TITLE:
Environmental Forces underneath the Innovativeness of Manufacturing Firms
AUTHORS:
Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest, Canchu Lin, Sunita Mondal, Reginald Tucker
KEYWORDS:
Consumer Loyalty, Market Invitation, Nash Equilibrium, Systems Thinking, Yoyo Model
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.9 No.5,
June
14,
2019
ABSTRACT: This paper examines holistically how the competitive
dynamics of the market invites and stimulates manufacturing firms to take
innovative actions and which of the
nearly twenty
environmental factors empirically identified in the literature actually
dominates the
firms’ innovation. After developing a general definition of innovation in the
manufacturing sector, two main results are established with the thinking logic
of systems science and the rigor of game theory. One result is on when the
market signals its invitation for innovation; and the second result is about
why innovation is the only way for firms’ survival. By using these results and
the systemic yoyo model, we identify four dominating environmental determinants
on innovation of manufacturing firms—demand growth, proximity,
networking, and government and public sector policies. Our results allow us to offer both theoretical and
practical implications for managers and policy makers.