The performance impact of intra-firm organizational design on an alliance's NPD projects

This research contributes to the intra-organization, inter-organization, and new product development (NPD) management literature by studying the impact of a firm's internal organizational design on the communication within and performance of NPD projects conducted with strategic alliance partners. The empirical data were collected from three in-depth case studies of network lead companies (NLCs) operating in different industries. The three NLCs have different internal organizational designs, ranging from very flexible “organic” to very rigid “mechanistic.” In each NLC, a successful new-to-firm product development project was chosen for further detailed investigation. First, we identify the role the alliance's NPD project characteristics and industry characteristics play in determining the “intensity level” and “media richness” of communication required between the alliance's NPD project partners. Then, we examine how the internal organizational design influences the actual intensity and media richness of communication of the alliance's NPD project that matches our assumptions of what is required.     

In search of insights into the generation of techno-economic trends: Micro- and macro-constituencies in the microprocessor industry

In the field of technology policy, few challenges are more intriguing than understanding the nature of technical and market trends. This paper deals with this problem by using the sociotechnical constituencies approach in order to integrate the treatment of “micro”/“macro” issues — from product to industry. The case study is that of the microprocessor industry where at present a Risc (reduced instruction set computer) technology is emerging in a field where a powerful and far-from-exhausted Cisc (complex instruction set computer) technology tends to occupy almost every segment of the market. The analysis reveals how emerging product-constituencies do implement pro-active trend-creating strategies in order to establish themselves as industrial trends, and, by so doing, they simultaneously re-define the existing content of the “macro” industrial level. The study also reveals the important role of the nature and maturity of microprocessor technology in conditioning the constituency-building strategies implemented by different players. Microprocessor technology is specifically characterised as an architectural, codified-knowledge component with indirect network externalities and weak appropriability regime. Finally, the paper also highlights the potential risks of both fragmentation and complete proprietary control of technology in technological processes involving strongly competitive situations.     

Projects and firms as discordant complements: organisational learning in the Munich software ecology

In current theorising, projects and firms are understood as “learning organisations”. Although the learning function can be regarded as constituent for both organisational forms, the specific learning mechanisms are connected with opposing features (e.g. long-term, trustful collaboration versus short cyclical, disruptive collaboration). Referring to the first results of qualitative research conducted on the Munich software cluster, this paper aims to explore the functional interplay between projects and firms with regard to organisational learning. The main thesis is that processes of improvement, failure eradication and knowledge accumulation are more likely to take place in firms whereas processes of structural change are more likely to be organised in a project. In complementing one another these functions, however, also generate inconsistencies like contravening learning incentives or contingency traps. Therefore, projects and firms may be regarded as “discordant complements”.     

Policy learning in Swiss research policy—the case of the National Centres of Competence in Research

The article treats the problem of “rationality” in learning processes in research policies. The underlying hypothesis is that there are contemporary efforts in research policy-making, which, against views in organisational sociology like “bounded rationality” or “garbage-can”, endeavour to “rationalise” the process of decision-making in research policies. This hypothesis is worked out by taking one example, the setting-up of the “National Centres of Competence in Research” (NCCR) in Switzerland and analyse the processes that have contributed to the acceptance of this funding measure. Our finding is that Switzerland has introduced some “rationalising devices” but that these devices are still insufficiently institutionalised and can be further elaborated. In addition, it is made clear that goal-oriented problem-solving and interests are closely intertwined and cannot be dissociated from another. This may have distorting effects on the rationality of the learning process. It is, nevertheless, a necessary condition in order to learn at all.     

SAPPHO updated - project SAPPHO phase II

Project SAPPHO consists of a comparative analysis of ‘paired’ successful and unsuccessful technological innovations, where one half of the pair is a commercial success and the other a commercial failure. In phase I of the project twenty-nine pairs were investigated, seventeen in chemical processes and twelve in scientific instruments. Five main areas of difference between successful and unsuccessful innovators emerged which related to the innovator's understanding of user needs, efficiency of development, characteristics of managers, efficiency of communications and marketing and sales efforts.In phase II, the project has been extended to include a new total of forty-three pairs, twenty-two in chemical processes and twenty-one in scientific instruments. The results of phase I have been confirmed with the same five underlying factors emerging as strongly differentiating between success and failure and with some inter-industry differences becoming clearer. These differences, by and large, relate to the basic structural and environmental differences which exist between the two industries.Following the statistical analysis a subjective review was made of thirty-four failure cases, and those factors which contributed maximally to the individual failures were identified. The results of this exercise support the results of the statistical analysis, but they also highlight some new and significant factors. Finally, some of the more important of the many hypotheses which have been forwarded as offering explanations for innovative success were tested in the tight of the phase II SAPPHO results.     

