Framing inclusive innovation within the discourse of development: Insights from case studies in India

The concept of ‘inclusive innovation’ for development has become increasingly prominent in both academic and policy discourses, raising important questions as to how this is being framed. Results from case studies conducted in India suggest inclusive innovation to be interpretively flexible and contested. One case presents a grassroots framing emphasising social and political empowerment, rooted in community self-sufficiency, autonomy and traditional belief systems. In contrast, the other cases co-opt the language of inclusion to present a predominantly market-based framing, heavily emphasising market readiness and participation. This framing is transforming rural social practices (including the organisation of space and time, the meaning of production and the role of women), introducing the potential for market dependency.     

Entrepreneurial transformations in the Swedish University system: the case of Chalmers University of Technology

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Sweden has been transforming its national research policy into policy for innovation. One of the bottom up responses to this top d initiative has been an attempt on the part of some Swedish universities to transform themselves into entrepreneurial institutions. This paper uses a case study of one particular Swedish University; Chalmers University of Technology’s transformation process to reflect on the new research policy. Chalmers’ journey is examined against the backdrop of the changing national climate for universities as well as local factors within the university itself.The case confirms existing knowledge in that it shows that creating an entrepreneurial university takes several years as both infrastructural and cultural changes are necessary to achieve success. The case also shows that despite the long history of public-private in Sweden, the new emphasis on commercialisation and commodification of knowledge creates some degree of role uncertainty for universities. The paper concludes that one of the elements required for Swedish innovation policy is macro (policy vision and implementation) and micro (university organisation) level flexibility and diversity.     

政治嵌入度与自主创新绩效的悖论关系分析

基于我国国有企业在具备优势条件下自主创新绩效却低于民营企业这一现象,通过对上汽集团及吉利集团的企业年报进行扎根分析,辨识两种不同政治嵌入度的企业的注意力视角及配置,探究其配置机制与特征,进而阐释其对企业创新行为与绩效的影响。研究发现：（1）不同政治嵌入度的企业的注意力视角是相同的,包括市场、政策、员工及技术。但受外部制度要求、组织身份及企业目标的影响,二者的注意力配置机制及模式不同;（2）注意力配置的基本原则是相同的,即与企业效益相符;（3）企业的政治嵌入程度与企业对政策导向的关注度可能呈现非正相关关系。注意力在政治嵌入度与企业行为及绩效间起调节变量的作用。因此,较高的政治嵌入程度以及由此获得的优势条件不能作为评判企业是否具备高创新绩效的依据。     

Organisational conditions for service encounter-based innovation

This article investigates the organisational conditions for service encounter-based innovation. Its focus is on the initial crucial part of the innovation process during which ideas/new practises are developed by front-line employees and integrated in the organisation. The article argues that service encounter-based innovation varies among service organisations because of different organisational conditions. This is illustrated in a multiple comparative case study of 11 Scandinavian service organisations. A model of conditions for service encounter-based innovation is developed based on the theoretical discussions and the case study. The model suggests how and why some service organisations derive innovation benefits from service-encounters while others do not. Thus, the article provides new and important knowledge concerning user-driven innovation in services.     

生态系统情境下的整体性技术扩展适应

采用案例研究方法对整体性技术的扩展适应过程展开研究,为技术扩展适应发生并演变为突破性创新的过程机制提供更加完整的理论解释。提炼出技术扩展适应向突破性创新演化的过程模型,明确了创新生态系统架构的形成先于整体性技术扩展适应的事实,发现有目的的研究与机缘巧合共同构成了技术扩展适应的触发机制,并认为整体性技术的扩展适应需要政策、制度、科学等环境要素的投入,对促进整体性技术扩展适应具有政策价值。     

Political tie hot potato: The contingent effect of China's anti-corruption policy on cash and innovation

