Management literature prescribes innovation as a stimulus for sustained competitive advantage in companies; however, the nature of the development in this field has resulted in the literature being broad and fragmented. This paper focuses on the body of literature concerned with the factors which influence innovation management in organisations. The aim of this research is to present a holistic view of the factors that affect innovation management. Using a systematic literature review approach, using over 100 papers, this research identifies nine key factors that impact on an organisation's ability to manage innovation. These nine factors have been identified as management style and leadership, resources, organisational structure, corporate strategy, technology, knowledge management, employees and innovation process. This paper then discusses the inductively derived model that presents the important relationships identified between the factors to present a holistic view of innovation management. From this, we open up the debate on innovation management as a systemic approach rather than being focused on the singular factors. We can therefore conclude that a number of dominant relationships exist between the factors with the innovation process being the only endogenous factor within the model.

Business models such as supply chain, extended enterprise and virtual enterprise are merely the tip of an emerging trend in new organization alliances, boundary redefinition, and market structures. Today's manufacturing systems should be measured and managed in the context of the total business they are part of: back through the supplier chain and forward into the distribution and customer chain (Browne and Sackett, 1995). Despite the increasing focus on collaboration between enterprises from one side, existing studies in the area of performance management still narrowly look at the single enterprise and its "within-enterprise" processes and people (e.g. Beamon, 1999; Neely et al., 1995;). The main objective of the research behind this paper was hence to go beyond existing work and thoroughly analyse existing knowledge in different disciplines in order to develop a better understanding of the issue of performance management in collaborative enterprises. We aimed at identifying gaps in current knowledge concerning the critical issues, threats and opportunities that must be considered and the challenges that must be faced when designing a system for managing performance in collaborative enterprises and to define a research agenda for future performance management studies

PurposeTo close the inaugural volume of Strategic Outsourcing, an International Journal (SOIJ), this paper's objective is to suggest a research agenda for outsourcing related studies, aiming to identify a limited number of key and most urgent research areas in need of scientifically valid research.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on their personal experience and knowledge as well as the content of the first volume of SOIJ, to identify key seminal studies in the field, observe gaps in current knowledge, and provide suggestions for future research.FindingsThe major outcome of the paper is our suggestion for the top‐10 most urgent outsourcing research areas. Also interesting are the other three top‐10s we propose: the top‐10 theories underpinning current outsourcing research; the top‐10 research areas investigated by past research on outsourcing; and the top‐10 research questions that have emerged this year.Research limitations/implicationsConsidering the methodology we chose for this article, we are aware, and indeed so should you be, that this research is biased and subjective by our own admission. Hence its categorisation as a viewpoint. Nonetheless, considering the large amount of information we have used and the very narrow focus we have kept in identifying only the most urgent gaps, we believe the article has relevant implications in terms of clarifying a short‐term roadmap for research in the field.Practical implicationsFrom a practical perspective, as with all research agendas, the longer‐term implications are much more important and visible than the shorter‐term ones. The extremely fast pace at which outsourcing practice develops, coupled with the slower pace at which theoretical formulation and education move, are leaving outsourcing practitioners short of the proper “tools of trade”. A clear and focused research agenda can help generate knowledge supporting a drastic reduction in the confusion surrounding this practice and hence increase practitioners’ ability to develop the proper skills, learn from and apply validated theories and, in turn, more successfully manage their outsourced operations or contracts.Originality/valueThat outsourcing related research is going to increase over the next few years, is undisputed. The key question is how we can maximise current and future efforts to shorten the development time. Being part of the editorial team of SOIJ puts us in the privileged position to have visibility over most current research being undertaken in the field of outsourcing. Complementing this with our own experience as researchers and practitioners in the field, we can provide relevant suggestions to those researchers who share an interest in developing this field into a fully‐fledged scientific discipline.

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