Sparking Manufacturing Innovation: How Temporary Interplant Assignments Increase Employee Idea Values

Cornelius, Philipp B.; Gokpinar, Bilal; Sting, Fabian J.

doi:10.1287/mnsc.2020.3673

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 92 publications

(146 reference statements)

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“…In other words, they are more valued and difficult to replicate (Rivkin, 2000). Hence, it has long been considered that process and product innovations in unison are the "single best complementarity strategy" (Damanpour, 2010) and the contemporary manufacturing archetype's "forefront strategy" (Cornelius et al, 2021).…”

Section: Developing An Integrative Model Of Technological Innovationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital service innovation: a paradigm shift in technological innovation

Opazo‐Basáez

Vendrell‐Herrero

Bustinza

2021

JOSM

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PurposeExisting innovation frameworks suggest that manufacturing firms have traditionally developed a complementary model of technological innovations comprising process and product innovations (e.g. Oslo Manual). This article presents digital service innovation as a novel form of technological innovation that is capable of enhancing the performance of firms in certain manufacturing industries.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on technological innovation and digital servitization fields of research, this study argues that digital service innovation, in manufacturing contexts, complements traditional sources of technological innovation, so increasing the profit margins of firms. This effect is significant in industries characterized by business-to-business contexts, high presence of link channels and long product life spans (e.g. manufacturing and computer-based industries). Predictions are tested on a unique sample of 423 Spanish manufacturing firms using parametric (t-test) and nonparametric (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, fsQCA) approaches.FindingsThe results of this analysis show that a necessary condition so that manufacturing firms can increase profits is the deployment of simultaneous process and product innovations. It also reveals that optimal configuration requires that digital service innovation be undertaken, particularly in machinery and computer-based manufacturing industries. Hence, all three sources of technological innovation are brought together in order to reach the highest levels of company performance. The evidence suggests that technological innovation and digital servitization are closely interrelated in highly innovative manufacturing contexts.Originality/valueThis study's originality and value reside in the fact that it reveals the existence of firms incorporating digital service innovation – a new, technological innovation dimension that challenges existing innovation frameworks – to complement traditional technological innovation sources, namely process and product innovation. Moreover, the study conceptualizes and empirically tests the value-adding role of digital services in firms' technological innovation portfolio.

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Section: Developing An Integrative Model Of Technological Innovationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital service innovation: a paradigm shift in technological innovation

Opazo‐Basáez

Vendrell‐Herrero

Bustinza

2021

JOSM

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“…Cornelius et al. (2021) show empirical evidence for increased manufacturing innovation when employees are given assignments at a different plant for a short duration. Similar to prior cited work, while our research focus is on motivating employees in generating innovative output using incentives, our focus is on resource allocation decisions of the employees (with respect to their effort) and the firm (with respect to setting the incentives for the contest) when there is a trade‐off between investing in ongoing projects and the internal contest.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing internal innovation contests

Nittala

Krishnan

2022

Production and Operations Management

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Innovation contests within firms offer the potential to tap latent employee expertise across the organization and expand innovation beyond the core R&D teams. Still, firms undertaking an internal contest, unlike the more commonly studied external contests, incur significant opportunity costs when employees divert their efforts toward the contest (and away from their routine work). Managing this key challenge forms the focus of the current study, with the overarching question being How should firms design internal contests? Motivated by fieldwork in electronics companies, we develop an application‐driven model that explicitly captures the fundamental trade‐off between incurring greater opportunity cost (of lost routine work) and increasing participation and contest effort. Analysis of our model demonstrates that for problem types that do not need significant effort for solution generation, the optimal contest reward is non‐monotonic in both the problem uncertainty and the wage rate of the participating employees. In case of more complex problems that require contestants to exert some minimal effort, the firm uses the reward decision to restrict participation and to ensure that contestants exert the required effort. In this case, the optimal reward increases with problem uncertainty, thereby incentivizing more contestants to enter. While the firm can attempt to mitigate the loss due to opportunity costs by organizing internal contests during employee leisure time, we identify conditions under which it is still optimal to organize these contests during working hours.

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“…The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0144-3577.htm multiple siteswhich should be the case for temporary workerscan contribute more innovative ideas (Cornelius et al, 2021). The potential disadvantages of temporary workers are hardly discussed in operations management (Wiengarten et al, 2021).…”

Section: Temporary Workers Work Councils and Innovation 781mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, 2004). And it has been proposed that workers who have worked at multiple sites – which should be the case for temporary workers – can contribute more innovative ideas (Cornelius et al. , 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of temporary workers and works councils on process innovation

Durach

Wiengarten

Pagell

2022

IJOPM

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PurposeThis study aims to investigate the effects of temporary workers and works councils on process innovations at manufacturing sites. The impact of temporary workers, commonly viewed as a means of operational flexibility and cost savings, on firms’ ability to innovate is underexplored. Works councils represent and help integrate temporary workers, but are often equated with unions, which have been criticized as barriers to innovation, especially in the US.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use secondary data collected by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) of the German Federal Employment Agency. Specifically, the authors conduct a series of regression analyses using 11-year panel data covering the period 2009–2019 with 11,641 manufacturing site-year observations.FindingsThe results suggest that the use of temporary workers initially promotes process innovation, but at too high a level, it impairs firms’ ability to innovate. Furthermore, the results suggest that works councils have a positive impact on innovation and dampen the curvilinear effect found with respect to temporary workers.Originality/valueResearch has largely focused on the cost and flexibility benefits of temporary workers. The authors analyze the effectiveness of temporary workers in terms of innovativeness. By including works councils, the study also consider the contextual environment in which temporary workers are employed. Finally, the results reject the assumption that works councils have a similar negative impact as unions on innovation; in fact, the authors find the opposite.

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Sparking Manufacturing Innovation: How Temporary Interplant Assignments Increase Employee Idea Values

Cited by 20 publications

References 92 publications

Digital service innovation: a paradigm shift in technological innovation

Digital service innovation: a paradigm shift in technological innovation

Designing internal innovation contests

The effect of temporary workers and works councils on process innovation

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