Organizational capabilities for successful innovation

The ability to innovate and sustain a programme of innovation has become critical to the promotion of competitiveness and achieving and sustaining business success. There are many determinants of innovation: some are related with technology push and pull, or the individual abilities of the entrepreneur, but many are related to innovation capabilities of the organization. It is important to comprehend these capabilities and to understand “what works, and why and how it works” to advance innovation success. Data collected from high-technology companies in Munich are analysed using multi nominal logistic regression models to determine correlates of innovation capabilities and innovation achievement. All companies have been founded under the formal requirements of the Munich Business Plan Competition (MBPW). Analysis is conducted for radical, incremental and total innovation. The paper reports the analysis and how innovation relates to the process of knowledge acquisition; customer intelligence and market orientation are associated with enhanced business performance. Features of exploiting the networks and measuring innovation performance are also found to be important.