Standards and innovation in manufacturing and services: the case of ISO 9000

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Mangiarotti ◽  
Cesare A.F. Riillo
Keyword(s):  
Small Firms ◽  
Relative Effectiveness ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Iso 9000 ◽  
Community Innovation Survey ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovation Potential ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – The research empirically investigates the firm-level impact of ISO 9000 certification on innovation propensity. The study aims to distinguish between manufacturing and service sectors and adopts different innovation definitions aimed at capturing the peculiarities of innovation in services and small firms. Design/methodology/approach – Relying chiefly on Community Innovation Survey data for Luxembourg, the impact of certification on innovation probability is assessed using a logit model that controls for relevant firms characteristics and market features. Findings – The innovation potential of services and small firms is understated when adopting innovation definitions restricted to technological aspects and more formalised innovation activities. ISO 9000 certification may promote innovation when adopting definitions that captures sectoral innovation specificities. In particular, certification increases innovation propensity in manufacturing when the focus is on technological innovation and formalised innovation expenditures. On the contrary, when non-technological aspects are included and allowance is made for wider innovation activities, the impact of certification on services tends to emerge. However, sharper statistical evidence for manufacturing indicates a more important role of certification for innovation success in this sector. Research limitations/implications – Case-study research could supplement the findings concerning the relative effectiveness of certification in services and manufacturing. The investigation would also benefit from extensions in the econometric analysis to address comparisons across samples and potential causality issues. Practical implications – Findings are interesting to practitioners and registrars in order to identify the specific characteristics of firms for which certification provides higher innovative potential. Originality/value – The study highlights the relevance of sectoral specificities and innovation definitions for the debate about the effect of ISO 9000 certification on innovation.

scholarly journals The Effect of Government Subsidy on Non-Technological Innovation and Firm Performance in the Service Sector: Evidence from Germany

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoaib Abdul Basit ◽  
Thomas Kuhn ◽  
Mumtaz Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Organizational Innovation ◽  
Government Subsidy ◽  
Community Innovation Survey ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Government Subsidies ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Public Subsidy ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background: To enhance the innovation activities at the firm level, government subsidies plays an important role. Objectives: The objective of the study is to explore whether firms in service sector that receive government subsidies engage more in marketing and organizational innovation activities than their counterparts. Second, focusing on the subsidized firms in the service sector, the impact of innovations (marketing as well as organizational) on firm performance—measured as the probability of submitted copyright applications by firms, has been analyzed. Methods/Approach: The propensity score matching approach and probit model have been used to analyze the innovation activities of subsidized and non-subsidized firms. The empirical analysis is based on the micro level data from Mannheim Innovation Panel, covering the Community Innovation Survey of 2011. Results: Empirical results show that public subsidy has a significant positive effect on marketing and organizational innovation. In addition, within the firms that have received government subsidy, the impact of only marketing innovation is found to be significant on firm performance. Conclusions: These findings employ that subsidized firms are more likely to perform better than their counterparts. Furthermore, public subsidy programs increase the probability of applying for a copyright in small and medium firms.

Firm innovation and access to finance: firm-level evidence from India

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Parneet Kaur ◽  
Navneet Kaur ◽  
Paras Kanojia
Keyword(s):  
Small Firms ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Innovation Activity ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Firm Innovation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Based on 9,281 firm-level survey data on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India, this study aims to investigate how access to different finance sources and collateral requirement facilitates the firm’s innovation activity across industries. Design/methodology/approach This paper used ordered logit regression models using Stata software for explanatory variables to measure the impact of explanatory variables on firm innovation performance. Firms’ innovation performance is measured through the aggregate innovation index obtained by adding up the no. of “new-to-firm” activities. Findings The empirical results reveal that external sources of funding impact innovation activity than other financing sources. Also, the requirement of collateral for financing impacts innovation performance significantly. This paper finds that firms funded by state-owned banks or government agency are more actively engaged in innovation activities. The firm’s size, ownership structure and location of the firm also show the varying innovation performance. This paper found variation in innovation performance across industries as well. Practical implications First, the present study underlines the significance of funding sources. Second, minimizing the need for collateral to obtain external finance boosts small firms’ innovation activity and will also trigger overall economic growth. Finally, while making policies for ownership transformation of state-owned institutions, policymakers should discuss these policies’ impact on innovative firms. Originality/value What facilitates innovation performance in an emerging market is missing in the literature for MSMEs, largely due to lack of data. It is reasonable not to generalize innovation knowledge in large firms to small firms because of the constraints, particularly MSMEs face.

