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 presentation 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 presentation is based on case studies of Polish companies, which are compared with a case study 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

1. RELATIONSHIPS AS SOURCE OF
INNOVATIONS IN ADVERTISING INDUSTRY
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF POLISH AND JAPANESE
APPROACHES
Y. Hara, K. Hosoi,
G. Leszczyński, M. Zieliński
Combining the Social and Technological Aspects of Innovation:
Relationships and Networks
The 28th IMP Conference
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2. Polish approach?
Japanese approach?
RELATIONSHIPS AS A SOURCE OF
INNOVATIONS IN ADVERTISING INDUSTRY
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3. STARTING POINT
• Traditional approach to innovation process places the source of ideas inside
the company while open innovation approach treats customer as an
external source of new ideas for the company (Von Hippel, 1978, Hyland et
al., 2006, Chesborough 2003, Bjork and Magnusson 2009).
• Process of innovation requires collaboration of actors, activities and
resources at intra- and inter-firm levels (Rothwell 1994).
• That concept is based on well established relationships, which, in turn,
require trust between the company and the partners with whom it
cooperates for innovation. Mutual trust between partners is on the top of
the list of factors that affect performance of collaboration (Gulati, 1995,
Dyer and Hatch, 2004)
• However sometimes distrust is usual.
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4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Purpose
The main reason for taking this subject have been concerns raised by managers in relation to the
possible use of customer relationships in the exploration and development of innovation in service
companies. Therefore the paper deals with the issue of low innovativeness of Polish service
companies.
Literature addressed
The impact of external actors on innovation of the company was discussed in the literature related
to new product development (Wuyts et al., 2004), innovation (Laursen & Salter, 2006), business-to-
business relationships (Håkansson et al., 2009; Chen et al. in 2011; Salunke et al. 2011).
The recognized contribution of services to economic growth contributed to the studies of
innovation within services (de Jong et al., 2003; Hauknes, 1998; Howells & Tether, 2004; Miles, 2005).
However the impact of distrust relationships on collaboration with customer still needs clarification.
Advertising companies
Advertising companies were chosen for that study because this industry is defined as a “co-creation
service” one, where a high level of participation of the customer is required to create the service
and the service itself is advisory and problem-solving (Bolton and Saxena-Iyer, 2009).
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5. SERVICE INNOVATION
Aa and Elfring (2002) define service innovation as: new combination of services or service
elements, reproduction of service, involvement of customer, adoption of technology.
Mager and Sangiorgi (2005) suggest 3 dimensions of service innovation:
• market - pricing and offering strategies are developed
• organizational and production - processes and organizational models are invented
• relational - the social and cultural aspects of service experience include the users’
perspective
The presumed advantage of collaborating with customers for service innovation relates to:
generation of service ideas and information about user requirements
• comments on new concepts
• assistance on development and testing of prototypes
• assistance in diffusion (Chen et al. 2011)
We are focused on cases of involvement of customer, inclusion of his perspective and
integration of new knowledge in innovation process in advertising companies.
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6. RESEARCH FRAMEWORK
An open innovation model directs our attention to:
• Social capital of advertising companies that is created by the sum of the actual
and potential resources embedded within, available through and derived from
the network of relationships possessed by an individual or social unit (Nahapiet
and Ghoshal 1998).
Parties that have high social capital should exchange information more easily
and with bigger number of parties (Wu et al 2008)
• Learning orientation, which allows incorporation of the innovative potential
inherent in the relationships. Innovative companies are characterized by
openness to comments and recommendations from the environment,
particularly communicated by customers (Kanter 1988).
Both inter- and intra-organizational cooperation needs relationships based on
trust because it enables sharing of information. The impact of trust/distrust on
social capital and learning orientation is discussed.
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7. METHODLOGY
CASE STUDY IN TWO COUNTRIES
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8. METHODLOGY
CASE STUDY IN TWO COUNTRIES
Ad industry
Focal point is:
•Trust
•Learning orientation
•Social capital
•Innovation process
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9. METHODLOGY
CASE STUDY IN TWO COUNTRIES
Ad industry
Focal point is:
•Trust
•Learning orientation
•Social capital
•Innovation process
1.Interviews in Poland (Case 1&2) 1.Interviews in Japan (Case 3)
Thursday, September 13, 2012

