50

Building Technological Innovation Capabilities: Enhancing Technological Innovation Performance Hüseyin İnce¹, Salih Zeki İmamoğlu¹, İpek Koçoğlu¹, Zafer Acar² and Serap Eren³ 1Gebze Institute of Technology, Kocaeli-Turkey 2Okan University, Istanbul-Turkey 3Turkcell Communication Services PLC, Istanbul-Turkey Abstract: Technological innovation capabilities (TICs) support firm level resource integration and technologic innovation strategies by harmonizing firm’s different competences and organizational assets with the external environment (Yam et al., in press). Prior research on TIC suggests that the effective exploitation of firm resources, especially technological knowledge, and the accumulation of TIC contributes to innovation outputs (Yam et al., in press), which in turn has significant impact on technological innovation performance (TIP) and competitive advantage. Although some studies in the literature presents the relationship between TIC and TIP, the impact of TIC on TIP and competitive advantage constitutes a gap in the literature. Furthermore, even though TIC is considered as an attractive research domain by se, its detailed analysis based on a theoretical background especially from organizational capabilities framework in the turbulent market of today’s hyper-competitive environment points a gap not widely researched in the literature. In this scope, the concepts of technology, innovation, technological innovation and the importance of these concepts have been explained first based on the literature. Secondly, the technological innovation strategies that businesses require to survive in the competitive environment and the respective TICs that they can build for this purpose have been presented. Hypotheses have been developed by evaluating the idea that businesses can increase their technological innovation performances by gaining these qualifications and the effects of gaining these qualifications providing businesses with a competitive advantage. In order to test the provided hypotheses, the data obtained through the 315 surveys conducted in the IT-telecommunication sector have been analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS 4.0. A four step approach have been followed in the analysis of the data obtained through the methodology stage of the research, particularly; 1-) second-order confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), 2-) reliability and validity analysis, 3-) correlation analysis, and 4-) structural equations modeling analysis.

51

Keywords: technological innovation capability, organizational capabilities, innovation capabilities, technologic innovation, technologic innovation performance, competitive advantage

Uncertainty in the Innovation Process Harri Jalonen1 and Annina Lehtonen2 1Turku University of Applied Sciences, Loimaa, Finland 2Turku School of Economics, Turku, Finland Abstract: This paper aims to shed light on uncertainty in the innovation process. We ask: how does uncertainty manifest itself in the innovation process? The concept of innovation implies the idea that something new is added to something that already exists or that something that exists is given up. The argument is that adding and/or taking away are ways to improve the state of affairs. In this sense, it can be argued that innovation is heavily laden with positive values. Almost without doubt, innovations are considered good for modern society. A pro-innovation bias is also evident in innovation research. Successful innovations gain the lion’s share of interest in research while unsuccessful innovations remain unknown. Therefore, we know much more about innovation successes than about innovation failures. However, the newness of the idea means that some degree of uncertainty is involved in the innovation process. The basic viewpoint of this paper is that the potential value contained in innovation becomes or does not become materialized in the future. Given that the future entails uncertainty, it is reasonable to argue that uncertainty is inherent in every innovation process. Uncertainty results from the fact that, on the one hand, events in the future do not follow the course of past events, and, on the other, knowing about the future is always incomplete. This conceptual paper presents a theoretically founded framework for understanding various aspects of the uncertainty in the innovation process. Based on the systematic literature review, we identified eight factors creating uncertainty in the innovation process: technological uncertainty, market uncertainty, regulatory uncertainty, social and political uncertainty, acceptance and legitimacy uncertainty, managerial uncertainty, timing uncertainty, and consequence uncertainty. The results of this paper can be used to identify and avoid possible bottlenecks in innovation processes. This paper also fills the gap in research concerning the issues that may relate to a failure in innovation – i.e. uncertainty. Keywords: innovation, uncertainty

xxx

Sarajevo as head of the department for planning and development. He has published over 30 scientific papers. Currently he is focused on his doctoral studies in electrical engineering and economy. Saeid Karimi holds a BSc and an MSc in Agricultural Education. After finishing his MSc studies, he was employed as an instructor at the Bu-Ali Sina University. He started his PhD project at the Wageningen University in 2009. The title of his project is: “Evaluation and Improvement of Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education in Iran”. Oskar Kayasan is Professor of Strategy with considerable international experience and able to communicate effectively as senior academic and management level. His current research involves the study of global and regional strategies in emerging countries from globalization phenomenon. Areas of competence include Global Strategy and Strategy Renewal in Emerging Countries Eva Kekou has a multidisciplinary academic background (art history,literature & political theor).She has presented at international conferences ( re:media live, isea 2011,ecie 2010,subtle technologies,amber conference etc.). Interested in how art, media & technology intersect and notions of media art, public space with a keen interest in locative media practises and psychogeography. After having lived and teached in a number of countries she is now based in Greece where she is active in research and works part time as a curator of museum exhibitions. Panayiotis Ketikidis is the Vice Principal for Research, Innovation & External Relations of CITY College – An International Faculty of the University of Sheffield, and the Chairman of the Management Committee & Academic Director of the Doctoral Programme at the South East European Research Centre (SEERC). He has over 25 years of experience in management, education, research. Ipek Kocoglu holds a BS degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from the Sabanci University, Turkey. He has a MS degree in Science and Technology Strategies from the Gebze Institute of Technology (GIT), Turkey. He is a PhD student in Faculty of Business Administration, Management Science GIT, Turkey. Jukka Laitinen, MSc (Econ.), graduated from the Turku School of Economics in 2004. Currently, he works as a project researcher in Corporate Foresight Group CoFi/Laurea University of Applied Sciences. His current research areas include scenario analysis and innovation management. Nicolas Laroche is currently completing the third year of his PhD thesis at the University of Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand, France), the subject of which is ‘the role of universities in local innovation system’. He has previously completed a

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.