The Relationship between Business Strategies and Successful Innovation

The literature emphasises the role of innovation in driving economic growth. It is also generally understood by academics and practitioners that the types of strategies adopted by a firm play a key role in determining innovation levels and firm profitability. The research examines this proposition in the Australian context, using the construction industry as a case study. The primary research question driving the study was 'What types of business strategies are the main contributors to successful innovation?'. Data were collected via a large scale mail survey covering 38% of the industry, with 1,317 questionnaires distributed and a 30% response rate achieved. Innovation was defined as a new or significantly improved technology or advanced business practice. Innovation success was measured via an innovation index based on input and output innovation indicators. The results show that the following strategies are key drivers of innovation success: • actively encouraging employees to seek out improvements and share ideas • recruiting new graduates • inter-industry networking • international monitoring of best practice • transferring project-based learnings into continuous business processes. Businesses wishing to improve their innovation performance are encouraged to consider adopting these strategies, or embracing them more fully.