Prokou Elli, Innovation: How innovative technologies and practices can impact company profits and create a brand name. Prokou Elli, Innovation: How innovative technologies and practices can impact company profits and create a brand name.
Introduction
- Goals of the study
- Rationale of the study
- Structure of dissertation
- Research methodology
Since tourism is one of the most important sectors of the Greek economy, a small presentation has been made to point out the importance of this sector to the economy and to the development of our economy. Here the focus was on the selection of the articles and the criteria used to make the right choice between a large number of them.
Analyzing Innovation
Definitions for innovation
An innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organization. Also, innovation can occur in the process of production and creation of the result (products or services).
Innovation as a culture
Recognition and compensation to the employers of the organization are some of the support mechanisms that stimulate creativity and innovation. The willingness to innovate on the other hand is a result of the innovation culture that is created within the organization.
Phases of innovation process
In today's business world, there are many more processes that different organizations use to create innovation. In the traditional approach, the organization finds the idea, develops it and then delivers it. The organization's goal is to meet customer needs and to do this it must study these needs and perhaps discover new needs.
It is very important in the process to have the required high level of management to effectively communicate all the necessary information. An essential foundation for the successful management of innovation processes in the company can be considered an effective system of information security innovation processes. To avoid failure in the innovation process, it must be a proper use of management functions: planning, organizing, leading and controlling.
So, by properly using all management functions and by creating a culture of innovation in the organization, the process of innovation will be facilitated. A key element of the successful implementation of innovation processes is the existence of a supportive environment for the creation of innovations.
Innovation and profitability
The latter are largely used to measure the return on cost of R&D, which is one of the most. Edwin Mansfield conducted many studies on the subject and the foundation's conclusion was that investments on R&D are profitable in total, but not always for every single firm, as the risks involved are usually high. The R&D costs are an important part of the total innovation costs as other costs must be taken into account when measuring the return to total costs of innovation.
Other parts of the total cost of innovation relate to the design of the new product-service or improvement, test production and other initial preparations and all. When all the costs of innovation are summed up, a lower rate of return should be expected compared to the rate above for R&D investments. When innovating the company takes a significant risk and the risk can be technological meaning that the performance of the new product is not as expected (or the process is not working at the expected cost) or commercial meaning that the market does not is accepting the new product-service at the desired rate (or simply said that the product does not sell).
The success of an innovation, as it relates to profitability or growth (in sales or size), depends on factors such as company size, industry, innovation strategy and innovation inputs. The results of various studies and research have shown that innovative practices and technologies generally have a positive effect on the profitability of the company that uses them, but it is not always self-evident.
Innovation and branding
The brand can be considered as the golden section between the inside of the organization and the outside world and between the marketing function of the organization and the innovation function. So the brand is a kind of relationship between the company that offers the right value to the right customers, and the customers who, being satisfied with what they get from the company, stay loyal to it. The above characteristics relate to the content of the brand or the story the brand tries to tell us (BMW for example is about driving pleasure….).
The brand must also have some characteristics such as: a) visual, which means that it must be not only words, but also images that remain easier in people's minds b) also the lines that try to describe the brand must be fast, smart and easy to remember c) not static dynamic to adapt to the new situation (new markets, new target group etc.). Innovation on the other hand helps the brand to keep the promise it gives to its users. The brand creates the relationship between the organization and the user and between marketing and innovation.
Innovation must take advantage of the characteristics of the organization and turn them into value for the user. Brand and innovation need each other to create value for the organization and users.
Service innovation
Service innovations, as described by Aas and Pederson (2010), can be internal or external, and by internal services we mean new ideas and practices within the organization, and by external .. an addition or change to the company's service that it offers to customers. segment. Den Hertog classifies service innovations into four categories: a) new service concept, b) new client interface, c) new service delivery system, and d) new technological options. A good example of service innovation is Starbucks, which introduced its own mobile payment program in 2011 and thus surprised the banking system with the Starbucks App.
This example shows us that innovations in services can be a combination of existing concepts and resources (Gadreys et al. 1995), and also that the involvement of research and development is very limited or absent. Since employee involvement in the innovation process can be high, it is important for any organization to have a culture of innovation, as analyzed above. Another aspect to consider in service innovation is that customers can also participate in the process.
So, as mentioned above, service innovation can happen within a company from people within the company (example Starbucks) or it can be external and with the help of external sources. Recently, a frequently used term is "service innovation capabilities" as part of a firm's sustainable competitive advantage.
The impact of innovation in tourism sector
- Greek tourism sector as the most import sector in Greek economy
- Innovation in tourism industry
- Tourism as experience economy
- Factors of innovativeness in the tourism industry
- Some examples of case studies of innovation in Greek tourism
All the figures in Tables 3.1 and 3.2 show us the importance of the sector for the Greek economy and point out the role that companies in the sector must play to achieve satisfactory results by performing in this sector. Innovation in this sector should also be seen as an innovation of cooperation between the companies in the sector. So innovation policy here must take into account this characteristic of the product to achieve the success we want.
In addition to the fact that the client participates in the production-consumption of the experience product, he is also considered a co-creator on a more mental level. We all know how important all this is in carrying out any task, especially in the tourism industry, when success depends on cooperation between companies and the organization of the sector. Their philosophy is to respect the needs of the modern traveler as much as possible and offer him the best travel experience.
As they say, the quality chosen in their packages, the technology used in their services, the 32 years of knowledge in the travel experience is due. Another example worth mentioning is the case of the Evia Adventure Tours, a young company entering the tourism market. Evia Adventure Tour is one of its kind which means that the company tries to bring something new to the Evia market, something that was missing in the tourism market of the island.
Wine tasting and wine tours on their estate in one of the activities that are also added to the main business.
Results, Discussion and Conclusion
Certainly much more research needs to be done on this topic as there is a lack of studies done on the link between innovation and branding. With personal assessment after many years of work in this sector, I have to say that a lot of work has been done in this direction during the last years and there is still a lot of work to be done. But unfortunately, there is so much work to be done with other destinations like Evia that lack creativity and innovative practices.
There is some progress in this direction, but the status quo (as I analyzed in the first chapter is still a desirable situation for most of the island's tourism firms. So overall I tried to point out the importance of innovation and being innovative because it is widely accepted that innovation is a success factor for everyone. We live in a changing world and as Socrates says, "The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new cloud".
Towards a conceptual framework of innovation types in the experience economy: innovation through experience design with a focus on customer interactions', in J. Martin Ronningen & Gudbrand lien 2014, 'The importance of systemic characteristics for innovation orientation in tourism companies.