International Journal of Innovation Management

Informed by the knowledge-based theory of the firm, the study explores how internal absorptive capacity and external inter-organisational collaboration jointly promote business model innovation (BMI). Drawing on the relevant existing literature, a model linking collaboration breadth, collaboration depth, absorptive capacity, and BMI was constructed and tested. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis of the results of a questionnaire-based survey of 317 senior managers in manufacturing firms revealed that both collaboration breadth and collaboration depth are positively related to BMI. Collaboration depth has no significant moderating effect on the collaboration breadth–BMI relationship, and absorptive capacity has no significant moderating effect on relations between BMI and collaboration breadth or collaboration depth. However, the joint moderating effects of absorptive capacity and collaboration depth on the collaboration breadth–BMI relationship were positively significant. These results have a number of implications for research on BMI and innovation management and for the development of knowledge-based theory.

This study examines the extent to which the intra-industry knowledge spillover and a firm’s alliance portfolio diversity have an effect on product innovation performance and the growth of different size of firms. A model was proposed and empirically tested using structural equation modelling with Bayesian estimation. The data was extracted from the Colombian innovation survey EDIT from 2011 to 2016 and comprised a sample of 913 manufacturing firms. The results demonstrated that less-developed and resource-scarce settings, such as Colombia, foster interfirm collaboration regardless of their size. Nevertheless, even when considered the positive and significant effect of collaboration, spillovers are the most relevant external knowledge source in explaining the product innovation performance and growth of small and medium firms. The findings also showed that knowledge spillovers can be detrimental to the large firms’ outcomes, possibly associated with a weaker appropriability regime and the loss of knowledge derived from outgoing spillovers.

Counter intuitively, this research finds that innovation is not negatively correlated with the presence of psychopathic managers but rather is significantly and positively correlated. This effect, from a survey of 261 full-time, white collar Australian employees, is strongest for product innovation and then administrative innovation, with the positive effect for process administration not statistically significant. Psychopathic managers have previously been linked to many detrimental characteristics within organisations and while this study finds employees working under psychopathic managers have lower autonomy in completing their work, their creativity is not decreased. Thus, the usual mechanism of higher creativity producing higher innovation is not the path linking psychopathic managers to innovation. It may be that the extreme environment, stress and high pressure created by psychopathic managers pushes employees towards innovativeness. This potentially positive effect of psychopathic managers is contrasted with their commonly reported negative aspects and suggests new avenues to explore for research aiming to increase innovation in the workplace.

The constant generation of innovation is a major factor in explaining a firm’s long-term success. Accordingly, previous literatures have identified several organisational, processual, and cultural factors that enable firms to promote successful innovation. Although these success factors appear to be rather different, most of them revolve around continuity, competence, or cooperation. As little prior research has focused on the complexity and interdependence of these various interlinked theoretical concepts, we adopt a configurational and longitudinal approach to analyse the effect of continuity, competence, and cooperation on the innovation performance of a firm on short-, mid-, and long-term bases. Based on a longitudinal data set that captures the innovation behaviour of 220 firms from 2009 to 2015, we find that continuity is the basic requirement for constant innovation performance. In addition, cooperation is likely to be supportive of innovation performance in the short term, while competence supports innovation performance in the long term.

This study examines how firms cooperate for innovation in the services sector. We tested the theoretical development using cluster analysis and ordinal logit regression analysis with firm-level data collected from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) for the period 2011–2013. Overall, 2,622 service firms have been used. This research contributes as follows: first, the findings show that the greater degree of penetration into the innovation modes of the firms means that the intensity of the use of cooperative agreements as well as the diversity of cooperative partners increases. Second, the empirical evidence for the taxonomy of innovation development in the service sector provides firms with the ways how to innovate based on their strategic orientation.

The initial business model of start-ups affects the performance and development of new ventures. Therefore, new technology-based firms (NTBFs) must choose a suitable initial business model to survive, perform, and grow. We propose a measurement framework comprising of nine elements described using 16 variables for NTBFs’ initial business models. We test our framework by surveying 589 young manufacturing and knowledge-intensive high-tech firms established in 2013 in Sweden, Finland, and France. We identify differences between the business models across countries and measure sales growth during 2014–2016. We find significant differences between high-tech manufacturing firms and high-tech knowledge-intensive firms regarding key partners, activities, and resources, as well as value propositions and the ranking of elements. In the second part of the analysis, we apply correlation and regression tests for the nine elements regarding early business performance (sales growth) for the manufacturing and knowledge-intensive high-tech firms.