In this study, we combine the resource-based view (RBV) with institutional theory to examine how a firm's cash holding affects its innovation investments and outcomes and explore the contingent roles of political ties and the national anti-corruption policy. Using 18,125 firm-year observations of Chinese firms from 2007 to 2016, we reveal a three-way interactive effect of cash holding, political ties, and the anti-corruption policy on innovation. Before the policy is implemented, cash holding has the greatest positive effect on R&D investment for politically connected firms, and after the implementation this positive effect for these firms is strongest for R&D outcomes. We propose that the logic of resource utilization efficiency implied by the anti-corruption policy strongly motivates politically connected firms to convert their R&D investment into actual output. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Challenging the “deficit model” of innovation: Framing policy issues under the innovation imperative

As innovation is increasingly becoming an imperative for policymakers around the globe, there is a growing tendency to frame policy problems as problems of innovation. This logic suggests that we are unable to address grand societal challenges and ensure economic competitiveness because our societies, institutions, scientific activities or individual predispositions are not sufficiently geared towards innovation. In this paper, we analyze this “deficit model” of innovation in which a lack of innovation is routinely invoked as the main obstacle to social progress. Drawing parallels to research on the deficit model of public understanding of science (PUS), we develop a theoretical framework that captures the dynamics and normative implications of deficit construction, highlighting five salient dimensions: problem diagnoses, proposed remedies, the role of expertise, implied social orders, and measures of success. We apply this framework to three empirical case studies of recent innovation strategies in Luxembourg, Singapore, and Denmark. Attention to this deficit framing around innovation is important, we argue, because it is an essential part of how innovation transforms societies in the 21st century: not only through new technological possibilities or economic growth, but also by shaping public discourse, narrowing policy options, and legitimizing major institutional interventions. The implied pro-innovation bias tends to marginalize other rationales, values, and social functions that do not explicitly support innovation. It further delegates decisions about sweeping social reconfigurations to innovation experts, which raises questions of accountability and democratic governance. Experiences from the history of PUS suggest that, without a dedicated effort to transform innovation policy into a more democratic, inclusive, and explicitly political field, the present deficit logic and its technocratic overtones risks significant social and political conflict.     

众创空间创新产出影响因素的协同作用研究————基于31个省市众创空间数据的模糊集定性比较分析

文章基于系统整合观构建了众创空间创新产出影响因素分析模型，并以31个省市众创空间为案例样本，应用模糊集定性比较分析（fsQCA）方法，研究了众创空间创新产出影响因素的协同作用，进而探索了创新产出的孵育模式。研究结果发现：①存在四种可导致众创空间高创新产出的政府政策与平台服务的组合，并可进一步概括为“政府推动型”和“平台促进型”两类孵化模式，其中“平台促进型”是目前推进我国众创空间实现高创新产出的主要孵化模式；②各影响因素间存在复杂的替代或者/和互补关系，政府补贴和众创平台的孵化服务之间存在一定条件下的替代关系；③结合现有理论解释和典型案例分析，提出了三个有一定潜力且可待检验的关于众创空间创新产出影响因素间关系的研究命题。研究结果从系统协同视角丰富了创新产出影响因素研究的文献，并为众创空间的创新孵育实践和政策制定提供了实证指导。     

Assessing the effects of a deliberate policy mix: The case of technology and innovation advisory services and innovation vouchers

While innovation policy mixes combining several policy instruments have been advocated as a response to complex problems, there is very little evidence of their effectiveness compared to that of individual instruments. By considering a set of Italian regional policy programmes implemented in 2011–2014, we analysed a policy mix composed of: (i) technology and innovation advisory services, the aim of which is to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to gain a better awareness of their innovation needs and of how to address them; and (ii) innovation vouchers, which are used to subsidise SME purchases of knowledge-intensive services. To draw causal inferences on their differential effectiveness, we adopted a propensity-score-matching approach extended to multiple treatment levels.We found that advisory services are more effective than innovation vouchers and as effective as policy mixes in increasing SME propensity to innovate and engage in R&D collaborations. Conversely, policy mixes are more effective than each individual instrument in increasing productivity. Hence, merely providing SMEs with technology and innovation advice is not sufficient to elicit productivity improvements; SMEs also need to act on such advice by working with external providers of knowledge-intensive services in order to implement efficiency-producing changes.     

A neo-Schumpeterian model of health services innovation

The paper presents and empirically applies a neo-Schumpeterian model of innovation capable of studying interactions between service providers, patients and policy makers, and how these complex interactions determine the timing, direction, and success of innovations in the public sector. The model is tested using a case study that traces the introduction and development of ambulatory surgery in a Spanish hospital. The multi-agent model applies the ideas of Schumpeter to services, encompassing Schumpeter's five types of innovation, and re-introducing the policy-maker as a key agent in the innovation process. The model has a number of advantages over previous, reduced form models. First, it can analyse the interactions between the economic, social and political spheres that make up the complex selection environment of innovations. Second, it captures the recursive impact of radical innovations on agents’ competences and preferences, and their relative power. This brings politics, power, and rhetorical persuasion to the fore. Third, it provides an improved set of definitions for radical and incremental innovation. These are not only important for understanding the sources and drivers of innovation, but also for the accurate measurement of innovation.     

政府研发补贴有助于企业创新效率提升吗？——基于模糊集定性比较分析（fsQCA）的研究

政府研发补贴是各国普遍采用的促进企业创新活动的政策，如何发挥其应有效能是学术界和政策制定者关注的重要问题。以高端装备制造业上市公司为研究样本，采用MinDS模型测度考虑非期望产出的创新效率，应用模糊集定性比较分析方法（fsQCA）研究了各要素联动如何作用于企业创新效率。结果表明：（1）身处欠佳市场环境中的民营企业若能取得政府补贴，无论是事前补贴还是事后补贴都将有助于创新效率的提升；相反，身处良好市场环境的民营企业对政府补贴的依赖较弱；（2）身处欠佳市场环境中且无丰富政治关联的企业，政府研发事前与事后补贴相辅相成才能促进企业创新效率的提升，其中事后补贴起关键作用；（3）身处欠佳市场环境中的企业，如果拥有较多的政治关联，则最好不要借此寻求事前补贴，否则企业会陷入“政治资源诅咒”的漩涡。     

妇联枢纽型组织建设研究

本文对妇联和社会组织的优势及不足进行了分析。指出妇联具有参政议政的制度化渠道,但是倡导功能有所保留;纵向组织健全,横向组织发育有限;公信力较强,但传统工作手法的有效性下降;社会组织理念和使命鲜明,但缺乏社会政策的倡导平台;服务专业化,但服务对象有限;创新能力强,但因公信力不足而整合资源困难。在此基础上,提出妇联应以社会组织建设为理念,作人才培养、资源整合、社会政策、社会组织培育等方面的"枢纽型"的组织,这是适合我国国情的路径选择,是新形势下社会组织和政府之间的"桥梁",可以推动我国社会管理创新的有序开展。     

Understanding regional innovation cultures: Narratives,directionality, and conservative innovation in Bavaria

In recent years, innovation policy has increasingly embraced “situated” perspectives to better account for both how culture matters for innovation in diverse settings and how to deal with growing socio-economic inequalities and conflicts in the global innovation landscape. In this paper, we develop the framework of “regional innovation cultures” to put these perspectives on more solid theoretical footing. Regional innovation cultures refer to unique ways in which regional innovation initiatives and technology developments (their goals, meanings, material organization, and actor constellations) are being brought into alignment with local identities, socio-economic legacies, and unique political cultures. Our framework foregrounds five analytic dimensions: imagined social orders, representations, political cultures, relationship to national and global initiatives, and local controversies. We apply this framework to one in-depth regional case study of the German state of Bavaria, focusing on innovation policy in three sectors: space, agriculture, and automotive. We show how Bavaria enacts what we call a “conservative innovation culture”, where innovation is framed as a way to preserve socio-economic orders rather than disrupt them, and where political and economic incumbents forcefully shape and absorb emerging niche activities. Innovation in Bavaria is performed through a political culture of small state-like corporatism that emphasizes strong coordination of all major actors, grants state bureaucracies a key role in defining directions for innovation in the form of a quasi-technonationalism, and tends to sideline alternative visions and voices for innovation. Across all three sectors, culture serves as a framing device to legitimize innovation primarily as an extension of existing social orders; conversely, innovation serves as a vehicle to reinforce dominant ideas of the public good. Through the lens of culture, innovation ceases to be primarily a source of social change and disruption, but can be understood as a mode of socio-cultural reproduction subject to tentative, constrained experimentation. Innovation initiatives cannot break too radically with existing social norms and orders without risking public support or legitimacy, thus creating a trade-off between proposing novelty and ensuring continuity. Our analysis lends further support for constructivist approaches to innovation studies, emphasizing plural and socially grounded perspectives on the rationalization, implementation, and evaluation of innovation.     

