Recebido em
03/10/2016. Aprovado em 09/02/2017. Avaliado pelo sistema double blind peer review. Publicado conforme normas da ABNT.

http://dx.doi.org/10.22279/navus.2017.v7n2.p37-48.474

An it
multinational company innovating in the latin america region

based on
external signals

An exploratory
case study of how a global t-KIBS company innovates acquiring external signals
and converting them into innovation

Celso dos Santos Malachias

Doutor em Administração de Empresas.
Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) – Brasil. [email-masked]

Luiz Carlos Di Serio

Doutor em Engenharia Mecânica.
Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) – Brasil. [email-masked]

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this
exploratory qualitative case study research is to study the external knowledge
acquisition and opportunities translation into innovations. In order to reach
this goal it is proposed to use the Peripheral Vision and Absorptive Capacity
constructs as lens to study the phenomenon. These two elements composed and combined form a
four-phases framework – source, monitoring, interpretation and conversion, which was applied in a Latin
America subsidiary of a large Multinational Information Technology Services
company. The innovation outcomes were explored as performance evidences of the framework
as an innovation process mechanism. As findings we could realise evidences the
company seeks and generates innovation mainly using their clients as source,
having as outcome, process innovations, with incremental impact. Also we saw
the different leadership perspectives about the importance of innovation phases
in the framework.

Keywords: Innovation. Peripheral
Vision. Absorptive Capacity.

Uma multinacional de TI inovando na região da américa
latina

baseado em sinais externos

Um estudo de caso exploratório de como uma empresa global
de t-KIBS

inova adquirindo sinais externos e convertendo-os em
inovação

RESUMO

O
principal objetivo deste estudo exploratório, pesquisa qualitativa estudo de
caso é estudar a aquisição do conhecimento externo e tradução de oportunidades
em inovações. Com o objetivo de atingir esta meta é proposto o uso dos
construtos  Visão Periférica e Capacidade
Absortiva como lentes para estudar o fenômeno. Estes dois elementos compostos e
combinados definem um framework de
quatro fases – fonte, monitoramento, interpretação e conversão, e foi aplicado
em uma subsidiaria da América Latina de uma grande multinacional de serviços de
tecnologia da informação. Os resultados da inovação foram explorados como
evidências de desempenho do framework
como um mecanismo do processo de inovação. Como resultados pudemos ver
evidências que a empresa busca e gera inovação principalmente usando seus
clientes como fontes de busca, tendo como resultado, principalmente, inovações
em processo, com impacto incremental. Também vimos as diferentes perspectivas
da liderança sobre a importância das fases da inovação do framework.

Palavras-chave: Inovação. Visão Periférica. Capacidade
Absortiva.

1 INTRODUCTION

Currently the companies are facing high
competition in their business environment. Huge volumes of data are emerging
every day. Many signals appear in their market. In such context, how can the
company acquire and translate some of these signals into innovation? In order
to answer that question, this research studies the knowledge acquisition, based
on a proposed framework composed by two main elements, the peripheral vision
and the absorptive capacity. Considering the specific characteristics of
services sector, this exploratory study has as main research objective to
analyse the acquisition and interpretation processes from the external
environment, through the constructs, Absorptive Capacity (COHEN; LEVINTHAL, 1990; ZAHRA; GEORGE, 2002) and Peripheral Vision (DAY; SCHOEMAKER, 2005), to the generation
of ideas and innovations. As a secondary objective, evidences have been
explored for each one of the phases, as driver elements for innovation
(CROSSAN; APAYDIN, 2010). As evidence to confirm both constructs can foster
innovation we sought for innovation as outcome (TIDD; BESSANT; PAVITT, 2005).

2  LITERATURE REVIEW

In this section the main theoretical
concepts and constructs used in this research are discussed. The main
constructs are Peripheral Vision (PV) (DAY; SCHOEMAKER, 2005; SCHOEMAKER; DAY,
2009) and Absorptive Capacity (AC) (COHEN; LEVINTHAL, 1990; ZAHRA; GEORGE, 2002).
The main topics in the literature review are presented in the Figure 1.

