Innovative Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Innovative Behavior - Essay Example There will however be a gap between organizations intention or desire to be innovative and their actual behavior in being so. There may be difference in the extent and content of innovative behavior. This will be true of organizations big or small, but the question arises whether size of an organization has a correlation with innovative behavior of organizations. What are the circumstances in which forms of different sizes may differ in their innovative behaviour This paper attempts to answer these questions. The word innovation means a combination of two activities in an organisation, the process of generation of ideas through a creative process and the manner in which the successful commercialization of a selected idea as a successful product or service. In case of a process innovation it will mean the offering of a differentiated product in the market through successful use of the new innovative process innovation. Innovations are generally of two types, the radical innovation and incremental innovation, which basically are used to denote the degree of novelty. Schumpeter describes two types of innovations that occur in a capital economy. One is in which the major source of innovation is in small industries which are operating in a highly competitive market. The innovative behavior is driven by the visionary entrepreneur. ... klik (2003, p 3) suggests that both are likely to occur in the economy at the same time in different industries, depending on the level of maturity of the industry. In an industry that is new, innovation driven by entrepreneurs in small firms will be more predominant. Later as the industry matures the innovation behavior of large firms will be predominant. Trott ( 2002, p 18) describes 5 different types of innovation models to explain how innovation in firms occur. Broadly they are classified as linear and interactive models. In the linear model typically innovation is technology lead. Innovation occurs because of new opportunities thrown up by new technologies (technology pull). The second occurs based on the demands from the market. (market pull). The third described is one where innovation occurs because of both, a market pull and technology pull. The fourth recognizes the importance of linkages between technology, market, and customer needs. The final model described, the network model, is the one which fully takes into account the complete eco system under which innovation occurs. It takes into account external inputs like new technology development, competitors, research from academic institutions and research organizations, supply chain partners and customers, as well as the internal organizational functions and their behavior. These are the main factors to be considered if innovation is to be successfully managed. Interactions of functions within organization like marketing, R&D and finance, is important, but interaction of these functions and organizations with external environment is also important. At the management level company may be discussing strategic alliance with another company for developing innovative products; marketing will have to be