Innovation Performance Measurement Striking The Right Balance

Small Firms as Innovators: From Innovation to Sustainable Growth provides a rich empirical analysis of innovation in the context of small business. The book first introduces the general innovation patterns present in small firms. It then progresses to demonstrate how these firms create and strengthen their innovation capacity, how they transform this capacity into real-world innovations and how these innovations are exploited for creating superior competitiveness that can be transforemed into sustainable growth. To conclude, this book offers both theoretical and empirical insights for measuring and managing innovation performance in small firms. Contents:IntroductionInnovation Patterns in Small FirmsThe Capacity of Small Firms to InnovateFrom Innovations to GrowthTowards Superior or Lost Competitiveness Innovation Engine to Forster Learning in Small FirmsConclusions for Moving ForwardAppendix: Details Behind the Figures Readership: Graduate students and researchers who are interested in small-firm innovation and sustainable development. Key Features:A new approach that shifts the focus from an innovation to an innovator A holistic understanding on the dynamics leading from innovation to growth and sustainable competitiveness This book focuses on small firms (departing from the usual focus group — larger firms)Keywords:Competitiveness;Innovation;Growth;Small Firms;Sustainability

In a competitive environment rivals will quickly respond to changes and improvements. This new contribution demonstrates that companies need to have a methodology for developing strategy with regard to future technology. New technology needs to be integrated into a strategic process and companies who are able to establish the capabilities to achieve this will secure robust competitive advantage. This powerful new approach will be demonstrated with examples and cases.

In response to changes in internal needs, external organizational environments, and the expectations of shareholders – most notably, citizens and politicians – innovation is now an important common-place aspect of governance and the running of public service organizations. Given the ongoing financial and economic crisis, which presents a significant challenge to public service organizations (PSOs), there is a growing need to establish innovative strategies in order to survive the crisis, and provide the basis for future sustainable growth. This book contributes towards the discussion of PSO innovation through theoretically informed empirical studies of innovation across a range of theories, topics and fields. Studies examine the role of citizens, managers, and public service organizations; the adoption, diffusion, implementation, and management of innovations; collaboration, communication, and information technologies; and decision-making, ethical principles, HR management, leadership, and procurement. The studies – which examine the situation in a range of countries in Europe and Asia – cover a range of different organizations such as non-profits, health service organizations, and local governments. This book was originally published as a special issue of Public Management Review.

"This book explores areas such as strategy development, service contracts, human capital management, leadership, management, marketing, e-government, and e-commerce"--Provided by publisher.

'A great book to understand and foster innovation at all levels: a truly innovative piece of work.' Enrico Giovannini, Minister of Labour and Social Policies, Italy 'This book brings together original contributions from world leading experts on innovation indicators and is unique in several respects. First, the focus is upon innovation in terms of commercialized products and processes and not on secondary indicators of research or patenting. Second, it combines academic perspectives with user perspectives from industry and international organizations. Third, it strikes a good balance between old and new indicators, opening up new dimensions of innovation for measuring. It is a book worth reading for scholars studying innovation, for policy makers and, not least, for innovation managers in the private sector.' Bengt-Åke Lundvall, Aalborg University, Denmark and Sciences-Po, Paris, France This Handbook comprehensively examines indicators and statistical measurement related to innovation (as defined in the OECD/Eurostat Oslo Manual). It deals with the development and the use of innovation indicators to support decision-making and is written by authors who are practitioners, who know what works and what does not, in order to improve the development of indicators to satisfy future policy needs. This unique volume presents: the historical and geographical context for innovation indicators and measurement practical examples of how measurement is actually undertaken new areas of innovation indicators and measurement, including consumer innovation, public sector innovation and social innovation. This informative Handbook will appeal to policy makers in government departments, statistical offices and research institutes and international organizations such as the EU, OECD and the UN, as well as university departments of economics, sociology, law, science and technology, and public policy.

It's no secret that you can't improve your organization's performance without measuring it. In fact, every function, unit, process, and the organization as a whole, is built and run according to the parameters and expectations of its measurement system. So you'd better make sure you're doing it right. All too often, performance measurement creates dysfunction, whether among individuals, teams, or across entire divisions and companies. Most traditional measurement systems actually encourage unhealthy competition for personal gain, creating internal conflict and breeding distrust of performance measurement. Transforming Performance Measurement presents a breakthrough approach that will not only significantly reduce those dysfunctions, but also promote alignment with business strategy, maximize cross-enterprise integration, and help everyone to work collaboratively to drive value throughout your organization. Performance improvement thought leader Dean Spitzer explains why performance measurement should be less about calculations and analysis and more about the crucial social factors that determine how well the measurements get used. His ""socialization of measurement"" process focuses on learning and improvement from measurement, and on the importance of asking such questions as: How well do our measures reflect our business model? How successfully are they driving our strategy? What should we be measuring and not measuring? Are the right people having the right measurement discussions? Performance measurement is a dynamic process that calls for an awareness of the balance necessary between seemingly disparate ideas: the technical and the social aspects of performance measurement. For example, you need technology to manage the flood of data, but you must make sure that it supports the people who will be making decisions and taking action crucial to your organization's success. This book shows you how to design that technical-social balance into your measurement system. While it is urgent to start taking action now, transforming your organization's performance measurement system will take time. Transforming Performance Measurement gives you assessment tools to gauge where you are now and a roadmap for moving, with little or no disruption, to a more "transformational" and mature measurement system. The book also provides 34 TMAPs, Transformational Measurement Action Plans, which suggest both well-accepted and "emergent" measures (in areas such as marketing, human resources, customer service, knowledge management, productivity, information technology, research and development, costing, and more) that you can use right away. In the end, you get what you measure. If you measure the wrong things, you will take your company farther and farther away from its mission and strategic goals. Transforming Performance Measurement tells you not only what to measure, but how to do it -- and in what context -- to make a truly transformational difference in your enterprise.

The concept of innovation is not new. It relates closely to the concept of change. Both are inevitable in today’s and tomorrow’s business environments. Standing still and hoping for the best is no longer a viable option. Innovation, by itself, is not a panacea for positive accomplishments. Of paramount importance to any business is how successful any innovation has actually been. This book brings together the knowledge, learning and experience from the author's practical applications of a newly developed and implemented Innovation Scorecard methodology to close exactly this shortfall. Their ‘one stop shop’ methodology is a complete end to end approach on how to measure the success of any innovation, irrespective of whether this relates to projects or business as usual work environments. This landmark methodology will provide the reader with an applied proof of concept across a range of business applications and a complete end to end process how to measure success including templates and worked examples. The book offers a starter-pack with suggested performance metrics to get the reader on the road to measuring the success of innovation and to encourage readers to develop how they view and feel about measuring the success of innovation. Furthermore, the book provides the reader with everything they need to know, ranging from a simple to follow user-friendly process to the application of suggested performance metrics and how to apply these in any business work environment, which is a requisite for creating a working environment within the reader’s organisation where innovation and forward-thinking are both encouraged and supported.