| The rapid development of the aging population and the huge changes in the social demand for elderly care have brought strategic opportunities and new challenges to the innovation of gerontechnological enterprises.The cultivation and development of gerontechnological enterprises is a strategic choice to respond to the challenges of the aging population.Compared with the leading countries,the innovation of the gerontechnological enterprises in our country not only has differences in practical situations and strategic objectives,but also has obvious shortcomings in the contradiction between supply and demand of innovation.Therefore,how to realize the innovation of the gerontechnological enterprises in our country is a practical problem to be solved urgently.Research on innovation of gerontechnological enterprises has gradually received extensive attention from international academic circles.However,more emphasis is placed on the macro analysis of "description of the current situation-causes of the problem-countermeasures and suggestions" and the technical analysis of patent identification.Theoretical and empirical research is still needed at micro-level on the innovation practice of gerontechnological enterprises.Furthermore,there is also a lack of cognition and attention on the micro mechanisms of key innovation processes and key driving factors.Therefore,this study focuses on the fundamental research problem of how to achieve the innovation and improve the innovation performance of gerontechnological enterprises.Based on the relevant theoretical research of innovation system,latecomer catch-up,the study is to explore the formation of innovation opportunity,the driving factors and mutual-constructive relationship of innovation,and the influential pathway of the innovation by combining the qualitative research with quantitative research,literature analysis with investigation interview,exploratory research with confirmatory research.The main research contents and results are as follows:(1)Research on the formation of innovation opportunity for gerontechnological enterprises.Through the dual case study of Guangzhou Yongaer Inc.and Shenzhen Newplan Inc.,the following findings are obtained by using the method of process grounded analysis:First,gerontechnological enterprises have the innovation opportunity formation pattern of opportunity identification,opportunity evaluation and opportunity development,which can be attributed to the evolutional process from discovery opportunity to creation opportunity.Second,the formation of innovation opportunities for gerontechnological enterprises is not a one-time process.It is characterized by the iterative cycle between discovery opportunities and creation opportunities,the continuous expansion of creative portfolio,and the rhythm adjustment of the formation of innovation opportunities.These characteristics promote the discovery and creation of innovation opportunities for gerontechnological enterprises.Third,the formation and development of innovation opportunities for gerontechnological enterprises come from the joint effect of the formation of opportunity windows and the internal innovation efforts.The formation of the opportunity window of the external environment comes from the changes in the innovation system modules of gerontechnological enterprises.When enterprises are at the initial stage of opportunity formation,the gerontechnological enterprises should recognize the joint effects of changes in external institutional environment,contradictions in market demand,evolution of technology modules,and changes in the network of key stakeholders,so as to create an opportunity window favorable to enterprise innovation.Fourth,with the gradual evolution of the formation of innovation opportunities,enterprises need to carry out internal innovation efforts of scenario management,simulation management,and creativity combination to seize the innovation opportunities of gerontechnological enterprises.(2)Research on the driving factors and inter constructive relationship of the innovation for gerontechnological enterprises.Through multiple case studies of nine gerontechnological enterprises,this study focuses on the driving factors and the mutual-constructive relationship of innovation of gerontechnological enterprises.The main research results are as follows:First,the innovation of gerontechnological enterprises is jointly affected by organizational innovation activities,technological innovation activities,and social demand cognition.Among them,organizational innovation activity,as an important support for the innovation platform of gerontechnological enterprises,needs to consider two main dimensions of the modularization of organizational structure and the connection of organization-related interface;technological innovation activity,as the internal driving factors for innovation of gerontechnological enterprises,needs to consider two main dimensions of modularization of technological function and customized development of gerontechnology from various sources;social demand,as the development direction of the innovation of gerontechnological enterprises,needs to consider two main dimensions of institutionalized cultural attention allocation and individual hierarchical demand focus.Second,the relationship between the driving factors of innovation presents a diversified mutual-construction relationship.The analysis results of the interconstructive relationship among single element or relationship between multiple elements have shown:Firstly,there are mutual-construction relationships between different level of technologies in the technology chain of gerontechnological enterprises.Secondly,according to the linkage degree of the associated interface of organization and the autonomy of technological modules,the mutual-construction modes of organization and technology could be separated as splicing type,driving type,gathering type,and intergenerational type.Thirdly,the mutual construction relationship between technology and society shows the progressive law of "mutual precondition ? mutual promotion relationship?mutual integration condition ".Fourthly,the interconstructive relationship between organizational elements and social elements shows a procedure as "single-chain relationship of the organization promoting society?the relay cycle of complementation of organization and society?interactive cycle of integration of society and organization".Third,through the analysis of the interconstructive relationship between the driving factors,three characteristics of the factors of innovation of gerontechnological enterprises are summarized,which are technological creativity,asymmetric mutual-construction innovation,and gerontechnological innovation commons.(3)Research on the influential pathway of the innovation of gerontechnological enterprises.Through the configuration analysis method,the combination of innovation driving factors among different stages of the enterprise is dynamically analyzed,and seven types of conditional configuration are identified.Through the observation of the changes in the combination of driving factors at different stages and the interaction between the driving factors,three influential pathway of innovation for the gerontechnological enterprises are revealed,and the corresponding three innovation modes are summarized:The emerging information technology service enterprises mainly carry out the innovation model of the technology platform aggregation,which mainly comes from the aggregation and diffusion of shared or complementary resources on platform companies;The integrated gerontechnological enterprises mainly carry out the innovation model of the design-driven transplantation,which mainly comes from the matching relationship of the existing connective organization with the needs of the aging market and organizational innovation.The enterprises develop the relationship to achieve the transplantation of the advantageous resources of the original organization.The traditional rehabilitation aid or medical device enterprises mainly carry out the innovation model of the market-driven grafting,which is derived from the adaptation process by the gerontechnological enterprises on the customized development of multi-source gerontechnology and the modularization of organizational structure based on the different scenarios of the application market for the elderly.This study has a certain theoretical contribution to the research of innovation theory and the innovation of gerontechnological enterprises,and provides certain management enlightenment to the key practical activities of innovation of gerontechnological enterprises. |
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