Innovation is important in the entrepreneurial strategy processes to increase organizational performance. Innovation speed is essential to this performance as well, because when we define a new product or service there is a need to make it available to custumers fast to achieve first-mover advantages. In the February 2016 edition of the Journal of Business Research, Shan et al. (2016) also find in their research that higher innovation speed leads to superior performance.
To increase innovation speed it is necessary to understand how to create this speed and to achieve a sustainable organizational performance. Being innovative and proactive are important characteristics for an organization that relate to innovation speed. In order to create more speed it is necessary that innovativeness and proactiveness are guided towards specific goals. Both characteristics do not lead to more speed when they are spread over too many unnecessary initiatives. Also risk-taking, a characteristic that is often related positively to innovation speed, only leads to an increase of speed when used prudently and in specific occasions. Too much Risk-taking will lead the organization too far into the unknown and therefore slows down innovation speed.
Competitive aggressiveness, defined as the willingness to compete with rivals, is a characteristic that is strongly related to innovation speed. In my opinion competitive aggressiveness is not something that leads to sustainable performance or lasting innovation speed. In my opinion it is more important that people feel the responsibility and take ownership of solving problems that matter. Entrepreneurship that is needed to increase innovation speed is more about passion, resourcefulness and willingness to improvise and learn. These characteristics are in my opinion also balancing innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking and competitive aggressiveness to find the right innovation speed.
Literature
Shan, P., Song, M., & Ju, X. (2016). Entrepreneurial orientation and performance: Is innovation speed a missing link?. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), 683-690.
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Norbert Bol 
“In my opinion it is more important that people feel the responsibility and take ownership of solving problems that matter. Entrepreneurship that is needed to increase innovation speed is more about passion, resourcefulness and willingness to improvise and learn. These characteristics are in my opinion also balancing innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking and competitive aggressiveness to find the right innovation speed.”
My appreciation goes to you for this view of yours Norbert.
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