Technology and Innovation Management W o r k i n g P a p e r
Fax:++49 (0) 40 42878-2867 www. tu-harburg. de/tim www. global-innovation. net
+49 †(0) 40 †428 78 †3776, Fax:++49 †(0) 40 †428 78 †2867
6-Implications and Research Outlook...23 7-Summary...25 LIST OF ANNEXES References BARRIERS TO INNOVATION IN SMES
are discussed in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 entails general implications and research outlook The final chapter (7) contains a brief summary
portal†data, show that the high percentage of SMES amongst all enterprises continues to remain high.
2 These data exemplarily demonstrate the key-role which SMES play in Germany†s economy.
rejected because of containing incomplete and/or contradictory data. Figure 3 shows the representation of the industry sectors in the sample
confirm, or extend the data base with experts from the selected industries like firm representatives, representatives of industry associations and cluster
BITKOM, Germany†s industry association for Information technology (IT), reports a shortage of 40,000 IT professionals (BITKOM, 2007a.
In a concrete example of the effects that such policies may cause, Google Inc. cited troubles in obtaining work visas for its prospective employees as a reason to set
changing shifts the world-over whereby the data is transmitted electronically from one centre to next.
According to a Mckinsey study, a software developer costs 60 USD an hour in USA. A software developer with similar skill costs only one-tenth of this amount in
India (MGI, 2003. The starting salary of a software developer working for the German software firm SAP in India was reported at 8, 000 euros per annum in 2004, while the
salary for a similarly qualified person at the headquarters in Germany was reported 5 -times higher at 40,000 euros (MÃ ller, 2004.
The DIHK survey in Germany found out that 41%of all offshore R&d activities of German firms were motivated by the incentives of the
over 6 million new mobile phone subscribers are added per month in India (TRAI, 2007 5-Challenges of Global Innovation
as reputed names as Google and Infosys, are complaining of a shortage of suitable candidates.
several incidences of intercultural nuisances in Indo-German software development work Fabian and Schmidli (2005) report similar problems in Sino-Swiss projects
6-Implications and Research Outlook As the discussion above has demonstrated, global innovation activities, especially, the
o To protect their individual core competences o To share the intellectual property generated by such a joint venture, in a
Asia Pacific Tech Monitor,(22:3), pp. 30-33 DBR (2005: India Rising: A Medium-term Perspective, Deutsche bank Research
User guide and Model declaration, Publications Office of the European commission EIU (2004: Scattering the seeds of invention:
http://www. spiegel. de/wissenschaft/mensch/0, 1518,500128, 00. html last accessed: 23.08.2007 BARRIERS TO INNOVATION IN SMES
http://www. tuhh. de/tim/ris-hamburg/befragung. html, last accessed: 17.08.2007 Herstatt, C.,Buse, S.,Tiwari, R,
http://www. tuhh. de/tim/ris-hamburg/befragung. html, last accessed: 12.08.2007 Herstatt, C.,LÃ thje, C,
OECD Science, Technology and Industry Outlook 2006, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris
Asia Pacific Tech Monitor, Vol. 24, No. 1, New delhi pp. 32-37 Tiwari, R.,Buse, S,
Telephone subscriber maintains growth: 6. 57 million Wireless Subscribers added in May 2007, Telecom Regulatory authority of India, Press release no
61/2007 UNCTAD (2005a: â€oeglobalization of R&d and Developing Countriesâ€, in: Proceedings of the Expert Meeting, United nations Conference on Trade and Development, Geneva
http://www. ies. luth. se/org/Rapporter/AR9826. pdf, last accessed: 21.05.2006 ZEW and DIW (2004:
Deckblatt working paper 50. pdf Workingpaper 50 text. pdf
1 BOLOGNA 2000 SME CONFERENCE BUSINESS SYMPOSIUM ROUNDTABLE 1 Enhancing the Competitiveness of SMES through Innovation
ISSUES PAPER This paper is intended to provide a basis for business participants in the Business Symposium
in the information technology field, there are growing competitive pressures for enterprises of all sizes to respond quickly to the very latest developments affecting their sectors.
