This dissertation is motivated by an overarching research question: How do firms leverage external resources residing in their ego network (portfolio of alliances) and their clusters in order to innovate in a sustained manner? Research suggests that firms often struggle and falter in their innovation efforts. However, past research has paid little systematic attention on why firms struggle in their innovation efforts. Further, though network and clusters—the key sources of external resources—may overlap in several ways, the extant literature has not examined their joint effect on a firm's technological innovation. In this dissertation, using a longitudinal research design I examine how the characteristics of a firm's ego network and of its cluster independently and jointly impact its patent output in the U.S. semiconductor industry. The research provides a framework showing how networks and clusters may work in tandem in helping a firm overcome innovation barriers. The study demonstrates how firms can leverage network and cluster resources. The empirical evidence indicates that the efficacy of cluster resources increases in the presence of network ties within the cluster. It also shows that firms can mobilize resources of distant clusters using their network ties. The study further demonstrates that resource-rich firms leverage networks resources more effectively than the resource-deficient firms do while resource-deficient firms leverage cluster resources more effectively than the resource-rich firms do. The dissertation makes important theoretical and empirical contributions to alliance, network, cluster, and innovation literatures. The research findings also have important managerial implications. / Ph. D.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the most prominent barriers to public sector innovation, but also display what an innovation hub can do to help bypass such barriers.Design/methodology/approachThis is an embedded case study with a deductive approach investigating innovation barriers in the public sector after a model of 8 different barriers which are all examined through a theoretical thematic analysis.FindingsLimited resources, poor leadership as well as limiting laws and regulations were revealed to be the greatest barriers to public sector innovation. A lack of incentives and rewards and resistant users and suppliers were deemed not to hinder innovation especially. Innovation hubs can help bypass these barriers by bringing in external resources as money and substitutes, but also by offering public sector employees a platform to meet between organizational units, thereby allowing them to circumvent risk-avoiding cultures and ill-fitting structures to innovation that tend to exist in the public sector.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to innovational projects of one hub, situated in a relatively small town in Sweden. The results might not be fully transferable to other countries or contexts.Practical implicationsThe results of the study could give an indication to public sectors what use an innovation hub can have in bypassing barriers to innovation.Originality/valueFew studies have addressed the role of innovation hubs in the public sector, especially in combination with innovation barriers.

Cette thèse propose une étude des barrières à l'innovation et des stratégies des firmes de plasturgie françaises membres du pôle de compétitivité Plastipolis. Nous adoptons une méthodologie faisant dialoguer théorie et empirie à travers quatre chapitres. Nos matériaux empiriques se composent de données issues de l'exploitation de 24 entretiens de firmes innovantes de plasturgie. Nous proposons une revue récente de la littérature empirique sur les barrières à l'innovation et mettons notamment en lumière les principaux facteurs de variation de leur nature et intensité. Nous enrichissons cette revue en développant les principaux concepts de l'évolutionnisme économique des comportements innovants des firmes. L'état des lieux et l'analyse de la plasturgie française aujourd'hui permettent d'identifier les acteurs et les spécificités de cette industrie, puis l'étude des trajectoires des firmes innovantes de plasturgie de détecter et construire une typologie des stratégies d'innovation. L'interprétation de la littérature évolutionniste et celle sur les barrières nous permet de formuler une proposition d'analyse du rôle conjoint des compétences et des barrières lors de l'adoption d'une nouvelle stratégie et d'émettre dans deux hypothèses l'existence de deux facteurs qui font varier leur nature et intensité. L'évaluation des effets de ces deux facteurs de variation est testée sur notre échantillon à partir de statistiques descriptives, d’analyses en composantes principales (ACP) puis dans 3 études de cas approfondies. Nos résultats permettent de mieux appréhender la complexité de l'innovation dans l'industrie de la plasturgie française et d'identifier les leviers activables pour soutenir les firmes innovantes. Pour cela, après un retour sur le rôle d'intermédiation de l'innovation ouverte joué par les pôles de compétitivité et par Plastipolis en particulier nous formulons des recommandations. / This thesis offers a study of the barriers to innovation and the strategies of the French plastics processing firms that are members of the competitive cluster Plastipolis. We adopt a method that combines and compares theory and empiricism over four chapters. Our empirical material is made up of data from 24 interviews with innovative plastics processing firms. We offer an up-to-date review of the empirical literature on innovation barriers and bring to light the main variation factors in the nature and intensity of these barriers. The review is enriched by developing the main concepts of the economic evolutionism of firms’ innovative behaviours. The overview and analyses of plastics processing in France today make it possible to identify the sector’s actors and specificities, and by studying innovative plastics firms’ trajectories, we can detect and construct a typology of innovation strategies. Interpreting evolutionary literature and studies of barriers enables us to formulate a proposal to analyse the shared role of skills and barriers when adopting a new strategy, and to put forward in two hypotheses the existence of two factors that cause their nature and intensity to vary. The evaluation of the effects of these two variation factors is tested on our sample using descriptive statistics, principal component analysis (PCA) and 3 in-depth case studies. Our findings make it easier to grasp the complexity of innovation in the French plastics processing industry, and to identify the levers that can be implemented to support innovative firms. Before making recommendations, we examine the intermediation role of open innovation played by competitive clusters, particularly Plastipolis.

