While the strategy literature has long advocated the impact of strong firm dynamic capabilities on new product development, scant research has discussed how to build dynamic marketing capabilities ...(DMCs), a key component of dynamic capabilities, to improve innovation performance. Focusing on emerging economies, this study develops a framework for exploring the mechanisms of building strong DMCs from the perspective of both external (inter-organizational relationships) and internal (entrepreneurial orientation) factors. Using survey data from firms in China, the authors find that both vertical and horizontal relationship can facilitate the development of DMCs. Moreover, the impact of vertical relationship is stronger than that of horizontal relationships for domestic firms but weaker for foreign firms, because foreign and domestic firms have different levels of resource dependence on their partners. Furthermore, entrepreneurial orientation influences firms' willingness and ability to leverage the benefits from relationships, thus strengthening the impact of vertical relationships but weakening that of horizontal relationships. The study extends DMCs research into the area of international business by suggesting different approaches for firms to develop DMCs in domestic versus overseas markets.
•The study develops a framework for exploring the mechanisms of building strong dynamic marketing capabilities (DMCs).•The study discovers that both vertical and horizontal relationship can facilitate develop DMCs.•Vertical relationship has stronger impact than horizontal relationships for domestic firms but weaker for foreign firms.•Entrepreneurial orientation strengthens the impact of vertical relationships but weakens that of horizontal relationships.
The extant literature has reported mixed results on the relationship between Quality Management (QM) practices and innovation performance. Most of the studies carried out to date have proposed a ...direct relationship between QM and innovation, while neglecting the potential variables that may influence this relationship. In order to advance in this line of research, this paper develops a model of relationships between QM, understood as a multidimensional construct (hard QM and soft QM), and innovation performance (product and process innovation), which examines the mediator role of employee proactive behaviour in these relationships. The proposed model is examined using empirical data from ISO 9001 certified firms in high technology manufacturing and service sectors. The findings from structural equation modelling show the direct influence of the hard QM dimension on product and process innovation, while the effects of the soft QM dimension are channelled via proactive behaviour. The conclusions of the present study highlight the facilitating role of QM practices and proactivity for innovation.
•Hard and soft QM practices play different roles in promoting innovation performance.•Hard QM is shown to be an antecedent of product and process innovation.•An indirect link is found between soft QM and innovation performance via proactive behaviour.•Soft QM provides the necessary infrastructure for nurturing proactive behaviour.•Employees’ proactive behaviour is observed to be important for innovation.
Drawing on the integration of organizational learning, contingency theory, and theory of jobs to be done, this study develops a moderated mediation model of how a firm's absorptive capacity ...influences innovation performance. We hypothesize that cross-functional integration may mediate the absorptive capacity-innovation performance link and that customer orientation may positively moderate the mediating effect of cross-functional integration. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a mail survey of manufacturing firms, obtaining 456 valid responses for data analysis. Regression and bootstrap analyses reveal that cross-functional integration partially mediates the effect of absorptive capacity on innovation and that customer orientation enhances the mediated effect. Specifically, the mediating effect of cross-functional integration is stronger and significant when customer orientation is high. In contrast, the mediating effect of cross-functional integration is weaker and insignificant when customer orientation is low. Overall, this study's findings contribute to advances in marketing theory on innovation by identifying cross-functional integration and customer orientation as two key factors that together explain why and under what conditions absorptive capacity affects innovation. The findings also advise managers that in addition to developing absorptive capacity, firms should cultivate a strong customer orientation, which directs cross-functional integration toward converting external knowledge into increased innovation performance.
•A moderated mediation model tested contributes to clarifying how absorptive capacity influences innovation performance.•Cross-functional integration and customer orientation together explain why and when absorptive capacity affects innovation.•Cross-functional integration partially mediates the innovation effect of absorptive capacity and customer orientation moderates this mediation.•Specifically, the mediating effect of cross-functional integration is pronounced only under high customer orientation.•Managers cannot ignore the vital roles of customer orientation and cross-functional integration in linking absorptive capacity to innovation.
•The mechanisms linking innovation collaboration and innovation performance differ between the firm and the project level.•At the project level, relationships between collaboration breadth and depth ...and innovation performance are highly curvilinear.•We identify relationships between collaboration breadth (depth) and radical (incremental) innovation performance.
This study investigates the effect of project-level collaboration breadth (i.e., the number of collaboration partner types) and collaboration depth (i.e., the intensity of the interactions with these partners) on the incremental and radical innovation performance of innovation projects. The econometric analyses, based on a Community Innovation Study sample of 218 innovation projects conducted in German manufacturing companies, reveal inverted U-shaped relationships between collaboration breadth and radical innovation performance and between collaboration depth and incremental innovation performance. These curvilinear effects speak to the high sensitivity of innovation projects to the extent of collaborative activity, which implies that practitioners should exert caution in managing collaborative innovation projects. This study contributes to the understanding of project-level open innovation and to the overall understanding of the performance effects of innovation collaboration, which, following recent assertions in the literature, could be flawed by analyses conducted at the organizational level.
•Examines the innovation outcomes of open innovation practices (inbound and coupled) in UK service firms and the moderating effects of reconfiguration capabilities.•Inbound and coupled open ...innovation contribute to both radical and incremental innovation.•Coupled open innovation has stronger effects on radical innovation than inbound open innovation.•Strategic reconfiguration strengthens the positive effects of coupled open innovation on radical innovation.•Operational reconfiguration strengthens the positive effects of coupled open innovation on incremental innovation.
