Geoff Simmons
Queen's University Belfast
Dr Simmons is a Senior Lecturer in Management at Queen's Management School, Queen's University Belfast. His research interests are in the impact of digital technology innovation on marketing, with a particular interest in small firms.
Background
Recent discussions about the innovation process in small firms call attention to the fact that prior research poses a puzzle about small firms’ innovation processes considering the benefits of a formalized process on the one hand and the unusual use of formalized process structures on the other hand. Most research into innovation management has focused on large organisations. Further, studies that are focused on small firm innovation display diversity of directions with little understanding about the way in which successful innovation occurs and the nature of innovation processes in those firms. Complexity is an inherent characteristic of innovation, and therefore a better characterisation of the market and the organisational contingencies which affect the opportunity for innovation is needed.
Marketing is well positioned to contribute to the understanding of innovation and to the management of innovation (IT) within firms. This is because the primary goal of innovation is to develop new or modified products to market in order to enhance profitability which depends on satisfying customer needs better than competitors can satisfy them. Customers and competitors are in the essence of marketing research. Thus, marketing is in a good position to study how firms might better guide innovation to meet its profitability goals successfully.
Recent discussions in marketing literature have focused on understanding the role of distinctive marketing capabilities in enhancing innovative firm behaviour and has the role of marketing capabilities IN innovation-based competitive strategy. These studies neglect strategic questions regarding marketing capabilities and innovation in small and medium sized firms (SMEs). For example, there is a dearth of research examining how SMEs can improve their marketing capabilities when managing innovation and how is the impact of the innovation-marketing capabilities relationship on performance. The marketing capability-performance relationship may be stronger for studies that use samples of large firms considering that those firms have more complex routines and processes that are more difficult for competitors to imitate. However, little is known about the marketing capability-performance relationship in SMEs. Nor, about how specific marketing capabilities may be improved in innovative SMEs. This study proposes to develop a research model that can be used empirically to address some of these knowledge gaps.
Research Aim and Objectives
Develop a research model to verify the role of NPD capability and sales capability to manage innovation and to improve innovation outcomes in SMEs.
1. Model development to verify the influence of organisational structure and linkages for innovation on NPD capability.
2. Model development to analyse the influence of NPD capability on NPD performance when moderated by selling capability.
3. Model development to examine the impact of NPD capability, selling capability and NPD performance on the overall firm performance.
4. Model development to verify the mediating role of NPD capability in the relationship between organisational structure for innovation and NPD performance.
5. Model development to verify the mediating role fo NPD capability in the relationship between linkages for innovation and NPD performance.
