...question and objective. Our first challenge was finding an interrelated theme for family business, that wasn’t too obvious or researched too much already, as we actually want to fill a small knowledge gap with this research. Therefore we choose innovation, because there is a lot of controversy to it about the innovativeness of family businesses. Also, innovation intrigues us very much, as it often determines the succeeding or failing of a company. After brainstorming we came up with the following research question: “How can we explain that family businesses, in comparison to non-family businesses, tend to be more innovative than is often assumed?” This question allows us to investigate the strengths of family businesses and...
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...piece of advice to a group of Level Three business students on the usefulness of innovation management and new product development in an essay format. The topic of the essay is “what skills should a business graduate acquire about innovation management in order to advance their career development and employability”. "We live in a society where technology is a very important force in business, in our daily lives. And all technology starts as a spark in someone's brain. An idea of something that didn't exist before, that once they have invented it —brought it into existence — could change everything. And that activity is generally one that's not very well supported." - Nathan Myhrvold, CEO, Intellectual Ventures From a 2010 interview with Harvard Business Review Introduction In the development of new businesses today, initiatives that spur knowledge-based competitions amplify the importance of boundary spanning activities and tactical coalitions, which cause organizations to focus more on institutional knowledge, system improvement and knowledge management (Quah, 2001). This essay will help the level 3 business school students to understand the required skills about innovation management to to advance their career development and employability. An innovation is something that is new. You are required to write a piece of advice to a group of Level Three business students on the usefulness of innovation management and new product development...
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...Group Study Case: Service Innovation by Ali SEKBAN Mithat PERKÖZ Yasin Galip GENCER submitted to Assoc. Prof. Arzu İşeri SAY April 7, 2011 SERVICE INNOVATION In today’s business world, services and service industry has a great importance. Yet, it would be a mistake to attribute “service” concept only to service industry. Manufacturing firms need many services to deliver their goods to customers. Therefore, in recent years, services have become an important issue for them too. In this article, we will consider service innovations especially in terms of manufacturing firms and present a review about the issue. In the introduction section, we’ll give the definition of service and explain its importance in details. Then, as the main purpose of this review article, we’ll go into service innovations. Introduction There are lots of definitions for service concept. Among these, the followings are remarkable: “A Service is a product which is a process” (Shostack 1987), “Services are processes involving customer contact’ (Chase 1978)”. In other words, service is a product; however it is different from the product in the traditional sense. In general, there is a common distinction for service: “1- functional services: services offered by investment goods companies and service companies, 2- institutional services: services offered solely by services companies”. With regard to properties of services, the most important ones are the followings; “1- Intangibility...
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...the Role of Innovation in the Economic Growth Process Surrounding the Role of Innovation in the Economic Growth Process Innovation Innovation is an essential element for any organization in order to survive, grow and significantly influence the direction of any industry. Development does not; however, guarantee success, but most be followed up with successive streams of innovation and change, from the incremental to the radical. The most reliable way to be successful in the industry is to innovate better and longer than the competitor, leading companies develops innovation portfolios that they can use to help sustain growth over the long term. Innovation and change is an essential part of any business activity, but only some people recognize its importance and significance. Often, management fails to notice the implication of innovation and change, which becomes the reason of the change failure. Innovation can be summarized in two main areas: innovation is doing something nobody has done in the history of the world or do something that we have not done before. Innovation does not always fit with what we do, and a lot of new opportunities that are found in the company do not sit well with her. So the first step is to create a "space" where these opportunities can be developed, at their own pace and without neglecting the routine tasks. It is therefore; necessary to release resources to enable people to experiment with these new ideas. It is also necessary that...