Figure
1 – The main theoretical concepts discussed in this paper

Source:
Authors (2017).

2.1 Peripheral
Vision

Peripheral vision concept comes from
medicine (RAPPAPORT, 2014), and was brought from medicine
into business administration by the researchers (DAY; SCHOEMAKER, 2005). The
main idea of this construct in administration is the company possibility to
have a broader vision, or to look in their periphery, not just in their current
focal vision. The focal vision is typically the day by day operation scope, in
their current economic sector, solving and attending client’s problems and
selling products to their clients. According to the authors (SCHOEMAKER; DAY,
2009) the Peripheral Vision construct is composed by some phases and
correspondent activities, briefly described here as:

·
Scope (or
here also called Source): it is to where the company focus their vision, where the
company can collect signals of opportunities or threats,

·
Monitoring:
it refers to how the companies look outside their boundaries, whether,
proactively or reactively, close or far to their current knowledge,

·
Interpretation:
it’s related to giving meaning to the signals, to evaluate the external signals
(or also called here events) in relation to previous patterns, also called
sensemaking (WEICK, 1984),

·
Action and
screening: after interpreting the data, converting them into information, what
the company should do, what action should be taken? ,

·
Feedback
and adjusts: after completing the previous steps and corresponding activities,
the company should evaluate how that action was received or incorporated in
their process or products. This phase also could be called as a learning
process (SENGE, 1990).

In this
research we will apply the four firsts phases, from scope, until action.

2.2 Absorptive
Capacity

Absorptive Capacity, according to Cohen
and Levinthal (1990) refers to the company’s capability to see value in an
external knowledge, capture and transform it in something new and valuable. In
order to execute these previous processes the company should use their resource
and development (R&D) competence. Zahra and George (2002) study the same
phenomenon of acquiring an external signal, in a different way. These authors
split the Absorptive Capacity in two main blocks, the potential capacity and
the realized capacity. The potential capacity is composed of two smaller
activities, such as, acquisition and absorption. The second part, realized
capacity, it is composed by knowledge transformation and exploitation, creating
in this way, new products and new revenues. Under these authors’ perspective it
is possible to evaluate how much is available to extract value of the external
knowledge, and how much, effectively, the company extracted.

This
study could be related to the Regnér’s (2003) article where the author discusses
two different strategy creation according to company perspective, either in a
more central view, or in a more peripheral vision, executing activities and
developing strategies more deductive or inductive, respectively. In this comparison
the current study related the studied phenomenon to more exploratory
initiatives (inductive) rather than exploitive (deductive) ones as March (1991)
exposed.

The main objective in this research is to
study how the company acquires an external signal. As secondary objectives this
study aims to analyse where the company looks for acquire an external signal,
how much of these signals are converted into innovation, what kind of
innovation are generated,the outcomes and impacts.

With the two constructs, individually, we
could seek to analyse the mentioned study objectives. The idea of to use both constructs,
peripheral vision and absorptive capacity, is to study more details about the
phenomenon, of acquiring an external signal, absorbing and converting it into
innovation.

2.3 Knowledge
database

As we will see in the item innovation in services, research and
development (R&D) formal function for product development is very important
in product manufacturing industries, but not so much important in services
sector. Absorptive Capacity uses the R&D formal function as the seminal
authors propose the construct studying manufacturing industries. In our study
we are giving emphasis to the company knowledge database, once the diversity of
knowledge is driver element to generate more meaning (WEICK, 1984) and more
innovations (COHEN; LEVINTHAL, 1990; UTTERBACK, 1971).