SMES need user friendly patent offices with lower cost, streamlined procedures Some even suggested a special patent regime for SMES with simplified registration processes.
phone:++60197726991; e-mail: m-maria@utm. my W. Z. Wan Omar, is with the department of aeronautical engineering
enumerators was engaged to collect the data. The questionnaire was developed for the study and was based on
%scientific activities (12%),computer and electronics (16 %and the rest were distributed in the others miscellaneous
'Innovation in SMES'aims at creating a bridge between the core of the framework programme-support to research, development and innovation projects-and the
7 http://ec. europa. eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2014 2015/main/h2020-wp1415-sme en. pdf
Horizon 2020 †Innovation in SMES€ is a bridge between the core of the framework
A novelty in Horizon 2020 is the Open Research Data Pilot which aims to improve and
maximise access to and reuse of research data generated by projects. While certain Work Programme parts and areas have been identified explicitly as participating in the Pilot on
Open Research Data, individual actions funded under the other Horizon 2020 parts and areas can choose to participate in the Pilot on a voluntary basis. The use of a Data Management
1 http://ec. europa. eu/regional policy/indexes/in your country en. cfm HORIZON 2020 †WORK PROGRAMME 2014-2015
Plan is required for projects participating in the Open Research Data Pilot. Further guidance on the Open Research Data Pilot is made available on the Participant Portal
Mainstreaming SME support especially through a dedicated instrument SME participation is encouraged throughout this work programme and in particular in the
Innovative mobile e-government applications by SMES 4. 00 INSO-10-2015 SME business model innovation
risk assessment, market study, user involvement, Intellectual Property (IP) management innovation strategy development, partner search, feasibility of concept and the like to
recruited from a central database managed by the Commission and have fulfilled all stringent criteria with regards to business experience and competencies.
Where appropriate, a Panel Review will be organised remotely Applicants can provide during the electronic proposal submission up to
-2015. html HORIZON 2020 †WORK PROGRAMME 2014-2015 Innovation in SMES PART 7-Page 13 of 37
All intellectual property rights pertinent to the materials, trainings, website and other actions developed by the helpdesk will be owned by the Commission
the internet and 4. National Intellectual Property Offices (NIPOS) would provide better IPR services to SMES
should take care of the joint website www. innovaccess. eu Upgraded or new services and trainings for the target group will be provided by the national
ï Upgrade or create new services and trainings for the target groups according to the needs of SMES.
like the common website (innovaccess), and new IP generated is effectively managed and is available free of charge to the Commission and the
See for example http://www. innovation. lv/ino2/publications/Riga declaration. pdf HORIZON 2020 †WORK PROGRAMME 2014-2015
See http://www. vinnova. se/Pagefiles/604825187/The%20ipf%20synthesis%20report. pdf HORIZON 2020 †WORK PROGRAMME 2014-2015
Social media and other web-based services challenge these existing approaches and ask for their revision The british †connect†platform is the first publicly financed innovation platform on the web
that creates a protected space for companies to display their competences, interest and skills to reach out to a large number of peers,
Commercial offers like †linked in†or various crowdsourcing platforms offer important elements while not regarding themselves as innovation platforms for SMES
collaborations on web platforms and no profile of skills has been defined. Commercial offers by crowdsourcing platforms remain effectively unaffordable for SMES or face difficulties to
scale up their offers and reach a critical mass of the community Scope: To address the described gaps proposals should address one or more of the following
collaboration or social media platform. Tests of services shall be undertaken on platforms that are open and bring together already a critical mass of enterprises and innovation stakeholders
established as web-based self -or collaborative learning modules that are supported by case studies in the form of videos.
