scholarly journals On external knowledge sources and innovation performance: Family versus non-family firms

Technovation ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 102448
Author(s):  
Phuong-Anh Nguyen Duong ◽  
Wim Voordeckers ◽  
Jolien Huybrechts ◽  
Frank Lambrechts
Keyword(s):  
Family Firms ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
External Knowledge ◽  
Family Versus

Developing process and product innovation through internal and external knowledge sources in manufacturing Malaysian firms: the role of absorptive capacity

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 1021-1039 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Ramayah ◽  
Pedro Soto-Acosta ◽  
Khoo Kah Kheng ◽  
Imran Mahmud
Keyword(s):  
Absorptive Capacity ◽  
Product Innovation ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Organizational Capability ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
External Knowledge

PurposeFirms' knowledge-processing capabilities have a central role in achieving innovation performance and competitive advantage. Absorptive capacity capabilities and innovation are viewed as essential for enterprise success. Absorptive capacity is deemed as a highly important organizational capability to recognize value and assimilate both external and internal knowledge in order to enhance firm innovation. The aim of this study is to determine if innovation performance can be improved through absorptive capacity (knowledge acquisition, dissemination and utilization), when it is supported by internal (firm experience) and external knowledge sources (R&D cooperation and contracted R&D).Design/methodology/approachA quantitative methodology based on employing a structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The proposed research model and its associated hypotheses are tested by using Partial Least Squares (PLS) structural equation modelling (SEM) on a data set of 248 manufacturing companies located in the Northern Region of Malaysia.FindingsResults showed that firms' experience is significantly related to absorptive capacity, while for R&D cooperation and contracted R&D findings were mixed. In addition, absorptive capacity was found as a strong predictor of innovation performance.Originality/valueOne of the defining features of competition in many industries has been the extremely rapid pace of technological change, marked by a continuous stream of innovations. Manufacturing firms, therefore, face the challenge of nurturing existing knowledge and developing novel knowledge in order to create new business opportunities. This study makes valuable contributions with regard to understanding the behavioural of manufacturing firms towards process and product innovation.

SEARCH FAR AND DEEP: FOCUS OF OPEN SEARCH STRATEGY AS DRIVER OF FIRM'S INNOVATION PERFORMANCE

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (03) ◽  
pp. 1340007 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAISA HENTTONEN ◽  
PAAVO RITALA
Keyword(s):  
Search Strategy ◽  
Search Strategies ◽  
Moderating Effect ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Technological Capabilities ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
External Knowledge ◽  
Deep Focus

The effects of open search strategies (i. e., search for firm-external knowledge) on firm-level innovation performance are still ambiguous in the existing literature. We introduce the concepts of focused search strategy and multi-focus search strategy as differentiating factors for a firm. The results of a cross-industrial survey from Finnish markets suggest that applying one focused search strategy intensively generally enhances the firm-level innovation performance. It also seems that emphasizing multiple search strategies intensively improves performance even more, and that the effect becomes stronger, the greater the number of knowledge sources used. Furthermore, the results show that firm-specific technological capabilities have a negative moderating effect in terms of highly focused search strategies, but this diminishes when the focus gets more diverse.

scholarly journals Breadth of external knowledge search in service sectors

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragana Radicic
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Single Type ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
External Knowledge ◽  
Process Innovations ◽  
Knowledge Search ◽  
Product And Process

PurposeThere is a dearth of empirical research on the impact of external knowledge search on innovation performance in different categories of service firms. This study explores the effectiveness of the breadth of external search on product and process innovations in German firms. In particular, the author modelled a non-linear relationship between the breadth of knowledge and product and process innovations.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP) data for the German service firms in the period 2014–2016, the author reported findings from a bivariate probit model which took into account mutual interdependence between product and process innovations. Moreover, the model was separately estimated for knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) and other services. For comparative purposes, the author also estimated the model for manufacturing firms.FindingsEmpirical findings uniformly indicated an inverted U-shaped effect of the breadth of knowledge on both product and process innovations. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that using up to three knowledge sources increases the probability of a joint implementation of product and process innovations. These findings hold for both KIBS firms and other services. However, those service firms that focussed on a single type of innovation experienced diminishing returns to external knowledge when exploiting more than one source of knowledge. These results indicated that a simultaneous introduction of different types of innovation required diverse knowledge sources. In contrast, when focussing on a single type of innovation, service firms experienced diminishing returns when multiple sources were used. However, this finding was only partially found for manufacturing firms. Accordingly, this study’s findings provided support for the demarcation approach, insofar as the breadth of knowledge had a heterogenous impact on innovation in manufacturing relative to service firms.Originality/valuePrevious studies on the breadth of knowledge search mostly examined its influence on innovation performance without separately analysing manufacturing and service firms. The present study focussed on service firms that were further divided into KIBS and other service firms. By investigating potentially non-linear relationships between knowledge breadth and product and process innovations, it illustrated how different innovation strategies were affected by a diverse pool of external knowledge sources.

