Activating inclusive growth in railway SMEs by workplace innovation

Abstract

The digital revolution is happening, transforming the way we move and produce. Success in the digital revolution means that the rail industries need to use the best available technologies focusing on people. The managerial and organizational practices adopted by railway entities have considerable significance for Railway's ability to succeed in global competition. One of the challenges for railway entities is to deliver innovative products, offering quickness and flexibility to respond to changing demands from their customers. Non-technological innovations and especially Workplace innovation, have a key role to play in the digitalization and acceleration of technological developments, therefore in the railway sector competitiveness. This draws attention to the importance of innovation climate and employees' commitment aiming at improving staff motivation and working conditions, thereby enhancing labor productivity, organizational performance, innovation capability, reactivity to market change, and consequently business competitiveness. As with any emerging opportunity, there is no established path to follow to activate inclusive growth in railway SMEs to uptake Workplace innovation. To address these issues, this paper develops and tests a research model that covers individual behavior, organizational practices, and process practices of innovation among employees, analyzing the impact of Workplace Innovation on firm performance.

The influence of open innovation on firm performance

“…The commitment and motivation of human resources with respect to innovation behaviours play an important role in the relationship between OI and firm performance. 30 Such a relationship is analysed by Zhang et al 48 Their findings show that in most cases, a high level of employee education leads to an increase in the positive effect of OI. However, the authors reveal that in production-oriented companies, this does not always happen.…”

“…Despite a number of existing studies addressing similar arguments, 30 –33 the aim of this paper is as follows: (i) to investigate how the OI paradigm affects firm performance, both generally and by means of a comprehensive and systematic review of such studies providing the most unique insights into the topic; (ii) to identify the main thematic areas; and (iii) provide suggestions for future research avenues.…”

“…23 It is also relevant to analyse the effects of OI on firms with regard to organisational performance, 24,25 innovation performance 26 and the efficiency of OI -still underexplored in the literature 27 -as well as the way to measure the effect of OI on firm performance. 28,29 Despite a number of existing studies addressing similar arguments, [30][31][32][33] the aim of this paper is as follows: (i) to investigate how the OI paradigm affects firm performance, both generally and by means of a comprehensive and systematic review of such studies providing the most unique insights into the topic; (ii) to identify the main thematic areas; and (iii) provide suggestions for future research avenues.…”

Innovation Methodologies to Activate Inclusive Growth in the Organization

“…At the organizational level, the results revealed that organizational factors have different impacts on innovation climate. Employee-driven creativity influences the daily evolution of WI practices and gradual improvements, most railway organizations do not use their autonomy to improve WI practices [16]. These findings depart from the WI existing studies that suggest job autonomy can be relevant to guide one's behavioral intentions and has influence positively the company performance [16,18].…”

“…The literature confirms the digital transformation is influenced by the culture of innovation, the high levels of employee commitment and the capacity for organizational and individual transformation. Digital transformation is the key to business competitiveness in a changing and increasingly demanding market [16]. However, a culture that encourages innovation and creativity is needed to succeed in the railway technological transformation.…”