rok 2006

Aaboen L, Lindelof P, von Koch C, Lofsten H (2006) Corporate governance and performance of small high-tech firms in Sweden. Technovation 26:955-968 The approach uses data from a sample of 183 small high-tech firms, new, technology-based firms (small high-tech firms) in Sweden (54 variables under the headings of work experience, board and advice, financing, motivation-performance priorities, technological innovation and strategy). This study identifies some core areas of importance in corporate governance. Few managers in this study had a strong background and experience of finance and the preparation of business. Only 64 per cent of the managers have had previous work experience before starting the firm. The survey makes it clear that the small high-tech firms are likely to have a strong link with banking institutions. The consequence of these links is that most of the firm's capital supply is from banks, and that there are strong ownership links between banks and industry. The background of the founder does seem to have had an effect on the problem of financing and ownership issues. It is private sector organizations (banks) and families that are most frequently consulted by small high-tech firms (However, low means). It is also the private and public sector organizations, in connection with external board membership, regional development agencies and banks that are most frequently consulted. In the future, it is reasonable to search for factor patterns that can begin to explain and predict the direction of corporate governance in small new technology-based firms.

Adamides ED, Karacapilidis N (2006) Information technology support for the knowledge and social processes of innovation management. Technovation 26:50-59 While the management of innovation is the most knowledge-intensive organizational process, its information technology support has received only fragmented attention. The majority of systems proposed are either aiming at augmenting individual creativity and productivity, or at increasing the productivity of communication among the actors involved. In this paper, building on the view of innovation as a process of consecutive problems resolution, we present an information systems framework that aims at integrating different actors' perspectives and tools across different activities, by explicitly addressing the knowledge and social dynamics of the whole process. The framework is based on a systemic problem-knowledge representation scheme and an evolutionary problem-resolution methodology that supports the innovation process in its entirety, enabling the gradual 'breeding' of innovation concept(s). After reviewing the relevant literature, we present the structure, functionality and use of Knowledge Breeder, a web-based software system that implements this methodology through a structured dialogue and a formal argumentation scheme. By means of a use case we show how this system can support the innovation process effectively.

Adams-Bigelow M, Kleinschmidt EJ, Kuczmarski TD, Notargiacomo R, Peters LS (2006) Rejoinders to "Establishing an NPD best practices framework". Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:117-127

Akdeniz MB (2006) The design of things to come: How ordinary people create extraordinary products. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:467-469

Akgun AE, Lynn GS, Byrne JC (2006) Antecedents and consequences of unlearning in new product development teams. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:73-88 Unlearning, which first appeared almost 30 years ago as a subprocess of the organizational learning process, has received only limited attention in the literature. Rather than building on empirical research, the existing scholarship is largely anecdotal, aimed at reviewing the literature and generating new insights. Further, unlearning studies tend to analyze the organizational level and neglect smaller units such as work groups and teams. To address this gap in the understanding of unlearning, this article empirically investigates unlearning in work groups in general and new product development (NPD) teams in particular. This study, based on the literature of organizational memory and change, operationalized team unlearning as changes in beliefs and routines during team-based projects and then discussed the importance of unlearning behavior in NPD teams. Specifically it was argued that unlearning guards beliefs and routines against rigidity to cope with environmental turbulence. This is of particular note when rigid product development procedures and group beliefs inhibit the reception and evaluation of new market and technology information and reduce the value of perceived new information. To test the antecedents and consequences of the team unlearning model, 319 NPD teams were investigated. Using structural equation modeling, it was found that (1) team crisis and

anxiety have a direct impact on team unlearning; (2) environmental turbulence also has a direct impact on both team crisis and anxiety and team unlearning; and (3) after team beliefs and project routines have changed, implementing new knowledge or information positively affects new product success. Specifically, the findings revealed that changes in team members' collective beliefs in accordance with environmental changes and the in-process planning or adjustment of project work activities and procedures as the projects evolve enable teams to develop and launch new products successfully. Also, results indicated that team crisis and anxiety in NPD projects assist team members in revising their previous beliefs and routines when project teams are performing in turbulent environments. This article suggests that managers can enhance team unlearning by (1) creating a sense of urgency by introducing an artificial crisis; and (2) avoiding the groupthink phenomena by bringing in an outsider to challenge existing policies and procedures, and training the team on lateral thinking. In addition, managers can plan project activities in a flexible manner that allows changes as the project evolves to facilitate team unlearning. However, managers should also be cautious when promoting team unlearning. Without careful and considerable evaluation, change in beliefs and routines can cause information/knowledge loss.

Amir-Aslani A, Negassi S (2006) Is technology integration the solution to biotechnology's low research and development productivity? Technovation 26:573-582 The demand for innovative and cost-effective products has had considerable impact on the Research and Development (R&D) portfolio of pharmaceutical companies. With the advent of the new enabling technologies, the biotechnology revolution has created a need for a new and more appropriate paradigm for drug development. The progress in the biological understanding of disease processes and related technological developments have been a major step forward for drug discovery. However, the great majority of the biotechnology companies are confronted with the same issues as major pharmaceutical companies in terms of R&D productivity. This article intends to unfold the challenges faced by biotechnology companies involved in drug discovery by managing the complexity, uncertainty and urgency of technology integration through organic, acquisition and partnering strategies have become priorities for biotechnology companies in helping them achieving more efficiency in their pharmaceutical R&D efforts. Such strategies help biotechnology companies apply their technologies across a broad range of applications within the drug discovery value chain to maximize opportunities for product development. Competitive advantage in the marketplace ultimately derives from providing better speed, cost, quality and direction.

Anderson BP (2006) A handbook of intellectual property management. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:386-388

Anderson BP (2006) Intellectual property law in China. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:386-388

Appleyard MM, Brown C, Sattler L (2006) An international investigation of problem-solving performance in the semiconductor industry. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:147-167 Using a unique survey of engineers in major semiconductor companies located in Japan, South Korea, and the United States, this article analyzes how a firm's human resource (HR) system (i.e., practices that structure work, develop skills, and reward performance) and knowledge system (i.e., information access, sharing and control) are related to the problem-solving performance of engineers. Because of the short product market life cycles in the semiconductor industry, expeditious problem solving is an important performance goal. Therefore, this article examines the performance of engineers in terms of the time it takes them to solve problems in the context of their firms' HR and knowledge systems. It was anticipated during this study that externally oriented organizational systems, which support individual career performance and mobility (an externally oriented HR system) and the use of private knowledge sources (an externally oriented knowledge system), would be associated with superior performance in terms of problem-solving speed. The findings support this hypothesis and demonstrate the importance of externally oriented HR systems and at the same time suggest the surprising insignificance of the orientation of the knowledge systems. These findings are applicable to engineers in the sample from the United States, whereas the findings for the Korean and Japanese engineers are inconclusive. International variation is found where the U.S. engineers work under the most externally oriented and the Japanese engineers under the least externally oriented systems, and the Korean engineers fall in between. The findings of this article suggest that when constructing a work environment for new

product development, managers should take into account how the underlying components of their organizational systems contribute to an internal or external focus, and how this orientation may influence performance.

Assimakopoulos D, Yan M (2006) Sources of knowledge acquisition for Chinese software engineers. R & D Management 36:97-106 This research adopts a triangulation strategy based on ethnographic case study and questionnaire survey shedding light on how Chinese software engineers acquire codified and tacit knowledge in their daily development work. Software engineers make effective use of complementary resources within a broad spectrum of choices for seeking advice, learning how to solve technical problems, and transferring knowledge to the local community of practice from far beyond the organizational boundary. The analysis focuses on patterns of advice seeking relations within and across project team boundaries, also highlighting the Internet software technology forums as an important channel for technical information sharing across organizational boundaries. The implications for R&D managers are also discussed with special reference to software development and other knowledge intensive computer related work in China.

Atuahene-Gima K, Li HY (2006) The effects of formal controls on supervisee trust in the manager in new product selling: Evidence from young and inexperienced salespeople in China. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:342-358 How should sales managers enhance the support and commitment of young, inexperienced sales people during a new product selling? Some scholars have suggested sales managers should use formal controls (i.e., output and process controls) to develop the salespeople's trust in their benevolence. Drawing on a sample of young, inexperienced sales people with rather low education selling new products in China's competitive, volatile, and transitional economic environment, the present study investigates the relationship between output and process controls and supervisee trust (i.e., the salesperson's trust in the sales manager). The empirical results of the study suggest that process and output controls have differential effects on supervisee trust. Specifically, the results indicate that process control enhances supervisee trust by itself and also under conditions of intense training for new product selling and when market volatility is perceived as high. However, process control hinders supervisee trust when the manager is long-term oriented and engages in participative supervision. It was found that output control engenders supervisee trust when the manager is long-term oriented but hinders supervisee trust when salespeople have undergone intensive training for new product selling. Implications of these results are provided for both researchers and practitioners involved in launching and selling new products.

Ball DF, Rigby J (2006) Disseminating research in management of technology: journals and authors. R & D Management 36:205-215 This paper describes part of a study into the emergence and evolution of the management of research and development (R&D), innovation and technology as a subject in its own right. It deals with communicating research in this area via the relevant journals. The first part of this paper describes the history and development of the bulk of the relevant journals. The second part focuses on the extent and frequency of author participation and the author affiliation in the journals described in the first part of the paper. Computing the number of author entries in these journals for the years 1954-2003 demonstrates the substantial increase in publication over this period. The analysis also examines the affiliation of authors by dividing the sample into academic and non-academic. Finally, the study then sets out to identify those who make up the 'community' on the basis of publication in these journals over the period 1954-2003. The importance of the study is not only as an historical record but also to act as a guide to practicing R&D managers on which journals would best meet their needs.

Baraldi E, Nadin G (2006) The challenges in digitalising business relationships. The construction of an IT infrastructure for a textile-related business network. Technovation 26:1111-1126 This article analyses the phenomenon of the digitalisation of buyer-seller relationships. We discuss and systematise the challenges of constructing an IT infrastructure capable of sustaining the inter-firm interactions necessary in a business network. In particular, we deal with two relevant main questions (1) how are IT tools constructed and introduced into business networks to sustain relationships and (2) what type of challenges emerge during such attempts to construct and introduce IT. Relying on the case of an IT project for the "Stella" network (an Italian home-textile network), we highlight the challenges related to resource heterogeneity and process complexity. Furthermore. we analyse the relevance of such issues as inter-firm trust, power and dependence in similar IT projects. Particular emphasis is then given to the possibility of the IT system representing not

only the formal, but also the informal interactions among firms, and consequently, to the intrinsic limits to codifying relationships into rigid models. Even if the purpose of this paper is not to suggest generalised solutions to the above challenges, we describe how each of them was faced by the project team in the "Stella" network and we propose an indicative list of managerial implications relevant for all IT projects that stretch to whole business networks.

Barczak G, Kahn KB, Moss R (2006) An exploratory investigation of NPD practices in nonprofit organizations. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:512-527 Studies of practices in new product and service development have focused predominantly on for-profit organizations, whereas attention to the nonprofit sector has been minimal. Such attention is needed given that nonprofit organizations are unique in their structures and are growing with regards to impact on the world economy and society in general. Moreover, such disparate attention suggests a void in this discipline's understanding of new product development (NPD) practices of nonprofit organizations. Two particular research questions are posed: (1) To what extent are the practices of for-profit organizations employed in nonprofit organizations? (2) How do the practices of nonprofits compare to those of for-profit organizations? In the course of answering these questions, the present study reviewed literature and the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) certification work. The study subsequently identified six dimensions of successful NPD efforts: strategy, portfolio management, process, market research, people, and metrics and performance measurement. These dimensions were applied via an in-depth case-study methodology to six large, U. S. nonprofit organizations: American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Red Cross, Boys and Girls Club of America, and Goodwill Industries. The dimensions assisted in categorizing and analyzing the responses of 40 respondents across the six organizations. Results show that some NPD practices of large nonprofit organizations are similar to for-profit organizations, but other practices are more distinctive and related to the nature of nonprofit organizations. Large nonprofit organizations tend to be very good at articulating their mission, embedding it throughout, and using it to drive programs and activities. These organizations tend to view product development as a tactical endeavor versus a strategic one and do not engage in portfolio management practices for their new programs. Instead, broad criteria such as fit with mission, funding availability, and presence of a champion are used for evaluating programs. The NPD process tends to be informal with little structure, and individual departments and local chapters tend to undertake their own NPD initiatives and have their own process for doing so. Non-profits place a heavy emphasis on ideation and less emphasis on other activities such as concept development and testing, project evaluation, and business analysis. Pilot testing is the most used type of market research. These results suggest that NPD processes within large nonprofit organizations share some of the same weaknesses as those of for-profit organizations, with NPD metrics being a particularly weak area. The NPD practices of nonprofits also have some unique characteristics that include the following: a heavy emphasis on the mission, a desire for flexibility, strong influence of external sponsors, and difficulty in assessing long-term program success. Management of nonprofit NPD and directions for future research are discussed.

Barlow J, Bayer S, Curry R (2006) Implementing complex innovations in fluid multi-stakeholder environments: Experiences of 'telecare'. Technovation 26:396-406 'Telecare' is the use of information and communication technology to facilitate health and social care delivery to individuals in their own homes. Governments around the world are seeking to introduce telecare partly to help address the challenges posed by an ageing society. Telecare is inherently complex to implement and operate because it involves combination of technological and organisational innovation in an environment of diverse stakeholders. Using research on two telecare schemes in the UK, the paper explores the way project complexity, organisational context and project management approach interacted during the planning and implementation phases. The paper discusses how insights from research in related areas, including medical technology and service sector innovation in general, could help to explain why mainstream telecare delivery has been difficult and draws conclusions on the role of project management in the implementation of innovation.

Bayona C, Corredor P, Santamaria R (2006) Technological alliances and the market valuation of new economy firms. Technovation 26:369-383 The article investigates a sample of 69 announcements of technological alliances involving new economy firms in Spain, over the five-year period from 1997 to 2002. The purpose of the study is to analyse the impact of these announcements on share prices and volatility in

these firms. Various alliance characteristics are also examined in order to analyse their influence on stock market prices. Our findings suggest that, while there is no overall reaction of share prices to the announcement of technological alliances, there is an increase in volatility during the event window. Nevertheless, the analysis enables us to conclude that the market valuation is more positive for joint ventures and cross-border, cross-sectoral, and two-partner alliances. The observed effect on volatility indicates that the announcement of the formalisation of these alliances constitutes an abnormal amount of information, with a potentially significant effect on the variability of share prices.

Becheikh N, Landry R, Amara N (2006) Lessons from innovation empirical studies in the manufacturing sector: A systematic review of the literature from 1993-2003. Technovation 26:644-664 What is innovation and what determines its development in manufacturing firms? The literature on the topic has evolved exponentially during the last decades. However, the divergence of the research results makes it so that the innovation process is still poorly understood. Relying on a systematic review of empirical studies published between 1993 and 2003, this article propose and discuss a framework which brings together a set of variables related to the innovation process and the internal and contextual factors driving it. The ensuing results highlight several avenues which would help managers and policy makers to better foster innovation and researchers to better channel their efforts in studying the phenomenon.

Becker B, Gassmann O (2006) Gaining leverage effects from knowledge modes within corporate incubators. R & D Management 36:1-16 This paper analyzes the kind of knowledge that facilitates hatching and leveraging of technologies through the incubation process. Four corporate incubator types can be distinguished according to their source and type of technology: fast-profit incubators, market incubators, leveraging incubators, and in-sourcing incubators. Applying the knowledge-based view of the firm, four modes of mainly tacit knowledge were identified in respect to the different incubator types: (1) entrepreneurial knowledge, (2) organizational knowledge, (3) technological knowledge, and (4) complementary market knowledge. Knowledge strategies include both the leveraging of internal knowledge as well as the in-sourcing of external knowledge for the firm through the corporate incubator. The research is based on an analysis of a European Commission dataset from a benchmarking survey of 77 incubators as well as 52 interviews in 25 large technology-driven corporations in Europe and the United States.

Belecheanu R, Riedel J, Pawar KS (2006) A conceptualisation of design context to explain design trade-offs in the automotive industry. R & D Management 36:517-529 The paper explores decision-making rationale when making trade-offs in design. A case study of a mass-market car manufacturer was conducted using interviews, qualitative questionnaires and observation. It revealed that decision-making practices in trade-off situations depend on the way that decision makers perceive the relative importance of design targets and trade-off criteria. These practices are unformalised and embedded in the larger processes of car development and often contradict the technical guidelines for making trade-offs that exist in the company. The paper presents a conceptual framework to explain the rationale of trade-offs in different design contexts. How to apply this framework to understand design trade-offs is described with an illustration of its use in two real life examples.

Berends H, van der Bij H, Debackere K, Weggeman M (2006) Knowledge sharing mechanisms in industrial research. R & D Management 36:85-95 Previous research has firmly established the importance of knowledge sharing in Research and Development (R&D) settings. However, current theories provide only fragmented insights into the origination of knowledge sharing, and thus offer limited guidance for knowledge management practices in R&D. To integrate and extend these fragmented insights, we undertook two exploratory field studies of knowledge sharing in industrial research organizations. The contributions of this study are the following. First, we introduce three dimensions that differentiate origination mechanisms for knowledge sharing. Second, we show that some of these mechanisms correspond to mechanisms assumed in particular streams of literature, whereas others have been neglected till now. Third, based on our field studies, we show that each of these knowledge-sharing mechanisms have a different value for industrial research practices. Therefore, knowledge management in R&D should facilitate and stimulate a broad portfolio of knowledge-sharing mechanisms.

Bernstein B, Singh PJ (2006) An integrated innovation process model based on practices of Australian biotechnology firms. Technovation 26:561-572 An integrated approach to managing the innovation process is attractive for organizations for many reasons. However, there is a relative paucity of models that describe this approach. In this paper, an attempt is made to produce one such model. Based on a multiple case study design involving nine biotechnology companies and one peak industry body from Australia, a conceptual model is proposed that has the linear stage process model as the backbone. The twin mechanisms of market pull and technology push are incorporated within the model, with a set of key organizational constructs (management, communication, structure and control) embedded within these mechanisms. Overall, the results of this study improve our understanding of the innovation process by building a more comprehensive and integrated conceptual model.

Bigliardi B, Dormio AI, Nosella A, Petroni G (2006) Assessing science parks' performances: directions from selected Italian case studies. Technovation 26:489-505 Performance measurement of science parks is becoming paramount and calls for more rigorous approaches. The present work is aimed at providing a sound and theory-grounded methodological framework to science parks performance measurement and some practical suggestions useful for the design and the implementation of a Science Park's (SPs) performance evaluation. By the review of recent literature it emerges that such a system is draw up as from the real mission and strategy of the SPs, that are influenced by the environment context, the stakeholder's commitment, the life-cycle of the SP, besides their technical and scientific cultures. Based on the analysis of four Italian case studies, the empirical findings partly lend support to previous research output and partly add new elements of discussion to the debate. More specifically, major results are that the evaluation criteria should be aligned with science park (a) actual mission, (b) major stakeholders commitment, (c) economic regional conditions, (d) legal forms, (e) nature of the scientific competence base available within research centres and (f) SP's life-cycle stages.

Borjesson S, Dahlsten F, Williander M (2006) Innovative scanning experiences from an idea generation project at Volvo Cars. Technovation 26:775-783 This paper discusses a project at Volvo Cars aimed at idea generation and product expansion proposals. A major concern of many businesses is how to organize and manage early phases of product development-the front end-to ensure innovativeness. Drawing on models for new concept development, environmental scanning may be seen as a tool for executing idea genesis, however, different in its components, as compared to environmental scanning for strategy purposes. The case at Volvo Cars clearly showed the need for focusing on the back-end of the scanning process to balance the need for uncertainty reduction without prematurely closing the scope of innovativeness.

Bosworth DL (2006) Economic and management perspectives on intellectual property rights. R & D Management 36:463-465

Boyle T, Kumar V, Kumar U (2006) Determinants of integrated product development diffusion. R & D Management 36:37-54 Integrated product development (IPD) is an approach for developing new products focused on the early and active involvement of design, manufacturing, marketing and other key new product development (NPD) stakeholders in order to achieve cross-functional integration and concurrent execution of various NPD activities. The benefits of IPD are well known in both the academic literature and popular press, including significant reductions in NPD cycle time and costs. However, in spite of these benefits, for the majority of manufacturing organizations, IPD is not used on 100% of NPD projects. This research develops a model of the organizational contextual factors influencing the diffusion of IPD in organizations. Results of surveying 269 NPD managers indicate that the complexity of certain IPD practices and support for IPD directly influence IPD diffusion, while an innovative organizational climate and the complexity of the organization's NPD activities indirectly influence IPD diffusion through IPD support.

Bredin K, Soderlund J (2006) HRM and project intensification in R&D-based companies: a study of Volvo Car Corporation and AstraZeneca. R & D Management 36:467-485 Projects have become the standard mode of organising R&D activities. The main focus of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the project operations of the R&D-based firm and its Human Resource Management (HRM). This paper draws on a comparative case study of AstraZeneca and Volvo Car Corporation. It is argued that the project intensification currently under way has some important structural and content effects on the HRM practice

of the firms. As to the content effects, we identify five critical areas within the HRM practice where special attention is needed due to project intensification. As to the structural effects, we identify two separate logics for HR specialists: the HR-based logic and the task-based logic. These logics give new knowledge about the design of the HR organisation and how the HR departmental structures should be adapted in a project-intensive setting. The case studies also illustrate three alternative roles for line managers when they assume increased HR responsibility.

Brockhoff K (2006) The behavioral foundations of strategic management. R & D Management 36:107-107

Broring S, Cloutier LM, Leker J (2006) The front end of innovation in an era of industry convergence: evidence from nutraceuticals and functional foods. R & D Management 36:487-498 Industry convergence, defined as a 'blurring' of boundaries between industries, induced by converging value propositions, technologies and markets, appears to be a pervasive phenomenon leading to the emergence of inter-industry segments. A current example of convergence can be witnessed in the nutraceuticals and functional foods sector, emerging at the boundary between the food and pharmaceutical industries. Not only technologies blur, but there is also a convergence of demand structures: consumers try to satisfy different needs in one transaction. In this context, this paper explores how actors from different industry-specific resource backgrounds can engage in an innovative activity requiring new technological and marketing competences. Given that absorptive capacity is limited by existing competences, this paper asks how organizations with different R&D competences are able to seize opportunities for innovation emerging from convergence. Empirical findings based on primary data collected from 54 R&D projects of a nutraceutical cluster show that there are different approaches of front end decision making: while some firms follow existing processes for front end decision making, others leave existing paths and need partners to fill in gaps already identified at the front end of innovation.

