Abstract

The research on emotional intelligence in social robots is growing. This paper provides a thematic analysis of the studies on robots and emotional intelligence, synthesising and evaluating current knowledge and research topics. In addition, based on the thematic analysis of the studies, it also provides a conceptual framework explaining the emotional intelligence of robots that includes both actors (human and robot) in a human-robot interaction setting. The findings are based on the analysis of 252 studies published until the end of 2022 and indexed in the Scopus database. The results unveiled two main themes (robot design-technical developments and characteristics and human-robot interaction), including sub-themes and topics that emerged in the literature. Finally, the themes and sub-themes were evaluated through a critical discussion to develop a conceptual framework for robots and emotional intelligence.

Introduction

1.1. Rationale
A robot is a “programmed actuated mechanism with a degree of autonomy to perform locomotion, manipulation or positioning” [1]. While robots are widely used in manufacturing [2,3] for producing goods, they find their way into agriculture [4] and the delivery of services [[5], [6], [7]] as well. Social robots help children with autism [8], assist the elderly [9], and redefine the meaning we put in sexual relationships [10].

One of the main directions of robotics research is on human-robot interaction (HRI) [11]. The topic has been researched in the context of industrial robots [12], service robots [13], and social robots [14]. A key component of HRI in the context of social robots are the emotions of humans and the emotional intelligence of both parties in the relationship [11,15] because emotions trigger specific affective, cognitive, and behavioural responses [16]. For example, when humans experience positive emotions in their interactions with robots, they are more likely to use robots and less likely to object to them [17]. Additionally, humans’ perceptions of the emotional skills of robots are positively related to the perceived appropriateness of robot use in service contexts, e.g. museums in galleries, as found by Webster and Ivanov [18].

To elicit respective emotional reactions in humans, robots need to have some degree of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence (EI) is defined as “the capacity to reason about emotions, and of emotions to enhance thinking. It includes the abilities to accurately perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth” ([19]:197). EI has four aspects measured through the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) ([19]:200, [20], [21]:281–282).

Conclusion

This paper provided a thematic analysis of the studies on robots and emotional intelligence. The results uncovered two main: (i) robot design-technical developments and characteristics, and (ii) human-robot interaction. The robot design-technical developments and characteristics include sensory aspects (facial expression and voice-related), cognitive aspects and behavioural aspects, visual aspects, and other aspects. The “human-robot interaction” category comprises two main sub-themes, namely settings (health, education, and other settings) and attitudes (perceptions toward robots).

Abstract

     This paper focuses on the relation between business innovation modes and environmental innovation. Over time firms have recognized the importance of prioritizing innovation to gain competitive advantages in open markets. Yet, in more recent times with the more recent international agreements on environmental sustainability (rounds in Doha in 2004; Copenhagen in 2009; Paris in 2016; and Glasgow in 2021), innovation needs to be guided through new boundaries and requirements that individual businesses and the business system as a whole face. One of these boundaries is nature and its resources which require significant protection as part of the international priority agenda on climate change agreed by most countries with the 2016 Paris Agreement on the Environment and recently confirmed with COP26. As firms are found to adopt alternative archetypical strategies of innovation, some science-driven (STI innovation mode) and others practice-driven (DUI innovation mode), we investigate whether any of these strategic modes is beneficial in relation to the capacity of the firms to produce eco-innovations, and which one is more beneficial in relation to which type of eco-innovation (e.g. technological and non-technological innovation). This analysis is seen in relation to the size of the firms as SMEs typically rely on practice and interactive-based innovation activities (DUI mode). This may help design environment protection-orientated policies that focus on specific drivers, thus making policy action efficient and effective. The analysis is based on the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) database for European countries. Our findings support the view that both STI and DUI drivers support eco-innovation through technological nuances that work also in the specific case of SME environmental innovation.

Introduction

     Environmental protection and sustainability have become a priority across the world economy from the Bruntland Report (WCED, 1987) and Rio de Janeiro earth summit in 1992 and the following international agreements in Kyoto, Doha, Copenhagen up to the recent Paris Agreement in 2016 and COP26 in Glasgow. Environmental protection and the control of climate change have become crucial goals of the United Nations (United Nations, 2021). Simultaneously, innovation has become a clear priority for economic development as it represents the key driver for competitiveness in the current globalized markets (Hollanders et al., 2009; Edler and Fagerberg, 2017). However, innovation and environmental sustainability do not necessarily go hand in hand. The “weak sustainability” approach would entail the possibility to compensate for part of the depleted natural resources for some other form of capital (i.e. human capital or physical capital) within the overall “constant capital rule” (Wall, 2013). This dilemma motivates our work on the relation between firm-level innovation and environmental sustainability. In this study we utilize the “business innovation modes” framework that is derived from the literature on innovation systems (Jensen et al., 2007; Amara et al., 2008; Asheim and Parrilli, 2012) to analyze critical behaviours and strategies of innovation across firms that belong to specific production and innovation systems. We explore whether the two archetypical business innovation modes (science and technology based or STI, and innovation based on learning-by-doing, by-using and by-interacting or DUI) are critical for environmental innovation and to what extent (see Jensen et al., 2007; Parrilli et al., 2020). In addition, we analyze whether the behaviour of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) differs from the general trend and to what extent. This evidence can help identify policy actions that might have an impact on eco-innovation across SME.

