Download or read book Systematic Chasing for Economic Success An Innovation Management Approach for German SME s in Drive Technology Business written by Thomas Kamps and published by Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag). This book was released on 2013-06-01 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The industry of the German drive technology is dominated by SME's, and must supply its products to customers around the world. In addition, this industrial segment is challenged by competitors from many other countries, and from customers with a variety of different needs. Therefore, there are two questions that arose for SME's. Firstly, ‘what is the best strategy to take an advantage in the competition’, and secondly, ‘how does the strategies can be used in the most efficient way.’ The structure, the essential needs and the boundary conditions will be derived from the analysis of the industrial segment. In addition, a suitable strategy that should take an advantage in the worldwide competition will be analysed and discussed. In the end, the author develops an innovative management process and a toolbox for SME’s to make this strategy applicable to a company.

Download or read book Management Control Systems Decision Making and Innovation Development written by Dawid Szutowski and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2021-10-03 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The systematic approach to innovation development today is one of the world’s most prominent scientific fields, and with good reason. When applied correctly, such system produces regular outcomes, which consistently drive lasting competitive advantage. Unfortunately, as much as it is beneficial, the orchestration of an undisturbed flow of multiple complex, dynamic, and flexible innovation development processes is structurally demanding. In this book, a recognised innovation management specialist sets the record straight, offering a comprehensive approach to the improvement of innovation efficiency with the use of management control system. Unlike other books on the subject, it proposes original representation – the CDI model – of the relationships between management control system, decision-making quality, and innovation system efficiency and explains why management control is fundamental to innovation management. In addition to that, inside the reader will find several original developments. These include: the info-deficiency (I-D) model, depicting the various parameters hindering decision-making in innovation development; the product innovation development (PID) system, offering the original function-based approach to innovation management; and the composite innovation index – specially designed tool intended to evaluate the efficiency of an innovation development system. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and advanced students in the fields of management, strategy, and innovation. Chapter 4 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com