Brown S, Fai F (2006) Strategic resonance between technological and organisational capabilities in the innovation process within firms. Technovation 26:60-75 The literature on innovation has been both rich and varied in approach and has provided much insight into the process of, and difficulties contained within, innovation. A number of important concepts including those of path dependency, technological trajectories, together with the plethora of articles concerned with organizational learning, involving the contribution and limitations of tacit knowledge, have helped us to understand the nature of innovation. As important as these strands of literature are, we suggest that a key weakness in much of the literature on innovation is that it does not deal sufficiently with the contextual issues concerning the changing paradigms of manufacturing and the profound impact that these developments have had upon the innovation process. We offer the concept of strategic resonance as a missing ingredient within some firms who are now faced with conditions of hyper competition where ongoing innovation is a key requirement. The concept of strategic resonance is not offered as a prescriptive panacea but it is suggested that firms need to understand and remove the blockages to strategic resonance as part of their innovation development processes.

Bstieler L (2006) Trust formation in collaborative new product development. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:56-72 This research examines antecedents of trust formation in new product development partnerships and the effect of trust on performance. Trust is modeled as an outcome of communication behavior, shared problem-solving, perceived fairness, the existence of conflicts during the development project, and partner egoism. The hypotheses are tested with data on 44 product development partnerships representing the perspective of the manufacturer. The findings suggest that communication behavior and fairness are positive contributors to trust. In contrast, conflicts during product development and perceived egoism of the partner appear to have a detrimental effect. High levels of trust were found to create the conditions for successful outcomes. A higher level of trust clearly differentiates between high- and low-performing collaborative relationships in new product development. Trust also was found to be a powerful mediator, particularly as it relates to mitigating conflicts during such partnerships.

Buesa M, Heijs J, Pellitero MM, Baumert T (2006) Regional systems of innovation and the knowledge production function: the Spanish case. Technovation 26:463-472 This working document is based on a broad multivariate data analysis of the regions conforming the Spanish R&D system, with the purpose of establishing a typology of the regional innovation systems. The paper consists of four parts. It begins with a

brief introduction reviewing the main theoretical approaches. In the second part, we use a factorial analysis, which allows us to differentiate between four main factors that have an impact on the regional innovation capacity: The Regional Production and Innovation Environment, the University, the Public Administration and Private Enterprise. In the third part, we determine a typology of the Spanish R&D system using the cluster analysis with the four factors detected before. The regions that stand out are Madrid (Public Administration), Catalonia (Environment), Basque Country (Enterprises) and Navarra (University), the rest of regions showing the heterogeneity of the regional R+D system in Spain. Finally, we use patents as a measure of the innovative capacity of the Spanish regions, calculating a regression with the four factors explained before. We confirm the importance of the Regional Production and Innovation Environment more than other factors on this kind of output.

Buganza T, Verganti R (2006) Life-cycle flexibility: How to measure and improve the innovative capability in turbulent environments. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:393-407 Managing innovation in rapidly moving environments, such as Interned-based services, is a major challenge for the consolidated theories on product and service development. The innovation management literature identifies flexibility as the right way for coping with these challenges. By increasing the development process flexibility, it is possible to reduce the development time as well as the time and cost needed for last-minute concept changes. But this is not enough. The product or service must also be flexible after it has been released: A life-cycle flexibility (LCF) must be pursued. Focused on the Italian on-line discount brokers industry, this article is a result of a two-staged research process that started with a qualitative explorative phase (i.e., case-study methodology) and ended with a quantitative explorative one (i.e., questionnaire methodology). It identifies three different LCF dimensions-frequency of adaptation, rapidity of adaptation, and quality of adaptation-and it defines a metric for each of them. Subsequently, it identifies five managerial and organizational practices that increase at least one of the three LCF dimensions: (1) to manage the back-end technological competences; (2) to share the front-end technological competences with external suppliers; (3) to utilize open and standard technologies; (4) to have a low formalization of the new service development (NSD) procedures; and (5) to have high formalization of the NSD organization.

Calantone RJ, Chan K, Cui AS (2006) Decomposing product innovativeness and its effects on new product success. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:408-421 Does product innovativeness affect new product success? The current research proposes that the ambiguity in findings may be due to an overly holistic conceptualization of product innovativeness that has erroneously included the concepts of product advantage and customer familiarity. This article illustrates how the same measures have often been used to assess product advantage with product innovativeness and product innovativeness with customer familiarity. These paired overlaps in measurement use are clarified in this research, which decomposes dimensions of product innovativeness along conceptual lines into distinct product innovativeness, product advantage, and customer familiarity constructs. To further support this decomposition, structural equation modeling is used to empirically test the distinctions. The measurement model supports the conceptual separation, and the path model reveals contingent effects of product innovativeness. Although product innovativeness enhances product advantage, a high level of innovativeness reduces customer familiarity, indicating that product innovativeness can be detrimental to new product success if customers are not sufficiently familiar with the nature of the new product and if innovativeness fails to improve product advantage. This exercise in metric development also reveals that after controlling for product advantage and customer familiarity, product innovativeness has no direct effect on new product profitability. This finding has strong implications for firms that mistakenly pursue innovation for its own sake. Consideration of both distribution and technical synergy as driving antecedents demonstrates how firms can still enhance new product success even if an inappropriate level of innovativeness is present. This leads to a simple but powerful two-step approach to bringing highly innovative products to market. First, firms should only emphasize product innovativeness when it relates to the market relevant concepts of product advantage and customer familiarity. Second, existing technical and distribution abilities can be used to enhance product quality and customer understanding. Distribution channels in particular should be exploited to counter customer uncertainty toward newly introduced products.

Cantisani A (2006) Technological innovation processes revisited. Technovation 26:1294-1301 This work is part of an inquiry into the causes of the small occurrence of innovations in the Brazilian society. It was

based on a retrospective analysis of cases experienced by the author, as well as on the study of certain industries. The systemic model of the technological innovation process presented here, while revisiting the models in the literature, emphasizes the crucial role of the activity of the conception of new ideas and its interaction with other phases of the process. Conception is critical and was, therefore, separated from other activities mainly because it is subject to the action of innovations inhibiting factors. A model for these factors is also presented. The author expects that an enhanced understanding of the innovation process in its complexity and of the action of inhibiting factors will help R&D managers to achieve better success levels.

Carayannis EG, Popescu D, Sipp C, Stewart M (2006) Technological learning for entrepreneurial development (TL4ED) in the knowledge economy (KE): Case studies and lessons learned. Technovation 26:419-443 Innovative technologies are reshaping the global economic landscape, by improving speed and ease of communications and interaction among the various economic actors involved in the productive cycle. In this paper, we discuss the role that technological learning and information and communication technologies (ICT) play in fostering entrepreneurial development in the Knowledge Economy and support our conceptual constructs with a series of case studies from developed, developing and transitioning economies. We compare and contrast entrepreneurial initiatives, policies and practices and the experience of ways and means to promote learning and entrepreneurship such as global/local (glocal), real-virtual incubator networks (G-RVIN) and other real and virtual infra-structures and infra-technologies (such as Innovation Networks and Knowledge Clusters or INKC) and derive lessons learned for policy makers, practitioners and entrepreneurs.

Carayannis EG, Turner E (2006) Innovation diffusion and technology acceptance: The case of PKI technology. Technovation 26:847-855 This paper proposed a model for security technology adoption and implementation through the examination of factors affecting adoption and implementation of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology. In the early 1990s, PKI was widely believed to be the panacea for solving a number of security issues that would open the door for business-to-business (13213) electronic commerce. However, history has demonstrated a lack of broad-based adoption of PKI by organizations, although the use of digital certificates has become fairly prevalent. Why has implementation of the PKI technology been so narrow? What are the factors that mediate security technology adoption and implementation? Technology use, diffusion and adoption literature provide a conceptual framework and theoretical motivation for examining the case of PKI. Additional insight is provided by the examination of the experience of a few organizations that have, to some degree, implemented PKI technology, supplemented by a review of published information on other organizational PKI experiences. The combination of theoretical and practical considerations yield a security implementation model that we believe sheds light on the factors affecting PKI implementation and shows promise for examination of security technology adoption in general. We believe that the model and the research that supports it has important implications for both academics and practitioners in gaining a better understanding of the process for adoption of security technologies by public and private organizations.

Carbonara N, Scozzi B (2006) Cognitive maps to analyze new product development processes: A case study. Technovation 26:1233-1243 A few methods have been proposed in the literature to identify and address problems that arise during New Product Development (NPD). In this paper, cognitive maps are used to investigate such problems. In particular, the development of four new sofa models as performed in a company working in Southern Italy is studied. Based on direct observations and interviews with actors involved in the process, maps depicting the entire development process and the four examined cases are developed and analyzed. The analysis results show that some interpretative and cognitive issues are mainly responsible for the problems caused in NPD. Moreover, cognitive maps reveal a powerful tool to analyze and study the NPD process.

Castellion G (2006) Fast second: How smart companies bypass radical innovation to enter and dominate new markets. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:382-384

Castellion G (2006) Democratizing innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:193-195

Chang SC, Chen RH, Lin RJ, Tien SW, Sheu C (2006) Supplier involvement and manufacturing flexibility. Technovation 26:1136-1146 Supplier involvement is touted as enhancing a firm's competitive edge, but its linkage with specific dimensions of manufacturing flexibility (e.g., volume flexibility) has not been established. This study investigates the relationship between supplier involvement, manufacturing flexibility, and business performance in the motherboard. industry. Using data collected from 105 manufacturing firms, we first verified the effect of manufacturing flexibility on business performance. A field study was then conducted to benchmark various supplier involvement practices in the motherboard industry and to decipher the impact of supplier involvement on different dimensions of manufacturing flexibility. Our findings indicate that supplier involvement plays a major role in the development and performance of a firm's manufacturing flexibility. More importantly, we found specific associations between various supplier involvement activities and different dimensions of manufacturing flexibility. Not all supplier activities contribute equally to the development of different types of manufacturing flexibility, and manufacturing flexibility should be integrated with supply chain management. Finally, research propositions are presented and several managerial implications are discussed.

Chen CJ, Chung MC, Wei CH (2006) Government policy of technology selection for advanced traveler information systems. R & D Management 36:439-450 Technology selection is widely recognized for its increasing importance in the field of technology management. Different from previous work that only used a single evaluation method, this study uses the grey statistics method with survey techniques and scenario approach to develop a three-stage model for the technology selection issue. An empirical case of the Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) technology selection in Taiwan was chosen to illustrate the application of this model on the technology selection problem. The results indicate that GPS/GIS technology is the preferred ATIS technology developed in Taiwan. The application of the model provides an avenue for government policy makers and researchers to deal effectively with the technology selection issue.

Chen HH, Lee AHI, Tong YH (2006) Analysis of new product mix selection at TFT-LCD technological conglomerate network under uncertainty. Technovation 26:1210-1221 Since new product development (NPD) is characterized by a tremendous degree of complexity and uncertainty, no single development approach within a firm will necessarily lead to a final successful product. To increase the possibilities of having products developed successfully, NPD mix is usually selected in practice, and this leads to an even more complicated and uncertain problem of choosing an appropriate set of new products. In addition, surviving independently in a high technology industry is very difficult, and a firm needs to take serious consideration of technological conglomerate network (TCN) in NPD selection. There are currently few mathematical or effective models practically proved to be able to handle these critical and complicated issues, and this is the challenge of the research. Critical success factors (CSFs) of NPD in TCN is first discussed, and 10 CSFs within three groups are selected. While analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a popular multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, is capable of dealing with the aforementioned managerial problems by generalizing subjective judgment of experts, human judgment is usually imprecise and vague. To compensate this deficiency in AHP, a fuzzy AHP model is proposed, and a firm is able to select the most appropriate product mix for development by applying the model.

Chen XD, Reger G (2006) The role of technology in the investment of German firms in China. Technovation 26:407-415 China, as being the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) host country in the world and the leading developing country in terms of volume of FDI inflows, has been increasingly attracting international attention from companies and policy makers. As more and more German manufacturing companies move into China, the investment is becoming larger in size and of higher quality. In the meantime, issues of the motives and nature of German FDI in China and related technological activities are developed to a more important topic for both Chinese and overseas researchers. This paper aims at the analysis and explanation of FDI movement driven by German companies in China and the role of technology hereby. Our research includes a literature review, a database analysis and a mail survey on German firms investing in China. Different indicators suggest that the motives for German FDI are long-term based and are deeply market-oriented, which can be characterised through seeking new markets and enlarging market shares. Technology transfer is therefore mainly dedicated to production and managerial facilities.

Cheng JMS, Sheen GJ, Lou GC (2006) Consumer acceptance of the internet as a channel of distribution in Taiwan - a channel function perspective. Technovation 26:856-864 A study of consumer acceptance of the Internet as a channel of distribution in Taiwan was conducted using a channel function perspective. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was adopted as the theoretical basis on which to develop the research framework. The relevant research hypotheses were examined in three online channel function environments (i.e., information collection, financial payments, and product variety/assortment). Most of the hypotheses were supported by the empirical findings. The implications of these findings are highlighted, and suggestions for future research are noted as well.

Chesbrough H, Crowther AK (2006) Beyond high tech: early adopters of open innovation in other industries. R & D Management 36:229-236 Companies have historically invested in large research and development departments to drive innovation and provide sustainable growth. This model, however, is eroding due to a number of factors. What is emerging is a more open model, where companies recognize that not all good ideas will come from inside the organization and not all good ideas created within the organization can be successfully marketed internally. To date, Open Innovation concepts have been regarded as relevant primarily to 'high-technology' industries, with examples that include Lucent, 3Com, IBM, Intel and Millenium Pharmaceuticals. In this article, we identify organizations in industries outside 'high technology' that are early adopters of the concept. Our findings demonstrate that many Open Innovation concepts are already in use in a wide range of industries. We document practices that appear to assist organizations adopting these concepts, and discover that Open Innovation is not ipso facto a recipe for outsourcing R&D. We conclude that Open Innovation has utility as a paradigm for industrial innovation beyond high tech to more traditional and mature industries.

Chiaroni D, Chiesa V (2006) Forms of creation of industrial clusters in biotechnology. Technovation 26:1064-1076 Since its origin, biotechnology has developed in few centres of excellence identifiable as biotech clusters. Even if these usually present common features in terms of organisations involved and critical resources available, the process of creation significantly varies from case to case. Most literature contributions, however, concentrated on the description of clusters that remain a "black box", where less attention has been paid to their dynamics. This paper investigates different forms of cluster creation in biotech, primarily based on five in-depth case studies of biotech clusters in Europe (Cambridge, Heildelberg, Aarhus, Marseilles, Milano) at different stages of development. Moreover, the paper briefly analyses other 7 interesting cases of biotech clusters, both in Europe and US. The paper proposes a taxonomy identifying two major forms of cluster creation: (i) spontaneous clusters, that are the result of the spontaneous co-presence of key factors; (ii) policy driven clusters, that are triggered by the strong commitment of governmental actors whose willingness was to set the conditions for the cluster creation, either as a response to an industrial crisis or as a deliberate decision to foster the biotech sector. In a few cases, both forms of cluster creation coexist, thus determining a hybrid process.

Chipika S, Wilson G (2006) Enabling technological learning among light engineering SMEs in Zimbabwe through networking. Technovation 26:969-979 The contribution of networks to small and medium enterprise (SME) development is analysed to a very limited extent in a Sub-Saharan African context, despite the general claim that SMEs are important for both national economic development and poverty alleviation. The implication is that networks play a relatively minor role in this context, unlike their perceived significance for SMEs in more developed countries. An analysis of networks and technological learning among four light engineering SMEs in Zimbabwe, however, reveals a clear positive association between the two, while also showing that networks are not necessarily a magic bullet. Capacity, including motivation to learn, and entrepreneurship qualities are important determinants of a firm's ability to make use of networks. Also, some networks might actually be disabling in terms of technological learning, while others will be more or less important during the development trajectory of a firm. The study has important implications for the role of enterprise support organisations that seek to promote the development of SMEs in Zimbabwe, and elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Chiu YC, Chen B, Shyu JZ, Tzeng GH (2006) An evaluation model of new product launch strategy. Technovation 26:1244-1252 The objective of this article is to develop an empirically based framework for formulating and selecting a product launch strategy. Managers usually face Fuzzy decision scenarios.

Traditional decision-making methods fail to satisfy a manager's need in this regard. Thus, a hierarchical fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (Fuzzy MCDM) method for evaluating a new product launch strategy is proposed in this study. In order to show the practicality and usefulness of this model, an empirical study of the Taiwan IC industry is demonstrated. The results show that the fast follower strategy is the most applicable.

Chorev S, Anderson AR (2006) Success in Israeli high-tech start-ups; Critical factors and process. Technovation 26:162-174 This paper develops a model of the factors deemed critical for success in high-tech new ventures in Israel. Israel presents an interesting forum, geographically distant from main markets but richly endowed with human capital, new high-tech ventures are seen as an essential element of the economy. Yet, despite its importance, high-tech is characterised by risk and challenge. Consequently, a model which draws on the experience of success and failure should be valuable. Our multi stage methodology enrolled the wisdom and experience of founders, managers and financiers of high-tech businesses to identify and categorise the importance of the factors and the role played by these factors. We found that success factors could be grouped as critical or as important. The first group categorised the idea, strategy, the core team's commitment, expertise and marketing as critical. Important factors were deemed to be management, customer relationships and research and development. The least important factors proved to be those external to the firm, the economy, politics and the general business environment. Overall the study emphasises that the attitudes and abilities of the core team are paramount. Although the model is based on the Israeli experience, many of the aspects are global. Consequently, the study may have broad applicability.

Christensen CM (2006) The ongoing process of building a theory of disruption. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:39-55

Coombs JE, Bierly PE (2006) Measuring technological capability and performance. R & D Management 36:421-438 The relation between technological capability and firm performance is more complex than what is generally assumed. Researchers have not been able to consistently find empirical support for this apparently 'simple' relation. The objective of this study is to illustrate the theoretical and empirical complexity of this relation and explain why the use of different measures can lead to dramatically different results. In this study, we analyse the technological capability-performance relation in 201 large US public manufacturing companies. A variety of patent statistics and a measure of research & development (R&D) intensity are used as indicators for technological capability. The following six measures of performance are used as dependent variables: return on assets, return on equity, return on sales, market value, market value added, and economic value added. The results vary substantially, depending on which measures are used for the independent and dependent variables. A detailed understanding of precisely what each measure represents and the shortcomings of each measure is needed to explain why these differences exist. We conclude by discussing the effectiveness of a variety of technological capability measures using patent citations, and illustrate why a measure of R&D spending and the total number of patents are usually not valid measures of a firm's technological capability.

Cornelius B, Persson O (2006) Who's who in venture capital research. Technovation 26:142-150 A bibliometric analysis of research papers in venture capital reveals an increasing interest over time by researchers across a broad spectrum of business disciplines. It also reveals the dominance of North American, particularly American researchers who entered the field early. Interestingly, the analysis demonstrates that two schools of entrepreneurial research compete for dominance in the venture capital framework. Much of the core research, the knowledge base, crosses disciplinary lines but is developed, from there-on, in a discipline specific fashion. Researchers whose primary interest is in finance and economics use quantitative, neo-classical models almost exclusively and publish, with the exception of the most cited authors, solely in economics and finance journals. These researchers tend to be more successful at achieving internal university funding for their projects while the second group, publishing in journals dedicated to management and entrepreneurship research, uses a broader array of theoretical techniques, apply both quantitative and qualitative methodologies and are more often funded externally. The core group of researchers, with reputations supported by large numbers of citations, appear to be able to raise funds both internally (through university bodies) and externally.

Corso M, Martini A, Pellegrini L, Massa S, Testa S (2006) Managing dispersed workers: the new challenge in Knowledge Management. Technovation 26:583-594 Knowledge Management (KM) has become a central theme in today's business environment and a commonly cited source of competitive advantage. In today's global economy, many economic activities in and among firms are based on the contribution of workers that are geographically dispersed and have loose contractual links with the company. Building on evidence from three case studies, this paper explores the relations between dispersed worker activities, KM tools and worker satisfaction.

Cozzarin BP (2006) Are world-first innovations conditional on economic performance? Technovation 26:1017-1028 The objective of the research is to determine whether past economic performance has an impact on a firm's ability to innovate. Specifically, the concern is with producing a world-first innovation, a Canada-first innovation and a first-to-the firm innovation taking prior performance into consideration. Ordered logistic regression coefficients for market share, labour productivity and profit are statistically significant for seven out of 12 industries. However, when compared to other firm level characteristics such as strategies, competitive environment, information sources, R&D and use of patents the importance of economic performance fades quite drastically. Across all industries this study found that internal information was a very important factor for innovation. In three of the 12 industries (clothing and textiles, metal, and electric and computer) internal, external and general information were utilized by managers extensively. Managers in the wood and paper, furniture, vehicles, and miscellaneous industries utilize internal and general information. While the plastics and machinery industries rely on internal and external information sources. The remaining industries food, non-metal, and petrochemicals, rely on internal sources of information exclusively.

Csaszar F, Nussbaum M, Sepulveda M (2006) Strategic and cognitive criteria for the selection of startups. Technovation 26:151-161 A decision aid is proposed that would enable venture capitalists to improve the accuracy of their decision-making processes. The methodology complements strategic criteria with cognitive ones. When questions on technical know-how and business expertise do not give enough clues, they are supplemented with a different viewpoint given by a cognitive model. The methodology is demonstrated using an e-Business case.

Danneels E (2006) Dialogue on the effects of disruptive technology on firms and industries. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:2-4

De Meyer A (2006) Innovating strategy process. R & D Management 36:111-112

Demaid A, Quintas P (2006) Knowledge across cultures in the construction industry: sustainability, innovation and design. Technovation 26:603-610 In the construction industry both the design and management processes differ significantly from the stylised models usually promoted in the academic and business press. To the complexity that is normal business in construction industry projects add the uncertainty associated with the changing legal and ethical imperatives of sustainable development and the result is a mess. Innovative products, together with the companies that make them, are being built on the back of a rigged market in recycled raw materials and policy changes are spawning unintended consequences. Making sense of those processes that use knowledge about sustainability, at the level of the firm, is particularly daunting because companies behave differently in different international contexts. The problem is further complicated by the collaborative nature of projects; specialization and the need to communicate with and between experts increases both costs and uncertainties. We discuss a fundamental tension between understanding knowledge creation and use, and the drive to capture processes in formal documents and systems. We propose similarities between developments in the field of sustainability and developments in the field of risk, with risk having the advantage of being further down the evolutionary line. Both fields have strong dimensions of formal rules and socio-economic behaviours. Such complexity, we argue, requires a number of perspectives to make sense of how knowledge is used in construction and allied industries.

Dettwiler P, Lindelof P, Lofsten H (2006) Utility of location: A comparative survey between small new technology-based firms located on and off Science Parks - Implications for facilities management.