2.4 Innovation

The innovation focus used here is
innovation as outcome, rather than, study of the internal process of
innovation, or innovation as a process. The main authors used to conceptualize
innovation are Crossan and Apaydin (2010). According to these authors
innovation is related to acquisition, assimilation and exploration of
value-added novelty in economic and social aspects. It can be both, process and
outcome (CROSSAN; APAYDIN, 2010).  Adding
the OECD Oslo Manual (OECD, 2005), Armbruster et al. (2008) and Crossan and
Apaydin (2010), we have the following types of innovations, as outcome:

·
Product Innovation: refers
to improvement or new products or services,

·
Process Innovation: refers
to new information of material flow inside or across the business units, and
new work principles, method, papers or tools utilized in business process,

·
Marketing Innovation: refers
to a new marketing method, involving significant changes in product design or
packaging, product placement, or price,

·
Organization Innovation:
it is divided in two types, structural innovation and procedural innovation.
The structural innovation refers to creation or elimination of hierarchical
levels, specialized teams, layout, and new industry vertical focus, among some
examples. The procedural innovation, less tangible, refers to procedures,
practices, new management way, quality programs, or idea suggestions,

·
Business Model Innovation: refers to strategic choices to create and capture value over the
business chain, connecting providers, clients and complementary assets.

With these main theoretical elements this
research worked in the fieldwork to find evidences that the Peripheral Vision
and Absorptive Capacity can work as drivers to innovation based on external
signals. The next sections, methodology and findings will discuss the method to
acquire information from the interviewees about how they deal with those
constructs, in a practical way, and what was found.

2.5 Innovation
in Services

The traditional service sector, known
typically as non-innovative (KON, 2004), has some specific segments which have
high innovation rates as mentioned in Howells (2000), such as the t-KIBS
(technological Knowledge Intensive Based Sector) (MILES, 1995). Specifically in
t-KIBS there are some differences in the innovation process. Beyond the
R&D, other factors appear as relevant in services innovation, such as,
client and providers relationship, as mentioned by Howells et al. (2004).

Therefore, under the context presented in
the literature review the idea is to evaluate the influence of some key factors
mentioned in this theoretical section, aiming to explore and study  a t-KIBS company acquiring an external signal
to innovate. We will use the here called composed peripheral vision framework.
In the methodology there will be details about the relevant aspects questioned
to the interviewees.

The main concepts, authors and papers are
shown in the Table 1.

Table
1 – Main concepts, authors and papers (or books)

Concepts

Authors and papers (books)

Peripheral Vision

Day and Schoemaker (2005), Schoemaker and Day (2009).

Absorptive Capacity

Cohen and Levinthal
(1990), George and Zahra (2002)

Interpretation

Weick (1984)

Innovation

Crossan and Apaydin (2010), OECD (2005), Ambruster
et al. (2008)

Innovation in Services

Howell et al. (2004)

t-KIBS

Miles et al. (1995),
Howell (2000)

Methodology

Eisenhardt (1989), Lewis (1998), Yin (2010), Bekhet
(2011)

Source:
Authors (2017).

3 METHODOLOGY

This section describes some methodology
research aspects such as, the research approach, research technique, industry
segment company based, the company used as case study, the interviewees
profile, among others research technical aspects.

3.1 Research approach

The fieldwork research method applied was
qualitative, through a case study. According to Yin (2010, p. 39) this
methodology is "an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary
phenomenon in depth and in its real life context, especially when the
boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident". One’s Eisenhardt’s (1989, p. 548-549) conclusion in
her study about “building theory from case studies” is that this process of
theory building “is particularly well-suitable to new research areas or research
areas for which existing theory seems inadequate”. Through semi-structured
detailed interviews, a Multinational Information Technology (IT) company (also
known as t-KIBS, which stands for, Technological Knowledge Intensive Services),
according to Miles et al. (1995) was used in this research. The unit studied was
a Latin America regional subsidiary with more than 4,000 employees in all
region. In order to improve the data rigor,a triangulation strategy (LEWIS,
1998; BEKHET; ZAUSZNIEWSKI, 2011) was used, adding the observation method, and
access to secondary public data in company websites. The executives interviewed
in this research are positioned in a high hierarchic level of Latin America
region organization, and therefore, have a strategic view of the corporate
practices, and strategic view, and theoretically, therefore, they are able to provide
answers on behalf of the company about the scope involved in this study. More
information about the executives interviewed is provided in the item The Interviewees.

3.2 The Industry
Segment

The Information Technology (IT) industry
segment, also known as t-KIBS (stands for technological knowledge intensive
services) as in Miles et al. (1995) has high relevance in terms of revenue. According
to Gartner (2016) the global IT market size is about US$ 4 trillion as seen in
the Figure 2.

Figure
2 – Global IT market size (in US$ trillion)

Source:
Gartner (2016).

3.3 The company

The company is a Public Information
Technology American Multinational with stocks at NASDAQ Stock Market. Their
Global revenue is about US$ 3 billion (2015). The company has about 4,000
employees in Latin America, but it is a closed company and it doesn’t disclose
numbers about revenue or other financial data, considered sensitive and
confidential information. In this research we will call it as The Company.

3.4 The interviewees

The interviewees are three top executives
in the Latin America (LATAM) and Brazil hierarchy. Their roles are: LATAM CEO, LATAM
Operations VP and Brazil Sales VP. They were chosen because, as they are in a
high hierarchic level, they have knowledge and power to answer on behalf of the
company. They also have access to strategic information as those demanded in
this research, once the desirable data for this study implies in having a
global and strategic company view. In the Table 2 it is possible to see some
descriptive data about the three interviewees.

Table 2 – Descriptive data about the company leaderships interviewed

Role

Academic Graduation

Experience

(Years)

Function  (years)
1

Responsibility

Observations

LATAM CEO

Computer Science

30 years

3.5 years

Full P&L (Profit & Loss), about 4k
employees

He supports and stimulates the changes.

LATAM Operations VP

Computer Science

38 years

03 years

Services: Solution design, Pre-Sales, Delivery and
Operation

He has lived in 3 countries outside Brazil: Portugal, USA
and Finland. He lives the ambidexterity challenge.

Brazil Sales VP

Computer Science

30 years

03 years and 04 months

Brazil Sales, which represents about 50% of the
total LATAM revenue and businesses.

He has the initiative to change the sales process
and mainly the mental model of his team to expand their view in opportunities
analysis.

Source:
Authors (2017).

Note
1: Time of respondent in the function, measured in years.

3.5 Research
Methodology

In this case study, interviews with
open-ended questions and the critical incident technique were used (GREMLER,
2004). This technique aims to get evidences of conversion from signals in the
market into innovations, as a way to exemplify potential support of the main
constructs as drivers to innovations acquired externally. The primary data acquired
through the interviews was added and compared with the second data obtained
through public data such as the company website, in a methodological
triangulation, as a way to increase the validity of data and improve the
interpretation and possibly suggest theories (BEKHET; ZAUSZNIEWSKI, 2011, p.
40), or  in their words “It has been
found to be beneficial in providing confirmation of findings, more
comprehensive data, increased validity and enhanced understanding of studied
phenomena”.

3.6 Research
Protocol

In the beginning of the interviews, the
interviewers read some topics about research confidentiality, or non-disclosure
agreement, about our understanding of innovation, among other specific points.
The aim of these statements was to standardize the concepts and have a common
scale and have the interviewees comfortable with the anonymity and data
confidentiality. As our innovation understanding we use the concept of Crossan
and Apaydin (2010, p. 1155) which says:

Innovation
is: production or adoption, assimilation, and exploitation of a value-added
novelty in economic and social spheres; renewal and enlargement of products,
services, and markets; development of new methods of production; and
establishment of new management systems. It is both a process and an outcome.

