Innovation Without R&D: Could Non-R&D Practices Beat the R&D Department?
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2019-01-10
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en
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The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of non-R&D practices on radical product innovation performance in manufacturing companies. The research focusses on two forms of non-R&D practices, namely employee-driven practices and non-R&D co-operation practices, and their effect autonomously, in interaction and in combination with R&D practices, on innovation performance in order to help explain why firms without in-house R&D can be technologically innovative as well. While the main focus of innovation is still on R&D innovation, literature suggests that other forms of innovation, non-R&D innovation, could be beneficial for innovation performance as well.
A quantitative study was conducted by using the most recent European Manufacturing Survey: the EMS 2015. By using data of 170 Dutch manufacturing companies, no significant relationship between employee-driven practices and non-R&D co-operation practices on radical product innovation were found. The rejection of the hypotheses that were formulated on the basis of prior research suggests that prior research on this area was too limited and not generalizable to this industry or geographical area. Besides, the non-significance can be caused by the research its limitations.
Based on this research no clear conclusions can be drawn about whether non-R&D practices have effect on radical product innovation. This research is a clear indicator that this subject requires further elaboration and provides many opportunities for further research.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen