External Knowledge Sourcing and Firm Innovation Efficiency

This study examines the relationship between external knowledge sourcing and firm innovation efficiency. We build on the organizational learning theory to propose that this relationship follows an inverted U‐shape: as the level of external knowledge sourcing increases from low to moderate, firm innovation efficiency increases; as the level of external knowledge sourcing increases from moderate to high, firm innovation efficiency declines. Further, we explore the moderating role of different contextual factors and contend that this inverted U‐shaped relationship is flattened in firms that operate in high‐tech sectors and in firms that face high internal constraints for innovation. Our empirical analysis is based on a sample of 3,204 Spanish firms over the period 2004–2015, and our results provide support for these contentions. We used data envelopment analysis methodology to estimate firm innovation efficiency relative to industry best performers, and truncated regression models for panel data with bootstrapped confidence intervals to test our hypotheses.     

The influence of patent protection on firm innovation investment in manufacturing industries

Countries enact various mechanisms, such as patent protection, to encourage, protect, and reward firm innovation. The degree to which these mechanisms afford firms protection over their intellectual property influences the innovation strategy that firms pursue and innovation investments they make. To date, empirical evidence on the relationship between patent protections and firm innovation is lacking, despite the relationship being the subject of intense theoretical and policy debate. To further consider the influences on firm innovation, we test the influence of a country's patent rights and changes in them on firm-level investment in innovation. Data for 706 firms competing in ten manufacturing industries across 29 countries were gathered and analyzed. Even after controlling for various firm, industry, and national factors, there is a strong positive influence of patent rights and changes in patent rights on a firm's propensity to invest in innovation. In addition, we consider the sensitivity of this result to alternative measures of patent and other intellectual property protection. We also find that the influence of patent rights on firm-level innovation varies across industries for example, the impact appears greatest in the scientific instruments and industrial chemicals industries.     

探索式创新、利用式创新与绩效:战略和环境的影响

本文基于397家中国企业的样本数据,对探索式创新、利用式创新与企业绩效之间的关系进行了实证研究,着重考察了探索式创新、利用式创新的内部匹配关系以及这两类创新行为与企业战略和环境的外部匹配关系。结果表明,两类创新行为分别对企业绩效有直接的正向影响,两类创新行为之间的内部匹配对绩效无显著影响,两类创新行为与企业战略和环境竞争性的外部匹配关系对绩效有显著影响。     

Breaking through innovation barriers: Linking effectuation orientation to innovation performance

This study aims to understand how firms overcome market-based innovation barriers and achieve innovation performance using the effectuation orientation construct. In so doing, we provide more nuanced insights into how the combination of mindsets and actions helps firms to overcome barriers. Based on a quantitative research design, data from 157 established organizations show variations in how effectual actions are related to perceived innovation barriers. Among the conclusions we draw from the results is the fact that effectual contingency and effectual means orientation are negatively associated with market-based innovation barriers, which are in turn negatively associated with a firm’s innovation performance. Overall, the empirical results provide new insights into the literature of both innovation and entrepreneurship.     

International coopetition for innovation: Are the benefits worth the challenges?

International coopetition has rarely been studied in relation to innovation. Further exploration of effects of international coopetition, i.e. the pursuit of simultaneous cooperation and competition, on a firm’s innovation performance is especially important as such a relationship is challenging with a high propensity to fail. This observation formed the point of departure for this study, which aims to increase the understanding of the effects of international coopetition on firm innovativeness and how these effects are conditioned on the magnitude of the organizational adjustments a firm introduces. We use an unbalanced panel of 9839 firms that participated in four waves of the Swedish Community Innovation Survey between 2008 and 2014 as our empirical base. We illustrate that firms that cooperate with competitors internationally are more likely to exhibit higher propensity to introduce radical innovations, yet this effect is conditioned upon the magnitude of organizational adjustments. Overall, our study contributes to the understanding of the implications of international coopetition and what a firm needs to benefit from it.     

