International Journal of Innovation Management

Knowledge sharing (KS) is often considered central to encouraging innovative work behaviour (IWB). We concentrate specifically on the relationship between KS and IWB through the mediating role of psychological empowerment (PE). A stratified sampling method was employed for three organisations operating in the services sector. We obtained 340 completed survey returns from employees. Based on a framework informed by social exchange theory (SET), structural equation modeling (SEM) was implemented to examine the research model and the mediation effect. The main finding is a significant positive relationship between KS and PE from one side and PE and IWB from the other. In addition, there is a significant relationship between KS and IWB. It is concluded that PE partially mediates the relationship between KS and IWB. We recommend that researchers and practitioners further investigate the contribution of KS to promoting PE and IWB that enhance organisational performance.

Incumbents’ inertia in the face of disruptive innovations has been emphasised in prior literature. The relevance of inertia is particularly topical in the context of digital transformation. However, incumbents may be able to invest in disruptive digital innovations appropriately if they possess the motivation and ability to do so. In this paper, I use three streams of research in order to investigate contextual, organisational, and individual antecedents of incumbents’ motivation and ability to adopt and use potentially disruptive digital innovations in health care: institutional theory, the resource-based view, and technology acceptance literature. I employ factor analyses and logistic regressions to test the impact on the adoption and usage of telemedicine applications using a dataset of 9,196 European general practitioners. I examine B2B as well as B2C applications in order to determine the effect of the antecedents on different business models. My findings suggest that only isomorphic pressure, complementary assets, and perceived output quality significantly influence both adoption and usage as well as B2B and B2C business models in the same way. Formal institutions and individual factors yield ambiguous results. These findings provide important implications for the understanding of incumbents’ response to potentially disruptive digital innovations in regulated contexts.

This study explores how innovativeness mediates the effects of organizational culture and leadership on performance. Survey data are collected from 288 middle and top managers in the Jordanian airline industry. Validity and reliability analyses are performed, and direct and indirect effects are tested using structural equation modeling. Innovativeness positively and significantly mediates the effects of organizational culture and leadership on performance. Organizational culture, in turn, may contribute to innovativeness and performance, depending on the effectiveness of the organization’s leadership style. A bureaucratic culture does not statistically or significantly correlate with the perceived organizational performance, but it does positively and significantly affect the perceived market performance. This study is one of the first investigations that connects innovativeness to culture and leadership, and provides empirical evidence on the topic.

This study assessed the influence of external knowledge sourcing on multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) subsidiaries service innovation performance. It also considered the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation, as well as the mediating role of exploratory learning. Empirical analysis was based on primary data gathered from 156 MNEs’ subsidiaries. Various validity and reliability checks were conducted before the presentation of the actual analysis, which was conducted using ordinary least squares approach, run using SPSS (v. 20). Findings indicate that exploratory learning fully mediates the relationship between external knowledge sourcing and MNEs’ subsidiaries service innovation performance. Entrepreneurial orientation was also found to moderate the relationship between external knowledge sourcing and exploratory learning. This study adds to the existing debate in the arena of resource-based theory.

Introducing existing, improved or radically new process technology in the process industries is not finished until it is operating well at the firm’s premises; a fact of growing importance in the perspective of digital transformation. However, since it is uncommon for firms in the process industries to develop own process technology, they are dependent on suppliers for the acquisition of new equipment. Relying on the development of an organisational framework, the authors’ industrial experiences, and a literature review, success factors for inter-firm process technology transfer were initially developed. To facilitate the company use, and as an illustrative case, the success factors were afterwards included in a survey to informants in the petrochemical industries. The findings indicate that companies would benefit from the development of an internal guide for inter-firm process technology transfer. The success factors could not only be used as components in such a manual, but also serve as a “check-list” for internal improvement programs for process technology transfer.

Effective decision-making in innovation development is decisive for innovation success, but also poses a major challenge for companies. Building on the information-processing view of organisational design, this study investigates how companies should organise functional decision-making authority in innovation development to engender innovation success. Additionally, this research explores the interplay between the design of functional decision-making authority and organisational innovativeness representing an aspect of organisational culture. Based on two datasets garnered from a survey and an experiment with managers experienced in innovation development, the study demonstrates that the dispersion of decision-making authority across functional groups positively affects the performance of an innovation. Further, the results reveal that environmental turbulence positively moderates the effect of the dispersion of decision-making authority on innovation performance. Finally, organisational innovativeness leads to a higher dispersion of decision-making authority. This study offers important implications for managers seeking to organise functional decision-making authority in innovation development more effectively.