When does community participation enhance the performance of open source software companies?

This study examined how participation in open innovation communities influences the innovative and financial performance of firms commercializing open source software. Using an original dataset of open source companies in the Netherlands, I found that the community participation–performance relationship is curvilinear. In addition, results indicate that extensive technical participation in open source projects is more strongly related to performance for firms that also engage in social (“offline”) community activities, for companies of larger size, and for firms with high R&D intensities. Overall, this research refines our understanding of the boundary conditions under which engagement in community-based innovation yields private returns to commercial actors.     

创业失败、失败学习和新创企业绩效的关系研究

创业失败是学习的一种重要情景,甚至比创业成功更具有信息价值,而创业研究却忽视失败视角,割裂了失败与成功之间的关系。为了更好地理解创业失败经历是否有助于日后创业成功这一核心问题,本文构建了创业失败、失败学习和新创企业绩效的理论模型,并通过对147份有效样本的实证研究得到了以下发现：创业失败与失败学习、新创业企业绩效均呈非线性倒u关系,即随着创业失败次数和失败程度地增加,创业者的失败学习水平和新创业企业绩效也会随之增加;但是当失败次数和失败程度超过某一个阀值点以后,经历过多地失败反而会导致失败学习水平和新创企业绩效降低;而失败学习与新创企业绩效有显著正影响,失败学习在创业失败与新创企业绩效之间起到中介效应作用。研究发现揭示出,并不是所有的失败经历都能等效地促进失败学习,适度失败才是最佳学习情景,最具有学习价值,善于从失败中学习才是走向创业成功的关键。     

The researcher in Italy: A profession in search of recognition

This article deals with the “teething, problems” of the profession of researchers in Italy.This group of professionals in fact has grown very rapidly over the last two decades, but they still seem to be striving to find their proper place in the organization they work in and recognition from society in general. At the same time they have acquired a sufficiently self-awareness as an emerging group and started claiming their own “rights”.The article examines some problems researchers encounter in their specific working setting (industry, university, public research agencies), such as mobility, status, and career prospects.Mobility within the Italian science and technology (S&T) system is very low and is essentially one way, from industry. the professions, and public research agencies, to university, This peculiarity is very closely linked to the high prestige enjoyed by university professors in this country. Moreover. recent laws concerning university teaching staff havede facto saturated the permanent staff, severely restricting both mobility to university and the intake of new blood.An indication of the self-awareness of the profession may he found in the mobilisation of researchers in public research agencies and their claim to their “ecological niche”.It is concluded that researchers, who may he considered a substantially homogeneous group, feel mature and numerous enough to demand the slalus and prestige adequate to their contribution to a modern society; it is also asserted that the delay in granting recognition is due to the organizations and institutions.     

Which Lessons Are Learned? Best Practices and World Bank Rural Telecommunications Policy

The World Bank has been the largest multilateral source of rural telecommunications financing in developing countries since the mid-1960s. This article analyzes World Bank-sponsored studies of rural telecommunications initiatives in Chile, Peru, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Malaysia to identify which lessons the bank draws from them and recommends for other countries. The World Bank's preference for a “best practice” approach in its research leads it to attribute successes and failures to a narrow scope of factors that tend to agree with its economic policy priorities. Instead, rural telecommunications practices should be analyzed within their broader socio-institutional and cultural contexts in order to enable cross-situational applications, and a broad array of stakeholders should be involved in shaping the lessons learned.     