For an entrepreneur comprehensive data and performance indicators would allow drawing conclusions whether open innovation is productive
-Collection and analysis of information and data on the application of open innovation in SMES, taking into account different situations in Member States and in specific market
and data accumulated through the coaching engagement. It should also act as a single reference pool
and develop the joint website For the evaluation of first-stage proposals under a two-stage submission
amounts is provided on the Enterprise Europe Network website (http://een. ec. europa. eu Timeframe: First quarter of 2014
The core of the IMP rove platform is a benchmarking database for †innovation management performance†with more than 3500 quality checked
datasets. While the tool and platform is owned still in majority by the EU, the EU is
benchmarking by accelerating the inflow of new data sets allowing to replace the oldest data
integration of advanced IT and internet. Studies, for example published by the IMPÂ rove Academy show that companies with a broader understanding of innovation('hybrid
monitors 0. 92 of which 0. 10 from 02.040203 and 0. 82 from 08.020203 1. 14
both more data and more evaluation and assessment of initiatives taken are needed The local dimension
data and statistics, to permit policy-relevant empirical analytical work to be carried out. The issues that are
Indeed, data are very scarce, but estimates indicate that there are more than 10 million self-employed women in Europe (both European union countries and
United nations Economic commission for europe, Gender Statistic Database %50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5
Reliable data and analysis relating to women†s entrepreneurship are scarce and provide little empirical
Definitional issues complicate data collection, and some national systems prohibit statistics at the individual level, making gender-specific analyses
Even in those few countries where such data are available, important information on development over time
panel data) and for the whole population are lacking. As regards analysis, longitudinal studies are needed to
the scope and the breadth of available data have improved during the last few years †and obstacles
organising information seminars and meetings and/or providing web-based information to those wanting to start
OECD Venture capital Database, 2003 0. 80 0. 70 0. 60 0. 50 0. 40 0. 30
to cost-benefit tests of their likely effect before implementation and monitor their subsequent impact.
and report intangible assets (ICT skills, organisation, software and networks, intellectual property rights) so that new and small firm assets can be
users (US) and competitors (CO Marketing-oriented networks equipment and component (CM suppliers and users
Marketing-oriented networks equipment and component suppliers users and competitors Complete innovation networks including government laboratory
and university (GU ES ES ES US US US CO ES US US USCM US
areas such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, software and new materials) but also play an increasingly important role as innovation agents
the use of patent databases, the valuation of intellectual property assets and enforcement. Of particular importance is
-original databases. Strengthen the teaching of intellectual property rights at universities and training institutions for entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists
While data are scarce, the broad picture for many OECD and some nonmember economies is that of a low, although
context the Internet provides an effective tool for communication, often providing customers with better service and allowing their needs to be monitored more
been slower to adopt information technology than large ones (Figure 4). In many cases this reflects the lack of
complex applications of information technology. Governments should target programmes to overcome market failures to the extent that they are needed in particular areas (e g. skill
Figure 4. Internet penetration by size class, 2001 or latest available year Percentage of businesses using the Internet1
The source for these data is the Eurostat Community Survey on enterprise use of ICT.
3. Internet and other computer-mediated networks Source: OECD, ICT database and Eurostat, Community Survey on ICT usage in enterprises 2002, May 2003
100 90 80 70 60 50 Fin lan d 10-49 Sw ed en De
The rapid growth of software and business method patenting also increases small business costs and the likelihood of infringement.
frameworks that balance the interests of suppliers and users are needed to protect and manage intellectual property and
provided and any necessary data collection should begin as soon as is feasible. It is also advantageous to formulate an
Common target definitions should be encouraged across countries, data formats and procedures, notably as regards statistical observation units and size classes
statistical data collection, processing and dissemination â Foster greater international comparability of statistics. This requires the OECD
introduce a single identification number for enterprises, so that data from different sources can be matched. It also requires that policy makers address
access to administrative data, such as tax offices and chambers of commerce â Promote data linking to make better use of existing data
and reduce respondent burden on SMES. Databases with linked data can strengthen the information base
for policy-relevant research, but require that statistical authorities arrange access while ensuring the confidentiality of information provided by individual firms
that detailed subsets of such data and analysis of them, for example women†s entrepreneurship, barely exist
numbers for enterprises and their use to link data more efficiently, and greater use of administrative sources of data
e g. tax, chamber of commerce), can only be taken in capitals and in several cases involve issues (e g. confidentiality
collection of useful data comparable on a cross-country basis will take even longer. But the proposals summarised in the
firm level data for this project. We thank also Susanto Basu, Ernie Berndt, Piergiuseppe Morone, Mike
We then apply the model to data on Italian SMES from the"Survey on Manufacturing
According to the latest available data from the Census, more than 99 per cent of active firms (out of 4 million) have fewer than 250 employees (95
along with a description of the data used in this analysis; Section 4 concludes with a discussion of the results and with directions for further research
survey data, from which it is possible to directly measure other aspects of innovation in
Given the increased diffusion of this type of micro data across countries and among scholars, many empirical explorations of the impact of
the design of the survey itself, the panel used by Parisi, Schiantarelli and Sembenelli is
Although the Mediocredito-Capitalia survey is not a panel itself, it contains repeated observation for a number of firms enough to allow a dynamic framework.
