Research On Generating Mechanism Of External Orientation Management Innovation Modes

It is a myth of the rapid development of Japanese enterprises in 1970s. Dr. William Edwards Deming suggested them to innovate on management, and then came the myth and the giants, who are the leaders in many industries. Nowadays, management innovation, especially external orientation management innovation including strategy, business mode, and marketing and service innovations, which are vital to their survival and development, has become one of the most important topics for discussion in most enterprises. However, it is reported that the successful rate of management innovation is pretty low. Hence, it is a problem should be solved urgently how to enhance the successful rate of external orientation management innovations. Therefore, the generating mechanism of external orientation management innovation was studied systematically, theoretically and empirically, using process view in this dissertation.Generating process and characteristics of external orientation management innovation and the portability of fit theory in external orientation management innovation research field were studied, and based on which generating mechanism framework of external orientation management innovation modes was constructed. The research results demonstrated:Firstly, the generating process of external orientation management innovation consisted of driving, decision-making, and trial implementation stages, which also could be divided into 2 stages: general framework & initial implementation scheme decision-making of entrepreneurs, and finial implementation scheme development of organizational innovation level, based on the development degree of external orientation management innovation scheme; Secondly, the characteristics of the generating of external orientation management innovation demonstrated as following:process, developmental, cumulative, the leading role of entrepreneurs under the constraint of bounded rationality, and the systematic of four subsystems, including external and internal organizational environment, entrepreneurial orientation, and external management innovation scheme; Thirdly, the generating mechanism of external management innovation consisted of two levels:the entrepreneurs individual decision-making level and the organizational innovation level. On the former level, it showed as entrepreneurs made external management innovation general framework and initial scheme decisions based on their cognition to internal and external environment, which mediated by entrepreneurship. On the later level, it showed as implementers and entrepreneurs were all playing leading roles. The former ones were the reviser of parts of initial external management innovation schemes which were not fit with the internal and external organizational environment. The later one was the decision-maker of final schemes.Research framework of entrepreneurship in external management innovations was constructed, which was then empirically testified by a case experiment, based on contingency theory. At the very beginning of chapter 3, the leading role of entrepreneurs in external management innovation decision-makings was investigated and explained. Then the mapping relationship between heterogeneous experiences and social capitals of entrepreneurs and decisions of general frameworks and initial schemes of external management innovations were investigated based on the cognitive resources theory and the analysis of entrepreneurial decision-making theory, which contributed to the construction of the framework. Finally, the research framework was tested by the case experiment of Fu Mei Ceramics. The research results showed:Firstly, the heterogeneity of entrepreneurs in external management innovations was determined by their heterogeneous experiences and social capitals, which showed as their superior entrepreneurship in external management innovations decisions, which were with characteristics of innovative, proactive, and risky; Secondly, the relationship between the experiences of entrepreneurs and their proactiveness was inverted U shape no matter the existence or absence of their social capitals; social capitals of entrepreneurs had the positive relationships with their innovativeness and proactiveness, and demonstrated negative relationship with their risk-taking; Thirdly, the relationships between the experiences of entrepreneurs and their innovativeness and risk-taking showed as inverted U shape when their social capitals were unavailable, however the relationships changed into positive and negative separately when their social capitals were available.Generating mechanism of external management innovation modes on the entrepreneur individual decision-making level was constructed in chapter 4, which was then testified empirically by a questionnaire survey and statistical analysis. Firstly, the main external and internal environmental factors investigated by entrepreneurs when making external management innovation mode decisions were identified and initially testified by explorative multiple-case studies, which including customer need, competition, resource constraint, and managerial, technological, and marketing capacities of enterprises, based on the bounded rationality theory. Secondly, the research framework on the entrepreneur individual level was constructed and tested, which demonstrated the generating mechanism of external management innovation modes on the entrepreneur individual decision-making level, showing as entrepreneurs determined the general frameworks and initial implementation modes based on the investigation of above factors and mediated by entrepreneurship. Additionally, the research results also demonstrated customer need and competition cognized by entrepreneurs positively influenced the entrepreneurial orientation of entrepreneurs' decisions. Resource constraint and technological and managerial capacities of enterprises positively influenced the innovativeness of decisions of entrepreneurs. Capital, technological, managerial and marketing capacities positively influenced the proactiveness. Risky had no relationship with enterprises'capacities cognized by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship played a mediated role between the factors entrepreneurs' cognized and their decisions.The fit mechanism framework of Environment-Entrepreneurial orientation-The final implementation mode of external management innovation on the organizational innovation level was constructed based on fit theory, using to explain how typical external management innovation modes became successful. External management innovation modes were divided into three types firstly, including generating ones, improvement ones, and imitative ones. And then the improvement type was further divided into component, structural, and incremental ones. The fit mechanism framework of Environment-Entrepreneurial orientation-The final implementation mode of external management innovation was constructed based on the classification. Finally, the framework was empirically testified by multiple-case studies. Research results showed:Firstly, external management innovation modes were determined by three subsystems, including external environment, organizational innovation climate, and entrepreneurial orientation of organizations. Its fit mechanism demonstrated as forming fit relationships with these three subsystems mentioned above; Secondly, when external environment is with high dynamic characteristics, radical mode fits with high organizational innovation climate and entrepreneurial orientation, component mode fits with high organizational innovation climate but low entrepreneurial orientation, structural mode fits with low organizational innovation climate but high entrepreneurial orientation, and incremental mode fits with low organizational innovation climate and entrepreneurial orientation; when external environment is with low dynamic characteristics, structural/component mode fits with high organizational innovation climate and entrepreneurial orientation, incremental mode fits with high organizational innovation climate but low entrepreneurial orientation, imitative mode fits with low organizational innovation climate but high entrepreneurial orientation, and few/none innovation fits with low organizational innovation climate and entrepreneurial orientation.