This paper examines the relationship between open innovation (OI) practices (inbound and coupled) and innovation performance in service firms. Specifically, it invokes a dynamic capabilities perspective to propose the differential moderating effects of two forms of reconfiguration capabilities, strategic reconfiguration capability (SRC) and operational reconfiguration capability (ORC), on the focal relationship. Based on a sample of service sector firms drawn from the UK Community Innovation Survey, our analysis shows the positive combinative effects of SRC and coupled OI on radical innovation outcomes and those of ORC and coupled OI on incremental innovation outcomes. The findings of differential moderating effects underscore the need to assess the boundary conditions within which OI positively impacts on innovation outcomes and offer insights to managers on the importance of strategic and operational reconfiguration capabilities for achieving better innovation outcomes from OI practices.
As the supply chain becomes a key carrier of firms' operations, the relationship between suppliers and buyers increasingly influences their strategic decision-making effectiveness. Nevertheless, ...existing research exhibits inconsistent conclusions regarding the effect of supply chain relationships on suppliers' innovation performance. To address this challenge, we apply social exchange theory to categorize relationships into instrumental and expressive ties, aiming for a fine-grained elucidation of how supply chain relationships affect suppliers' innovation performance. Based on data collected from 226 Chinese companies, our study reveals the following findings: (a) instrumental ties between suppliers and their buyers lead to the suppliers' moral disengagement, subsequently diminishing their innovation performance; (b) expressive ties between suppliers and their buyers reduce the suppliers' moral disengagement, thereby enhancing their innovation performance; (c) the corporate reputation moderates the mediating effect of moral disengagement on the relationship between instrumental ties and suppliers' innovation performance, but does not exert an influence on the indirect effect between expressive ties and suppliers' innovation performance via moral disengagement. This study enriches the value effects of supply chain relationships on suppliers' innovation performance by dividing it into instrumental and expressive ties, and further reveals the path and boundary condition of the value effects.
•Categorizes supply chain relationships into instrumental and expressive ties.•Explores how supply chain relationships affect suppliers' innovation performance.•Moral disengagement plays a mediating role.•Corporate reputation moderates the mediating effect.•Social exchange theory provides the theoretical basis for the research.
This paper investigates the effect of R&D internationalization on firm innovation performance. Using a longitudinal dataset of Taiwanese high-tech firms, we test the effects of R&D ...internationalization in terms of intensity and diversity. Results reveal a curvilinear U-shaped relationship, suggesting the benefits of R&D internationalization eventually outweigh the costs after critical levels of intensity and diversity. Additionally, we find that a firm's experience in foreign expansion may have a positive moderating impact on the relationship between R&D internationalization and innovation performance, which suggests that the effect is contingent on the firm's capability in dealing with the complexities and uncertainties inherent in international business.
The past decade has seen the rapid emergence of research on Big Data and its implications in our society, yet research on its impact on organizations' sustainability challenges is still at an early ...stage. Based on the organizational learning theory, we develop a framework to investigate the effects of Big Data capability (BDC) and further intellectual capital on a firm's sustainability‐oriented innovation performance (SIP). Using a multi‐source data collected from 358 Chinese firms, we tested our proposed hypotheses using the partial least squares‐structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM) and the fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results show that BDC is positively related to SIP and economic innovation performance (EIP), mediated by intellectual capital. The fsQCA results further reveal that three configurative combinations, that is, “external capability‐internal resource promotion,” “external capability and relationship building help,” and “external relationship collaboration compensation,” can lead to high SIP. This study provides new insights for firms to develop sustainability‐oriented innovation and to coordinate sustainability innovation and economic innovation practices in order to create balanced outcomes.
Management literature has identified high-skilled human capital as a crucial dimension of innovation processes at the firm level. In this study, we introduce an alternative view of human capital ...based on the tasks that firms’ workers perform. We propose a measure of cognitive analytical and interpersonal tasks: the degree of abstractism. We argue that the level of abstractism of a firm has an effect on a firm's propensity to innovate and on its product innovation performance. We hypothesize that while the degree of abstractism has a linear positive relationship with the propensity to innovate, the relationship between abstractism and product innovation performance follows an inverted u-shaped relationship. We find partial support to our hypotheses using data from more than six thousand Portuguese firms. We discuss how these results change our understanding of the relationship between human capital and innovation at the firm level.
The concept of market orientation comprises four components: customer and competitor orientations, each with a proactive and responsive dimension. Studies have considered both responsive and ...proactive customer orientation. Competitor orientation, however, has been investigated more narrowly. Research has focused specifically on its responsive dimension, a firm's posture of quickly responding to its competitors' actions and their offerings; but has largely disregarded proactive competitor orientation, a firm's posture towards altering the market's competitive behavior in its favor. This study investigates the role of responsive and proactive competitor orientation on influencing innovation and firm performance, as well as the mediating effects of technology and learning orientation. Utilizing a unique dataset that combines primary and time-lagged secondary data from 306 firms, we find that both responsive and proactive competitor orientation are observable drivers of performance in the market, but in notably different ways. Proactive competitor orientation drives innovation performance, directly and through technology orientation. Responsive competitor orientation, instead, enhances firm performance through learning orientation. By providing insights about the proactive side of competitor orientation, this study supplements and completes the so called “market orientation matrix”. This framework provides guidance for leaders to develop and manage a practical application of, and future research on market orientation.
•Proactive competitor orientation is an understudied dimension of market orientation.•Proactive competitor orientation plays a critical role in innovation performance.•Technology orientation mediates proactive competitor orientation and performance.
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