SPECIAL ISSUE OF INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
From 7th International CINet Conference (10-12 Sept. 2006 - Lucca, Italy)

To be published early 2009

Guest editors: Mats MAGNUSSON & Antonella MARTINI

This special issue is based on papers presented at the 7th International CINet Conference which was hosted by the University of Pisa and Milan Polytechnic in September 2006. The theme of the conference was “CI and Sustainability - Designing the road ahead”. After a screening process of all 75 papers in the conference proceedings, a number of contributions were selected and the authors were invited to submit their revised work. Following a new double-blind review process, 10 articles were selected for publication in this special issue. We are most grateful to all the external reviewers for their valuable efforts in this selection and improvement process.

The articles selected for this special issue cover a range of topics of direct relevance to Continuous Innovation, and connect them to the more general discussion of dualities and paradoxes described in our introductory paper. None of the articles pretend to offer ‘the’ definitive answer to the innovation challenges that they are exploring. Nevertheless they do provide well-researched insights that help to pave the way to dealing with these more effectively. They also offer practitioners structures, models and guidelines that help to codify the valuable experience gained through what are still experiments at the frontier of innovation management knowledge and practice.

The first four articles (Hyland and Soosay - a, Bessant, Andreassen and Gertsen, and Kianto) focus on the development of continuous innovation capacity, while articles five (Becker) and six (Strand-Nielsen et al.) address the issues of learning and unlearning more explicitly. The remaining articles deal with more specific questions related to the development of dual organizational capabilities, investigating HRM (Jørgensen et al.), Knowledge Management (Hyland and Soosay – b) and IT Management (Cantamessa et al., Ciappini et al.).

• Table of contents

Mats MAGNUSSON and Antonella MARTINI - “Dual Organizazional Capabilities: from Theory to Practice. The Next Challenge for Continuous Innovation”

Abstract: Today’s business environment poses a significant challenge to many firms, namely to continuously innovate, combining operational excellence with both steady-state and discontinuous innovation. At a closer look, it can also be seen that a number of leading firms today seem to be able to handle the resulting situation quite well, revealing good operational and innovation performance over time. At the same time, the bulk of management theory still approaches this problem with a trade-off perspective, implying that these aspects of business are analysed separately, and that efficiency and innovation have to be regarded as mutually excluding things to strive for – suggesting that firms can be good in one of the two abilities but not in both simultaneously. This points to a gap in existing research that scholars need to fill. Building on management literature about paradoxes and dualities, and using some examples from practice, this contribution stresses the ‘practicability’ of the duality perspective for Continuous Innovation research and practice. The ten articles of this special issue coming from the Continuous Innovation Network (CINet) researchers provide some ideas about what dual capabilities firms need to develop in order to deal with the identified challenges of continuously innovating.

Paul HYLAND and Claudine SOOSAY - “Exploration and Exploitation: the Interplay between Knowledge and Continuous Innovation”

Abstract: In rapidly changing environments, organisations require dynamic capabilities to integrate, build and reconfigure resources and competencies to achieve Continuous Innovation. Although tangible resources are important to promoting the firm’s ability to act, capabilities fundamentally rest in the knowledge created and accumulated by the firm through human capital, organisational routines, processes, practices and norms. The exploration for new ideas, technologies, and knowledge - to one side - and – on the other one - the exploitation of existing and new knowledge is essential for continuous innovation. Firms need to decide how best to allocate their scarce resources for both activities and at the same time build dynamic capabilities to keep up with changing market conditions. This in turn, is influenced by the absorptive capacity of the firm to assimilate knowledge. This paper presents a case study that investigates the sources of knowledge in an engineering firm in Australia, and how it is organised and processed. As information pervades the firm from both internal and external sources, individuals integrate knowledge using both exploration and exploitation approaches. The findings illustrate that absorptive capacity can encourage greater leverage for exploration potential leading to radical innovation; and reconfiguring exploitable knowledge for incremental improvements. This study provides insight for managers in quest for improving knowledge strategies and continuous innovation. It also makes significant theoretical contributions to the literature through extending the concepts of absorptive capacity and how knowledge constructs capabilities for innovation.