Conclusions and discussion

5.1. Main findings

     Overall, our analysis produces relevant findings in relation to the impact of specific STI and DUI drivers on the eco-innovation practices and performance of all firms and the SMEs in particular. In this study we have identified important eco-innovation patterns across the whole sample of firms and the SMEs. Small variations are visible across different firm sizes. One of the main findings is about the predominance of technological eco-innovation across firms, and particularly process eco-innovation that is practiced by around 50% of the SMEs. Simultaneously, product eco-innovation is practiced by around 40% of the SMEs. In relation to the modes of innovation there is still a significant percentage of firms that do not adopt any innovation mode (20% across the whole sample and 22% across SMEs). A tiny percentage adopts the STI innovation mode (9%) while the expected majority adopts the DUI mode (32% across SMEs). A very interesting outcome however is that a significant proportion of firms and SMEs are already implementing the STI&DUI mode together (36% of SMEs). In the econometric analysis this combined mode is the most effective across all types of innovation output. These findings show the yet extreme heterogeneity of firm/SME behavior in relation to the new environmental objectives set by the Paris 2016 and COP26 Agreements on Climate Change 2016, and the United Nations Development Goals (Daddi et al., 2012; Marin et al., 2015; Del Rio et al., 2017).

This study examines the process and mechanisms of realized international scaling of born-digital firms through the business model lens. In an explorative multiple-case study of Finnish firms in cultural industries, it finds that born-digital firms adapt their business models through an iterative process to achieve practically scaled operations. The research unpacks the mechanisms guiding the process of business model adaptation and highlights the role of dynamic capabilities in their employment. The findings extend existing theorizing on scaling by offering a conceptualization of realized international digital scaling and the role of the business model in its implementation.

Introduction 

Scaling is increasingly considered a key strategic objective of digital firms across the globe (Financial Times, 2021; Sullivan, 2016). The importance of this real-word phenomenon has attracted the interest of scholars in international business (IB) and entrepreneurship (IE) fields, leading to increased efforts to develop its theoretical foundations (Giustiziero et al., 2021; Reuber et al., 2021; Shepherd & Patzelt, 2022).

International scaling is related to topics that have already been studied in extant literature, such as the expansion of high growth ventures (Durufl´e, Hellmann & Wilson, 2017; Rasmussen et al., 2018), internationalization of lean entrepreneurial firms (Autio & Zander, 2016), and the speedy expansion of born-global firms (Hennart, 2014). Yet only recently have works initiated a dialogue on international digital scaling as a phenomenon that has unique mechanisms, challenges, and organizational context condition (Piaskowska et al., 2021; Tippmann et al., 2022b). Digital technologies have triggered unprecedented possibilities for international scalable expansion by decreasing transportation and production costs and developing platforms enabling instant global expansion and connectivity (Adner et al., 2019; Autio et al., 2018). Born-digital firms, or firms that are fully digital from their inception (Monaghan et al., 2020) are assumed to be readily scalable due to their ability to achieve economies of scale in core business processes. In other words, digital firms are believed to have scalability that depicts “how the value derived from a firm’s resource bundle in a focal activity changes as the size of the bundle increases” (Giustiziero et al., 2022: 2). Yet, despite the enabling power of digital affordances, and global “by default” mindset of born digital firms (Birkinshaw, 2022), some studies highlight that digitalization does not automatically guarantee occurrence of scaling and there is a variation amongst digital firms in achieving wide international presences (Stallkamp et al., 2022). There are also indications of organizational challenges associated with international scaling. While young firms often struggle with managing the organizational design during the scaling process (DeSantola et al., 2022), MNEs experience pressures of conflicting strategic demands in implementation of replicable innovation scaling strategy (Tippmann et al., 2022b). The extensive evidence also indicates that many digital firms fail to scale (Gulati & DeSantola, 2016; Kutcher et al., 2014; Scale-Up Europe, 2016).

Conclusion 

This research enriches knowledge in the scaling and business model fields by offering empirical insights into the concept, process and mechanisms of realized international scaling of born-digital firms through the lenses of the business model and dynamic capabilities. The research framework shows how the dynamic process of business model adaptation takes place after market launch and leads to scaled operations of born-digital firms. While scholars often define born-digital firms as being readily scalable (Monaghan et al., 2020), this research uncovers the ‘work’ behind practically scaled born-digital firms and offers an empirically based definition of realized digital scaling.

Abstract

Purpose

     Sustainable business model innovation (SBMI) is a change in the way a firm operates in order to create positive impacts or to reduce negative consequences for the environment and the society. The aim of this paper is to explain what pathways a firm can take when it implements a sustainable business innovation process in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Design/methodology/approach

     The article starts with the analysis of the existing literature about BMI and SBMI in order to extrapolate the main elements of these topics.

Findings

     Thanks to the combined information from academic and nonacademic sources, the study proposes a new framework. It is divided into three sectors: value proposition, value capture delivery and value capture according to the main studies about the business model.

Research limitations/implications

     Regarding theoretical implications, this study contributes to developing a theory of both BMI and sustainable innovation. Indeed it helps in the understanding of the dynamic vision about how the business model changes in order to incorporate triple sustainability.

Practical implications

     From a practical view, the paper can serve as a guideline for corporate reorganization.

Originality/value

     The new framework differs from some recent academic efforts first of all for its theoretical characteristics: BMI construct and not business model concept is the core of the framework. The business model represents the subject of innovation, not its vehicle. Another unique aspect that can be derived from the approach adopted is that it links theoretical with practical sources.

