scholarly journals External knowledge sharing and radical innovation: the downsides of uncontrolled openness

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 1104-1123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paavo Ritala ◽  
Kenneth Husted ◽  
Heidi Olander ◽  
Snejina Michailova

Purpose Inter-firm collaborative innovation typically requires knowledge sharing among individuals employed by collaborating firms. However, it is also associated with considerable risks, especially if the knowledge sharing process is not handled using proper judgment. Such risks have been acknowledged in the literature, but the underlying empirical evidence remains unclear. This study aims to examine how sharing of business-critical knowledge with external collaboration partners affects firm’s innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors develop a mediating model and hypotheses predicting that the uncontrolled sharing of knowledge leads to accidental knowledge leakage, which, in turn, hinders particularly firm’s radical innovation performance. The authors test the model by using a survey of 150 technology-intensive firms in Finland and a partial least squares structural equation model. The mediating model is tested with incremental and radical innovation performance, and the authors control for firm size, age, R&D intensity and industry. Findings The authors find strong support for the model in that uncontrolled external knowledge sharing leads to accidental knowledge leaking and to lower radical innovation performance. The same results are not found for incremental innovation, implying that uncontrolled knowledge leakage is especially detrimental to radical innovation. Originality/value These findings help in better understanding some of the downsides of too much openness and lack of judgment about knowledge sharing beyond the boundaries of the firm. Thus, firms pursuing radical innovation should carefully guide their employees with regard to what knowledge they share, to what extent they share it and with whom they share it.

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Charterina ◽  
Jon Landeta ◽  
Imanol Basterretxea

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mediating role of contracts and trust on the generation of product innovations stemming from buyer-supplier knowledge-sharing (KS) among the members of the supply chain. Together with the individual effects of trust and contracts, their joint effect is examined in order to determine whether these are complementary or alternative mechanisms of safeguarding and control. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a survey of 202 European machine tool firms acting as buyers and sellers, the authors propose and evaluate a structural equation model. Findings Results confirm that there is a positive relation between contracts and trust with respect to buyer-supplier KS, and of the latter with respect to innovation performance. They also show that firms in which both the levels of trust and contract use are high reinforce their product-innovation capability based on buyer-supplier interaction (complementarity thesis). However, results also show that, contrary to trust, contracts by themselves do not act as a stimulus for product innovation. Research limitations/implications Establishing contracts seems to be a highly recommended action in a buyer-supplier relationship focused on increasing innovation capacity. This does not go against engendering trust in a relationship. Both trust with a degree of formalization, in different ways, help to increase the effect of sharing valuable knowledge on innovation capacity. Originality/value To the authors’ best knowledge, no prior study has delved into differentiating the use of contracts and trust as mechanisms in mediating the effect originated from knowledge-sharing on product innovation performance with two different samples formed by buying and selling firms.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chi Thi Phuong Nguyen ◽  
Duong Tuan Nguyen ◽  
Hang Thu Nguyen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of entrepreneurs’ personality traits on firm innovation performance through the mediation role of entrepreneurs’ innovativeness. Design/methodology/approach The data consist of 2,574 firms from a survey of small and medium-scale manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam, a developing and transitioning economy where SMEs constitute an integral part of the economy. The estimation results based on the structural equation model was applied to analyze the data. Findings The results indicate that an entrepreneur’s innovativeness is positively associated with his extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience but negatively accompanied with his neuroticism. Besides, the three traits – openness to experience, conscientiousness and extraversion have positive indirect effects, while neuroticism has a negative indirect effect on technological improvement and new technology adoption. However, the effects of agreeableness on entrepreneurial innovativeness and firm innovation performance are insignificant. In addition, the diverse backgrounds of the entrepreneur such as education and ethnics are also found to influence his innovativeness and to have indirect effects on firm innovation performance. Originality/value This study may contribute to the immature literature on the entrepreneurial process within SMEs by presenting empirical evidence on the relationship between entrepreneurial personality traits and firm innovation with a large sample of SMEs in Vietnam, an emerging economy where SMEs constitute an integral part of the economy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 149-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duy Quoc Nguyen