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...Topic With reference to entrepreneurial theory, critically comment on the following blog written by fourth grade high school students in Ohio discussing entrepreneurship: “ - Entrepreneurship is one of the most important parts of economics in a freeenterprise system. - An entrepreneur is a person that creates, organises and manages a business while trying to make a profit. The first thing an entrepreneur needs to do is to think of an idea. They have to be inquirers so they can gather as much information as possible. They need to constantly reflect on their decisions. They must be risk-takers because there is always a chance that their business will not succeed. They must be open-minded when presenting their ideas and receiving feedback. Entrepreneurs must be good communicators when sharing their ideas with investors and when advertising and promoting their company. They must also be principled and caring towards their employees and customers. - By being hardworking entrepreneurs, we all have the opportunity to be very successful.” 2 The essay examines the importance of entrepreneurship within the economy, core elements of entrepreneurship, and how entrepreneurial behaviour and certain character traits impact success. The investigation is based on statements about entrepreneurship given by fourth grade high school students in Ohio. The essay will argue that entrepreneurship is an essential part of economics in a free-enterprise...
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...THE PRODUCT AND BUSINESS PROCESS INNOVATION UDC 001.895:658.62 Nebojša Zakić, Ana Jovanović, Milan Stamatović Faculty of Entrepreneurial Business, Union University, Belgrade Abstract. The competitive advantage of a company strongly depends on its possibility to benefit from innovational activities. Understanding the factors that affect product and process innovation and their effects is necessary for deciding on an innovation strategy that is one of the core factors of an innovation success. We research the influence of nine external and internal factors on product and business processes innovation. For the analysis of important relations and conclusions, beside theoretical literature, we use the results of several studies. Key Words: product innovations, business processes innovation, industry maturity, customer needs, demand, technological opportunity, investment attractiveness, company size, export orientation INTRODUCTION Innovations are one of the main sources of a competitive advantage and they are essential for a company growth. Fast technology development, combined with the globalisation and fast changes in customer demand, implies that a competitive advantage of a company can be only temporary. Companies put great effort in beating the competition and improvement in the market game by introducing innovations. On the macro level, innovations have a vital influence on economic development of a country. Thus, it is not a surprise that innovations are more and more...
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...Development and Implementation of Marketing Information System Within Innovation: The Increasing of Innovative Performance Ondrej Zizlavsky Brno University of Technology Czech Republic 1. Introduction In his work, a prominent Czech expert on innovations, (Valenta, 2001), reached the conclusion that current tougher and tougher competition, globalization of production and markets, as well as implementation of new technologies mean that the success of businesses is dependent on effectiveness and intensity of innovation activities. Innovation is a process that is created via interactions between various actors, e.g. (Dolourex, 2004) and represents an important element of a company's future success. Each innovation is unique and specific for every entrepreneurship. American authors warn that innovation is more than just an idea or thought. It is bringing an idea to life (Tidd & Bessant, 2009). Currently, innovation is considered a decisive condition of a competitive advantage in entrepreneurship. This is stressed by prominent Czech, as well as foreign experts; e.g. (Hamel & Green, 2007; Kislingerova, 2008; Kosturiak & Chal, 2008; Skarzynski & Gibson, 2008). The course of the fading economic crisis that negatively impacted operation of current business unambiguously supports the inevitability of innovations. A company that strives to maintain and strengthen its position on the market has to implement a suitable innovation policy that would enable it to achieve a more advantageous position...
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...headquarters (Jarillo and Martinez, 1990). In recent years, a trend has emerged whereby subsidiaries are devising their own strategies and themselves determining the work they carry out in an attempt to add value to the overall business (Birkinshaw, 1997). A number of factors have and are shaping this evolving role of the multinational subsidiary unit. In part (b) the importance of an R&D function for subsidiary sustainability is examined along with the importance of having strong network relationships. To gain insights into the importance of these factors in the Irish context, Intel’s Irish subsidiary is used as an example. Part A Much of the research carried out on subsidiary evolution contains elements of bias as a result of a tendency of researchers from smaller countries to have a subsidiary perspective while researchers from larger countries tend to have a more corporate point of view (Brock, 2000). Studies from the corporate perspective argue that evolution is driven by the parent company, (Chang, 1995) while studies from the subsidiary side assume that subsidiary initiative is the main driver. Delaney (2000) outlined an 8-step framework for subsidiary evolution. As subsidiaries move toward the latter stages of the framework, they become of more strategic importance to the organisation. Patterson and Brock (2002) classified this evolution into four streams, namely Strategy–Structure, Headquarters–Subsidiary...