further information on the data 6 CDM model specification allowing our model to separate the impact of different kinds
3. Data and Methodology The data we use come from the 7th, 8th and 9th waves of the â€oesurvey on Manufacturing
Firms†conducted by Mediocredito-Capitalia (an Italian commercial bank. These three surveys were carried out in 1998,2001, and 2004 respectively, using questionnaires
We merged the data from these three surveys, excluding firms with incomplete information or with extreme
we end up with an unbalanced panel of 9, 674 observations on 7, 375 firms, of which only 361 are present in all three waves
office accounting & computer machinery; radio, TV & telecommunication instruments; medical, precision & optical instruments electrical machinery and apparatus, n e c.;
machinery & equipment; railroad & transport equipment n e c.).) Low-tech industries: encompasses low and medium-low technology industries (rubber & plastic
out of 361 firms in our balanced panel, 34%invest in R&d in every period under examination.
tailored for innovation survey data and built to take into account the econometric issues that arise in this context-is made up by three blocks,
sector study and, more recently, an analysis based on micro data by Potters et al, 2008 Because of the way our data and innovation survey data in general is collected, the
analysis here is essentially cross-sectional. Although there are three surveys covering 9 years, the sampling methodology used means that few firms appear in more than one
of the observations are balanced in the panel. Therefore, the use of fixed firm effect models was not feasible due to the resulting small sample size and limited information
In addition, the innovation data are collected retrospectively (innovating over the past three years), and the income statement data is
mostly contemporaneous. As a robustness check we estimated the same 3 equation model using R&d intensity lagged one year instead of contemporaneous R&d intensity
and Baldwin and Gu, 2004, for an exploration using Canadian data), and this effect is particularly strong for high-tech firms,
When investment is included not in the regression, process innovation displays a sizeable and positive impact on productivity for all the categories of firms under exam
However, in our data we also have a measure of capital available, constructed from investment using the usual declining balance method with a
building a slightly different sample of firms from our data that removed firms with fewer than 20 employees and included firms with more than 250 employees. 13 Using
the four countries and for a variation of our model applied to these data for Italy. 14 The
â€oeunderperformance†in these data, other than the observation that those firms which do R&d do somewhat less on average than firms in their peer countries
we hope to explore the question further in the future using these data Acknowledgements We would like to thank the Mediocredito-Capitalia (now Unicredit) research
department for having kindly supplied firm level data for this project. We thank also Susanto Basu, Ernie Berndt, Piergiuseppe Morone, Stã phane Robin, Mike Scherer
Evidence from a Panel of British Manufacturing Firmsâ€, Institute for Fiscal Studies, working paper N. W93/19
Evidence from a Panel of Manufacturing Firms in France Germany, and Italyâ€, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Vol
1995-2003 High tech firms Low tech firms Number of observations (firms) 2, 870 (2, 165) 6, 804 (5, 210
R&d Expenditure per employee All firms High tech Low Tech in logarithms D (Large firm competitors) 0. 062 0. 197-0. 028
Data are from the third Community Innovation Survey (CIS 3) for France, Germany, Spain, and the U k. Results for Italy come from Tables 3-5 of this paper.
a) This column shows data for all 3 periods in Italy (1995-1997,1998 -2000,2001-2003
%of firms (Census data %of firms with innovation CIS survey on firms with more than 10 employees
office accounting & computer machinery; radio, TV & telecommunication instruments medical, precision & optical instruments; electrical machinery and apparatus, n e c
machinery & equipment; railroad & transport equipment, n e c Low-tech firms: encompasses low and medium-low technology industries (rubber & plastic
Data are from the third Community Innovation Survey (CIS 3) for France Germany, Spain, and the UK.
Data for Italy are from the Mediocredito Surveys. Among the several variables included in the original table,
those comparable to our data. Data are weighted not population. a) This figure encompasses all the subsidies, regardless their source.
b) This column shows data for all 3 periods in Italy (1995-1997,1998-2000,2001-2003.
