PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Twente, op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. W.H.M. Zijm, volgens besluit van het College van Promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 20 januari om 13.15 uur door Marijke van der Veen

Innovation has emerged as a ‘hot ’ research topic in the management field. Currently, considerable research effort is being applied to developing better understanding of how it can be effectively developed within organisations. However, recent trends in the literature suggest that there is a lack of convergence of ideas and that the knowledge in the area is still in a relatively ‘untidy’ state. This is despite an excellent foundational literature base. In this paper, the role of research is investigated. An analogous approach is taken whereby some research shortcomings in the area of quality management are examined to demonstrate how similar problems have arisen in the innovation management area, and ways in which researchers in the area can avoid these pitfalls. These, hopefully, will be taken into consideration in future innovation management studies, and will result in increased quality and more credible research findings. Key words: innovation management; quality management; ontology; epistemology; research methodology.

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This paper explores the influence of the processes of learning in organizations on innovation performance in high-tech small firms. After reviewing the literature on learning and innovation, the paper defines the concepts of knowledge management and organizational learning and how they are interlinked. Hypotheses on the link between organizational learning and innovation are presented. An original construct, based on 5 dimensions, is derived to evaluate the degree of organizational learning. The validities (reliability, unidimensionality and convergent validity) of the construct are then assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. Then, the influence on innovation is tested through structural equation modeling (SEM) from a database of 110 US high-tech small firms from different industries. Specifically, the influence on innovation and financial performance are tested. The results show that the presence of organizational learning is related to innovativeness among high-tech small firms. The results are moderated by the age (in years) of companies, the strategic posture and the environment's threat. The paper discusses ways to improve the innovative performance of learning organizations.

1. Intel and the World. China has emerged as not only a major market for Intel, but also as an integral part of the company’s worldwide manufacturing, R&D and venture capital efforts. This presentation will focus primarily on Intel China Labs and their relationships with both China’s academic community and Intel R&D labs in other countries. Intel is a global company: 60 % of its sales are outside the United States. The company manufactures in 7 nations and has R&D labs in 8 countries. In addition, the company has a multi-billion dollar venture capital portfolio that includes investments in numerous countries, including China. Research and development has always been a very important part of Intel, as shown in Figure 1. Today, Intel focuses its R&D activities in four key areas: Internet, Communication, Computing and Silicon Manufacturing. Intel has a worldwide R&D Network. Over 7,000 Scientists and Technologists are working in research centers located in many counties. The Internet has made the globalization of the company much easier. In R&D, for example, it is not uncommon for teams in the U.S., Israel and China to be working on different aspects of a product’s development and to be sharing data on a daily basis. 2. Intel China Labs Intel has established several R&D centers in China, especially in the 1990s. These R&D activities have become part of the global R&D network of Intel. In 1993, the Intel China Software Lab was established in Shanghai. In 1998, Intel launched its first China Research Center. In the year 2000, Intel opened three different research centers in China.

and predicting the innovative behaviour of the firm: a behavioural approach Working Paper 1 presented by Carlos Montalvo Corral 2 Since the seminal work of Schumpeter relating economic growth to technical change, there has been a considerable effort to explain why and how innovation occurs at the firm level. Important achievements have been made over the last 50 years resulting in many theoretical insights that intend to explain the firm‘s innovative behaviour. This behaviour has been attributed to dissimilar factors (e.g., institutional arrangements, entrepreneurial or risk taking behaviours, economic opportunities, organisational learning, technological and organisational capabilities, etc.). The communality of current theories and studies is that they tend to put emphasis on individual determinants of the innovative behaviour. In consequence, much of the generated knowledge is still rather fragmented because the diverse insights are not unified in single and testable theoretical body. This paper introduces two meta-theories from the behavioural sciences that enable the organisation and integration of knowledge generated in diverse areas of innovation studies to explore, explain and predict the innovative behaviour of the firm in specific contexts. Furthermore, this paper presents in detail the methodological aspects to apply, validate and use the proposed model as a behavioural simulation tool in diverse areas of innovative activities.

Despite a voluminous literature and widespread belief in the inherent value of innovation, our understanding of the innovation construct remains rudimentary. Extant research on innovation spans across a variety of disciplines and levels of analysis. Yet, the divergence in core assumptions and methodologies across disciplines, coupled with few systematic efforts to integrate findings, have seriously hampered the crossfertilization of research ideas in the field of innovation. The motivation for this work stems from the fragmentary nature of innovation research and the need for a more holistic, ecumenical outlook on innovation. We believe that this paper takes a step toward overcoming disciplinary myopia and a further step toward synthesizing the diverse innovation literature. In this paper, we provide a synopsis of the innovation literature, with an emphasis on how innovation may potentially be reframed to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the construct. To this end, the paper is structured as follows. First, we outline various semantic definitions of innovation and their lexical variants. We then briefly discuss three confluent, but distinct terms (creativity, invention and organizational change) often mistakenly perceived to be synonymous with innovation. Next, we delineate the levels of analysis associated with innovation research and describe exemplary research emerging from these domains. Finally, we identify a number of promising research directions and propose an integrative cross-level model of innovation to energize future innovation research. 3

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How do internal capabilities and external partnerships

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