Innovation is an important means by which firms generate new revenue streams for topline growth. Given the information intensity of innovation, a key question that managers face is: How do we ...organize our IT-related resource investments to promote innovation performance? This is a consequential question because different types of innovation incur varying levels of upside potential, failure risk and investment costs. In this research, we aim to answer this question by distinguishing four types of innovations—incremental, radical, non-IT related and IT related—that firms aim to produce and examining the extent to which each of these types benefits from complementary investments in IT human resources and IT compared with either type of investment alone. Using patent data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, our analysis of 36,812 firm-year observations reveals that complementary investments in IT human resources and IT are associated with a 117% increase in incremental innovation, a 155% increase in radical innovation, a 173% increase in non–IT-related innovation and a 161% increase in IT-related innovation. The results of this study can be helpful in enabling managers to make informed decisions about how to organize and get the most out of their resource investments based on their innovation objectives.
It is well acknowledged in the information systems (IS) literature that information technology (IT) plays an important role in firm innovation. A small but growing body of empirical evidence points to the importance of IT employees as an important complementary resource, particularly for IT-related innovation. However, there is an open question as to whether investment in such resources is complementary across a range of innovation types. This research note aims to provide theoretical and empirical clarity by emphasizing the complementary nature of firm investment in IT and in IT human resources (HR) in affecting firm innovation performance across four types of innovation: incremental, radical, non-IT related and IT related. Drawing on the theory of complementarities and theorizing about the operand and operant nature of resources, we argue that firm investment in IT HR enables firms to gain additional innovation value from their IT investments and vice versa. Using a sample involving 36,812 firm-year observations, we find that firms with robust investments in IT and in IT human resources produce more patents with greater value. Furthermore, we find that such firms produce more patents that emphasize new knowledge and those that build on existing knowledge. Finally, we find that this complementarity promotes IT-related and non–IT-related innovation. A series of analyses demonstrate the robustness of these results. We discuss implications for theory and practice.
History:
Yulin Fang, Senior Editor; Monideepa Tarafdar, Associate Editor.
Supplemental Material:
The online appendix is available at
https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.1185
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This study investigates the impact of IT capabilities on firm innovation performance. Further, it examines the mediating role of supply chain agility (SCA) as well as the moderating effect of ...innovation orientation (IO). The proposed conceptual model draws on resource-based view (RBV) theory. Dataset of 335 responses was analysed with process MACRO using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS. The findings show that IT capabilities positively affect firm innovation performance and SCA mediates the relationship of IT capabilities and firm innovative performance. Finally, results also confirm the moderating effect of IO between the IT capabilities and SCA.
While the performance implications of university-industry collaboration (UIC) have been the subject of extensive research, no study thus far has investigated the potential influence of absorptive ...capacity and innovation competencies on the relationship between UIC and product innovation performance. Based on a sample of 2061 German companies from two waves of the German Community Innovation Survey and using moderated multiple regression, this study examines these moderating effects and provides the following findings: (1) absorptive capacity in terms of internal R&D negatively moderates the relationship between UIC and incremental innovation performance and has no effect on the relationship between UIC and radical innovation performance; (2) absorptive capacity related to employee know-how has no moderating effect on the relationship between UIC and incremental innovation performance but positively moderates the relationship between UIC and radical innovation performance; and (3) innovation competencies exert no moderating effect on the relationship between UIC and incremental innovation performance but have a predominantly positive moderating effect on the relationship between UIC and radical innovation performance. In summary, our study provides relevant insights on the dynamics governing UIC relationships and provides evidence for potential negative effects of absorptive capacity in the context of collaborative R&D (substitution effect). Providing an in-depth analysis of UIC, this study offers insights for research in this field by explaining the variance in the outcomes of UIC. Moreover, our findings have the potential to aid practitioners (e.g., innovation managers, researchers, and governing and funding bodies) in their decisions concerning their involvement in UIC.
The use of social media offers tremendous innovation potential. Yet, while current research emphasizes success stories, little is known about how firms can leverage the full potential of their social ...media use for open innovation. In this paper, the authors address this gap by conducting a configurational analysis to develop an integrative taxonomy of social media‐enabled strategies for open innovation. This analysis stems from the integration of internal and external variables such as social media communication activities, organizational innovation seekers, potential innovation providers, the stages of the open innovation process, and their relationship with different performance outcomes and barriers to social media adoption for open innovation. Through an empirical study of 337 firms based in eight countries, four clusters have been identified that are characterized as distinct strategies: “marketing semi‐open innovators,” “cross‐department semi‐open innovators,” “cross‐department full process semi‐open innovators” and “broad adopters open innovators.” The findings reveal the trade‐offs associated with different strategies for implementing social media for open innovation and provide insights of the use of these strategies. By doing so, they suggest a more nuanced approach that contrasts with the traditionally positive (or even rosy) depiction of the effects of social media on open innovation. Accordingly, managers are encouraged to contemplate their organizational competencies, capabilities, and their strategic intent when drafting social media strategies for open innovation. Selective approaches, along with greater adoption leading to greater benefits, are shown to be more rewarding than a middle way that spreads things too thin. Avenues for further research include qualitative explorations of the trajectories unfolding through implementing social media strategies for innovation activities and the use of objective performance measures rather than subjective perceptions from informants to understand the complex relationships between social media adoption and performance.
