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Collaborative pull innovation: origins and adoption in the new economy
Author(s) -
Weaver Robert D.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
agribusiness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1520-6297
pISSN - 0742-4477
DOI - 10.1002/agr.20165
Subject(s) - industrial organization , context (archaeology) , competition (biology) , business , product innovation , productivity , unbundling , product (mathematics) , flexibility (engineering) , process (computing) , marketing , economics , economic system , management , economic growth , paleontology , ecology , geometry , mathematics , computer science , biology , operating system
This article argues that collaboration has been a key piston in the engine that is driving economic growth in the new millennium. Innovation in information technology, institutions, and strategic reorientation of technological change has opened opportunity, and competition has put strong imperatives in play for collaborative innovation. First, these imperatives have forced a reorientation of private enterprise from push to pull systems. Second, they have catalyzed a strategic unbundling of integrated firms to create specialized enterprises with enhanced productivity and flexibility, though with increased demand for virtual integration through less formal relationships to establish and manage collaboration. This article presents the hypothesis that these changes induced a fundamentally new dynamic in innovation processes that we label as collaborative pull innovation. This new form of innovation encompasses and directs product, process, and organizational innovation toward fulfilling consumer demand. To examine this hypothesis, the nature of private‐sector innovation is assessed within the context of the food sector. This sector is of special interest due to important roles played by small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.