A knowledge management framework to grow innovation capability maturity

Abstract

<strong>Background:</strong> Innovation is a key prerequisite for being organisationally competitive. Therefore, it is imperative that enterprises grow and mature their innovation capability. Knowledge management plays a fundamental role in the ability of enterprises to innovate successfully.<p><strong>Objectives:</strong> There are no formal guidelines for using knowledge management to grow innovation capability maturity. The researchers intended to develop a knowledge management framework that enables innovation capability.</p><p><strong>Method:</strong> The scope of the research did not allow for the practical implementation of the framework. However, five industry and subject theory experts evaluated the applicability and usability of the framework.</p><p><strong>Results:</strong> All five experts reported that enterprises could use knowledge management tools and organisational facilitating conditions to allow innovation capability maturity to grow. The importance of the framework is that it gives guidelines for using knowledge management as a vehicle for growing innovation capability maturity.</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> The framework determines whether enterprises’ organisational conditions and knowledge management tools are sufficient to sustain or grow their innovation capability maturity.</p

Exploring Determinants of Innovation Capability in Manufacturing Companies Operating in Poland

“…According to Lawson and Samson, a firm's innovation capability is the ability to continuously transform knowledge and ideas into new products, processes and systems for the benefit of the company and its stakeholders [24][25][26]. In the same vein, Neely et al as well as Esterhuizen et al claim that an enterprise's innovation capability refers to its potential to innovate [17,27]. Olsson et al enriched the innovation capability definition by adding the statement that it is the ability of the firm to continuously generate innovations as a response to its dynamic environment [18].…”

Innovation and knowledge creation: perspectives on the SMEs sector

“…Esterhuizen et al (2012) acknowledge the fact that there is a gap in the literature at the moment on formal guidelines for using business tools to enable growth in innovation capability maturity. The study introduced a knowledge management framework that enables growth in innovation capability maturity by aligning knowledge creation processes to the requirements for moving from one maturity level to the next.…”

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“…The second aspect is the idea that innovation capability is an organizational process, practice or high-level organizational routine, as observed in Essman (2009), Esterhuizen et al (2012), O'Cass and Sok (2014), Tang et al (2015), Saunila and Ukko (2012) and Zhao et al (2005). At the same time, there are definitions that value the innovative outputs or successful results of these same processes or practices.…”