Blog Post 3_Justin Heard

Determinants of an Innovation Process: A Case Study

of Technological Innovation in a Community Sport

Organization

Journal of Sport Management, 2012, 26, 213-223

©2012 Human Kinetics, inc.

 

The article looks at a community sport organization (CSO) undergoing a technological change.  This implementation of innovation was looked at as a case study.  Managerial, environmental, and organizational levels were looked regarding how innovation was handled at each level.  3 stages were used as adopted from research from Damanpour & Schneider (2006), as notated from the article.  These 3 stages are initiation, adoption, and implementation.  From a managerial prospective, having a pro-innovation leader proved to be a strong determinant regarding adoption of innovation.  Leadership commitment was also important. Projects have been cancelled with lack of strong commitment from leadership in this case study, and would otherwise not progress through all stages.  Financial resources and organizational capacity was another determinant in this study, and also had a strong influence regarding success of the implementation of new innovation within a CSO.  When adoption of new software is involved, involvement of outside influence is “paramount” in the implementation stage.  This is attributed to the training involved, and making sure end users are competent and confident with the new programs.  These findings are recommended by the authors to be used with a range of CSO’s, and across differing types of CSO’s seeking to adopt technology.  Having strong and committed leadership during this process is said to have a strong impact on the success or failure of adopting innovation, along with financial support and external assistance. 

 

Hoeber, L., & Hoeber, O. (2012). Determinants of an Innovation Process: A Case Study of Technological Innovation in a Community Sport Organization. Journal Of Sport Management, 26(3), 213-223.

Blog Post 3 - Practitioner Article

This blog post is intended to fulfill a requirement for Professor Voelker’s Strategic Management Seminar course (MGMT 6731) at University of Houston Clear Lake this Fall 2012 semester.  The requirement in question is to provide a review of a peer reviewed academic article associated with an assigned topic area, in this case relating strategic management and innovation.  To fulfill this requirement I have chosen what I have found to be a very interesting practitioner article from Financial Executive published by de Jaruzelski in 2012 entitled “Building a Culture That Energizes Innovation” the copyright for which is held by Financial Executives International.   

This article conveys the importance of relating the culture inherent at a firm with the strategy for innovation they are attempting to implement.  If the firm mistaken seeks to implement a high risk path embracing innovation when they do not have the cultural foundation that is necessary, then they are more than likely doomed to fail.

The author lays out a “culture evolution framework” to help guide practicing managers in setting the appropriate strategy for innovation.  First the author emphasizes taking time to truly understand the existing culture at the firm.  And when doing this understand how the organization and people truly behave when it comes innovation.  Do they embrace the possibility of failing or are they afraid to death of the embarrassment that doing so may bring?  Then the author emphasizes defining the “few critical behaviors” that provide the biggest bang for the buck.  Idea here is to not dilute yourself trying to tackled everything all at once.  But to focus your energies on where you can make a noticeable and hopefully substantial difference to how your organization behaves relative to innovation.  As their third major part of the process the author emphasize comes from a “cultural evolution program.”  This is where as the initial movements towards changing behavior are expanded upon and reinforced, both through formal as well as informal process.  Informal process could mean simply how individual decide to work together to most efficiently and effectively achieve the near term objectives.  More formal aspects could be a pay for performance reward system that helps reinforce behaviors with tangible lasting rewards.  And finally as the fourth and last point of emphasis the author emphasize implementing a system for measuring actual progress in quantitative terms.  This helps keep the focus on what the organization is trying to achieve, shows exactly which factors are deemed most important, what levels for those factors the organization believes not only are achievable but also important to aspire to, and sets a time table for making the accomplishments by.

The most important implication that I believe a practicing managers should take away from this article is the need to truly understand whether the culture at your company will embrace a strategy related to innovation before setting such a strategy in concrete for implementation.  Just because innovation may be a hot topic today for staying ahead of your competitors does not mean it is something that your company will be successful at.  Make sure you know yourself and what you are capable of when setting your strategy.

Citation

Jaruzelski (2012). Building a Culture That Energizes Innovation. Financial Executive, V28, No.2, 32-35.

Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Silicon Valley: The Case of Google, Inc

Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Silicon Valley: The Case of Google, Inc.

Author: Finkle, Todd A. Source: Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Volume 36, Number 4, 1 July 2012 , pp. 863-884(22)

 

Do you know which company is the most innovative high tech company in the world? I  believe Google is really top tier innovation company. Everyone uses Google's products almost every day, such as Google Search, Google Map, YouTube, and Gmail etc. Moreover, Google still dedicates in developing innovative products and technologies to change our daily life and improve the world. What are Google's keys to success?  This article tells you how Google make success through its innovation and entrepreneurship strategy. This article is very important because it is the real world case that you can learn a lot from it about how to use innovation strategy to make business successful. It is also a benchmark for the managers to follow when they operate their companies.

 

Three factors contribute to Google's innovation. The first factor is culture. Google established a culture of open innovative environment  to encourage people to generate new ideas and creations. The second, Google has a "Less-layer" management system and many reward programs including high paid salary, stock options, employees services such as free dinner. This kind of system supports people to create, and make innovation more effectively and efficiently. The third factor, the most important one, is people. Google hires the smartest , highly self-motivated people in the world. They have the capability to innovate and create new products and technologies.

 

The author provided supports to these findings by analyzing the economic, competitive environment, through abundant  evidences including Google's financial statements, stages of growth, pictures, and entrepreneurs' and employees' interviews. For example, the Table of Google's Corporate History showed a list of innovations from its founding year 1998 to 2008. These innovations included releasing Google Toolbar, Adwords, Google Maps features satellite live view, Google Earth, and Google Apps and so on. Google’s philosophy is “Never Settle for the Best.” Google's 20% free time policy allows employees do whatever they are interested in. The author also analyzed Silicon Valley region's education environment and high tech companies  as well as Google's hiring process. A picture of the employee's work table shows abundant materials to help recreate new stuff. All these evidences strongly support above finding.

 

The implications for practicing managers are that you should think about if you create an environment for employees to try new things and ideas when your company wants to use the innovation strategy. You should ask yourself if your business internal mechanism and structure matches with the innovative culture, and encourages this quick change. Lastly, the managers should be aware that people is the  most important factor in innovation.