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This article presents a systematic review of the existing literature on business longevity by conducting a bibliometric analysis of 142 papers published in the leading business history and management journals during the last three decades. The results show similarities (e.g. in explanatory models) and differences (e.g. in citation patterns, theories, and methods) between the disciplines, thus indicating that the literature is partially segmented into separate domains that prevent business longevity research from representing a truly unified field of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview of several papers and articles on technological innovations. They include "Innovation Management Techniques and Tools: A Review From Theory and Practice," which reviews the scope, trends, and major actors in the development and use of methods to manage innovation in a knowledge-driven economy. "Harnessing the Hackers: The Emergence and Exploitation of Outlaw Innovation," which explores the role and impact of hacking activities on firm innovation, and "Reverse Engineering Google's Innovation Machine," which identified key innovation practices that have contributed to the success of Google's innovation machine.

Research in the information systems (IS) field has often been characterized as fragmented. This paper builds on a belief that for the field to move forward and have an impact on practitioners and other academic fields, the existing work must be examined and systematized. It is particularly important to systematize research on the factors that underlie success of organizational IS. The goal here is to conceptualize the IS success antecedents (ISSA) area of research through surveying, synthesizing, and explicating the work in the domain. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, a taxonomy of 12 general categories is created, and existing research within each category is examined. Important lacunae in the direction of work have been determined. It is found that little work has been conducted on the macro-level independent variables, the most difficult variables to assess, although these variables may be the most important to understanding the ultimate value of IS to organizations. Similarly, ISSA research on success variables of consequence to organizations was found severely lacking. Variable analysis research on organizational- level success variables was found to be literally nonexistent in the IS field, whereas research in the organizational studies field was found to provide useful directions for IS researchers. The specifics of the 12 taxonomy areas are analyzed and directions for research in each of them provided. Thus, researchers and practitioners are directed toward available research and receive suggestions for future work to bring ISSA research toward an organized and cohesive future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that the literature of advertising management and decision making has given little attention to the selection of creative strategy, and that the identification of specific strategic alternatives would make both the choices available and their implications clearer for planning purposes. The paper outlines seven distinct strategic options defining the characteristics of each. Competitive implications of the strategic alternatives and the conditions of usage are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As telecommuting programs proliferate, a better understanding of the relationship between telecommuting and career success outcomes is required to provide human resources managers, telecommuters, and information systems managers with information to decide the future of telecommuting arrangements. This paper addresses this need by exploring whether turnover intentions and their determinants differ for telecommuters and non-telecommuters. Four hundred salespeople from one large company in the southeastern United States were asked to participate in the study. The organization entry point was the marketing director. One hundred and four telecommuting employees and one hundred and twenty-one regular employees responded, with a total of 225 usable questionnaires. Telecommuters seemed to face less role conflict and role ambiguity and tended to be happier with their supervisors and more committed to their organizations. They also showed lower satisfaction with peers and with promotion. Based on the results, recommendations are proposed for managing the implementation of telecommuting programs and their impact on the rest of the organization's employee population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines determinants of information center (IC) success, defined as user satisfaction. The determinants are tested for their relationships to IC success and one another in order to evaluate which have a direct impact on success and which operate indirectly. Prior studies have not looked for relationships among factors, omitting potentially helpful information. Data were gathered from 151 users representing three organizations and were used to develop a model of IC success. The model is consistent with Anthony's levels of management activity in that the determinants correspond to specific levels of planning and control. The determinants and their corresponding management activity levels are as follows: IC role definition is associated with strategic planning, while management control encompasses a variety of services, staff infrastructure, and organizational commitment. Operational control, in the IC environment, is concerned with quality of user-developed applications, quality of individual staff, quality of services, facilitation of end-user computing, and user self-sufficiency. This model of IC success can guide researchers studying information centers and, especially, managers charged with establishing and operating information centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of the critical success factor (CSF) method has been suggested by several sources as a means of ensuring the success of an organization. An investigation was performed to determine the existence and nature of CSFS for information centers (IC). Twenty-six CSFS were determined from various sources. The importance of each was rated in a survey of IC managers, and a principal components analysis was performed to indicate the underlying structure. This paper reports the effect on the composite CSFS of the IC variables age, size, and hardware option supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three agencies selected for in-depth study were classified as "small," "medium," and "large:" (relative to the San Francisco area). This paper analyzes the relationships between the selected agencies performance and preceptions of their