Tibor Dőry

Innovation and excellence

Management methods for innovation transformation

Organisational competencies related to resource exploration

Ability to identify and acquire knowledge

This includes the ability to identify technological and market opportunities relevant to the enterprise, as well as the ability to evaluate the enterprise's experience, knowledge and expertise. The literature refers to the ability to acquire knowledge as absorption capacity, i.e. receptivity. This refers to the acquisition and assimilation of knowledge, the identification and acquisition of new external knowledge, and the assimilation of knowledge acquired from external sources.

Ability to absorb ideas from outside and cooperate with partners

Corporate innovation processes require the involvement of appropriate external knowledge and expertise, which means the ability to establish diverse communication and working relationships in order to support the identification and acquisition of knowledge. In a broader sense, this includes cooperation with various knowledge communities in addition to partners, suppliers and consultants involved in the innovation process.

Dynamic adaptability

The ability to change the values, organisational structure and work processes of a business. It is difficult to imagine the implementation of any significant innovation without changing the structure, processes and organisational culture of the organisation.

Inventive ability

Discovery activities include various idea generation and project development activities. The creative ability to create something new involves thorough observation, research and development activities, experimentation, prototyping and testing, and the ability to validate business concepts and models.

Ability to increase effectiveness

Businesses are effective in terms of a predetermined goal, such as the owner's profit expectations. Organisational effectiveness is an external measure of how well a business meets the needs of the various groups and organisations affected by its activities. The success of resource exploration refers to the ability of a business to do the right things, as opposed to the efficiency of resource exploitation, i.e. doing things right.

Following the above presentation of organisational competencies, it is worth examining some of the characteristics of corporate operations. From the perspective of our topic, the following six dimensions influence innovation performance: 1. specialisation; 2. coordination; 3. formalisation; 4. centralisation/decentralisation; 5. organisational culture; and 6. management styles.

According to corporate research, the probability of discovery decreases with the specialisation of the organisation's knowledge, operations and activities, while increasing the effectiveness of exploitation. The coordination tools used by companies do not equally support all phases of discovery activities. It is not necessarily useful for creative and innovative work processes to be coordinated; in many cases, ad hoc, or situation-dependent, management is useful. In contrast, exploitation activities are better facilitated by institutionalised forms of coordination.

The formalisation of business processes has a positive impact on exploitation activities. At the same time, standardisation reduces the exploratory innovation performance of business units. Formalisation correlates negatively with exploration because it blocks the search for and adaptation of solutions that differ from those already known.

Not surprisingly, centralisation reduces the effectiveness of exploratory activities. In contrast, organisations with a high degree of centralisation and a large power distance can be successful in generating exploitative innovations. A transparent and open organisational culture typically supports resource exploration processes, while closed corporate cultures are particularly conducive to the development of routines and formulaic processes, as well as copying.

Management styles can generally be classified as either transformational or transactional. Transactional management behaviour is generally negatively associated with exploratory innovation, but positively influences exploitation processes. Transformational leadership greatly encourages exploratory innovation activities, especially in cases where the business environment is changing dynamically. If the business environment is stable, i.e. there is little change in the industry and among competitors, transformational leadership has a minimal effect on encouraging exploratory innovation.

In addition to maintaining and developing the organisational competencies presented, managing the individual capabilities of employees is also essential in order for the organisation to successfully tackle the challenges of discovering and exploiting resources. At the individual employee level, it is recommended to develop the skills listed in Table 8.

Table 8. Individual competencies and activities required for exploration and exploitation

Dimension	Exploration	Exploitation
Professional competences	Combinative skills	Focusing skills
Methodological competences	Complexity management skills	Skills for reducing variability
Social competences	Collaboration skills	Hierarchical skills
Personal competences	Self-reflection	Authoritarian skills

Source: based on Hafkesbrink–Schroll, 2014.

With a specific focus on discovery skills, the literature recommends that employees working in this field need the following skills to successfully carry out their mission:

combining and expanding knowledge and professional skills;
the ability to cope with complexity in the context of increasingly diverse life situations (methodological skills);
the ability to cooperate with internal and external partners during interactions (social skills);
the ability to self-reflect within the framework of personal routines (personal skills).

In terms of individual competencies supporting exploitation activities, employees must have the following skills:

concentration of knowledge (professional skills);
simplification and reduction of variability (methodological skills);
control of work processes (social skills);
empowerment to take personal action (personal skills).

Those involved in the innovation process must regularly address the tensions between the skills presented, especially in open innovation processes involving external partners. In the next chapter, we will explore what methods and solutions can be applied to the challenges of discovery processes.

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 182 5

Menedzsment

The aim of the book "Innovation and Excellence" is to inspire and encourage company leaders, managers, and experts to initiate and implement innovation transformations with the help of professional literature and corporate case studies. Another important goal is to help develop the innovation capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular by sharing simple, proven management methods that can be tested in practice.

The first part of the volume reviews the factors of corporate excellence and success, then highlights the possible sources of innovation, with a focus on the role of users and employees. The empirical section presents a detailed description of the supportive role of the workplace environment and creative working conditions based on corporate case studies (AUDI, BOSCH, MELECS). The volume concludes with a description of selected tested practical methods and management techniques that readers can try out in their own businesses.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/dory-innovation-and-excellence//

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