ORGANIZATIONAL INTEGRATION AND PROCESS INNOVATION

Mechanisms for the successful adoption of process innovation were investigated. Since firms buy most new technologies for manufacturing operations, it is difficult for them to use these technologies to achieve competitive advantage because it is difficult to protect them from imitation and circumvention. We suggest that successful organizations use four integrating mechanisms of two types to capture the value from process innovations, (1) making process innovation a unique occasion for significant restructuring and (2) creating effective new patterns from the many alternative ways of accomplishing these changes. Findings supported the idea that three upstream integrating mechanisms directed at the value-added chain-new hierarchical structure, increased coordination between design and manufacturing, and greater supplier cooperation-positively affect the productivity of new manufacturing systems, and one market-directed, downstream mechanism, forming new customer alliances, positively affects new system flexibility. Guidelines for future research are discussed.