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2. Innovation: Meaning and Dimensions Organizational innovation is a vast multi-disciplinary area of research. Many authors have regarded innovation as a key factor for a company to survive and grow on a long term. While most researchers agree upon the definition of innovation, the research is fragmented from different perspectives with efforts being made towards a cumulative body of research and a general theory (Read, 2000). The concept of innovation is multidimensional. In general, innovation research can be approached from the perspectives of an individual, an organization, and a nation, focusing on personal traits, innovation management, and a nation’s source of competitiveness, respectively (Yeh-Yun & Yiching, 2007). According to Rogers (1998), “innovation is an idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption”. According to Cooper (2003), “innovation refers to alteration of what is established by the introduction of new elements or forms”. In the context of SMEs, innovation can be treated as any change that adds value to the organization. This value need not be only financial, but may also represent product quality, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction or other less tangible measures (O'Leary, 2005). Existing literature classifies organizational innovation into different classes. Innovations can be either technological (product, service, process) or administrative (organizational structure, administrative process or programmes) (Damanpour & Gopalakrishnan, 2001). OSLO manual suggests that innovations adopted in an organization can be classified as Technological (product, process), marketing or organizational (OECD, 2010). Technological innovations are those that occur in the operating component and affect the technical system of an organization. It can be the adoption of a new idea pertaining to a new product or service, or the introduction of new elements in an organization’s production process or service operations. These innovations may be radical or incremental in nature. While marketing innovations involve new marketing methodologies to attract potential and existing customers, organizational or administrative innovations refer to new or improved working systems and methods in the organization to improve overall operational efficiency. 3. Barriers to Innovations Though it has been proven by experience and through research, that innovation adoption can lead to better firm performance and competitive advantage, not all firms undertake innovations. A number of studies show that firm differences in barriers to innovation were related to cost, institutional constraints, human resources, organizational culture, flow of information and Government policy (Baldwin & Lin, 2002). In most of the studies relating to barriers of innovation, cost involved had been identified as the major barrier. High innovation costs have a negative and significant influence on the innovation propensity (Shiang & Nagaraj, 2009). According to the Canadian Survey of Innovation and Advanced Technology (SIAT), apart from the cost related problems, impediments that arise from government policy, labour market imperfections, internal organization problems and imperfections in the market for information were identified to be barriers for advanced technology adoption (Baldwin & Rafiquzzaman, 1996). Regulatory environments impose unwarranted burdens on SMEs through high and regressive compliance costs, lack of transparency in the application of rules and legislation, inefficient bankruptcy laws and procedures, lack of clarity and lucidity in product standards in world markets, unfair or non-transparent competition policy and ineffective anti-corruption measures (OECD, 2010). SMEs, even in industrialized countries, are expected to face relatively more barriers to innovation than large firms due to inadequate internal resources and expertise (Hadjimanolis, 1999). The decision to innovate often takes place under great uncertainty (Rosenberg, 2004). The barriers internal to an SME, that may hamper its internationalization can be limited information on foreign markets, supply chain and technology partners; lack of time and resources for international engagement; lack of qualified personnel and knowledge to access markets; shortage of capital to www.theinternationaljournal.org > RJEBS: Volume: 02, Number: 06, April-2013 Page 118
finance innovations and promote exports and deal with slow supply chain payment schedules and lack of sufficient product and service quality to meet customer requirements (OECD, 2010). 4. The Knitwear Cluster of Tirupur Since 1870, Tirupur has evolved as an important centre of international textile business. Today, due to its constant performance excellence, it is the principal garment clusters in India, providing employment to more than 3 lakh people directly and indirectly. This dollar city accounts for almost 90% of India’s cotton knitwear exports, worth an estimated US$ 1 billion thus contributing significantly to the foreign exchange earnings of the country (SMERA, 2011). Tirupur knitwear industry has a number of units all along its value chain starting from spinning, knitting, wet processing, printing, garment manufacturing and exports. In addition, there are ancillary units supplying buttons, laces, embroidery, cones and yarn etc. The main stakeholders are exporters (700 approx.) and domestic manufacturers (1700 approx.) supported by allied manufacturers and suppliers. Staying innovative is especially important for the firms in this cluster as they are competing in the international market which has tough competitors from other Asian countries. For these firms, innovation is an essential precondition for their success as well as survival and hence any kind of barrier limiting innovations will have larger consequence on their business. Table 1: Number of Production Units in Tirupur (Industry Estimates) Operations Number of Units Knitting Units 1500 Dyeing and Bleaching 700 Fabric Printing 500 Garment making 2500 Embroidery 250 Other ancillary units 500 Compacting and Calendaring 300 Total 6250 Source: www.tiruppur.tn.nic.in/textile.html 5. Objectives and scope of the study The primary objective of the study is to identify