Introduction

     Business model innovation is a widely known topic and one of the most recurring keywords in managerial studies. It deals with a new way to do business aiming at prosperity in a dynamic environment through the reconceptualization of the underlying logic behind the value creation, capture and delivery (Richardson, 2008; Teece, 2010).

     Firms increasingly need to innovate by modifying their business model by initiating changes, improvements and replacements in various organizational elements (Mitchell & Coles, 2003). It is relevant to understand these elements to facilitate the analysis of organizational processes and planning of transformation from one business model to another and to increase the firm’s resilience and the probability of success (Geissdoerfer, Vladimirova, & Evans, 2018).

Discussion and conclusion

     Subject-matter experts consider the SBMI a complex process that changes the core elements of the firm’s logic to create new value for all their stakeholders.

     The radicality of organizational change makes the adoption of a sustainable orientation easier for new entrants (start-up) and riskier for incumbents – the existing companies that have been operating their business for a long time. Indeed, the start-up does not transform an existing business model but creates new ones without a history to respect or a tradition to maintain. At the same time, incumbents’ firms must start revising their current business model. The ambiguity of the situation also can bring uncertainty.

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming pervasive and with each new installation of IoT platforms new and legacy brokers have to be exploited. New internal brokers are those under the control of the platform, while legacy external brokers are those in place managed by third parties. The solution proposed addressed problems of (a) interoperability to reduce set up time to cope with unknown data structures (devices, entities) distributed via brokers; (b) performance by dimensioning both front-end and back-end processes to reach high rates in a broker-based platform, while preserving full capability features of the data warehouse. Interoperability aspects have been addressed by introducing our concepts and a reasoner into an IoT Directory tool to manage Internal and External brokers, automate device discovery and registration from both standard and customized data models. Despite the managed complexity, a broker-based solution turned out to provide high performance. To this end, a specific assessment and architecture tuning have been performed and reported in the paper to give evidence and validation. The proposed integrated IoT Directory has been developed in the context of the Herit-Data Project, and it is currently used in the whole Snap4City network of 18 tenants and billions of data. Snap4City is an open-source IoT platform for Smart Cities and Industry 4.0, which is an official FIWARE platform and solution, EOSC service and libs of Node-RED.

Introduction

The Internet of Things (IoT) defined a paradigm for the computation and communication amongst things, which is becoming every day more and more pervasive and adopted in many different domains [1,2]. It is partially due to the worldwide intense deployment campaign about Low-Power Wide Area Network technologies [3], as well as to many approaches and protocols for communications amongst devices (e.g., Message Queue Telemetry Transport or MQTT, Next Generation Service Interfaces or NGSI, Advanced Message Queuing Protocol or AMQP, Constrained Application Protocol or COAP). The approach is also covering the cloud and fog infrastructures [4,5]. Thus, IoT network infrastructures are becoming every day more complex to be managed due to the networks’ structure and existence of several protocols, formats, and concepts [1,6]. Hence, the complexity is growing in terms of data management, not only for huge amount of data but also for interoperability and abstraction levels needed to data managing. Relevant aspects to be considered are security and privacy [7] on specific data models and entities. To increase the complexity, there is a range of different owners and managers who may control different parts of such IoT networks [8].

In this context, the concept of Gateway is relevant for any segments of IoT networks connecting, as well as for the Web of Things, WoT [9]. Gateways may be integrated with one or more Brokers to send/receive data to/from Devices/entities. The Gateways and Brokers are typically compliant with a single protocol and may be managed by third parties with respect to data management platform. In some cases, they are provided as public services for several interested customers in the same area (for example: Proximus for LoraWAN services [10]). A Gateway may abstract from the IoT Broker level managing multiple brokers for multiple organizations/tenants (which can be regarded as customers of Gateway services to manage several Devices), via some API and/or Web user interface. Typical IoT Brokers can only manage one organization, and thus are single tenant, meaning they broker messages using topic/entity concepts (which can be regarded as the key for subscription on that specific device/entity) without any internal partition of services, but as a sort of family of devices and subscriptions. Some IoT Brokers can be multi-tenant, such as the FIWARE Orion Broker [11,12], which provides support for partitioning the served devices/entities/topics in groups, and each of them may have a dedicated service/path for a specific scope (or a specific customer). Furthermore, devices of different tenants could exist physically in different places (even having identical identifiers, IDs), and the subscription to the broker’s tenant may imply receiving all messages/services in the partition in push. That is feasible only if the subscriber knows the service/path identifier and, in the event of access control, the subscriber has the grant to access the broker’s services. Different IoT Devices connected to the same broker adopt the same protocol, may use different data structures/models and have the same semantic information.

Conclusions

The proliferation of IoT devices, brokers, networks, data models, operators and tenants, makes the harmonization and management of IoT Platform a hard goal. This paper offers an analysis and a comparison amongst relevant existing platforms, and it points out the basic requirements to achieve such aims. These identified requirements are in most cases not addressed by main platforms which prefer to stay on their own end-to-end solutions with limited interoperability and capacity of exploiting legacy IoT networks in place, in terms of performance. The proposed solution addressed problems of (a) interoperability by reducing set up time to efficiently detect and learn how to process unknown data structures (devices, entities) distributed via brokers; (b) performance by dimensioning the front-end and back-end processes to reach high rates in a broker-based platform, while preserving full capabilities features of data warehouse.