Absorptive capacity (ACAP) is one of the most active themes in knowledge management literature. The topic is extensively mentioned in several relevant research fields, including innovation, organisational learning and strategic management. In this study, we employed bibliographic coupling to analyse the extant academic literature published in order to detect research fronts on the theme. Our sample includes 2,072 papers published in the last four years, which is in line with our basic intent to investigate the latest academic research. Papers included in the core research front highlight the role of ACAP as an organisational ability to assess new valuable knowledge, aiding the development of organisational capabilities. The role of knowledge absorption capacity in alliance networks, open innovation processes, intra-organisational learning, as well as exploratory and exploitative initiatives are the other relevant research fronts identified. We suggest the proposed implications of the analysis as material for further research on the theme.

The paper explores how the collective identity of a community of practice contributes to the development of innovation capacity. Specifically, we question how members’ perception of collective identity influences their perception of individual and collective capacity to innovate, whether different dynamics are at work between collective identity and innovation capacity, and finally how individual factors can explain these different dynamics. Empirically, we studied the communities of practice at Schneider Electric, a world leading company in energy management and automation. We surveyed 672 members of communities of practice in order to understand their relationship to their community. Our findings highlight the relationship between the perception of CoP collective identity and innovation capacity and suggest that (1) the three dimensions of collective identity play a role on members’ perception of knowledge sharing and CoP contribution to innovation capacity and also that (2) this influence may act differently depending on members’ profiles.

The aim of this paper is to study the influence of the environment on the link between intellectual capital and ambidextrous innovation. The environment has been considered taking into account the technological turbulence and the market turbulence. Using a questionnaire survey approach, data were obtained from 155 directors representing Tunisian SMEs. Two main theoretical implications were highlighted. The first is the extent of the intellectual capital contribution, with its human, organizational and relational components, to the reading of the ambidextrous innovation within the organization. The second is the moderating role of environmental turbulence. From a practical side, the study tried to reap the intellectual capital benefits and the intermediate effect of environmental turbulence to improve the manager’s yields in term of innovation. Interestingly, results show that human capital affects ambidextrous innovation. It influences radical innovation more than incremental innovation. Relationship capital promotes only incremental innovation. Organizational capital influences ambidextrous innovation. Its effect on incremental innovation is greater than on radical innovation. Both technological and market turbulences moderate negatively the human capital effect on incremental innovation. Counter to our expectations, however, environmental turbulence does not moderate the interrelationships selectively between relational capital, organizational capital and ambidextrous innovation. The present study is one of the few studies conducted in Tunisia investigating the field of intellectual capital and the first studying its effect on the ambidextrous innovation in a turbulent environment.

Learning is a key component of firm upgrading in emerging economies, and China is no exception to this. Studies have identified, among others, two critical mechanisms that facilitate learning: (1) connections with supportive local governments that enhance access to resources or publicly funded knowledge and (2) connections to co-located foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) that enhance access to advanced knowledge and capabilities. However, previous studies on the effects of these connections on learning and innovation have had contradictory results. In this study, we develop a model of firm innovation capabilities based on regional differences in firms’ dependence on government and MNEs. Using a sample of 715 indigenous firms from the three historically dominant economic regions in China, we find that the effects of government and MNE ties on local firms’ learning and innovation performance vary depending on the historically dominant dependency patterns in the region.

Marketing capabilities are a major driver of competitive advantage across different business contexts. One of these capabilities is the ability to sense consumer needs and to develop innovations to meet these needs, referred to as innovation capability. Innovation holds the potential to improve the living conditions of resource-constrained consumers at the bottom of the world’s economic pyramid (BoP) in emerging markets. Surprisingly, research has failed to develop a comprehensive understanding of how firms can innovate successfully in BoP markets. Applying a configurational perspective, this study explores the organisational configurations that characterise firms that successfully develop innovations for the BoP market. Analysing data from an online survey with senior-level managers ($n$ = 245) in 10 emerging markets, the authors offer important insights for firms seeking to develop innovations for BoP consumers in terms of the specific organisational configurations that lead to BoP innovation success.