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical and empirical exploration of link between organization intellectual capital and knowledge flows with its incremental and radical innovation performance.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts relevant literature of social capital and organizational learning to examine the impact of intellectual capital and knowledge flows on incremental and radical innovation based on surveying 95 firms. To test the research hypotheses, regression analysis is used.FindingsResults of the study show that human capital and top-down knowledge flows significantly and positively influence both incremental and radical innovations. Social capital and bottom-up knowledge flows do not have any significant impact on incremental or/and radical innovation. Organizational capital has a positive impact on incremental innovation as expected.Practical implicationsThe results offer several practical implications for business managers to harvest its knowledge bases resident in the firm’s different forms appropriately to make innovation successful. Particularly, knowledge resident in human capital and organizational capital is useful for making incremental innovation. Especially, new knowledge, new skills and new perspectives resident in human capital are crucial important for making radical innovation. Both incremental and radical innovations are positively influenced by dynamic managerial capabilities.Originality/valueThis study contributes to literature by providing new evidence linking organization intellectual capital and knowledge flows with its innovation performance. Especially, the missing link between top-down knowledge flows and radical innovation is empirically examined. Value of this study is that social capital and bottom-up knowledge flows are not universally beneficial for enhancing innovation and their impacts on innovation performance are context dependent and more sophisticated than it is recognized in the literature.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 1167-1182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Hernandez-Espallardo ◽  
Fabian Osorio-Tinoco ◽  
Augusto Rodriguez-Orejuela

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.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laila Marouf

Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the role of knowledge sharing (KS) culture in leveraging knowledge management (KM) strategy and human resource (HR) strategy to improve business performance (BP). Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire survey was distributed to 120 randomly selected companies in Kuwait. A total of 392 valid responses were collected and tested using a structural equation model. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS and LISREL software to verify the research hypotheses. Findings The results revealed the impact of the mediating variable KS culture on the enhancement of BP. Both KM strategy and HR strategy were observed to have a positive direct effect on KS culture. Practical implications The results indicate that top management should make efforts to cultivate a KS culture to achieve better BP and future success. Originality/value The primary research contribution is the conceptual model for the role of KS culture as a mediator between KM strategy, HR strategy and BP.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-373
Author(s):  
Naiara Escribá-Carda ◽  
Lorenzo Revuelto-Taboada ◽  
Maria Teresa Canet-Giner ◽  
Francisco Balbastre-Benavent

PurposeThis work aims to analyze the effect of employees' perceptions of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on intrapreneurial behavior (IPB), and the potential role of knowledge sharing as a mediating variable in this relationship.Design/methodology/approachHypothesis testing was performed using a structural equation model (SEM) based on a PLS-SEM approach applied to a sample of 297 knowledge-intensive employees from six industrial companies of the Valencian region (Spain).FindingsResults confirmed that the relationship between employees' perceptions of HPWS and IPB does not take place directly. Alternatively, this relationship occurs through knowledge sharing of employees.Originality/valueThis study makes theoretical and empirical contributions to better understand the impact of employee's perceptions of HPWS on IPB mediated by knowledge sharing. This work theorized and tested a model where the concept of IPB gains special relevance at academic and practical levels due to its implications for HRM.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongfu Li ◽  
Yu Song ◽  
Jinxin Wang ◽  
Chengwei Li

Knowledge economy era is an era driven by innovation, mainly based on the input of intangible assets which plays decisive roles in the long-term development of enterprises. The product value of enterprises is largely determined by their intellectual capital. Therefore, as pillars of China’s economy, construction enterprises must strengthen their investments in intellectual capital, and to achieve competitiveness in the market, enterprises must share knowledge with the other members of their networks. This study explores the relationship among the intellectual capital, knowledge sharing, and innovation performance of construction enterprises and the mediating effect of knowledge sharing on the relationship between intellectual capital and innovation performance by using data collected from a questionnaire survey. These data are analyzed along with the aforementioned relationships by using SPSS and a structural equation model. The findings indicate that intellectual capital not only has a direct positive influence on the innovation performance of construction enterprises but also positively affects their innovation performance through knowledge sharing. This paper concludes by presenting its limitations and the implications of its findings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayman Bahjat Abdallah ◽  
Samer Eid Dahiyat ◽  
Yoshiki Matsui