organizations' environment and integration. The size variable, per se, was not an accurate indicator of agency success. Increased size complicates management's task of coordination, but the results of this study empirically demonstrate that the key to successful performance is a management style which properly takes account of the environmental, task, and structural demands unique to the agency segment of the advertising industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their 1932 volume American Business Leaders: A Study in Social Origins and Social Stratification, Frank W. Taussig and Carl S. Joslyn, then a young Harvard graduate, argued that success in business depended more on innate superiority than on other environmental factors such as financial aid, influential connections, and formal education. The aim of this article is to analyze the main contentions of Taussig and Joslyn, as well as the intellectual genesis of, and the general reactions to, this controversial volume. Although our main focus is on Taussig and Joslyn, other figures, all directly affiliated with Harvard, will play a decisive role in our narrative—the economist Thomas Nixon Carver, the psychologist William McDougall, and the sociologist Pitirim Aleksandrovič Sorokin. This makes the scope of this article in many respects broader than its title may suggest—in the sense that it will allow us to place a work like American Business Leaders within the context of an important strand of social science research at Harvard during the interwar years [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OVERVIEW: The success of new products and services relies on meeting customer needs, but it is very difficult to identify hidden needs since customers have difficulty articulating them or do not recognize them at all. A number of methods have been applied to help identify hidden needs, including ethnography, empathic design, and lead-user innovation. In this paper, we discuss the use of the repertory grid technique (RGT), a method adopted from psychology that has been used in new product development to help uncover customers' hidden needs. Three case studies from our own work show that it can be applied effectively at different stages of the product development process, resulting in entirely new products, product improvements, and new approaches to marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While nonprofit organizations serve the community in significant ways, their heavy reliance on philanthropic and government funding is increasingly not sustainable, especially in the wake of economic downturns. The application of social entrepreneurial principles - including social enterprise activities - can improve the sustainability of the business model of nonprofits, while bolstering management capacity and enhancing mission. This paper argues that the current funding model of the nonprofit sector should be disrupted in order to achieve a greater level of financial sustainability and mission-driven success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the strategy adopted by the MNE Nestlé in Japan between the establishment of a branch at Yokohama in 1913 and the end of World War II. It highlights the difficulties encountered by the firm in its attempts to open up and operate production facilities due to strong opposition from local condensed milk makers, supported by the state. Eventually, in 1934, Nestlé opened a factory by founding an incorporated company, ARKK, all of whose shareholders were Japanese working for Nestlé. Although the war drastically curtailed the activities of both Nestlé Japan and ARKK, the organisational facilities set up during the inter-war period provided a springboard for Nestlé's post-war success in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remei successfully started engaging with organic cotton in 1992 and used a specialist business approach. In contrast to conventional, anonymous cotton yarn retailing, Remei bases its business on long-term partnerships. Focusing on the textile mass market, the company arranged its philosophy, core competences and activities in a way that opens the way to leaving the 'eco-niche'. The yarn retailer's growth rates in organic cotton yarn trading indicate that the path to a green textile mass market can be taken. Remei's approach at first sight seems to create competitive disadvantages. However, this paper will show that the secret of the company's success lies in its strategic arrangement and the fact that it plays the business game somewhat differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the entrepreneurial and pro-social activities of William Rushworth II from 1897 to 1944. He inherited a family business modest in scale, which eventually became one of the largest music houses in the world. The Company business model incorporated entrepreneurial and pro-social activities. Our theoretical model shows the transmutability of the forms of capital and how they were utilised by William to identify productive opportunities in the music industry sub-field. Our findings show that converting cultural capital into economic capital was of prime importance to an entrepreneur operating within the cultural industries. Bridging social capital was vital to build links vertically and horizontally across the industry value chain to transform cultural capital into symbolic and economic capital. Intra-field habitus hybridisation was utilised to transfer practices within the different sub-fields of the cultural industries. William transformed his economic capital into social and cultural capital through his support and sponsorship of music and the arts. Business success led to appointments to prestigious organisations and entry into the field of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the big areas of opportunity that the company saw across these verticals was that business customers were not only interested in sophisticated pieces of machinery, but were now also interested in data: in apps for their phone or dashboards so they could see what was happening across a fleet of different elevators, for example. We have seen the same pattern of incredibly rapid business model exploration and adoption from Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and others - really from all of the most successful companies of the digital era. Alibaba and Amazon are great examples of companies that follow the customer and break outside of their business models, but it would be useful to have an example of an industrial company that has done the same thing. [Extracted from the article]

Presents information on the paper "Building Breakthrough Businesses Within Established Organizations," by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble, which appeared in the May 2005 issue of "Harvard Business Review."