Download or read book Organizations in the Face of Growing Competition in the Market written by Anna Ujwary-Gil and published by Institute of Economics, Polish Academy of Sciences. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essence of the functioning of any organization, whether commercial or non-profit, is to provide value to groups of recipients whose expectations undoubtedly change over time. Various competition mechanisms in the market apply to both business-oriented organizations and organizations operating in the sphere of public utilities. This monograph includes examples of the problems facing contemporary organizations, and at the same time provides evidence, confirmed by research results, that indicates the direction of current changes. The analysis of changes taking place in organizations was carried out in many dimensions. The content layout adopted in the monograph presents four research perspectives, where the subject of the research is the organization; the modern tools used in organization management, the impact of the market economy on organizations, and sectoral or industry aspects of the organization’s functioning. In the first chapter, four studies related to commercial and non-commercial organizations have been collated. Researchers of academic organizations who in order to meet the expectations of students increase their activity in the field of entrepreneurship and their support for the most talented students. Both examples show the need to conduct research, develop knowledge about own activities, and focus on the needs of the environment. Entrepreneurial universities are open to the implementation of joint ventures with entities in their environment, which affect the development of the university, its students, as well as the entities. Entrepreneurship, which is based on the ability to take advantage of market opportunities, also creates opportunities for developing the ability to flexibly shape and adapt programs, methods and operating principles to the growing expectations of their environment. The ability to develop your potential as well as the potential of your students plays a crucial role. In the pursuit of excellence, a strong focus should be placed on talented students and the development of all possible forms of support that could determine an output of graduates with particularly high development potential. In the research presented in this monograph, the authors compare the activity of universities in the USA, the Netherlands, and Poland in the area of talent development. The comparative analysis becomes a valuable source of indicating imperfections, but also examples of potential forms of positive activity in this area. Equally important in this part of the monograph is the research on the learning organization. Through a bibliometric analysis, the author identified the fields of research on the learning organization. In addition to research areas related to various dimensions, primarily human, cultural and managerial, the types of organizations in which such research is most often conducted have been indicated. They also include the organizations of the two sectors presented: education and healthcare. The same part of the monograph also presents the results of research in the hotel sector, where the main research problem was the creation of customer value, taking into account the conditions stimulating the dynamics of the business models of hotel enterprises. Referring to business models was considered important because of the significance of decision-making patterns that help to build a competitive advantage and achieve market success by creating value for customers. The concept of creating value for customers is currently treated in cross-sectoral or industry categories and is a universal approach to managing organizations. The second chapter of the monograph presents research on the modern tools used in organization management. Concepts such as work–life balance, shaping the innovation process within the framework of decisions taken in the process, marketing communication, or the use of gamification in research and development, are examples of a wide range of relationships between today’s organization and its surroundings. Finding employees, and retaining them, is also a growing challenge in developing countries, where labor supply is steadily decreasing. The expectations of employees are increasing, especially in relation to respecting the personal, non-professional side of life. Thus, it should be recognized that research on work–life balance is a developing space for organization and management researchers. Modeling the innovation process in an organization is another research trend that is important today, especially in terms of developing competitiveness. Decision-making is one of the key components of the innovation process. This aspect, in qualitative terms, was presented in the next study in the second part of the monograph. Similarly, marketing communication is invariably an important area of research in organizations, which has evolved due to rapidly developing information technologies and, at the same time, the changing preferences of users of these technologies. The last study in this second part of the monograph relates to innovation and the use of computer games. The tools of gamification are used to shape the attitudes of individual energy consumers. The observations presented show that it is worth making attempts to use unconventional methods and tools, in this case, to develop customer knowledge and strengthen the behaviors desired in the energy market. The third chapter of the monograph is devoted to the financial aspects of the functioning of commercial and non-profit organizations in a market economy. Increasing the efficiency of public entities, specifically conditioned in economic policies and dependent on political decisions, has been the subject of numerous studies. The research study presented in the monograph refers to the relationship between financial strategies and profit management in public industrial companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. It is worth noting that no research in this field has been conducted to date in the context of the Polish capital market. The next study refers to the French market. Its purpose was to evaluate and test long-term memory in the French stock exchanges. Research results contribute significantly to explaining the lack of consensus regarding long memory in stock returns. The research covers a significant, 25-year period of operation of the Euronext platform during which 6634 observations were provided. The conclusions of the study may be particularly important for regulators and risk managers. Another study presents the results of bankruptcy risk tests for Polish and Czech logistics companies using a comprehensive classification approach. As a result of the research, a tool for risk assessment and forecasting was developed, enabling the early prediction of bankruptcy of enterprises. At the end of the third chapter of the monograph, the results of health expenditure analysis based on information provided by the Health Account System are presented. Particular attention has been focused on the programming sources of financing healthcare in new European Union countries. Socio-technical and environmental aspects of the organization are the subject of interest of researchers presenting the results of their research in the fourth chapter of the monograph. The problems of economic migration and working conditions have been the subject of interest for many years in the strongly developing trend of labor market research. The research results contained in the study relate primarily to the issues of occupational safety of Ukrainians employed in Poland. These issues are gaining importance, especially when the number of people migrating from Ukraine to Poland in search of work has been growing for several years. In the face of such a large scale of Ukrainian immigrants employed in Polish enterprises, there is still a lack of regulations protecting or securing the interests of employees and employers. The next research presentation highlights the problems of the “circular economy,” which, according to the author, is developing too slowly in Poland. The research is valuable for systematizing the idea of a circular economy based on the theoretical and practical aspects of this phenomenon. The results of the analysis are also of practical importance for the process of modeling and implementing this idea in Poland. Further, the innovation paradigm of economic health and the prosperity of society is the subject of the research carried out, based on a review of the health economy considering innovation and its impact on population growth and prosperity in the world. The research particularly highlights the consequences of socio-demographic, environmental and business changes in the field of consumer goods. The socio-technical, as well as the environmental, aspects of the organization are also included in the last study presented. The purpose of this study was to identify the attitudes of IT employees in the Polish ITC sector towards remote work. Since the effective and efficient collaboration of distributed employees performing remote work has become even more necessary for the success of projects, numerous research works are being conducted focusing on the consequences of remote work. The presented research results are an important contribution to the discussion of researchers and management practitioners. By publishing this monograph, which covers a wide spectrum of research problems in contemporary commercial and non-profit organizations, the editors and authors presenting the results of their research express a hope that they are contributing to the widespread dissemination and enrichment of knowledge and, consequently, socio-economic development.

