• Introduction
• Methology
• Results of case study “Integration of sustainability aspects in a regional pig and pork production chain”
• Conclusions

Figure 11: Procedure model to identify the demand for management support in inter-organisational innovation processes

 

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:

1. 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.
2. 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:

1. Who are the actors in inter-organisational innovation activities?
2. What interactions between actors are needed when offering management support services?
3. 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:

1. How to identify the demand for management support based on a multi-dimensional approach?
2. 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.