Innovation involves a set of processes which support the production and transformation of knowledge into new processes, technologies and products, goods and services, and provide an organization with particular strengths and value relative to other firms. In such a view, innovation is a key source of customer benefits and sustainable competitive advantage.

Technological, Managerial and Organizational Core Competencies: Dynamic Innovation and Sustainable Development investigates the impact of knowledge management, information systems, finance, organizational networks, internationalization, strategic management, marketing, entrepreneurship, and sustainability on an organization that pursues dynamic innovation and sustainable advantage. This book provides research and practice for graduate and undergraduate programs, as well as business firms with different technological, managerial, and organizational perspectives.

Further Description from the Editors:

This book represents the culmination of an international project to compile inter-disciplinary research that most contributes to innovation. More specifically, this book is about innovation in firms, industries, nations and society. It speaks to professionals and researchers who want to improve their understanding of dynamic innovation and sustainable development.

The Editors’ goal is to foster cross-pollination among researchers. To this aim, the Editors have selected and assembled 35 chapters that illustrate multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives and empiric results on innovation and the roles of Sustainability, Organizational Networks, Entrepreneurship, Knowledge Management, R&D&T (Research, Development and Technology) Management, Marketing, Finance, Internationalization, and Information Systems in the organization that pursues dynamic innovation and sustainable development.

Innovation involves processes, organizational elements (or resources), and Organizational Abilities (OA) that support the production and transformation of knowledge into new knowledge, processes, structures, technologies and products, goods and services. At the firm and industry levels of analysis, innovation can provide organizations with strengths relative to other firms, clusters, and nations and it is a key source of customer benefits and sustainable development. At the collective and societal levels of analysis, innovation can provide humanity with economic, social and environmental wealth through sustainable development.

The uniqueness of this book lies in the participants’ efforts to identify Organizations' Creative Areas (OCA) that can provide core competencies for the organization in pursuit of dynamic innovation and sustainable development. In this perspective, innovation is a dynamic system and it is contingent upon a set of core competencies that couple to each other. Therefore, changing of even one competence can affect the organization's ability to innovate.

The book avoids the term competitive advantage and adopts a more fruitful perspective of sustainable development – “the process of achieving human development … in an inclusive, connected, equitable, prudent, and secure manner”. An inclusive perspective sees traditional competitive advantage as occupying one extreme, whereas truly sustainable development occupies the opposite extreme. Sustainable development must benefit not only the organization and its customers, but also the whole society and the future of humanity through sustainability. Most chapters of this book fall between these extremes.

Coverage:

The many academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to:

Entrepreneurial Learning and Innovation
Environmental Rationality
Improving the Adoption of Sustainability
Independent Inventors In Open Innovation
Innovation for Sustainability
Maturity in Innovation Network Management
Natural Resources Dependency
Product Development Phases
Science Parks
Social and Environmental Innovation

Reviews & Statements

"Business scholars, economists, industrial engineers, and engineers from other technical fields present the results of an international project of multidisciplinary research into links between innovation and organization. They look at innovation in light of sustainability, organizational networks, entrepreneurship, knowledge management, research and development and technology management, marketing, finance, internationalization, and information systems."

– SciTech Book News, Book News Inc. (December 2011)

In addition to intermingling technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and organizing, Professors Nobre, Walker and Harris have introduced another more contemporary theme – sustainability. In the book's Preface, Nobre makes an important distinction between competitive advantage" and "sustainable development". "Competitive advantage" is a concept based in economic theories about competitive markets; it stresses the value to individual business firms of distinguishing themselves from their competitors by offering valuable and unusual products or services. However, economists and business scholars have defined competitive advantages solely in terms of the benefits to individual business firms and without concern for effects on consumers, communities, nations, societies, or humanity in general. Nobre introduces the term "sustainable development" to describe a kind of business development that maintains a balance between economic and societal goals and between short-run and long-run goals. This is a timely distinction, since the modern global corporation, a brilliant social innovation that extended benefits of commerce around the globe, has become the world's dominant social institution – and is helping to drive every living system on the earth into decline. We live in a time when humans are at the very peak of our technological power. We are making changes in the earth that will echo through the centuries. Sustainable development would seek to benefit not only individual firms but also their societies and the future of humanity."