Technovation 26:506-517 This paper aims to highlight the role of facilities management (FM) for new technology-based firms (NTBFs) that are located on respectively off Science Parks. It incorporates FM as a contributory background element in the enhancement of the entrepreneurial environment, which is one explanatory factor of the superior performance and growth of NTBFs located inside Science Parks. Differences in location preferences between on and off park NTBFs are brought into evidence in this paper by means of an extensive quantitative survey. This resulted in the finding that the proximity to university is especially significant among NTBFs inside parks. Furthermore, infrastructure has high significance in both groups whereas significance of facilities cost differs in range of significance. In a model it is argued that FM indirectly contributes to beneficial scenarios for interaction, interfirm relations and networks that can be found particularly in Science Parks. A discussion and a set of hypotheses in the conclusive part link FM and location, issues to the performance for NTBFs.

Di Benedetto CA (2006) From the Editor. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:473-474

Di Benedetto CA (2006) From the editor. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:391-392

Di Benedetto CA (2006) Untitled. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:299-300

Di Benedetto CA (2006) From the editor. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:201-202

Di Benedetto CA (2006) From the editor. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:105-105

Di Benedetto CA (2006) Welcome to a new volume of JPIM! Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:1-1

Diaz-Diaz NL, Aguiar-Diaz I, De Saa-Perez P (2006) Technological knowledge assets in industrial firms. R & D Management 36:189-203 This research focuses on identifying and measuring the technological knowledge assets that constitute the basis of the knowledge management process and on the study of contextual factors that determine their use. To that end, a longitudinal study of 1,444 Spanish industrial firms between 1998 and 2000 was conducted using information gathered by the Survey of Business Strategies. The results enable us to identify technological knowledge assets with different levels of codification and to have a general view of how age, size and sector affect the use of those assets by Spanish industrial firms.

Dodgson M, Gann D, Salter A (2006) The role of technology in the shift towards open innovation: the case of Procter & Gamble. R & D Management 36:333-346 As with all new ideas, the concept of Open Innovation requires extensive empirical investigation, testing and development. This paper analyzes Procter and Gamble's 'Connect and Develop' strategy as a case study of the major organizational and technological changes associated with open innovation. It argues that although some of the organizational changes accompanying open innovation are beginning to be described in the literature, more analysis is warranted into the ways technological changes have facilitated open innovation strategies, particularly related to new product development. Information and communications technologies enable the exchange of distributed sources of information in the open innovation process. The case study shows that furthermore a suite of new technologies for data mining, simulation, prototyping and visual representation, what we call 'innovation technology', help to support open innovation in Procter and Gamble. The paper concludes with a suggested research agenda for furthering understanding of the role played by and consequences of this technology.

Dowling M, Helm R (2006) Product development success through cooperation: A study of entrepreneurial firms. Technovation 26:483-488 In this paper we examine the moderating affect of age on the relationship between cooperation and new product success for entrepreneurial firms in the high technology region in and round Jena in the former East Germany. Cooperative strategy has already been shown in a variety of research settings to be an important strategic alternative for entrepreneurial firms to support growth strategies. We develop hypotheses that such cooperative relationships will also lead to higher new product development success; however, the type of successful cooperation will vary with the age of the start-up firm. Younger firms are shown to be more successful when they cooperate with other firms, while older firms will

profit more from cooperation with research institutions. This study adds to a growing literature on the importance of cooperative strategy for entrepreneurial firms.

Easingwood C, Moxey S, Capleton H (2006) Bringing high technology to market: Successful strategies employed in the worldwide software industry. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:498-511 The launch stage can be critical for many new products, but particularly so for technology-intensive ones. This study examines this key stage in a high-tech sector: the worldwide computer software industry. Using a research instrument developed across a number of high-tech sectors, but adapted to the targeted sector, it describes a worldwide telephone-based survey of 300 organizations, resulting in 190 interviews, a response rate of 63%. It shows that five distinct and interpretable strategies are employed: (1) alliance strategy involves forming early strategic alliances as well as tactical alliances at the execution stage together with the development of unique distribution channels; (2) targeted low risk attempts to reduce the risk of adoption among identified segments by producing versions of the product specifically customized to the segments; (3) low-price original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is the only price-driven strategy and combines low price with channel building to OEMs who are looking for attractive price-to-performance ratios; (4) broadly based market preparation is an early-stage strategy that concentrates on educating the market vis-a-vis the technology and developing channels; and (5) niche-based technological superiority uses a technologically superior product to dominate a niche and corresponds closely to the chasm-crossing strategy expounded by Moore and others. Regarding superior product performance, successful software companies first of all engage in a broadly based preparation of the market but switch to a targeted strategy at the following stages of positioning and execution, built around superior technological performance and reduced risk. A somewhat different mix of strategies is adopted when the objective is superior market development, namely opening up new markets, reaching new customers, and developing new product platforms. Again the mix includes broadly based market preparation, this time along with alliances. This strategy is very much about working with partners. The broadly based market preparation strategy is key for both objectives, is long term in nature, and avoids narrowly defined niches. It seems that starting broad based and narrowing down, perhaps to a niche, only at a later stage when this is clearly the appropriate thing to do, pays dividends.

Emden Z, Calantone RJ, Droge C (2006) Collaborating for new product development: Selecting the partner with maximum potential to create value. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:330-341 The partner selection process in the formation stages of collaborative new product development (NPD) is a neglected topic. The present study investigated the partner selection processes to ascertain the potential of creating competitively advantageous products through collaboration. The goal was to develop a process theory of partner selection for collaborative NPD alliances using a theory development approach. The literatures on NPD, interfirm knowledge transfer and generation, and interorganizational relationships were tapped. These literatures motivated the approach and the research questions. Parallel with the analysis of the literature, a series of case study interviews were conducted with managers currently in collaborative dyads. Managers' inputs were used (1) to guide the theory development process and (2) to validate the relevance of the literature-based assertions. The method of narrative analysis for building theory from case studies was adopted: Multiple indicators were collapsed into single constructs, and recurring sequences or divergences were analyzed. This resulted in the unveiling of phases in the partner selection process. The study's findings suggest that technological alignment of the partners triggered the partner-evaluation process. This phase was followed, in order, by the strategic alignment and relational alignment phases. These later phases were as important as the initial phase in ensuring the transfer and integration of critical know-how and in creating product value through collaboration. In addition to clarifying the definition of codevelopment alliances, this study reveals a comprehensive theoretical model of the technological, strategic, and relational aspects of partner selection in codevelopment alliances, as well as the order in which these aspects are practiced.

Eng TY (2006) Mobile supply chain management: Challenges for implementation. Technovation 26:682-686 Mobile supply chain management (mSCM) is fast gaining recognition as a major source of cost reduction and supply chain performance. However, there is little published academic literature on the application and implementation of mobile and/or wireless technology in SCM. This article attempts to explore the challenges of mobile technology for successful implementation of mSCM. The implications of mobile or wireless technology for successful implementation of mSCM are examined with reference to three critical areas of SCM: (1) competitive advantage based on the notion of value chain analysis in SCM; (2)

relationship management for successful collaboration along the supply chain and strategic partnerships; and (3) coordination and integration of disparate functions and activities to enhance overall supply chain performance. The article identifies the implications of mobile technology for SCM and develops propositions that have important consequences on the likelihood of a successful implementation of mSCM.

Eng TY, Wong V (2006) Governance mechanisms and relationship productivity in vertical coordination for new product development. Technovation 26:761-769 This article explores the theoretical explanations of governance mechanisms in vertical coordination between firms over the product life cycle stages with reference to the high-technology industry. Firms in the high-tech industry face uncertainties of fast-changing environments such as rapid technological innovations and shortening product life cycles. Drawing on transaction cost analysis in vertical coordination, conditions under which transactional inefficiencies may arise are analyzed on different stages of product life cycle theory. Theoretical analysis suggests that interaction patterns over a product life cycle produce differing implications for achieving cost minimization and value maximization. The implications of this variation in transaction cost inefficiencies suggest that there are different opportunities for enhancing efficiencies or for creating value at different stages of the product life cycle. The article proposes that by considering the impact of exogenous factors on the stage of a product life cycle and relationship productivity, high-tech firms operating in volatile markets can safeguard their exposure to transactional inefficiencies.

Falkingham LT (2006) Insight in innovation: Managing innovation by understanding the laws of innovation. R & D Management 36:107-108

Fan PL (2006) Catching up through developing innovation capability: evidence from China's telecom-equipment industry. Technovation 26:359-368 The significance of the innovation capability of domestic firms in late-industrialized countries is highly debated in the literature. This research studies the history of China's telecom-equipment industry from the middle of 1980s to 2002, with a focus on the innovation capability development of four domestic firms: Huawei, ZTE, DTT, and GDT. The research finds that innovation capability and self-developed technologies have been the key to leading domestic firms' catching up with the multinational corporations. This finding is substantiated by both regression analysis between 'leadership of the telecom-equipment industry' and 'innovation capability' and development experience at the company level. This research emphasizes that domestic firms should prioritize building innovation capability from the very beginning to build up their competitiveness and to survive the competition with the multinational companies as well as other domestic companies. It also suggests that domestic firms should focus on in-house R&D development to build their innovation capability, supplemented with external alliances.

Feldman LP (2006) Product leadership: Pathways to profitable innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:99-100

Fennelly D, Cormican K (2006) Value chain migration from production to product centred operations: an analysis of the Irish medical device industry. Technovation 26:86-94 The medical device industry in Ireland is largely confined to manufacturing operations. This narrow focus limits the competitiveness of the industry in Ireland and consequently poses a threat to development and growth. Economic opinion indicates that more emphasis must be placed on higher value-added activities such as research and development (R&D) and new product development. This paper explores the concept of value chain migration in the Irish medical device industry. Specifically, it examines the shift from production to product-centred operations in the medical device industry. A significant proportion of organisations that occupy this industry are multinational subsidiaries. Typically, subsidiaries depend on their parent company to develop new products using R&D resources close to headquarters. Few subsidiaries have control of their product development activities and spending on research and development is inadequate. Subsidiaries cannot depend on the benevolent actions of the parent company to secure future viability. This study examines the competitive environment of multinational subsidiaries based in Ireland. The nature and extent of R&D activity in the industry is explored and potential threats and shortcomings are noted. The argument for and against moving towards product centred operations is examined and presented. The findings of this study reveal that the proactive subsidiary is far more responsive to its business environment than an organisation with centralised

control. For example, certain initiatives can help to maintain market entry barriers, can help to control the power of suppliers and customers and can help to guard against substitutes. Moreover, subsidiaries must proactively manage the supply of new product developments by securing an adequate share of the output of parent company R&D. To do this, they must demonstrate solid performance, build local capabilities in new product development and actively manage relationships.

Fernandes KJ, Raja V, Whalleyc A (2006) Lessons from implementing the balanced scorecard in a small and medium size manufacturing organization. Technovation 26:623-634 The UK manufacturing sector is facing massive challenges to survive in today's global and volatile marketplace. In an attempt to overcome these challenges, companies are adopting newer management systems to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. The balanced scorecard (BSC) is one such approach which is gaining significant interest, especially within the small and medium size enterprises (SME). In this paper, a case study with a SME demonstrates how BSC can be implemented successfully using a systematic and structured methodology. This paper lists the experimental results of the proposed deployment method and highlights the experiences, successes and lessons leant during the implementation process. In conclusion, this research exercise confirms the validity and usefulness of the proposed methodology and offers managerial insights and guidelines for similar implementations.

Fernandes KJ, Raja V, White A, Tsinopoulos CD (2006) Adoption of virtual reality within construction processes: a factor analysis approach. Technovation 26:111-120 Globalization has allowed construction companies to become part of the global economy. However, this economic survival is dependent on their ability to attain the levels of technology development, which can make them globally competitive. The UK Construction sector is a highly knowledge intensive sector where tackling critical technology adoption issues are central to their survival. One such issue is of understanding factors that affect the adoption of Virtual Reality within top UK construction firms in the public sector. Previous literature suggests that various factors play a role in the adoption of VR systems; however. there is little empirical research about the factors affecting the adoption of this technology in the construction sector. This research paper investigates forms of barriers that affect adoption of VR technology in top UK construction firms in the public sector. A three phase Factor Analysis Approach that incorporates discriminant and empirical analysis reveals that factors such as Champion within a Company, Top Management Support, Internal Needs, Degree of Business Competition, Coordination of Organizational Resources and Participation of Users would affect the adoption of visualization technology.

Ferneley E, Bell F (2006) Using bricolage to integrate business and information technology innovation in SMEs. Technovation 26:232-241 Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) can experience difficulties in adopting Information Systems (IS) and aligning them with their strategic development. Using the concept of bricolage, an improvisational approach that allows learning from concrete experience, we explore IS adoption and organisational change in two SME case studies. The case studies cover IS rationalisations and innovations and small-and large-scale change over a 4-year period, and highlight the roles of different actors, internal and external to the SMEs. We find that bricolage is a useful concept as it deals with the need for SMEs to learn about the possibilities of IS in situ, simultaneously exploiting the can-do approach that is usually found in SMEs. However, bricolage needs organisation space and the possibility for trust to grow between end users, developers and management as visions are explored and revised. The paper concludes with a set of guiding principles that can be adopted by SMEs to enable IS bricolage to contribute to an organisation's strategic direction.

Fisscher O (2006) The three faces of leadership. R & D Management 36:547-548

Foo CT, Wai LS, Lang TS (2006) The mind of a technopreneuress: differentiating the self-leading, entrepreneurial from custodial, managerial female. Technovation 26:175-184 One emerging trend in the 21st Century is the rise in the roles of women in society. In Singapore, increasingly women are filling-up not just the mundane, clerical ranks or the executive, managerial positions but also emerging as entrepreneurs. Or as coined by us as 'technopreneuress'. For most interestingly, according to recent statistics, women are emerging as technologically more competent than before. In this paper, we explore the inner processes of the psychological adaptation and changes necessary in the female psyche before a societal, technopreneurial

matriarchy may take root. Already, politically we witness the rise of women leaders in South East Asia: Megawati in Indonesia, Arroyo in Philippines and possibly in post-Bush US, the rise of Mrs Clinton. We structured our empirical investigations to focus on those personal traits, interpersonal and leadership styles that differentiate women as self-leading 'technopreneuress', i.e. the entrepreneurial from the managerial. We conclude by integrating our research findings with left-right brain attributes and on the future mind of the successful, technology-oriented entrepreneur.

Fragkaki AG, Leontiou IP, Kioukia-Fougia N, Tsivou M, Spyridaki MHE, Georgakopoulos CG (2006) Organization of the doping control laboratory in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games: A case study. Technovation 26:1162-1169 The organization with special attention to the Quality Assurance system of the Doping Control Laboratory of Athens (DCLA) implemented during the Athens 2004 Olympic Games is presented in this study. The DCLA has been accredited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)/World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following the requirements of the WADA International Standard for Laboratories (ISL) and by ESYD, the greek accreditation body, according to ELOT EN ISO/IEC 17 025 standard. The DCLA is the first IOC/WADA accredited Doping Control Laboratory that performed doping control analyses during Olympic Games operating under the new requirements of WADA International Standards.

Franke N, von Hippel E, Schreier M (2006) Finding commercially attractive user innovations: A test of lead-user theory. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:301-315 Firms and governments are increasingly interested in learning to exploit the value of lead-user innovations for commercial advantage. Improvements to lead-user theory are needed to inform and to guide these efforts. The present study empirically tests and confirms the basic tenets of lead-user theory. It also uncovers some new refinements and related practical applications. Using a sample of users and user-innovators drawn from the extreme sport of kite surfing, an analysis was made of the relationship between the commercial attractiveness of innovations developed by users and the intensity of the lead-user characteristics those users display. A first empirical analysis is provided of the independent effects of its two key component variables. In the empirical study of user modifications to kite-surfing equipment, it was found that both components independently contribute to identifying commercially attractive user innovations. Component 1, the high expected-benefits dimension, predicts innovation likelihood, and component 2, the ahead of the trend dimension, predicts both the commercial attractiveness of a given set of user-developed innovations and innovation likelihood due to a newly proposed innovation supply side effect. It was concluded that the component variables in the lead-user definition are indeed independent dimensions, so neither can be dropped without loss of information-an important matter for lead-user theory. It also was found that adding measures of users' local resources can improve the ability of the lead-user construct to identify commercially attractive innovations under some conditions. The findings reported here have practical as well as theoretical import. Product modification and development has been found to be a relatively common user behavior in many fields. Thus, from 10 to nearly 40 percent of users report having modified or developed a product for in-house use in the case of industrial products or for personal use in the case of consumer products in fields sampled to date. As a practical matter, therefore, it is important to find ways to selectively identify the user innovations that manufacturers will find to be the basis for commercially attractive products in the collectivity of user-developed innovations. The implications of these findings for theory as well as for practical applications of the lead-user construct are discussed-that is, how variables used in lead-user studies can profitably be adapted to fit specific study contexts and purposes.

Frietsch R, Grupp H (2006) There's a new man in town: the paradigm shift in optical technology. Technovation 26:13-29 The contribution gives a short introduction into the enabling character of modern optical technology and tries to trace the paradigm shift from bulbs to opto-electronics and photonics in quantitative terms using science and technology indicators. As an example of the economic potential of the new optical technology, the impact on foreign trade is investigated and discussed. As it turns out, there seem to be different strategies of nations concerning adoption of modern optical technology. Most of the countries considered follow the strategy to start from the traditional strength in their homebase and differentiate from there to the prosperous new product lines. But also newcomers are observed which do not follow this traditional path. Overall, the contribution adds evidence to the notion that the evolution in changing areas of technology is nation-specific.

Funk JL (2006) The future of mobile phone-based Intranet applications: A view from Japan. Technovation 26:1337-1346 This paper looks at the future of mobile phone-based Intranet applications using data from the Japanese market and models of industry evolution. Owing to the faster and greater agreement on protocols for defining the way in which content and information is presented on phones and the faster introduction and promotion of push-based Internet mail and methods of accessing content via the input of a URL, Japanese firms have moved faster to introduce mobile phone-based mobile applications than the rest of the world. Based on analysis of published material in Japanese newspapers and magazines and interviews with more than 30 firms (users, suppliers, and service providers), this paper discusses the status and future of these applications; the latter focuses on both technological change and models of industry evolution.

Galanakis K (2006) Innovation process. Make sense using systems thinking. Technovation 26:1222-1232 Several theories have been developed and try to communicate to managers how innovation occurs in a firm and which factors affect the outcome of this process. These theories come from different perspectives that either focus on management, economic or social sciences and create a complex net. This complexity often makes managers take a decision, the outcome of which contradicts their original aims. The objectives of this paper are to communicate innovation theory to the different actors in the system under a common perspective and to reveal the complexity of innovation systems. The new concept has at its centre the firm, which is the generator and promoter of innovations in the market, the industrial sector and the nation. The model's main focus is the Knowledge Creation from public or industrial research; the New Product Design and Development process, and the Product Success in the market. This process is affected by other internal factors of the firm as well as by the National Innovation Environment. This innovation system has been codified, under a system dynamics approach, to create a model, the 'Creative Factory' that includes all the aspects that academia, a firm or the policy making bodies need to consider around innovation activity.

Galende J (2006) Analysis of technological innovation from business economics and management. Technovation 26:300-311 This paper identifies and analyses the main contributions to the analysis of firms' innovative activities of five approaches related to business economics and management: industrial organization, transaction costs economy, positive agency theory, resource-based view and evolutionary theory. Complementarity can be noted among these approaches. They can all be applied for analysing a specific aspect of innovative activity. However, the contributions of evolutionary theory seem to comprise the most comprehensive approach for studying the firm's innovative process from an internal point of view and dealing with its complex characteristics.

Gassmann O (2006) Opening up the innovation process: towards an agenda. R & D Management 36:223-228

Geels FW (2006) Co-evolutionary and multi-level dynamics in transitions: The transformation of aviation systems and the shift from propeller to turbojet (1930-1970). Technovation 26:999-1016 This article deals with system innovation in Freeman and Perez's innovation typology (incremental, radical, system, techno-economic paradigm). This article conceptualises these changes as transitions from one socio-technical system to another. These transitions are co-evolution processes that are not only about technological discontinuities, but also about markets, user practices, regulation, culture, infrastructure and science. In a critical discussion of co-evolution literatures, the article distinguishes three levels of co-evolutionary processes. To understand transitions, these insights are combined in a multi-level perspective, consisting of niche, regime and landscape levels. Transitions come about when co-evolutionary dynamics at these three levels link up and reinforce each other. The perspective is illustrated with a historical case study: the transition from aviation systems based on propeller-aircraft to aviation systems based on turbojet aircraft (1930-1970). The case study provides not just an evolutionary economic analysis of technological change, but also deals with the long-run evolution of technology and the socio-economic system.

Gimenez G (2006) Investment in new technology: Modelling the decision process. Technovation 26:345-350 This paper presents a model designed to throw light on the economic mechanisms determining the decision to acquire a new technology to replace an existing one. The investment decision is governed by a cost-benefit analysis, which is influenced by the factors analysed in the model described. These factors are

the lapse of time between the acquisition of the technology currently in use and the moment at which the new technology becomes available; the useful life of the new technology; the speed of the innovation process; interest rates; the acquisition cost of the new technology; and learning costs. A static comparative analysis is performed on the basis of these factors with the aim of recommending the most appropriate instruments for technology policy measures.

Githens G (2006) Managing agile projects. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:469-470

Githens G, Wojtas M (2006) The PDMA ToolBook 2 for new product development. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:191-193

Govindarajan V, Kopalle PK (2006) The usefulness of measuring disruptiveness of innovations ex post in making ex ante predictions. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:12-18

Greasley A (2006) Using process mapping and business process simulation to support a process-based approach to change in a public sector organisation. Technovation 26:95-103 A case study demonstrates the use of a process-based approach to change regarding the implementation of an information system for road traffic accident reporting in a UK police force. The supporting tools of process mapping and business process simulation are used in the change process and assist in communicating the current process design and people's roles in the overall performance of that design. The simulation model is also used to predict the performance of new designs incorporating the use of information technology. The approach is seen to have a number of advantages in the context of a public sector organisation. These include the ability for personnel to move from a traditional grouping of staff in occupational groups with relationships defined by reporting requirements to a view of their role in a process, which delivers a performance to a customer. By running the simulation through time it is also possible to gauge how changes at an operational level can lead to the meeting of strategic targets over time. Also the ability of simulation to proof new designs was seen as particularly important in a government agency were past failures of information technology investments had contributed to a more risk averse approach to their implementation.

