Innovation is fundamental to long-term business success in technology medium-sized enterprises (MSEs). The owner-CEO interrelationship is likely to set the culture and be an important influence on the enterprise innovation capability. Previous studies of the owner-CEO interrelationship have produced varying results but few have examined the influence on innovation capability. Agency theory assumes that owners and CEOs have contrasting objectives but it is silent when owners and CEOs are in accord. Companies may have varying dominant ideologies, such as entrepreneurialism, managerialism, and paternalism, which likely influence their innovation capability. Using primary data from three different German MSEs, selected for their contrasting ideologies, this study examines how interrelationship influences of the owner-CEO interrelationship have the potential to influence the innovation capability of MSEs. The results show that the influence of the owner-CEO interrelationship on the innovation capability is associated with social and situational influences. This thesis provides an original contribution by developing an “interrelationship influence model” that captures the interrelationship factors that influence innovation capability, namely: action, support, communication, responsibility, power and autonomy. This study has important implications for researchers in corporate governance as well as in innovation. Enterprises aiming to improve their innovation capability should pay attention to interrelationships and the influence of owners as well as to the CEO and the management team.

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Paramedicine in Canada and throughout the developed world is currently undergoing unprecedented transformation to its service delivery model, largely driven by the need to relieve healthcare systems from overcrowding, and ensure its availability for all citizens. These changes are facilitated by the ability of paramedic services to adopt a number of innovative technologies, and their ability to respond by adopting new service delivery models, which may entail the deployment of paramedics in various non-emergency roles or integration with other healthcare services. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine how paramedic services innovate, and how that innovation is influenced by technology in particular. To fulfill this purpose, a two-phase sequential explanatory mixed-methods study is conducted, with a quantitative phase followed by a qualitative phase. In the first phase a multilevel theoretical model consisting of constructs that measure Service Innovation Performance, Dynamic Capabilities, Information Technology (IT) Capabilities and Group-Level Healthcare Informatics Competencies was evaluated with WarpPLS 5.0. A dataset with participation from paramedic leaders of Canadian land-based paramedic services (n=43) and paramedics employed at these services (n=502) was used for this purpose. Findings from this phase indicate that the information technology related knowledge and skills possessed by paramedics have an impact on various organization level dynamic capabilities, as do various IT Capabilities that focus on the relationship between the paramedic service leadership and the IT service provider. In the second phase, a qualitative approach was taken to explore contextual and other factors that facilitate or inhibit the ability of a paramedic service to innovate. Results from this phase suggest that Canadian paramedic services primarily undertake innovative activities with a strong focus on assuring and improving patient care. The use of an electronic patient care record (ePCR) is an important resource, as it enables activities such as the improvement of the clinical skills of paramedics, as well as facilitates the generation of business cases for equipment investment. Further, the informatics competencies of paramedics greatly facilitate the adoption of technology and equipment by individual services, as paramedics with a high amount of these competencies assist other paramedics when adopting technology, communicate innovative ideas within a service, and identify areas in need of change. The results of this dissertation underline the value of technology-related knowledge and skills for paramedics, and the importance of technology in ensuring that paramedic services provide a high and continually improving standard of patient care. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Paramedicine in Canada is currently undergoing unprecedented transformation. These changes are driven by the need to relieve emergency healthcare resources from overcrowding, the increase in number of innovative technologies adopted by paramedic services, deployment of paramedics in various non-emergency roles, and increased integration with other healthcare services. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine how paramedic services innovate, and how innovation is influenced by technology. To this end, a two-phase sequential explanatory mixed-methods study is conducted, producing a few key findings that underline the value of technology in paramedicine. First, paramedics with information technology related skillsets can better identify opportunities for improvement in service delivery, and facilitate the organizational adoption of technology. Second, electronic patient care records are a vital source for a variety of innovative activities in paramedic services, such as organization-wide improvement of clinical skills and identification of areas where patient care can be improved.