John BESSANT - “Dealing with Discontinuous Innovation: the European Experience”

Abstract: Recent research has drawn attention to problems with innovation management under conditions of discontinuity. For example, at certain times, the close interaction with players within the value network may act as a filter which blocks firms seeing the salience of new signals about emerging but very different potential technical or market trajectories. There is also the well-known issue of” not invented here” suggesting that under conditions in which significant shifts occur in the technological trajectory existing incumbents often fail to capitalise or even to adopt. The problem is not simply one of missing important signals about emerging shifts in innovation trajectories in the environment. In a number of cases the information was available to the enterprise but its decision – making and resource allocation processes failed to deal adequately with the new information. These and other experiences suggest that whilst firms can learn capabilities around what might be termed “steady state” innovation conditions they need to extend these capabilities to deal with the uncertainties arising from discontinuous shifts in their technological, market or regulatory environments. This paper discusses some of the challenges around building such capability and presents some case study-based illustrations of experiments in progress.

Mads ANDREASSEN and Frank GERTSEN - “A Case Study of an Organization’s Development of Duality”

Abstract: This paper seeks to comprehend what the organisational circumstances (conditions) look like that induces an organisation to develop its exploitation and exploration capabilities to duality. This is done by studying changes in the organisational characteristics in a Danish manufacturer of accessories for house windows during the expansion leading to global operation. The study comprises 2½ years of detailed study and a retrospective study of approximately 35 years. The data collection was mainly based on semi-structured interviews. The findings add a new approach to continuous innovation theory by uncovering how organisational conditions affect the development and integration of exploitation and exploration capabilities.

Aino KIANTO - “Development and Validation of a Survey Instrument for Measuring Organizational Renewal Capability”

Abstract: Mastering continuous change has become an important issue for an increasing number of organizations. However, the management of innovative performance is hindered by the lack of measures that could enable the reliable assessment and effective development of organizational capabilities for continuous renewal, learning and innovation. The objective of this paper is to describe the development of a survey instrument, the Organizational Renewal Capability Inventory, for measuring organizational renewal capability, and to assess its validity and reliability. The paper contributes to the literature on innovation by providing a systematic technique for collecting, analyzing and interpreting data about organizational capability for continuous renewal.

Karen BECKER - “Unlearning as a Driver of Sustainable Change and Innovation: Three Australian Case Studies”

Abstract: In building an organisation’s innovation capacity, managers have to be aware of barriers to learning and have an understanding of the importance of unlearning old ways. Unlearning is emerging as an important element of change and innovation in organisations. As the pace of change continues to increase, it is clear than normal processes of forgetting and transition may not be sufficient. Two key scholars in this field have proposed models of unlearning (Hedberg, 1981; Klein, 1989) however little empirical research exists to further the understanding of unlearning and the factors that may impact upon it. This paper reports on case study research aimed at further developing the concept of unlearning. A process model has emerged from the data that highlights inhibitors and enablers of the unlearning process. In an applied sense, the model provides managers with identifiable enablers and inhibitors of individual unlearning; issues which must then be addressed in change strategies at the organisational level.

Jacob STAND-NIELSEN, Harry BOER and Frank GERTSEN - “The Influence of Learning in Collaborative Improvement”

Abstract: Collaborative improvement is a purposeful inter-company interactive process that focuses on continuous incremental innovation aimed at enhancing the partnership’s overall performance. Considering that in such an environment the capability to learn jointly and individually is crucial, this paper takes a learning perspective on collaborative improvement and addresses the question: How do organisational learning and collaboration interplay affect improvement performance?
Based on an analysis of three dyads of the same Extended Manufacturing Enterprise, the paper concludes that a robust learning environment (willing and able to learn) creates operational, relational and learning outcomes – a self-reinforcing process. A weak learning environment (some willingness but limited ability to learn) creates operational outcomes but is sensitive to ‘accidents’ and thus at risk of actually producing negative relational and learning outcomes. A ‘blocked learning’ environment (no willingness to learn) may create good operational outcomes, but will not produce learning and relational outcomes. Consequently, it is doubtful if such situations are sustainable.

