The few studies that analyze the impact of a combined strategy of innovation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm performance mostly focus on financial performance. In contrast, the ...current study considers the simultaneous impact of technological innovations (product and process) and CSR on firm growth, which provides a measure of medium-term economic performance. With a sample of 213 firms and a two-step procedure, this study reveals the differentiated effects of strategic versus responsive CSR behavior on the two technological innovation types, as well as the effects of the two innovation types on growth. The findings thus indicate that firms with strategic CSR achieve growth through both their product and their process innovations.
Both corporate social responsibility and diversity influence firms' innovation, yet their relationship and links to innovation remain uncertain, especially among small to medium-sized enterprises. ...Relying on strategic and institutional CSR perspectives and a value-in-diversity approach, this study examines the mediating roles of gender and nationality diversity on the CSR–innovation link at the organizational level. With a sample of 1348 SMEs from Luxembourg, the results show that strategic CSR can promote both types of diversity, but only nationality diversity triggers technological innovation. Nationality diversity emerges as a partial mediator of the relationship between CSR and SMEs’ technological innovation. Thus, strategic CSR, through the genuine pursuit of such diversity, can help SMEs attain positive returns on their product or process innovation. These results have important theoretical and managerial implications.
The antecedents of environmental innovation and the impact of openness on technological innovation have been well studied, yet the role of external knowledge search remains largely unknown. This ...study explores whether six dimensions of open search (external R&D, acquisition, R&D cooperation, and three types of external information) enhance firms’ radical and incremental innovation with environmental effects (EI) when used either sporadically or persistently. It shows that the temporal dimension of openness matters. Persistent open knowledge search efforts are associated with a firm’s propensity to introduce EI, more so than sporadic search. Furthermore, the different types of knowledge search have heterogeneous effects on different types of EI. It also shows that persistent innovation is more relevant in the case of radical EI.
This paper investigates the age specificities in the link between employee's perceived external employability and turnover intention and how the use of human resource practices moderates this ...relationship. Results show that the use of motivation-enhancing HR practices induces a larger retention effect for younger and middle-aged employees than for older ones, whereas the turnover intention effects of flexibility-enhancing HR practices are stronger for the middle-age and older groups than for the younger groups. Moreover, the use of HR practices that stimulate employees' motivation, such as training, participation, voice and teamwork, plays a stronger role in retaining highly employable younger employees, while the use of HR practices that offer flexibility, such as flexible working time, teleworking and work-life balance, enables retaining highly employable older employees.
To identify how a governance structure leads to ambidexterity at the cluster level, in terms of knowledge management, this study draws on the knowledge -based view of clusters and on ambidexterity ...literature, thereby exploring an 'intermediated' cluster model of ambidexterity. Our aim is to explore the governance structure's role and priorities in terms of knowledge management, as well as the underlying operational actions and programmes implemented to achieve cluster ambidexterity. Qualitative research, based on interviews with members of two French clusters, reveals that their governance structure is a crucial intermediary organisation that supports cluster ambidexterity. The results emphasise the role of governance structures for two types of ambidexterity in small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) clusters: First, SMEs may specialise in exploitative or exploratory knowledge, and the governance structure provides the missing knowledge (intermediated specialised model). Second, cluster governance may help each firm become ambidextrous (intermediated dual model). This study outlines the specificities of the two models and their contingency factors, which offer interesting implications, especially for policymakers devoted to innovation and clusters.
We examine how small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) chief executive officers' (CEOs) social capital (as measured by strength of ties and structural holes) can help them bring business to their ...firms through the spread of positive referrals. Based on a sample of 408 French SME CEOs, we find a direct effect of social capital. Such effect is contingent on the CEO's personality, with social capital being most beneficial to CEOs with low levels of conscientiousness. CEOs' social ties facilitate the distortion of information, thereby leading personal contacts to give referrals to and endorse a focal CEO, even in the presence of negative signals, such as low conscientiousness.
Purpose - The objective of this research is to identify and characterize the coordination systems used by SME hub firms that are in a situation of dependence with respect to other members of their ...network, taking into account the influence of hub firm size.Design methodology approach - Seven case studies were carried out: six innovation networks in which SMEs play a central role are compared with a "reference" case, in which the hub firm is a large company.Findings - The authors' qualitative empirical analysis of seven innovation projects showed that: the sharing of benefits and the guarantees that are implemented vary depending on the hub firm's degree of dependence; trust and recourse to formal agreements differ according to hub firm size; and conflict solving is influenced by both hub firm size and degree of dependence.Practical implications - Results have important implications for the management of innovation networks which are increasingly important for the development of SMEs. The knowledge of the adequate coordination mechanism is central for a SME hub firm and the success of the innovation project.Originality value - Investigations into the internal operation of inter-organizational networks have become increasingly common. Nevertheless, empirical studies are still rare, particularly in the field of innovation networks and even more in the case of networks set up by small firms. This article partially fills this gap.
Despite abundant literature dedicated to networks and coordination, few empirical studies address the internal operations of inter‐organizational networks. This research therefore aims to ...characterize coordination mechanisms of various forms and analyse their evolution through an empirical analysis of six innovation networks. A comparative case study approach examines how three main dimensions (dependency, prior business relations, and type of conflict) influence the type of coordination adopted by a hub firm, as well as its evolution. Each case serves as a distinct experiment that stands on its own as an analytic unit. The six cases thus are discrete experiments that serve as replications and contrasts. The study reveals a negative effect of a singular reliance on trust. Indirect guarantees need to combine with direct guarantees to facilitate hub firm dependence. Moreover, the coordination modes and the use of hard conflict resolution mechanisms vary with the type of conflict (i.e., project or behavioural). These findings have key implications for research and practice.
L’effet temporel de l’ambidextrie organisationnelle sur la longévité des
organisations reste peu étudié, en particulier dans un contexte d’environnement
dynamique. Notre recherche longitudinale ...couvrant les 25 années d'existence d'une
PME dans la biotechnologie industrielle s'appuie sur une combinaison de méthodes
quantitative et qualitative. Les résultats montrent que l’entreprise a su maintenir
de fortes intensités d’exploration et d’exploitation et les adapter aux multiples
changements de son environnement, essentiellement grâce au réseau. Nous montrons
qu’une ambidextrie adaptative peut être maintenue de manière dynamique en combinant
différents types d’ambidextrie par le biais d’une plasticité
organisationnelle.
Purpose - This paper aims to provide evidence of the major role of non-technological activities in the innovation process. It seeks to highlight the effects of marketing and organizational innovation ...strategies on technological innovation performance.Design methodology approach - The paper tests theoretical hypotheses on a sample of 555 firms of the Fourth Community Innovation Survey (CIS 4) in 2006 in Luxembourg. Data are analyzed through a generalized Tobit model.Findings - Evidence is found to support the impact of innovation in the marketing and organization fields on a firm's capacity to innovate, but not on the innovative performance. The paper also statistically shows that the effects of non-technological innovation differ depending on the phase of the innovation process.Research limitations implications - The causal link and the question of time frame between the various innovations could be further investigated, especially through longitudinal studies. Further research should also focus on the differences between large versus small firms, and service versus industrial firms.Practical implications - The effects of non-technological innovation are not the same according to whether the firm is in the first step of the innovation process (i.e. being innovative), or in a later step (i.e. innovative performance). Managers should be aware of these various effects in order to efficiently adopt non-technological innovation strategies.Originality value - Few works have taken into account the role of other innovative strategies such as marketing and organization. As far as is known, this is the first study based on recent CIS data that looks at the interrelations between different types of innovation.
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