Grimpe C (2006) Making use of the unused: shelf warmer technologies in research and development. Technovation 26:770-774 The fruits from research and development activities (R&D) do not always necessarily follow a company's technology strategy. Sometimes, sales blockbusters result from explicitly prohibited bootlegging activities which are supposed to consume about 20% of the overall research budget. Another group of R&D outcomes are those planned technologies which collect dust at the R&D unit because strategy has changed, business units do not see chances for applicability or because of risk considerations. Those 'shelf warmers' are possible 'goldmines' that are waiting for being exploited. An innovative organization structure is needed to deal with such kind of technologies. The article reports from an internal Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) unit at a large German industrial conglomerate that is dedicated to promoting innovative shelf warmer technologies. It is shown that successful innovations 'off the beaten track' require mote than simple startup financing but a solid organizational commitment to such 'irregular' projects.

Guerin S (2006) Why people buy things they don't need: Understanding and predicting consumer behavior. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:293-295

Gupta M, Kohli A (2006) Enterprise resource planning systems and its implications for operations function. Technovation 26:687-696 Over the last decade, our world has changed dramatically due to the growing phenomenon of globalization and revolution in information technology. There is tremendous demand on companies to lower costs, enlarge product assortment, improve product quality, and provide reliable delivery dates through effective and efficient coordination of production and distribution activities. To achieve these conflicting goals, companies must constantly re-engineer or change their business practices and employ information systems. In 1990s. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have emerged as an enabling technology, which integrates various functional (operations, marketing, finance) information systems into a seamless suite of business applications across the company and thereby, allowed for streamlined processing of business data and cross-functional integration. Thus, ERP systems provide an enticing solution to

managers who have struggles with incompatible information systems and inconsistent operations policies. However, successful implementation of ERP systems requires active participation from senior-level managers from various functional areas so as to delineate its impact on the business level as well as functional level strategies. In this paper, we have endeavored to provide operations managers a brief overview of ERP systems and highlight its implications for operations function. Specifically, the objective of this paper is to give a broad based overview of enterprise resource planning systems. Using SAP R/3 as an example system, we discuss how an ERP system can assist in enhancing strengthening business strategy and making consistent operations decisions: process design, production planning and scheduling, inventory management, quality management, human resource management.

Hanel P (2006) Intellectual property rights business management practices: A survey of the literature. Technovation 26:895-931 The survey focuses on the empirical literature regarding the use and management of intellectual property rights (IPRs). It overviews policy changes regarding intellectual property (IP) protection in the US that led, according to some commentators, to patent friendly era in the US. Then it looks at the IPRs use and strategies in the US, Canada, EU, Japan and Australia and at the protection of IP in specific industry groups. Also reviewed is the relationship between the use of IPRs and the size of firm and its ownership (national vs. multinational). Numerous articles show that management of knowledge assets in general and IPRs in particular are increasingly important. The value of firms in knowledge intensive activities is determined by the value of its IP. IP is used as a financial asset. Firms allocate more human resources to management of IPRs and their training, but there remain important international differences. The recent literature on the impact of IP on the value of the firm, its assessment, valuation, accounting and management of IP are reviewed. The last section of the paper deals with enforcement of IPRs, infringement and dispute resolution. A special attention is given to internet and computer infringement of IP and to insurance as a protection for legal costs.

Haour G (2006) Competitiveness in research and development: Comparisons and performance. R & D Management 36:465-465

Hart MA (2006) Design for six sigma as strategic experimentation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:470-472

Hart MA (2006) Service design for six sigma: A roadmap for excellence. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:470-472

Hart MA (2006) Axiomatic quality: Integrating axiomatic design with six-sigma, reliability, and quality engineering. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:470-472

Henderson JE (2006) Strategic management society book series: Strategy in transition. R & D Management 36:108-111

Henderson R (2006) The innovator's dilemma as a problem of organizational competence. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:5-11

Hienerth C (2006) The commercialization of user innovations: the development of the rodeo kayak industry. R & D Management 36:273-294 In this study, we analyze the commercialization process of user innovations in open communities. We have traced 16 cases of user innovators who have commercialized their own innovations or have been involved in the commercialization process to some extent. By developing and manufacturing new products, the user innovators in our sample created a fast-growing community. They used low-cost manufacturing techniques and were able to start a new industry before established manufacturers could enter the market. The transformation process from a user innovation community to a commercial and manufacturing community brought about a number of major changes. In this paper, we track those changes as: the motives for innovating, the community size and characteristics, the type of innovation, the type of assistance and the disclosure of information, the form of communication, and competition between innovating users.

Hitomi K (2006) An analysis of industrial networks for regional-independent production. Technovation 26:1077-1080 Industrial networks for regional-independent production are defined. An industrial network consisting of an agricultural system which produces strawberries, a manufacturing system which fabricates strawberry jam, and a commerce system which sells both strawberries and strawberry jam, is assumed and mathematical formulation is made on this industrial network. Optimization analysis is made to maximize total profits for this regional-independent production.

Hobo MS, Watanabe CH, Chen CJ (2006) Double spiral trajectory between retail, manufacturing and customers leads a way to service oriented manufacturing. Technovation 26:873-890 Notwithstanding Japan's ineffective utilization of the potential benefits of the advancement of IT, certain self-propagating interaction between ERP (enterprise resources planning) firms and their customers has been observed. Advanced utilization of ERP enables firms to construct a virtuous cycle between the affluence in the commodities in sales, productivity and profits leading to an active involvement of the consumers, thereby constructing a double spiral trajectory between ERP customers and their customers (consumers). These noteworthy trends can be observed in certain EEMRs (electric and electronic mega retail firms) which incorporate invaluable advantages as close not only to electric and electronic manufacturing industry but also to consumers. These firms have constructed a virtuous cycle between the affluence in the commodities in sales, productivity and profit which suggests a double spiral trajectory between EEMRs, manufactures and consumers. This double spiral trajectory prompts us a new concept of manufacturing industry as SOM (service oriented manufacturing) corresponding to a ubiquitous society. This paper, based on an empirical analysis taking Japan's leading EEMRs, attempts to demonstrate the foregoing hypothesis.

Hoecht A, Trott P (2006) Innovation risks of strategic outsourcing. Technovation 26:672-681 Outsourcing was originally confined to peripheral business functions and mainly motivated by a cost saving logic, but has now developed into a routine strategic management move that affects not only peripheral functions but the heart of the competitive core of organisations. At the same time there is a move from traditional outsourcing with one or a small number of key partners and long-term contracts to strategic outsourcing with multiple partners and short-term contracts. This paper investigates the innovation-related risks that can arise from strategic outsourcing and adopts a trust, collaboration and network perspective for this analysis. It uses the example of Information technology/Information Systems (ITAS) outsourcing to highlight the increased risks that arise from a move from traditional to strategic outsourcing and discusses some measures that managers can take to attempt to control these risks. The nature of the risk is closely related to the risk of information leakage that arises from collaborative research and technology development between organisations in technology-intensive sectors that has been analysed by Hoecht and Trott [Hoecht, A., Trott, P., 1999. Trust, risk and control in the management of collaborative technology development. International Journal of Innovation Management 3(l), 257-270].

Hoegl M, Parboteeah KP (2006) Team reflexivity in innovative projects. R & D Management 36:113-125 In this article, we provide a theoretical extension and empirical test of team reflexivity. Building on West's (1996) conceptual discussions of team reflexivity, we argue that in the context of teams with innovative projects (e.g. product development teams), team reflexivity will be positively related to team effectiveness and efficiency. Furthermore, we specify social skills and project management skills as important determinants of team reflexivity. Using data from 575 members, leaders, and team external managers referring to 145 software development teams, we find that team reflexivity is positively related to team effectiveness but not efficiency. Furthermore, both social skills and project management skills are positively related to team reflexivity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Hsieh MH, Tsai KH, Hultink EJ (2006) The relationships between resource configurations and launch strategies in Taiwan's IC design industry: An exploratory study. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:259-273 Within the last decade, the link between launch strategies and new product performance has been widely investigated. However, the relationship between resource configurations and launch strategies has received little attention. This study endeavors to fill that void by examining the relationships between resource configurations and launch strategy selections. In addition, this study investigates the moderating effects of market growth and competitiveness on the relationship between resources and launch strategies. Drawing on contingency theory and strategic studies, this study proposes that resource contingencies affect

changes in launch strategies. This study also suggests that market characteristics play a contingent role in the relationships between the configurations of resources and launch strategy choices. Based on extensive studies reporting on market characteristics and their links to strategies, this study proposes that two market characteristics-market growth and competitiveness-are relevant for launch strategy decision making. Taiwan's integrated circuit (IC) design industry has been used as the analytical sample, as it has been identified as a promising sector for new product development. Based on the result of investigating 90 firms, four resource configurations are identified: (1) strategic and organizational abilities; (2) technological capabilities; (3) societal assets and goodwill; and (4) physical assets. Furthermore, two different launch strategies-innovative and product advantage and cost oriented-also are discovered. The results from a seemingly unrelated regression model reveal that technological capabilities and societal assets and goodwill contribute to the variation in the firms' choices of launch strategies. This study further conducted the simple slope analysis to observe the effect of the technological capabilities on the innovative and product advantage strategy under different levels of the market growth rate. The results interestingly showed that firms with technological capabilities demonstrated different degree of tendencies in employing this strategy in alignment with various market growth rates. The finding sheds some lights on the moderating role market characteristics play on the relationships between resource configurations and launch strategy selections. Academic implications and suggestions for practitioners also are provided.

Hua SY, Wemmerlov U (2006) Product change intensity, product advantage, and market performance: An empirical investigation of the PC industry. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:316-329 Product change decisions, such as the frequency of new product introductions, can impact product performance characteristics, sales, and market share of several generations of products and, therefore, a firm's long-term survival and growth. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of a firm's product change frequency, also referred to as product change intensity. A conceptual model linking a firm's product change intensity to its product advantage-and, in turn, to its market performance-with strategic product change orientation and technology competence as moderating effects, was used as a foundation for the study's hypotheses. These were tested using hierarchical and linear regressions, based on survey data collected from 55 U.S. companies in the personal computer (PC) industry. The analysis confirmed that a PC firm's product rate of change is positively associated with its product advantage and that its product advantage, in turn, is positively associated with its market share and growth performance. However, the hypothesized moderating effects were not confirmed. Rather, a firm's product change orientation and its level of technology competence are more likely to have a direct impact on product advantage. The implications of these findings are that, in general, firms that release new products frequently will have them viewed more favorably by the market than products with lower change intensities. Also, firms with higher levels of competence in the product technology domain tend to create products with greater market attraction. Finally, more radical changes to PC product architectures may pay off better than relatively minor changes. These results may not apply to other industries due to the specific design of personal computers and the nature of this fast-paced market. Neither do the findings necessarily apply to all firms regardless of those firms' specific product and market strategies. More research is necessary to understand how a firm's adopted strategy, and the industry in which it operates, affect the relationships demonstrated in this study.

Hung SC, Chu YY (2006) Stimulating new industries from emerging technologies: challenges for the public sector. Technovation 26:104-110 Stimulating new industries from emerging technologies is central to successful high-tech based economic growth, employment, competition and sustainability in modem market economies. The Taiwanese experiences in developing new technology-based industries (e.g. integrated circuits, personal computers, notebooks, scanners, and TFF LCDs) illustrate some of the ways policy makers can shape the development of emerging technologies into new industries. These ways of actions are manifold, but at least policy attentions to three key mechanisms are critical. These mechanisms encourage partnership in the commercialization process, foster entrepreneurship and venture initiatives in the innovation system, and sustain commercialization and the creation of new firms. The study of Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan on biochips and nanotechnology further shows how the policy makers can build a statutory body to effectively address the functions of three mechanisms as a whole.

Hyvattinen H (2006) Interface standards and creating innovation markets - implications on SMEs in a technology programme. Technovation 26:262-273 Creating markets for innovations developed and fixed

interface standards are both exceptional features for technology programmes and especially interesting from the point of view of innovating SMEs. This article examines the influence of these features of a technology programme in the field of building automation on the innovation processes of participating SMEs. It also explores the use of a technology programme based on an open interface standard with market creation as a way of escaping from a locked-in market situation resulting from domination of systems based on closed interfaces. Market creating technology programmes seem to have a potential for significantly helping SMEs in the commercialization of the products developed. This could be enhanced by setting the timeframe of demand creating activities according to the needs of the commercialization processes. The results suggest that technology programmes based on an open standard have a potential to relieve lock-in situations in the markets to some extent. Judging from the experiences of the case companies, demand creating activities may have a significant role in this. The interoperability problems experienced suggest a need for systematic efforts to ensure the actual interoperability of components in technology programmes based on an interface standard.

Jolly DR (2006) Management of technology - Managing effectively in technology-intensive organizations. R & D Management 36:466-466

Jonker M, Romijn H, Szirmai A (2006) Technological effort, technological capabilities and economic performance - A case study of the paper manufacturing sector in West Java. Technovation 26:121-134 Although there is a substantial body of literature on the importance of technological capabilities for economic development, the exact relationships between technological efforts, technological capabilities and economic performance at micro-level still remain unclear. How do technological efforts affect technological capabilities? To what extent and how do improvements in technological capabilities result in better economic performance of firms? This paper aims to develop adequate quantitative measures of machine-level technological effort, technological capabilities and economic performance for the paper industry in West Java, Indonesia. It explores the empirical relationships between these micro-level variables, focusing both on the relationships between efforts and capabilities and between capabilities and economic performance, with a view to deepening our general understanding of the role of capabilities in successful and less successful processes of industrialisation.

Jordan G, Segelod E (2006) Software innovativeness: outcomes on project performance, knowledge enhancement, and external linkages. R & D Management 36:127-142 The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between product innovativeness and groups of outcomes flowing from the computer software product development process and the associated knowledge acquisition process. Data from interviews of managers in 94 software projects are analysed, and three groups of outcomes are measured: project performance, knowledge enhancement, and the strengthening of linkages to external actors/sources. The high innovative products show higher project performance for all measures of project performance compared with low innovative products. Similar results were found for all measures of personnel knowledge enhancement outcomes. Changes in the importance of linkages to nine different external sources of knowledge used by the firms during the knowledge acquisition process, also show some positive outcomes with respect to rising innovativeness levels. Strengthening of external linkages is found for 66% of the investigated linkages between one or two innovativeness levels. Of these, the linkages to hardware manufacturers, co-operation partners, and universities and other research institutions show strengthening when high innovativeness products are compared with low-level products. As the project performance and knowledge enhancement outcomes are due, in part, to knowledge gained within linkages to external actors/sources, managers could consider whether giving special attention to managing these linkages would be a winning innovation strategy for their particular firm.

Jung JY, Wang YH (2006) Relationship between total's quality management (TQM) and continuous improvement of international project management (CIIPM). Technovation 26:716-722 The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the total quality management (TQM) practice and the continuous improvement of international project management (CIIPM) practice. Based on a literature review and qualitative interviews with TQM and project management experts, four hypotheses are posed on how TQM elements affect CIIPM. A cross-sectional survey collected from over 100 mid to senior level international managers is used to validate these hypotheses. The study suggests that the relationship between

'soft' TQM elements and CIIPM is more significant than the relationship between 'hard' TQM elements and CIIPM.

Kafouros MI (2006) The impact of the Internet on R&D efficiency: theory and evidence. Technovation 26:827-835 Particularly for the manufacturing sector, the efficiency of the R&D-process defines to a great extent a firm's competitiveness. Although there are many studies which present practical examples of how firms utilize the Internet to support their everyday research activities, there is not much theory to explain how and why the Internet improves R&D efficiency. This paper attempts to fill this void by exploring the association between the Internet and R&D efficiency. Initially, in order to provide a better unit of analysis, it adopts a feature-based approach to the Internet. Then it offers a conceptual framework which by using theoretical explanations, past empirical research and examples from practice explains how and why two features of the Internet ('search' and 'communication') improve three critical dimensions of R&D efficiency (cost, time and quality) and a firm's absorptive capacity. Finally, by using the Cobb-Douglas framework, it provides econometric evidence which indicates that the Internet does improve R&D efficiency. Besides the contribution to scholarly knowledge, there are important implications in practice, since the findings of this paper inform decision and policy makers that the Internet has a significant impact on firms' innovative capacity.

Kahn KB, Barczak G, Moss R (2006) Perspective: Establishing an NPD best practices framework. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:106-116 Achieving NPD best practices is a top-of-mind issue for many new product development (NPD) managers and is often an overarching implicit, if not explicit, goal. The question is what does one mean when talking about NPD best practices? And how does a manager move toward achieving these? This article proposes a best practices framework as a starting point for much-needed discussion on this topic. Originally presented during the 2004 Product Development Management Association (PDMA) Research Conference in Chicago, the article and the authors' presentation spurred a significant, expansive discussion that included all conference attendees. Given the interest generated, the decision was made to move forward on a series of rejoinders on the topic of NPD best practice, using the Kahn, Barczak, and Moss framework as a focal launching point for these rejoinders. A total of five rejoinders were received and accompany the best practices framework in this issue of JPIM. Each rejoinder brings out a distinct issue because each of the five authors has a unique perspective. The first rejoinder is written by Dr. Marjorie Adams-Bigelow, director of the PDMA's Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS), PDMA Foundation. Based on her findings during the CPAS study, Adams comments on the proposed framework, suggesting limitations in scope. She particularly points out discrepancies between the proposed framework and the framework offered by PDMA's emerging body of knowledge. Dr. Elko Kleinschmidt, professor of marketing and international business at McMaster University, wrote the second rejoinder. Based on his extensive research with Robert G. Cooper on NPD practices, he points out that best practices really raise more questions than answers. Thomas Kuczmarski, president of Kuczmarski and Associates, is the author of the third rejoinder. Kuczmarski highlights that company mindset and metrics are critical elements needing keen attention. Where do these fit-or should they-in the proposed framework? The fourth rejoinder is written by Richard Notargiacomo, consultant for the integrated product delivery process at Eastman Kodak Company. Notargiacomo compares the proposed framework to a best practices framework Kodak has used for new product commercialization and management since 1998. The distinction of the Kodak framework is the inclusion of a product maturity model component. Dr. Lois Peters, associate professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), is the author of the fifth rejoinder. She brings out issues of radical innovation, a natural focal issue of RPI's radical innovation project (RRIP). It is highlighted that radical innovation may require unique, distinctive process characteristics a single framework cannot illustrate. Multiple layers of frameworks may be more appropriate, each corresponding to a level of innovation desired. The overall hope is that the discourse on best practices in this issue of JPIM generates more discussion and debate. Ultimately, the hope is that such discourse will lead to subsequent continued study to help discern what NPD best practice means for our discipline.

Kalafsky RV, MacPherson AD (2006) The post-1990 rebirth of the US machine tool industry: a temporary recovery? Technovation 26:665-671 After several decades of decline, the US machine tool (NIT) industry entered a modest period of recovery in the mid-1990s. With the slowdown of the global economy in the early 2000s, however, this recovery has stalled. By now, there are clear signs that rates of firm exit are

increasing. This paper compares the results of a survey of MT producers (conducted in 2000) with more recent industry data (2004). Four years after the optimistic findings of the 2000 survey were reported, we find that many of the small-to-medium sized producers have either ceased operations or have downscaled substantially. While virtually every US manufacturer of MT products has been negatively affected by the global economic downswing, adverse business conditions have had a disproportionately severe impact upon firms that cater primarily to local markets. MT manufacturers located within the nation's traditional industrial heartland have been the hardest hit, notably as a result of rising import competition. In contrast to locally-oriented producers, our findings suggest that a small number of innovative MT companies have been faring quite well as a result of continued export development. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of several futures for the domestic MT sector.

Kaplan AM, Haenlein M (2006) Toward a parsimonious definition of traditional and electronic mass customization. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:168-182 Although mass customization, a term introduced by Davis (1987) to describe the oxymoron of mass producing customized products, has been part of research for more than a decade, literature has not come up with a commonly accepted definition of this term up to now. The present article attempts to close this gap by proposing a definition of traditional and electronic mass customization, which is based on answering three research questions. First, for which kind of customized goods (products versus services) is mass customization applicable at all? Second, at which step of the value creation process must the customer be given the chance to customize his or her good to be able to speak of mass customization? And finally, which prerequisites in terms of production cost and monetary price need to be fulfilled when comparing mass-customized with mass-produced goods? Using an extensive analysis of extant literature in the field, the authors develop two definitions of traditional mass customization, a working and a visionary one, as well as one for electronic mass customization, stating how new opportunities arising from advances in communication and information technology can influence this concept.

Karniouchina EV, Victorino L, Verma R (2006) Product and service innovation: Ideas for future cross-disciplinary research. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:274-280

Khilji SE, Mroczkowski T, Bernstein B (2006) From invention to innovation: Toward developing an integrated innovation model for biotech firms. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:528-540 A review of extant literature reveals various theories on innovation, including technology push, market pull, and an organizational approach. All of these theories have been criticized for their lack of integration and inapplicability to today's competitive environment. An integrated view of innovation has emerged that synthesizes the variables in previous approaches. However, the application of this view has been restricted to investigating the innovation processes within the computer and manufacturing industries, whereas the biotechnology industry has been ignored. This is despite biotech managers' well-acknowledged thirst for innovation and the ability of biotech to shape the way we live. The present article contributes to the literature by applying an integrated approach to the biotech industry, thereby extending understanding of innovation management beyond the traditional field of inquiry. An integrated approach is of particular relevance to biotech companies, given the complexities of managing the industry's long development cycle and intense collaborative activities. In-depth interviews with eight organizations in Maryland formed the basis for an investigation into the challenges of managing the innovation process in biotechnology firms. The findings revealed that biotech entrepreneurs are ill prepared to lead their organizations through several transformations necessary along the product life cycle because of their fixation on a technology-push approach and lack of an understanding of integrated innovation. These leaders also lack the commercialization knowledge necessary to push products to markets, resulting in avoidable delays and loss of productivity. The existing research has dispelled myths associated with biotech. Specifically, it suggests biotech entrepreneurs cannot rely solely on inventions but must invest in a timely application of knowledge to organizational and market forces to take full advantage of the innovation potential associated with the industry. This article presents a conceptual framework for applying the integrated innovation model to biotech firms and makes the case for incorporating market-oriented mechanisms, building and using appropriate organizational capabilities, developing effective collaborations, and creating parallel interactions as major elements in a general strategy toward the success and improved efficiency of biotech companies.

The limitations of current research are discussed, and avenues are highlighted for much-needed future research into the biotech industry.