Download or read book Innovation and Transformation written by Martin Kaschny and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-05-30 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses a six-step transformation cycle in which the tasks of innovation management – ranked according to their relevance for companies – are placed in a systematic order. Presenting an in-depth discussion on innovation and transformation, the authors delve into strategic themes such as business models and strategic positioning, which are fundamental to the innovation process. It also describes the underlying processes and roles of innovation management, and the required organizational structures. Following process organization and organizational structure, the authors highlight how the appropriate human resource strategy should look and the manner of personnel selection or development to be implemented. The authors also provide tools and systems that are assigned to specific employees working with innovation management; these deal with innovation audit, knowledge management, idea management, financing and budgeting innovations, marketing and property rights. The book also sheds light on how the effectiveness of the innovation process can be monitored using indicator systems. This is a handy resource for managers looking for a structured strategy and how to implement it to achieve optimal innovation management and reap its benefits.

Download or read book Measures for Innovating Business Models written by Oana Buliga and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-04-02 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The literature on business model innovation mainly regards large enterprises and is not tailored to SME characteristics. Oana Buliga takes an exploratory look at whether SMEs use strategies which are mainly designed for large enterprises for innovating their business models. The results show that SMEs generally follow successful innovations of large enterprises. Another main finding is that SMEs innovate intuitively: from common sense changes to bold innovations, which severely reshape the value creation systems on the whole. Yet, business model innovation is still a rather ambiguous term and depends on what is considered to be the industry-standard.

Download or read book Germany s Technological Performance written by H. Legler and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maintaining the innovation capabilities of firms, employees and institutions is a key component for the generation of sustainable growth, employment, and high income in industrial societies. Gaining insights into the German innovation system and the institutional framework is as important to policy making as is data on the endowment of the German economy with factors fostering innovation and their recent development. Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research has repeatedly commissioned reports on the competitive strength of the German innovation system since the mid-eighties. The considerable attention that the public and the political, administrative and economic actors have paid to these reports in the past few years proves the strong interest in the assessment of and indicators for the dynamics behind innovation activities. The present study closely follows the pattern of those carried out before. It has been extended, however, to include an extensive discussion on indicators for technological performance and an outline of the key features of the German innovation system.

Download or read book Low tech Innovation written by Oliver Som and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book highlights the economic relevance of the so-called low-tech industries and firms. Non R&D intensive firms continue to be the economic backbone of several developed industrial countries. They form the core of National Innovation Systems and contribute significantly to growth and employment. However, due to their lack of R&D activity, they are easily overlooked in the general innovation debate. This book provides latest empirical findings on the current economic relevance and specific innovation strategies and management of non-R&D intensive firms in Germany. It discusses their future role in a knowledge driven economy as well as possible implications for innovation and technology policy. An outcome of several years of dedicated research conducted at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), this book will prove of immense value to researchers and policy makers dealing with innovation and knowledge strategy.

Download or read book German Turkish Perspectives on IT and Innovation Management written by Fehim Bakırcı and published by Springer Gabler. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book includes papers presented at the 2nd Economic forum: German-Turkish perspectives on IT and Innovation Management at the FOM in Munich, organized by the FOM University of Applied Sciences and Atatürk University Erzurum. Patron of the conference was Prof. Dr. Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister for Education and Research. To mark the German-Turkish year of science, both countries picked out global and societal challenges as a central theme and explored solution strategies as well as their implementation in new technologies and innovations. The papers discuss the effects of new technologies and innovations from different perspectives – from IT management, banking and finance to the special challenges of SMEs.