†Units are logs of euros (2000) per employee 34 Table A2 †A nonparametric selectivity test
3. 8 Role of Information technology (IT) in Product-Related Service Innovation...24 3. 9 Do Manufacturing
accompanied by the creative use of information technology and proprietary databases to help customers use their products more effectively.
textile, lumber, wood and paper mills, printing and publishing, and construction firms rely heavily on equipment suppliers for process innovation (Pavitt, 1984
In contrast, computers and electronics have high product obsolescence rates; which means higher and more continuous investment in incremental
on their core competencies (Quinn et al. 1990). ) In contrast, their SME suppliers are not scale
Lead-users are firms or individuals that are on the very edge of the target market
In fact, lead-users are advanced so that they often modify existing or develop new products to meet their own needs.
In addition, taking ideas from lead-users can be dangerous as lead -users are often a step above common users
and may suggest ideas that are considered only valuable to those in lead-markets, thus making them harder to sell to common users
Marketing innovation includes the use of new channels of distribution and new advertising approaches for selling current or new products.
, electronics and software. SMES that focus on the middle or end of the life cycle may be specialized equipment suppliers
and engineering tools (CAD), prototypes, customization, etc Further, SMES often have an inadequate knowledge of their competitors and their products
of data, have minimal archives and don†t learn from experience (Woodcock et al.,2000 Uncodified or tacit knowledge has benefits
Core competencies rely on leverage across NPD projects within a single firm for competitive advantage, but conditions
and eventually the entire car interior including door panels and dashboards. These companies now have much more leverage over their customers, the
their core competencies and turn to outsourcing to provide many of the functions that were once performed in-house
and protect the core product businesses of an SME Services can differentiate a company from competitors
For example, one of Hewlett-Packard†s installed bases is printers. Although Hewlett-Packard†s servicing is in terms of a product (i e.,
, the printer), and then sells a service to keep the product running (i e.,, the ink cartridge, albeit a product.
but needs), such as installation, operation, upgrades, maintenance, spare parts, decommission etc.,, requires some sort of service (Oliva and Kallenberg, 2003.
stages of product development with providing service to the end user The original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has a distinct advantage when servicing its IB.
OEM collects data at the sale and has reduced costs associated with acquiring new customers The OEM has inherent product knowledge
Adapted from Oliva and Kallenberg, 2003 and Monitor Group, 2004 Table 3. 1 Service Opportunities for Manufacturers
Additionally the data accumulated from having a greater knowledge of customers†behavior enables the company to continually add value
(The importance of acquiring and building databases as tools for adding value and defending against competitors is returned to later
web application and became an â€oe (Internet-enabled companyâ€. Although Greif subcontracts out most support functions,
volume, and its database of trip costing enables the company to accurately quote on â€oetrips†and to provide customized and traceable service.
This requires GF€ s computer systems to seamlessly integrate with car plants exchanging data in real-time.
GF is â€oelocked -in†to its customers both in design and operations making it difficult for
The latest information technology standards and infrastructure can be used to provide services that were conceived not even by
For example, using advanced data collection and data mining tools, coupled with real-time data collection over the Internet may provide a whole new
level of product and service reliability. The third â€oemini-case†provides an example Mini-Case Example#3:
The latest equipment has a number of embedded sensors that monitor the performance and relay the data over the Internet back to a central office
Analysis of these data enable the company to predict possible performance deterioration and ship parts followed,
if needed, by a qualified service engineer Shutdown of a central power plant may have an enormous economic impact
responsibility for downtime now shifts from user to supplier, which implies that Taprogge must be able to support its claims
The company†s most valuable asset is a complex database covering all operating parameters of every installation.
These data enable Taprogge to a) predict the behavior of a system in most if not all locations and
noticeable exceptions, such as IBM and GE of course. But even these large companies have struggled with making the transition.