Innovation has been acknowledged as a main driver for competitiveness whether it is for a firm, industry, region or country. Solutions for improvements in products and processes have emerged from the multitude of innovation tools and its techno-scientific features. However, the path traced by firms to innovate is rarely clear and not always successful. In this regard, a variety of uncertainties have been shaped into the obstacles that hinder firm’s innovation activities and prevent them to innovate. To the best of our knowledge, there is no literature that directly addresses the obstacles for innovation in Brazil in a broader sense. Also, the articles focused on the strategies of innovation did not investigated its antecedents, characterizing a clear avenue for research. The objective of this study is to understand which innovation barriers affect the Brazilian industry and how they influence the adoption of innovation strategies. In this way, one of the main strategies that stand out in literature is industrial cooperation. Secondly, a discussion that stands out in literature regards the existence of two juxtaposed strategies, known as Market-orientation and Technology-acquisition. This work combined with an exploration of the current state of industrial innovation studies in Brazil through a systematic review. Also, we combined multiple methods to quantitatively analyze the relationship among variables of the Brazilian innovation survey (PINTEC). The main results of this dissertation are: (i) the systematization of the industrial innovation literature in Brazil and the proposition of a research agenda; (ii) the assessment of which innovation barriers trigger or which affect industrial cooperation for R&D; (iii) the exploration of the innovation barriers’ role on the choice of firms to adopt either Market-orientation or Technology-acquisition as innovation strategies. From an academic perspective, this study contributes to clarify future avenues of research on industrial innovation in Brazil and to provide insights about the role of innovation barriers in the Brazilian industry. From a practical point of view, this manuscript presents a map of findings so as industries can use in a strategic way. Also, we bring insights on how innovation strategies should be adopted in relation to innovation barriers.

