Organising innovation management in emerging sustainable urban markets

Abstract

This thesis brings together three papers to address one of the central problems in the management of innovation: how organisations manage innovations to enter, grow and succeed in emerging markets. It explores the paradoxical attributes of the firm and shows how stable and dynamic processes are mutually constitutive and occur at multiple levels. The first paper (Chapter 3) contributes to the literature of dynamic capabilities which has recently been questioned for subsuming “rigidity” and “flexibility” within one concept. The paper employs an inductive case study approach to examine the processes by which an organisation develops capabilities to enter, grow and shape an emerging sustainable urban market. Addressing a process problem of developing novel practices into good currency, the paper develops a conceptual model within which the three sets of activities dynamically combine and interact at different phases over time. The paper argues the conceptual model individually disaggregates the paradoxical problem, and holistically underlines the two countervailing processes of capability enhancement and consolidation. In particular, the findings illustrate the institutional origins of dynamic capabilities by introducing and analysing one set of activities: capability reinforcement. The second paper (Chapter 4) deepens the understanding of “capability reinforcement”. Existing studies in institutional entrepreneurship suggest central organisations confront the paradox of “structure and agency” when they move away from embedded fields and institutionalize their innovative practices or product. The study contributes to resolving the paradoxical problem by unfolding the process of an incumbent conducting entrepreneurial actions to dominate a nascent field. Based on a longitudinal analysis of interview and media dataset, the results show central organisations implement a combination of deliberate and emergent strategies to achieve dominance in nascent fields associated with contingent nature. Addressing a strategic problem of institutional leadership, the paper argues organisations adopt market-focused and socio-political approaches to implement such mixed strategies. The findings identify the resource-based origins of institutional entrepreneurship by introducing and examining a strategic mechanism: boundary infrastructure. While the empirical studies are carried out independently, their combined value exceeds the sum of the individual papers. Bridging the two theoretical streams, Chapter 5 extends my contribution by developing an integrative framework which benefits from appreciating the full spectrum of multi-level consolidation in the field of innovation management.