– Alan D. Meyer, University of Oregon, USA; and William H. Starbuck, University of Oregon, USA

In this book the editors have brought together a range of important topics under the heading of Technological, Managerial and Organizational Core Competencies. Nobre, Walker and Harris discuss knowledge management, networks, sustainability, marketing, R&D, Information Systems and internationalization across a range of geographical contexts and organizational settings. Strategically organized in nine sections, the editors combine empirically and theoretically based research contributions from leading commentators around the globe. The diversity of authors providing insights on innovation in different economies highlights the strong international dimension of the book. However, the unique contribution of the book undoubtedly lies in its identification of key creative and typically untapped areas within an organization that can build competencies towards dynamic innovation and sustainable development. Essentially, this book enhances current understanding of the innovation process and platforms its importance as a driver of 21st century entrepreneurship. The book will be of value to those studying and researching the broad field of innovation, particularly as it relates to dynamic organizational processes. The contributions will also be of interest to innovation educators, R&D managers and those working within the general innovation support system. This timely edited text offers a multidisciplinary perspective on innovation, reminding us that innovation is dynamic in nature and highly creative in its origins.

– Colette Henry, Royal Veterinary College, University of London, UK

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Editor/Author Biographies

Farley S. Nobre (PhD, MSc, BSc) is Professor at the School of Management of Federal University of Parana, Brazil. His research interests include organizations, knowledge management systems, innovation and sustainability. He received his PhD at The University of Birmingham (UK) with thesis On Cognitive Machines in Organizations, and he participated in the ARMMS project. He was Guest Researcher with the Institute of Organization Theory and the Artificial Intelligence Research Group of the Humboldt University of Berlin, and he participated in the Socionics project. With the multinational NEC he worked in the areas of software process improvement. He received the 1998 NEC Industrial Honor Prize for his contributions in the areas of innovation and quality. Dr. Nobre has authored international books, chapters and papers in journals and conferences worldwide. He is first author of “(Nobre, Tobias & Walker, 2009) Organizational and Technological Implications of Cognitive Machines: Designing Future Information Management Systems, IGI Global, USA.” He is member of SERVAS (a voluntary worldwide institution in support of peace and multi-cultural integration).

David S. Walker is Senior Teaching Fellow at the Business School of The University of Birmingham UK, where he has taught since 1995. Previous to this he was Professor of Marketing, Head of the Marketing Department and Director of Business Research at Wolverhampton Business School. He commenced his academic career at Aston Business School where he completed his doctorate in marketing as a Foundation for Management Education Research Fellow. He has throughout his professional life founded and managed several extensive companies in the industrial cleaning and chemical industries, besides current appointments as an external examiner at the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Southampton Business School, Westminster Business School, Northampton Business School and Brighton Business School. He has published extensively in numerous business and management journals both individually and in co-authorship with Dr. Andrew Tobias and Dr. Farley Nobre.

Robert J. Harris is Associate Director of the Institute for Innovation and Enterprise at the University of Wolverhampton (UK). He has provided consultancy support to over 500 organisations since 1993, working with Banks, Business Link and Regional Development Associations. He currently manages all of the University of Wolverhampton Business School’s Knowledge Transfer Programmes. In 2007 he was presented the Lord Stafford Knowledge Transfer Champion Award in recognition of his work with small and large businesses both in the UK and overseas. He has managed a number of businesses over the last 20 years. Dr. Harris’s research has focused on knowledge transfer and in particular the development of capabilities and innovation within the SME sector. His specialist academic areas are International Business Development and Small Business Marketing and he regularly lectures in these areas in the UK, Europe and S.E.Asia. He is currently external examiner at University of Northampton.

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Editorial Advisory Board

Neil Anderson, Brunel University, UK
Thomas Andersson, Jönköping University, Sweden
Glauco Arbix, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil Michael Brown, Birmingham City University, UK
Elias G. Carayannis, George Washington University, USA
Steven Cavaleri, Central Connecticut State University, USA
Erik G. Hansen, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany
Colette Henry, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, UK
Yuya Kajikawa, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Valentina Lazzarotti, Carlo Cattaneo - LIUC University, Italy
Enrique Leff, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
Caroline Mothe, Université de Savoie, France
David L. Rainey, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
Pedro López Sáez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Joanne L. Scillitoe, New York Institute of Technology, USA
William H. Starbuck, University of Oregon and New York University, USA
Eric Viardot, EADA Business School, Spain