Government and innovation performance: evidence from the ICT enterprising community

Purpose The purpose of this paper will be on finding and analyzing the impact of government on the information and communication technology (ICT) companies’ innovation performance. The study aims to conduct in-depth research about the government as an integrated actor of the innovation ecosystem (IE), not a sole member. This would be the core finding toward doing further research about the impact of the innovation ecosystem in the ICT sector in Kosovo. Design/methodology/approach Quantitative research has been considered the most suitable data collection method. Furthermore, in this study, it is used convenience sampling as a technique of the sampling process. The sample size of this study is 106 participants. The participants are owners or representatives of ICT companies in Kosovo. Since the study is conducted using the deductive approach, the questionnaire is considered to be the most suitable instrument for gathering data. Findings This paper provides empirical insights that the company’s size and the dedicated department for research and development have no impact on how the company takes advantage of public funding from the government. Furthermore, the authors of the paper found out that government has a positive impact on companies’ introduction of new products and services, while the impact of the government on a company’s financial performance was insignificant. Research limitations/implications The future research direction should be firstly on studying other IE actors and their impact on companies’ innovation performance and secondly on measuring the IE actors as a set of actors to have a broader picture on how IE impacts the companies’ innovation performance. Practical implications The scientific contribution of this study will be on mapping, analyzing and proposing government policies in accordance with the findings of this study that would lead to a more comprehensive and sustainable IE in Kosovo. Originality/value This study tries to fulfill an identified need to study the impact of interconnected actors of an innovation ecosystem and to show how they affect each other. In this study, it is taken for research one fragment of a set of actors.

Does internationalization encourage state-owned enterprises to utilize subsidies to innovate? Evidence from high-tech and automobile manufacturing industries of Chinese listed companies

Purpose Drawing on the resource-based view, institutional logic and isomorphic pressure theories, this study constructed a theoretical model to explore the correlations between government subsidies and innovation performance. Particularly, this study aims to investigate the moderating effects of ownership types and degree of internationalization on these relationships. Design/methodology/approach To empirically test the relationships, the authors use panel data from high-tech manufacturing and automobile manufacturing industries in Chinese A stock listed companies for the period 2011–2015 and performed regression analysis. Findings Results indicate that government subsidies positively enhance enterprises’ innovation performance; there is a big gap between government subsidies’ incentive effect on innovation performance between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private-owned enterprises (POEs); with the improvement of internationalization, the promotion effect of government subsidies on enterprise innovation performance is strengthened; there is a three-way interaction between government subsidies, degree of internationalization and ownership types, such that in the presence of a low degree of internationalization, there is a big gap in the incentive effect of government subsidies on the innovation performance of SOEs and POEs; in the presence of a high degree of internationalization, the gap is significantly reduced. Originality/value This is an empirical study on the impact mechanism of ownership types and internationalization on the relationship between government subsidies and innovation performance in China. It provides valuable insights to show how internationalization can dramatically improve SOEs’ efficiency disadvantages in the allocation of government subsidies to innovation activities.

Open innovation, dynamic organizational capacities and innovation performance in SMEs: Empirical evidence in the Tunisian manufacturing industry

In this paper, the main objective is to examine inbound open innovation adoption by exploring its antecedents in terms of dynamic organizational capabilities, its implications on innovation performance, but also its mediating role between these capabilities and Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) innovation performance. Therefore, a conceptual model was proposed and empirically tested on the basis of data extracted from a survey involving a sample of 228 Tunisian manufacturing SMEs and analyzed through the Structural Equation Modeling method. In doing so, this paper adds to the existing literature on open innovation in SMEs and fills a neglected theoretical gap by proposing a link between dynamic capabilities theory and the open innovation paradigm, two literatures that have little overlap, to improve current understanding of innovation performance in SMEs. Ultimately, by empirically confirming the significant relationship between dynamic organizational capacities and innovation performance through the mediating role of open innovation, our results are mainly relevant for entrepreneurs and innovation managers in SMEs who can find valuable guidance on how to strengthen innovation performance under the nexus between the dynamic capabilities perspective and open innovation by focusing on the development of three capabilities that are dynamic capabilities, absorptive capability, and appropriation capabilities.

Changes in knowledge coupling and innovation performance: the moderation effect of network cohesion

Purpose Collaborative research and development have remained a pertinent mechanism for conducting technological innovations. With the lens of knowledge-based view (KBV), this study aims to examine the role of changes in knowledge couplings and network cohesion to elevate innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach Data analysis has been performed on 53,459 patents through regression analysis with random effects. These independent and joint patents are extracted from Derwent Innovation Database. Findings Findings explicate that change in external existing or existing and new knowledge couplings have inverted U-shaped effects on a firm’s innovation performance. Changes in internal existing or existing and new knowledge couplings have direct positive effects on firm’s innovation performance. The moderation effect of network cohesion flattens the inverted U-shaped effect of external new and existing knowledge coupling, whereas it has no significant effect on external existing knowledge coupling. Network cohesion further elevates the effects of internal knowledge couplings – existing or existing and new. Research limitations/implications This study theoretically contributes to KBV and innovation management literature by highlighting the scope of changes in internal and external knowledge couplings and subsequent output. Network cohesion flattens the curviness of changes in external new and existing knowledge couplings, which is a contribution to strategic management literature. Practical implications Organizations need to carefully manage changes in knowledge couplings and ensure their benefits (obtain new knowledge domain or new combination) outweigh liabilities (damages to organizational routines or increase in collaboration costs). Managers must consider four kinds of knowledge coupling changes along with developing network cohesion as an R&D strategy. Originality/value This study is one of its types to flatten the curve through network cohesion. This study divided the changes in knowledge coupling into four types and two dimensions; external existing and new and existing knowledge couplings and internal existing and new and existing knowledge couplings.