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of innovation orientation (IO) on both the implementation levels of soft and hard lean management (LM), as well as innovation performance. It also aims at exploring the effects of soft and hard LM on innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach The study analyzes survey data collected as a part of a high-performance manufacturing (HPM) project from 238 international manufacturing companies in eight countries and three industries. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were applied to assess construct validity. The study hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings The results demonstrated that innovation-oriented companies tend to adopt aspects of both soft and hard LM. However, the results revealed an insignificant effect of soft and hard LM on innovation performance. The study also showed that innovation performance is positively influenced by an IO. These results indicate that having an IO is vital for enhancing both LM as well as innovation performance. They also evidently suggest that LM is more related to continuous improvement (incremental innovation) rather than (radical) innovation and, as such, is not important for firm’s intent on enhancing their innovation performance. Practical implications The current study demonstrates that IO and LM are complementary and not contradicting strategies. The two strategies share many cultural aspects, similarities and commonalities. However, LM is not sufficient to predict innovation performance. Managers of the surveyed manufacturing firms are advised to focus on IO, as it has beneficial impacts on both LM (continuous improvement initiatives) as well as innovation performance. This clearly indicates that placing the emphasis upon radical (innovative) improvement rather than incremental improvement (LM practices) is believed to support continuous and innovative improvement alike. Originality/value The relationship between LM and innovation is debated in the existing literature, but the debate is characterized by a lack of empirical evidence. This is one of the first studies that empirically investigates the relationships between IO, LM and innovation performance. It identifies some new insights to direct future research, particularly regarding different innovation types as well as in service organizations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 1729-1746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiongfeng Pan ◽  
Ma Lin Song ◽  
Jing Zhang ◽  
Guangyou Zhou

Purpose This paper aims to identify the influence of innovation network and technological learning on innovation performance of high-tech cluster enterprises. Design/methodology/approach Using a questionnaire, data are collected from Dalian High-tech Industrial park in China. In addition, structural equation model is used to identify the influence of innovation network and technological learning on the innovation performance of high-tech cluster enterprise. Findings The findings of this study show that the centrality of network location and the strength of the network relationship have a direct positive effect on technology acquisition, technology digestion and technology exploit of high-tech cluster enterprises. Meanwhile, technology acquisition has a direct positive effect on technology digestion, technology digestion has a direct positive effect technology exploit, and technology exploit has a direct positive effect innovation performance of high-tech cluster enterprises. Practical implications To improve innovation performance, high-tech cluster enterprises should not only nurture and optimize innovation networks but also improve technological learning ability. Originality/value This paper empirically supports the significant influence of innovation network and technological learning on innovation performance. While the results provide guidance for researchers and practitioners, it also adds value to innovation-related research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 119 (4) ◽  
pp. 821-839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Li ◽  
Shuihua Han ◽  
Sameer Kumar ◽  
Wei-Xi Feng

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to define the conceptualization and measurement of informatization according to a capability perspective reflected in three aspects: IT managerial capability, IT-enabled capability and IT infrastructure capability.Design/methodology/approachManufacturing enterprises in China’s Northeast and Pearl River Delta regions in China were selected to empirically examine, using structural equation modeling, the association between a firm’s senior executive support informatization and radical innovation performance.FindingsResults show a significant positive relationship between senior executive support and IT-enabled capability. However, there are no significant positive influences uncovered between senior executive support and IT managerial capability and IT infrastructure capability. The authors find significant positive effects of IT managerial capability, IT-enabled capability and IT infrastructure capability on radical innovation performance. Lastly, the joint effect of senior executive support and external institutional environment has no significant influence on informatization.Originality/valueThis study offers improved understanding for enterprises and academia about the effect of senior executive support informatization on radical innovation performance. It also suggests taking effective measures to highlight the management level and enterprises’ radical innovation performance.


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