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Keywords
Organizational innovation, Research work, Product innovation, New products
Abstract
Organisational innovativeness is a broad concept involved in a firm's proclivity to innovate. As such, widely varying conceptualisations and operationalisations of this construct appear to be the main cause of major deficiencies in the research of organisational innovativeness determinants. This article suggests a shift in emphasis from organisational to product innovativeness. After defining this concept, it selectively addresses how the investigation of product innovativeness as a dependent variable could contribute to further research and theory development. The benefits of such an investigation are far from restricted to the recommendations made herein. However, such recommendations are meant to intrigue scholars into conducting similar investigations on product innovativeness, a rather overlooked aspect of organisational innovativeness.
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Introduction
The role of innovation as a crucial driving force of economic development is widely acknowledged. In particular within the business setting, innovation is often considered to be a vital source of strategic change, by which a firm generates positive outcomes including sustained competitive advantage. For these and other reasons, innovation has for many decades been subject to thorough analysis and research.
Innovation itself is a broad concept that is conceived in a variety of ways. Prior attempts to capture what really constitutes the term of innovation have resulted in widely varying conceptualisations. Consequently, innovation and innovativeness are either distinguished from each other or used interchangeably (Damanpour, 1991). Nevertheless, innovation seems to incorporate the adoption or/and implementation of "new" defined rather in subjective ways, whereas innnovativeness appears to embody some kind of measurement contingent on an organisation's proclivity towards innovation.
This article intends to review and critically comment on the extant literature regarding innovativeness. More specifically, the first section will discuss research streams of organisational innovation research. The second section will present conceptualisations and measurements of organisational innovativeness. The third section will critically suggest a shift in emphasis from organisational to product innovativeness. The fourth section will stress the importance of considering product innovativeness as a dependent variable, in order to contribute to further research and theory development, while the final section will provide...