Innovation's Second Step

Abstract

Innovative companies often place their emphasis on invention, research, and new product development, even as they neglect the process of bringing products to the marketplace in a way that is advantageous over the long term. Small to medium‐sized businesses that are scaling up are particularly vulnerable to entering into unfavorable distribution arrangements with large mass‐market retailers. Often, managers assume their firm will automatically benefit from a technological or creative breakthrough. Rather than focusing solely on new innovations and viewing distribution as an afterthought, we suggest that innovative firms make channel management a priority as their products are discovered and they attempt to reach more customers. In this article, strategies are offered as paths managers should consider as they use their innovations to scale up from small or medium‐sized firms into large companies. Steps for implementation as well as concurrent risks are also presented. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

ICT, Innovation and Firm Performance: The Transition Economies Context

“…Innovation represents a significant factor in determining a firm's success (Pratali, ; Ramadani, Gërguri, Rexhepi, & Abduli, ; Tse, Esposito, & Soufani, ). The firms that do not innovate face underperformance or dissolution (Ratten, ; Wilkinson & Thomas, ). The empirical literature on investigating innovation behavior and its effect on firm performance face the methodological challenge of how to measure innovation or technological change.…”

Managing product innovation diffusion within multinational corporations: leveraging global scale and local responsiveness

“…An important second step in the product innovation process is that of selection and deciding which of the innovations to bring to market (Wilkinson & Thomas, 2014). The main formal tool of evaluation of product innovation within Newco is the business case which is the formalisation of the projects' financial and strategic objectives, based on a number of facts and assumptions, which need to match the minimum company financial thresholds: "trying to maximise our return on invested capital that is the biggest one but the other things we would look at are the max potential sales, max growth profit, and the products that are marketed.…”

Accelerating Innovation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the ICT Services Sector

“…Being aware of the aforementioned, we consider innovation as a key issue for business strategy, because it is expected that it triggers competitiveness and firm performance. Thus, scientific literature postulates that innovation represents a significant factor in determining firm's success (Pratali, 2003;Ramadani, Gërguri, Rexhepi, & Abduli, 2013;Tse, Esposito, & Soufani, 2016) while others (Wilkinson & Thomas, 2014) alert that firms that do not innovate face underperformance or dissolution.…”

“…Working in such a highly demanding environment represents a challenge for all ICT businesses, especially SMEs.Being aware of the aforementioned, we consider innovation as a key issue for business strategy, because it is expected that it triggers competitiveness and firm performance. Thus, scientific literature postulates that innovation represents a significant factor in determining firm's success (Pratali, 2003;Ramadani, Gërguri, Rexhepi, & Abduli, 2013;Tse, Esposito, & Soufani, 2016) while others (Wilkinson & Thomas, 2014) alert that firms that do not innovate face underperformance or dissolution.García-Manjón and Romero-Merino (2012) stated that "given the greater knowledge-intensity presented by these sectors in comparison with nontechnological or medium-tech sectors, it is reasonable to expect strong correlations between R&D (knowledge creation) and firm growth." (p. 1085) Chan, Martin, and Kensinger (1990) and Zantout and Tsetsekos (1994) found a positive market response to increased R&D investment for high-tech industry firms, while the relationship turns out to be negative for low-tech industry firms.…”