scholarly journals What Should SMEs Consider to Introduce Environmentally Innovative Products to Market?

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daegyu Yang

In recent years, companies are challenged not only to develop market competencies but also to deal with environmental issues. Unlike larger companies equipped with abundant resources and sustainable capabilities, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are under relatively constrained conditions to effectively deal with environmental concerns as well as market demands. This study attempts to examine a set of potential factors by which SMEs can overcome such limited conditions and bring novel and environmentally beneficial products to market through their innovative activities. Organization theories, such as organizational learning, social network theory, and new-institutional theory, provide a theoretical framework for this study that SMEs may utilize their resources and capabilities from internal, external, and institutional domains. The hypotheses are tested using the Korea Innovation Survey 2010. The analyses show that the likelihood of the market introduction of new and environmentally innovative products is increased not only when an SME makes more monetary investments on internal innovative activities and experiences more success in general innovation activities, but also when an SME inputs more monetary investments into the search for technological knowledge from the outside and utilizes more diverse external information sources. Interestingly, the findings demonstrate that monetary support from the government do not have significant impacts on an SME’s environmental innovation, while a non-monetary technological support system operated by government raises the likelihood of the market introduction of new and environmentally innovative products. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.

Author(s):  
Marjan Modara ◽  
Alex Bennet ◽  
Vincent Ribiere

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the government and private sector collaboration by focusing on their roles in influencing the innovation activities crucial for the development of a knowledge economy (KE) in Bahrain. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative methodology based on an explorative single multi-unit case study strategy was used with individual and focus group interviews as primary sources of data collection. Perspectives of 22 individuals and three focus groups involving participants working in private, semi-government and government sectors that influence the economy of Bahrain were collected along with reports and articles published regarding those sectors as second sources of data compilation. Findings The preliminary findings show that Bahrain’s pursuit of a KE has already begun by the government developing policies and regulations for the financial sector to innovate in financial technology (FinTech). It was also found that in order for innovation processes and products to be developed further in Bahrain, the government had to play a stronger role in promoting, facilitating and incentivizing those processes and developments. The role of the private sector emerged as the sole producer of innovation and the main entity responsible for producing innovative products and services that would inject direct values into the commercial economy of the innovation ecosystem. Originality/value This is the first study that examines the influence of collaboration between the government and the private sector on innovation development in Bahrain. This research also provides an assessment tool that can serve as the groundwork for studies in the Gulf Cooperative Council countries since those countries share similar culture, language, religion and a hydrocarbon-dependent economy as Bahrain and are aiming to develop KE strategies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-85
Author(s):  
L. D. Kapranova ◽  
T. V. Pogodina

The subject of the research is the current state of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) that ensures generation of a significant part of the budget and the innovative development of the economy.The purpose of the research was to establish priority directions for the development of the FEC sectors based on a comprehensive analysis of their innovative and investment activities. The dynamics of investment in the fuel and energy sector are considered. It is noted that large-scale modernization of the fuel and energy complex requires substantial investment and support from the government. The results of the government programs of corporate innovative development are analyzed. The results of the research identified innovative development priorities in the power, oil, gas and coal sectors of the fuel and energy complex. The most promising areas of innovative development in the oil and gas sector are the technologies of enhanced oil recovery; the development of hard-to-recover oil reserves; the production of liquefied natural gas and its transportation. In the power sector, the prospective areas are activities aimed at improving the performance reliability of the national energy systems and the introduction of digital technologies. Based on the research findings, it is concluded that the innovation activities in the fuel and energy complex primarily include the development of new technologies, modernization of the FEC technical base; adoption of state-of-the-art methods of coal mining and oil recovery; creating favorable economic conditions for industrial extraction of hard-to-recover reserves; transition to carbon-free fuel sources and energy carriers that can reduce energy consumption and cost as well as reducing the negative FEC impact on the environment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seng Chee Lim ◽  
Ahmad Suhaimi Baharudin

