Towards Developing a Management Framework for Managing Inbound Open Innovation Based High-Tech SMEs in Hong Kong
Innovation capability is a key factor in defining where a company resides in the competitive landscape regardless of its size. Hence, it is vital to put innovation, execution excellence and entrepreneurial spirit at the heart of an organisation so it remains competitive. The aim of this research is to investigate how individual characteristics and orientations of top management interact with external environments and the management of inbound open innovation adoption. In taking a multi-dimensional approach, this research was conducted by expanding the model from Russell and Russell based on suggestions provided by the 3H framework. In addition to incorporating core management elements such as transformational leadership, execution ability, and strategic orientation, this study also tried to improve the breadth of existing models by including characteristics of entrepreneurs as individuals and the level of inbound open innovation adoption as indicators of organisational performance. One hundred and ten valid responses were collected from entrepreneurs tenanted in Hong Kong Science Park at the time of study. This represented a sampling rate of more than twenty percent based on the total number of SMEs operating in Hong Kong Science Park during the same period. By embedding the 3H management framework into the model developed by Russell and Russell, this study was able to develop a revised model to include additional aspects as dimensions of assessment. In the analysis, the reliability in forecasting organisational performance also improved when attitudes of the entrepreneurs towards new technology adoption were included. The results of this study contributed to the understanding of inbound open innovation by empirically confirming entrepreneurial innovativeness alone is not sufficient to attain outstanding organisational performance. Instead, the best performance outcome was achieved when entrepreneurial innovativeness, the three core management elements, and the level of inbound open innovation acceptance were present and positively correlated. In addition, the final model suggested strategy had to work through leadership and execution to achieve desirable organisational performance. This research study is the first inbound open innovation related research conducted on high tech SMEs in Hong Kong. By combining entrepreneurship, knowledge development, and leadership, this study has shown it is possible to create sustainable competitive advantages. Additionally, Technology Readiness Index can be used as a longitudinal measurement instrument to aid the prediction of organisational performance. The findings of this research also provided entrepreneurs with a new framework to continuously audit the status of innovation adoption in order to improve the long term organisational performance under an inbound open innovation environment.
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