Frances JØRGENSEN, Paul HYLAND and Lise KOFØD - “Modelling the Role of HRM in Continuous Improvement”

Abstract: Although it is acknowledged that both Human Resource Management (HRM) and Continuous Improvement (CI) have the potential to positively impact organizational performance, little attention has been given to given to the impact of specific HRM practices and CI. The objective of this paper is to take a first step in developing a theoretical framework to describe the role of HRM in successful CI, based on the current literature from both fields. In particular, elements from the CI Maturity Model (Bessant and Caffyn, 1997) and framework depicting the role of HRM in innovation (de Leede and Looise, 2005) serve as a foundation for examining how specific bundles of HRM practices utilized during different phases of the CI implementation process may contribute to sustained organizational performance and enhanced operational performance. The primary contribution of the paper is theoretical in nature, however, the framework also has practical value in that it suggests important relationships between various HRM practices and the behaviors necessary for successful CI. A preliminary test of the framework in an empirical setting is summarized at the conclusion of the paper, where a number of possible research avenues derived from this research are also suggested.

Paul HYLAND and Claudine SOOSAY - “A Case Study on Knowledge Transfer as an Integrative Approach to Competitive Advantage”

Abstract: Knowledge has been recognised as a source of competitive advantage. Knowledge-based resources allow organisations to adapt products and services to the marketplace and deal with competitive challenges that enable them to compete more effectively. One factor critical to using knowledge-based resources is the ability to transfer knowledge as a dimension of the learning organisation. There are many elements that may influence whether knowledge transfer can be effectively achieved in an organisation such as leadership, problem-solving behaviours, support structures, change management capabilities, absorptive capacity and the nature of the knowledge. An existing framework was applied in a case study to explain how knowledge transfer can be managed effectively and to identify emerging issues or additional factors involved in the process. As a result, a refined framework is proposed that provides a better understanding for the effective management of knowledge transfer processes that can provide a competitive advantage.

Marco CANTAMESSA, Paolo NEIROTTI and Emilio PAOLUCCI - “Do Companies with a Competitive Advantage Make Better Use of IT? Evidence from Italian Enterprises”

Abstract: This paper investigates whether or not companies with a competitive advantage make better use of IT through a survey sent to CIOs in a cross-industry sample of 204 large Italian firms. Using structural equations modelling on data about the returns produced by IT between 2001 and 2004 in the companies analyzed , the article shows that in the manufacturing industries, firms with a competitive advantage - thanks to their superior availability of organizational capabilities - were more likely to use IT to improve their knowledge about customers and the performance of the new product development processes. Thus, by investing in IT, these companies were able to strengthen their pre-existing advantage. Furthermore, by showing the importance of the effects on IT results due to structural variables such as industry, size of the firm and multinational origin, the article underlines the importance of more carefully considering such effects (and especially those due to industry) in information systems research.

Alessia CIAPPINI, Mariano CORSO and Alessandro PEREGO - “From IT Outsourcing to IT Strategic Sourcing: Modelling the Evolution of Customer-Supplier Relations in the ICT Service Industry”

Abstract: This paper aims to provide interpretative and empirical models to describe the evolution and management of ICT Outsourcing relations in terms of different typologies of sourcing model, governance mechanisms and the impact on Continuous Innovation (CI) capabilities. The work is based on an empirical study involving 40 cases and a survey on 70 enterprises. Managerial implications and relevant models and evidence derived from the sample support practitioners in identifying the suitable sourcing models, in defining the right mix of governance levers to be used, in understanding the typical evolution of outsourcing relations, and in discovering the variables that can impact on the quality of the relation over time.