scholarly journals Broad Search, Deep Search, and the Absorptive Capacity Performance of Family and Nonfamily Firm R&D

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasper Brinkerink

This study investigates how family and nonfamily firms learn. Specifically, it asks whether family influence fosters or hinders the transformation of the potential absorptive capacity augmented by research and development (R&D) into the realized absorptive capacity embodied by innovation outcomes. The conceptual model posits that family influence will enhance the absorptive capacity performance of R&D regarding exploitative innovations that tend to result from deep external search yet diminish the absorptive capacity performance of R&D regarding exploratory innovations that tend to result from broad external search. Regression analyses using a sample of 346 Dutch manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises largely support the hypothesized model.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourdes Saiz ◽  
David Pérez Miguel ◽  
Miguel Ángel Manzanedo del Campo

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the absorptive capacity types in the knowledge management literature and aims to understand how companies can strength their contexts of cooperation in order to innovate.Design/methodology/approach: A balanced panel of 1,220 firms that respond to the Survey of Business Strategies for a three-year period was used, which represents a total of 3,660 observations.  Findings: The justification of absorptive capacity typology for an innovation efficiency process. The influence of the potential and realized absorptive capacity on new products is significant and causes effects on internal research and development in diverse way. The impact of the joint ventures, suppliers’ cooperation and customers’ cooperation are significant on absorptive capacity.Research limitations/implications: It would be interesting to extend the research to another innovation metrics as new organizational methods, new processes, new designs or new methods in the use of sales channels.Practical implications: The agreement of cooperation activities constitutes an important decision for the firm’s innovation. Companies must be conscious that while suppliers and customers’ cooperation are relevant cooperation actions to increase the internal research and development, joint ventures and customers’ cooperation are significant to the growth of the new products.Social implications: The types of absorptive capacity and internal research and development serve as mediating mechanisms between cooperative activities and innovative performance.Originality/value: This paper advances the literature on absorptive capacity by showing how firms use their positions of technological vigilance and management to form their capabilities, and subsequently, to enhance innovation outcomes. This study considers it is necessary to analyze the typology of the absorptive capacity that can allow managers to understand an innovation efficiency process in the cooperation context and make better decisions. The confluence of cooperation activities, absorptive capacity and organizational objectives in internal research and development obtain higher innovative results.


Author(s):  
Sergiy Porev ◽  
Olena Kolomytseva

The article is devoted to the problem of methods and means development of knowledge exchange management between universities and innovative firms in entrepreneurial ecosystems. It is noted that the indicators of attracting business funds for research and development in higher education in Ukraine, compared to other countries, indicate a dissonance in the economic and cognitive dimension between innovative entrepreneurship and research groups of universities. Our previous research shows that, unlike leading countries, the formation of entrepreneurial ecosystems in Ukraine should be not only about targeted support for high-growth firms, but also about ensuring effective bilateral knowledge exchange of universities with all interested firms and startups. The concept of absorptive capacity of individuals and organizations, the concept of innovation potential, intellectual capital, human capital and the relationship between them are considered. It is shown that the usefulness of the absorptive capacity concept is that it contributes to the formation of methods and means to increase the efficiency of knowledge exchange in entrepreneurial ecosystems with the participation of universities. It is substantiated that the university has a more complex range of absorptive abilities of employees than organizations with a strictly dominant type of activity and field of knowledge used. It is proved that the absorptive capacity of employees in universities should be considered in the dimensions of teaching, research and development, training and start-up innovative entrepreneurship, as well as taken into account the diversity of fields and types of knowledge used. Our addition to the concept of absorptive capacity with the thesis on the limitations of cognitive communication between persons with different cognitive orientations is original. One of the main difficulties in the knowledge exchange between university scientists and employees of companies is that they deal with different types of knowledge and carry out significantly different activities. In our previous studies, this was associated with cognitive gaps that occur when transferring the mental knowledge of subjects to material media in the form of information, and then - its awareness by individuals who have experience other than the authors. The phenomena that cause them are an important factor in the problems of cognitive exchange of university scientists with entrepreneurs. Based on the wide range of knowledge, activities and absorptive capacities of individuals and communities in university, it is proposed to differentiate between measures to ensure and stimulate educational, research and innovative entrepreneurial activities in order to adequately support them. In our opinion, the indicators that indirectly represent the realized absorptive capacity include those results that are traditional for the relevant categories of employees in universities. The absorptive capacity of teachers, in particular, is realized in the content of those courses that they personally form, while the main achievement of the researcher is new scientific or related knowledge. Criteria and indicators of the realized absorptive capacity can be specified, and it will be a subject of our further researches.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.E. Scholten ◽  
P.A. van der Duin