As to interoperability, the main identified and solved problems are those related to a large variety of Data Models coming from non-controllable External Brokers. The issue has been solved by designing and implementing a harvester and reasoner that is capable to automatically recognize/understand and map the new data models/types into those already known by Knowledge Base. This approach, together with the definition of a comprehensive meta model and dictionary, has allowed to speed up the process more than 800 times. The harvesting and comprehension process can be periodically performed to keep the platform updated with any newly defined data models by third party brokers. Furthermore, the process is helped by Km4City ontology and Data Dictionary to recognize the new data types and models according to the semantic domain.

Abstract

     Today, more and more enterprises are achieving co-innovation across borders by joining digital platforms. However, many SMEs face difficulties in developing and benefiting from strong digital platform capability (DPC) due to limited experience, resources, and funds, which hinders innovation opportunities. This study constructs a model to explore how SMEs can enhance their innovation performance (IP) by adopting digital platforms based on resource orchestration theory. We then introduce ecological institutional norms (EIN) as the moderating variable to observe whether effective platform governance impacts enterprises’ value co–creation (VCC) and IP. We conduct a questionnaire survey on 346 SMEs in China’s manufacturing industry that participate in digital platforms, and the regression analysis and the bootstrap test results indicate that (1) DPC has a significantly positive impact on IP; (2) DPC has a significantly positive impact on VCC; (3) VCC partially mediates DPC and IP; (4) EIN positively moderate the relationship between DPC and VCC and positively moderate the mediating effect of VCC. These findings add to the literature on digital platforms theoretically and fill the gap in research on how participation in digital platforms can enhance enterprises’ innovation and development from the perspective of SMEs. Finally, the study has important managerial implications for SMEs to cultivate DPC, carry out VCC, and participate in platform governance.

Introduction

     Innovation is a critical component for enterprises to take the leading edge and occupy a dominant competitive position in the market in the context of information technology development and industrial integration [1,2]. In the digital economy age, digital technology provides infrastructural support for economic development [[3], [4], [5]]. However, most small and medium–sized enterprises (SMEs) in China lack core technologies and the digital divide further increases the resistance to breaking through low–end lock–in. SMEs need to deeply integrate into the digital economy and explore new value growth points through digital process transformation and cross–border integration based on network effects. Therefore, digital platforms and the internal digital business ecosystem (DBE), which can break the boundaries of time, space, and organization with the support of digital technology, are gradually attracting attention [[6], [7], [8]]. Industry leaders such as Ali, Tencent, and Haier are trying to build digital platforms and DBEs to break organizational barriers and achieve technological collaborative innovation [9]. However, most of the current research on digital platforms is centered on large enterprises, with less attention given to SMEs [10,11].

     Resource orchestration theory suggests that static enterprise resources cannot meet the needs of enterprise development. Thus, the ability to allocate, integrate, and utilize resources is key to establishing a sustainable competitive advantage [12]. Joining a digital platform does not directly generate benefits: enterprises can only achieve efficient value creation when they actively and spontaneously allocate resources in a digital platform [[13], [14], [15]]. Based on the digital platform scenario, some scholars have pointed out that digital platform capability (DPC) involves combining the resources obtained by enterprises based on information and communication technology (ICT) with other internal and external resources [16]. A stronger DPC can enhance online communication, collaboration, and marketing for efficient and cost–effective resource expansion, which further increases the identification and integration opportunities of critical shared knowledge. It also facilitates enterprises to reallocate internal and external resources to flexible respond to rapidly shifting market environment [[17], [18], [19]]. However, due to the disadvantages in resources, capital, experience, and other aspects, SMEs’ cooperative innovation with other enterprises in the digital platform is often accompanied by risks such as leakage of core resources and misaligned partnerships [20,21]. As a result, many managers of SMEs are resistant and reluctant to join digital platforms. In light of these contradictions, some intriguing questions arise: Can SMEs actually benefit from digital platforms? How does DPC affect the innovation performance (IP) of SMEs?

Discussion

     This study proposes a moderated mediating model to explore the relationship between DPC and IP and how governance mechanisms in the DBE environment impact the above relationship. Focusing on SMEs, we collected 346 valid questionnaires, tested the theoretical assumptions using empirical analysis, and found some interesting conclusions.

     First, DPC has a significantly positive impact on SMEs’ IP. The result is consistent with resource orchestration theory, which proposes that the orchestration, combination, and flexible allocation of heterogeneous resources can help enterprises maintain their long–term competitive advantage [100]. This suggests that stronger digital platform integration capability enables SMEs to quickly access the large amount of heterogeneous resources aggregated in digital platforms [18] and to accelerate the speed of value feedback between subjects through digital channels [50], continuously optimizing the information quality on the platform. At the same time, we found that DPC positively influences VCC. Stronger digital platform integration capability can effectively monitor and evaluate data elements and strengthen the quality of plans developed jointly between subjects [72]; it can reduce the cooperation risk [71] and effectively promote the willingness of subjects to engage in joint problem solving; it can provide more critical information and promote the flexibility of SMEs to adjust their relationships with partners [16]. Stronger digital platform reconfiguration capability can reduce the cooperation cost [57] and enhance the willingness to engage in joint planning among platform subjects; it can optimize the allocation of platform resources [13] and improve the efficiency of cooperating subjects in joint problem solving; it can make platform subjects behave in a loosely coupled state [60] and promote enterprises’ flexibility and mobility to adjust existing cooperative relationships.