For example, software service providers may offer homogeneous products that are produced not or consumed simultaneously and manufacturers increasingly offer products that are accompanied by services, such as repair
telecommunications and courier mail require systems that are designed, developed, and optimized for performance or delivery of the service
The database analyzed was the ISI â€oeweb of Knowledge†(ISI, 2006) using the social science sub-set of indexed publications.
targeted at specific market sectors such as financial, telecommunications and transportation. Our review of this literature indicates that,
3. 8 Role of Information technology (IT) in Product-Related Service Innovation We saw in the three mini-cases, Greif Packaging, Taprogge, and, to a lesser extent, General
The fall in the price of computers and data storage devices, coupled with the rise of the Internet, have made the use of digital information as a competitive weapon no longer just the
domain of larger companies. Start-up companies can now harvest information technology to provide their customers with greater value
and to create subtle barriers to competition Indeed, this new low-cost digital freedom may even provide smaller companies advantages
Amazon and ebay that created on-line bookstores and auctions rather than Barnes & noble and Sotheby†s
Data Acquisition and Mining: Capturing data on customer requirements and using it to create unique services
or products can be a powerful way of adding value and keeping out competitors. Netflix has changed the way that consumers rent movies.
In addition, by getting instant feedback from their database customers provide long lists of future wants
possible to do on a local basis. Using this novel database structure, Netflix is able to provide
The following â€oemini-case†shows how, in a business-to-business market, acquisition of data and its subsequent analysis or mining can provide a powerful service model for a
The proprietary data that the company collects on its clients†unique situations are a major competitive advantage,
customized services supported with proprietary information systems. Source Warren and Susman, 2004 Customer Lock in: Information can be shared between customers and suppliers so that each
compatible data and computer systems can be prohibitive. On the other hand, the SME must be aware of becoming too dependent on one supplier
A sound business model using data lock in will have multiple partners so that the dependence on one partner is reduced.
employing data acquisition and mining to lock in customers, suppliers and partners. The fifth â€oemini-case†provides an interesting and illustrative example of a company supplying commodity
and coded database of proprietary cleaning formulas for specific customer needs, whether to clean egg
franchisee gets access to the database on demand when a customer need is defined. This provides the formula for the optimum cleaner components
no solution in the database for a customer†s new problem, and the franchisee develops the answer,
the central database, where it becomes available to all franchises and adds to the intellectual assets of Chemstation.
by the continual building of a proprietary database of customer solutions adding greater value to both the franchisor and franchisees.
solved at a franchisee†s location are fed into the software package which has been devised by Chemstation
Chemstation database. The sharing of such information by the franchisees with the HQ is mandated by a written agreement between Chemstation and its
The database is a key asset for Chemstation and it has the necessary software and framework in place to interpret the results
and distribute the data The database also builds barriers against competition. For example, Chemstation solved a cleaning problem at a Harley davidson plant within its shock absorbers
manufacturing division which resulted in using one cleaning solution on one line and another solution for the adjacent sister line.
This subtle know-how becomes a part of Chemstation†s data bank. Such captured knowledge helps to lock in
customers, and prevents competitors gaining the account. Since its founding Chemstation captured, in less than ten years, around 25%of the $300 million
In addition to using information technology (IT) to enable creative business models, SMES can of course, derive benefits from the use of IT in their operations.
observation, lead users, and even becoming a user. The most commonly used are interviews and
focus groups, and it is important to understand the relative strengths and weaknesses of these two
current users of current products (or potential customers), and observe how they initiate and complete various relevant tasks,
preference data (e g.,, from surveys. Tools such as cluster analysis have been used successfully for this purpose Generate and Assemble Ideas.
Once the target segment and its core needs are identified, the next task is to generate ideas to address these needs.
Sometimes a product is the answer sometimes a service is the answer, and sometimes a product/service combination is the answer
, employees, lead users), groups (e g.,, brainstorming), external search (e g.,, patent search, new use of existing products/services, competitors, upstream and/or
A firm that is interested in developing a new cell phone, for example can break down the cell phone into the following components--receiving signals from tower
transform voice to signals, human input/output interface (screen keypad, etc), and send signals to towers.
