International Journal of Innovation Management

What is the role of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) for a firm's innovativeness and absorptive capacity (ACAP)? Research shows that a firm's capacity to acquire and utilise relevant knowledge, i.e., its absorptive capacity, is decisive for innovation success. We develop a theoretical model that links the availability and usage of KMS with a firm's ACAP and its organisational knowledge to explain its contribution for a firm's innovation success. Using data from 222 manufacturing firms, we can show that the availability of a KMS in a firm affects its innovation success by contributing to its ACAP. Looking at the impact of different knowledge types on innovativeness, the results show that only technological knowledge is a substantial determinant of innovation success but not market knowledge.

This paper investigates the ability of knowledge intensive business firms (KIBS) to engage in co-innovation with client firms. Co-innovation is related to the competitive advantage of KIBS as knowledge creators and sources of innovation. We apply a knowledge-based perspective where knowledge-related resources and learning capabilities explain why certain KIBS firms are able to co-innovate. We couple our theoretical expectations with qualitative evidence on three best practices in the Dutch market for environmental services.

Innovation literature reports high failure rates for innovations, ranging from 50% to 90%. Hence, most new products fail as they are rejected by consumers due to their resistance to innovation, indicating that innovations remain a critical challenge for managers. In order to expand our current knowledge of consumers' new product adoption behaviour, we propose to consider the concepts of passive and active innovation resistance. Within a large scaled empirical study, we show that passive innovation resistance evolves from an individual's resistance to change disposition and status quo satisfaction, while active innovation resistance is primarily driven by product-specific barriers. Our results indicate that both passive and active innovation resistance represent strong inhibitors within new product evaluation, significantly reducing consumers' intention to adopt new products.

New product development is considered as one of the survival strategies for organisations with high risk which is related to extreme failure rate that should not be neglected. Among internal and contextual factors which affect winning or losing in new product development (NPD), the role of top management team as key decision makers is critical. The objective of our research is to explore managerial factors influencing success in new product development. To find out these factors, relevant literature was reviewed and specific top managers were interviewed. Afterwards, a survey was administrated to elicit the opinions of managers involved in NPD in accordance to the degree of each factor's importance. This study examined six factors assumed to be critical in top management level to achieve success in NPD including commitment, regulatory focus, entrepreneurial orientation, social capital, international orientation and tendency of top managers to future study.

The intention of this paper is to investigate innovation outcomes associated with complementary sets of training practices. Our analysis is performed using a multiple linear regression model with lagged variables on several different service sectors. We lagged three training and technology factors and noted the extent of innovation within and between these factors while comparing returns to innovation in the short-term (one year) to the long-term (the following six years). We hypothesised that the complexity of technology and process of learning by doing/using would result in short-term innovation returns being far less than those experienced in the long-term. We predicted the opposite would occur for the training factors due to the obsolescence of acquired skills over time. Our results show that short-term innovation returns for training factors are consistently higher than those for technology. This lends support to our hypothesis.

This paper probes the factors which determine or enable SMEs to acquire external support, to achieve technological innovation outputs (in the form of innovation sales) and to enhance economic performance (in the form of sales growth). At the outset a conceptual framework (based on literature survey) is formulated by identifying the key variables relevant to the research objectives. Subsequently based on primary data gathered from 157 innovative SMEs covering auto components, electronics and machine tool industries in the Bangalore city region of India, we analyzed the three objectives. By means of logistic regression analysis, we ascertained that SMEs which have internal technical competence in the form of technically qualified owner/manager and an exclusive design office, which innovate frequently, particularly focusing on both product and process innovations obtained external support relative to the rest. Backward elimination multiple regression analysis revealed that firms which are able to obtain and complement external support to their internal technical competence, and which are "entrepreneurial firms" achieved more innovation sales. Finally, backward elimination multiple regression analysis ascertained that innovation sales, objective of firm origin, age of firms and nature of innovations significantly influenced the sales growth of SMEs.

Organisational culture is a decisive factor for a firm's innovativeness and performance. Our empirical model explores the relationship between organisational culture — based on the competing values model — as an antecedent of exploration and exploitation, innovation success and firm performance. It is tested on a sample of 232 CEOs of corporations in the US. Relationships between the constructs were analysed through path modelling, using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method, employing the SmartPLS software. The results reveal a strong influence of corporate culture on exploration and exploitation, innovation success and performance. More specifically, we find significant positive relationships between hierarchy culture and market culture and exploitation. A clan culture negatively impacts exploration. Only an adhocracy culture positively influences both exploitation and exploration. Exploration and exploitation are positively related to innovation success and firm performance. Theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and an agenda for further research are discussed.

The main objective of the study was to understand how sustainable business strategies relate to business performance considering different sectors, sizes and levels of international integration. Thus, we identified the major social and environmental management practices of Brazilian companies and the leading indicators that make up the performance of the companies surveyed. The research was characterised as a quantitative research. Among the main aspects highlighted in the analysis one should mention the supremacy of the environmental variable in the relationship with the business performance. With less intensity arise the variable reputation/image, showing that this variable is among the priorities in the socio-environmental agenda of companies. The social variable seems to be among the least concerns of firms, or it is not yet seen by managers as a strategic element to their business competitiveness. The methodological procedures adopted allow us to confirm the existence of a relationship between socio-environmental management practices and business performance.