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...Kingdee Q.1 What are the distinctive management competence and business practices that enabled Kingdee to be successful in the past and how will these need to be changed or further developed in the future? (You need to have a view on what are Kingdee’s future business challenges.) Stages | Business Model | Management Competence | Business Practices | Startup | A/C | ●Attractive compensation for "Hukou" to hold talents ●Green Light" to satisfy employees ●“Five winner sons” method to motivate staff | ●Financial application based on Windows 95 ●Success in securing venture capital | Rapid Growth | ERP | New core value "care, integrity and innovation" to keep innovation | ●Changes in ERP products ●IPO and acquisition | Strategic Turnaround | Saas | “People Culture” to strength team-work under corporate policies | ●Strategic cooperation with IBM ● Evolving into B2B e-commerce platform | Management competence: * Entrepreneurial Period: 1992-1998 1. Attractive compensation for “Hukou” to hold talents Kingdee, like its competitors, is extremely knowledge intensive. This characteristic is determined by the nature of software industry. Actually, before Kingdee was formally founded, since the “Aipu” stage, Robert Xu, Kingdee’s chairman, has realized the importance of his employees. When Kingdee was still called “Aipu” in 1992, the company was not qualified to grant “Hukou” to its engineers. This disabled Aipu to retain qualified employees for long service terms. In consideration...
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...Reference journal for getting an Idea on how to write the term paper. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management is a semestral, open access scientific journal that publishes theoretical and empirical peer-reviewed articles, which contribute to advance the understanding of phenomena related with all aspects of industrial engineering and industrial management. JIEM includes contributions, but not limited to, in the following fields: (1) Production, Logistics, Quality, and Operational Research; (2) Information Systems, Technology and Communication; (3) Industrial Economics and Regional Development; (4) Management, Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources; (5) Finance, Accounting and Marketing; and (6) Education, Training and Professional Skills. Term Paper can focus on Mapping new frontiers in emerging and developing technology areas in research, industry and governance.. Some Abstracts which emphasis on the Technology and Marketing. These are abstracts of articles which are already published. These are for your reference and you can start working in the same way concentrating on Technology and Marketing. * Trial-and-Error Marketing: The Role of the Customer in Tech Start-ups by Fabian Eggers, Deborah Brown McCabe Abstract: This paper explores the role of a customer- or product-centric focus in young technology firms decision-making and whether the behaviors of these firms differ from textbook marketing. rnData from depth interviews with founders of growth-stage...
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...real question is, How do good-to-great organizations think differently about technology?” The value of Information Technology (IT) is based on how it is aligned with a company’s business model, core competencies and strategies so that a competitive advantage can be sustained. Today’s commerce is heavily dependent on IT, and as stated in Chapter 1, page 47 of our textbook, “IT is a powerful tool for defining, organizing and building knowledge assets within a firm and a business network.” Although Nicholas Carr’s article has an inflammatory title, “IT Doesn’t Matter,” the main points suggest otherwise. IT does matter but it matters differently. This article was published in 2003, a few years following the dot-com bubble burst. During the Internet’s halcyon days from 1994 to 2000, the businesses created were the result of IT innovations, and this changed the way business interacted with the environment. This led to IT becoming more visible and pervasive in business and at the same time evolving towards commodity status. IT is an essential part and cost of doing business globally “but provide distinction to none.” There are several industries that managed IT in a manner conferring competitive and economic advantage e.g., Amazon, Dell, Wal-Mart. These companies drove value and innovation to their customers by leveraging technology to create customer relationship solutions, an efficient supply chain management and data warehousing implementation. The Carr article...
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...Introduction When people hear the word innovation they usually think of invention and creativity. While this way of thinking is not incorrect, it is more accurate to look at it from the perspective that innovation is in fact being creative and inventive and taking the outcomes of the creativity process and turning these ideas into useful products or work models. In this essay I will be looking at how innovation is often regarded as the lifeblood of an organisation. 87% of people that were surveyed from the Boston Consulting Group believe that innovation is essential to the success of an organisation. The question now is, ‘how can managers stimulate innovation within an organisation?’ I will be addressing this by looking at three variables within an organisation that a manger can manipulate – Structural, human resource and cultural variables. There are many different definitions of innovation, where Kuczmarski (1996, p.7) states a simple definition of innovation being “A new idea, method or device; a novelty.” However, this simplistic and broad definition does not help managers and employees understand the characteristics of innovation and how they can manipulate the variables to stimulate innovation. If we look at an organisation that is culture orientated, we can define innovation as a social process, as Goffin and Mitchell (2010, p.8) state that innovation in a cultural context is “the intentional introduction and application within a role, group or organisation of ideas...
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...Executive Summary The global demand for economic growth has elevated the importance of innovation, value and adaptability. Due to the competitive nature and limitless challenges facing most organizations, companies are being forced to hone in on things that are paramount, foundational and fundamental to them. Both internal and external customers are no longer content with mediocrity. They are no longer appeased with organizations that lack the ability and understanding to implement change. Companies must now create environments that are suitable for the future and adaptable to humans. We are now in a world where large corporations are among the least trusted and shareholders are more concerned with value than ever before. The ideological aspects of businesses that foster control are the cause of organizations being less innovative, and less adaptive. Organizations are eliminating the gap between reality and what is considered rhetoric. Innovation is one of the only ways to achieve longevity and long-term value. In attempt to overcome these obstacles, organizations will have to completely reengineer their business process. The systems of management in today’s business focuses on measurable goals, results, capital gains and order. (Rud, 2011). Humans on the other hand are born curious to learn and naturally motivated with the expectation of change. The recalibration of priorities has become a perquisite for most organizations to remain successful. There is a high demand of diversification...
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...Managing Quality Performance in Supply Chains through Diffusion of Innovations Nadeem Kureshi Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering, Islamabad, Pakistan nadeemk@msu.edu 1. ABSTRACT Supplier Management is fast becoming one of the most critical determining factors in businesses as companies around the world are relying on outsourcing as a strategic tool to achieve competitive advantage. The growing trend of focusing on core competencies and letting the experts do their job has furthered the importance of Supplier Management. While the driving force behind any outsourcing remains increased competitiveness with a particular focus on reducing costs, it essentially requires certain strengths on part of the suppliers. Considering the fact that most of the suppliers around the world are SMEs, who are resource constrained by nature, the idea of outsourcing can potentially end up to be dichotomous;” competitiveness to be achieved through using resource constrained entities”. Such situations can be much more pronounced in developing economies and in situations where less liberty is available in choosing suppliers. Of the various initiatives undertaken to address this problem, Supplier development stands out. Contemporary literature however suggests that among the major Supplier Development activities, those carrying higher costs are seldom or never undertaken, and even the large firms tend to concentrate on activities involving less or no costs. This paper establishes a relationship...
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...The Importance of Innovation Architecture Grand Canyon University: ENT-435 11/16/2014 Here is a reminder from the syllabus about the assignment requirements: For this assignment, you will research the innovation architecture of at least three companies that are well-known for successfully supporting a culture of innovation. Write a 1,500-word paper that addresses the following: 1. What particular elements of each organization’s culture, processes, and management systems and styles work well to support innovation? 2. Why do you think these organizations have been able to capitalize on innovation and intrapreneurship while others have not? 3. Based on what you have learned, what processes and systems might actually stifle innovation and intrapreneurship? 4. Imagine yourself as an innovation architect. What structures or processes would you put in place to foster a culture of innovation within your own organization? Include in-text citations to at least four reputable secondary sources (such as trade journals, academic journals, and professional or industry websites) in your paper. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required. The Importance of Innovation Architecture In today’s markets competition is fierce and only the strong shall survive. In order to be able to keep up with the competition, organizations must capitalize on innovation. Innovation...
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