Responsible innovation (RI) among technology-based start-ups has received little attention, while these firms are known to operate on the edges of what is socially desirable or ethically acceptable. In this paper we develop a conceptual model that captures the RI practices among 61 academic spin-offs and investigate how it affects the capacity of the firm to absorb external knowledge to better the exploitation of the innovation. The findings indicate that potential absorptive capacity is increased by both stakeholder engagement and social responsiveness, while realized absorptive capacity is moderately increased through social responsiveness. Remarkable is the finding that the extent that sustainability practices resonate in the start-ups operations does have a negative effect on the potential absorptive capacity. These results provide insight in the way in which start-ups adopt a RI philosophy to their innovation process and help to better understand how they learn and acquire external knowledge to increase the acceptance of their innovations. The findings provide clear recommendations for entrepreneurs and policymakers in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-39
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Gaweł

Although innovation and entrepreneurship have been subjects of researchers’ interests for years, nevertheless both the concepts and the relationships between them remain controversial. Since different indices are accepted for the measurement of these categories, the question is whether the relationship between them depends on the choice of measures. The aim of the paper is to indicate the innovation impact on the entrepreneurial process with regard to different measures of these concepts. The research was conducted with the use of regression analyses as a method and yearly data for Polish regions in the period 2003–2018. At the initial stage of the research as many measures of innovation and entrepreneurship as possible were introduced into the estimation of regression function parameters. Statistically insignificant variables were deleted at later stages of research. This research confirms that innovativeness and entrepreneurship are broad concepts and the relationship between them depends on the choice of measures. Saturation with enterprises and saturation with start-ups seem to be more sensitive to innovation than other measures of entrepreneurship. Innovation seen as input, measured by spending on research and development (R&D) has a bigger influence on entrepreneurship than the output innovation measured by revenues from innovative activities. Considering a relatively low level of explanatory power of innovations, it seems they are not the only factor influencing entrepreneurship.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Hsing Hung Chen ◽  
Tao Shen ◽  
Xin-long Xu ◽  
Chao Ma

The characteristics of firm’s expansion by differentiated products and diversified products are quite different. However, the study employing absorptive capacity to examine the impacts of different modes of expansion on performance of small solar energy firms has never been discussed before. Then, a conceptual model to analyze the tension between strategies and corporate performance is proposed to filling the vacancy. After practical investigation, the results show that stronger organizational institutions help small solar energy firms expanded by differentiated products increase consistency between strategies and corporate performance; oppositely, stronger working attitudes with weak management controls help small solar energy firms expanded by diversified products reduce variance between strategies and corporate performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 70-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung-Chieh Lee ◽  
Chung-Yang Chen

Software process improvement (SPI) is critical to information system development. In the context of successful SPI, this research focuses on a firm's dynamic learning ability to see how it facilitates an effective means of acquiring and utilizing external SPI knowledge in responding to changing software development environments. Specifically, the authors propose a research model to investigate how two mechanisms of absorptive capacity are incorporated with innovation culture as a contextual factor to enable successful software process improvement. A survey was conducted including 125 SPI certified firms in China and Taiwan to examine the model. The findings indicate that a firm's potential absorptive capacity significantly influences realized absorptive capacity, which has a significant impact on SPI success and acts as a partial mediator between potential absorptive capacity and SPI success. Moreover, the results suggest that the mediating effect of potential absorptive capacity on SPI success via realized absorptive capacity is amplified when innovation culture is imposed.


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