3.7 Topic
Outline

In order to obtain evidences of the
propositions here discussed that the Peripheral Vision and Absorptive Capacity
are drivers to innovation based on signals acquired externally, we created the
following topic outlines aiming to address the main concepts involved in the
theory. This outline served as a guideline to generate the open-ended questions
in the interviews. The Table 3 shows the main topics.

Table
3 – Main theoretical elements and their meaning and/or aim

Main elements

Meaning (get evidences of)

Sources

Identify at where they  are looking outside

Interpretation

Knowledge
database diversity

Monitoring

Frequency, way (reactive or proactive)

Type of innovation

Product,
process, structural, business model

Innovation as outcome

Example of innovations produced

Innovation impact

Incremental
or disruptive

Composed framework

The most important framework phase(s)

Source:
Authors (2017).

4 FINDINGS AND
DISCUSSIONS

In this section the main findings
collected in the fieldwork are discussed, and, as well, the analysis about it.
They are split in main topics of findings and named by a summary.

4.1 General findings
and analysis

The interviewed executives have in common
a client centric view; they are oriented to client experience and satisfaction.
Most innovations found were incremental, as innovations involving clients typically
result in incremental innovations (MILES et al., 1995). In terms of the
relevance of framework phases for innovation generation, based on market
signals, the three main functions, General Management, Operations and Sales,
have slightly different visions. The CEO and Sales VP see source, monitoring
and interpreting phases as the most important to generate innovation. The Operations
VP considers the conversion phase as the key contributor to the innovation process.
Therefore, the framework was confirmed as a mechanism to drive innovation. Another
finding was the ambidexterity (O’REILLY;
TUSHMAN, 2008) behaviour in the Operations area, since it has to deliver
the services accordingly with contract Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and at
the same time the area needs to implement many innovations, dealing with new
technologies, new technologies even for the global corporation.

4.2 Primary
data

The Table 4 reflects some of the primary
data found in the interviews.

Table
4 - Summary with leadership’s answers about key concepts

Objectives

CEO

Operations VP

Sales VP

Innovation Search Sources

Clients, competitors, new employee hiring (competitors
knowledge)

Clients, new employee hiring (competitors knowledge),
partners

Clients, business
environment (political and economics), tendencies, market analysts, other
geographies (USA and Europa)

What is most dynamic and complex to monitor?

New technologies, tendencies and competitors. Retail and
Finance.

New technologies, tendencies and competitors.

Clients, regulatory, tendencies. Currently perceives
company search for Knowledge further than current one.

Interpretation

Think Tank meeting; low diversity in the team deal with
market

Global system review based on rich written narratives in
Microsoft Word (not in Microsoft Power Point)

Two meetings: one
of sales with an extended team and diversified, and one about strategic
themes (beyond sales team)

Innovation outcome examples

Organisational structure more
horizontal, building change, spontaneous media, zero cost in client events
(business partners support).

Help Desk process, new CRM software, WhatsApp support in
corporate solutions, global review meeting using rich narrative trough
Microsoft Word.

Differentiated deal pre qualification
process, in an extended and diversified meeting; industry segmentation;
relationship events.

Innovation impact (by products launched in the latest
three years)

Profit Margin increase of 3% to 4% year over year.

Cost reduction, productivity increase, more offering variety,
more customized solutions.

Revenue increase of 5% yearly; sales cycle reduction (due
to better qualification); cost reduction in current offering (due to
datacentre sales to a 3rd party business partner).

Most frequent innovation type.

Process, organisational (structure).

Process, organisational (procedural), products
(services).

Process.

What is the most important phase in the framework?

Identification where to look for (sources) and
interpretation.

From idea to innovation conversion.

Identification (sources),
monitoring and interpretation.

Source:
Authors (2017).

4.3 Secondary
data

From the company’s website it was learned
they have a Global Innovation Policy (GIP) as one of their strategic actions.
Their other strategic actions are: Strategic Business Planning, Service Excellence,
and Governance). Their GIP fosters client proximity initiatives and a Client
Experience Maturity Level. Thus, we realized that the innovation policy or innovation
orientation drive and support to all actions in client’s direction. It is
aligned with the feedback and perceptions in the leadership’s statement.