Kingston G (2006) Innovation that fits. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:586-588

Kingston G (2006) Getting it right the first time: How innovative companies anticipate demand. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:292-293

Klein R (2006) Software-produkt-management. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:195-197

Klein R (2006) The business of software. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:195-197

Kling R (2006) In search of efficiency - concurrent concept elaboration and improvement. Technovation 26:753-760 In an aim to increase competitiveness, efficiency is coming more and more into focus in product development. In this article, the author studies the view of efficiency in software development groups, and identifies a strong ubiquitous yet implicit strive for efficiency improvements. 'Efficiency' appears a somewhat elusive, omnipresent concept, which is not explicitly talked about, but is often implicitly alluded to. How can software developers become more efficient if they do not know what this means? The author proposes a change strategy that concurrently furthers the local understanding and meaning of efficiency and improves actual efficiency, through a collaborative, participative change program. Conceptions of efficiency are claimed to moderate efficiency as well as learning processes. Four different conceptions of efficiency are identified.

Klink RR, Athaide GA (2006) An illustration of potential sources of concept-test error. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:359-370 A critical step in prelaunch market analysis needing improvement is concept testing. This article reviews the literature on the three basic design decisions inherent to concept testing: (1) stimuli design; (2) respondent selection; and (3) response measurement. By incorporating findings from diffusion theory, the current review identifies a number of potential sources of concept-test error (e.g., failing to account for adoption orientation could unintentionally mask the response of earlier adopters). Through an exploratory study that replicates in many ways a typical concept test, the present study illustrates how results of conventional concept testing can be sensitive to respondents' adoption orientation and the response measure used. This study offers implications for NPD practice that include accounting for the adoption orientation of respondents, using appropriate response measures such as affective questions for later adopters, and incorporating more product-related information and repeat exposure for later adopters.

Kobe C (2006) Democratizing innovation. R & D Management 36:365-366

Kodama M (2006) Knowledge-based view of corporate strategy. Technovation 26:1390-1406 This paper discusses a framework of the strategy-making process for executing and continuing both the building of a new, ongoing market position and the acquisition of new capabilities so that a corporation could achieve innovation in the future. This paper describes the case of high-tech corporations in the field of Information and Communication Technology which is undergoing intense change in Japan. This paper also would like to present a new viewpoint on knowledge-based theory of the firm based on data obtained from qualitative research into the time series strategy-making process over the past I I years. These corporations successfully introduced new products and services to the market through a spiraling knowledge integrating approach through networked knowledge communities as a dynamic view of strategy aimed at deliberately and continually creating new markets.

Koh WTH (2006) Singapore's transition to innovation-based economic growth: infrastructure, institutions and government's role. R & D Management 36:143-160 Technological progress and innovation plays a central role in a country's economic progress. As an economy advances to the global technological frontier and narrows the technological gap, an innovation-based growth strategy that focuses on investments in R&D and technology creation offers the greatest potential for economic growth. In this paper, we discuss the requirements for a successful transition, in terms of changes to the technology infrastructure, economic

institutions and the incentives' structure. This paper outlines the efforts made by Singapore to re-make itself as an innovation-based economy, and the challenges faced by the government in transforming the nation's infrastructure and institutions to develop innovation capabilities and encourage entrepreneurship.

Kohn S, Husig S (2006) Potential benefits, current supply, utilization and barriers to adoption: An exploratory study on German SMEs and innovation software. Technovation 26:988-998 This paper deals with the employment of software in the innovation process in small and medium-sized enterprises. Based on an explorative market study of existing software tools developed to specifically support activities and methods in the innovation process, we found out that a large variety of these software products was available. Hence, our further research addresses the question of how far these products are specifically used in practice in German SMEs. The core outcome of our explorative investigation is the finding that software products are rarely used to support the innovation process in German SMEs. We identified some of the barriers to SME adoption of innovation software in Germany. Based on these findings, initial explanations and implications can be provided for suppliers of innovation software and for SMEs.

Kratzer J, Leenders R, Van Engelen JML (2006) Managing creative team performance in virtual environments: an empirical study in 44 R&D teams. Technovation 26:42-49 Creative performance in R&D is of vital importance to organizations. Because R&D usually is organized in teams, the management of creative performance inherently refers to the team level creative performance. Over the last decades, R&D teams have become increasingly virtual. In this article we argued that the level of a team's 'virtuality' can be described by three factors: the proximity of team members, the communication modes used, and the manner in which the team task is coordinated. An exploratory empirical study in 44 R&D teams reveals that the creative performance is affected by each of these factors. The results of the study indicate that the more variable R&D teams are in the manner in which they employ these three factors, the higher is their creative performance. Virtuality of R&D teams is neither generally positive or negative for their creative performance: the creative outcome is a function of how virtuality in these teams is managed.

Kuesten CL (2006) Made in China: What western managers can learn from trailblazing Chinese entrepreneurs. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:591-594

Kuesten CL (2006) New food product development: From concept to marketplace. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:197-199

Kumar S (2006) A comparative analysis of key information technology players. Technovation 26:836-846 The study examines global operations of software development companies from US and India which over the years have become key information technology (IT) players in software outsourcing in the world. The analysis indicates common business strategy of Indian software companies is not to compete head on with US counterparts and instead focus on acquiring niche, outsourcing markets that are still open and growing rapidly due to worldwide slowdown in IT spending budgets. A comparative analysis provides further insight on these companies' operational and financial competitive strengths and weaknesses in the marketplace. The impact of these companies on the global IT industry is also explored.

Kumar S, Budin EM (2006) Prevention and management of product recalls in the processed food industry: a case study based on an exporter's perspective. Technovation 26:739-750 During 1999-2003, the US Food and Drug Administration reported a total of 1307 processed food product recalls, most of which were avoidable. There are many areas of the processed food supply chain where significant exposure to risk exists. Additionally, there are systems that can be used in-house at manufacturing facilities, such as hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) and radio frequency identification (RFID) that can be very beneficial in recall avoidance. Effective employee training is another key point for consideration. In the event of a recall, a company must be prepared in advance with a detailed crisis management procedure. Companies should consider recall insurance, depending on their size and market dominance. Public relations strategies are critical in surviving a recall. Care must be taken to connect to the consumer and communicate a strong message. Findings from analysis suggest potential reduction of product recalls through recommended preventive measures including the use of HACCP and RFID systems.

Kumar S, Kropp J (2006) Studying the operational efficiencies of a multi-product supply chain using excel spreadsheet model. Technovation 26:1186-1200 This paper presents a simple Excel spreadsheets-based model with @Risk add-in software that incorporates the effects of variability in demand, forecast and lead time. The model replicates a four-stage supply chain with multiple-retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, and suppliers to demonstrate how a multi-product supply chain will react to certain changes. The model was created so that it could be used in either a teaching setting or in industry for making supply chain design decisions. From the teaching aspect, students can look at a supply chain and see the effects of changes without having to experience it firsthand. Professionals in industry can modify the model to make it more like their own supply chain and see what the affects are when they want to make changes in one or more attributes. Other key characteristics of a supply chain such as, bullwhip effect, total supply chain cost analysis and information sharing can also be studied using this model.

Kumar S, Malegeant P (2006) Strategic alliance in a closed-loop supply chain, a case of manufacturer and eco-non-profit organization. Technovation 26:1127-1135 Increasing attention is being given now a days to developing environmental management (EM) strategies for the supply chain. This research: (1) investigates the factors leading to the development of a closed-loop supply chain, (2) describes the closed-loop supply chain design, (3) focuses on the collection challenges companies have been facing. More specifically, this paper tends to (4) show that manufacturers can create value by implementing a partnership with an eco-non-profit community organization in the collection process of used products for the closed-loop supply chain. This study focuses on the reuse-a-shoe program of Nike and the creation of Throwplace.com to point out the benefits of strategic alliances between manufacturers and eco-non-profit organizations.

Kuo YF, Yu CW (2006) 3G telecommunication operators' challenges and roles: A perspective of mobile commerce value chain. Technovation 26:1347-1356 In recent years, in the wake of the bottleneck facing the e-commerce development, mobile commerce is another type of service many expect to utilize and develop. In the past, influenced by the bandwidth limitation, the promotion of mobile commerce was not successful. Now, the 3G technology has broken through the limitation, allowing a higher transmission rate and more complex e-commerce interactions. The mobile commerce value chain is then formed. On this value chain, 3G telecommunication operators are the most crucial members. Moreover, mobile commerce value chain is essentially the aggregation of the conventional mobile communication value chain and Internet value chain. The business models and value chains of the conventional mobile communication and the Internet may not completely apply. Thus, a further investigation into the roles that 3G telecommunication operators play on the mobile commerce value chain is indeed necessary. As a result, based on the value chain, this study attempts to investigate the present and future challenges for 3G telecommunication operators and their advantages, to outline the roles they may play in the future development of mobile commerce.

Kwak YH, Anbari FT (2006) Benefits, obstacles, and future of six sigma approach. Technovation 26:708-715 Understanding the key features, obstacles, and shortcomings of the six sigma method allows organizations to better support their strategic directions, and increasing needs for coaching, mentoring, and training. It also provides opportunities to better implement six sigma projects. This paper examines the evolution, benefits, and challenges of six sigma practices and identifies the key factors influencing successful six sigma project implementations. It integrates the lessons learned from successful six sigma projects and considers further improvements to the six sigma approach. Effective six sigma principles and practices will succeed by refining the organizational culture continuously. Cultural chances require time and commitment before they are strongly implanted into the organization.

Lakemond N, Berggren C (2006) Co-locating NPD? The need for combining project focus and organizational integration. Technovation 26:807-819 Most studies of new product development practices focus on comparisons of individual projects, to identify factors contributing to their success or failure. This paper builds on an in-depth field study of the interaction of one single NPD project with the organizational context of the firm. The project typified many recommended practices for new-design projects: a co-located, cross-functional project team, close collaboration with external system suppliers, a hard-driving project manager and strong top management support. However, when evaluated in their organizational context as to

their consequences for other on-going projects, these attributes turned out to have a deeply ambivalent character. By combining results from the case study and evidence from the literature several implications for NPD-organizing are suggested: the value of alternating co-location and physical separation according to the requirements of specific project phases; to take project duration into account in location decisions; and to address both interaction within the project and mechanisms for its interaction and integration with other departments and projects.

Lakemond N, Berggren C, van Weele A (2006) Coordinating supplier involvement in product development projects: a differentiated coordination typology. R & D Management 36:55-66 Supplier involvement in product development has been a widely discussed theme in recent years. Sometimes, one 'best method' for involvement, derived from studies of one particular industrial context, has been suggested. In this article, however, various forms for coordinating such involvement are distinguished, based on a study of six different product development projects. Three main approaches are formulated and discussed: project integration coordination, disconnected sub-project coordination, and ad hoc coordination. Based on the empirical study and the literature, the drivers of different types of supplier coordination are discussed. Several managerial implications are suggested related to the need to differentiate inter-organizational coordination, not only from project to project but also throughout a project. The importance of taking into account short-term, project-based drivers as well as long-term strategic objectives of supplier coordination is also discussed.

Langerak F, Hultink EJ (2006) The impact of product innovativeness on the link between development speed and new product profitability. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:203-214 A review of the literature reveals that the relationship between development speed and new product profitability is not as strong and straightforward as conventional wisdom suggests. A number of studies show positive results, others show mixed results, and some present no evidence of a relationship. In other words, the valence of the link between development speed and new product profitability is unclear at this time. Therefore, this study investigates whether or not speeding new products to market has positive or negative effects on new product profitability. Prior research shows that product innovativeness influences both development speed and new product profitability. This raises the question of whether increasing speed is equally successful in improving profitability across new products that differ in their degree of innovativeness. Therefore, this study also investigates the moderating effect of product innovativeness on the relationship between development speed and new product profitability. The results from a survey-based study of 233 manufacturers of industrial products in the Netherlands reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between development speed and new product profitability. The findings also show that the optimal point is different for two new product types-product improvements and line additions-that vary in their innovativeness. These results provide an onset for the development of a decision tool that helps managers to determine how much to spend on accelerating the development of individual new products and how they should allocate that spending across products in their new product portfolio.

Lawson CP, Longhurst PJ, Ivey PC (2006) The application of a new research and development project selection model in SMEs. Technovation 26:242-250 The work reported in this paper investigates Research and Development (R&D) project selection models, focusing on the application of a new hybrid project selection model in a UK based engineering Small to Medium-sized Enterprise (SME). Work is done to enable the new project selection model to be applied in an SME and the model is then field tested. Field test results provide insight into the barriers to the adoption of such a model in an SME, either as a decision support tool or as a knowledge acquisition and learning tool. Insights are gained into the suitability and limits that exist within SMEs for the use of such decision support models. As an outcome of the field test results a simple R&D project portfolio cash-flow tracking method is proposed.

Lee JD, Park C (2006) Research and development linkages in a national innovation system: Factors affecting success and failure in Korea. Technovation 26:1045-1054 Various partnerships are regarded as a key component of national innovation systems (NISs). This study explores the contributions R&D partnership to successful innovation in the Korean intermediate sector in the context of a NIS. A sample of successful and innovation projects is drawn from firms in the Korean electronic parts and mechanical industries. These industries are typical of Korean intermediate goods industry, which has experienced rapid

technological advances in recent years. We divide the data to two main criteria-type of innovation (product versus process innovation) and source of innovation (demand-pull versus push innovation)-and base the empirical analysis on the four resulting domains. Main findings are that (1) financial support government in the early stage of R&D and from downstream firms in general improves innovative activities' chance of success and collaborative R&D, especially collaboration with downstream firms and universities, likewise improves the chance of success.

Leiponen A (2006) Managing knowledge for innovation: The case of business-to-business services. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:238-258 The present study builds a typology of organizational knowledge in business services and empirically examines the effects of knowledge on innovation performance. It is suggested that firms differ with respect to their knowledge creation approaches and that these approaches have implications for firms' innovation activities. A conceptual framework of knowledge assets with degrees of tacitness and collectiveness as the principal axes is used to ground the empirical analysis. The organizational knowledge framework is empirically operationalized using survey data from 167 business service firms and supplementary case study evidence from 16 other firms. It is found that business service improvements and new service introductions are significantly associated with collectively held knowledge, such as codified service solutions or team-based competences and procedures. In contrast, relying solely on tacit knowledge held by individuals may hamper innovation. The results also suggest that tacit collective knowledge is more closely associated with new service introductions, whereas explicit collective knowledge is associated with service improvements. Tacit collective knowledge is thus conducive. A managerial implication is that new service introductions necessitate team competences and routines, whereas incremental service improvements are more likely if procedures are in place to codify services into explicit solutions or technologies. Thus, the knowledge management approach should depend on the strategic orientation of the service firm toward continuous improvement of existing services or development of completely new services.

Lettl C, Herstatt C, Gemuenden HG (2006) Users' contributions to radical innovation: evidence from four cases in the field of medical equipment technology. R & D Management 36:251-272 This paper focuses on contributions of users in early phases of radical innovation projects. In a multiple case study analysis in the field of medical equipment technology, we identify characteristics of users who contribute substantially to the development of radical innovations by being their inventors and (co)-developers. These innovative users have high motivation to seek new solutions, possess a diverse set of competencies, and are embedded in a supportive environment. We furthermore observe that they play an entrepreneurial role as they establish and organize the required innovation networks. These innovation networks are needed to transform the users' radically new concepts into first physical prototypes and marketable products. The study highlights how manufacturing firms can benefit from innovative and entrepreneurial users in the early phases of radical innovation projects.

Lichtenthaler U, Ernst H (2006) Attitudes to externally organising knowledge management tasks: a review, reconsideration and extension of the NIH syndrome. R & D Management 36:367-386 Companies may carry out all major knowledge management tasks, i.e. knowledge acquisition, accumulation and exploitation, internally and externally. Therefore, we propose the integrate-or-relate decision in knowledge accumulation as a complement to the well-known make-or-buy and keep-or-sell decisions in knowledge acquisition and exploitation. A key factor for taking adequate decisions, for building up organisational capabilities and for realising a firm's knowledge potential are unbiased attitudes to the knowledge management tasks. While past research has focused on the 'not-invented-here' (NIH) syndrome as a negative attitude to acquiring external knowledge, a more holistic view is adopted in the present article by extending prior research on two dimensions. Firstly, we consider all major knowledge management tasks and do not limit our analysis to knowledge acquisition. Secondly, we take into account that, apart from overly negative attitudes, excessively positive attitudes may exist. Accordingly, we identify the following six syndromes: 'NIH' vs. 'buy-in' in knowledge acquisition, 'all-stored-here' vs. 'relate-out' in knowledge accumulation and 'only-used-here' vs. 'sell-out' in knowledge exploitation. After briefly reviewing research into NIH and developing a knowledge management framework, the syndromes are defined, and possible antecedents, consequences and managerial actions are described.

Lim LPL, Garnsey E, Gregory M (2006) Product and process innovation in biopharmaceuticals: a new perspective on development. R & D Management 36:27-36 Developing new products and processes is increasingly a focal point of competition and often requires the development and successful implementation of novel process technologies. The process development and production of a new biological entity are significantly more complex than those for small molecule drugs. Conventional new product development models in the literature on firm level innovation fail to explain the nature of development projects for biopharmaceuticals. This paper makes the case that a new perspective is required to understand the management of product and process development in biopharmaceuticals. An explanatory model is proposed for this purpose.

Lin CH, Tung CM, Huang CT (2006) Elucidating the industrial cluster effect from a system dynamics perspective. Technovation 26:473-482 This study applies the system dynamics (SD) methodology to explore factors affecting the industrial cluster effect, which is crucial in determining national and industrial competitive advantage. A literature review finds few studies that utilize SD to investigate factors affecting the industrial cluster effect. In a global business environment, competition is not just between individual companies and supply chains, but also among companies in regional clusters. The concept of SD, devised by Jay W. Forrester et al, helps mankind realize the variation of a complicated system, and perceive how an internal feedback loop within a system impacts whole system's behavior. This study establishes a dynamic model of various factors of industrial cluster effect through the causal loop diagram also known as the cause-and-effect chain. This study considers four important interactive dimensions of industrial competitiveness: manpower, technology, money, and market flows. This study also constructs a comprehensive causal loop diagram of the industrial cluster effect. All factors in the cause-and-effect chains influence positively the industrial cluster effect. The SD approach is adopted to analyze the complicated relationship of factors affecting industrial cluster effect. The SD approach is more effective than other methodologies.

Linford R (2006) The good supervisor: Supervising postgraduate and undergraduate research for doctoral theses and dissertations. R & D Management 36:220-221

Linton J (2006) Ranking of technology and innovation management journals. Technovation 26:285-287

Linton J (2006) Introductory words on the near and not so near future of Technovation. Technovation 26:2-2

Linton JD (2006) Entrepreneurship today. Technovation 26:139-141

Linton JD (2006) How to get research published in journals. R & D Management 36:219-220

lo Storto C (2006) A method based on patent analysis for the investigation of technological innovation strategies: The European medical prostheses industry. Technovation 26:932-942 In this article, a methodology based on the analysis of granted patents useful to investigate strategies of technological innovation implemented by innovative firms is presented. This methodology adopts a conceptualization which considers technological innovation as an outcome of a change of either the technological components or a diverse combination of the components themselves. The methodology is applied to analyze the characters of the-strategies of technological innovation pursued by 12 European firms in the human prosthesis industry. Undoubtly, the complexity of this industry offers interesting hints to study the implementation of technology strategies adopting the search concept. Furthermore, there is a lack of empirical studies that considered this industry. Even though the methodology and the study presented have still an explorative nature, the results of the empirical analysis suggest several reasons to carry on a further investigation for a deeper comprehension of the innovation process in high-tech industries.

Luiten E, van Lente H, Blok K (2006) Slow technologies and government intervention: Energy efficiency in industrial process technologies. Technovation 26:1029-1044 Many government interventions seek to increase the efficiency of industrial processes and to stimulate innovation. In this article we present and analyse four case studies of innovations in energy-efficient industrial process technologies: two in the paper and pulp industry and two in the iron and steel industry. We study the various networks around these

technologies and investigate how they are affected by government intervention. An important relationship (an inverted U) is found between the momentum of the networks and the effectiveness of government R&D support for energy-efficient process technologies. It is concluded that R&D support can only be effective when it takes account of the characteristics of so-called slow technologies'.

Luthje C, Prugl R (2006) Preparing business students for co-operation in multi-disciplinary new venture teams: empirical insights from a business-planning course. Technovation 26:211-219 Interdisciplinary co-operation among people trained in technical and economic fields has been identified as an important success factor in new venture teams. However, empirical findings also indicate that individuals often refuse to engage in close and trustful relationships with representatives of other disciplines. Thus, the question arises whether education programs on interdisciplinary co-operation may be suitable to prepare students for future activities in multi-functional business start-up teams. In this study, we investigate the psychological effects of an interdisciplinary business-planning course held at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration with the intention of promoting co-operation between technology-oriented professionals and business management students. The findings show that this course experience changes the students' attitudinal beliefs with respect to representatives of the technical discipline by reducing stereotypical assumptions. At the same time, the course fosters awareness of the challenges involved in cross-disciplinary co-operation. The more students communicate with their technical counterparts and the more they familiarize themselves with the technical aspects of the project, the stronger these effects become.

MacGregor S (2006) Multinational enterprises, innovative strategies and systems of innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:297-298

MacGregor SP (2006) Strategic technology management: Building bridges between sciences, engineering and business management. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:102-104

MacGregor SP (2006) Strategic management of technological innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:102-104

Maclean A (2006) The crisis of innovation in water and wastewater. R & D Management 36:217-219

Markides C (2006) Disruptive innovation: In need of better theory. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:19-25

Marques JPC, Caraca JMG, Diz H (2006) How can university-industry-government interactions change the innovation scenario in Portugal? - The case of the University of Coimbra. Technovation 26:534-542 This article describes and discusses the results of a case study illustrating the interaction between university-industry-government, with specific reference to the University of Coimbra, Portugal. This example is examined in the context of a knowledge-based economy. The main aim is to incorporate the knowledge already acquired, in an effort to show how a triple helix model explains, clearly and usefully, how the part played by the University of Coimbra has been effective in promoting a regional dynamic of innovation and entrepreneurship. Analysis of this case confirms the relevance of a triple helix model in understanding reality in a straightforward and practical manner. It was noted that the interaction and alliances established tended to form a mesh of emerging communications, networks and organizations, which in our case are expressed in the creation of tri-lateral networks and hybrid organizations. Finally, the crucial role of the University is highlighted, as the promoter and driving force for the multiplicity of networks and relations established.

