Organisational Innovation - Assignment Example

ORGANISATIONAL INNOVATION TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Introduction: 3 2. Understanding the term of organizational innovation: 3 3. Service product innovation and purchasing of Train Tickets – 4 4. Technological determination and social construction of technology 5 5. The social construction of technology – A model of social shaping 5 6. Innovation (E-ticketing) from Social construction of technological (SCOT) perspectives: 6 Reference List 10 1. Introduction: As illustrated by Damanpour (1991), to face the growing competition, companies must have innovation. In the modern business environment, innovation is important as it helps to provide updated product and maintain competitive position of business in the market. Due to emergence of some factors like globalization and outsourcing, there is an increased push among the organization to improve their efficiency and effectiveness in the current market structure. Business model in innovative paradigm use both inside and outside view to generate possible ideas internally and bring them through external market channel. Innovation is generally considered as the main engine towards global economic growth. There are many reasons for an organization to innovate including capturing new market, strengthen customer base, replacing outdated products and increase the choice of products. Early studies of this paradigm made by scholars such as Haaroff (1983) pointed out that “the production culture”, i.e. social condition gave rise to innovation in buying ticket online. In this particular essay, the researcher has focused on analysing a brief description to what extent the theory of social construction of technology (SCOT) structured the tendency of the people as well as the firm towards fulfilling the online ticketing needs. 2. Understanding the term of organizational innovation: According to Atuahene-Gima (1996, p.160), “innovation is inextricably linked with the creativity”. Innovation and creativity is interrelated with each other, as finding a solution to the innovation process requires creativity. Innovation covers practical application of marketing invention, however, inversion is also possible without a prior invention. Organizational innovation has various purposes and depending on that many definitions are there to describe it, each of which are partly overlapped with the different aspect of capture. Crane (1997) defined that, innovation is professional development concept where it looks for some new balanced and aggressive ambitions. Even though the organizational environment is not given, constant movement and struggle can create a dynamic and sensitive selection process. Thus, in broader sense, innovation is a process that involves both, process and outcomes to improve existing service and transfer the best ideas to the marketing, manufacturing and distributing. However, innovation is not limited in the science and technology, but is also segmented in several areas, including administrative, social system and business. 3. Service product innovation and purchasing of Train Tickets – Reservation and Ticket purchase via the Agent host to host Now majority of the railway provides convenience to its passenger to get their tickets, thus people settled in various segments of the world can easily book their tickets. The agent host offer the service via first pay outlets, post office and other travel agency scattered in various part of the world (Drahos , 2004). After the payment, the passenger receives a payment receipt which is redeemable. Purchasing ticket via the agent host helps to reduce density of the queue at the ticket counter. Ticket purchase via online Another convenience provided by the modern railways is getting tickets via internet. The expansion in the technology has made it easier for the passenger to get their ticket via official websites of the railways companies. The passengers not only get information about price for their tickets, but also information about the seat availability. Ticket purchase via online is easy and time saving. Apart from this, third party websites are also opening new portals for booking train tickets. Global travel and tour firms such as Thomas Cook have experienced an increased traffic in their website since the launch of online train ticket bookings. This signifies the acceptance of the consumers of the e-ticketing system (Francis and Bessant, 2005). Purchasing ticket thorough Rail box The latest innovation launched by railways companies is Rail box. Rail box is basically a rail ticket vending machine placed in different station. From rail mail, customers can purchase train ticket just by using their prepaid card. The invention of rail box has made the purchase of ticket easier and practical. However, in case of technical malfunctions customers often used to get harassed. Also rough usage by many passengers and lack of maintenance created problems for the railway authorities and the passengers in conducting smooth transactions through rail boxes (Drahos, 2004). 4. Technological determination and social construction of technology Technological determination is a reductionist doctrine, states that technology basically determines the social changes. It tends to believe that the society itself is shaped by the technological changes and dominant by technological innovation. The modern thinker such as (Drahos , 2004) and (Francis and Bessant, 2005) has no longer considered that technological determinism is effective enough to interact with the technology. Abernathy and Clark (1985) argued that, the concept of technological deterministic concern is little concern with the knowledge and ability to interact with the technology. On the other hand, social construction of technology believes that changing social norms and standard shapes the technological progress. It includes all those factors that are essential to understand reasons for acceptations or rejections of a technology in terms of the social world. The organizational process, buying ticket online, is basically supported by the social construction of technology. It is the people of the society, who force the organizations to bring in the changes. Airlines and railways are continually stepping up their investments in the latest technology to position themselves suitably in the current market scenario (De-Brentani, 2001). Technological frame and requirements of the user shaped the capabilities of the firms to introduce e-infrastructure. The concurrent realization of diffusion, innovation and aligning technical capacities with the culture, habits and custom has helped to develop organizational setting in the field of science and humanities. The progress of computer science has solved the problem of confidentiality and privacy concern of the people, which in turn developed and spread the use of e-infrastructure. 