Organizational innovation is an
important aspect of growing products and services for international markets.
Without innovation new revenue streams will not be developed and older revenue
streams will suffer from higher levels of international pressure. Encouraging
organizations to grow, develop, and overcome their market challenges is
tantamount to innovating the economic system. Research helps indicate what
measures organizations are using to measure innovation in an effort to improve
their operational and financial performance.
Innovating organizations are
often seen as improving the system that works to produce better and more
relevant outputs. An innovative system
consists of the participants or actors and their activities that create a
socio-economic environment where these actors function together to determine
innovative performance of the system (Eggink, 2012). Under such a definition the entire
organization is a social-economic group or bubble where the internal activities
produce meaningful outputs.
The elements that make up the
innovative system may be specifically designed or come together through a more
organic method. “There is no presumption
that the system was, in some sense, consciously designed, or even that the set
of institutions involved works together smoothly or coherently.”(Nelson,
1996). Generally, economic systems are
more organic and due to their circumstantial and historic development while the
socio-economic groups of organizations are better planned and thought out.
To see how effective innovation
is and the methods used to understand innovation within the organization it is
often necessary to conduct a comparative analysis. A comparison of time periods
and different systems helps to create better measures of innovative systems
(Edquist & Zambala, 2009). Through
such analysis business leaders can better determine the overall effectiveness
of their own measurement systems and methods of improvement.
Literary research conducted by Becheikh, Landry
& Amara (2006) helps to highlight how firms measure innovation performance
within their organization. They reviewed
108 studies and built a composite of the findings that help business leaders
and government officials understand how innovation is being measured in the
economy.
Results:
-24% used firm-based surveys
-25% used an innovation count
-18% used patent registrations
-6% used research and development expenditures
-15% used comparative indices
-9% other measurements such as sales, trademarks,
time use, etc…
-4% made no attempt to measure
The research helps identify that the major of
innovative measurements are based in firms and counts of developmental outputs.
Other may use comparative indices as well as patent development. At present the majority of firms are not using
a measure of multiple factors that includes surveys, counts, and indices in
order to more accurately engage their development.
Becheikh, N., Landry, R. &
Amara, N. (2006). Lessons from Innovation Empirical Studies in the
Manufacturing Sector: A Systematic Review of the Literature from 1993-2003. Technovation,
26, 644-664.
Edquist, C. & Zabala, J. M.
(2009). Outputs of Innovation Systems: A European Perspective, [Online], Lund
University, (Paper no. 2009/14).
Eggink, M. E. (2012). The Role of Innovation in
Economic Development, D.Com. Thesis, University of South Africa, Pretoria.
Nelson, R. (1996). The Sources of
Economic Growth, Harvard University Press, London.