Marsh SJ, Stock GN (2006) Creating dynamic capability: The role of intertemporal integration, knowledge retention, and interpretation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:422-436 Uncertainty about the ability for technological knowledge to be transformed to meet market demands, lack of complementary technologies, the lack of developed markets for a given technical feature, and other types of uncertainty add significant challenges to organizations as they develop products for future markets. In spite of these significant challenges, some organizations develop a dynamic capability in new product development that becomes a powerful source of competitive advantage and a source of renewal, growth, and adaptation as the

environment changes. Many approaches to new product development (e.g., cross-functional development teams, quality function deployment, early supplier involvement, heavyweight product development teams) address the need to integrate knowledge more rapidly and effectively within projects. These approaches do not address, however, how knowledge is integrated over time or how integration of knowledge from previous new product development efforts influences the firm's new product development performance. This study focuses on providing a greater understanding of the integrative practices that contribute to this capability in new product development. Based on insights from the innovation and learning literatures, this study proposes relationships about the influence of knowledge retention and interpretation activities on the organization's ability to integrate knowledge developed in prior new product development projects and on new product development performance. Data collected from a sample of new product development professionals are employed to test the proposed relationships among knowledge retention, knowledge interpretation, integration of prior knowledge, and new product development performance. The findings suggest that knowledge retention and interpretation activities positively impact a firm's new product development performance. In particular, practices that enable the retention and interpretation of knowledge improve new product development performance indirectly through the firm's enhanced ability to apply knowledge developed in prior product development projects to subsequent projects. Practices that enable the interpretation of knowledge in the firm's current strategic context also improve new product development performance directly. These findings lead to important implications for managing new product development.

Martensson A, Valiente P (2006) Understanding migration strategies by decoupling application roles and technology generations. Technovation 26:351-358 Companies invest large amounts of money in new technologies. Not surprisingly, much of the research carried out in relation to IT-investments has focused on the adoption of new technology and the related implementation barriers such as knowledge barriers and psychosocial factors. However, the process of abandoning old technologies has not been so much in focus. In this paper, the analysis focuses on renewal investments where subsequent technology generations fulfil a similar application role. Taxi Stockholm is used to illustrate this long-term process where slowly evolving requirements on the dispatch function over time forces technology changes. A CCT-model is presented using Customers, Companies and Technology as factors to support the understanding of technology shifts. This model is used to express the relation between the application role and technology generations. The importance of considering not only a complete life cycle of a specific technology, but also multiple such technologies providing a long-term perspective is stressed. As the use of IT matures in companies, adopting new technologies increasingly means abandoning old technologies. By combining a business perspective (through the application role), a technology generation perspective and a technology switching perspective and finally adding the time component, an analytical expression is presented.

McCarthy IP, Tsinopoulos C, Allen P, Rose-Anderssen C (2006) New product development as a complex adaptive system of decisions. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:437-456 Early research on new product development (NPD) has produced descriptive frameworks and models that view the process as a linear system with sequential and discrete stages. More recently, recursive and chaotic frameworks of NPD have been developed, both of which acknowledge that NPD progresses through a series of stages, but with overlaps, feedback loops, and resulting behaviors that resist reductionism and linear analysis. This article extends the linear, recursive, and chaotic frameworks by viewing NPD as a complex adaptive system (CAS) governed by three levels of decision making-in-stage, review, and strategic-and the accompanying decision rules. The research develops and presents propositions that predict how the configuration and organization of NPD decision-making agents will influence the potential for three mutually dependent CAS phenomena: nonlinearity, self-organization, and emergence. Together these phenomena underpin the potential for NPD process adaptability and congruence. To support and to verify the propositions, this study uses comparative case studies, which show that NPD process adaptability occurs and that it is dependent on the number and variety of agents, their corresponding connections and interactions, and the ordering or disordering effect of the decision levels and rules. Thus, the CAS framework developed within this article maintains a fit among descriptive stance, system behavior, and innovation type, as it considers individual NPD processes to be capable of switching or toggling between different behaviors-linear to chaotic-to produce corresponding innovation outputs that range from incremental to radical in accord with market expectations.

Merino MTG, Do Carmo MLP, Alvarez MVS (2006) 25 Years of Technovation: Characterisation and evolution of the Journal. Technovation 26:1303-1316 The International Journal of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology Management (Technovation) celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and it does so holding a prominent position within the field of technological innovation management, although not in entrepreneurship, and as part of the Science Edition of the Journal Citation Reports drawn up by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Our goal in this paper is to characterise the journal, analysing how its development has helped it to reach such a position. The sources of information we have used are: the journal itself, the ISI and the Emerald Group Publishing Limited. The information drawn from Emerald has enabled us to characterise the review, its orientation, style, originality and readability. With the information from the journal itself as well as the ISI, we have tried to show how the journal has evolved, not only globally but also in certain specific questions (thematic profile, impact publications and authorship of papers). Finally, we comment on the results and draw certain conclusions in addition to opportunities for the journal.

Mikkola JH (2006) Capturing the degree of modularity embedded in product architectures. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:128-146 This article focuses on integrating various perspectives on product architecture modularity into a general framework and proposes a way to measure the degree of modularization embedded in product architectures. The article addresses trade-offs between modular and integral product architectures and how components and interfaces influence the degree of modularization. The article identifies the following key elements of product architecture modularity: components (standard and new-to-the-firm), interfaces (standardization and specification), degree of coupling, and substitutability. A mathematical model, termed the modularization function, is applied to measure the key elements and their combined effect on the degree of modularization embedded in product architectures. The application of the modularization function is illustrated by two distinct sets of product architectures: Chrysler Jeep's windshield wipers controllers and Schindler's hydraulic and traction-pull transmission elevators. The analysis of the Chrysler case shows that the silent-relay architecture produces more opportunities for modularization than the solid-state architecture due to the higher substitutability factor and lower new-to-the-firm component composition. The Schindler case captures the dynamics of modularity created by three types of components (standard, customizable, and new to the firm) and two types of interfaces (fundamental and optional). Based on the case studies, the article outlines testable propositions and discusses the managerial and theoretical implications for the modularization function.

Miller JC (2006) Breakthrough: Stories and strategies of radical innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:100-102

Miller JC (2006) Juice: The creative fuel that drives world-class inventors. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:100-102

Millson MR, Wilemon D (2006) Driving new product success in the electrical equipment manufacturing industry. Technovation 26:1268-1286 This study of the Electrical Equipment Manufacturing Industry investigates three major hypotheses important to new product market success which are: The greater the degree of organizational integration during the development of new products, the greater the market success; the greater the degree of organizational integration during the development of new products, the greater new product development proficiency; and the greater new product development proficiency, the greater the market success. The most and least successful new products of US firms in the electrical equipment manufacturing industry were employed in this research. Our definition of "Organizational Integration" is the degree of cooperation and communication between internal and external new product development (NPD) "support" groups and NPD teams. "NPD Process Proficiency" is defined as how well NPD activities, stages, and the NPD process as a whole are performed. "New product market success" is depicted by four measures that encompass profit expectations, sales potential, success entering new markets, and entering existing markets with new products successfully. Our study is based on data obtained from survey instruments mailed to recipients such as New Product Development Managers who had already been designated by executives of our sample organizations. Our research reveals a number of interesting findings. Overall organizational integration between NPD teams and all other groups associated with an NPD effort was found to have a significant association with new product success. Moreover, it was determined that

organizational integration has a significant correlation to the proficiency with which the various stages of the NPD process are performed. Additionally, the proficiency with which various stages of the NPD process were performed was noted to have a significant relationship with new product market success. Our study discovered a number of other findings that suggest important implications for both product development managers and scholars.

Montalvo C (2006) What triggers change and innovation? Technovation 26:312-323 Innovation and competitiveness amongst firms are currently seen as some of the main economic multipliers in industrialised and emerging economies. After 50 years of theoretical and empirical development in innovation studies explaining Why? and How? innovation occurs at the firm level remains as a prime challenge for academics and practitioners. Innovative behaviour in organisations has been attributed to dissimilar factors (e.g. institutional arrangements, entrepreneurial or risk taking behaviours, economic opportunities, organisational learning, technological and organisational capabilities, etc.). The communality of current theories and studies is that they tend to put emphasis on individual determinants of the innovative behaviour. In consequence, much of the generated knowledge is still rather fragmented because the diverse insights are not unified in single and testable theoretical body towards the explanation and prediction of innovative behaviours in firms. This paper introduces and empirically tests a structural model from the behavioural sciences that enables the organisation and integration of knowledge generated in diverse areas of innovation studies to explore, explain and predict the innovative behaviour of the firm in specific contexts.

Morgan A, Colebourne D, Thomas B (2006) The development of ICT advisors for SME businesses: An innovative approach. Technovation 26:980-987 The potential contribution of information and communications technology (ICT) to improving the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has long been recognised. However, the realisation of this potential has been problematic and over recent years there have been a number of initiatives supported by government agencies and the European Union which have endeavoured to aid and encourage the up take of ICT to enable access to such promised benefits. One of the range of factors that has been identified as impacting upon the level of ICT adoption amongst SMEs is access to, and confidence in, external specialist advice. [IOM, 1997. IT Means Business?: a survey of managers' attitudes in smaller businesses to information and technology. IoM Report. IOM, 2000 Does Technology Mean Business. IoM Report]. This article reviews one related initiative 'Technology Means Business' and offers a number of unique insights for individuals and organisations who may be involved in the development of similar initiatives now and in the future.

Nelson B, Paulson L (2006) The PDMA handbook of new product development. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:97-99

O'Connor GC, DeMartino R (2006) Organizing for radical innovation: An exploratory study of the structural aspects of RI management systems in large established firms. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:475-497 To escape the intense competition of today's global economy, large established organizations seek growth options beyond conventional new product development that leads to incremental changes in current product lines. Radical innovation (RI) is one such pathway, which results in organically driven growth through the creation of whole new lines of business that bring new to the world performance features to the market and may result in the creation of entirely new markets. Yet success is elusive, as many have experienced and scholars have documented. This article reports results of a three-year, longitudinal study of 12 large established firms that have declared a strategic intent to evolve their RI capabilities. In contrast to other academic research that has analyzed specific projects to understand management practices appropriate for RI, the present research reported explores the evolution of management systems for enabling radical innovation to occur repeatedly in large firms and reports on one aspect of this management system: organizational structures for enabling and nurturing RI. To consider organizational structure as a venue for capability development is new in the management of innovation and dynamic capabilities literatures. Conventional wisdom holds that RIs should be incubated outside the company and assimilated once they have gained traction in the marketplace. Numerous experiments with organizational structures were observed that instead work to manage the interfaces between the RI management system and the mother organization. These structures are described here, and insights are drawn out regarding radical innovation competency requirements, transition challenges, senior leadership mandates, and business-unit

ambidexterity. The centerpiece of this research is the explication of the Discovery-Incubation-Acceleration framework, which details three sets of necessary, though not sufficient competencies, for building an RI capability.

O'Regan N, Ghobadian A, Gallear D (2006) In search of the drivers of high growth in manufacturing SMEs. Technovation 26:30-41 Though considerable attention in the extant literature has been devoted to growth and performance of firms, there is a dearth of research on high growth firms. Furthermore, the majority of literature in this area focuses on large firms while research on high growth small firms is underdeveloped. This paper investigates the drivers of high growth in manufacturing SMEs. Following a number of focus group interviews with six managing directors of manufacturing firms, a number of drivers of high growth were identified and investigated in a sample of 207 manufacturing SMEs. The results of this study indicate that high growth firms place a greater emphasis on external drivers such as strategic orientation, their operating environment and the use of e-commerce compared with firms having static or declining sales. The analysis shows that high growth firms compete largely on the basis of price. While high growth firms have increased their sales by over 30% during the past three years or longer, it is questionable if manufacturing firms can sustain their competitive advantage without recourse to greater research and development, and innovation in the longer term.

O'Regan N, Ghobadian A, Sims M (2006) Fast tracking innovation in manufacturing SMEs. Technovation 26:251-261 Many SMEs have difficulties achieving successful innovation, despite having significant investment in research and development. This paper explores the innovation process within the context of strategy, organizational culture and leadership styles in an effort to fast-track effective innovation in SMEs. The domain of the study is the electronics and engineering sectors. The analysis confirms the close association between strategy, organizational culture, leadership and innovation. It also depicts the attributes of each concept associated with innovation. The analysis also confirms that high performing firms place a much higher emphasis on strategy attributes and have stronger and more defined leadership and culture styles compared with low performing firms. The paper provides systematic steps to enable managers to effectively manage and deploy innovation. It is unique in that it fills the 'how to...' gap for SMEs.

Okudan GE, Rzasa SE (2006) A project-based approach to entrepreneurial leadership education. Technovation 26:195-210 This paper discusses the evolution of the Entrepreneurial Leadership course (ENGR 310), which is one of the four core courses at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). The current teaching practices in the course, based on project-based learning practices, have been developed based on a comprehensive review of similar courses and entrepreneurship education literature. This paper discusses the new course curriculum, and relevant innovative changes. The results of a comprehensive assessment conducted to measure student satisfaction and perceptions of the course are included along with a summary of the experience gained while teaching the improved version of the course. In addition to the assessment results, two other results attest to the success of the course: (1) All teams completing the build and sell project made profits. In fact, one team made about $700 in profit, a great accomplishment considering the time they were allotted to work on the project. (2) Most students taking the class, who were not graduating, decided to enroll in the Entrepreneurship Minor. This paper aims to share implementation of these changes as an avenue for entrepreneurship educators to learn from others' experiences, and to contribute to the entrepreneurship education literature.

Okudan GE, Zappe SE (2006) Teaching product design to non-engineers: A review of experience, opportunities and problems. Technovation 26:1287-1293 Despite many developments in software and related tools, improving effectiveness and efficiency in product design is a concern. One of the reasons for this fact might be the use of different languages, tools, etc. by designers coming from different disciplines. Accordingly, in order to cross-train our students in the Entrepreneurship Minor and the Masters in Manufacturing Management program at Penn State, we have been offering Engineering Design Principles: Quality and Manufacturing Management (QMM 492) as a course where non-engineering students get a chance to cross-train before they are put in product design teams with their engineering counterparts. This paper aims to provide a review of our experience with the course in addition to potential opportunities and problems.

Oyelaran-Oyeyinka B, Lal K (2006) Learning new technologies by small and medium enterprises in developing countries. Technovation 26:220-231 This paper, based on new field data, examines the ways in which small and medium enterprises in selected developing countries learn to use and augment their core capabilities with new technologies. This paper presents three findings. First, there is clear evidence of increasing complexity in the adoption and use of Information and communication technologies (ICTs) among developing country firms. Second, climbing the technological ladder requires skills upgrading through explicit learning of the new technologies. Third, firm performance is highly associated with learning capabilities, levels of technology, and a host of firm-level knowledge, skills and experience. The study found that across countries and sectors, non-formal learning is the dominant form of mastering new technologies. However, formal local and overseas training is positively associated with increasing technological complexity. There is also a close correlation between technical complexity of firms' internal ICT tools and available telecommunication infrastructure.

Palmberg C (2006) The sources and success of innovations - Determinants of commercialisation and break-even times. Technovation 26:1253-1267 Successful innovation is typically defined at the firm level using indicators such as market shares, productivity, or profitability. Nonetheless. firms are typically simultaneously involved in many innovation development projects which produce varying levels of success. This paper defines the success of innovations through the time taken for the innovations to reach commercialisation and break-even, and investigates the relationships between the sources and success of innovations using a unique database of Finnish innovations commercialised during the 1980s and 1990s. The paper contributes to previous research by covering a range of different types of innovations from various industries, and by applying duration analysis.

Panebianco S, Pahl-Wostl C (2006) Modelling socio-technical transformations in wastewater treatment - A methodological proposal. Technovation 26:1090-1100 The introduction of new technologies into established systems often involves major socio-technical transformation processes. Institutional context and technical systems frequently co-evolve over long periods of time, helping to stabilise each other, thus, preventing change. This applies in particular to the introduction of small-scale, decentralised technologies in wastewater treatment where prevailing systems are highly centralised. This problem is illustrated for a case study in the former German Democratic Republic. Since the human dimension has been largely neglected in the design and implementation of technical infrastructures, there is a lack of appropriate scientific approaches to analyse the dynamics of change in complex socio-technical systems. This paper introduces agent based modelling as a methodological approach to improve the understanding of the adoption and diffusion of small-scale technologies in wastewater treatment. A conceptual agent-based model is developed, which allows representing the complex dynamics of the socio-technical system. The model is particularly suited to support collective learning and decision-making processes required in managing the transformation processes. Instead of presenting results from the model and its application in participatory settings, this paper attempts to encourage a discussion process on methodological innovations to deal with analysis and facilitation of transformation processes in socio-technical systems.

Park Y, Kim S (2006) Knowledge management system for fourth generation R&D: KNOWVATION. Technovation 26:595-602 Since the advent of the embryonic model almost a century ago. R&D systems have gone through an evolutionary process of development that can be classified into three generations. Today, the fourth generation of R&D is emerging that emphasizes both strategic and operational importance of knowledge management (KM). Despite the importance of KM, the network between conceptual scheme of the fourth generation R&D and practical system of KM remains a missing link. In response, the main objective of this paper is to present a framework for designing, and implementing knowledge management system (KMS) for the fourth generation R&D. The proposed system is named KNOWVATION, which combines the notions of knowledge and innovation. First, the evolutionary classification of the R&D generations and the corresponding characteristics of the respective generations are defined. Second, the organizational structure and knowledge functions of the fourth generation R&D are derived. Finally, the overall design framework and detailed sub-modules are presented.

Perdomo-Ortiz J, Gonzalez-Benito J, Galende J (2006) Total quality management as a forerunner of business innovation capability. Technovation 26:1170-1185 Although it is true that the issues of quality

and innovation have been dealt with extensively from different perspectives, studies on the relationship between the two concepts are few. This study tackles this relationship by analyzing the links between the broader concepts of total quality management (TQM) and business innovation capability (BIC). Specifically, it is argued that TQM can favor the development of BIC. An empirical study of 102 firms in the sectors of machinery and instruments for measurement, analysis and control revealed that, indeed, both concepts are compatible and make it possible to identify which dimensions of TQM explain the generation of BIC.

Perks H, Jeffery R (2006) Global network configuration for innovation: a study of international fibre innovation. R & D Management 36:67-83 This paper develops and empirically investigates the notion of network configuration for innovation. In many industries, firms are increasingly locked into a state of network innovation. Innovation, in such contexts, is often driven by those firms who configure the network to access and control critical innovation knowledge widely dispersed throughout the network. The paper presents the findings of an in-depth study of the evolution of three innovation networks in the global fibre industry. The mechanisms by which firms configure extended networks throughout the innovation processes are unravelled and discussed. A typology of three configuration types derived from the finding is forwarded. The findings suggest that successful innovation network configuration involves recognising where the innovation value resides in the network and developing capabilities and mechanisms to understand and access such value. However, this is problematic for firms embedded in their own base of knowledge and patterns of relationships. Specific managerial implications and suggestions for future research are forwarded.

Persson M, Ahlstrom P (2006) Managerial issues in modularising complex products. Technovation 26:1201-1209 Modularisation is an increasingly common strategy for many companies. However, present literature is lacking in two respects. First, it tends to focus on the positive effects of modularisation, disregarding any problems during the modularisation process. Second, it is mostly based on rather simple products. We identify managerial issues in modularising complex products. Through a 4-year in-depth case study at Volvo Car Corporation, we uncovered a number of problems that needed to be dealt with. We synthesise these into three major issues. which need management attention to be resolved.

Phaal R, Farrukh CJP, Probert DR (2006) Technology management tools: concept, development and application. Technovation 26:336-344 Effective systems for managing technology in complex business environments require integrated sets of management tools and processes, underpinned by well-founded conceptual frameworks. Understanding how such systems operate, and how best to implement them, represents an ongoing challenge, especially considering the multidisciplinary and multifunctional nature of technology management. This paper describes the development of a technology and general management tool catalogue, which focuses on the 'matrix' class of tools, classified into four generic types. The practical development and application of such tools is discussed, illustrated by two case examples.

Phillips W, Lamming R, Bessant J, Noke H (2006) Discontinuous innovation and supply relationships: strategic dalliances. R & D Management 36:451-461 The authors address the need for supply relationships to generate, support, and respond to discontinuous innovation (DI), noting that established ways of working appear insufficient. The peculiarities of DI are explained and contrasted with well-known concepts within innovation. The need for customer firms to be both closely collaborative with suppliers while also exploring potential, unpredictable DI elsewhere is proposed, by means of strategic dalliances. A model is presented for understanding and exploring this emerging management challenge.

Pichler R (2006) Agile estimating and planning. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:588-589

Pilkington A, Teichert T (2006) Management of technology: themes, concepts and relationships. Technovation 26:288-299 In this paper, bibliometric (co-citation analysis) and social network analysis techniques are used to investigate the intellectual pillars of the technology management literature as reported in Technovation. Network analysis tools are also used to show that the research agenda of scholars from different parts of the world differ substantially from each other, and it is argued that such differences may have exacerbated the delays experienced in developing technology management as a respected academic discipline.

Piller FT, Walcher D (2006) Toolkits for idea competitions: a novel method to integrate users in new product development. R & D Management 36:307-318 Research has shown that many innovations originate not in the manufacturer but the user domain. Internet-based toolkits for idea competitions (TIC) are a novel way for manufacturers to access innovative ideas and solutions from users. Idea competitions build on the nature of competition as a means to encourage users to participate at an open innovation process, to inspire their creativity, and to increase the quality of the submissions. When the contest ends, submissions are evaluated by an expert panel. Users whose submissions score highest receive an award from the manufacturer, which is often granted in exchange for the right to exploit the solution in its domain. Following the idea of evolutionary prototyping, we developed a TIC in cooperation with a manufacturer of sports goods. The TIC was launched as a pilot in one of the company's markets. Submissions were evaluated using the consensual assessment technique. The evaluation of this study provides suggestions for further research, but also implications for managers willing to explore TIC in their organization.

Pinegar JS (2006) What customers want: Using outcome-driven innovation to create breakthrough products and services. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:464-466

Pitt L, van der Merwe R, Berthon P, Salehi-Sangari E, Barnes BR (2006) Swedish BioTech SMEs: The veiled values in online networks. Technovation 26:553-560 For many years, sociologists have conceptualized and debated the value of 'social capital', the resources embedded in an actor's social network. The notions of network organizations and strategic alliances have become important forms of entrepreneurial venture, yet often the value in these networks is veiled by network complexity. These associations of individuals and organizations are typically undocumented, difficult to identify by third parties, and even pass unrecognized by their constituent members. They consist of informal Internet networks that are extremely valuable because of the strategic social capital embedded in them. Drawing on social network theory, this paper outlines a methodology for viewing and valuing informal Internet networks, using small-to-medium sized enterprises in the Swedish biotechnology arena as a backdrop. It demonstrates that networks can be constructed from the links between the web sites of actor firms, and that it is possible to use social network theory to identify the most prominent actors. Then, using structural hole analysis, the entrepreneurial opportunities surrounding these actors can be unveiled.