The article provides insights into the role of business model innovation in a company's success. Topics discussed include the building blocks of business model such as value proposition, market segments, distribution channels, and cost structure, key elements of a business model such as content, structure, and governance, and importance of value creation and delivery in business model innovation.

Mass consumer consumption and almost unfettered use of the Earth's natural resources has created serious problems that nations and businesses are now realizing they must confront. They provide insights from circular economy pioneers that have used different technologies and business models and have been pioneers in different industries. In his recent I Forbes i article "How Companies Can Support a Circular Economy", Walter Schindler defines the linear economy as "an economic model in which raw materials are processed, used and then discarded as waste." The authors write, "a business model itself can only lead to circularity as part of an ecosystem of business models, thereby enabling a circular flow of resources along the ecosystem.". [Extracted from the article]

Understanding customer behaviour is crucial for business success. For achieving this goal, the Recency–Frequency–Monetary (RFM) model has been commonly recognised as an effective approach to analyse customer behaviour. However, the traditional RFM approach is a coarse method for quantifying customer loyalty and contribution that can only provide a single lump-sum value of the recency (R), frequency (F), and monetary value (M); hence, it discards information regarding customers' product preferences. Typically, different customers make different purchases. Subsequently, purchases are likely to be different across customers. This creates data sparsity, which affects the performance of conventional clustering methods. In this study, we integrated the group RFM analysis and probabilistic latent semantic analysis models to perform customer segmentation and customer analysis. The results indicated that the developed approach takes into account the product preference and provides insight into and captures a wide variety of the types of true ordering behaviour of the company's customers. The information allows the manager to improve customer relationships and build a personalised purchasing management system for grouping customers with similar purchasing patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interactions between universities and businesses have become key drivers of today's economic growth and firms' business success. However, a key factor, the existing relationship between government and industry funding, is largely underexplored. This study investigates the relationship between government and industry funding for universities, in the context of developing countries, specifically taking China as a case. We found that there is a substitution effect between the two types of funding and this effect varies from different types of universities. We discuss our findings and draw implications for firms that seek to collaborate with universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on "Past Success and Creativity Over Times: A Study of Inventors in the Hard Disk Drive Industry," conducted by Pino Audia and Jack Goncalo. The research recommends strategies that managers might use to overcome the limitations of successful inventors that start with a realization of the problem. The authors decided to examine the industry because previous studies have shown that it has a high rate of technological innovation.

In his 2009 book, I Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business, i Howe suggests crowdsourcing has changed how companies structure work, use talent, conduct research, and make and market products. In her book, I Crowdsourced Innovation: Revolutionizing Innovation with Crowdsourcing, i Catharina Van Delden argues that community-driven crowdsourcing is needed to unlock the full potential of open innovation. In 2016, Deloitte published "The three billion: Enterprise crowdsourcing and the growing fragmentation of work", in which the authors suggested the crowdsourcing ecosystem is still relatively young but acknowledge crowdsourcing's significant potential for disruptive impact at the enterprise level. In a 2020 article published in I MIT Sloan Management Review i , Christoph Riedl and his coauthors suggest crowdsourcing can be an invaluable innovation tool, but many companies fail to use it effectively due to a misconception that there's only one approach to crowdsourcing. [Extracted from the article]

High-quality customer service is an integral part of any successful enterprise, but providing it can be a challenge for online merchants, especially when customers are complaining about each other. This study examines how justice and trust affect user acceptance of e-customer services by conducting an online experiment involving 380 participants. The results suggest that trust in the e-customer service fully mediates the effects of trust in the service representative and procedural justice on intentions to reuse the e-customer service. Furthermore, the effect of distributive justice on trust in the e-customer service was fully mediated by trust in the e-service representative. Finally, the effect of informational justice on user intentions to reuse the e-customer service was partially mediated by trust in the service representative and trust in the e-customer service. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We draw on the resource-based theory to examine how information systems (IS) resources and capabilities affect firm performance. A basic premise is that a firm's performance can be explained by how effective the firm is in using information technology (IT) to support and enhance its core competencies. In contrast to past studies that have implicitly assumed that IS assets could have direct effects on firm performance, this study draws from the resource complementarity arguments and posits that it is the targeted use of IS assets that is likely to be rent-yielding. We develop the theoretical underpinnings of this premise and propose a model that interrelates IS resources. IS capabilities. IT support for core competencies, and firm performance. The model is empirically tested using data collected from 129 firms in the United States. The results provide strong support for the research model and suggest that variation in firm performance is explained by the extent to which IT is used to support and enhance a firm's core competencies. The results also support our proposition that an organization's ability to use IT to support its core competencies is dependent on IS functional capabilities, which, in turn, are dependent on the nature of human, technology, and relationship resources of the IS department. These results are interpreted and the implications of this study for IS research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For inexperienced sales representatives, success provides an important learning opportunity from which to build confidence and hone strategies. Such learning is derived from the attributions one makes for success and how those attributions shape future behavior. This research investigates the interpretation and behavioral intentions of inexperienced sales representatives following a successful sales call using a sample of financial services representatives. Surprisingly, we found that achieving success did not assure the adoption or future use of the strategy that garnered that success. These results suggest that inexperienced sales representatives may require managerial attention to fully understand and appropriately assimilate their sales successes. Implications for managers and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we examine the possible reasons for the firing of ad agencies and relate these reasons to the stock price consequences of the firings using event-study methodology. After analyzing a variety of performance measures for profitability, sales, and market share of the client firms prior to the firing, we find that firms that fire their ad agencies have lost market share in the two quarters immediately preceding the firing. We report here, for the first time, that the fall in the stock price of client firms is significantly related to the fall in market share preceding the firing. Previously published research on ad agency firings has shown that the stock price of client firms falls just prior to the announcement of the ad agency firing. We confirm that result using a larger sample of firms over a longer period of time and then extend it to include the stock price impact on fired ad agencies (price falls) and their replacement ad agencies (price rises). In addition, the managerial implications of our results for ad agencies, for their clients, and for researchers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hallmark of the new economy is the ability of organizations to realize economic value from their collection of knowledge assets as well as their assets of information, production distribution, and affiliation. Despite the competitive necessity of becoming a knowledge-based organization, senior managers have found it difficult to transform their firms through programs of knowledge management. This is particularly true if their organizations have long histories of process and a tradition of business success. This research examines the issue of effective knowledge management from the perspective of organizational capabilities. This perspective suggests that a knowledge infrastructure consisting of technology, structure, and culture along with a knowledge process architecture of acquisition, conversion, application, and protection are essential organizational capabilities or "preconditions" for effective knowledge management. Through analysis of surveys collected from over 300 senior executives, this research empirically models and uncovers key aspects of these dimensions. The results provide a basis for understanding the competitive predisposition of a firm as it enters a program of knowledge management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses a Critical Success Factor approach to evaluate a representative set of 51 selling techniques with the intent of determining what techniques are more critical to sales success for salespeople who sell homogenous products than others and what techniques are associated with failure. A set of twelve techniques were identified that distinguished salespeople in the top decile from those in the bottom decile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on using foresight tools to guide research & development (R&D) activities to success. These tools help a company's leaders understand the strategic context of the innovation and anticipate the wider implications of technical success. R&D leaders must create the organizational will to take a risk on the innovation.

Since the typical account longevity is short, agencies should anticipate their likelihood of loss, seek to forestall and invest in their client relationships. A model is proposed for examining account lifetimes, which can offer guidance on the likely retention of future accounts. The impact of agency structural characteristics on longevity is also examined, and compared for both U.S. and U.K. markets. Results for both markets indicate that cumulative account dissolution increases at a decreasing rate over time. Greater account longevity is associated with larger agency size (both in terms of agency billings and employees), and agency age but not with stability of billings growth. Evidence suggests that several structural characteristics of agencies reflect the motivation and/or ability to maintain accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a simple model of sales quota allocation that implies equal sales effort from heterogeneous salespeople facing diverse territory selling situations. It is shown that sales quotas should be allocated so as to account for each territory's untapped market potential. The rule is shown to provide more equitable allocations than other rules typically used in the practice of sales force management, such as allocations based on historical sales or territory sales potentials.

