Innovative!Contribution!

Measuring!innovation!in!individual!level!is!a!very!challenging!task.!The!standard! measures! of! organisational! innovation! such! as! number! of! new! products! (Tsai! 2001),!or!financial!measures!such!as!the!percentage!of!sales!derived!from!new! products!(Wu!and!Wu!2014)!cannot!be!applied!in!individual!level!of!analysis.!An! innovative!product!can!rarely!be!fully!associated!to!only!one!person,!and!it!often! requires!contributions!of!several!individuals.!In!order!to!circumvent!this!issue,! some! scholars! focused! on! measuring! innovative! behaviour! of! the! individuals.! They!have!developed!intricate!multivariate!measures!to!quantify!the!innovative! behaviour! of! the! employees! in! a! firm! (Scott! and! Bruce! 1994,! George! and! Zhou! 2001).!!

In!terms!of!measuring!the!innovative!performance!of!individuals,!academia!has! fallen! behind! businesses.! Modern! technological! breakthroughs! in! developing! dedicated! innovation! management! software! (e.g.,! HYPE,! Spigit,! Brightidea),! talent!management!suites!(e.g.,!SuccessFactors,!Cornerstone!OnDemand,!Oracle),! intricate! timesheets! (e.g.,! Kronos,! SAP! CATS),! and! project! logbooks! (e.g.,! MS! Project,!Scrum)!have!given!managers!strong!tools!to!appraise!the!performance!of! their! employees! in! terms! of! innovation.! It! is! essential! for! theorists! to! embrace! these! methods,! and! through! strong! theoretical! justifications! develop! robust! measures!for!individual!innovation.!!

Prior! to! the! development! of! the! innovation! measure! for! this! study,! some! considerations! were! taken! into! account.! First,! the! study! focuses! on! the! commercialised! products! (Trott! 2008,! Scott! and! Bruce! 1994).! Contributions! to! the! products! that! were! not! marketed,! or! have! been! relaunched! with! minor! adjustments! were! excluded! from! the! measurement.! “Most! innovations! cannot! influence!firm!performance!until!the!ideas!have!been!put!into!use!and!introduced! to!the!market”!(Katila:!2002:995).!A!good!measure!of!individual!innovation!must!

capture! the! level! of! contribution! of! each! employee! to! the! development! of! new! commercialised!products.!Second,!a!clear!timespan!must!be!set!and!all!products! that! have! been! launched! outside! the! given! period! must! be! excluded.! It! is! essential!to!include!all!innovations!within!the!defined!period!and!avoid!selective! approach!towards!innovations.!Damanpour!(1988:562)!argues!that!the!“studies! that! arbitrarily! select! only! one! or! a! few! innovationsH! among! the! many! innovations! adopted! by! an! organizationH! cannot! provide! accurate! data! about! structural! requirements! for! innovation".! Thus,! I! have! selected! all! product! innovations!that!occurred!within!the!last!12!months!prior!to!the!data!collection.! Inspired!by!the!methods!of!innovation!appraisal!in!modern!MNEs,!and!building! upon! literature! regarding! individual! innovative! behaviour! (Scott! and! Bruce! 1994,! George! and! Zhou! 2001,! Ibarra! 1993),! I! have! developed! a! scoring! model! that! measures! the! innovative! contribution! of! individuals! to! the! product! innovation.!The!measure!consists!of!four!criteria!that!cover!the!whole!lifecycle!of! product! innovation! from! the! generation! of! the! innovative! idea! to! the! commercialisation!of!the!final!product.!!

All! four! criteria! are! widely! used! and! validated! within! the! existing! innovation! literature!(George!and!Zhou!2001,!Ibarra!1993).!The!four!steps!of!innovation!are! built! upon! the! theoretical! definition! of! product! innovation,! and! represent! all! necessary! steps! of! innovation! from! the! conception! of! new! idea! to! final! commercialisation! of! the! innovative! products,! ensuring! content! validity! of! the! construct! (Trott! 2008).! Although! some! researchers! tend! to! combine! two! steps! into!a!larger!step,!or!breakdown!one!into!two!smaller!steps!(Ibarra!1993),!the! majority!of!studies!on!individual!innovation!follow!similar!criteria!to!cover!the! lifecycle!of!product!innovation.!For!example,!Ibarra!(1993)!used!a!very!similar!

coding!scheme!for!measuring!innovative!involvement!of!individuals10_.!!

