PROJECTS - INNOVATION

OVERVIEW

We aim to enhance the innovation capabilities of Singapore firms to leverage on emerging technologies and develop new products and services, improve their processes and facilitate access to new markets. Recently, we embarked on a multi-disciplinary research project with the aim of developing a holistic strategy to facilitate digital-enabled innovation that covers the ecosystem, the firm’s digital capabilities, and human capital.

In recent years, many industries in Singapore, particularly the retail sector, has been challenged by the onslaught of globalization and technological disruptions which has brought about changes in consumer shopping behavior. While Singapore’s current state of digitalization is high, our innovation efficiency ratio is a low 63, indicating that the innovation outputs do not correlate to the inputs – i.e. local firms do not seem to be leveraging on digital innovations available and are not advancing as rapidly as expected. For most firms to cope with the challenges posed by e-commerce, they would need to adapt to this changing business climate and one of the key strategies would be to transform these businesses and gear towards value-creation.

As a multi-disciplinary study, RIDE taps on the expertise of scholars from various disciplines to head the research direction and most importantly, engages key industry partners to gather insight on short and long term challenges facing industry. RIDE applies innovative research designs, analytical methods and techniques to foster innovations in the digital economy.

How should firms respond to disruptive business models that have been presented by Grab and Alibaba?
What are the skills that we need to develop in employees to drive innovation?
What are the policies and resources necessary to help firms build new capabilities to drive innovation?
How can local firms with limited resources effectively internationalise into global and regional markets?

RIDE postulates that there are three important layers that is fundamental in accelerating Singapore’s digital innovation; the ecosystem, the organization and the individual. We investigate these areas as follow:

Building a digital innovation ecosystem: On a macro level, we look at policies and the infrastructure that creates a conducive institutional environment that is necessary for innovation.
Equipping firms with digital capabilities and strategies for innovation: In this thrust, we target the capabilities of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and how these firms can effectively leverage on digital innovation and internationalize, given their resource constraints.
Developing human capital that facilitates innovation: This thrusts focuses on building human capital necessary for organizations to drive innovation and the environment that attracts such talent.

The projects under this theme are supported by the following grants:

Research on Innovating In a Digital Economy, $5,188,640 (Social Science Research Thematic Grant, Ministry of Education) [2018-2021]

PROJECTS

Building a Digital Innovation Ecosystem: Policy and Institutional Perspectives[Read More]

A conducive institutional environment in the form of government policies and regulations, is necessary for organization innovation. This also includes assistance for scaling up, opportunities for collaborations and simplified regulations. However, there is limited literature on elements that would have significant impact at the various stages of an innovation eco-system. In that direction, we seek to understand how ecosystems emerge and the elements that are essential at the different stages of development. We explore two studies that look into institutional environments for effective platform-based innovation, as well as, an exploratory study on Fintech service ecosystem.

1: Dynamic Capability, Entrepreneur Orientation and IT Capability for Expected Performance of Start-up Companies

For companies to have a successful digital transformation, they need to seize internal and external opportunities, and utilize existing resources. Start-up companies usually have relatively limited resources and experiences, hence we need to understand how their capacities can be effectively maximized with the use of information technology. The purpose of this study is to analyze how dynamic capability, IT capability as an operational capability, and entrepreneur orientation affect the expected performance of start-up companies.

The proposed research model is composed of dynamic capability, entrepreneur orientation, IT capability, and innovation as independent variables on the expected performance of the startup companies. To test the hypothesis, data was collected via survey questionnaires from managers and founders of startups. Our findings suggests that IT capability mediates the relationship between dynamic capability, entrepreneur orientation and innovativeness, and expected performance. This study is expected to provide direction for decision makers and policy makers to promote sustainable innovation, strategic agility, and incubation for startup companies.

2: Exploratory study on Fintech Service Ecosystem using Social Network Analysis

This study aims to provide guidance on new market strategy to finance and IT companies, including potential players in Fintech industry. We also aim to offer insight on the network and structure of Fintech industry in order to develop a successful Fintech platform. Previous studies on Fintech business ecosystems suggest that the Fintech industry is directly or indirectly linked to finance, information technology, and various other industries. However, empirical analysis on Fintech ecosystem structure or service network using actual market data is insufficient.

We conducted an exploratory study to find the structure and network of the Fintech business ecosystem based on actual mobile Fintech services usage data. We also employed social network analysis method to conduct data analysis.

The results of our analysis suggests that Fintech application users tend to use various applications (eg, banking, payment, credit card, etc.) presented by the same service provider, but rarely use several apps simultaneously across multiple financial service providers. In addition, various financial information providing services were used significantly. Services, apart from finance related, were more likely to be consumption related and communication platform apps were used in all networks. Based on our results, the study will be critical in informing policy makers on designing appropriate regulatory framework to foster a vibrant innovation ecosystem.
Equipping Firms with Digital Capabilities and Strategies for Innovation[Read More]

Digital capabilities can create new avenues for firms, such as extending their market reach, creating their own platforms and actively participate in innovation communities. Based on the literature, it is difficult to ascertain the conditions and capabilities in SMEs that are necessary for exploitative and explorative innovations. It is, therefore, imperative for SMEs to understand and leverage on digital innovations to run their businesses while also venturing out into new markets. We delve into three research studies that include developing a framework that would guide SMEs in developing their digital capabilities, forming platform strategies for local businesses to internationalize, and strategies for SMEs to leverage on the sharing economy.