In VersionOne's I 13th Annual State of Agile Report i on the use of Agile in companies around the world, 97 percent of respondents reported that their organizations use Agile development methods - up from 80 percent in 2011. But firms in other industries also saw the impact of Agile on project outcomes. What results are companies seeing from applying Agile in the development of physical products? Companies that find ways to integrate Agile into their product development processes may gain competitive advantage in an increasingly innovative and dynamic environment. [Extracted from the article]

Influential writings suggest that today's advertising is not as creative as it used to be. To explore this suggestion, the authors asked top-level agency creatives whether they believe creativity has improved, declined, or remained unchanged since they entered the advertising business. Respondents' opinions then were grouped and compared by agreement/disagreement ratings on a series of statements associated with factors previously identified as responsible for advertising's presumed creative decline. From the perspective of the top-level agency creatives, creativity in today's advertising has not declined--in fact, the overwhelming majority view is that advertising is now more creative than it was when they entered the business, or at least as good. In their eyes, certain aspects of advertising creativity have changed, though not always in the direction predicted in previous writings. With one exception, agency creatives' opinions about advertising creativity then and now were unvarying, regardless of respondent age, years of advertising experience, or agency position/title. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mr Armbruster's article consists of an edited version of his speech presented at the AAA Meeting in Chicago. October. 1973. It is an exposure to the philosophy of Belief Dynamics, namely, how advertising creates beliefs and beliefs cause behavior. Examples are given of how this works (or fails) with 'paid advertisements', and also how it works in other human behavior situations. Mr. Armbruster discusses how to apply Belief Dynamics to yourself, to get yourself to do what you'd really like to do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the differences and similarities in the human capital variables of male and female information systems (IS) workers and the affect these differences have on job outcomes. The human capital variables studied include age, education, organizational and job tenure, and number of years in the IS occupation. We found that even when controlling for the differences in human capital variables, women in IS still tend to be employed at lower levels of the organization, make less money, and have greater intentions to leave the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the common pattern of success-failure-success displayed by many western consumer co-operatives in the twentieth century. We concentrate on the biggest Finnish regional co-ops, Elanto and HOK, and compare their successes and failures as well as those of British co-ops with the help of the Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS). The BOS argues that companies can succeed if they produce surplus value for their clients and if those surpluses simultaneously reduce costs. We suggest that resistance to inequality was the biggest success factor for co-ops in the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the strategic journeys of two Indian banks in evolving socio-political and economic environments, spread across eight decades. It provides a holistic view of longevity challenges by exploring interdependencies between a firm’s internal dynamics, external environment, and its leaders. This article covers the growth of Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank in distinct phases of unrestricted, regulated, and centrally planned economic environment, and in changing socio-political scenarios. It uses within-case and across-case analysis, contextualised in these conditions, to provide rich insights about measures adopted by firms for their long-term survival and sustenance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We provide a dynamic model of banking competition, in which bounded rationality of some competitors explains how the credit cycle is intensified. We model the economic cycle following Tobias F. Rötheli (2012b), who argues that boundedly rational banks, in their Bayesian learning, overestimate the probability of success during booms and underestimate it during recessions. We obtain three main results. First, the model suggests that pessimism/underconfidence is not a powerful driver of credit cycles. Instead, it supports the conclusion that it is euphoria during large upswings that leads to the next crunch. Second, the dynamization of the model provides further insight into the way boundedly rational competition intensifies the credit cycle. Third, it additionally predicts that the effects of behavioral biases are more pervasive when the quality of the niche markets is lower. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study of the warehousing company Pakhoed and its predecessors over a period of 200 years, we analyse the configuration of environmental forces, exploitation and exploration, and three firm-level longevity factors: a tolerant management style and decentralised structure; a strong sense of identity; and a conservative financial policy. The idiosyncratic set-up of Pakhoed's forerunners enabled their long-term survival through co-evolution with an environment that both compelled them to be responsive and provided them with scarce resources. In the most recent period, failed explorations helped Pakhoed to strengthen its sense of identity and to focus on a well-chosen field of exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the mid-1840s expansion of the British railway network, which was associated with a large deterioration in shareholder value. Using a counterfactual approach and new data on railway competition, we argue that the expansion of the railway companies, and their subsequent decline in financial performance, was not due to managerial failure. Rather, the promotion of new routes by established railways and mergers with other companies was part of a managerial strategy to maintain incumbent positions, and may have been preferable to not expanding whilst their competitors did. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a prosopographical analysis of the Finnish business elite. The longitudinal panel dataset includes 456 members of family firms from 1762–2010 who have received the honorary title of counsellor in Finland. Counsellor biographies have been written by an economic history association network of 130 historians. Most family firms are no longer elite after the third generation of the family business or the second counsellor generation; therefore, the same core families rarely remain part of the economic elite for more than 100 years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Buddenbrooks syndrome is evoked by business historians to explain the inability of family firms to survive beyond the third generation. Although this argument highlights a major problem – that of ensuring smooth intergenerational succession – this article's contention is that a more complex interpretative framework is needed in order to explain the longevity of some family businesses. By drawing on evidence concerning a family firm which survived for more than two centuries, this article highlights three interrelated factors of longevity: the strategic response to internal drivers and environmental changes; the transmission of skills and values to the following generations; and the successful intergenerational transfer of family assets. All these factors were based on a flexible definition of both the ‘family’ and the ‘business’ which ensured the combination of continuity and change that was necessary for the family firm's long-term survival. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Even if the domain of business longevity has been enriched by the multidisciplinary nature of approaches used to investigate the phenomenon, the lack of a unifying perspective has impeded systematic research and caused definitional ambiguity. The main aim of this special issue is to extend existing knowledge on business longevity by integrating theoretical and empirical studies that adopt different approaches and perspectives. This is essential in order to identify the key factors of long-term success and the effects of longevity on firm performance. The multifaceted nature of business longevity research is mirrored in the five articles included in this special issue, that offer different and interesting perspectives for the investigation of the domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OVERVIEW: This case study highlights the practical steps a 115-year-old company's R&D organization executed to change its culture -- a change that was critical in order for the R&D group to improve both speed of decision making and alignment with its business units with regard to project selection and prioritization. The scope of the cultural changes extended beyond traditional product design and development. The case study describes the communication methods the R&D organization used to change others' perceptions of it from a corporate overhead that delivered little value to a resource necessary for the profitable growth of the enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OVERVIEW: Although the company had endured multiple transformations, Hewlett-Packard's shift from instrumentation to computing was complicated by clashes between the rigid management style of a management team used to the precision of the instrumentation world and the more freewheeling approach of those from the computer industry. The company's journey in navigating the culture clash to create a unified identity that worked for both sides of the company offers some important lessons for managers facing radical organizational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaders at incumbent firms increasingly recognize that in order to sustain growth and protect their companies from disruption, they must innovate "outside the core"--beyond the familiar markets and competencies on which the company has built its existing business. Outside-the-core innovation projects, which target new customers or non-consumers in new markets, can lead to high growth. However, they are also very risky: the odds of success for outside-the-core projects rapidly drop with each step outside the core. In a study of six outside-the-core projects using a business model perspective, we found that, contradictory to common wisdom, the likelihood of failure is not related to how many steps the project is outside the core. Instead, the risk of failure is influenced by false assumptions about the distribution channels, cost structure, unit margins, and velocity elements of the innovation, which are often carried over from the incumbent business model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By studying three cases of obvious failure (Nokia, Baan and LG Philips Displays), this article identifies three causes of failure in business (fallibility, error and flaw) and defines three types of failing firms from these causes (Icari, Fools and Rogues). In this way, this article provides a simple typology of failure, enhancing our understanding of this phenomenon. All too often failure is approached as something to avoid and as something distinctly negative. Being in business is a Sisyphean mission; it is a continuing struggle, and this struggle is the essence of business, not becoming successful and not avoiding failure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on data collected from 197 large, US-based companies, we analyzed the elements important for success in the front end of innovation. A previous article explored the role of organizational attributes, which account for 53 percent of front-end performance. A second set of organizational attributes--including effective teams, team leadership, and communities of practice--explain 24 percent of the variance in front-end performance. Specific activity elements were also identified as being important to success in the front end for incremental and radical innovation. Opportunity identification and analysis, idea enrichment, and concept definition were found to be the most important activity elements for front-end success for incremental innovation. In contrast, effective activity elements for radical innovation were related to understanding both existing and disruptive markets and leveraging new and emerging technologies. We were able to explain 29 percent and 32 percent of the variance in front-end performance for incremental and radical innovation based on these activity elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although we celebrate the lone inventor, innovation typically involves teams, each making a critical contribution to the final success. Thinking about the different stories of each team can help build a richer understanding of how innovation happens. The story of Swiffer's invention, which involves design researchers, business leaders, and others serves as an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]