Abstract

Although the importance of fostering organizational creativity and open innovation is becoming more widely acknowledged, there are still few empirical evidence on the impact of creativity and innovation on enhancing SMEs performance. Moreover, previous study argued that the effect of creativity and innovation is still inconclusive, especially in SMEs. SMEs sometimes perceive that research and development is a costly activity and it doesn’t view as the activity that can directly improve performance. This study aims to examine the effect of organizational creativity and open innovation on SMEs performance. Data used in this study was collected from 206 SMEs located in several regions of Indonesia. The collected data then being analysed using PLS-SEM and this study found that all the hypotheses constructed were accepted. The findings indicate that organizational creativity and open innovation are significantly and positively influence SMEs performance. On the other hand, this study also treats organizational creativity as a second order variable that is formed from a combination of individual creativity, group creativity, internal environment, and knowledge creation where most study only consider individual and group creativity as aspect that formed organizational creativity. The result of this study provide evidence that organizational creativity that is formed by those four aspects has the ability to directly improve SME performance. Theoretically, this study contribute to the debate on how organizational creativity and open innovation can directly improve SMEs performance. Practically, this study provides insight to SMEs manager regarding how organizational creativity and open innovation can contribute to SMEs performance.

Introduction

Every organization will try to obtain optimal performance to achieve organizational goals while being superior to its competitors (Pap et al., 2022). However. the performance of an organization is determined by its ability to innovate both in producing a product or service (Rumanti et al., 2021). Organizational performance is a concept that includes all activities within an organization or company, both those that produce products and services. Organizational performance refers to the implementation of the organization’s vision, mission, goals, and activities (Pap et al., 2022) which are supported by the concept of innovation, one of which is open innovation (Lopes et al., 2022). Innovation is one of the drivers in the organization in an effort to accelerate optimal organizational performance while at the same time reflecting the main goals of the organization (Rumanti et al., 2021). Organizational performance is a key construct in management research and has received a lot of attention from interested parties in an organization (Scaliza et al., 2022, Rumanti et al., 2022, Singh et al., 2021). Organizational performance is also supported by the existence of an innovation related to the creation of new services and products, especially innovation that is open, namely open innovation. Organizational performance can be influenced by the organization’s ability to innovate, especially from external parties (open innovation) (Rumanti et al., 2022).

Conclusion

6.1. Main result
This study was able to identify organizational performance through organizational creativity and open innovation. Each plays a role in achieving more optimal organizational performance and supporting organizational goals. Through the research model produced in this study, the relationship and influence of organizational creativity and open innovation will be identified on organizational performance as well as the analysis and implications of both implications for relevant theory or science as well as implications for managerial activities within the organization. The magnitude of the influence of organizational creativity and open innovation on organizational performance will become a reference in evaluating organizational creativity and open innovation processes that will support the performance of Indonesian SMEs. Where construction is studied in the context of SMEs, a sample of 206 SMEs is obtained using a purposive sampling technique. The results of this study provide empirical evidence showing a positive effect of organizational creativity and open innovation on organizational performance. Organizations that prioritize and actively cultivate a creative and innovative culture will likely see increased overall performance. These two main variables have been proven to improve the performance of an organization to reach optimal points in a more challenging business environment. This can be achieved through various means, such as encouraging employee participation in the innovation process, enhancing the individual creativity of employees, and promoting a learning-oriented culture.

Abstract

Introduction

     Innovation and international business are essential to achieve competitive advantages in currently unforeseen business environments. Today’s company seeks innovation in its country of origin and abroad in order to compete globally. Thus, incorporating this concept into international companies’ strategies is a main issue nowadays.

Purpose

     The aim of this systematic study is to improve the current knowledge on the relationship between innovation and international business, as well as identifying innovation tendencies for corporations to acknowledge the opportunities and challenges of this area’s development in the international business context.

Methodology

     Despite the abundance of innovation and international business reviews, joint reviews of both of them cannot be found. This study is the first to combine the scholarly research on both topics with the systematic literature review of academic literature of 28 years, following the PRISMA guidelines and flowchart. A search was carried out in Web of Science database; 847 initial documents were obtained and, after reviewing multiple documents according to the inclusion/exclusion criteria, the results for this research work were reduced to 236 articles.

Results

     The results of this research provide an overview of the knowledge structure of innovation and international business. As the main contribution, the results highlight four themes of investigation within a comprehensive and multidimensional framework: Innovative activities of multinational corporations, Global value chains, Innovation in emerging economies, and Cross-border knowledge. With an international perspective, insights from how to face innovation development in the international business context are presented.

Conclusions

There is a strong relationship between innovation and international business. These four research trends highlight the strategic importance of innovation in the international business field. Finally, the most interesting paths for future research are identified, targeting opportunities for improvement in both areas. This systematic literature review is expected to make significant contributions to both theory and practice in the field of innovation and international business.

Introduction

     Innovation, knowledge and technology are relevant concepts in the international business field [[1]] and both areas are essential to achieve competitive advantages in current business environments [[2]]. Cantwell [[3]] adds that innovation and internationalization processes have been increasingly interlinked as key drivers of development since the first industrial revolution, all the way to today’s information age.

