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Rapid Response Capabilities: The Importance of Speed and Flexibility for Successful Innovation

In: Management Of Technology Innovation And Value Creation Selected Papers from the 16th International Conference on Management of Technology

Author

Listed:
  • Christoph Grimpe

    (Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Germany and K. U. Leuven, Belgium)

  • Wolfgang Sofka

    (Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Germany and Department for Marketing and Innovation, Institute for Marketing and Media, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany)

Abstract

Spanish fashion retailer ZARA has been the prototype for a new kind of competitive strategy by beating its rivals through superior flexibility and speed to market new products. We define this organizational ability to learn from the market and respond to it with superior speed as a "rapid response capability". We explore its origins conceptually by drawing arguments from the the capability based view of the firm. Based on a sample of 3,360 German companies our empirical results show that rapid response capabilities are either built around exploiting existing absorptive capacities or exploring options given strong environmental pressures from the technological or demand side, but not a combination of both.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoph Grimpe & Wolfgang Sofka, 2008. "Rapid Response Capabilities: The Importance of Speed and Flexibility for Successful Innovation," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Mostafa Hashem Sherif & Tarek M Khalil (ed.), Management Of Technology Innovation And Value Creation Selected Papers from the 16th International Conference on Management of Technology, chapter 22, pages 359-380, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:wschap:9789812790545_0022
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