Overall,!the!suggested!criteria!are!based!on!solid!theoretical!foundations,!and!are! consistent!with!the!body!of!literature!regarding!the!measurement!of!innovative! contribution!of!individuals!(George!and!Zhou!2001,!Scott!and!Bruce!1994,!Ibarra! 1993).! Measuring! innovation! must! be! based! on! factual! data,! and! since! actors! would!be!biased!advocates!of!their!own!innovative!contribution,!it!is!logical!to! exclude!them!from!the!data!collection!process.!Simple!put,!whether!an!individual! believes!that!she/he!was!involved!in!the!development!of!a!new!product,!does!not! prove!their!actual!contributions.!Following!Scott!and!Bruce!(1994),!in!order!to! offer! further! assurance! regarding! the! validity! of! the! innovative! contribution! scale,! it! is! crucial! to! obtain! “an! objective! measure! of! each! respondent’s! innovative!history!from!the!organisation’s!archive”!(1994:590).! ! Innovative!Contribution!Scoring!Model! Criteria! Scores! 1. Generation!of!the!initial!innovative!idea!of!the! product.! 0.25! 2. Investigating!the!feasibility!and!securing!funds!for! implementation!of!new!idea.! 0.25! 3. Development!and!transformation!of!the!idea!into! usable!process!and!structure.! 0.25! 4. Implementation!of!the!project!that!has!helped! achieving!the!goals!and!objectives.! 0.25!

Table 4-3- - Innovative Contribution Scoring Model

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10 _{Ibarra (1993) used all four criteria that are suggested in this study. The only difference in her model}

was an extra criterion of obtaining approval. However, she admits that being involved in only four of those criteria suffices to acknowledge actors’ involvement in innovation. Since this step was not confirmed in other sources, and it is already covered in the second criterion of our model, it has been removed from the final model.

!

For! each! individual,! all! four! questions! must! be! answered! regarding! each! new! product,! so! that! the! contribution! of! the! respective! individual! is! determined.! It! must!be!kept!in!mind,!that!the!purpose!of!this!measure!is!to!calculate!the!overall! innovative!contribution!of!each!individual!to!the!whole!range!of!commercialised! innovative!products!of!the!organisation.!! The!suggested!weights!may!raise!the!question!on!why!all!four!criteria!are!equally! weighted!within!the!model.!The!following!arguments!aim!to!justify!this!decision.! The!weight!of!each!criterion!in!a!scoring!model!must!represent!their!importance! to! the! construct! (Belton! and! Stewart! 2002).! According! to! the! innovation! literature! the! four! suggested! criteria! are! equally! important! in! development! of! innovative!products!(Katila!2002).!Generation!of!new!ideas,!securing!the!funds! and! feasibility! study! of! the! ideas,! development! of! those! ideas! into! innovative! products,! and! development! of! commercialised! products! are! equally! necessary! for!the!whole!process!of!innovation!(Dougherty!1992,!Danneels!2002),!therefore! they!must!be!weighted!similarly.!!

The!literature!does!not!provide!any!valid!arguments!to!suggest!that!one!step!of! product!innovation!to!be!more!important!than!the!others.!Creativity!researchers! may!consider!idea!generation!as!the!most!important!step!of!product!innovation.! They! could! argue! that! without! an! innovative! idea,! there! will! not! be! any! innovative!product!(West!2002,!West!and!Farr!1990,!PerryHSmith!2006).!On!the! other! hand,! innovation! scholars! with! marketing! and! commercial! approach! challenge! this! idea.! They! argue! that! even! the! best! innovative! ideas! cannot! become!a!tangible!innovative!product!without!technical!development!and!strong! marketing!strategies!(Slater!and!Mohr!2006,!Snow!et!al.!2011,!Lukas!and!Ferrell! 2000).!Therefore,!there!is!no!solid!evidence!to!indicate!that!one!step!to!be!more! critical! than! the! others.! However,! it! would! be! valid! to! suggest! if! any! of! the! required! steps! of! product! innovation! are! incomplete! the! whole! process! of!

innovation!could!fall!through!(Trott!2008).!Hence,!due!to!the!equal!importance! of! all! four! steps! for! the! completion! of! product! innovation,! it! is! theoretically! justified!to!break!the!total!score!to!four!equally!distributed!scores!for!each!step.!! The!following!arguments!aim!to!justify!the!decision!on!opting!for!scoring!model! over!the!traditional!LikertHScale!method!for!measuring!individual!innovation.!A! scoring!model!approach!generates!stronger!and!more!accurate!quantification!of! the! innovative! contributions,! and! facilitates! the! decisionHmaking! towards! the! innovativeness! of! the! actors! (Triantaphyllou! 2000).! Because! of! the! limited! scores,!the!respondent!must!make!a!decision!and!distinguish!between!the!actors! according! to! their! performance,! while! the! LikertHScale! questions! would! not! create! such! control! mechanisms! for! the! respondents,! and! for! example! several! actors!could!have!received!the!maximum!point!for!their!contribution!to!the!idea! generation.! Furthermore,! another! advantage! of! the! scoring! model! is! the! accessibility! of! the! whole! continuum,! whereas! the! categorical! nature! of! LikertH Scale! could! be! restricting,! and! raise! the! concern! whether! the! intervals! are! equidistant!(Jamieson!2004,!Norman!2010).!Hence,!the!scoring!model!approach! offers!a!more!realistic!view!of!the!actual!innovation!process!and!provides!a!more! objective!measure.!