مجله مدیریت نوآوری
سال سوم شماره 3 (پیاپی 9، پاییز 1393)

According to traditional management theories, control and innovation are two opposite sides of a continuum. Theories discuss that control systems create serious obstacles for creativity and innovation. In principle, the degree of organization’s formality is in reverse relation with innovation. But the new proposed approaches in control literature and experimental researches show that control is not only a rigid and static concept concentrated on standardization and minimizing the diversity and novelty, but formal control systems could affect innovation management process positively. This paper tried to develop a new framework for making innovation, compatible with control in organizations via configuration approach; which presents four conceptually organizational configurations. Two configurations from the selected ones provide the necessary context for innovation. In other words, the organizations can use these two configurations to make the emergence of innovation possible.

The concept of percepted organizational innovation refers to perception of employees about organization’s support from innovation leading to increase of satisfaction and commitment of employees. Researchers have examined the effect of organizational factors on percepted organizational innovation in their studies. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between organizational climate and perception of organizational innovation in regards to the role of gender as a moderating variable. The results are drawn from emprical research among 150 headquarter experts of Khorasan Regional Electricity company. Questionnaires were used to collect the data and relevance thereof regarding the content and factorial analysis was confirmed using statistical software such as SPSS and AMOS. The outcomes resulting from the model test showed that only 3 aspects of organizational climate including autonomy, cohesion and trust, favors perception of oganizational innovation; and there is a strong bond between organizational climate and percepted innovation. Moreover, the hypothesis concerning the moderating role of employees’ gender in the relationship between organizational climate and organizational percepted innovation was not affirmed.

The new knowledge enables organizations to gain competitive advantage and also improves organizational performance. Knowlege networks is one of the main sources of knowledge.The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between knowledge management and product innovation performance. To achieve this goal, a conceptual framework of the performance in product innovation is proposed with respect to factors of knowledge management and product development strategies. Next, an empirical research is performed for the impact of strategic focus on new product development and product innovation performance from the perspective of technology, customer and competition knowledge. The statistical population is selected from IT experts in the field of knowledge management and innovation from e-commerce companies of Esfahan province and academic experts. In this research, structural equation model and AMOS software are used to examine and test the conceptual model, and exploratory factor analysis is used to confirm the validity of research criteria and structural validity. This study shows that the product innovation performance is created by knowledge management systems. The result of study shows that some product development strategies have a significant impact on the product innovation performance and knowledge networks. Among product development strategies, incremental strategy has no significant impact on product innovation performance. Also, knowledge networks have a significantly positive effect on the product innovation performance.

Innovation diffusion is a complex and dynamic process which is affected by various variables such as quality, competition, market entry time, advertising and customer satisfaction. Traditional innovation diffusion models, like Bass model, ignore the dynamism of the diffusion process and simplify the assumptions on which the diffusion process is analyzed. On this basis, the present paper seeks to propose a developed and dynamic innovation diffusion model through the application of system dynamics methodology. This methodology has found its followers in various fields as an effective approach in studying dynamic and complex behaviors of economic and social systems. The proposed model is simulated by Vensim DSS software and its validity is verified by the use of statistical and systemic tests. Moreover, the model is applied to a new product of the B.A Foodstuff Company. After ensuring the reproduction of real behavior, some scenarios are performed in order to ameliorate the process. The results of the scenarios indicate that the “word of mouth” factor has a greater effect on accelerating the diffusion process than “advertising” factor. As such, factors such as the satisfaction of primary consumers, affecting the advertisement procedure through the ‘word of mouth’ would play a major role in innovation diffusion.

Knowledge broker is an easy and neutral concept. It is easy, because task of knowledge broker is to communicate between the person in need of knowledge and person owning the knowledge. It is neutral, because knowledge transfer without knowledge internalization is not effective. The main goal of this research is identifying characteristics of knowledge broker for effecting on knowledge sharing process. Qualitative research method with data based approach is used to carry out the research. On this basis, duties of knowledge brokers and theirs features in the field of a domestic knowledge-based organization has been reviewed and structural connections between the above-mentioned characteristics and tasks of knowledge brokers for affecting knowledge sharing process has been explained. Research data in this study were collected from a series of semi-structured interviews with organizational managers and experts, then analyzed by utilizing open, center-based and selective coding method. Research findings demonstrate four characteristics for knowledge brokers, including extroversion, charisma, possession of position and organizational authorities and ability. Also the submitted conceptual model in this research demonstrated that knowledge brokers, besides developing communication capacity, improve change capacity in organization and thereby lead to effectiveness of knowledge sharing process.

So far, various methods are innovated and tested to develop new products or services. But, nowadays considering advantages and disadvantages of each, hybrid methods attract more attention. In this paper, QFD and Kano Methods are merged. The outcome of this hybrid method is a new product covering both competitive and innovative characteristics. At the first step, the needs of customers are identified via interviewing with the focus group and classified in Kano method through surveying 282 users. Thereafter, the correlation of each characteristic and the related requirement is identified by experts and utilized in the final QFD matrix. Simultaneously, 18 characteristics ranked by TOPSIS reach the final matrix. Then, in QFD matrix, goals are determined by applying various analyses and the cellphone which has competitive and creative requirements is introduced. Finally those attributes leading to satisfaction and also the competitive advantages are remained in the QFD matrix and would be considered in the final product design. The design procedure in this method can reduce the risk of new product offering and accordingly increase the competitiveness of enterprises.