The powerful of Internet has changed the world. The successful story from Amazon.com has encouraged some business owners to switch their business model to e-business model. In year 1997, Malaysia's government allocated some budget to setup Internet infrastructure and introduce Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) to public. The main objective is to transform current practice to service based platform, and to attract world class companies while grooming local Internet communication technologies (ICT) companies. Besides that, the government had put efforts to increase Internet user population such as taxes deduction for family who purchase computers, educate the public the importance of master Internet technologies. After a decade of implementation, the e-Commerce adoption response from the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) still do not reach the considerable level, based on Association Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industries of Malaysia SME's survey it shows 28% of the respondents involve into e-Commerce activities. Small Medium Enterprises contribute 99.2% to Malaysia's economic. This study intends to find out the level of e-Commerce adoption among SMEs in Malaysia, and potential factors that hindrance to the e-Commerce adoption.


Author(s):  
Yeugene Nagornyi ◽  
Svitlana Berezova

The success of innovation activities of industrial enterprises to create product innovations depends on many factors. One of the main factors in this list is an objective assessment of their market prospects. This assessment can be carried out using the procedure of marketing testing, as it contains necessary methodological support and tools to determine the commercial prospects of product innovation at each stage of the innovation cycle. The effectiveness of marketing testing largely depends on how successfully organized this process in the enterprise, which actualizes the development of organizational and economic mechanism for managing marketing testing of market prospects for product innovations. This research is devoted to this question. The article presents the organizational and economic mechanism for managing marketing testing of market prospects of product innovations of industrial enterprises. The developed mechanism contains: subsystem of information support (internal and external information), target subsystem (tasks and purposes, criteria and principles of management of marketing testing), control subsystem (subjects which carry out management and functions which they carry out), the managed subsystem (divisions of the enterprise). Involved in marketing testing), providing a subsystem (methods and resources of management) and a subsystem of controlling the procedure of marketing testing of market prospects of product innovations. The mechanism also includes a subsystem of marketing testing, which consists of the author’s theoretical and methodological approaches to assessing the market prospects of product innovations at the stages of the innovation cycle of their development. It is based on the following approaches: theoretical and methodological approach to foresight research of future needs in product innovations; theoretical and methodological approach to the criterion base of evaluation and selection from a number of alternatives of innovative projects for the development of product innovations; theoretical and methodological approach to marketing testing and evaluation of market prospects of product innovations; theoretical and methodological approach to the diagnosis and strengthening of consumer capital of the enterprise; methodical approach, by which decisions are made on the readiness of product innovations to enter the market and complete the work on the procedure of marketing testing. The marketing testing mechanism contains the relationships between the subsystems (influence, coordination, and adjustment, feedback) to obtain an overall result. The result of the implementation of the proposed mechanism is tested for market success, developed product innovation, which is ready for commercialization, which is predicted to succeed, and the developer, thus, will receive all planned revenues and profits from its sale on the market. The conducted analysis is a future basis for the implementation of the developed organizational and economic testing mechanism in the practical activities of domestic innovative industrial enterprises.


Author(s):  
Robin Cheng

This chapter focused on exploring the engagement in which consumers interact with each other while conducting online shopping activities, such as discovering products, sharing product information, and/or collaboratively making shopping decisions. At the core of the product/service offering, successful shopping models will be able to meet the needs of highly engaged shoppers. In order to develop sustainable shopping model for this group of shoppers, social support theory could explain the current phenomenon of the use of social media for shopping. The social media technologies facilitated collaborative learning and collaborative improvement on the sale of unconventional and innovative products. The chapter contributes in social commerce innovations and provides managerial implications for understanding the overall interactions of social commerce.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 482-504
Author(s):  
Min-Ren Yan ◽  
Haiyan Yan ◽  
Lingyun Zhan ◽  
Xinyue Yan ◽  
Mengen Xu

Science parks and innovation policies have a major mission in driving innovative resources and nurturing emerging industries, while the government-academia-industry collaborations and the establishment of an ecosystem are essentials. To investigate the key driving forces for sustainable development of the collaborative ecosystem, this article evaluates the technological innovations and the ecosystem of Science Parks in Shanghai based on historical data obtained from Shanghai Zhangjiang Science Park (Zhangjiang Park in short). Systems thinking and causal loop analysis are adopted to explore the structure of the collaborative ecosystem and reflections of the policy impact on the science park. The role of the government in science parks and innovation ecosystems is identified with systems mapping and empirical study. The economic impact of Zhangjiang Park policies and the performance of innovation activities in Shanghai are further evaluated. Lessons learnt from the benchmarked science parks and policy implications for facilitating the innovation ecosystem are addressed.