the major barriers that affect the innovativeness of SMEs in the knitwear cluster of Tirupur. The study further explores the impact of such barriers on the innovativeness of these firms. For addressing these objectives, the following hypothesis has been formulated to be empirically tested through regression. H 1 : Barriers to innovation as perceived by the entrepreneurs will have a negative impact on firms’ propensity to adopt innovations 6. Methodology of the study The study is designed to describe the characteristics of the variables of interest and to further test the hypotheses framed to explain the nature of relationship between the variables. The researcher conducted an empirical study to collect and analyze data from the SMEs of the knitwear Industry of Tirupur. The population for the purpose of the study comprised of 6250 SMEs in the cluster, of which 384 constituted the sample. Stratified random sampling technique was adopted to ensure enough representations from all the six major segments of knitwear manufacturing such as knitting, wet processing, garmenting, printing/embroidery, compacting and others. A pre-tested questionnaire was administered on the entire sample to collect the required data. The primary data collected were sorted, filtered and tabulated for further analysis. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to measure the www.theinternationaljournal.org > RJEBS: Volume: 02, Number: 06, April-2013 Page 119
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Table of Contents Articles PERFORMA
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servicing, and the policies not mee
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The Self-Help Group members get inc
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Are female workers more productive
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For the purpose of including explan
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several different, competing logist
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Fisher, R.T. (2001), “Role stress
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A Comparative Study of NPA of State
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processes. Instead of fixing target
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Agriculture Crisis and Sustainable
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Table 1. World Cereal production ,
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Expanding biofuel production The ex
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percent of the world’s population
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OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-
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It can provide the earnings needed
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The incubator will also work toward
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factor. This is not an easy proposi
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ROLE OF LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT IN LE
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During the last season red onion fa
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Table Mch2 Coef. Std. Err Z P>/Z/ A
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lack of capital. The local farmer o
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It may be seen that alleviation of
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Table - 2 Progress under Bharat Nir
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References Chandrasekhar, B P., et
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existing cooperative legislation, r
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1.3 THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. What
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Table 2: Earnings and Cost Allocati
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have an adequate amount of capital
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programs and the union was doing on
Page 60 and 61: total assets to other key areas, it
Page 62 and 63: esponded by (7.6%) of the members.
Page 64 and 65: management; Gohe cooperatives savin
Page 66 and 67: Significance of asset quality of St
Page 68 and 69: iii) iv) Doubtful Assets:- a) Doubt
Page 70 and 71: atios and solvency ratios are taken
Page 72 and 73: Ratio of around 3% during 2007-08,
Page 74 and 75: sufficient to draw an inference in
Page 76 and 77: The observed R 2 and F statistics m
Page 78 and 79: Board Composition, Ownership Struct
Page 80 and 81: size as well. During our study it w
Page 82 and 83: standards prevailing in the country
Page 84 and 85: The procedure produces two tests of
Page 86 and 87: hoc test for pair wise comparisons
Page 88 and 89: e said that the board size affects
Page 90 and 91: high-tech small and medium-sized en
Page 92 and 93: Table no.8 - Multiple Comparisons T
Page 94 and 95: Abstract Corporate Social Responsib
Page 96 and 97: the participation of various level
Page 98 and 99: Supplier Relations As stakeholders
Page 100 and 101: CSR initiatives of companies should
Page 102 and 103: Corporate Social Responsibility Pra
Page 104 and 105: 2011, this district received surplu
Page 106 and 107: In the case of marginal farmers and
Page 108 and 109: Findings From the above analysis it
Page 112 and 113: data appropriately. Inferences were
Page 114 and 115: The regression analyses as shown in
Page 116 and 117: Role of Self-help Group in Socio-ec
Page 118 and 119: 10% for women and men respectively
Page 120 and 121: MoRD has been constantly reviewing
Page 122 and 123: 76.6% units were found to be existi
Page 124 and 125: 10.Timely release of adequate loans
Page 126 and 127: Standard of living of Rural Fisher
Page 128 and 129: Table 1 denotes the infrastructure
Page 130 and 131: FISHING METHODS USED BY DIFFERENT A
Page 132 and 133: CONCLUSION Most of the fisher folk
Page 134 and 135: Objectives: The following objective
Page 136 and 137: Policies of the Government will hav
Page 138 and 139: Wastage Schedule (Onion) Sl.No. Pri
Page 140 and 141: At the end of 2008 the entire world
Page 142: Conclusion: 9. The inflation can be
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