Prajogo DI, Ahmed PK (2006) Relationships between innovation stimulus, innovation capacity, and innovation performance. R & D Management 36:499-515 This paper examines the integration of the human and technological aspects of innovation management by modelling the innovation stimulus - innovation capacity relationship in determining innovation performance. The research framework developed in this study was tested amongst 194 managers of Australian firms. The survey responses indicate that both the relationships between innovation stimulus and innovation capacity and between innovation capacity and innovation performance are significant and strong. However, innovation stimulus does not show any direct effect on innovation performance, suggesting that its effect is mediated through innovation capacity. The overall practical implication that can be drawn from the findings is that to achieve high innovation performance, organizations first need to develop the behavioural and cultural context and practices for innovation (i.e. stimulus), and only within such conducive environments is it possible for organizations to develop innovative capacity in research and development and technology so as to more effectively deliver innovation outcomes and performance.

Prugl R, Schreier M (2006) Learning from leading-edge customers at The Sims: opening up the innovation process using toolkits. R & D Management 36:237-250 Recently, toolkits for user innovation and design have been proposed as a promising means of opening up the innovation process to customers. Using these tools, customers can take on problem-solving tasks and design products to fit their individual needs. To date, arguments in favor of this new concept have been limited to the idea of satisfying each user's needs in a highly efficient and valuable way. The aim of this empirical study is to extend our knowledge of how users deal with 'the invitation to innovate' and how attractive individual user designs might be to other users. In studying the users of toolkits for the immensely popular computer game The Sims, we found that (1) users are not 'one-time shoppers'- in fact, their innovative engagement is rather long-lasting, continuous, evolving, and intense. We also found that (2) leading-edge users do not merely content themselves with the official toolkits provided by the manufacturer. They employ user-created tools to push design possibilities even

further. (3) Moreover, individual user designs are not only attractive to the creators themselves; instead, certain innovative solutions are in high demand among other users. Based on our findings, we discuss how toolkits and their users might add to the process of innovation in general. We argue that toolkits could serve as a promising market research tool for guiding a firm's new product development efforts. Furthermore, toolkits may serve as a creche for interested but inexperienced users who could evolve into leading-edge users over time. These innovative users might then be integrated into more radical product development efforts.

Pujari D (2006) Eco-innovation and new product development: understanding the influences on market performance. Technovation 26:76-85 The greening of product innovation process has been under study by researchers, but mostly it is at an anecdotal level. Extant literature asks for empirical study to explore how to make greener products more successful at the market place. This paper reports on a survey of environmental new product development (ENPD) projects in North America wherein influences on the market performance are investigated. New activities such as design for environment/life cycle analysis and supplier involvement for environmental responsiveness are identified in the ENPD process. The paper uses hierarchical regression method to find relative and incremental impact of eco-innovation activities in ENPD projects on market performance. Factors that influence market performance of greener products are found to be cross-functional co-ordination between new product development professionals and environmental specialists, supplier involvement, market focus and life cycle analysis.

Rasmussen E, Moen O, Gulbrandsen M (2006) Initiatives to promote commercialization of university knowledge. Technovation 26:518-533 In addition to teaching and research, universities are increasingly expected to take on technology transfer and commercialization as a part of their mission. This development gives new challenges to the institutions in making initiatives to promote commercialization of university knowledge. Through case studies of four European universities of science and technology in Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, this article analyses several commercialization initiatives. All four universities have increased their commercialization activities and focus the last two decades, and have a more or less full range of support mechanisms for entrepreneurship. The challenge seems to be how to coordinate them with each other and with the traditional university activities.

Rasmussen EA, Sorheim R (2006) Action-based entrepreneurship education. Technovation 26:185-194 Innovativeness through the creation of new companies and new business areas are seen as key factors to achieve economic goals at the firm, the regional, and the national level. A restricting factor is the availability of competent individuals to manage projects and become entrepreneurs. Universities can address this need by increasing the motivation and competence of their graduates to become key persons in innovative and entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship education has traditionally focused on teaching individuals, but many initiatives are increasingly becoming more action-oriented, emphasizing learning by doing. This paper presents a number of action-based activities at five Swedish universities. The cases show that entrepreneurship education focuses less on teaching individuals in a classroom setting and more on learning-by-doing activities in a group setting and a network context. Several initiatives have multiple goals, such as educating entrepreneurs, establishing new ventures, and commercializing university research. Implications for setting up an action-based entrepreneurship education program are provided.

Rice J, Galvin P (2006) Alliance patterns during industry life cycle emergence: the case of Ericsson and Nokia. Technovation 26:384-395 Industry Life Cycles (ILCs) have been proposed as a means of analyzing the processes of company entry and exit in competitive industries. This paper utilizes ILC approaches to better understand the changing rationales for alliance formation for two large multination electronics firms, Nokia and Ericsson. Through the use of alliance announcements by the firms, we find that the rationale for alliance formation changes over the industry life cycle in response to changing organizational needs and industry imperatives. We also find that the rapid emergence of standards-based alliances has been a strategic response by firms and industries to the growing complexity of information and communication technology systems and the costs involved in ignoring the scale economies that standards-based alliances deliver.

Rosenthal SR, Capper M (2006) Ethnographies in the front end: Designing for enhanced customer experiences. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:215-237 Ethnographic research, carefully planned and implemented, is an effective method for providing user-centered perspectives early in the product innovation cycle. This article contributes operational perspectives on ethnographic inquiry in general and, in particular, on its effective integration in the front end of the product development process. It also explores issues of cost-benefit analysis in deciding when and how extensively to employ this mode of inquiry in the product innovation context. Based on a review of ethnographic approaches, in-depth case descriptions of two projects of this type and a review of twelve other projects, this article addresses three questions: (1) What key process steps and alternative approaches lead to insightful identification of relevant customer experiences? (2) What critical dimensions of customer experience offer hidden opportunities for innovative product design? (3) How are ethnographic studies planned, executed, and leveraged in the front end of the product development process when defining new product concepts? An analysis of these projects and related literature suggests particular kinds of product insights expected to be achieved from ethnographic inquiry, along with lessons for planning, conducting, and leveraging ethnographies. A successful ethnography may call attention to design opportunities not obvious at the outset but arising instead through appreciation of unconscious concerns or desires of the consumer. Accepting the notion of initial ambiguity helps ensure that such studies incorporate a broad coverage of potential kinds of issues and provide time and opportunities for serendipitous learning. Successful planning for ethnographies calls for an open mind coupled with explicit procedures for screening for diversity in respondents, gaining access to the desired range of respondents, and selecting a suitable ethnography team. Ethnographies use multiple observation and inquiry techniques in the field, often in combination with other techniques traditionally used in marketing research. They require teamwork, capturing relevant visual accounts, flexible probing for insights when surprises arise, and skill in modifying the ethnographic guide as needed during the study. The findings from ethnographies in the front end may be leveraged through traditional market research, innovation workshops, and formal product concept development.

Saiki T, Akano Y, Watanabe C, Tou Y (2006) A new dimension of potential resources in innovation: A wider scope of patent claims can lead to new functionality development. Technovation 26:796-806 Notwithstanding a significant expectation to increase the contribution of technology to productivity in megacompetition, the productivity of technology in Japan's high-technology industry has been declining, resulting in a decrease in competitiveness. The only solution to this twisted trap is to shift the current vicious cycle between R&D, technology stock and production to a virtuous cycle. Given strong constraints in fiscal investment, a practical solution to achieving a virtuous cycle is effective utilization of potential resources in innovation. A wider scope for patent claims can be an ingenious trigger leading to a virtuous cycle involving new functionality development, increased productivity of technology, production increases, greater R&D investment and a sustainable wider scope of patent claims. Japan's Patent Office introduced the Revised Examination Guideline (June 1993 Examination Guideline), including description requirements for patent applications. This induced leading high-technology firms to broaden their scope relative to claiming patents and succeeded in constructing the foregoing virtuous cycle, thereby demonstrating the significance of a new dimension of potential resources in innovation. On the basis of an empirical analysis focusing on techno-managerial efforts by Japan's pharmaceutical firms with both indigenous and the US capital, this paper attempts to demonstrate the foregoing hypothetical view. A noteworthy implication obtained from the research is that while leading pharmaceutical firms with indigenous capital have constructed a virtuous cycle by means of a wider scope of patent claims and have achieved new functionality development as a result, firms with the US capital have demonstrated a higher level of performance.

Salmeron JL, Hurtado JA (2006) Modelling the reasons to establish B2C in the fashion industry. Technovation 26:865-872 The Internet is changing the way in which businesses operate. 'Brick and mortar' companies can now use the Internet to reach more customers and sell products in addition to the traditional channels. Moreover, the Internet is an excellent means of communication and advertisement. Nevertheless, only a minority of the businesses operating in the fashion sector have developed e-commerce. This paper studies the decision of establishing B2C in one of the Top European fashion designing businesses. The findings show that the use of cognitive maps can help in the decision making process identifying the true strategic objectives that a firm pursues.

Sanchez JIL, Rata BM, Duarte AR, Sandulli FD (2006) Is the Internet productive? A firm-level analysis. Technovation 26:821-826 The lack of empirical research on the impact of Internet usage on workplace productivity motivated this paper. A Cobb-Douglas production function was used to confirm that information technology investment and Internet usage at work contributes to increases in productivity. The model is tested on a data set of 464 Spanish firms, based on computer assisted telephonic interviews. Results show how both information technology investment and Internet usage at work have a positive impact on workplace productivity.

Sankaran JK, Mouly VS (2006) Value-chain innovation in aquaculture: insights from a New Zealand case study. R & D Management 36:387-401 We report a case study of value-chain innovation in a niche, export-oriented aquaculture industry, namely, Chinook/King salmon, that contrasts with the much more common Atlantic/Norwegian salmon. The firm in question is vertically integrated, thus offering a 'cradle-to-grave' vista of innovation that spans 'production' (i.e. farming), processing, marketing, and distribution. A major finding is the need for a delicate balance between the relative expenditures on production research and developmental research in integrated aquaculture firms, especially those that focus on niche species. Interaction effects between the two research strands complicate the trade-off: production research adds value at the fish farm by lowering the unit cost of production - and in turn facilitates new product development as it is easier to add value to a lower-cost product than a higher-cost product. From the case study findings, we synthesize a process model of value-chain innovation that is applicable for integrated aquaculture firms. We also induce several implications for the management of Research & Development and innovation in such firms.

Shehabuddeen N, Probert D, Phaal R (2006) From theory to practice: challenges in operationalising a technology selection framework. Technovation 26:324-335 Industrial managers are often faced with the dilemma of selecting a single most appropriate technology from a range of competing options. The rapid development of technologies, together with their increasing complexity and variety, has made the task of technology selection difficult. Current approaches to the technology selection decision have usually been narrowly focused on assessment of the financial viability of technology options, or conventional investment justification factors. In many cases, the selection processes are based on generic decision support tools which are not fully adapted for technology selection. Where specific approaches exist, they tend to be theoretically based rather than empirically tested on practical cases. Whilst the role of theory and accumulated management experience cannot be ignored, the engagement with 'real-life' situations brings to the surface many important issues that would not be visible otherwise. The difficulties associated with translating theoretical ideas into practically applicable approaches represent a major challenge of this research work. This is compounded by the problems associated with applying the developed approach, interpreting the results obtained, and articulating how this new practical understanding affects the theoretical concepts that have guided the research. This inductive-deductive testing of concepts has contributed to the richness of the understanding obtained. There is an abundance of literature relating to the selection of technology for R&D purposes, i.e. R&D project selection. Similarly, many literature sources exist for investment justification, and a number of frameworks and tools have been proposed. However, empirical work conducted during this research project indicate a clear need to explore the issues surrounding the selection of 'packaged' or 'off-the-shelf' technology, i.e. technologies that do not require extensive R&D after acquisition. This paper focuses on the experience of operationalising of a framework for technology selection. This is achieved through the application of a software tool, which is based on the structure provided by the framework. The paper reports on how theoretical concepts presented in the framework relate to 'real-life' technology selection considerations.

Siguaw JA, Simpson PM, Enz CA (2006) Conceptualizing innovation orientation: A framework for study and integration of innovation research. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:556-574 The term innovation orientation has been frequently used in the innovation literature, but with a mix of conceptualizations and meanings. Drawing from work found in the innovation, management, and marketing literatures over the past 35 years, the concept of innovation orientation as a system is conceptualized and defined in this article. The domain of innovation orientation is delineated as a multidimensional knowledge structure and a framework for understanding innovation orientation and its consequences in an organizational context are developed. The framework defines the innovation orientation knowledge structure

as composed of a learning philosophy, strategic direction, and transfunctional beliefs within an organization that de. ne and direct the organizational strategies and actions toward specific innovation-enabling competencies and processes. These innovation-oriented firm competencies are in the areas of resource allocation, technology, employees, operations, and markets. The framework then explains that these appropriately developed innovation-enabling competencies lead to innovation outcomes, specifically ideal innovation form, type, and rate that, in turn, affect firm performance. An inventory of propositions for future research that correspond to the innovation orientation concept is also presented in this comprehensive framework. This study provides two important contributions to the existing innovation literature. First, the article examines the vast innovation literature to arrive at a clear definition of the innovation orientation construct to provide a consistent conceptualization for future research. Second, the article develops a comprehensive, organized framework for understanding innovation orientation and its effects. In doing this, the framework extends the dynamic capabilities research stream by offering an explanation of how innovation orientation fosters the development of organizational competencies and makes it possible for a firm to recognize and respond to shifts in market dynamism.

Simpson D (2006) Ten rules for strategic innovators: From idea to execution. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:466-467

Sims MA, O'Regan N (2006) In search of gazelles using a research DNA model. Technovation 26:943-954 Though considerable attention in the extant literature has been devoted to growth and performance of firms, there is a dearth of research on rapidly growing and high-performance companies or gazelles, in small to medium sized firms. This paper examines the drivers of rapid growth in manufacturing SMEs. In addition, the paper develops and tests a new approach to multi-variate analysis based on the conditional formatting of spreadsheets and the use of nested logical operators for complex comprehension. When analysing the results of most searches/studies, it is usually quite difficult to fully gain an understanding of the whole picture (i.e. the results in context). Using this new technique, we identify gazelles using a ranked database in a spreadsheet to create complete (non-loss) analysable visual patterns. Firms were ranked in terms of their 'growth footprint', using changes in employee numbers, profits, turnover and margin to calculate their individual growth performance/potential. The results of the study indicate that gazelles are less than 15 years old, have a CEO who is less than 50 years of age. They have a good financial performance (measured by gross profit per employee) and are privately owned and managed by their owners. The CEOs of the identified gazelle companies were further interviewed and it was found that self-organization and agility are key drivers of success.

Slater SF, Mohr JJ (2006) Successful development and commercialization of technological innovation: Insights based on strategy type. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:26-33

Smart P (2006) Leadership, management, and innovation in R&D project teams. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:384-386

Smit HTJ, Trigeorgis L (2006) Strategic planning: valuing and managing portfolios of real options. R & D Management 36:403-419 This article presents a value-based strategic planning framework suitable for valuing and managing portfolios of corporate real options. The proposed framework combines insights from strategic management theory with novel quantitative valuation tools from finance. Strategic planning is viewed as a process of actively developing and managing portfolios of corporate real options in the context of competitive interactions. As such, the expanded valuation framework recognizes that future growth opportunity value deriving from the firm's resources and capabilities must explicitly account for uncertainty, adaptability, and competitive responsiveness. The resulting expanded valuation framework is able to capture the value of the adaptive resources and capabilities that enable a firm to adapt and re-deploy assets, develop and exploit synergies, and gain competitive advantage via time-to-market and first- or second-mover advantages. We show how two basic metrics in this value-based framework, current profitability of assets in place and future growth option value, can be obtained from financial market data and how they can be used in active portfolio planning.

Smith PG (2006) Managing the unknown: A new approach to managing high uncertainty and risk in projects. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:589-591

Smith PG (2006) Doing business in the new China: A handbook and guide. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:295-297

Smith PG (2006) Doing business in the new China: A handbook and guide. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:295-297

Smith R (2006) Modeling R&D investments. Research-Technology Management 49:16-22 Financial data from 91 of the top 100 U.S. companies that invested in R&D during 2004 and 2003 were examined, including the relationship between these companies' sales, profits, growth rates, capital investments, and number of employees. This resulted in two linear equations that provide a high degree of correlation with the data and can be used to estimate R&D investment levels for companies about which that is unknown. The first of these calculates current-year R&D based on previous-year R&D, company size, and capital expenditures. The second, much simpler model, predicts current-year R&D from previous-year R&D. This simpler model may be driven by the relatively static financial years 2002-2004 from which data were analyzed.

Song M, van der Bij H, Weggeman M (2006) Factors for improving the level of knowledge generation in new product development. R & D Management 36:173-187 Globalization and other rapid changes in markets and technologies increasingly require companies to generate new knowledge in order to remain competitive. In order to innovate successfully, firms must generate knowledge faster than their rivals. This study develops and tests a conceptual model that focuses on how managerial controllable variables influence the level of knowledge generation in new product development. Based on literature and 'theory-in-use' field research in seven knowledge-intensive organizations, the authors developed research hypotheses and tested the hypotheses using data collected from 277 firms in high technology industries. The findings suggest that information technologies, organizational crisis, individual commitment, the R&D budget, and job rotation increase levels of knowledge generation, whereas lead user and supplier networks are negatively associated with the level of knowledge generation in new product development, and the influence of co-location of R&D staff is not significant.

Su CT, Chen YH, Sha DY (2006) Linking innovative product development with customer knowledge: a data-mining approach. Technovation 26:784-795 In today's digital economy, knowledge is regarded as an asset, and the implementation of knowledge management supports a company in developing innovative products and making critical management strategic decisions. Product innovation must link technological competence such as engineering and process know-how with knowledge about the customer, so that the product will meet the customers' needs, in order to secure market acceptance. Even though the importance of knowledge management in the technological innovation of a product has long been recognized, its potential for customer knowledge management has not been widely researched. To address the importance of the need of customer knowledge in innovative product development, this paper proposes an E-CKM model with a methodology for precisely delineating the process of customer knowledge management for innovative product development. In the knowledge management domain, an important task is the conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, allowing information technology, such as web-based surveys and data mining to extract customer knowledge from different market segments. An empirical study applying the E-CKM model has been carried out, and it meets the evaluation criteria in a multiple-assessment scheme for showing a satisfactory result. The result is used in the decision making for innovative product development in order to reduce project risk and secure commercial success.

Subramaniam M (2006) Integrating cross-border knowledge for transnational new product development. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:541-555 Multi-source knowledge integration, though widely regarded as fundamental for developing new products, remains obscurely understood and a significant challenge for organizations to accomplish. Prior research provides many insights on the approaches by which organizations transfer knowledge; however, how such transferred knowledge gets effectively embodied in products remains uncertain. Also unclear is whether different approaches for

knowledge transfer differ in their effectiveness at realizing integration. This study analytically separates the transfer of cross-border knowledge from its embodiment into products. It examines cross-border knowledge transfer based on three different approaches: namely, the use of cross-national teams, cross-national communication, and cross-national collaboration in the development of new transnational products. It examines cross-border knowledge embodiment based on the extent to which new transnational products developed balance standardization with adaptation. The study uses a cross-sectional survey administered to key members of transnational new product development teams in leading multinational companies across the world. The survey focuses on manufactured products that were developed across several industries: consumer products, consumer durables, and industrial products. Results from 90 new transnational product introductions surveyed reveal that knowledge integration is effective only when knowledge is transferred through cross-national collaboration, and not when transferred through cross-national teams and cross-national communication. As integrating cross-border knowledge in the development of transnational products involves making difficult trade-offs for balancing standardization with adaptation, transferring knowledge through cross-national collaboration stands out as being critical for successful outcomes. Although cross-national teams and cross-national communication enhance knowledge flows, they do not result in effective knowledge integration when developing new transnational products. These findings highlight an important point: All knowledge transfer approaches may not necessarily achieve knowledge integration. Hence, it is essential to systematically probe into the interrelationships between knowledge transfer and its effective integration and to identify an underlying set of contingencies that provide insights into when and why some knowledge transfer approaches are better than others at integrating knowledge.

Suikki R, Tromstedt R, Haapasalo H (2006) Project management competence development framework in turbulent business environment. Technovation 26:723-738 Today's turbulent business environment characterised by uncertainty and inability to predict the future is extremely challenging, and thus requires the development of new competences. Especially within project management, competence development is one of the critical success factors. Competence development is seen as a critical Success factor ensuring companies' competitiveness. Learning organisation. organisational learning, organisational culture, knowledge management and project management laid the foundation for the project management competence development (PMCD) framework introduced in this paper. The most essential features for organisations to update competences are presented. The proposed framework has been in use in Nokia case unit since year 2001 with good results. However, further studies are needed to create an evaluation method to provide a means to measure the impacts of the framework and develop it further.

Talay MB, Deck MJ (2006) Non-cooperation: The dark side of strategic alliances. Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:388-389

Tellis GJ (2006) Disruptive technology or visionary leadership? Journal of Product Innovation Management 23:34-38

Teng CI, Tseng FC, Chiang DM (2006) Customer-capturing strategies: The way to replace existing technology characterized by network effects. Technovation 26:1384-1389 Network effects are the basis of competitive advantage in digital economies. Although some researchers have indicated that technologies characterized by network effects are difficult to replace, real-world situations have not confirmed this argument. Challengers still defeat market leaders in markets with network effects. The analytical results presented here include the following: (1) a proposed new concept, resilience, can describe the resistive strength of a network to challenger customer-capturing strategies, (2) three types of networks can be identified based on their resilience values, and (3) high-resilience networks possessing technology are difficult to replace.

Terziovski M, Morgan JP (2006) Management practices and strategies to accelerate the innovation cycle in the biotechnology industry. Technovation 26:545-552 This paper examines management practices and strategies that are critical to successful commercialisation in the biomedical sector and how these practices and strategies impact upon performance innovation. The paper also details emerging issues and challenges for the biotechnology industry including human resource issues, access to venture capital, the development of basic business capabilities, and efficient and stable supply chain linkages. The research findings are based

on data obtained from an action research methodology where 14 representatives of the biomedical sector were active participants. The qualitative data was analysed using a multiple cross-case analysis technique that explores the underpinning determinants of performance innovation in the industry. The research study identifies high-performance work practices and critical success factors to accelerate the 'Innovation Cycle' from idea to market. The paper concludes that managers in the biomedical industry need to acquire new business acumen skills to maintain a competitive advantage in a fiercely competitive global market. Organisations are recognising that knowledge workers with the requisite skills and expertise are critical to improving innovation performance.

