Yuanzhu Zhan, Kim Hua Tan and Robert K. Perrons
In today’s rapidly changing business environment, the case for accelerated innovation processes has become increasingly compelling at both a theoretical and practical level. Thus…
Abstract
Purpose
In today’s rapidly changing business environment, the case for accelerated innovation processes has become increasingly compelling at both a theoretical and practical level. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for accelerated innovation in a data-driven market environment.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is based on a two-step approach. First, a set of propositions concerning the best approaches to accelerated innovation are put forward. Then it offers qualitative evidence from five case studies involving world-leading firms, and explains how innovation can be accelerated in different kinds of data-driven environments.
Findings
The key sets of factors for accelerated innovation are: collateral structure; customer involvement; and ecosystem of innovation. The proposed framework enables firms to find ways to innovate – specifically, to make product innovation faster and less costly.
Research limitations/implications
The findings from this research focus on high-tech industries in China. Using several specific innovation projects to represent accelerated innovation could raise the problem of the reliability and validity of the research findings. Additional research will probably be required to adapt the proposed framework to accommodate the cultural nuances of other countries and business environments.
Practical implications
The study is intended as a framework for managers to apply their resources to conduct product innovation in a fast and effective way. It developed six propositions about how, specifically, data analytics and ICTs can contribute to accelerated innovation.
Originality/value
The research shows that firms could harvest external knowledge and import ideas across organisational boundaries. An accelerated innovation framework is characterised by a multidimensional process involving intelligence efforts, relentless data collection and flexible working relationships with team members.
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Robert K. Perrons and Ken Platts
Some research in the area of make‐buy decisions for new technologies suggests that it is a good idea for a company to pursue a fairly rigorous “make” policy in the early days of a…
Abstract
Some research in the area of make‐buy decisions for new technologies suggests that it is a good idea for a company to pursue a fairly rigorous “make” policy in the early days of a potentially disruptive innovation. Other studies prescribe exactly the opposite, promoting instead a “buy” strategy. Drawing from observations and lessons from the Prisoner's Dilemma, this paper seeks to bridge the gap between these perspectives by suggesting that both strategies are valid, but that they are most successfully applied in different market environments. The “make” prescription may be more suited to either extremely fast or extremely slow rates of technological change, while a “buy” strategy might be more appropriate in market sectors where technologies evolve at a medium pace. This paper highlights the importance of industry clockspeed and supplier relationships in make‐buy decisions for new technologies, and puts forward two new hypotheses that require empirical testing.
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Robert K. Perrons, Matthew G. Richards and Ken Platts
The purpose of this investigation is to help establish: whether or not strong relationships between suppliers and customers improve performance; and if prescriptive frameworks on…
Abstract
Purpose of this paper
The purpose of this investigation is to help establish: whether or not strong relationships between suppliers and customers improve performance; and if prescriptive frameworks on outsourcing radical innovations are dependent on industry clockspeed.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of UK‐based manufacturers, followed by a statistical analysis.
Findings
Long‐term supplier links seem not to play a role in the development of radical innovations. Moreover, industry clockspeed has no significant bearing on the success or failure of any outsourcing strategy for radically new technologies.
Research limitations/implications
Literature about outsourcing in the face of radical innovation can be more confidently applied to industries of all clockspeeds.
Practical implications
Prescriptions for fast clockspeed industries should be applied more broadly: all industries should maintain a high degree of vertical integration in the early days of a radical innovation.
Originality/value
Prior papers had explored whether or not a company should outsource radical innovations, but none had determined if this is equally true for slow industries and fast ones. Therein lies the original contribution of this paper.
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Robert K. Perrons and Ken Platts
To determine whether or not clockspeed is an important variable in outsourcing strategies throughout the development of radical innovations.
Abstract
Purpose
To determine whether or not clockspeed is an important variable in outsourcing strategies throughout the development of radical innovations.
Design/methodology/approach
An internet‐based survey of manufacturing firms from all over the world.
Findings
An industry's clockspeed does not play a significant role in the success or failure of a particular outsourcing strategy for a radical innovation.
Research limitations/implications
Conclusions from earlier research in this area are not necessarily industry‐specific.
Practical implications
Lessons learned via previous investigations about the computer industry need not be confined to that sector. Vertical integration may be a more robust outsourcing strategy when developing a radical innovation in industries of all clockspeeds.
Originality/value
Previous research efforts in this field focused on a single technology jump, but this approach may have overlooked a potentially important variable: industry clockspeed. Thus, this investigation explores whether clockspeed is an important factor.
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Abstract
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Are share markets too volatile? While it is difficult to ignore share market volatility it is important to determine whether volatility is excessive. This paper replicates the…
Abstract
Are share markets too volatile? While it is difficult to ignore share market volatility it is important to determine whether volatility is excessive. This paper replicates the Shiller (1981) test as well as applying standard time series analysis to annual Australian stock market data for the period 1883 to 1999. While Shiller’s test suggests the possibility of excess volatility, time series analysis identifies a long‐run relationship between share market value and dividends, consistent with the share market reverting to its fundamental discounted cash flow value over time.
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Steven J. Cochran and Robert H. DeFina
This study uses parametric hazard models to investigate duration dependence in US stock market cycles over the January 1929 through December 1992 period. Market cycles are…
Abstract
This study uses parametric hazard models to investigate duration dependence in US stock market cycles over the January 1929 through December 1992 period. Market cycles are determined using the Beveridge‐Nelson (1981) approach to the decomposition of economic time series. The results show that both real and nominal cycles exhibit positive duration dependence. The implication of this finding is that actual prices revert to their permanent or trend level in a non‐random manner as the cyclical component dissipates over time. This process is consistent with mean reversion in price and suggests that predictable periodicity in market cycles may exist. Only limited evidence is obtained that discrete shifts or trends in mean cycle duration exist. The length of market cycles appears not to have changed over the 1929–92 period.
Rather than organize as traditional firms, many of today’s companies organize as platforms that sit at the nexus of multiple exchange and production relationships. This chapter…
Abstract
Rather than organize as traditional firms, many of today’s companies organize as platforms that sit at the nexus of multiple exchange and production relationships. This chapter considers a most basic question of organization in platform contexts: the choice of boundaries. Herein, I investigate how classical economic theories of firm boundaries apply to platform-based organization and empirically study how executives made boundary choices in response to changing market and technical challenges in the early mobile computing industry (the predecessor to today’s smartphones). Rather than a strict or unavoidable tradeoff between “openness-versus-control,” most successful platform owners chose their boundaries in a way to simultaneously open-up to outside developers while maintaining coordination across the entire system.