Innovation has been acknowledged as a main driver for competitiveness whether it is for a firm, industry, region or country. Solutions for improvements in products and processes have emerged from the multitude of innovation tools and its techno-scientific features. However, the path traced by firms to innovate is rarely clear and not always successful. In this regard, a variety of uncertainties have been shaped into the obstacles that hinder firm’s innovation activities and prevent them to innovate. To the best of our knowledge, there is no literature that directly addresses the obstacles for innovation in Brazil in a broader sense. Also, the articles focused on the strategies of innovation did not investigated its antecedents, characterizing a clear avenue for research. The objective of this study is to understand which innovation barriers affect the Brazilian industry and how they influence the adoption of innovation strategies. In this way, one of the main strategies that stand out in literature is industrial cooperation. Secondly, a discussion that stands out in literature regards the existence of two juxtaposed strategies, known as Market-orientation and Technology-acquisition. This work combined with an exploration of the current state of industrial innovation studies in Brazil through a systematic review. Also, we combined multiple methods to quantitatively analyze the relationship among variables of the Brazilian innovation survey (PINTEC). The main results of this dissertation are: (i) the systematization of the industrial innovation literature in Brazil and the proposition of a research agenda; (ii) the assessment of which innovation barriers trigger or which affect industrial cooperation for R&D; (iii) the exploration of the innovation barriers’ role on the choice of firms to adopt either Market-orientation or Technology-acquisition as innovation strategies. From an academic perspective, this study contributes to clarify future avenues of research on industrial innovation in Brazil and to provide insights about the role of innovation barriers in the Brazilian industry. From a practical point of view, this manuscript presents a map of findings so as industries can use in a strategic way. Also, we bring insights on how innovation strategies should be adopted in relation to innovation barriers.

The world around us is changing, and companies are being pressured to meet customers’ new demands. One such industry feeling more pressure than ever before, is the automotive industry. The automotive industry is dealing with the change towards electrification, biofuels, and perhaps the most radical change of all, self-driving technology. The barriers that organizations face when going from incremental technological improvements to radical technology, is a research area that is largely unexplored. This thesis aims to assess and understand the internal innovation barriers the employees are experiencing when developing new and radical technologies and provide managerial recommendations to overcome these barriers. An empirical case study was carried out to identify the innovation barriers by collecting data through twelve interviews within an autonomous vehicle division at a larger vehicle manufacturer. The findings address three themes as innovation barriers for organizations that historically have not needed to deal with a high degree of new and radical technology development. These themes were broken down into six different barriers, flexibility barrier; planning barrier; collaboration barrier, communication and coordination barrier; partnerships barrier and lastly self-harm barrier. The barrier shows the difficulties that arise when an organization or part of an organization undergoes a process of change to deal with radical technological innovation. These barriers shed light on the challenges of adapting an organization to deal with radical innovation, as is the case with the development of autonomous vehicles.

A new business model of unmanned convenience stores has been introduced to the retail industry in recent years. An unmanned convenience store is a store format where customers can carry out their errands without involvement of service personnel due to fully automated payment solutions. Because of the decreased need for employees, the new concepts can increase both efficiency and revenues as well as decrease costs for the companies. Due to low overhead costs, the store has the potential to be located both in rural and sparsely populated areas as well as in urban areas with growing population who values efficiency. Scholars have highlighted that such solutions may induce resistance among customers as they believe that it only serves the companies while harming the communities. Despite this, no previous research has studied consumer resistance towards unmanned convenience stores empirically.  The purpose of this thesis was to empirically examine the underlying factors that affect the level of consumer resistance towards unmanned convenience stores. This was done by investigating the relative importance of psychological-, functional- and individual barriers derived from existing literature regarding factors that hamper the adoption process of innovations. Thus, the following research question was formulated: “What are the underlying factors that affect the level of consumer resistance towards unmanned convenience stores?” The study focused on respondents that had no previous experience from unmanned convenience stores because of the apparent void in existing literature with such focus. To answer the research question, nine hypotheses were formulated and tested against the variable consumer resistance. A quantitative research design was applied where data was collected by distributing a survey to potential consumers in Sweden. In total, 172 respondents answered the survey where 131 respondents did not have previous experience of unmanned convenience stores. The data was analyzed through a regression analysis using ordinary least squares.  The result shows that need for interaction, perceived performance risk, lack of perceived convenience value and self-image incongruence positively influence consumer resistance in stated order of precedence. The results can be used as guidelines for companies trying to mitigate consumer resistance towards unmanned convenience stores. The final conceptual framework presented in this thesis can be used in future research to predict consumer resistance. Thus, this thesis contributes to the literature on consumer resistance by studying a new context still in its infancy.