Addis Ababa University

School of Commerce
C O U R S E : M A N A G E M E N T O F T E C H N O L O G Y A N D I N N O VAT I O N
A RT I C L E R E V I E W O N : D E T E R M I N A N T S O F S U C C E S S F U L O R G A N I S AT I O N A L
I N N O VAT I O N
Introduction
The study review's major goal is to provide a clear understanding of the most recent findings in

organizational innovation research to aid in understanding how organizations may successfully

promote and develop innovation.

Objectives
•Understand the current state of research through the analysis and synthesis of academic research
papers;

•Identify the key factors that drive successful innovation

•Assess the research evidence supporting the positive effects of innovation development on
competitiveness and profitability.
Method
•The literature reviewed is empirical.

•The research includes experiments, surveys, questionnaires, field studies.

Brief summary
The article has been developed to understand the current state of research through analysis and
synthesis of academic research papers. Researchers believe their findings would be more applicable
to this study if they took a macro perspective and looked at a larger number of organizations. Sixty-
five percent of the researches were centered on organizational innovation, with the remaining
studies emphasizing the development of new products and services to determine what the current
research identifies as the main determinants of successful innovation; Management support for
innovation and an innovative culture were the key factors found. The results show that encouraging
innovation is a management role that requires a "top down" approach.
Results
•Researchers believe their findings would be more applicable to this study if they took a macro
perspective and looked at a larger number of organizations. Which impacted the research and
recommendations may be too broad and neglect to provide results that translate into useable,
actionable recommendations at the firm level for various organizations
•The second one would be to determine what the current research identifies as the main
determinants of successful innovation and innovation encouragement mostly comes from top to
bottom
• lastly, to determine what research evidence there is for positive effects on competitiveness and
profitability from the development of innovation and the study concluded it has direct
relationship.
Contribution
• The goal of this literature evaluation was to comprehend the state of organizational innovation
theory and determine how it may further improve organizational success and performance.

• It was especially helpful to emphasize the necessity for coordinated effort towards cumulative
research, theory building, and integration of innovation research methodologies, even though it
used an overview approach and thus lacked some detail.
Foundation
•In such instance the article based on the foundation of systems theory.

• It emphasizes (innovation) process that occurs at the level of a system: a large number of individuals
working together in different units on different aspects of the very general problem of implementing a
new idea

• In different disciplines system is defined as a group of units/elements that work together to achieve a
common objective, the models stated in the system theory addresses in terms of
communication/feedback loop and process i.e. input-process and output.

• Conclusion: the article based on the foundation stated.

Analysis
In the article, some crucial aspects regarding innovation were brought up. Although a broad
theory has not yet developed, academics are striving to build up a body of research. At the macro
organizational level, a number of factors that influence successful innovation have been identified,
and the application of these factors depends on the contextual factors that affect a company.
Though much more research is needed, innovation does seem to improve performance.
Critique
• Meeting the objective: The article indicated 3 objectives, among the 3 objectives, the first one
i.e. to understand the current state of research through analysis and synthesis of academic
research papers. The second and the third objective was achieved in a limited way due to
shortage of source and direct focused research findings on the issues.

• Scope: This review is limited to providing a macro view of innovation in organisations and
seeks to find some general principles that may be applied across a wide range of industries and
organisation types. Individual level researches are excluded.
Cont.…
•In terms of need: It is possible that situational and contingency factors dictate innovation as
context-sensitive in nature, and, therefore, require industry — or even firm specific— analysis.

•Limited access: some journals not indexed by the databases cannot be searched, therefore, some
relevant existing research may have been excluded from the search.
Cont.…
•Recommendations: the article stated recommendation for researchers and for managers
1. Recommendation for researchers: fills the gaps in terms of scope, method and target observed
in this article review
2. Recommendations for managers: provided a macro level starting point yet further research
should be conducted for firm based application
References
•Atuahene-Gima, K. 1996, ‘Differential Potency of Factors Affecting Innovation Performance in
Manufacturing and Services Firms in Australia’, Journal of Product Innovation Management, vol.
13, no. 1, pp. 35-52.
•Amabile, T. M. 1988, ‘From Individual Creativity to Organisational Innovation’, chapter 5 in
Innovation: A Cross-disciplinary Perspective, K. Gronhaug & G. Kaufmann (eds), Norwegian
University Press, Oslo.
• Garfinkel, S. 1999, Genius Minus Perspiration [Online], Available:
http://www.globe.com/technology/tr/september/benchmark1.shtml, [Accessed 25 September
1999].
•Wolfe, R. A. 1994, ‘Organizational innovation: Review, Critique and Suggested Research
Directions’, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 405-431.