Download or read book Open Innovation and Business Success written by Monika Gawarzynska and published by diplom.de. This book was released on 2009-09-14 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: Innovation is a crucial topic in the study of economics, business, technology, sociology, and engineering. The questions asked in research nowadays focus not on it why innovation is important, but how to innovate and how innovation processes can be managed. Furthermore the discussion on innovation is about how to maintain strong economic growth in an era that is increasingly being defined by the globalisation of competition, major financial and demographic challenges. Recently the economy continues to upset the market and recession tempts to cut back on the investments in research and development in the organizations. But even now in spite of crisis and its impacts on the economy seems to be the perfect time to increase firms innovation efforts. The increasing competition processes and the development of Web 2.0 technologies (soon Web 3.0) are challenging the business to build more interactive relationship between the real-time market participants. The companies must nowadays find out how to achieve a competitive advantage for future. This paper presents the concept of Open Innovation, which can help public and private institutions achieve better performance or business success and at last win the competition with market rivals. Research motivation: Inspiration for this study was the report Innovation systems - the engine of the economy by Belitz and Schrooten from the German Institute for Economic Research. The authors provide in their analysis the international comparison of the national systems and examine Germany's international competitiveness, its innovation capability as well innovation performance. Researchers from one of the leading research institutes in Germany recommend bringing in action important activities for German innovation policy makers: - Investment in education with new educational approaches concepts to increase the willingness and ability for studding. - Promotion the innovation processes to large sections of the population. - Strengthening incentives for innovation. - Securing the diversity of the national innovation system. - Seizing opportunities from international integration. The DIW s suggestions are pointed out above to indicate on importance in the promotion of the innovation process and its popularization using the policy mixes. It is significant for German economy to support the innovative entrepreneurs at national as well local level. A worrying issue is that there have [...]

Download or read book Drivers and Barriers of High Growth Firms written by Karl Täuscher and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2015-08-19 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Master's Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,0, University of Leipzig (Lehrstuhl für Innovationsmanagement und Innovationsökonomik), language: English, abstract: High-Growth Firms (HGFs) haben in den letzten Jahren großes Interesse durch die wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Forschung erfahren. HGFs bezeichnen dabei Unternehmen, die in mindestens drei aufeinanderfolgenden Jahren mindestens 20% Umsatzwachstum aufweisen können. Das Phänomen des schnellen Wachstums ist dabei auch aus Unternehmenssicht von großem Interesse. Beispielsweise haben solche Unternehmen einen vereinfachten Zugang zu Finanzierungsquellen und potentiellen Mitarbeitern. Dennoch wurde die unternehmerische Perspektive auf HGFs weitestgehend vernachlässigt. Die Literatur gibt bisher kaum Antworten darauf, welche Faktoren schnelles Wachstum treiben oder hemmen und mit welchen Praktiken schnell-wachsende Unternehmen diese Faktoren nutzen oder überkommen. Dabei fehlte es bisher insbesondere an Erhebungen, die sich der spezifischen Gruppe kleiner und mittelgroßer Technologieunternehmen in Deutschland widmet. Die Masterarbeit widmet sich daher der Frage, welche Faktoren schnelles Unternehmenswachstum treiben oder bremsen. Die Arbeit wendet eine Kombination aus induktiver und deduktiver Herangehensweise an. Dazu leitet die Arbeit zunächst deduktiv Treiber und Hemmnisse aus einer umfangreichen Literaturanalyse von 120 wissenschaftlichen Artikeln und Büchern ab. Um neuartige Erkenntnisse für die Gruppe deutscher Technologieunternehmen zu erheben, wurden Interviews mit Gründern und CEOs von 21 schnell wachsenden Unternehmen durchgeführt und mittels Software-gestützter Inhaltsanalyse ausgewertet. Die Arbeit trägt in mehrfacher Hinsicht zur bestehenden Forschung bei. Erstens generiert sie eine umfassende Klassifizierung der bestehenden Literatur hinsichtlich der Faktoren und Praktiken schnellen Unternehmenswachstums. Zweitens, generiert die Arbeit generiert aufschlussreiche empirische Daten und entwickelt ein Wachstumsmodell für schnell-wachsende Technologieunternehmen. Weiterhin ordnet sie den identifizierten Wachstumsphasen die entsprechenden Treiber, Hemmnisse und Unternehmenspraktiken zu. Zuletzt generiert die Arbeit ein Set an Propositionen zur weiteren Untersuchung und entwickelt ein Instrument, welches es Managern erlaubt, das Wachstumspotential ihres Unternehmens zu planen und mit konkreten Maßnahmen zu planen.

