Behavioral Competencies for Innovation by Sara Bonesso & Laura Cortellazzo & Fabrizio Gerli

Author:Sara Bonesso & Laura Cortellazzo & Fabrizio Gerli
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030407346
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

3.2 There Is Not One Single Innovation

Scholars have recently started to address the complexity of the innovation process by disentangling and classifying different types of innovation. It has been argued that each type of innovation is characterized by different goals and requires different resources and processes when it is being developed (OECD 2005; Tavassoli and Karlsson 2015). The literature has classified innovation into different forms, distinguishing between technological (product and process innovation) and non-technological (organizational , marketing and strategy innovation) changes (Battisti et al. 2015; Gault 2018; Geldes et al. 2017).

Product innovation is usually the most persistent type of innovation (Tavassoli and Karlsson 2015). About 30 percent of the episodes that we analyzed are of this type. Product innovation is characterized by significant improvements in the capabilities of existing goods or services or by the creation of entirely new goods or services (OECD 2005), such as a lamp that defies technology. ‘I said “let’s try to reverse the logic. Instead of having a metal structure that supports the diffuser, by exploiting the characteristics of these materials, we could try to make a diffuser that is able to do the diffuser job but also to support its parts. The result had those characteristics that we were looking for: it was extremely light, it was extremely effective in spreading the light, but it was also solid enough to sustain its technical parts, and it was very beautiful.’

Process innovations entail significant changes in production and delivery methods (OECD 2005), for instance the company’s management of raw materials. ‘The way we managed the raw materials up to that point involved significant risks of human errors and long-term health problems for the operators who were manually handling relevant loads. Moreover, given the way in which the complexity of managing and documenting activities on raw materials was managed, it seemed very complicated to be able to expand the production capacity of the company in an effective and efficient way. What I did was to introduce a completely computerized system for the management of raw materials. Today we manage 150 tons of raw materials a day with 1 person per shift, and the company works 24 hours a day.’ Organizational innovations regard the implementation of new organizational methods, which can include changes in business practices, in the organization of the workplace and in the development of firm’s external relations (OECD 2005). Recent contributions have acknowledged the importance for entrepreneurs to pursue organizational innovations, because, despite their complexity, they fertilize the ground for more innovation processes (Volberda et al. 2013). One of the entrepreneurs whom we interviewed told us how his entrepreneurial activity began and evolved. Everything started with a small company that his father built for waterproofing and roof insulation. From the competencies that he developed in the industry, he started a new activity concerning accessories for industrial electronics and home automation. To facilitate the management and quality of production activities, which were previously carried out by third parties, he created another company for the molding of plastic materials.

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