1: Firm Digital Innovation for Growth

The first study employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to model and assess the culture of SMEs as well as design and evaluate the open innovation mechanisms. SMEs often have challenges automating their business processes and leveraging on business options, hence we focus on helping SMES identify and transform their organizational culture while also exploring possible mechanisms that would drive digital innovation and upgrade employee skills. Our key partners in this study includes SPRING, IMDA and SGTech. Currently, we are conducting surveys with firms to assess their digital maturity level and propensity for innovation.

2: Platform Strategies for Singapore Businesses

The second study focuses on SME adoption of platform technologies in response to disruptions brought upon by digital technologies. Digital and mobile technologies have given rise to new platforms across different sectors in Singapore, such as GoGoVan, Lazada and Agent Bong. For traditional SMEs, these platforms can present challenges as well as opportunities.

We explore the possible tradeoffs faced by these traditional companies when competing with a new platform in their market, and capitalize on economic modelling, empirical and experimental testing to investigate how they turn their businesses into platforms with the absence of any platform business model.

3: Leveraging the Sharing Economy

The third study focuses on how SMEs can leverage on the sharing economy, in particular with the collaboration of local sharing-economy companies such as Grab and Foodpanda. The study aims to reposition sharing economy as a gracious societal advancement and spurring higher levels of social efficiency. We also investigate the societal and economic impacts, including the demand and supply factors that determines the sustainability of the sharing economy.
Developing Human Capital that Facilitates Innovation[Read More]

Technological advancement has transformed the workplace and given rise to technology-enhanced learning that can manage employee training effectively. However, there are major challenges that come with these learning platforms such as low course completion rates and poor participant performance.

This thrust targets human capital development; how employee learning can be managed in order to drive long term innovation opportunities. Our focus is to understand how adult learners acquire knowledge on innovation through educational technologies. We also explore the mechanisms that sustains learners’ interest in innovation learning, and work towards designing a workplace environment that cultivates such talent and ideas to facilitate innovation.

1: Adult learning in the classroom

This study aims to improve adult education in Singapore through developing a scientific understanding of learning processes for continuing education learners. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, this study identifies psychological factors that can play a role in academic success of learners or form barriers and challenges for learners.

A multimethod approach is adopted involving longitudinal surveys, semi-structured interviews, and experiments. Thus far, a multi-wave longitudinal study involving numerous learners have been conducted. The results reveal that assessment anxiety, time management, and learner identity are issues critical to adult learners. Currently, we are conducting semi-structured interviews to understand how these issues may impact adult learners.

The main goal is to design and test interventions that can potentially mitigate learning barriers and challenges for adult learners in classroom settings.

2: Adult Learning at The Workplace

This study explores the factors influencing adult ICT-related competency using international survey data (e.g., Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, PIAAC). Specifically, it examines the influences of multiples factors that may predict adult problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments. The results identify social-demographic, work-related, and life-related factors that can predict these skills. However, the influence of adult learning participation does not necessarily influence such problem-solving skills.

Further work is being carried out to identify the features of informal learning that may be helpful in amplifying the effects of adult learning participation. We are open to collaboration with researchers, businesses, and government agencies to design interventions that can turn the workplace into effective learning platforms.

3: Skills of The Future

This study, carried out in collaboration with Skills Future Singapore (SSG), seeks to develop models that can predict the nature and quantity of skills demands in Singapore in the future. The initial phase of this project focuses on identifying suitable startups in ICT, where their skills demands are indicators of future skills demands.

Leveraging on a combination of purchased and open-source datasets, an initial topic modeling has been completed. Further efforts would involve the exploration of models such as time series forecasting (e.g., ARIMA) or deep learning (e.g., Recurrent Neural Network). This is an example of academic-practitioner collaboration, where the outcomes of analyses are interpreted with the assistance of SSG colleagues who have domain knowledge. The goal of creating such predictive models, is to identify skills of the future early so that tertiary institutions, businesses, and government agencies can engage in more targeted human capital development for the Singapore economy.

PEOPLE

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS / CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS / COLLABORATORS

Teo Hock Hai	Atreyi Kankanhalli	Bernard Tan Cheng Yian	Chu Junhong	Goh Khim Yong	Gong Jie
Heng Cheng Suang	Huang Ke-Wei	Isam Faik	Jiang Zhenhui Jack	Julian Wright	Jungpil Hahn
Oh Hyelim	Patricia Chen	Tan Chuan Hoo	Um Sungyong	Wei Kwok Kee