Evaluations of innovation programmes in selected European countries

The incorporation of an evaluation procedure in a growing number of innovation policy programmes has now become an accepted feature in the public management of many countries. There already exists substantial experience on the conduct of such evaluations. The purpose of this paper is to present some sample evaluations of measures to promote innovation in a number of European OECD countries (Federal Republic of Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden). Reference will be made to four of them to illustrate the diversity of the evaluative approaches applied to the wide spectrum of measures to promote innovation. Each of these examples will be studied in detail in order to identify their characteristic features, particularly with attention to their causes, performance and their use in political decision processes.A conceptual framework will be presented in order to propose a typology of various forms of evaluation and to characterize the four case studies. It shows that concept and process of evaluations are strongly influences by the specific context and consensus or dissent on objectives and resources. The case studies give a clearer insight into the factors determining the use of results of evaluations; and to what extent the role of evaluations varies from pure legitimation to a systematic and rational basis for decision making in the area of technology policy.Innovation policy consists of government actions towards technological developments and their implementation in the economy. Innovation, in this case, is defined as the development of technologically new or improved products or techniques and their commercialization in the market or implementation within production. Often evaluation means the examination and assessment of the mode of action and of the effectiveness of government innovation policy. However, finding a general interpretation of the expression “evaluation of an innovation policy” presents greater difficulty, and here wide divergences are evident. In the Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands, the term encompasses all forms of monitoring and assessing the operation and/or the effectiveness of an innovation policy. In Sweden, evaluation usually means performance of the a posteriori analysis of a measure. The terms “ex ante evaluation” and “follow-up evaluation” are respectively used for the explicit designation of prospective and retrospective analyses. In France, the term “evaluation” is associated with the notion of value. It often carries the connotation of a value assessment with the full monitoring implications of that expression.     

Technical change and the industrial district: The role of interfirm relations in the growth and transformation of ceramic tile production in Italy

This paper considers two aspects of technical change in the ceramic tile industry in Italy: firstly, the process of invention, adoption and diffusion of new techniques in the industry; secondly, the impact of forces of a technical nature in shaping the industrial structure.The process of technical change is examined in the light of the interrelationships between firms and their proximity. These are crucial elements characterizing an “industrial district”, whose boundaries go beyond the industry defined on a product basis. The industrial district is adopted as unit of analysis of the process of technical change. Moreover, economic, social and institutional features are considered. In this context the historical developments of new techniques are discussed in terms of the constraints to the established position of the firm at a particular time.Among the determinants of the ceramic tile industrial structure, economies of scale have had a minor role. The pattern of vertical disintegration we observe in the industry is - instead - closely related to the technical developments in the industry through the effects of technical change on the product and process specialization of the production units operating in the industrial district.     

The open kimono: How Intel balances trust and power to maintain platform leadership

A small group of companies including Intel, Microsoft, and Cisco have used “platform leadership” with great effect as a means for driving innovation and accelerating market growth within their respective industries. Prior research in this area emphasizes that trust plays a critical role in the success of this strategy. However, many of the categorizations of trust discussed in the literature tend to ignore or undervalue the fact that trust and power are often functionally equivalent, and that the coercion of weaker partners is sometimes misdiagnosed as collaboration. In this paper, I use case study data focusing on Intel's shift from ceramic/wire-bonded packaging to organic/C4 packaging to characterize the relationships between Intel and its suppliers, and to determine if these links are based on power in addition to trust. The case study shows that Intel's platform leadership strategy is built on a balance of both trust and a relatively benevolent form of power that is exemplified by the company's “open kimono” principle, through which Intel insists that suppliers share detailed financial data and highly proprietary technical information to achieve mutually advantageous objectives. By explaining more completely the nature of these inter-firm linkages, this paper usefully extends our understanding of how platform leadership is maintained by Intel, and contributes to the literature by showing how trust and power can be used simultaneously within an inter-firm relationship in a way that benefits all of the stakeholders.     

Innovation as co-evolution of scientific and technological networks: exploring tissue engineering

The question of exactly how science is commercialized is an important one. While the social structures of “science” and “technology” are distinctive, recent work suggests that scientific and technological ideas in fact co-evolve. This paper addresses the dynamics of such co-evolution: are scientific networks deeply co-mingled with networks through which technology is created and if so how? It does so in a study of an emerging area of biomedicine—tissue engineering. The research is based on a novel methodology that takes advantage of the fact that an idea is often inscribed in both a patent and paper, thus forming a patent–paper pair. Starting with the pair, it is possible to trace the citation network of patents, papers, inventors and authors, combining traditional bibliometric analysis with in-depth interviews to provide new insights. The results show that for this case there exist distinctive scientific and technological networks. Furthermore, while there is evidence of overlap, it is neither co-publishing nor citation as might be predicted from current literature. Rather co-mingling exists through founding, licensing, consulting and advising. This has implications for our understanding of the processes through which spillovers arise, the way in which commercialization and technology transfer should be structured and for recent debates on conflict of interest in biomedicine.     