Innovation anses fortfarande vara en praktisk ledarskapsutmaning, speciellt eftersom många företag idag inte har ett systematiskt sätt att mäta innovation. Trots detta är innovation en av de viktigaste drivkrafterna för hållbar ekonomisk tillväxt. Denna studie hade därför som syfte att utforska vad ett företag kan göra för att arbeta med innovation och vad ett företag kan mäta för att avgöra om de ökar sin innovationsförmåga. För detta ändamål har en induktiv och kvalitativ forskningsansats valts ut, inspirerad av klassisk grundad teori. Studien resulterade i att en första modell för innovationsorientering togs fram som visar vad ett företag kan göra för att arbeta med innovation och att en andra modell togs fram för mätning av innovationsförmåga som integrera olika innovationskoncept och nyckeltal och visar vad ett företag kan mäta för att avgöra om deras innovationsförmåga ökar. Studiens slutsats är att även om det finns ett flertal olika nyckeltal som företag kan välja på för att mäta sitt företags innovationsförmåga, så bör dessa nyckeltal anpassas till företagets affärsmål och specifika affärskontext, samt att en sådaninnovationsmätning kräver att innovationsrelaterade koncept såsom ”nytt”, ”skapa nytta”, och ”bli nyttiggjort”, integreras med de nyckeltal som företaget väljer ut för sin innovationsmätning. / Innovation is still considered a practical leadership challenge, especially since many companies today do not have a systematic way to measure innovation. Despite of that, innovation is considered one of the most important drivers of sustainable economic growth. This study therefore aimed to explore what a company can do to work with innovation and what a company can measure to determine if they have increased their innovativeness or innovation capability. For this purpose, an inductive and qualitative research approach was selected, inspired by classical grounded theory. The study resulted in the development of a first model for innovation orientation that shows what a company can do to work with innovation, and the development of a second model for the measurement of innovativeness that integrates different innovation concepts and key performance indicators and shows what a company can measure to determine if their innovativeness has increased. The study’s conclusion is that although there are several different key performance indicators that companies can choose from to measure their company’s innovativeness, such indicators should be adapted to the company’s business goals and specific business context, and that such innovation measurement requires that innovationrelated concepts such as being “new”, providing “benefits”, and being “useful”, are integrated with the company’s chosen key performance indicators when used for innovation measurement.

This study investigates how firms navigate technological changes over time. Specifically, we determine whether firms follow a consistent strategy in regards to when they time their entry into technological waves. Resulting performance implications of these actions are also measured. The theoretical underpinnings of this study lie at the intersection of the technology literature, the learning school, firm evolutionary theory, and the resource-based view of the firm. Past studies have added clarity as to how firms behave within a single technological wave; however, investigations regarding firm actions over successive waves are needed if we are to truly understand which firm actions lead to long-term success. This study fills the research gap by investigating firm timing patterns over multiple successive waves of technology and the resulting long-term performance implications of these actions. Further, this study examines timing efforts over both competence enhancing (incremental) and competence destroying (architectural) cycles. The findings indicate that while technological follower firms are able to consistently repeat their timing strategy, technological leaders have a much more difficult time in repeating early entry timing. Repeated leadership entry was found to be difficult in both incremental and architectural cycles. Characteristics of those leaders able to repeat leadership entry are provided. While consistent entry timing was not found to impact market share, it was found to benefit firms by reducing their hazard rate. This hazard rate reduction for timing entry consistency, whether it is as a leader or as a follower, was observed during both incremental and architectural technological changes. / Ph. D.

This qualitative study examined and describes the development and first year of implementation of the Blacksburg Electronic Village. This project, which came to national attention February 10, 1994 on the NBC Nightly News, was a collaborative effort by Bell Atlantic of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia. This study looks at the origins of this project as it relates to the development of technological innovations, examines the formation of the partnership, and describes critical events that occurred over time which contributed to the success of the project. Data sources included published documents, key participant interviews, and participant observations. These data sources were then coded and analyzed using HyperQual 2 version 1.0, a qualitative data analysis program, to establish the development and first year of implementation of the Blacksburg Electronic Village. The information gleaned from this analysis was then used to present the Blacksburg Electronic Village story through the first year of official operation. Included in the story are the critical events for the village, a timeline of these critical events, and the successes and challenges that have shaped the electronic village and contributed to what it has become today. / Ph. D.