5. The social construction of technology – A model of social shaping The constructive view of SCOT reflects that technology does not shape the human behaviour; rather human behaviour shapes the technology. The advancement of technological progress cannot be perceived without understanding application of technology in social context. According to Francis and Bessant (2005), technology offers a vehicle for achieving organisational success. SCOT approach not only shapes the direction and rate of the innovation, but also content of the technological practice. SCOT identifies the opportunities to influence technological changes and ways in which this can be achieve. The SCOT perspective has been drawn upon a broad stream of social and economic analysis. It suggests that, the content of technology is important to have different emphasis and social analysis. It also involves that, political and economical process to align interest of the social actors. The social construction theory believes that the people in the society itself are the main stimulators to shape technological progress. This theory is based on the idea that user of technology basically shapes the design and usability of the new products or services. In other word, it is an interactive process to shape all forms of technology in the social context. As per this theory, reasons for acceptance or rejection of technology should look into the social world rather look into the technical criteria. Thus, SCOT is “a response to the technological determinism and thereby is sometime known as technological constructivism” (Atuahene-Gima, 1996, p. 50-51). Apart from that, SCOT also steps and principle that needs to follow to formalise causes for technical success or failure. 6. Innovation (E-ticketing) from Social construction of technological (SCOT) perspectives: Before the invention of online ticket booking system or e-tickets, people had to depend on the offline ticket consuming process. Ticket booking through offline was time consuming. In addition to that, most of the time people do not have enough chances to select their seats according to their comfort. In order to book a ticket, people also have to travel into the station and stand in a queue for longer time (travel.financialexpress.com, 2014). Thus, it also increases their travelling cost. Further, in case of offline ticket booking, travellers are not able to access a large section of information to compare the costs of various roots that they desire to travel. All of these aspects have raised the concern to bring technological innovation in the ticket-booking concept. In other word, this fact laid the groundwork for the hypothesis of “omnivorous e-ticket booking preference” (AVIA RADER, 2014). According to Atuahene-Gima (1996), transportation is imperative as it enables trading relationships between two people. Travelling by rail is one of the most suitable and wide spread means of travelling, especially in the developing economics, where people cannot afford to travel by air. Thus, travelling by train has become an important part of life and a routine for the business people, either for attending an important meeting or for visiting a new place. The advent of technology in railway ticket booking system has become popular and time saving element. Before the arrival of e-ticket or online ticket booking system, the railway ticket booking procedure was physically and geographically limited. The advent of e-ticket has removed these physical and local constraints and consequently increased the possibility for the travellers to book their tickets (Haaroff, 1983). E-tickets facilitate the traveller to send their travelling information to their friends and family easily, it is especially convenient if someone is waiting to receive them from the station. The invention of e-ticket act as the motive for travelling that comprises tourism, research travel, business travel and religious privilege. Now, with the help of cyber space and internet, people can book their ticket, which in turn is a great way to save time and money both (De-Brentani, 2000). Online ticket booking from any segment of the world is very easy and beneficial than going to a travel agency to book tickets. Figure: social change causes introduction of new technology (Source: Abernathy and Clark, 1985, p.150): The above figure describes how travellers diverted from offline ticket booking procedure to online. The intension of the consumer in buying online depends on various factors, such as information quality, exploratory mindset, needs for socialization, expected benefits from online transaction, usage of latest technology and so on. Based on these cluster, people are continuously trying to improve behaviours of the travellers to purchase their ticket via online. The conceptual model summarise the factors that effectively contributes in converting behaviour of the traveller towards online transaction. The invention of e-ticket act as the motive for travelling that comprises of tourism, research travel, business travel and religious privilege. Now, with the help of cyber space and internet, people can book their ticket, which in turn is a great way to save time and money both. Online ticket booking from any segment of the world is very easy and beneficial than going to travel agency to book tickets. De-Brentani (2001) observed that the most important contribution of e-ticketing can be observed during global events such as the Olympics or the FIFA World Cups. E-ticketing has increased the social participation of the people in these events as people can now book the ticket for their favourite game in lesser time and with more information regarding their destination and travel routes. People can now measure their affordability of visiting places before travelling and plan accordingly. 7. Conclusion: The current essay focuses on analysing an organizational process, namely buying tickets online from the concept of social construction of technological perspectives. The above study has reflected that, innovation in the ticketing panorama has not developed because of technological progress but of human needs. The traditional methods of ticket booking have resisted the changing needs and requirements of the traveller. In focusing on the different needs and choice of the travellers, people lost out on the technological innovation in the ticket booking procedures. It is not an accident that online ticket booking procedure has been invented, but it is a social consequence. It totally happened to increase comfort and convenience level of the traveller. Thus, creating a ticket booking market has lead to technological innovation in the railways industry, and eventually has entered into all the segments of ticket booking scheme. Reference List Abernathy,W. J. and Clark, K. B., 1985. Innovation: Mapping the Winds of CreativeDestruction, Research Policy, 14(3), pp. 147-153. Atuahene-Gima, K., 1996. Differential potency of factors affecting innovation performance in manufacturing and services firms in Australia. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 13, pp.35-52. AVIA RADER. 2014, E-ticket, [online] Available at: < http://aviaradar.com/avia/pub/air/avia-faq/e-ticket/advantages-of-e-tickets.html> [Accessed: 2 November 2014] Crane, D., 1997. Globalization, organizational size and innovation in the French luxury fashion industry. Production of culture theory revisited. Poetics, 24(6), pp.393–414. Damanpour, F., 1991. Organisational Innovation: A Meta-Analysis of Effects of Determinantsand Moderators, Academy of management Journal, 34(3). pp.555-590. De-Brentani, U., 2001. Innovative versus incremental new business services: different keys for achieving success. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 18, pp.169-87. Drahos P., 2004. The regulation of public goods. Journal of International Economic Law 7(2). pp.321-339. Francis, D. and Bessant, J. 2005. Targeting innovation and implications for capability development, Technovation, 25(3), pp.171-183 Haaroff, K. 1983. An exercise in product development for the 1980s: international cash management service. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 1(3), pp.56-68 Travel.financialexpress.com. 2014, EXPRESS Travel World, [online] Available at: [Accessed: 2 November 2014] Read More