Knowledge codification and the geography of innovation: the case of Brescia mechanical cluster

The paper re-examines the twin concepts of knowledge “tacitness” and “codification”, which both the literature on (broadly defined) industrial districts, and some recent econometric literature on “localized knowledge spillovers” have possibly mis-handled. Even within specialized local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) clusters, knowledge may be highly codified and firm-specific. The case study on Brescia mechanical firms shows that knowledge, rather than flowing freely within the cluster boundaries, circulates within a few smaller “epistemic communities”, each centered around the mechanical engineers of individual machine producers, and spanning to a selected number of suppliers’ and customers’ technicians. Physical distance among members of each community vary a lot, but even local messages may be highly codified.     

Cooperation between rivals: Informal know-how trading

“Informal” know-how trading is the extensive exchange of proprietary know-how by informal networks of process engineers in rival (and non-rival) firms. I have observed such know-how trading networks to be very active in the US steel minimill industry and elsewhere, and they appear to represent a novel form of cooperative R&D.When one examines informal know-how trading in the framework of a “Prisoner's Dilemma”, real-world conditions can be specified where this behavior both does and does not make economic sense from the point of view of participating firms. Data available to date on the presence and absence of such trading seem to be roughly in accordance with the predictions of this simple model.Although presently documented only as a firm-level phenomenon involving the trading of proprietary technical knowhow, informal know-how trading seems relevant to (and may currently exist in) many other types of situation. Indeed, it may be applicable to any situation in which individuals or organizations are involved in a competition where possession of proprietary know-how represents a form of competitive advantage.     

Intelligent information retrieval: diagnosing information need. : Part I. The theoretical framework for developing an intelligent IR tool

The research examines the notion that the principles underlying the procedure used by doctors to diagnose a patient's disease are useful in the design of “intelligent” IR systems because the task of the doctor is conceptually similar to the computer (or human) intermediary's task in “intelligent information retrieval”: to draw out, through interaction with the IR system, the user's query/information need. The research is reported in two parts. In Part II, an information retrieval tool is described which is based on “intelligent information retrieval” assumptions about the information user. In Part I, presented here, the theoretical framework for the tool is set out. This framework is borrowed from the diagnostic procedure currently used in medicine, called “differential diagnosis”. Because of the severe consequences that attend misdiagnosis, the operating principle in differential diagnosis is (1) to expand the uncertainty in the diagnosis situation so that all possible hypotheses and evidence are considered, then (2) to contract the uncertainty in a step by step fashion (from an examination of the patient's symptoms, through the patient's history and a physical (signs), to laboratory tests). The IR theories of Taylor, Kuhlthau and Belkin are used to demonstrate that these medical diagnosis procedures are already present in IR and that it is a viable model with which to design “intelligent” IR tools and systems.     

What determines technological hits?: Geography versus firm competencies

The centrality of firms vis-à-vis regions underlines a general contrast between two models of producing innovations. This paper uses a new database composed of 4262 European chemical patents applied by 693 firms during 1987–1996 to compare the relative effect of firm and regional characteristics on the production of technological “hits” (highly cited patents). By using extensive controls, the main finding of the paper is that technological hits in the “traditional” chemical sectors are explained only by R&D intensity at the firm level and the scale of the research projects. Firm competencies, particularly technological specialisation, are still important in biotechnology. However, the distinct feature of the biotechnology model is that localised knowledge spillovers also matter.     

Who Wants to Be a Discipline?

In contemporary times, two primary motivations have driven academics to attempt to form new intellectual disciplines. The first motivation is intrinsic to the subject matter at issue: Either old disciplinary questions need to be examined in new ways (as in the creation of sociolinguistics out of linguistics and sociology) or the field itself is novel (for example, computer science). The second motivation is more political: Unlike “areas of inquiry,” “fields of study,” or “tools of research,” new disciplines (e.g., cognitive science) often command significant academic real estate and sizable budgets. This essay considers several case studies in which potential academic disciplines have emerged—or failed to do so. The author suggests that in their attempts to determine what formal status they wish their research to hold, Internet scholars must carefully differentiate between the nature of their intellectual enterprise and legitimate professional desire for academic turf.