This study investigates the extent to which teachers adopted a computer technology innovation and the role of collaboration in the adoption process. Semi-structured interviews with seven teachers and one Computer Resource Teacher, supplemented by observations and documentation regarding the innovation, provide data for an in-depth, ethnographic case study. Six months were spent in the setting recording the teachers' interactions and processes centered on adopting the innovation. Results show collaboration efforts among teams and the level of uncertainty regarding the innovation influenced the amount of time and the degree to which each team adopted the innovation. Two other factors influenced the adoption rate of the innovation: the interaction that the teachers had with a change agent, which helped to decrease the level of uncertainty about the innovation with two of the teams and thus, increased their adoption rate, and the innovativeness of individuals, which had a direct connection to the rate of adoption and which influenced other members of the grade level and their rate of adoption. Each participant's level of innovativeness, their compatibility and comfort with the innovation, and their efforts to collaborate were significantly related to successful implementation of the computer technology innovation. / Ph. D.

Innovation research in the wood products industry has historically focused on factors that the firm can influence or control, as opposed to factors external to the firm. The purpose of this research is to understand how the external factors of the firm (i.e., social, technological, economic, ecological, and political or STEEP factors) impact Schumpeter's five-factors of innovation (i.e., sources of supply, methods of production, markets, products and services, and business models) in decorative hardwood veneer producing firms. Case studies of hardwood veneer firms in Austria and the United States were conducted to understand these impacts from individual firms' perspectives. Innovation strategies of the companies were identified based on their use of innovation resources, leverage of those resources and capabilities to serve customers and markets, and deliberateness or emergence. Interviews of experts in each of the environmental areas from both geographic regions also were conducted to qualify and validate the impacts. An online survey was conducted with hardwood veneer companies in Austria, Germany and the United States to quantify the impacts in these regions, and results were analyzed via cluster analysis to better understand the environmental impacts to innovation and the strategies firms were employing to innovate. The results of the study identified American firms as being most impacted by economic environmental factors and Austrian firms most impacted by social factors. Austrian/German and US firms both made more deliberate than emergent attempts to innovate. US firms most attempted to innovate their business models, while Austrian and German firms most attempted source of supply and product and service innovations. The major implications of this research are the awareness firms in the hardwood veneer industry can gain from understanding the innovation strategies their firms employ, how the environment they function within impacts their innovation, and what they can do about it. By helping this niche industry create sustainable competitive advantages, the industry can overcome the adversities of the mature industry lifecycle phase, including competitive threats from substitute products and increased competition from foreign log buyers, and shift back into a growth phase of the lifecycle. / Ph. D.

This dissertation investigates the phenomenon of new technology development in emerging economies (EEs). I do this by studying the international patenting activities of EEs at the country level and firm level. In order to do this, I develop and analyze a panel database of patents filed with the United States Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO). I then examine differences in the nature of technologies that are being patented by emerging economies in comparison to developed economies (DEs). Through this dissertation, I develop a key construct that pertains to the nature of technologies that are patented. This construct is named novelty of technology knowledge and it pertains to the age of technological knowledge that organizations draw from and build upon while developing new innovations. The first research question I examine is what is the impact of global connectedness and institutional development in EEs on the age of technology knowledge that they build on. I build on insights from the institutional theory and argue that the absence of well-developed institutions presents constraints to the development and protection of novel technology innovations. On the other hand, global connectedness in the form of trade linkages provides opportunities for engaging in novel technology innovations. I hypothesize that a country's level of global connectedness and institutional development have a positive relation with the novelty of its technology knowledge. I use data on the international patenting activities of 48 countries with the USPTO over a period of 9 years. I use panel data estimation models to test the hypotheses. I find that global connectedness is positively related to the level of a country's international patenting. The second research question is what is the impact of the level of internationalization of EE firms on the age of technology knowledge that they build on. I first identify the benefits and costs associated with internationalization for EE firms as a result of the conditions in their home country. I then argue that with increasing internationalization, the counter forces of exploration and exploitation thrust firms' technology development from initially focusing on newer technology bases towards focusing on older technologies. I hypothesize the existence of a U-shaped relationship between the level of internationalization and the novelty of technology knowledge and test my hypotheses using a panel of bio-pharmaceutical firms from India. The findings from this dissertation make important contributions to the literature examining innovation and new technology development in the context of EEs. / Ph. D. / This dissertation investigates the phenomenon of new technology development in emerging economies (EEs). I do this by studying the international patenting activities of EEs at the country level and firm level. In order to do this, I develop and analyze a panel database of patents filed with the United States Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO). I then examine differences in the types of technologies that are being patented by emerging economies in comparison to developed economies (DEs) and find that different countries focus on innovations in different types of technologies. The first research question I examine is what is the impact of global connectedness and institutional development in EEs on the technologies that they patent. I find that a country’s level of global connectedness is positively related to its level of international patenting. The second research question is what is the impact of the level of internationalization of EE firms on the technologies that they patent. I find that with increasing internationalization, firms’ technology development shifts from initially focusing on newer technologies towards focusing on older technologies.