4.4 General
considerations

In this topic the main results and an
analysis of these results are discussed.. The results and their possible
meaning are split in subject topics, for a clearer understanding of each
matter.

4.5 Contingency
context

Crisis affects the macro economic
environment in the Latin America region, mainly Brazil. Many changes are
perceived in the information technology industry and also in the company
globally, where the global CEO has changed in 2014.

4.6 Client
focus

The common ground among the three leaders
is the client focus. Clients are the main reason for changes and the internal
changes, in process or products, occur always using the client as
justification. The perception of the three executives interviewed is that the
company, in their opinion, is very traditional due to more than hundred years
of existence, and also because of the company´s global and consolidated process
which is difficult to change. Despite that, the company gives some space to
implementation of changes, or customization of global practices for the Latin
America region, but always using the client perspective or client justification
to install new processes, new organization structures, new products or proceed
a product customization.

The executives attitudes about innovation
and orientation to their employees are aligned and supported by the Global
Innovation Policy (GIP), as mentioned earlier, which means they have a total
focus in clients.

4.7 Innovation
impact

As seen previously, clients are the
company´s main focus. In the principal actions done in the company, clients are
the reason, and innovation is a consequence; considering client is inside the
depth search strategy, possibly more incremental innovation would result as an
outcome, as seen in Laursen and Salter (2006).

4.8 The
Innovator's Dilemma

On the one hand the company sees the need
to preserve the current solution offerings and process, but on the other hand,
there is the need to approach new demands and new processes internally, in the
company, as well as externally, in relation to their clients and prospects.

The Innovator’s dilemma stated in the
Christensen’s book (1997) is present in the company, once their clients and
prospects are demanding for software and IT solution as a service or in the
cloud. Currently, most of their revenue come from the software and solutions
sales (“on premises”). The Information Technology industry segment is changing
to cloud solutions, where the client pays by service usage, in a monthly rental
disbursement. Therefore, the company´s challenge is to keep the revenue and
shareholders happy, once with the new business model (cloud), the revenue comes
diluted in long-range contracts while in the previous model, the client used to
pay huge amount of money in shorter term. And more, in the previous business model,
clients used to buy the asset, the solution. Currently it’s a rental or leasing
model, where clients don’t need to acquire the asset, just use it, when they
want.

4.9 Ambidexterity

The operation area (services delivery)
lives the ambidexterity challenge, it means, it has to deliver the agreed
contracts, reach or surpass the SLAs forecasted in the contracts, and at the
same time, innovate systematically, aiming to reduce costs and increase
productivity, as expected in their goals. In this they can increase the profit
margin in the operation area. They innovate more in process rather than other
innovation types. Innovate in both ways, reactive and proactive. Reactive when
the clients ask for changes,

4.10 Process and
product innovation

The company innovates in both, products
and process. But most of the innovations are in process, in structure,
organizational and in procedures.

4.11 Proactive
or reactive way

The company innovates in both ways,
reactive and proactive. Reactive when the client asks for changes, for
instance, in a solution offering customization. Proactive when the company
anticipates some client changes, for instance, when the Operations Delivery VP
is notified that its client’s president has been replaced for a new one. The VP,
perceiving some cost reductions action done by the client’s new CEO in their
company, studies the current contract and decides proactively propose a cost
reduction in the contract before the formal expiration of the contract term in
one year ahead.

Another example of proactive innovations
occurs when the company appears spontaneously, and freely, in the media channels,
such as online, press, etc. The leadership initiative to meet or have lunch
with journalists, to talk about the company’s news, shows a fruitful strategy
to generate procedure innovation, and possibly more clients and prospects.