Download or read book The management of innovation and its role for the accomplishment of leadership excellence in SMEs written by Markus Santer and published by diplom.de. This book was released on 2004-02-06 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inhaltsangabe:Zusammenfassung: Die aktuelle Situation auf den Märkten ist gekennzeichnet durch Hyperwettbewerb, stark verkürzte Produktlebenszyklen, immer kürzere Produkt- und Technologieentwicklungszeiten. Daraus resultiert die zunehmende Notwendigkeit auch für KMUs, auf internationalen Märkten tätig zu sein und Kernkompetenzen global zu nutzen. Vorsprung zu haben vor anderen, vor Wettbewerbern ist zweifellos von Vorteil. Im Wettlauf um Kunden und überzeugte Anhänger gewinnt doch immer der, der besser, innovativer ist. Erfolgreiches Innovationsmanagement ist eine wesentliche Voraussetzung für überdurchschnittliche Wertsteigerung des Unternehmens, höheres Wachstum im Vergleich zu Konkurrenzunternehmen, Kundenzufriedenheit und letztendlich somit auch eine Notwendigkeit zur Zufriedenstellung aller Stakeholder. Die eingehende Auseinandersetzung mit sowohl theoretischen Grundlagen als auch praktisch angewandten Methoden des Innovationsmanagements bildet den Ausgangspunkt für unsere Diplomarbeit. Das Ziel unserer Arbeit ist es, einerseits theoretische Einblicke in neue Konzepte des Innovationsmanagements zu geben, und andererseits auch praktische Entscheidungshilfen für kleine und mittlere Unternehmen zur Verfügung zu stellen. Abstract: What are the main reasons for the fact that some companies are able to produce more innovative products and services of better quality in less time for their customers compared to their competitors in a given market? Which are the most important success factors and leadership implications that make some small and medium-sized firms more innovative and more successful than others? Those have been the underlying questions that guided us, when writing this paper on the management of innovation and its role for the accomplishment of leadership excellence in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). When searching the literature of the past five years one can find a vast amount of published articles and studies on innovation and the management of innovation but only a limited number of articles dealt with the specific situation and needs of SMEs. Thus we felt that it would be helpful for leaders of this type of companies to identify a set of practicable implications and measures to be taken in order to support and foster innovation. Of course we cannot reinvent the wheel by setting completely new rules of doing business in SMEs. But what we can do here is trying to identify relevant steps helping to support innovative [...]

Download or read book Innovation Interactions Between Knowledge Intensive Business Services And Small And Medium Sized Enterprises written by Emmanuel Muller and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book investigates the meaning, nature and consequences of innovation interactions between small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) and knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). It focuses on the concept of a virtuous circle linking KIBS' and SMEs' innovation capacities in Germany and France. A particular emphasis is given to the question of the role and nature of the knowledge base of the firm in an evolutionary perspective. The integration of the spatial dimension strengthens the examination. For this purpose, a new data analysis methodology has been developed. This methodology consists of a combination of complementary statistical procedures, which provides a tool allowing a reliable examination of the data collected. The samples considered in the analysis constitute a source of rich, complex, and diversified information.

Download or read book Innovation Management written by Prof. Dr. Katrin Stefan and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the third volume of publications on recent developments in Innovation Management within the newly established series edited by Kempten University of Applied Science and published by Deutsches Institut für Ideen- und Innovationsmanagement, the German institute for idea and innovation management. The authors are Master students enrolled in the Master programme "Global Business Development". The papers cover a wide range of different approaches to highlight how management theory responds to the contingencies of an increasing complex and volatile business environment.