Author(s):  
Bengi Meriç Benderlioğlu ◽  
U. Zeynep Ata

With rapid change in technology worldwide, innovative products such as wearable technology devices tend to have an uprising trend. Consumers, however, are not necessarily adaptive in their nature and their perception is shaped by many factors. The aim of this research is to investigate the consumer acceptance of wearable technology devices, specifically smartwatches. The study extends the widely used technology acceptance model with the introduction of new variables. For the purpose of the study, survey data was collected from German and Turkish university students. The overall results provide validation to previous literature while introducing new factors for consumer acceptance of technology products, wearable technology devices, and smartwatches. Importance of this research comes from the innovative and promising nature of the wearable technology devices concept, the lack of work on smartwatches in literature, as well as the cross-cultural nature of the study. The study also has managerial implications for technology companies who chase after growth in their businesses.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-186
Author(s):  
Biranchi Narayan Swar

India is the one of the top 15 largest passenger car markets globally and is expected to be among the top 10 markets by 2016. Post-liberalization, many foreign manufacturers have set up their operations in India. It is expected that the small car segment is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15–16 per cent in the next five years. During its early stages, the auto industry was overlooked by the then government and the policies were also not favourable. The liberalization policy and various tax reliefs by the Government of India in recent years have made remarkable impacts on Indian automobile industry, especially the small car segments. Moreover, it is the small car that is going to dominate the Indian roads, generate volumes and strengthen manufacturers’ bottom lines in future. This article is an attempt to explore factors driving working professionals buying small cars. The data was collected from 250 respondents and analysed with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using varimax rotations. The analysis extracted four factors such as artistic, economical, safety and security, and comfortability. The managerial implications include the following—small car dealers need to adopt strategies to understand working professionals’ safety, security and comfortability concerns and formulate strategy accordingly.


Author(s):  
Ryan W. Buell ◽  
Ethan Porter ◽  
Michael I. Norton

Problem definition: As trust in government reaches historic lows, frustration with government performance approaches record highs. Academic/practical relevance: We propose that in coproductive settings such as government services, people’s trust and engagement levels can be enhanced by designing service interactions to allow them to see the often-hidden work—via increasing operational transparency—being performed in response to their engagement. Methodology and results: Three studies, conducted in the field and laboratory, show that surfacing the submerged state through operational transparency impacts citizens’ attitudes and behavior. Study 1 leveraged proprietary data from a mobile phone application developed by the City of Boston, Massachusetts, through which residents submit service requests; the city’s goal was to increase engagement with the app. Users who received photographs of government addressing their service requests submitted 60% more requests and in 38% more categories over the ensuing 13 months than users who did not receive photographs. These significant increases in engagement persisted for 11 months following users’ initial exposure to operational transparency and were highest for users who had experienced government to be at least moderately responsive to their requests in the past. In study 2, residents of Boston who interacted with a website that visualized both service requests (e.g., potholes and broken street lamps) and efforts by the city’s government to address those requests became 14% more trusting and 12% more supportive of government. Moreover, residents who received additional transparency into the growing backlog of service requests that government was failing to fulfill, revealing government to be less responsive, were no more nor less trusting and supportive of government than residents who received no transparency. Study 3 replicated findings from the first two studies and documented underlying mechanisms: operational transparency increases trust and engagement by two causal pathways—through consumers’ increased perceptions of effort by the government and through increased perceptions that engaging with it is impactful. Responsiveness increases feelings of personal efficacy, which boosts willingness to engage both directly and indirectly through the other causal paths. Managerial implications: Taken together, our results suggest that showing more work performed by government—via operational transparency—encourages people to do more work themselves. These results have implications for the design of a broad array of coproductive services where operations are hidden and consumer trust and engagement are critical.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document