4.12 Innovation
stimulated by the leadership

Manly the CEO stimulates the changes, with
his behaviour and attitudes, to implement organizational innovations, such as
structural, procedures and also in process. He is the main support and stimuli
to changes and supports the leaderships, who directly report to him.

4.13 Contingency
innovation

Some innovations are contingent on
external environment conditions such as, in Brazil, due to the economic crisis,
they negotiated their new Brazilian office rental contract in a lower budget
than the previous contract and also received from the building owner a US$ 500k
budget to buy new furniture. In addition, another example of contingency
innovation, again due to low economic business environment context, is that
they replaced long-term and expensive employees with  new and less expensive employees.

4.14 Innovation
generated by a differentiated perspective

The sales head innovates in process and in
a proactive and differentiated way, as for example, in the “qualification”
sales phase, where he inserted new analysis element, as what he calls client
industry segment “dynamic”. He calls dynamic the industry trends, technological
changes, and regulatory impact, political or economic. In this way, he and his
team are able to choose clients (!) and reduce the prequalification sales cycle
in about 40%. Therefore, instead of, for instance, close a deal in six months,
they can close the same deal, in about 4 months. In terms of outcome, this is a
process innovation with important impact.

4.15 Different
functions, different perspectives

According to the composed framework used
in this research the executives were asked their perception about what phase(s)
was (were) the most important to generate innovation based on external signals.
The leadership vision about the important phases in the composed peripheral
vision framework was as shown in the Figure 3.

Figure
3 – Composed Peripheral Vision Framework

Source:
Authors (2017).

The most important phases to the CEO are
the Scope (Source) and the Interpretation. In his view, where to look is
determinant for a company to innovate in an appropriate way. And how to
interpret the signal is also very important,

The Operations VP sees the conversion
phase as the most important. He says – it is easy to have ideas; the difficult
is to implement them,

The sales VP thinks the three phases,
scope, monitoring and interpretation as the most important phases;

It’s interesting to perceive that the
vision of each of the executive is somehow dependent of their function. The
operations VP is in the delivery, trying to reach the goals, the SLAs (Service
Level Agreements), therefore he is involved in execution. The sales VP has a
close vision to the CEO, they understand the beginning of the process is very
important; once you have it started wrong, it is too costly to correct the
goal. Also, they have in common the interpretation; they say it is very
difficult to interpret it in a “right way”.

4.16 The leadership
vision about the innovation concept

An interesting point is about the
innovation concept definition in the leadership perspective. Even for the top
management, in the highest level of the regional hierarchy, and very close to the
strategic global level, what is innovation is not clear or at least not aligned
with the innovation types as described in the OECD (2005, p. 14; p. 45- 48), Chang, Linton
and Chen (2012) as: innovation in product, innovation
in process, innovation in marketing, organizational innovation (divided in
structural innovation and procedural innovation), and innovation in business models.
Their views about innovation concept are associated mainly to new product
creation, and obtained essentially by resource and development (R&D)
function or department. They didn’t know about, for instance, process
innovation, or organizational innovation, even they practiced these kinds of
innovations.

5 CONCLUSION

As a contribution of this work, from a
theoretical perspective, it was confirmed that the Peripheral Vision and
Absorptive Capacity are valid mechanisms for innovation generation, and an instrument
for examining the firm´s innovative performance in acquiring signals in the
market. Additionally, it was possible to evaluate a t-KIBS service company
strategy and practice acting in the innovation process. From a managerial point
of view, this study contributes to identify factors that affect the
acquisition, monitoring and interpretation of market signals, enabling an
increase in the number of opportunities for innovation generation. Also it was possible
to observe an ambidextrous operation working with both innovation and
execution.

5.1 Limitations
and future studies

One company case study can bias the study
and possible conclusions, and so can the informant number of three. A
suggestion would be to study another companies in the same industry segment (t-KIBS)
with the same leadership level. In the same company talk to global people to
have a global perspective instead of a regional subsidiary perspective.

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