10. METHODLOGY
CASE STUDY IN TWO COUNTRIES
Ad industry
Focal point is:
•Trust
•Learning orientation
•Social capital
•Innovation process
1.Interviews in Poland (Case 1&2) 1.Interviews in Japan (Case 3)
Thursday, September 13, 2012

11. METHODLOGY
CASE STUDY IN TWO COUNTRIES
Ad industry
Focal point is:
•Trust
•Learning orientation
•Social capital
•Innovation process
1.Interviews in Poland (Case 1&2) 1.Interviews in Japan (Case 3)
2.Discussing on Japanese case 2.Discussing on polish case
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12. CONTEXT
Poland Japan
• transition → market economy • market economy
• services: 54,5% of GDP • services: 75,7%
• one of lowest level of innovation • one of the most innovative economies
among OECD countries, below EU • focused on giving and receiving results
average in a long time
• lowest trust and collaboration among
EU countries
• Polish managers expect quick results of
their actions because of the short-term
orientation
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13. CASE 1
Opportunities
lack of trust exploitative learning orientation
short time relationships
Customer is not perceived as a source of innovation
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14. CASE 1
Opportunities
lack of trust exploitative learning orientation
short time relationships
Customer is not perceived as a source of innovation
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15. CASE 2
lack of trust
lack of faith in the customer’s knowledge
short time relationships
Customer is kept out of the process of innovation
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16. CASE 2
lack of trust
lack of faith in the customer’s knowledge
short time relationships
Customer is kept out of the process of innovation
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17. CASE 3
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18. CASE 3
Clan
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19. CASE 3
Clan
Always working with same Clan members
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20. CASE 3
Clan
Always working with same Clan members
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21. CASE 3
Clan
Always working with same Clan members
Foster trust
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22. CASE 3
Clan
Always working with same Clan members
Foster trust
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23. CASE 3
Clan
Always working with same Clan members
Foster trust
Incremental innovation
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24. CASE 3
Changing network
New knowledge
Radical innovation
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25. CASE 3
Outside Agent
Changing network
New knowledge
Radical innovation
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26. JAPANESE PERCEPTION OF POLISH
APPROACH
Japanese respondents were surprised on distrustful
relationship in Polish advertising industry. They said that they
couldn’t create good works without the trust. Trust and
cooperation with others is a basic and minimum request to do
creative works in Japanese advertising industry.
lack of trust and loyalty
a lot of time is spent to define contract
linear and intra innovation process
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27. POLISH PERCEPTION OF JAPANESE
APPROACH
The Polish managers from both researched agencies were surprised
by the importance of customer relationships that are the deciding
factor in selection of the agency. Cooperation with thirds
parties agencies is impossible in Polish circumstances. The Japanese
concept of clans seems to be very interesting, however this solution
may be difficult to transfer to Polish market
Personnel exchange (clans)
Foster the trust, contracts are not needed
Network model of innovation
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28. CONCLUSIONS
• Customer is not regarded as a source of innovation in both countries, but his role is different due to
trust/distrust
• Customer role:
• in Poland at the beginning and at the end of process,
• in Japan - customer’s perspective included, customer involved in the process
• In polish ad agencies lack of trust limits the possibilities of collaboration with customer and other
actors
• Reinforcement of trust needs time, so companies might focus on development of social capital or
modification / development of their learning orientation
• Contracts should include elements of collaborations based on clans
• Further research on development of relationships without confidence is needed
• The presented observations are exploratory in nature, but they formed the basis to apply for a grant
to Polish Ministry of Science
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29. THANK YOU
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