The relation between innovation sources and ICT roles in facility management organizations

Abstract

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to present research findings on the relation between internal/external sources of innovation and ICT as a supporter/enabler of FM organizations as well as on the strategic orientation towards open innovation of FM organizations. Design/methodology/approach-This study uses a qualitative research approach. The data collection includes qualitative semi-structured interviews with key facility management managers and directors and secondary material such as company brochures, reports and information provided on the participating companies' websites. Findings-The results show that the FM organizations in the study sample are starting to develop and engage in open FM service innovations, even though they still mostly conduct closed innovation activities. The findings show that FM organizations mostly take an ambidextrous strategic orientation towards FM service innovations, while they also embrace an exploration approach. Concerning the role of ICT in FM service innovations, the study shows that in the explorative organizations ICT was mostly an enabler, while in the ambidextrous organizations ICT mostly supported and enabled the innovations in question. Only in two innovation instances was ICT identified as having a utility role. Practical implications-The findings of this study challenge researchers and managers to rethink how and why a strategic orientation towards innovation, the sources of innovation and the role of ICT might affect service innovation in FM organizations. One important implication for FM managers and researchers is the importance that the government might have as an external source in fostering FM service innovations, especially in light of changing environmental requirements, such as energy consumption. FM managers should also consider how they could use ICT to improve and innovate FM services and service delivery and the kind of sources (external/internal) they should use to carry out this task. Originality/value-This paper contributes to the empirical and theoretical understanding of the sources of innovation and ICT as a supporter/enabler as well the strategic orientation towards innovation in FM organizations.

The Relationship Between Innovation and Corporate Performance in Japanese SMEs by Two-Stage Panel Data Analysis: Focusing on the Joint Effect of ICT and R&D

“…To highlight the novelty of the above results, the concept of “ICT as an enabler of innovation” has been referred to earlier, for example, by Spiezia [ 40 ] and Scupola [ 39 ]. Regarding empirical studies, using cross-section data, Alam et al [ 1 ] estimated the impact of ICT skills of workers on innovation and financial performance of regional SMEs in Queensland, Australia.…”

The Relevance of Automation in the Facility Management of Selected High-Rise Buildings in Lagos, Nigeria

“…These tasks include providing utility and support infrastructure for service innovations, as well as describing information communication and technology (ICT) as an enabler of service innovations. Automation has been shown to perform the aforementioned roles in facility management practice [42,43]. It has been proven that the facility management sector is one of the services.…”

The Interactions between Information and Communication Technologies and Innovation in Services

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“…The latter includes the concept of ICT as a special capital input (Schreyer, 1999), which I adapted to the scope of my analysis. In fact, the variable ICT as a special capital input synthesizes the directly measurable impact of ICT on organizational processes, i.e., what Schreyer (1999) defines as ICT as a capital input, but also spill over effects and externalities, i.e., ICT as a special capital input, with emphasis on those that make ICT enabler, support and utility for innovation (Broadbent et al, 1999;Mele et al, 2010;Scupola, 2014).…”