The International Journal of Innovation (IJIM) of the International Society of Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) pursues the ambitious goal of linking research & development with applied practice by means of peer-reviewed articles, thus promoting active interaction between academics, managers and consultants.
As a special honor, two articles by researchers Dr. Sabrina Schneider and FH-Prof. Dr. Oliver Som from the journal were selected as the most popular papers at IJIM and are available for free access at https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscinet/ijim for a limited time. The two outstanding researchers are part of the team of the MCI Department of Business & Management.
Sabrina Schneider: Business Model Innovation: Towards an integrated future research agenda (Sabrina Schneider and Patrick Spieth)
Motivated by the high ubiquity of the term "business models" and its increasing prevalence with regard to the transition from a measure of commercialization of innovation to the object of innovation, the article by Dr. Sabrina Schneider provides a systematic overview of the existing scientific literature on business model innovation. The particular characteristics of business model innovations are discussed and three different strands of research are identified that deal with the prerequisites, process and elements, and impact of business model innovations. A preliminary theoretical framework is proposed that emphasizes the need to distinguish between business model development and innovation and to apply an entrepreneurial perspective to further research on business model innovation. An integrated research agenda is proposed that emphasizes the need to further improve our understanding of the process and elements of business model innovation, as well as its enablers and impacts, in anticipation of and in response to increasing environmental volatility.
Oliver Som: How firms absorb external knowledge - modeling and managing the absorptive capacity process (Djerdj Horvat, Carsten Dreher and Oliver Som, 2018).
This article by Professor Oliver Som and colleagues contributes to the literature and management practice by opening the "black box" of firms' absorptive capacity ['absorptive capacity' (AC)]. Using a process research approach and a comparative case study approach with four German manufacturing companies, a model of the firm's internal process of absorbing external knowledge content is developed and empirically validated. This model integrates for the first time both the different individual elements (e.g., individuals, teams, departments) and the different causal interactions that constitute the firm's ability to identify, adopt, implement, and use external information and knowledge. It also identifies various organizational design areas to increase the effectiveness of the identified process flows. The results provide an explanatory insight into the organizational prerequisites of AC. Thus, the work simultaneously contributes to improving the academic and managerial understanding of AC in organizations by identifying the key constitutive elements, their different types of process interrelationships, and the organizational prerequisites and leverage points for modifying, measuring, and improving an organization's AC.
Head of Department & Studies Bernd Kirschner: "It is not only very impressive to see the research achievements of colleague Sabrina Schneider and colleague Oliver Som confirmed - it also shows that we are absolutely on the right track in research and teaching at the MCI Department of Business & Management."
2 of the 25 recommended articles in the renowned IJIM are by MCI researchers © MCI