Download or read book Innovation in big firms and medium sized firms Approaches differences and examples written by Maximilian Boddenberg and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Document from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,0, Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences, language: English, abstract: This seminar paper tries to find an appropriate attempt to explain the differences regarding innovation in big and medium sized firms and their approaches. The main thesis is that long-term growth in profits depends significantly on firms' investment in innovation activities. In theory, large companies with big research budgets and the resources to hire top scientists and the best skilled employees should have a remarkably huge advantage when it comes to innovation. In practice, however, smaller firms with comparatively tiny budgets often manage to out-innovate the bigger, established competitors. To understand the meaning of innovation, it is important to determine different innovative dimensions. Innovation is often stated as a "driver for success" or the "fuel" that powers our economy and leads it to prosperity, especially in Germany with its traditional organizations and their role in society. It is not only important for the economy, but they can also be a source of political and social ingredients. Innovations will play the key role for the challenges that face our global society in the 21th century. Global problems as the rise of population and mass urbanization, the global garbage problem, or climate change can only be solved by brave innovators. Those challenges can not only be seen as problems, but companies around the world can develop innovative products to accelerate their business success. The central question, regarding big firms is: How can so huge networks and highly branched systems manage the different kind of innovations? Is it really necessary for surviving? One of the problems that many large organizations face is how to innovate successfully within the confines of a massive, bureaucratic operational structure. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the area of research and development, where small, entrepreneurial firms routinely do end runs on large companies will multi-million dollar research budgets. It is really interesting to know how flexible and adaptive big firms can be in this situation of change and how medium firms challenge different kinds of disruptions and innovations.

Download or read book The Boundaries of Innovation and Entrepreneurship written by Alexander Brem and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-09-20 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander Brem presents a comprehensive overview of the theoretical background and recent models in the context of innovation and entrepreneurship. Based on a process-oriented innovation-entrepreneurship framework, the author investigates the integration of market pull and technology push activities in the innovation process.

Download or read book How SMEs protect critical knowledge in joint innovation activities with external partners written by Karl Tschetschonig and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2012-01-11 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: Sehr gut, Vienna University of Economics and Business (Entrepreneurship & Innovation), language: English, abstract: For small firms, knowledge leakage, loss and theft are counted among the greatest risks in inter-firm collaborations. SMEs are more vulnerable, because they suffer from a number of structural disadvantages when collaborating with larger companies, and yet, they need to collaborate with external partners to overcome their lack of resources. Therefore, this study investigates how SMEs can most effectively protect critical knowledge in collaborations with external partners, for that they can prevent knowledge loss, leakage and theft, while maximizing the performance of the collaboration. Based on a comprehensive review of existing literature, and a qualitative multiple-case study evaluation, where highly innovative and successful SMEs in Germany contributed their experiences, I have derived valuable insights for practice and theory. Overall, the most commonly used means of protecting critical knowledge were secrecy, patents, the systematic selection of partners, and contracts. Despite the importance given to these mechanisms, not all of them proved to be effective. In fact, trust, secrecy and the systematic selection of partners were considered to be most effective, while initial secrecy and patents were concluded to overprotect knowledge, thus, limiting the possible overall innovative performance. Complementary assets, rotating personnel, oligopolistic market structures, equity relationships, technical means of protection, and employee contracts were found to be entirely ineffective for SMEs. When analyzing the relations of protection mechanisms, a significant correlation between the type of protection and the openness to external innovation emerged: companies, which used initial secrecy and patents to protect knowledge, did not collaborate with external partners to co-develop new ideas, while companies, which focused on trust as a means of protection, were much more likely to do so. What is more, SMEs did not differentiate these strategies for different types of partners and they generally preferred to collaborate with smaller firms. In fact, it turned out that strategies are influenced by a number of factors including experiences made in previous collaborations.

Download or read book Innovation in Production written by Gunter Lay and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How industrial companies in Germany's critically important investment goods sector are deploying new technological and organizational production concepts to adapt to competitiveness challenges, new market requirements, environmental demands, and policy pressures is examined in this book. It draws on the Fraunhofer ISI's unique nationwide survey of technology use and production in Germany. East German as well as West German data is analyzed. Readers will gain fresh insights about the diffusion of new production concepts, the interaction of process and product innovations, and subsequent effects on productivity, employment, work flexibility, and the business performance of German industry. Implications for business strategy, public policy, and ongoing research into technology diffusion are considered.