     Innovation is the cornerstone of growth and sustains organizations to counter marketplace fluctuations and prepares them for long-term growth [[4]]. Business model innovation, although it is very difficult to achieve [[5]], can itself be a pathway to competitive advantage if the model is sufficiently differentiated and hard to replicate for incumbents and new entrants alike [[6]]. New models of innovation have encouraged many innovative firms to change the way they search for new ideas, adopting open search strategies that involve the use of a wide range of external actors and sources to help them achieve innovation [[7]].

     The field of international business studies came to prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s with the growth of multinational corporations [[8]]. In this framework, two theoretical models are extremely relevant; on the one hand, gradual internationalization or Uppsala model, according to which internationalization is seen as an incremental process that begins in foreign markets, being in closer proximity to the domestic market in terms of physical distance [[9],[10]] and, on the other hand, born global firms, that is to say, companies that internationalise at or near their founding, on an average period of three years of founding, generating at least twenty five percent of their total sales from foreign countries [[11]]. There is an extensive literature about this issue [12, 13, 14].

Conclusions 

     Nowadays, companies seek innovation in their countries of origin and abroad in order to compete globally. Therefore, innovation is a key factor for entering into international markets. This systematic literature review shows that there is indeed a strong relationship between innovation and international business; four themes of investigation within a comprehensive and multidimensional framework are found: Innovative activities of multinational corporations, Global value chains, Innovation in emerging economies, and Cross-border knowledge. These four research trends highlight the strategic importance of innovation in international business. Nevertheless, even when the number of articles addressing such topics is growing, this research work underlines that there is still a great opportunity for studying the relationship between those concepts. Thus, incorporating innovation into internationalized companies’ strategies is a main issue in current times, even more considering the changing and challenging world that we live in.

Abstract

A robust literature has provided compelling evidence showing how open innovation impacts incumbent firms. However, only a paucity of research has linked open innovation strategies to different types of innovation in startups. This paper fills this gap in the literature by focusing on if, how and why open innovation enhances innovative activity in newly created firms. In particular, the paper examines how the role of both the specific external partner as well as the geographical location of partner matters in how product and process innovation is shaped in startups. The empirical evidence garnered in this paper suggest that not only do startups benefit from open innovation, but also the extent of product innovation and the propensity to innovate new processes in startups are significantly affected by specific external partner and its geographical location. The positive impact of open innovation reflects the heterogeneous effects of knowledge embedded in different partner types and the role that technological, institutional, and competitive arrangements play domestically and internationally in startup innovation. This study provides new light on how and why open innovation benefits not just incumbents but also startups as well.

Introduction

It is important to understand the effects of open innovation for innovation activity in startups. First, the rise of globalization and the growth of new digital technologies, and the evolution of knowledge in the field of engineering, technology and management (Cunningham and Kwakkel, 2011), have contributed to the emergence of open innovation models (Chesbrough, 2006, Chesbrough, 2007; Kafouros et al., 2020) and the rise of inter-firm collaboration and knowledge spillovers (Schilling and Phelps, 2007; Tucci et al., 2016). However, the returns to open innovation differ between startups and incumbent firms (Audretsch and Belitski, 2021). Second, ever-increasing innovation costs and a lack of resources push startups to search for external knowledge collaborators to co-create knowledge together and reduce innovation costs (van Beers and Zand, 2014).

Despite the theoretical underpinning and importance of knowledge collaboration for innovation, the entrepreneurship and management literatures (Tambe et al., 2012; Roper et al., 2017; Knoben and Bakker, 2019) have not identified the impact that knowledge partner type and location may have on a startup.

Conclusions

This study investigated the returns from knowledge collaboration across different partner types and geographical locations for innovation performance in startups. Knowledge collaboration with external partners directly affects the propensity for process innovation and the share of innovation sales. This study provides new insights on open innovation theory for entrepreneurs, by comparing how startups use the knowledge spillover of innovation (Audretsch and Belitski, 2022) across different partner types and locations.

Our findings pave the way for future studies that may address this study’s limitations. Firstly, our study was based on a sample of UK firms. Our findings are contextually limited and may not be generalizable to other countries, particularly developing countries and other developed countries. Future studies can expand the longitudinal dimension of data, aiming for longer lags as well as switching to internationalization vs. de-internationalization of collaboration for startups. Further research is needed to explore the breadth and depth of knowledge collaboration for startups and incumbent firms.

Abstract

     Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries have recommended or imposed teleworking. This study examines the arrangements made by companies in French-speaking Switzerland to prevent or reduce the negative aspects of teleworking in order to improve the experience for their employees. To do so, semistructured interviews were conducted with human resources or team managers in companies from various industries. The literature review enabled these risks to be classified into six categories and was used to guide the interviews. The results offer interesting insights for academic researchers and practitioners. For the first, they can use these findings to investigate this issue in other geographical regions or expand by doing a quantitative study. For the second, they can use the insights to tailor their management practices when crises materialize.

Introduction

     The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in 2019 with the World Health Organization declaring a global health emergency (Velavan & Meyer, 2020). The virus caused tremendous harm, affecting many people and their lives, but also impacting businesses around the world. To fight against the spread of the virus, many countries restrained their populations’ movements, thus greatly increasing the number of people teleworking (Mori, 2021). Dubey and Tripathi (2020) noted that this decision was accompanied with many people showing resentment and having negative feelings toward the notion of working from home.