input device by searching for all possible human input devices used in other (non-cell phone products and see which ones can be used for a cell phone (e g.,
by focus groups of potential customers or lead users Screening Ideas. In most cases, managers will end up with more ideas than they can implement
critical to vet the input data carefully;(2) the business analysis should only serve as guidelines
screening process, compared to the â€oehard†data (e g.,, projected market share, net present value They are (1) strategy fit;(
and lead users. Quantitative methods include surveys Market Test and Validation. In many cases, a new solution identified through the TSD process
I obtain data from many different sources; we listen to suggestions from suppliers; we use consultants in focused rolesâ€
service may now include upgrades and refurbishing. One major challenge is to assure that the
with a 24/7 help desk and self-diagnostic software where applicable Up to this point, the firm†s business model need not shift dramatically,
interpretation, and the firm†s willingness to invest in data capture and storage. The move to
if captured, may help create a proprietary database that can give the firm a competitive advantage over its rivals
and Taprogge used IT to capture data about their products†performance in different contexts and developed proprietary databases that allowed
them to customize use of their product to meet specific customer needs. All five cases required
we analyzed the MEP database of past success stories coupled with selective interviews We reviewed a total of 689 â€oesuccess stories†from 2002 to 2005 that were posted on the NIST
MEP website. All these stories were divided into four broad categories based on the type of consulting services provided by MEP †Operational, Marketing, Funding, and Business
we conducted random phone interviews with four of the MEP center directors. The interviewees varied greatly in their opinion about the role of MEP in the economy
posted on the website for information and insight. Most of the collaboration among centers is
database. We found this database rather difficult to use. However, the more important issues are
concerned with both content and format. The content is written largely for the benefit of the
The current MEP database may not fulfill the purpose for which it was created, either in content
or in user value. Therefore, we make the following recommendations Recommendation 1-Leverage the existing skills between MEP centers
We recommend augmenting the current database with a dynamic knowledge network. See recommendation 5 for a more detailed discussion of this topic.
Recommendation 3-Analyze use of the current MEP database We recommend a web-survey of existing MEP centers to determine
•The current use and value of the database •Research to determine features and expectations of the knowledge portal
•â€oemarket research†for the proposed training courses and content Recommendation 4-Develop a research agenda
and recorded for the benefit of future users without any interpretation from the creators of the knowledge.
database. They are rather sterile reports that are built around standard terms, categories and data and do not really convey any of the actual â€oetouchy-feely†attributes which are much more
important in this case Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, is more complex and has embedded personal interpretations within it such that the value for future users requires access to the implied knowledge and
experience of the creator. For example, Kraft manufactures a range of processed cheeses that are noted for their quality, and consistency.
•Explicit-to-explicit is the simplest transfer challenge exemplified best by web-publishing such as the MEP database.
There is a wealth of information that is not tailored to the user. If it is structured and codified,
then it can be of considerable value www. webmd. com for example has a wealth of health-related information.
computer systems to codify and interpret them for particular future instances †replacing the cheese taster above with a computer program.
Apart from very limited domains, this approach has been largely unfruitful •Tacit-to-tacit is still the most powerful method of knowledge transfer using such
Fortunately, now that the Internet has developed, we can deploy systems that allow tacit knowledge application without the necessity for direct
Internet that are successful at overcoming the inherent shortcomings of static knowledge management. These are referred generically to as â€oedynamic KM systemsâ€.
â€oechallengers†create a web-request which is responded then to, based on the knowledge and experience of the network.
The aim of these tools and support data is to prime the outreach function at the MEP offices on
links to the participants and thereby become part of an ongoing and active database for future
voluntariness in the acceptance of information technologies.""Decision Sciences 28 (3): 557-582 Discusses acceptance behavior of new technology on the basis of innovation
Web of Knowledge, http://portal. isiknowledge. com/portal. cgi Johne, A. and C. Storey (1998."
Monitor Group (2004. Industrial services strategies: The quest for faster growth and higher margins Provides an in depth discussion of industrial services
"The core competence of the corporation.""Harvard Business Review 68 (3): 79-91 Describes core competencies
Analysis of data from the U s. Bureau of Economic Analysis. A. Warren Personal Correspondence Ratio of 82.5 is taken at Q1 in 2005.
"Growth beyond the core.""Financial times (31 march 2006): 10 68 Explains how manufacturers can stabilize cash flows
Discusses the"lead-user process",e g. innovation with the help of lead-users Vossen, R. W. 1998.
http://www. smeal. psu. edu/fcfe/more/white/innovation. pdf Wise, R. and P. Baumgartner (1999."
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
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