Concept to identify the demand for management support
by Maren Bruns
Introduction
As a basis for detailed studies of specific innovation cooperation conducted in 2010, a procedure model has been developed to identify missing resources for the realisation of innovation activities. Based on that model, the organisation of management support services for resource procurement can be undertaken. It was used as an instrument in connection to set up the new pilot and demonstration chains and is a result of the experiences made by the Industry Liaison Office set up in Q-PorkChains. These experiences should also be made available to other external institutions and research projects with a similar structure.
The development of the procedure model has been drawn from transaction cost economics and governance aspects, extended by the resource-based view. Especially the resource-based approach covers the biggest part of the theoretical foundations for this analysis (>> more theoretical background information can be found here >>). The resource-based approach is an economic instrument for a structured analysis of enterprise resources. Resources are considered to be company assets at a particular point of time. The developed procedure model has one additional feature. In addition to the available resources of a single company the combination of internally available resources together with external resources might extend the range of available resources to generate a competitive advantage for a single enterprise and ideally create a win-win situation for all actors participating in innovation cooperation projects. Nevertheless, a resource extension or resource combination is associated not only with advantages. Theoretical approaches of transaction cost economics also point out limitations.
The main focus is the analysis of internal resources to identify possible weaknesses which impact successful implementation of innovation activities due to lack of resources. Based on an analysis of available resources, actors can come to a decision as to whether it might be necessary to integrate external resources and further actors in the innovation process. In a second step the study also concentrated on supporting actors to open their institutional boundaries by offering management support services.
Methology
- Figure 11: Procedure model to identify the demand for management support in inter-organisational innovation processes
A combination of theoretical approaches forms the framework for a case-oriented procedure to identify the needed management support in inter-organisational innovation processes. In doing so, the procedure is based on a multi-dimensional analysis model (see next figure).
The procedure model is combined with a category system. The category system formulates broader and narrower terms for a more detailed analysis of the illustrated dimensions. In the first step, it needs to be determined whether an innovation activity can be implemented by a single actor (single-actor innovation) or if a consortium of actors is needed (multi-actor innovation). This has to be decided based on the planned content of the innovation activity. Two aspects have to be taken into consideration in the process:
- It needs to be decided whether or not the objective of the planned innovation activity has an inter-organisational or a value chain / network oriented character. In this context, innovation activities can only be implemented by integrating actors from more than one production level of a production chain. Furthermore, it needs to be decided whether input of a scientific knowledge or technology provider is needed or not.
- If there is no obvious need to open up institutional boundaries for implementing the planned innovation activity, the analysis of available resources at the company level will lead to a final decision as to whether resources are missing or not. If resources are missing it might nevertheless be beneficial to open up company boundaries.
The following resource analysis helps determining the required management support to procure further resources or to combine inter-organisationally available resources. Resource procurement aims at implementing a desired innovation activity, despite a lack of resources. The analysis procedure ends with the determination of the needed management support services for the procurement of identified missing resources or the identified needed combination of inter-organisational available resources.
In the following, a number of aspects are presented that need to be considered when wanting to meet the demand for management support in order to be able to implement inter-organisational innovation activities:
- Who are the actors in inter-organisational innovation activities?
- What interactions between actors are needed when offering management support services?
- Where does the realisation of inter-organisation innovation processes take place (scope of application)
The developed procedure model was used and tested in an inductive case study observation. Three case studies in inter-organisational innovation activities were used to validate the procedure model (one of the case studies is dealing with actors and content of the pilot chain activity 5 and pilot chain activity 7 in the Q-PorkChains project). A uniform analysis procedure was made possible by the developed procedure model to ensure.
In the individual case studies, the data basis was compiled from qualitative information like interviews, participating observations in the framework of workshops, meetings and group discussions as well as archival sources. With the help of this data the pre-defined factors of the category system were analysed in a multi-causal fashion in order to work out complex connections. The focus of the analysis was determined by the following research questions:
- How to identify the demand for management support based on a multi-dimensional approach?
