Open innovation and firm performance: Evidence from the Chinese mechanical manufacturing industry

People have become more conscientious about the environment in recent years. Increasing environmental awareness drives customers to be more selective about environmentally friendly products and forces governments to adopt environmentally friendly policies. As a result, competition in the market becomes more challenging. Thus, companies cannot remain indifferent to adopting environmentally friendly strategies to be sustainable. In this regard, this study investigates the effect of green innovation on firm performance. We also examined whether the environmental uncertainty moderates the investigated effect. For this purpose, first, data were collected from the first 1000 exporting firms declared in 2019 by the Turkey Exporters Assembly using a survey method. Secondly, factor analyses and regression analyses were performed with the data set obtained from 136 companies. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that green innovation increases both environmental performance and economic performance. It also was found that green innovation positively affects firm performance, but environmental uncertainty reduces this effect. According to these results, it was offered that firms should increase their green innovation activities to achieve better outputs and seek ways to reduce environmental uncertainty to keep these outputs at the maximum level. Finally, the research includes some considerations on the positive implications and potential of green innovation in an open-innovation context.

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Two Sides of the Same Coin. University-Industry Collaboration and Open Innovation as Enhancers of Firm Performance

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13073866 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 3866

Author(s):

Joana Costa ◽

Ana Rita Neves ◽

João Reis

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Open Innovation ◽

Primary Data ◽

Company Performance ◽

Innovation Ecosystem ◽

Industry Collaboration ◽

And Performance ◽

Performance Results ◽

The Impact ◽

University Industry

Open innovation is proved to be determinant in the rationalization of sustainable innovation ecosystems. Firms, universities, governments, user communities and the overall environment are called to contribute to this dynamic process. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of open innovation on firms’ performance and to empirically assess whether university-industry collaborations are complementary or substitutes for this activity. Primary data were collected from a survey encompassing 908 firms, and then combined with performance indicators from SABI (Spanish and Portuguese business information). Econometric estimations were run to evaluate the role of open innovation and university-industry collaboration in the firm innovative propensity and performance. Results highlight the importance of diversity in collaborations with the academia and inbound open innovation strategy as enhancers of firm performance. The two activities reinforce each other. By testing the impact of open innovation practices on company performance, the need for heterogeneity in terms of contact type and university is also demonstrated. Findings cast light on the need to reformulate existing policy packages, reinforcing the ties with academia as well as the promotion of open innovation strategies. The connection to the innovation ecosystem needs to be further encouraged as well as the promotion of persistent connections with the knowledge sources in an open and multilateral framework.

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Does investment in innovation impact firm performance in emerging economies? An empirical investigation of the Indian food and agricultural manufacturing industry

International Journal of Innovation Science ◽

10.1108/ijis-07-2020-0104 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 233-248

Author(s):

Manogna R.L. ◽

Aswini Kumar Mishra

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Manufacturing Industry ◽

Emerging Market ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Emerging Economy ◽

Content Type ◽

Agricultural Industry ◽

Indian Food ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

Purpose The study aims to analyze the impact of Research & Development (R&D) intensity on the firm’s performance, measured by growth of sales in the emerging market like India. Innovation strategy and its outcomes for firms may be different in developing countries as compared to developed countries. Thus, a study that focuses on the emerging economy like India, with a majority of the population dependent on agriculture, is of prime importance to the firm performance in the food and agricultural manufacturing industry. For this study, the broader focus will be on one widely recognised factor which may influence the growth rate of firms, i.e. investment in innovations which is in terms of R&D expenditure. Design/methodology/approach The paper investigates the relationship between the R&D efforts and growth of firms in the Indian food and agricultural manufacturing industry during 2001–2019. To empirically test the relationship between firm’s growth (FG) and R&D investments, system generalised method of moments technique has been used, hence enabling to avoid problems related to endogeneity and simultaneity. Findings The findings reveal that investments in innovations have a positive effect on the growth of firms in the Indian food and agricultural manufacturing industry. Investment in R&D also enables the firms to reap benefits from externalities present in the industry. Further analysis reveals that younger firms grow faster when they invest in R&D. More specifically, this paper finds evidence in the case of the food and agricultural industry that import of raw materials negatively affects the FG and export intensity positively affects the growth in the case of R&D firms. Research limitations/implications This study suggests that the government should encourage the industries to invest optimally in R&D projects by providing favourable fiscal treatments and R&D subsidies which are observed to have positive effects in various developed countries. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, the current paper is the first to analyse the impact of innovation in food and agricultural industry on firm’s performance in an emerging economy context with the latest data. This paper agrees that a government initiative to increase private R&D expenditure would have favourable effects on FG as growing investments in R&D lead to further growth of the firms.

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The Influence of the Entrepreneur's Open Innovation Strategy on Firm Performance

Research Anthology on Small Business Strategies for Success and Survival ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-9155-0.ch026 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 522-546

Author(s):

Samwel Macharia Chege ◽

Daoping Wang

Keyword(s):

Regression Analysis ◽

Firm Performance ◽

Multiple Regression Analysis ◽

Multiple Regression ◽

Open Innovation ◽

Scientific Research ◽

Innovation Strategy ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

Internal Capabilities ◽

Main Factors

This article helps identify the main factors influencing the performance of small and medium agribusiness enterprises in Kenya. The study proposes five research hypotheses, each tested on a sample of 150 agribusiness enterprises using multiple regression analysis. The results show that the use of external partners, such as scientific research establishments and commercial consultants, influences the firm's performance. This influence is moderated by factors like internal capabilities and the firm's degree of openness to innovation.

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Improving firm performance through inter-organizational collaborative innovations

Management Decision ◽

10.1108/md-02-2017-0151 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 56 (6) ◽

pp. 1167-1182 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Miguel Hernandez-Espallardo ◽

Fabian Osorio-Tinoco ◽

Augusto Rodriguez-Orejuela

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Open Innovation ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Strong Support ◽

Equation Model ◽

Data Set ◽

Content Type ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Innovation Culture ◽

Collaborative Innovation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to add to the existing knowledge about how firm performance is influenced by their involvement in collaborative innovation. The contextual resource-based dimensions improve the participating firm’s performance through its impact on the job-related attitudes of the firm’s personnel. Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses were tested using structural equation model to analyze a set of data collected through surveys among a sample of Colombian manufacturers. Findings This study provides empirical evidence that contributes to the scarce research in the open innovation arena about how human resources influence performance in the inter-organizational collaborative innovations. In particular, it offers strong support for the key mediating role of the employees’ job-related attitudes in the relationship between complementary capabilities and innovation culture as value-creating conditions, and the participating firm’s ultimate sales and financial performance. Research limitations/implications The results may be affected by the context of the data set. Further studies considering the influence of specific contextual variables, such as the type of innovation, the national culture or the type of partner, could yield richer insights that would help validate the results of this study. Practical implications This study provides useful information for managers. As well as creating the required conditions to add value in the collaborative innovation, they should work to guarantee the better job-related outcomes for the employees involved in collaborative innovation projects. Originality/value This research contributes to the open innovation literature. It posits the employee’s attitudes toward collaborative innovations as a factor of the utmost importance in determining how the external collaboration affects internal performance.

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