Evaluation of Sustainable Competitiveness through Innovation

Nuno Martins Cavaco ； V. Cruz Machado

《International Journal of Systematic Innovation》 5卷2期 (2018/09) Pp. 7-17

https://doi.org/10.6977/IJoSI.201809_5(2).0002

摘要

Clients' continuous expectation increase and the need to be ahead of competitors, cause a huge pressure in companies and aggressiveness into markets. Due to this fact, companies' need to be in permanent change to gain competitiveness. One way to achieve this aim is through innovation. But the question is How? Where to innovate? Innovation at any cost? What kind of impacts should be expected? Is it possible to evaluate companies' innovation skills and stablish a relation with outcomes? This paper provides a model that contributes to competitive advantage creation through innovation integrating concerns about sustainability, based on the triple bottom line principles. Therefore, the model promote innovation preserving a balance between economic, social and environmental results. The model is based on 7 competitiveness drivers, which include all key factors of a company, and allow the evaluation of companies' resources to be innovative, taking into account requirements structured in 8 proficiency levels. Additionally, the model allow the evaluation of the companies' competitive advantage, considering innovation indicators, related to each competitiveness driver. This evaluation promotes another perspective of companies' innovation capability, as well as the identification of opportunities to improvements, concerning the areas where companies have lower scores regarding innovation resources and results. This model, in this perspective is an added value tool, once it allows a more focused approach about innovation priorities, taking into account that innovation cannot be just considered ＂product innovation＂ and the fact that there are a lot of other aspects in an organization that have influence on it.

關鍵字

Strategic planning ； Competitiveness ； Sustainability ； Innovation ； Evaluation