Knowledge creation in small building and construction firms

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Durst ◽  
Ingi Runar Edvardsson ◽  
Guido Bruns
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Knowledge Creation ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Construction Firms ◽  
External Knowledge ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Small Building

Studies on knowledge creation are limited in general, and there is a particular shortage of research on the topic in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Given the importance of SMEs for the economy and the vital role of knowledge creation in innovation, this situation is unsatisfactory. Accordingly, the purpose of our study is to increase our understanding of how SMEs create new knowledge. Data are obtained through semi-structured interviews with ten managing directors of German SMEs operating in the building and construction industry. The findings demonstrate the influence of external knowledge sources on knowledge creation activities. Even though the managing directors take advantage of different external knowledge sources, they seem to put an emphasis on informed knowledge sources. The study´s findings advance the limited body of knowledge regarding knowledge creation in SMEs.

Are winemaker consultants just another source of knowledge for innovation?

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 1523-1539 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Doloreux ◽  
Ekaterina Turkina
Keyword(s):  
Positive Influence ◽  
Wine Industry ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
External Knowledge ◽  
Telephone Interviews ◽  
External Sources ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
External Sources Of Knowledge

Purpose This paper aims to explore the effects of multiple external sources of knowledge and of the use of winemaker consultants on innovation in the Canadian wine industry. Design/methodology/approach The data for the study are taken from an original survey of wine firms in Canada covering the 2007-2009 period. The survey was carried out by computer-assisted telephone interviews, and it was addressed to winery firms that are engaged in growing grapes and producing wine. Findings The results show that the use of winemaker consultants positively affects all forms of innovation. At the same, as far as external knowledge sources are concerned, marketing sources positively affect all types of innovation, while research sources and general sources have a positive influence on particular forms of innovation. The results also show that winemaker consultants interact with other knowledge sources. Nevertheless, there are important nuances with regard to which type of knowledge sources is more compatible with the use of winemaker consultants for which type of innovation. Originality/value To date, there is no empirical evidence of the extent to which the use of external winemaker consultants and external knowledge sources interact together and what are their impacts on the introduction of different forms of innovation.

scholarly journals Prediction Markets for Crowdsourcing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Horn ◽  
Marcel Bogers ◽  
Alexander Brem*
Keyword(s):  
Stock Market ◽  
Open Innovation ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Business Practice ◽  
Prediction Markets ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Prediction Market ◽  
Online Platform ◽  
External Knowledge ◽  
Opening Up

Crowdsourcing is an increasingly important phenomenon that is fundamentally changing how companies create and capture value. There are still important questions with respect to how crowdsourcing works and can be applied in practice, especially in business practice. In this chapter, we focus on prediction markets as a mechanism and tool to tap into a crowd in the early stages of an innovation process. The act of opening up to external knowledge sources is also in line with the growing interest in open innovation. One example of a prediction market, a virtual stock market, is applied to open innovation through an online platform. We show that use of mechanisms of internal crowdsourcing with prediction markets can outperform use of external crowds.

Knowledge sources and innovation in the hotel industry

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 2537-2561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Nieves ◽  
Gonzalo Diaz-Meneses
Keyword(s):  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Knowledge Sources ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Content Type ◽  
External Knowledge ◽  
Radical Innovations ◽  
External Agents ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Organizational Collaboration

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the role played by external knowledge sources and intra-organizational collaboration as determinants of innovation in hotel firms. It proposes that local knowledge sources and intra-organizational collaboration determine the probability of producing incremental innovations, and that non-local knowledge sources determine the introduction of radical innovations.Design/methodology/approachDescriptive statistics made it possible to evaluate the importance of each of the external sources as the origin of ideas for innovation. Principal component analysis was used to find homogeneous groups based on the different knowledge sources contemplated. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine which variables predict a hotel’s capacity to introduce innovations.FindingsThe findings suggest a dissociation between innovations adopted by directly incorporating the specific knowledge provided by external agents and innovations that require the mediation of intra-organizational collaboration for their development.Research limitations/implicationsFuture qualitative studies can provide data that would considerably improve the understanding of how innovation processes are produced in hotel companies based on the use of external knowledge and how hotel firms develop spaces to exchange and combine internal knowledge.Practical implicationsHotel firms can adopt innovations by incorporating specific knowledge from external companies or by developing their own innovations based on information gathered from external agents or events (e.g. customers, attending trade fairs and professional conferences). The transformation of this information into innovations requires the establishment of internal communication channels that foment employees’ collaboration and exchange of information.Originality/valueThe study provides empirical evidence for the relevant role played by both external agents and intra-organizational relationships as sources of knowledge to foster innovation in hotel firms. External agents are classified as local and non-local sources, and their effect on innovation is analyzed, distinguishing between incremental and radical innovations.

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