Publication

Adoption of new technologies and organisational practices: are there innovation benefits?

Published: 16 October 2018

ERC SOTA No 7

Associated Themes

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  Management and Leadership

In increasingly competitive environments, the ability to innovate successfully is a key corporate capability, and depends on the wide-ranging, complex decisions faced by firms in their day-to-day operations. International studies report innovation returns from the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs), although these returns may be lagged due to initial disruption effects. Likewise, work practices such as innovation strategies, innovation culture and leadership, team-working and multi-functionality are important for innovation. In addition, adoption decisions are not necessarily made in isolation, and there is evidence of higher innovation returns when adoption decisions are made simultaneously.
Individual business surveys rarely consider all three areas (innovation; technology adoption; work practices), therefore we know little about the importance of organisational culture as a pre-condition for the technology adoption–innovation relationship. In addition, longitudinal or panel data is necessary to investigate possible lags to any cause-and-effect relationships.

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