International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut ero labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco.

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT
Vol. 4 No. 2 (2013)
Original Research Article

Strategic Innovation Development Based on Systems Research in a Rural Region

Minna Sarkkinen School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology

Bio
Tuomo Kässi School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology

Bio

Published 2013-06-30

Keywords

  • strategic innovation management,
  • regional innovation system,
  • value delivery,
  • innovation capability,
  • innovation environment,
  • soft systems methodology
  • ...More
    Less

Abstract

Strategic thinking is required to account for the different dimensions of strategic innovation management.The study builds and analyses three viewpoints of strategic innovation management, i.e. innovation environment, value delivery and innovation capability, in the context of a regional innovation system. The aim is to study how the different dimensions describe innovation situation and development needs in firms and at regional level. The data for the study was collected during 2011 in a remote rural region located in Finland. The logic of purposeful sampling was used in the selection of the 50 firms. Soft systems methodology is applied as a systems research methodology and exploratory factor analysis is used as a method to analyze the three dimensions. The findings of the study identify several factors forming the three dimensions, which may have structural connection with each other. The factors highlight, e.g. the importance of networking capability and marketing related goals of innovation.

 

Article history: Received (06 February 2013); Revised (20 May 2013); Accepted (27 May 2013)