Does FDI crowd out domestic firms? Micro-level evidence from the Republic of Korea

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-416
Author(s):  
Hyelin Choi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
Foreign Firms ◽  
Crowding Out ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Domestic Firms ◽  
Crowd Out ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the foreign investment on the exit and sales of the domestic firms. Furthermore, it studies whether domestic firms undergo different influences by foreign firms according to the size of domestic firms.Design/methodology/approachKorean firm-level data for the period of 2006 through 2013 provided by Statistics Korea are used to study the impact of the foreign investment on the exit and sales of the domestic firms.FindingsThe result shows that foreign firms crowd out small firms from the market and take their shares in the domestic market. On the other hand, larger firms rather enjoy positive spillover effect from foreign firms, reducing its exit probability and increasing sales. It may be that large firms have enough competitiveness and ability to learn and apply the advanced technology of the foreign firms.Practical implicationsDespite the strong belief on the positive impacts of the foreign firms such as knowledge spillovers or job creation, there might be crowding-out or market-stealing effect from the presence of foreign firms. If the latter effect is larger than positive effect, the incentives provided by host country government to the multinational firms cannot be justified. In this regard, the question addressed in this paper is very important.Originality/valueWhile most of previous papers have focused on the impacts of the foreign firms on productivity of the domestic firms, this paper deals with their impacts on the exit and sales of the domestic firms in order to examine more direct crowding-out and market-stealing effect of foreign firms.

scholarly journals Capital market penalties to radical and incremental innovation

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Stefan Hain ◽  
Jesper Lindgaard Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Small Firms ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Radical Innovation ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Behavioral Characteristics ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
External Finance ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Negative Effect

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how access to financing for incremental as well as radical innovation activities is affected by firm-specific structural and behavioral characteristics. Design/methodology/approach Deploying a two-stage Heckman probit model on survey data spanning the period 2000–2013 and covering 1,169 firms, this paper analyzes the effect of a firm’s engagement in incremental and radical innovation on its likelihood to get constrained in their access to external finance, and how this effect is moderated by the firm’s age and size. Findings In line with earlier research, it is confirmed that the type of innovation matters for the access to external finance, but in a more nuanced way than generally portrayed. While incremental innovation activities have little negative effect on the access to external finance, radical innovation activities tend to be penalized by capital markets. This effect appears to be particularly strong for small firms. Originality/value This paper provides nuanced insights into the interplay between types of firm-level innovation activities, structural characteristic and access to external finance.

Linking ISO 9000 certification to firm performance and financial crisis: a matched sample longitudinal analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Efrosini Siougle ◽  
Sophia Dimelis
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Performance ◽  
Iso 9000 ◽  
Matched Sample ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Crisis Period ◽  
Technological Differences ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis is a longitudinal study exploring the effect of ISO 9000 certification on firm's financial performance in the pre-crisis period and the 2008 financial crisis period.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis is based on a 22-year dataset with balance sheet data from 136 Greek listed firms covering the period 1992–2013. A matching technique is applied to properly estimate potential differences in the impact of ISO 9000 on firm's financial performance between the groups of certified and matched non-certified (control) firms in the entire period but, most importantly, in pre-crisis vs crisis periods, using the difference-in-differences econometric approach.FindingsThe findings indicate that certified firms exhibit significantly higher financial performance relative to the matched non-certified group in both the pre-crisis and crisis periods, which tends to persist for several years post-certification. The financial crisis has a negative and statistically significant effect on firm performance in both the certified and matched non-certified groups, which nevertheless did not differ significantly between them. Controlling for sectoral and technological differences did not harm the higher performance of certified firms relative to the matched control peers. The results remain in the same direction when the authors test the ISO 9000 effect in the sub-group of certified firms that obtained the certification at the firm-level.Originality/valueThe study is original in its sample design and hypothesis testing. The matched sample created from a sufficiently long and continuous time dataset enabled the authors to properly estimate firm performance differences of ISO 9000 between pre-crisis and crisis periods. Of additional value is the testing of sectoral/technological differences and the distinction between firm-level and plant-level certification.