科技企业孵化器服务创新影响因素研究

基于对我国部分企业孵化器管理及相关人员的调查,对影响企业孵化器服务创新的因素及其服务创新进行了研究。结果表明,孵化器服务创新的影响因素主要有资源、政策环境、运营模式等;孵化器服务创新的方法主要是为被孵企业建立资源网络、提供基础性服务以改善政策环境、进行培育指导等;服务创新可以解决孵化器服务创新影响因素造成的短期困难和服务能力不足造成的长期困难。     

创新科技政策及其三阶段周期研究

创新科技政策(ITP)是政府为了影响或者控制企业技术创新资源和知识利用及转化的速度、效率、规模,而采用的一系列政策的总和,强调政策决策者应关注创新技术的动态演化和变革。通过对创新政策、产业政策和ITP的比较,探讨了ITP的特点和意义,进一步对创新科技政策三阶段周期进行归纳,总结了各阶段政策目标和支持措施。结合以色列ITP实施案例得出启示,ITP为区域创新政策刺激企业创新提供了新的研究视角。     

The evolving relations between government agencies of innovation policymaking in emerging economies: A policy network approach and its application to the Chinese case

Literature on innovation policy reveals little of how relations between government agencies as policymakers evolve. Taking the policy network approach, this paper investigates three mechanisms underlining the evolution of inter-government agency relations in emerging economies – policy agenda, power concentration and heterogeneity dependence, and applies them to the analysis of the evolution of innovation policymaking in China. Operationally, the paper proposes a social network analysis (SNA)-based method to quantitatively study China’s innovation policy network, which consists of 463 innovation policy documents formulated by its central government ministries between 1980 and 2011. The findings show that the formal policy network for innovation has been not only sustained through the intervention of policy agendas but also self-organized because of policy network’s nature of power concentration and heterogeneity dependence. The presence of such mixed mechanisms in China’s innovation policy network’s evolution differs from the findings from industrialized countries where self-organization plays a central role. This work advances our theoretical understanding of the evolution of innovation policy network and has implications for innovation policymaking in emerging economies.     

An empirical analysis of the IC Navigator approach in practice – a case study of five manufacturing firms

The literature surrounding Intellectual Capital (IC) theory has grown substantially over the last 10 years with new models, frameworks and approaches introduced for how to manage IC. Yet, the practical implication of deploying IC methods in an organisation and its impact on a firm's business model innovation and decision-making process is relatively unexplored. This paper will review one tool, the IC Navigator approach and its effectiveness as a tool for resource deployment analysis and its impact on a firm's future value creation activities. The paper reports on research that involved five manufacturing firms who participated in an action learning workshop series and particularly the workshop dedicated to using the IC Navigator approach. The usefulness of this model as a tool to reconfiguring a firm's resources, as perceived by the five firms, is examined and findings are presented.     

企业政治行为对原始性创新的影响研究——基于制度视角和资源依赖理论

原始性创新对企业资源与能力提出较高要求,而随着中国市场经济的转型和民主化进程的加快,企业逐渐具备了通过政治行为影响政府决策与公共政策的能力。基于制度视角和资源依赖理论,研究企业政治行为影响原始性创新的路径以及企业组织冗余对这一关系的影响。404家中国企业调研数据的实证研究表明,企业政治行为有利于其获得政治合法性,进而促进企业的原始性创新。另外,组织冗余正向调节政治合法性与原始性创新之间的关系,即企业组织冗余水平较高时,政治合法性对原始性创新的促进作用更大。研究结论有助于我们更好地理解促进企业原始性创新的机制,对现阶段中国企业的创新实践具有一定的参考价值。