This paper uses explanatory variables to carry out the degree of executive unfairness on the stability of the team, using the number of members serving in the sample period to measure the stability ...of the executive team, the introduction of risk-taking, inefficient investment mediating variables on the role of corporate merger and acquisition behavior impact path. By calculating the causal relationship between executive team stability and corporate technological innovation performance, it is concluded that the degree of external positive inequity in compensation impacts corporate stability. It is found that the mean value of executive compensation in the agriculture and forestry industry is 0.287, the median is 0.193, and the average annual growth rate of average executive compensation is 24.2%, which can provide practical suggestions for corporate managers and decision-makers about compensation setting and team building.
Our study objective is to examine the determinants that influence the adoption of human resource (HR) analytics, along with the influence of the external variable called Innovation Performance. The ...research model was developed by adapting the theoretical model of the unified theory of the acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) by adding the external variable, Innovation Performance. The data was collected using a survey at Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) in the USA. Initially, a total of 602 responses were obtained. Finally, a total of 554 questionnaires were obtained after using information quality filters for debugging. This study reveals that the main influence on the adoption of HR analytics is exerted by performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and innovation performance on behavioral intention. Likewise, facilitating conditions, innovative performance, and behavior intention are the major influences for Use Behavior. This was found from an empirical analysis using the generalized structured component analysis (GSCA) software package that shows, with tabled data, the major relationships of the research model. This research into the use of HR Analytics investigated the standard determinants of UTAUT and the Innovation Performance external variable, that influence the adoption of HR analytics in business organization.
Conventional science and technology performance assessment methods and indicators can no longer meet the current needs of urban science and technology innovation performance assessment, and ...innovative research is urgently needed. In this study, the four elements of innovation input, innovation process, innovation output, and innovation guarantee are taken as the first-level indicators of the urban science and technology innovation performance assessment index system. The G1 entropy value correction method is used to assign weights to the urban science and technology innovation performance assessment index system to reduce subjective arbitrariness. Finally, the specific situation of innovation elements and innovation performance in S city was selected, and the influence relationship between innovation elements and innovation performance assessment was analyzed using a vector autoregressive model. The results show that the method of assessing the city’s science and technology innovation performance based on the VAR model is simple and easy to operate, the confidence coefficient of the assessment model is more than 0.7, and the mean value of the validity CVR is 0.703. The assessment results have a high degree of credibility and validity and effectively promote the region’s scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between environment turbulence, knowledge transfer and innovation performance for emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) in an ...asymmetric international R&D alliance.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through a survey of high-tech firms in Zhejiang Province of China from 2013 to 2015.
Findings
Innovation performance of EMNEs is positively influenced by knowledge transfer activities (knowledge replication and knowledge adaption), technological and market turbulence, while negatively influenced by institutional turbulence. In addition, different aspects of environmental turbulence moderate the relationship between knowledge transfer practices and innovation performance of EMNEs differently.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies could use a longitudinal design to capture the dynamism driving innovation performance of EMNEs through R&D alliances.
Practical implications
Practical guidelines are provided particularly for EMNE managers on how to develop an innovation strategy by leveraging external knowledge, adaptive innovation and environmental turbulence.
Originality/value
This study deepens the knowledge of how EMNEs enhance their innovation by building the linkage between environmental turbulence and absorptive capacity through knowledge transfer activities in an asymmetric international R&D alliance.
PurposeThis study focuses on intellectual capital (IC) as a driver of better business performance. Recent studies suggest that a set of variables may mediate this relationship. This research ...discusses the mediating role of dynamic capabilities, network competence, technological capabilities, absorptive capabilities and innovation performance between intellectual capital and business performance.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual model is tested using a sample of 533 Portuguese firms by means of a structural equation model.FindingsIt confirms that intellectual capital impacts business performance. Moreover, this only happens indirectly through the mediating chain defined by the variables dynamic capabilities, network competence, technological capabilities, absorptive capabilities and innovation performance.Originality/valueThis study analyzes new mediator variables between the dimensions of the intellectual capital and Portuguese business performance.
