in European local governments

In this paper we explore the potential role of entrepreneurship in public sector organizations. At first, we present a review of the entrepreneurship theme in the political science and public management research streams, comparing these ideas with the mainstream business literature on entrepreneurship. Thereafter, we illustrate empirically how Stevensons classical framework of entrepreneurship can be applied in a European local government context to explain the recent initiatives to compete for and utilize European Union structural funds. The empirical basis of the study is comprised of ten in-depth case studies of local government organizations, five in the UK and five in Italy. Finally, we propose five distinct types of entrepreneurial agents in the public sector: professional politician; spin-off creator; business entrepreneur in politics; career-driven public officer; and politically ambitious public officer.

External communication determinants of innovation in the context of a newly industrialised country: a comparison of objective and perceptual results from Greece

This paper analyses the ‘importance’ and ‘awareness’ of a set of established ‘external communication’ determinants of technological innovation in the context of a newly industrialised country. The researcher interviewed 105 Greek manufacturing companies, measuring their innovation rate as well as 23 potential ‘external communication’ determinants. Using correlation and regression analyses, the initial group of 23 factors was reduced to a subset of 10 ‘major importance’ determinants of innovation. The results supported two hypotheses related with newly industrialised countries, namely: 1. searching for product-specific information is more important for innovation than scanning more general market and technological information; and 2. the co-operation with partnering organisations is more important for innovation than the co-operation with assisting organisations.The ‘objective’ results were then compared with the ‘perceptions’ of the managers on the important factors determining innovation (also measured during the interviews). Overall, the perceptual analysis confirmed the significance of the subset of statistically important variables. Therefore, the hypothesis that in newly industrialised countries the managers are generally unaware of the important determinants of innovation was rejected. Generally, the study provided supporting evidence to the ‘contingency’ school of thought, suggesting that there are no universally applicable recipes for successful innovation management.

A contingent model of network utilization in early financing of technology ventures

Most of the entrepreneurship literature has addressed the benefits and necessity of using social network ties as opposed to market methods in early venture finance, but it has largely understated the potential limitations and costs of doing so. Specifically, very sparse research has examined the factors that influence entrepreneurs’ choice between using networks versus market methods. In this study, we propose a contingent model of network utilization when approaching initial investors, based on the dimensions of human capital of the entrepreneurs. We test this model with primary field survey data from 226 new high–tech ventures in Singapore and Beijing. The results show that high occupational status and relevant industrial work experience are positively associated with the entrepreneurs’ propensity to utilize existing networks by enhancing the resourcefulness of their network ties (social capital); however, such influences are alleviated by entrepreneurs’ marketing or managerial experience, which increases the entrepreneurs’ ability to interact with strangers (an aspect of social competence).

Research on the determinants of technological innovation: a contingency approach

This paper examines different methodologies used in quantitative empirical studies attempting to identify the distinctive characteristics of innovative firms. Despite the research effort, the statistical analysis results are inconsistent. The reasons for this inconsistency were explored and can be attributed to (i) methodological differences in the studies, such as the varying definitions and measurements of innovation and (ii) different characteristics of firms targeted such as size, sector and geographical region. A portfolio model synthesising the various research results is developed, which is not meant to be universally applicable but instead can be used as a platform for country or industry specific studies. To illustrate the application of the proposed contingency approach, the author presents a comparative review of results from two recent studies using portfolio models in Iran and Greece.

Do Germany's federal and land governments (still) co-ordinate their innovation policies?

This paper reports the results of an empirical study on how the German federation and Lander interact in the field of innovation policy and whether this interaction counts as co-ordination. For there to be genuine co-ordination, there must be evidence of fitting together as part of a coherent framework and some commonality of objectives. The fieldwork sought to identify the areas of interaction which were seen by respondents as part of a co-ordination process. Three broad areas of interaction were accordingly positioned in a spectrum of declining formality: innovation infrastructure, promotional programmes and individual projects. An important finding, which emerged from the fieldwork in Germany was that a combination of factors is shifting the balance of emphasis and activity from the formal and binding to the informal and voluntary end of this spectrum. The factors cited most frequently by the interviewees were a reduction in federal expenditure, an increasing use of competitions and some broader constitutional developments. But is this interaction really co-ordination? The authors put the case for taking a broad view of what counts as co-ordination and conclude that there is genuine co-ordination up to a certain point (the federal system places limits on how far that process can go). A subsidiary conclusion coming from the empirical study and which may surprise many non-Germans, is that German officials are familiar and comfortable with the areas of untidiness which result.

Determinants of Technological Innovation: Current Research Trends and Future Prospects

Abstract: This chapter is a review of several methodologies, which have been used to identify the distinctive characteristics of innovative firms (determinants of technological innovation). Some of the problems affecting this research field are the diverse nature and non-standardised definition and measurement of innovation itself, non-standardised measurements of the determinants, interrelated variables, different characteristics of firms targeted and finally different economic regions where the surveys take place. The chapter presents a portfolio model, which synthesises previous research results and may be used for country or industry specific studies.

Internet-Business or Just Business?: Impact of 'Internet-Specific' Strategies on Venture Performance

This study examines the relationship between 21 ‘internet-specific strategies’ and the performance of internet-trading ventures. ‘Internet-specific strategies’ are defined as business strategies specifically relevant in the internet-trading context. They were proposed mostly by practitioner-oriented exploratory literature, based on case studies of leading dot-coms. Does the application of such strategies increase performance for the bulk of the new ventures (dot.coms and new divisions of large companies) trading on the internet? The results of a large survey of 406 internet ventures in the UK were quite controversial. Despite the fact that we have found statistically significant correlations between the majority of ‘internet-specific strategies’ and venture performance in at least one industrial sector, the coefficients were weak and the regression model proved statistically insignificant. This raises questions over the validity of practitioner-led theories about internet business. Business on the internet might be just business.

The impact of Internet trading on the UK antiquarian and second‐hand bookselling industry

This paper investigates the impact of the Internet upon the UK second‐hand and antiquarian book trade. Questionnaires were sent to all 681 UK members of the industry’s largest and most prominent association (PBFA) and 355 responses were received. To ensure depth as well as breadth of knowledge, in‐depth interviews were also conducted with ten companies. The results showed that, overall, e‐commerce presents an opportunity rather than a threat to this traditional retailing sector. Pre‐existing database management and distribution skills made the industry well suited to Internet trading. The number of companies trading on‐line was five times greater than the UK industry average and the booksellers were highly satisfied with the results. Not only did 90 per cent of survey respondents with Web sites consider that their aims in setting them up had been met in whole or in part, but 20 per cent of respondents derived more than 30 per cent of their sales from Internet trading. Moreover, 68 per cent of on‐line respondents stated that in their opinion their Web sites had resulted in overall business profits increasing. Predicted threats posed by the Internet such as reduced prices and margins, causing offence to existing customers and distribution system difficulties presented risks but could not outweigh the benefits of Internet trading.