Uddin AK (2006) The role of diffusion of innovations for incremental development in small enterprises. Technovation 26:274-284 Diffusion of innovations plays an important role for incremental change leading to sustained development in all societies. The diffusion of an innovation is in fact determined by a stream of improvements in the performance characteristics of that innovation, its progressive modification and adaptation. The local technological capability and indigenous knowledge can contribute significantly to the process of adaptive improvements. This paper hinges briefly upon the interface between innovation and diffusion and the role of adaptive improvements to this effect in the context of promoting technologies in rural micro-industries. Observations made in the paper are based on a sample survey comprising of three phases undertaken recently on a number of small and medium industries (SMIs) covering various districts of Bangladesh. It is found that accumulated indigenous knowledge embodied in local farmers and artisans play a crucial role in innovation-diffusion interaction.

van de Vrande V, Lemmens C, Vanhaverbeke W (2006) Choosing governance modes for external technology sourcing. R & D Management 36:347-363 This study examines the effect of uncertainty on governance mode choice of interfirm relationships in new business development (NBD). We combine transaction cost economics and real options reasoning, arguing that in the early stages of NBD, where technological and market uncertainty are very high, companies are better off using governance modes that are reversible and involve a low level of commitment. When uncertainty has decreased as a result of prior R&D investments, transaction costs considerations become dominant and companies will shift towards governance modes that are less reversible and more hierarchical. We argue that technological distance leads to less hierarchical governance modes and prior cooperation between firms leads to subsequent choices for more hierarchical modes. Finally, we propose that higher exogenous uncertainty leads to less hierarchical governance modes.

Vavakova B (2006) Reconceptualizing innovation policy. The case of France. Technovation 26:444-462 In March 2004, French researchers from the public research sector staged a protest movement unprecedented in its scope and length. The paper situates this conflict within the evolution of French innovation policies, notably with regard to the public research sector and its relationship to industry. Since the crisis of the 1970s it had become evident that French firms invested little in research and development when compared to their competitors. Since 1982, a succession of innovation policies were thus put in place to deal with this problem by enhancing the contribution of public sector research to the innovative performance of national industry. This paper analyzes these shifts in policy and the unexpected and often contradictory results that they have produced over time. These have included a rise in contract research but a decline in patenting activity by public sector research institutes, conflicts over the direct appropriation of benefits by research institutions and the holding of roles and functions concurrently across public and private sectors by researchers in these institutions and throughout, the continued under performance of French firms in R&D.

Vazquez-Bustelo D, Avella L (2006) Agile manufacturing: Industrial case studies in Spain. Technovation 26:1147-1161 Changes in the business environment are leading firms to adopt a new production model termed agile manufacturing. This moves away from the traditional mass production paradigm and focuses on manufacturing highly customised products as and when customers require them. In this paper, we present an initial approach to agile manufacturing based on case studies on four factories in Spain. Despite different activities, products and production processes, similar trends were found in all four in the development of agile manufacturing. Based on the conclusions of the case studies, an agile manufacturing conceptual model has been drawn up and a number of hypotheses inferred. This work confirms the suitability of case study

methodology in the early stages of research, especially for drawing up hypotheses. The study presented here is of an exploratory nature and the conclusions drawn from it offer possible routes for future research in the field of agile manufacturing.

Vojak BA, Griffin A, Price RL, Perlov K (2006) Characteristics of technical visionaries as perceived by American and British industrial physicists. R & D Management 36:17-26 This research explores which characteristics most frequently appear in industrial technical visionaries and which are perceived as being the most important contributors to their success. Industrial technical visionaries are defined as 'technical individuals who effectively synthesize multiple technologies and business strategy to identify new and innovative breakthrough products and processes'. The perceptions of a total of 418 American and British industrial physicists were evaluated for this study to produce the first descriptive analysis of these key individuals based on a large-scale investigation. The research provides a profile of technical visionary characteristics that can be employed in identifying those with the potential for contributing in this role. In addition to their recognized depth and breadth of technical expertise, technical visionaries are, first and foremost, emotionally involved, energetic, stubborn in pursuing objectives and interpersonally capable. They are a self-motivated driving force in a firm, not just the source of technical insight. These individuals' knowledge of, and ability to navigate, the business world is perceived as more important to their success than most of their technical skills, other than technical depth. Finally, the traits associated with technical visionaries' 'idealist' nature are perceived as important, indicating that this characteristic should not be overlooked as defining who these individuals are.

von Hippel E, von Krogh G (2006) Free revealing and the private-collective model for innovation incentives. R & D Management 36:295-306 A central tenant of open innovation is free revealing of the detailed workings of novel products and services, so that others may use them, learn from them, and perhaps improve them as well. We explain that innovators frequently do freely reveal proprietary information and knowledge regarding both information-based products and physical products they have developed. We explain why free revealing can make good economic sense for innovators and for society as well. The article develops the case for free revealing in terms of a 'private collective' model of innovation incentives.

Vonortas NS, Spivack RN (2006) Managing large research partnerships: Examples from the Advanced Technology Program's Information Infrastructure for Healthcare program. Technovation 26:1101-1110 This study investigates the organization and management of large research partnerships that form around risky, early stage, complex technologies. Rather than developing specific products ready for the market, large research partnerships with diverse memebership are more appropriate for combining the diverse resources and capabilities required to advance the state of the art in early stage technologies and to create standards, thus decreasing the uncertainty of subsequent research. Some form of effective central authority is desirable in order to galvanize a common vision for the partnership, to establish clear milestones, and to take the burden of day-to-day negotiation and decision-making. Too much or too little management concentration brings similar detrimental results: members feeling left out of the decision-making process and a perception of unfair distribution of power to influence the process and the vision of the partnership.

Vuola O, Hameri AP (2006) Mutually benefiting joint innovation process between industry and big-science. Technovation 26:3-12 This longitudinal study is based on nine in-depth case studies carried out over the past 9 years, entailing observation of and participation in the actual innovation processes taking place at the interface of big-science-industry cooperation. The resulting mutually benefiting innovation model integrates industrial and big-science R&D at moments when they best catalyse technological innovation processes by matching specific needs from both sides and facilitating their joint efforts during the cooperation. The big-science centre being CERN2 with its multiple skills, diverse assets and technology validation practices generate, when needs from both sides are clearly defined and well coupled, a most fertile ground to enable and boost industrial innovation. The big-science centre benefits from the cooperation through access to cutting edge technologies at reasonable cost and through manufacturing prospects which both bring optimal performance per cost ratio in instrument design and production. At the same time, it generates meaningful social practice and input into industrial innovation and new business creation. A successful matching process includes: industrial scouting and scanning to find applicable new technologies in the industry; assessment of related business development needs in order to find and create the right motivations for

mutually benefiting cooperation; identification of functional specifications for big-science instruments: and an active match-making of needs, motivations and people as well as timing. The research documented in this report complements previous research efforts by providing detailed recommendations to all parties present in big-science collaborations, namely the big-science centres, member state policy-makers and industry experts and managers.

Wallin MW, Dahlstrand AL (2006) Sponsored spin-offs, industrial growth and change. Technovation 26:611-620 This paper focuses on the role of sponsored spin-offs for industrial growth and dynamics. A sponsored spin-off is a firm born out of the venturing activities and the active involvement of an established organization; in this paper the latter in the form of retained partial ownership in the new firm. Sponsored spin-offs are one mechanism whereby the respective potential advantages of large and new firms may be exploited. Little is known about the nature and magnitude of contributions by existing firms to the creation of new technology-based firms and the effects these new firms have on innovation, change and renewal. In this paper, an empirical sample of 101 Swedish IPO firms is used in the analysis of three research questions. (1) Are sponsored spin-off's an important mechanism for the creation of new technology-based firms? (2) Are sponsored spin-off firms important for industrial growth? (3) Are sponsored spin-offs influencing industrial renewal and change? The results add to the understanding of how, and to what degree the venturing activities of existing firms contribute to the creation of new firms, as well as how and to what extent these spin-offs differ from other new firms in terms of their impact on industrial growth and change.

Wang HC, Pallister JG, Foxall GR (2006) Innovativeness and Involvement as Determinants of Website Loyalty: I. A test of the style/involvement model in the context of Internet buying. Technovation 26:1357-1365 This paper is the first of the series of studies entitled "Innovativeness and Involvement as Determinants of Website Loyalty", which was designed to test Foxall's [1995. Cognitive styles of consumer initiators. Technovation 15(5), 269-288] style/involvement model in the context of Internet buyer behaviours. The study was built on 1044 Taiwan Internet buyers randomly selected from a well-known brand's Website in the printer market. Foxall (1995) proposed that consumer choice is shaped by adaptive-innovative cognitive style [Kirton, 1976. Adaptors and innovators-a description and measure. Journal of Applied Psychology 61(5), 622-629] and product-domain involvement [Zaichkowsky, 1985. Measuring the involvement construct. Journal of Consumer Research 12(3), 341-352]. Aiming to provide more theoretical insights of the style/involvement model, Goldsmith and Hofacker's [1991. Measuring consumer innovativeness. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 19(3), 209-221] Domain Specific Innovativeness (DSI) scale and Mittal's [1989. Measuring purchase-decision involvement. Psychology and Marketing 6(2), 147-162] Purchase Decision Involvement (PDI) scale were used in order to examine Foxall's model in a more domain specific context in contrast to the more abstract measurements previously employed. The sample was divided into four consumer segments according to their DSI and PDI scores. Findings revealed that these four segments differed significantly in their brand loyalty in the traditional market, perceived risk when buying at the brand's Website, attitudinal loyalty to the brand's Website, and behavioural loyalty to the brand's Website (actual buying frequency at the brand's Website). Discussions of how consumers' cognitive style and involvement level interact with each other and impact on their decision-making process underlying the tendency to brand loyalty, perceived risk and Website loyalty were presented.

Wang HC, Pallister JG, Foxall GR (2006) Innovativeness and involvement as determinants of website loyalty: II. Determinants of consumer loyalty in B2C e-commerce. Technovation 26:1366-1373 This paper is the second of the series of studies entitled "Innovativeness and Involvement as Determinants of Website Loyalty", which was designed to test Foxall's [(1995). Cognitive styles of consumer initiators. Technovation 15(5), 269-288] style/involvement model in the context of Internet buyer behaviours. In this paper, a consumer Website loyalty model was proposed to describe how consumer transfer their existing brand loyalty in the traditional retail market to the same brand's Website in the B2C e-commerce market and how their perceived risk at the brand's Website mediates this loyalty transformation. Data were collected via an email invitation and Web-based questionnaire. One thousand and fourty four Taiwan Internet buyers randomly selected from the database of a well-known brand's Website have completed the survey. The multiple regression technique indicated the robustness of this loyalty transformation model (adjusted R(2) = 0.50). Findings further indicated the impact that consumers' cognitive style/involvement have on their

loyalty transformation model. After segmenting consumers via their DST and PDT scores, the distinct loyalty transformation models are revealed: the adjusted R(2) of more-involved innovators' loyalty transformation model was the highest (0.60), followed by more involved adaptors' model (0.45), less involved innovators' model (0.45), and finally, less involved adaptors' model (0.42). Discussions of how consumers' cognitive style and involvement level interact with each other and impact on the predictors of the Website loyalty are discussed. Proposals are made of how Website managers can use this knowledge to build marketing strategies.

Wang HC, Pallister JG, Foxall GR (2006) Innovativeness and Involvement as Determinants of Website Loyalty: III. Theoretical and managerial contributions. Technovation 26:1374-1383 This paper is the third of the series of studies entitled "Innovativeness and Involvement as Determinants of Website Loyalty", which was designed to test Foxall's [1995. Cognitive styles of consumer initiators. Technovation 15(5), 269-288] style/involvement model in the context of Internet buyer behaviours. This paper aims to demonstrate the theoretical and managerial contributions of Foxall's (1995) style/involvement by reviewing the development of cognitive style studies in past 20 years to show the trend and revisions in research designs, and how the current series of studies can add value to the existing literature. While a considerable body of evidence could only identify the personality profile of the earliest users of innovations [e.g. Foxall, G., Haskins, C.G., 1986. Cognitive style and consumer innovativeness: an empirical test of Kirton's Adaptation-Innovation Theory in the context of food purchasing. European Journal of Marketing 20(3/4), 63-80; Foxall, G.R., Haskins, C.G., 1987. Cognitive style and discontinuous consumption: the case of "healthy eating". Food Marketing 3(2), 19-35; Goldsmith, R., 1983. Psychographics and new product adoption: an exploratory study. Perceptual and Motor Skills 57, 1071-1076; Goldsmith, R., 1984. Personality characteristics associated with adaption-innovation. Journal of Psychology 117(2), 159-165], Foxall's (1995) style/involvement model well captured the personality files of less-involved adaptors, innovators and more-involved innovators as well as their significantly different use/buying frequency of innovations. Aiming to continue to investigate the cognitive style theories in terms of the innovativeness measurement and consumers' actual behaviours, Wang et al. [2005a. Innovativeness and involvement as determinants of Website loyalty: a test of the style/involvement model in the context of Internet buying, re-submitted] designed an empirical Website survey and findings confirmed Foxall's (1995) style/involvement model in an Internet buying context; although the former used the Domain Specific Innovativeness (DSI) scale [Goldsmith, R.E., Hofacker, C.F., 1991. Measuring consumer innovativeness. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 19(3), 209-221], and the latter used the Kirton Adaption/Innovation (KAI) scale [Kirton, M., 1976. Adaptors and innovators-a description and measure. Journal of Applied Psychology 61(5), 622-629]. Comparisons among Wang et al. (2005a) and Foxall's (1995) previous studies [Foxall, G.R., Bhate, S., 1991. Cognitive style, personal involvement and situation as determinants of computer use. Technovation 11(3), 183-199; Foxall, G.R., Bhate, S., 1993a. Cognitive styles and personal involvement of market initiators for 'healthy' food brands: implications for adoption theory. Journal of Economic Psychology 14(l), 33-56; Foxall, G.R., Bhate, S., 1993b. Cognitive style and use-innovativeness for applications software in home computing: Implications for new product strategy. Technovation 13(5), 311-325; Foxall, G.R., Pallister, J.G., 1998. Measuring Purchase Decision Involvement for financial services: comparison of the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scale. International Journal of Bank Marketing 16(4/5), 180-194; Szmigin, I., Foxall, G.R., 1999. Styles of cashless consumption. International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research 9, 349-365; Pallister, J.G., Foxall, G.R., Wang, H.-C., 2005. Consumer innovativeness and product involvement as determinants of purchases of financial services, submitted for publication] in the research design context were summarised s as to investigate why a more significant result was revealed in the former study. Together, this series of studies testing Foxall's (1995) style/involvement model provides a robust foundation for future consumer researches.

Wang TY, Chien SC (2006) Forecasting innovation performance via neural networks - a case of Taiwanese manufacturing industry. Technovation 26:635-643 In the 'knowledge economies' era, most managers have discovered that technology can be considered as the key asset in sustaining the competitive advantage of their corporations. Many researchers have tried to discuss the relationships between technological performance and other influential factors, such as strategic management, information resources, etc. But they do not mention the issues concerning how each dimension influences innovation performance and how to forecast innovation performance based on these dimensions. This study presents a forecasting model that

predicts innovation performance using technical informational resources and clear innovation objectives. Specifically, we propose a neural network approach, which utilizes the Back-Propagation Network (BPN) to solve this problem. Also we examine the results and compare them to those attained using the statistical regression method. The result shows that the BPN method outperforms the statistical regression method as far as forecasting performance concerned. With this method, a decision maker can predict innovation performance and adjust allocated resources to match his/her company's innovation objectives.

West J, Gallagher S (2006) Challenges of open innovation: the paradox of firm investment in open-source software. R & D Management 36:319-331 Open innovation is a powerful framework encompassing the generation, capture, and employment of intellectual property at the firm level. We identify three fundamental challenges for firms in applying the concept of open innovation: finding creative ways to exploit internal innovation, incorporating external innovation into internal development, and motivating outsiders to supply an ongoing stream of external innovations. This latter challenge involves a paradox, why would firms spend money on R&D efforts if the results of these efforts are available to rival firms? To explore these challenges, we examine the activity of firms in open-source software to support their innovation strategies. Firms involved in open-source software often make investments that will be shared with real and potential rivals. We identify four strategies firms employ - pooled R&D/product development, spinouts, selling complements and attracting donated complements - and discuss how they address the three key challenges of open innovation. We conclude with suggestions for how similar strategies may apply in other industries and offer some possible avenues for future research on open innovation.

Wonglimpiyarat J (2006) The dynamic economic engine at Silicon Valley and US Government programmes in financing innovations. Technovation 26:1081-1089 This paper is concerned with the development of Silicon Valley, the government programmes in financing innovations and the specific characteristics/factors contributing to the success of the valley. It is argued that the capacity to foster clusters of innovation, an effective use of university resources, the supporting infrastructure, the culture of a willingness to accept risk as well as the venture capital (VC) programmes are catalysts for the economic development at Silicon Valley. By using Porter's competitive Diamond Model as a basis to examine the activities in the US Silicon Valley, the study attempts to fill a gap in practical VC management research which is practically non-existent and provide valuable insights for policy makers.

Wright S (2006) Cases to accompany contemporary strategy analysis, 5th edition. R & D Management 36:548-551

Wright S (2006) Contemporary strategy analysis, 5th edition. R & D Management 36:548-551

Wu CW, Chen CL (2006) An integrated structural model toward successful continuous improvement activity. Technovation 26:697-707 This paper provides a different view from Bassent et al.'s (2001) toward a successful continuous improvement (CI) activity. Their concept encourages a business that is resting on its present accomplishments to seek greater gain. However, their behavioral model is not easy to operate for managers. In order to operate Cl activity effectively and obtain company-wide involvement for management, we need a system which can meet the current Cl status and lead the firm toward the correct road as described by Bessant et al. This system has to be open in the way that it can fit into any organization so that it can easily embed the necessary regenerative input into its physical structure. This system has also to be super in the way that it can successfully lead the organization structure toward the evolutionary route. Thus, we propose an open super system which places a pyramid composed by problem, models and tools, and promotion, at its core. Using Bessant et al.'s five evolutionary levels as a time map, this system can analyze a firm's improvement ability from the presentation of cases and find the proper regenerative input from the failure status. A firm can inject this input into its structure to upgrade its level of capability. Applying this open super system on our previous studies, we derived five improvement levels and the different ability types in each level. From there, we discovered some failure status in each level. We also drew some important perspectives on the injection of regenerative input from failure status, including the promotion of the technique-excellence ability, the value problem, and efficiently solving problem. To help the readers to understand this system better, we give 'AB two stage' system as an example to show how to inject regenerative input into the physical structure to fulfill the expectations from different perspectives.

Wu NC, Nystrom MA, Lin TR, Yu HC (2006) Challenges to global RFID adoption. Technovation 26:1317-1323 Because of its potential to revolutionize global supply chain management (SCM) systems, ultra high-frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) was recently the cause of much optimism. Wal-Mart mandated its top 100 suppliers to begin using RFID on I January 2005; this day was viewed as a watershed day in the industry. However, that date has come and gone, and the expected rapid industry adoption of RFID has not taken place. This paper explores the existing challenges and obstacles to RFID's quick adoption, the potential resolutions and approaches to the challenges, and the migration strategies to expand the RFID industry.

Wu WY, Tsai HJ, Cheng KY, Lai MK (2006) Assessment of intellectual capital management in Taiwanese IC design companies: using DEA and the Malmquist productivity index. R & D Management 36:531-545 While withstanding a highly competitive environment, an increasing number of firms have recognized that intangible assets rather than tangible ones are vital to achieving competitive advantages. Intellectual capital has replaced physical capital as the primary basis of value creation. Although the importance of intellectual capital in ensuring superior competitive advantages is well accepted, exactly how these two constructs are related has seldom been investigated, particularly for the high-technology industry. Taking a sample of 39 Taiwanese IC design companies, this study adopted data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity index to evaluate the impact of intellectual capital on competitive advantage. The analytical results revealed that approximately one third of the companies sampled had excellent efficiency in intellectual capital management, while the others still had considerable room to improve their intellectual capital management. The results of this study provide a valuable reference for future studies in alternative contexts.

Yawson RM, Amoa-Awua WWK, Sutherland AJ, Smith DR, Noamesi SK (2006) Developing a performance measurement framework to enhance the impact orientation of the Food Research Institute, Ghana. R & D Management 36:161-172 Research institutions in Ghana are facing various challenges. It is the contention that viable research and development institutions are needed for achieving sustainable change in areas of national importance. A key aspect of institutional viability is strong performance management. This implies clear and workable approaches to performance measurement. This paper looks at the initial experiences in a collaborative effort to develop a performance measurement framework for the Food Research Institute (FRI) and the application of the Balanced Score Card (BSC) at institutional level. The process of diagnosing and analysing institutional monitoring and evaluation capacity and systems is described using a mix of diagnostic tools. Stages in applying the BSC approach are documented and the added value of the scorecard perspectives in highlighting focal areas for performance measurement and management within FRI. These are placed in the context of ongoing changes in the external environment posing both threats and opportunities. Changes implied by the introduction of the concept are discussed in the context of current constraints and the way forward is mapped out in terms of enhancing FRIs' impact orientation through the application of improved performance measurement and management.

Youtie J, Libaers D, Bozeman B (2006) Institutionalization of university research centers: The case of the National Cooperative Program in Infertility Research. Technovation 26:1055-1063 This study uses an institutional design theoretical framework and a cross-case analysis qualitative research methodology to consider the National Cooperative Program in Infertility Research (NCPIR) centers as an effort to enhance scientific and technical knowledge by designing institutions (in this case the NCPIR centers) to promote the growth of knowledge by promoting collaboration, building collaborative networks and promoting "scientific and technical human capital." In considering the NCPIR centers from an institutional design perspective, we consider their level and type of institutionalization of the centers. Then we seek to assess the extent to which the level and type of institutionalization developed within these centers optimizes the objectives that have been set forth. We found that although the NCPIR centers have some if not many administrative elements found in fully articulated research centers and substantial quantities and varied types of research and training outputs, they are not sufficiently institutionalized to achieve the ambitious and challenging goals of serving as a national infertility research source, national training resource, and national inter-institutional linkages over the long run.

Yusuf Y, Gunasekaran A, Wu CL (2006) Implementation of enterprise resource planning in China. Technovation 26:1324-1336 ERP implementation is a 'Triple Play' that combines people, technology, and processes. It embodies a complex implementation process, especially in developing countries like China, often taking several years, huge amount of fund and involving a major business process reengineering exercise. In this paper, an attempt has been made to identify some Chinese-specific difficulties in the implementation process and provide solutions to implement ERP system successfully through questionnaire survey, interviews, and secondary data. On the basis of analysis of questionnaire results, some common difficulties have been explored by authors, such as support of top management, costly and time-consuming, cultural differences, technical complexity, lack of professional personnel, and inner resistance. The difficulties are largely due to the nature of enterprise's ownership and size. Suggested solutions to overcome these difficulties: ERP software packages selection, ERP implementation team, BPR, Training, and Outsourcing-Application Service Provider. These solutions can effectively solve ERP difficulties.