Firms’ reaction to threats from informal firms: exploring the roles of institutional quality and technical gap

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 1887-1899
Author(s):  
Guoyou Qi ◽  
Hailiang Zou ◽  
Xie X.M. ◽  
Saixing Zeng
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Innovation ◽  
Institutional Quality ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovative Strategies ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Top Managers ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Technical Capability ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Threats from the informal sector have become an important concern among formal firms. As a response to these threats, formal firms can adopt product innovation (PI) and marketing innovation (MI) strategies to differentiate themselves. The purpose of this paper is to examine how firm-level technical capability and external institutional quality affect firms’ reactions to the threats from informal firms by adopting innovative activities. Design/methodology/approach Based on attention-based view (ABV), an empirical study is conducted by using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey in 2013. Findings The findings indicate that when faced with competition from informal firms, formal firms will intensify their innovation activities in both MI and PI, and their technical capability mitigates the competitive threats from informal sectors and thus weakens the impact of informal competitors on the level of product and marketing innovations. Moreover, it is found that the improvement of institutional quality reduces formal firms’ urgency to introduce new products when facing informal competitors. However, this improvement strengthens the impact of informal rivalry on formal firms’ innovation in marketing methods. Originality/value Previous studies that investigate the influence of informal threats are focused on technological innovation (e.g., PI and process innovation) strategies, but little knowledge is provided on non-technological innovative strategies, such as marketing strategies (e.g., MI and organizational innovation). This study contributes to the innovation literature by delving into the circumstances under which PI and/or MI is adopted to counter informal rivals. The findings enrich ABV by investigating how inter-firm resource similarity and marketing commonality strengthen top managers' attention to competition from informal firms.

Cognitive proximity and innovation performance: are collaborators equal?

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari O' Connor ◽  
Justin Doran ◽  
Nóirín McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Innovation Policy ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Community Innovation Survey ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
External Knowledge ◽  
Innovation Output ◽  
Backward Linkages ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis paper combines the concepts of search depth and cognitive proximity to investigate the impact of intense collaboration with different external agents on firms' innovation performance. It empirically tests whether firms that draw deeply on cognitively proximate collaborative partners are more innovative than those collaborating intensively with cognitively distant partners. It explores whether the impact of each external agent is equally important in determining the innovation output of firms.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from the Irish Community Innovation Survey 2012–2014, this paper employs a probit model to empirically test the impact of collaboration with cognitively proximate and distant sources of external knowledge to establish whether their impact on innovation performance is uniform.FindingsThe results show that not all collaborators equally impact firm innovation performance. Firms who indicate that knowledge sourced from backward linkages with suppliers is highly important are more likely to engage in both product and process innovation, with the effect more pronounced for the former. The extent of this is greatest for backward linkages compared to forward, horizontal and public linkages. Public linkages have the weakest impact on innovation output which raises questions from a policy perspective given the focus on university–industry collaboration for innovation. The findings indicate that collaboration with cognitively proximate sources of knowledge benefits firms' innovation output.Originality/valueThe study provides empirical evidence on the role of intense collaboration with cognitively proximate and distant external knowledge sources to explore their impact on the subsequent innovation performance of firms. The results can be used to help shape firm-level innovation policy, and indeed national policy, to promote innovation performance.