- How to organise management support in inter-organisational innovation processes?
The goal is to recognise whether the necessary resources are available for the planned innovative activity or whether additional (external) resources need to be procured. In the last step the procurement of missing resources was shown in the case studies.
Results of case study “Integration of sustainability aspects in a regional pig and pork production chain”
The main initiator of the innovation activity is an agricultural producer association in which farmers within a region have joined together. In the framework of the producer association pigs, cows, geese and lambs are produced and marketed. The case study observation focused on pork products. The aim of the pilot activities is to create innovations in the following areas:
- Integration of qualitative production criteria in existing production processes on the farm level, based on trust characteristics12 in the form of a sustainability approach (process innovation),
- Development of residue-free, cold-cut processed and packaged self-service pork products that meet food retailing requirements like long shelf life, appealing and appetising colour etc. (product innovation), and
- Extension of distribution channels as well as development of a marketing concept adjusted to the products, which are regionally produced quality pork products with a high-quality standard entering conventional food retailing labelled with a farmer-owned brand which stands for sustainable production (marketing innovation).
The interim result of the analysis of existing resources on the business level is that the producer association is reliant on the procurement of additional resources for the implementation of the described innovation activity:
- Information and knowledge regarding scientific based assessment criteria for sustainability need to be integrated as a basis for the development of a quality programme. The association has no forms of contact with the research community in this specific field,
- Experiences regarding the development of packaged self-service pork products on a large scale need to be integrated,
- Experiences with anonymous distribution channels like food retailing without direct consumer contact are missing. Furthermore in this context, no business relationship exists with food retailers.
Conclusions
The goal of the multi-dimensional analysis is to identify missing resources for the implementation of innovation activities; and based on that to show how the procurement of these missing resources can be organised. Within this framework the following questions were dealt with:
- How to identify the demand for management support based on a multi-dimensional approach?
- How to organise management support in inter-organisational innovation processes?
How to identify the demand for management support based on a multi-dimensional approach?
The multi-dimensional procedure model allows the demand for support of different actors in inter-organisational innovation processes to be identified. Through the findings (in three case studies) the assumption is strengthened that the need for support from actors in inter-organisational innovation processes is determined by the interplay of several company features. The following factors have been highlighted which influence the degree of need for support:
- The size of the cooperation consortium,
- A lack of appropriate personnel with educational backgrounds and experience in the area of innovation / R&D,
- A lack of knowledge and no access to the new markets targeted (based on the markets of the agrifood industry),
- A lack of strategic alliances between steps in the value chain,
- A lack of experience in initiating, applying for and implementing publicly funded projects.
How to organise management support in inter-organisational innovation processes?
Participating actors in inter-organisational innovation processes (as well called service recipients) are integrated in core work groups and these turn in innovation networks. Innovation brokers act as service providers. Hereby the interaction between service recipients and service providers is relevant in order to be able to offer customer oriented services. For the procurement of missing resources for implementing innovation activities the innovation broker can fall back on a catalogue of management support service elements for resource procurement. An extract of the catalogue is following four aspects of inter-organisational innovation processes:
- Preparation of innovation activities (management support within the framework of the initiation and preparation of innovation activities described by eighteen individual service elements),
- Realisation of innovation activities (management support within the framework of the implementation of innovation activities described by six individual service elements),
- Dissemination (management support within the framework of the dissemination of knowledge described by nine individual service elements),
- Networking (management support within the framework of the networks described by four individual service elements).
In the case studies analysed, the main acting innovation broker cooperates with, for example, professional associations and lobbies that take on innovation broker functions in addition to their core business. In the Q-PorkChains case study the innovation broker (Industry Liaison Office) cooperates, for example, with the overall project coordination team. The members of the project coordination team originate from a university establishment (KU, AUA), which acts as a lead partner in the research project. The project management in the research consortia does not apply as a core business of universities. However the university took on innovation broker functions when acting as a lead partner. Yet the university has little experience in cooperating with economic actors. An exclusive innovation broker was brought into the project consortia for this area to support the economic partners with project execution.