Paper info

Relationships as the source of innovations: comparative study of Polish and Japanese approaches

Grzegorz Leszczynski , Marek Zielinski, Kenichi Hosoi and Yoritoshi Hara

The paper was published at the 28th IMP-conference in Rome, Italy in 2012.

Collaboration among companies is often claimed to become the source of distinctive competitive advantage to companies. Trust belongs to key determinants of collaboration. The literature on innovation suggests that innovative companies have well mastered two processes: creation of ideas and transformation of ideas into new solutions. In this paper these two areas are the focal point. We seek for the information about the customer role as a generator of ideas and its impact on the process of their implementation.The paper is based on case studies of Polish companies, which are compared with a cases from Japan. This approach allows comparison of the situation in countries with low and very high innovation economy. In the Polish respondent opinion the Japanese advertising agencies market operates on totally different rules than in Poland. Areas indicated by representatives of both agencies concern mainly the role of trust in the cooperation with external stakeholders.The advertising market in Poland is still young and highly fragmented. The transactional approach represented by polish agencies results in concentrating on the development of projects and selling capabilities. There is no place, time and knowledge to maintain customers and to develop their loyalty. The fight for customers, often on the borderline of ethics, and price, as the main determinant of project selection, inhibit innovation. The approach to relationships represented by the Polish companies is rooted in the culture. Looking more broadly at the issue of trust in relationships and the role of relationships in the innovation process we refer to the transition economy, which is characterized by a lack of confidence.