Combinative Effects of Innovation Types and Organizational Performance: A Longitudinal Study of Service Organizations

Abstract

Innovation research suggests that innovation types have different attributes, determinants, and effects. This study focuses on consequences of adoption of three types of innovation (service, technological process, and administrative process) in service organizations. Its main thesis is that the impact of innovation on organizational performance depends on compositions of innovation types over time. We examine this proposition by analysing innovative activity in a panel of 428 public service organizations in the UK over four years. Our findings suggest that focus on adopting a specific type of innovation every year is detrimental, consistency in adopting the same composition of innovation types over the years has no effect, and divergence from the industry norm in adopting innovation types could possibly be beneficial to organizational performance. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and research on innovation types. Copyright (c) Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2009.

Disentangling antecedents and performance effects of family SME innovation: A knowledge-based perspective

“…However, managerial innovation sufficiently proves its reasoning as an essential contributor to the research framework of this study in two ways. First, in line with previous propositions that managerial and technological innovations serve as complements rather than substitutes (Damanpour et al 2009;Camisón and Villar-López 2014;Walker et al 2015), the results of the analysis show that within the surveyed family SMEs, simultaneous engagement in MI increases the positive effect of TI on financial performance. Second, the results provide confirming evidence (e.g., Damanpour and Gopalakrishnan 2001;Khanagha et al 2013;Mol and Birkinshaw 2012) that in family firms novel management practices can also serve as enablers for product and process innovations.…”

When innovation requirements empower individual innovation: the role of job complexity

“…In Belgium, the New Public Management movement has championed the need for innovation (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011). Nevertheless, the extent to which public sector organizations have developed innovative capacity differs greatly between organizations (Damanpour et al, 2009). The studied organization faces budget constraints and quality improvement goals at the same time.…”

Impact of IS Strategy and Technological Innovation Strategic Alignment on FirmPerformance

“…Thus, "alignment focuses on the activities that management performs to achieve cohesive goals across the organisation" [136] p. 3. Long-term efficiency of an organization depends on the strong interdependencies among internal organizational attributes [38]. The interactions among bundles of practices predict better performance than practicing in isolation [137], therefore, the strategic value of IT can be realized if it is used complementarily with resources and capabilities of a firm [56].…”

“…Most empirical studies provide positive evidence of the relationship between innovation and firm performance [38] with other studies indicating neutral or negative impact [39]. Increased in ideas and innovative R&D capabilities [40], and innovation speed to launch new products with lower times and costs [41] contribute effectively to improving the performance of a firm.…”

“…For instance, product innovation resulted in superior financial returns [43] and process innovations positively impact firm performance [44]. For other researchers, combining several innovation types positively affects the performance of a firm [38]; [45] especially in the banking industry [3]. [46] [47].…”