Varied university-industry knowledge transfer channels and product innovation performance in Guangdong manufacturing firms

Author(s):  
Xinyue Hu ◽  
Yongli Tang ◽  
Kazuyuki Motohashi
2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 1021-1039 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Ramayah ◽  
Pedro Soto-Acosta ◽  
Khoo Kah Kheng ◽  
Imran Mahmud

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (03) ◽  
pp. 2050023
Author(s):  
ABDUL-FATAHI ABDULAI ◽  
LYNDON MURPHY ◽  
BRYCHAN THOMAS

This paper examines the association between university–industry collaboration and firm innovation performance, and the effect of informal mechanisms of knowledge transfer on such an association, using data from a survey of 245 firms in Ghana and employing partial least squares structural equation modelling. The results are of significant relevance to the business community and policy-makers in Ghana and West African. We find that while university–industry collaboration is positively related to innovation performance in firms, informal mechanisms of university knowledge transfer do not and negatively moderate the positive association between university–industry collaboration and innovation performance in firms. It is also found that to facilitate innovation outcomes, formal, legal binding contracts are required. The study recommends that university knowledge generation and innovation policies in Ghana encourage formal collaboration between knowledge exchange actors. It is also suggested that improvements need to be made to the efficacy of intellectual property legislation in Ghana.


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 463-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquín M. Azagra-Caro ◽  
David Barberá-Tomás ◽  
Mónica Edwards-Schachter ◽  
Elena M. Tur

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7765
Author(s):  
Shuizheng Song ◽  
Md Altab Hossin ◽  
Xiaohua Yin ◽  
Md Sajjad Hosain

The demand for sustainable development and the advantages of industries are expediting over time with the triggering of green innovation performance (GIP). Improving a firm’s GIP, especially in manufacturing industries, can accelerate green development and mitigate the global-concerned environmental issues. Thus, to investigate GIP from its antecedent factors, we delineate the relationship between network potential, absorptive capacity, environmental turbulence, and GIP based on social network theory, organizational learning theory, and contingency theory. We tested our hypotheses based on 233 sets of questionnaire surveys from high-tech manufacturing firms in China through deploying the hierarchical regression and bootstrap method. Our empirical findings reveal that the network potential dimensions, including network position centrality (NPC), network structure richness (NSR), and network relationship closeness (NRC), significantly positively impacted the GIP. The absorptive capacity (AC) partially mediated the relationship between the network potential dimensions and GIP. Environmental turbulence (ET) as an essential mechanism not only positively moderated the relationship between AC and GIP but also enhanced the AC mediation effect. These findings indicate that manufacturing firms should continue to improve network potential and AC and respond rapidly to changes in the external environment to enhance GIP, consequently contributing to the sustainable development of the economy.


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