The effects of coopetition on the innovation activities and firm performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 622-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina I. Fernandes ◽  
João J. Ferreira ◽  
Pedro M. Veiga ◽  
Carla Marques
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Transfer Of Knowledge ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Community Innovation Survey ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper involves evaluating the impact of coopetition on the innovation activities and innovation performance of companies. Design/methodology/approach The study deployed data from the Community Innovation Survey – CIS 2012 and subject to the application of different multivariate statistical analysis processes. Findings The authors furthermore conclude that coopetition and the transfer of knowledge to and from competitors generates a statistically significant positive impact on company innovation-related activities and performance. Originality/value This work enriches the theory of innovation from the perspectives of game-theoretic strategic and resource theory approach. Moreover, the findings provide several recommendations for managers to effectively conduct firm’s coopetition strategy on innovation performance.

How does corporate learning orientation enhance industrial brand equity? The roles of firm capabilities and size

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Xie ◽  
Xiaoying Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Brand Equity ◽  
Firm Size ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Learning Orientation ◽  
Innovation Capability ◽  
Marketing Capabilities ◽  
Marketing Capability ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Corporate Learning ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to examine the role of learning orientation in building brand equity for B2B firms. The present research proposes that learning orientation contributes to the development of innovation and marketing capabilities and, in turn, leads to enhanced industrial brand equity. Furthermore, the moderating effect of firm size in these processes is investigated. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses are tested by administering a survey with a set of managers of manufacturing firms in China. Findings Innovation capability and marketing capability serve as the mediators between learning orientation and industrial brand equity. The mediating path through innovation capability is stronger for small firms than for large firms. Research limitations/implications Learning orientation provides a cultural base for B2B firms to cultivate brand equity. Measurement of industrial brand equity and contingency of its effect requires further investigation. Practical implications To transform learning-oriented culture into brand equity, firms need to develop and manage innovation and marketing capabilities. The learning orientation–innovation capability route is more beneficial for small firms. Originality/value While a majority of prior literature ignores the impact of organizational culture in driving industrial brand equity, the present research explores learning orientation as a key cultural antecedent of industrial brand equity. A more refined industrial-brand-equity-building mechanism from learning orientation to corporate capabilities and then to brand equity is proposed and tested. The mechanism varies with firm size.

She-E-Os and innovation: do female CEOs influence firm innovation?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hafiz Mustansar Javaid ◽  
Qurat Ul Ain ◽  
Antonio Renzi
Keyword(s):  
Financial Constraints ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
State Ownership ◽  
Corporate Environment ◽  
Firm Innovation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Female Ceos ◽  
Innovation Output ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis paper empirically investigates whether female CEOs (She-E-Os) have an effect on firm innovation among Chinese listed firms based on patent data. This study also delved further by looking at whether the internal corporate environment moderates the effect of female CEOs on innovation, that is, state ownership. Finally, this study investigates an additional test of financial constraints to examine whether financial constraints also moderate the impact of female CEOs on firm innovation.Design/methodology/approachThis study used the data of all A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges for the period from 2008 to 2017. The authors use ordinary least squares regression as a baseline methodology, along with firm-fixed effect, lagged measure of female CEOs, alternative measures of innovation, Heckman two-step model and negative binomial regression to check and control the possible issue of endogeneity.FindingsThe authors’ findings show that CEO gender plays an important role in producing higher levels of innovation output by improving the governance structure. However, female CEOs have no effect on state-owned enterprises' (SOEs) innovation activities, which suggests that the main goal of SOEs is achieving sociopolitical objectives. Furthermore, female CEOs' influence on innovation output is weaker in firms with financial constraints.Social implicationsThis study adds to the emerging global discussion on gender diversity. Many legislative bodies require a quota for women on corporate boards due to gender inequality. This study's findings reinforce such guidelines by emphasizing the economic benefits of including women in top management positions.Originality/valueThis study provides new insights by highlighting the role of female CEOs in increasing firms' innovation activities. Additionally, this study provides evidence on whether the internal corporate environment (state ownership and financial constraints) moderates female CEOs' effect on innovation.

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