     Research has been conducted on teleworking’s negative effects from an employee’s point of view, but little literature can be found that interrogates companies’ views. This skews the perspective, as it is unclear how companies are viewing the situation and what actions they are taking to resolve or prevent these issues. To better understand the company side of the matter, a review of the literature was conducted and the negative effects were categorized.

Findings

     Only two participants noted that family conflicts were brought to their attention. However, Participant E noted that their company has a social service, so it is possible that managers are not aware of these issues. Societal issues (gender inequalities and promotions) were not deemed to be an issue, as no participant had received any complaints or remarks.

     Two participants noted that some employees were struggling with back pain. These issues were present before COVID-19 but were made worse by the change of setting and lack of equipment. Participant A stated, “[A]s it is at home, it is the employee’s issue, not the employer’s duty” [my translation from French]. The bank also held a similar stance. While it let employees take their work equipment (like screens) or their work chairs home, it did not finance any ergonomic equipment the employee would require.

     Employees from four out of five companies in the sample reported suffering from sentiments of isolation and loneliness due, in part, to a lack of social interactions and informal calls. Indeed, these two issues are the most prevalent as nearly all participants are unanimous on the negative sentiments their collaborators were facing. No other issue, even when considering all six categories, was highlighted as much.

Abstract

     Although research underlines the need for SMEs to innovate their Business Model, they face considerable challenges in exploring external business opportunities and experimenting/developing their available resources in unexpected ways. We posit that one way that SMEs can innovate their Business Model is through exaptation, a discontinuous evolutionary process that allows utilizing and adapting existing resources in new application domains. Using a case study approach, we investigate the case of a SME that has successfully innovated its Business Model through exaptation. We then discuss how three key exaptation processes lead to value creation, delivery and capturing, thus supporting Business Model Innovation in SMEs.

Introduction

     Business Model Innovation (BMI) has been described as “the search for new logics of the firm and new ways to create and capture value for its stakeholders” (Casadesus‐Masanell and Zhu, 2013, p. 464). In this perspective, firms can create and exploit new opportunities linked to their innovative Business Model (BM) by adopting different approaches. Firms might add novel activities through backward or forward integrations, connect activities in a novel way, or modify one or more parties dedicated to any of the activities (Amit and Zott, 2012). For example, firms can choose to alter the set of elementary activities they perform and rely on the resources or technological capabilities of external parties (such as individual, organizations, universities) to develop a new value proposition (Chesbrough, 2007; Saebi and Foss, 2015).

     Researchers underline that BMI is becoming even more important for success than product/service or process innovation (Johnson et al., 2008; Amit and Zott, 2012). However, practitioners have little guidance on how to design innovative BMs (Foss and Saebi, 2017; Teece, 2018). This is particularly true for Small and Medium-Enterprises (SMEs), the main actors in innovation processes and technological development at the local, regional, and even national level (Lee et al., 2012). Accordingly, recent international policies have emphasized the need for SMEs to redefine their BM to sustain and promote their competiveness. In this perspective, BMI is a potentially relevant tool allowing SMEs to resolve the trade-off between innovation costs and benefits, enabling them to create, deliver, and capture new value.

Conclusions

     Prior research has emphasized the pressing challenge for SMEs to exploit, define, and implement an innovative BM to remain competitive. Anecdotal evidence shows that innovative BMs are closely linked to exaptation, observed as an important mechanism to use resources in ways for which they were not originally intended (Dew et al., 2004; Cattani, 2006). This might be particularly fruitful for SMEs that have some difficulties in “thinking outside the box” (Gassmann et al., 2013, p. 2), but at the same time, specific advantages in developing new products and businesses (Vanhaverbeke, 2017). Prior BMI studies have mainly focused on large firms and start-ups, but seldom on SMEs, and to the best of our knowledge, no studies have hitherto focused explicitly on the processes to be implemented to sustain BMI through exaptation in SMEs.

     This study has investigated how SMEs might innovate their BM through exaptation. In analyzing the exaptation process in SMEs, we advance knowledge on how and why exaptation favors BMI. In addition, our study highlights how each stage of exaptation process contributes to BMI by means of value creation, value delivery and value capturing.

Abstract

     This qualitative research contributes to the telework research literature by identifying and categorizing employee motives for teleworking. Motives for telework contextualize teleworking behavior, represent proximal telework outcomes, and serve as potential boundary conditions for telework-outcome relationships. Role identity theory (Burke & Tully Social Forces, 55(4), 881-897, 1977) and the uncertainty-reduction hypothesis (Hogg & Terry Academy of Management Review, 25, 121-140, 2000) suggest that motives may be driven by role salience and the ability to meet work and nonwork demands. In this research, we sought to identify a comprehensive list of motives as well as reconcile the wide range of categories and labels given to telework motives in the literature. We asked two independent samples of workers comprised of two subsamples of teleworkers (n1 = 195; n2 = 97) and a subsample of nonteleworkers (n3 = 947) why they telework or would like to telework. A total of 2504 reasons were gathered across the three subsamples. Most respondents reported multiple reasons, especially when encouraged to list all of their reasons. After distinguishing preconditions from motives to telework, ten categories emerged from the qualitative data with “avoid commute” emerging as the most frequently reported motive. Other frequently reported motives included “tend to family demands” and “productivity.” Additional motives are discussed along with implications for telework research and policy development and implementation.

Why Are Employees Motivated to Telework?