This research aims to identify the factors that characterise the evolutionary stages of the development cycle of information and communication technology (ICT) companies, based on Brazilian evidence. A data collect was done and the analysis shows the factors related to the companies’ success. In addition, the results show factors related to the evolutionary stages of the ICT companies and demonstrate the differences in the characteristics of each stage of the company: nascent, in consolidation and mature. The results of this research provide information to entrepreneurs to improve the performance of their enterprises and, consequently, contribute to the development of the ICT sector in Brazil and other countries with similar characteristics. Furthermore, based on the results found in the different characteristics of companies at each evolutionary stage, this research provides information to policy-makers to develop really effective mechanisms to contribute to the technology sector and, subsequently, to a better economic and social development of their countries.

This article proposes a conceptual model to analyse the role of quality orientation and collaborations in firms’ management innovation, and also the impact of management innovation to product, process and marketing innovation. Moreover, the analysis considers organisational size as a key moderating factor in order to investigate whether the relationships among the model factors vary between small and medium size firms. To achieve these objectives an empirical survey was conducted among 429 firms. The structural relationships among the latent factors were determined through SEM. The findings show that the probability of success increases when firms use quality orientation and collaboration to support management innovation efforts. In addition, the findings suggest that management innovation positively affects product, process and marketing innovation while the organisational size acts as a moderator in the relationships among quality orientation, collaborations, management innovation, — product, process and marketing innovation, respectively.

Existing theories of organisational behaviour have addressed the relationship between the role of leadership behaviour of project manager and outcomes of subordinates in developing new products (e.g., improving innovation speed and new product performance). However, only a small number of researchers have investigated the impact of leadership behaviour on the fuzzy front end. Specifically, the role of leadership behaviour in reducing uncertainty in the fuzzy front end for each innovation type has been largely overlooked. Apart from employing the path-goal theory and using survey research, this research collects data from the food & beverage, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries in Thailand ($N=244$) and analyses the data with structural equation modeling. Our results can contribute how the leadership behaviour of project manager impacts on development of each type of product innovation. The findings reveal that the directive path-goal behaviour of project managers helps to reduce uncertainty in the fuzzy front end during incremental innovation development. In contrast, achievement-oriented behaviour of project managers helps to reduce uncertainty in the fuzzy front end during radical innovation development. Additionally, reducing uncertainty in the fuzzy front end can enhance the new product performance of these two types of innovation.

Although scholars have recognised that alertness is critical in identifying and exploring opportunities, empirical studies exploring when alertness drives innovation are lacking. Drawing insights from the cognitive and contingency perspectives, this study addresses this gap by arguing that variations in firm product innovativeness are a function of the degree of entrepreneurial alertness and levels of internal firm capabilities and environmental conditions. Data were collected from 385 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana. This study used the hierarchical regression estimation technique to analyses the data and found a significant positive relationship between entrepreneurial alertness and firm product innovativeness. Moreover, the findings showed that entrepreneurial alertness is beneficial for firms to innovate when pressures from customers and competitors are intense. Finally, the results revealed that stronger market information sharing and technological opportunism also amplify the alertness-innovativeness relationship.

This study examines the construction of each search strategy that combines search space, depth and network into innovation. It approaches a search as a problem-discovery process, which occurs during all phases of a problem-solving process. It selects three cases of LG Household and Healthcare’s product and process innovation, which typically occur in the cosmetics industry, where many cosmetic firms have conducted problem discoveries of oriental knowledge for product and process innovation. Knowledge of oriental medicine and fermentation are called, as oriental knowledge is traditionally rooted in Asian culture and practices. Through a qualitative multiple-case study, this study identifies the different combinations of the three components in each search strategy — in terms of core competences. It notices that searches in each innovation are conducted during all phases of each problem-solving process rather than being confined to the initial stage of problem-solving activities. Through discussions of each component, this study reveals that despite the importance of ambidexterity in a search, the value system and absorptive capacity can take an important role in an effective search by properly recognising and evaluating the value of knowledge and turning it into a problem. Secondly, the search depth influences the innovation proceedings and links different pieces of knowledge. Lastly, a search network can facilitate problem discoveries, reduce the risk and uncertainty of each problem formulation and lead to competence building, even though it can be subject to partner availability and strategic compatibility issues.