Innovation practices within small to medium-sized mechanically-based manufacturers
Glenn Brophey
School of Business and Economics, Nipissing University, North Bay, Ontario, Canada
Steve Brown
School of Business, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
PP: 327 - 340
Abstract
Manufacturing SMEs remain an underdeveloped area of interest in the literature on innovation. SMEs whose principal skill sets are mechanical in nature (MechSMEs) and that serve multiple customer groups offer a particularly rich context for the study of innovation practices that are mostly under the control of the firm's managers.
This empirically-based paper uses case studies based on multiple units of analysis within each firm so that the overall innovation practices of four mature firms (average firm age 45 years, minimum 20 years) and the practices used within thirteen specific innovations (both product and process innovations) were studied. This combination of studying firm-specific and innovation-specific practices was used to construct a picture of the most important innovation practices within each firm.
Based on the identification of the two most innovative firms, the findings indicate that approximately half of these firms' innovation practices were shared with the other firms, while the other half of the practices were found to be either idiosyncratic or only partially shared. Of particular interest were fifteen innovation practices that were particularly influential within the two most innovative firms.
Keywords
innovation routines, innovation process, innovation culture
Article Text
Since the seminal work of Schumpeter in the 1930s, there has been an extensive and varied body of literature that has attempted to decode the phenomenon of innovation and how it can be best managed. More recently, various authors have begun to reflect on the state of the art. This is exemplified in (Lawson & Samson, 2001, p.378) when they state:
An accepted comprehensive and systematic framework guiding managers towards successful innovation does not yet exist. Many firms and academics have suggested that innovation management may be sector or industry specific, if not firm specific.
Other writers have taken this notion further suggesting that practices aimed towards satisfying particular objectives are not only firm-specific but also specific to the innovation in question, as well as being specific to the stage in the innovation process;
...our researchers recorded the interim outcome assessments of innovation participants and found that the criteria used by innovation managers and resource controllers shifted overtime: They were different in the beginning, converged during the developmental process, and diverged in opposite and conflicting directions as innovation implementation problems arose. Not only did initially nebulous targets crystallize later into more operational criteria, but also the targets themselves were often reconstructed to redirect the innovations. These changes coincided with unanticipated developmental setbacks and problems and shifting organizational priorities, as well as independent environmental events that had 'spillover' effects on the innovations'.
Van de Ven et al. 1999, p.21
As there is no well accepted solution to address the problem of innovation management, it seems appropriate to induce theory from the 'ground up' by observing the innovation practices that can be affected by managers within their firms. A particularly rich context for the study of innovation practices that are mostly under the control of the firms' managers is offered by mechanically-based manufacturing SMEs that serve multiple customer groups. This rich opportunity for inductive research exists because of several factors that are particular to this setting.
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