Bakgrund & problem: Traditionell sluten innovation utgör en utmaning för SME som kännetecknas av resursbegränsningar, i synnerhet inom fordonsindustrin. Den öppna innovationen (OI) anammas i större utsträckning av SME på grund av dess kollaborativa karaktär. En framgångsrik tillämpning av öppen innovation kräver en utveckling av ekonomistyrsystem (MCS). Styrsystemen måste anpassas för att främja samarbete, synkronisera insatser och säkerställa att innovations initiativen är i linje med organisationens mål. Följaktligen blir förmågan att utforma och implementera MCS som stödjer öppen innovation allt viktigare för företag att upprätthålla konkurrenskraft och driva innovation i dagens dynamiska affärsmiljö. Syftet: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur ett SME inom fordonsindustrin tillämpar och styr öppen innovation. Metod: Denna studie tillämpades en kvalitativ ansats med semistrukturerade intervjuer för att analysera hur fallföretaget tillämpar och styr OI. Med hänsyn till studiens beskrivande och förklarande karaktär ansågs denna metod vara lämplig. Empiriska data samlades in från anställda med olika hierarkiska positioner inom företaget. Slutsats: Resultat visar att SMEs tillämpar både ingående och utgående kunskapsflöden för att åtgärda inneboende hinder. Dock råder det gap ett gap i definitionen av OI samt bristande empiriska studier för somliga OI aktiviter. Styrmedel, främst kulturella normer och styrsystem, spelar en central roll för att främja innovation i SMEs. Det finns däremot utmaningar med att styra interorganisatorisk innovation på grund av komplexiteten med interorganisatoriska relationer (IOR) och avsaknaden av litteratur som bemött och utforskat styrning av dessa aktiviteter. Implementering av gränssättande styrsystem förespråkas för att motverka opportunistiskt beteende, förbättra interorganisatoriska samarbeten och på så sätt främja utbytet av OI. / Background & problem: Traditional closed innovation constitutes a challenge for SMEs characterized by resource constraints, particularly in the automotive industry. As a result, Open innovation (OI) is increasingly embraced by SMEs due to its collaborative nature. However, the successful application of open innovation requires the development of management control systems (MCS). Management Control Systems need to be adapted to foster collaboration, synchronize efforts and ensure that innovation initiatives are in alignment with the organization's objectives. Consequently, the ability to design and implement MCS that support open innovation is becoming increasingly important for companies to maintain competitiveness and drive innovation in the current dynamic business environment. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze how an SME in the automotive industry applies and manages open innovation. Method: This study employed a qualitative methodology, employing semi-structured interviews, to analyze how the case company applies and manages OI. Given the descriptive and explanatory nature of the study, this method was deemed suitable. Empirical data were gathered from employees occupying various hierarchical positions within the company. Conclusion: The results indicate that SMEs use both in-bound and out-bound knowledge flows to address inherent barriers. However, there is a gap in the definition of OI and a lack of empirical studies on some OI activities. Policy instruments, mainly cultural norms and management systems, play an essential role in fostering innovation in SMEs. However, there are challenges in managing interorganizational innovation due to the complexity of interorganisational relationships (IOR) and the lack of literature addressing and exploring the governance of these activities. The implementation of boundary systems is advocated to counter opportunistic behavior, improve interorganizational collaborations and thus promote the exchange of IOR.