     Generally speaking, employees are motivated to fulfill their needs and to avoid aversive states (e.g., discomfort). In fact, researchers have noted that employees are inclined to proactively change aspects of their job in order to maximize motivation, reduce stressors, and mitigate strain (Parker & Ohly, 2008). Theoretically, role identity theory (Burke & Tully, 1977) and the uncertainty-reduction hypothesis (Hogg & Terry, 2000) suggest that employees are likely to have motives to fulfill goals that align with their most salient role and seek strategies that help reduce uncertainties that interfere with that role. Despite theories indirectly supporting the desire to telework, studies of telework motives have been largely atheoretical.

     According to role identity theory, individuals form identities based on the salience of the various roles that they occupy (Burke & Reitzes, 1991; Kossek et al., 2012; Thoits, 1991). Work and family roles are some of the most salient. Additionally, physical work environments contribute to the formation of identities (Ashkanasy et al., 2014). The most salient role (e.g., work-related or family-related) will determine the centrality of the individual’s identity (i.e., work-centered or family-centered, respectively). Alternatively, a dual-centered identity may emerge if both work and family roles are equally salient. Generally, individuals are motivated to fulfill goals aligned with their role identity and to seek out circumstances that help them to meet work and family demands. This has implications for where individuals prefer to work, thus telework motives. Ironically, the environment that is most conductive to getting work done is not necessarily the traditional work environment because of interruptions and distractions. In fact, the environment that helps employees meet work and family demands may be a location facilitates the fastest role transitions.

Results

     Sample 1 responses ranged from 1 to 60 words with a mean of 25.20 words (SD = 16.94 words, N = 195). In total, respondents provided 342 total motives to the question “Why do you telework?” On average, each employee reported slightly more than one motive (M = 1.14, SD = 1.16, median = 1.00, mode = 1, range = 1–5).

     Sample 2a responses ranged from 1 to 76 words with a mean of 24.74 words (SD = 15.39 words, N = 97). They provided 171 total motives to the prompt asking participants to list all the reasons why they telework. As the prompt for Sample 2a encouraged employees to list multiple reasons, it is not surprising that the employees in this sample reported more motives per person than Sample 1 (M = 1.98; SD = 1.10; median = 2.00; mode = 2; range 1–6). In fact, many respondents numbered their reasons, indicating that employees possess (and are aware of) multiple motives for teleworking (RQ4).

     Sample 2b responses ranged from 1 to 76 words with a mean of 24.74 words (SD = 15.39, N = 947) words. Similar to Sample 2a, nonteleworkers (Sample 2b) were encouraged to list multiple reasons. Correspondingly, they provided 1991 total motives. On average, nonteleworkers reported slightly more than two motives (M = 2.10, SD = 1.55, median = 2.00, mode = 2, range 1–8).

Abstract

     In the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), people have been requested to work from home with information and communication technology (ICT) tools, i.e. telework. This paper investigates which factors (infection of COVID-19, individual characteristics, task characteristics, and working environments) are associated with telework use in Japan. Using the unique panel survey on telework, our estimation finds that although telework use remains low in Japan, educated, high ICT-skilled, younger, and female workers who engage in less teamwork and less routine tasks tend to use telework. Working environments such as the richness of IT communication tools, digitalized offices, and flexible-hour working systems are all positively correlated with telework use.

Introduction

     The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) virus commenced its worldwide spread in February 2020. In the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been requested to work from home and refrain from commuting. Telework, i.e., working at home with information and communication technology (ICT) tools, has attracted considerable attention as an effective countermeasure against infection. However, some impediments hamper the use of telework for some workers. Telework is unsuitable for some workers (e.g., old uneducated workers) (Adams-Prassl et al., 2020) as well as some occupations (e.g., manual laborers and medical service workers) (Dingel and Neiman, 2021). Telework tends to reduce workers’ performance due to less face-to-face communication (Bartik et al., 2020). For a variety of reasons, some countries such as Japan have observed a low percentage of telework utilization.

     A further reason for lower telework use is the government’s infection controls. Unlike many other developed countries, Japan has seen a lower percentage of infections in the total population (on a cumulative basis, 6.1% in Japan, 24.6% in the US, 29.1% in Germany, 32.6% in the UK, and 43.8% in France, as of April 28, 2022).1 Japan has taken a unique approach to infection controls. In particular, lockdown was request-based and did not involve any legal restrictions, sanctions, and punishments, which originates from the Constitution of Japan.2 The Prime Minister, the government’s COVID-19 subcommittee, and local governments just asked for the cooperation of all people. Such a request-based lockdown might not greatly boost telework use. Therefore, it seems that many factors result in a low percentage of telework use in Japan.

Results and analyses

     This paper investigates the association of COVID-19 infection, individual characteristics, task characteristics, and working environments. Using the unique panel survey on telework, we find that educated, highly ICT-skilled, younger, and female workers who engage in fewer teamwork tasks and whose workplace municipalities see a larger number of infections tend to use telework. Working environments are much more crucial. The richness of IT communication tools, digitalized office management, and flexible hours working systems could promote telework use and its continuation.

     Our estimation results suggest that an individual’s socioeconomic factors are not the sole factors for telework use. The working environment and digitalized offices are also crucial factors for telework, although we cannot determine the causal impact of these factors on telework use due to identification problems. Furthermore, digitalized office and working environments are particularly important for workers to keep teleworking for long hours and frequent use in the spread of COVID-19.