HRM and radical innovation: A dual approach with exploration as a mediator

Radical innovation is crucial for a firm’s success, and organisations should promote it. Prior research has argued that human capital is essential for a company’s innovation. However, the direct and indirect effects of Human Resource Management (HRM) on radical innovation have not yet been determined. Therefore, the present paper aims to explore the direct impact of HRM on radical innovation with a content approach and a process approach. It will also examine the mediating effect that learning through an exploration process has on HRM and radical innovation. Using data from 200 medium-sized Spanish industrial firms, our results demonstrate that Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) has a positive and direct effect on radical innovation. We also find that an HRM system directed toward change and creativity and SHRM positively support the process of exploration learning, and that competence exploration has a favourable impact on radical innovation. These results indicate that competence exploration mediates the effect HRM systems and SHRM have on radical innovation.     

Academic Entrepreneurship: Time for a Rethink?

Academic entrepreneurship, which refers to efforts undertaken by universities to promote commercialization on campus and in surrounding regions of the university, has changed dramatically in recent years. Two key consequences of this change are that more stakeholders have become involved in academic entrepreneurship and that universities have become more ‘strategic’ in their approach to this activity. The authors assert that the time is ripe to rethink academic entrepreneurship. Specifically, theoretical and empirical research on academic entrepreneurship needs to take account of these changes, so as to improve the rigour and relevance of future studies on this topic. We outline such a framework and provide examples of key research questions that need to be addressed to broaden understanding of academic entrepreneurship.     

整合能力与企业绩效：商业模式创新的中介作用

经济全球化的背景下,企业为了构建竞争优势,获取更好的绩效,开始利用整合能力和商业模式创新应对多变的外部环境。然而,当前研究对于两者之间存在何种联系的认识是模糊的。针对理论研究的缺陷,基于动态能力的理论视角,通过分析商业模式创新对整合能力与企业绩效的中介作用,揭示企业整合能力和商业模式创新促进企业绩效提高的内在机制,采用中国6省1市319个企业样本数据,运用线性回归的统计方法对理论假设进行实证检验。研究结果表明,整合能力和商业模式创新都对企业绩效具有正向的促进作用,同时整合能力与企业绩效之间存在着一定的中间机制。整合能力通过提高组织变革和价值创造效率两个方面促进商业模式创新,而商业模式创新作为中间纽带将整合能力与企业绩效联系起来。企业的整合能力越高,越有利于开展商业模式创新,进而促进企业绩效的提高。研究揭示了整合能力和商业模式创新共同促进企业绩效提高的内在理论机制,打开了能力与绩效间关系的“黑箱”,对于中国企业开展商业模式创新具有重要的实践指导意义。     

Performance effects of IT capability, service process innovation, and the mediating role of customer service

Few academic studies have investigated how information technology (IT) capability and service process innovation can create performance gains for firms through customer service. We propose that customer service is a significant mediator through which IT capability and service process innovation influence the performance of a firm, and that IT capability is also a critical factor that facilitates service process innovation. Empirical support for our argument was derived from data collected from 174 firms in the Taiwan IT industry. The results suggest that managerial initiatives should be directed at developing IT capability and service process innovation and leveraging them to facilitate customer service to attain superior firm performance. Furthermore, greater IT capability would lead to a higher degree of service process innovation.     

CEO proactiveness,innovation, and firm performance

Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are essential in driving firm innovation. However, despite existing research on CEO personality characteristics and firm innovation and performance, we know relatively little about how personality characteristics reflecting anticipatory action and strong outcome-oriented components, such as proactiveness, shape firm innovation and performance. We explore the relationship between CEO proactiveness and three facets of organizational innovation, as well as its impact on firm performance. We suggest that CEO proactiveness is manifested in different network-building, problem-solving, and feedback-seeking behaviors with different implications for exploratory innovation, exploitative innovation, and organizational ambidexterity, and that its effect on firm performance is partially mediated by organizational ambidexterity. By examining the influence of this important CEO personality characteristic on key firm strategic choices and performance, we extend research on strategic leadership and firm innovation and performance.     

用户-企业共享价值诉求与企业创新能力关系研究——以顾客授权为中介

企业吸纳用户参与创新过程,是构建并提升创新能力的重要途径。但作为外部创新源,用户参与创新虽然将价值创造与价值消费形成闭环,却以企业开放创新过程为条件,这加剧了创新过程的复杂性,也使用户参与提升企业创新能力的内在机理难以洞悉。基于价值共创理论、用户创新理论与创新能力理论,本文从企业方面探索如何吸纳用户参与创新过程进而提升创新能力的内在规律。基于202份国内企业样本,首先探索了用—企共享的价值诉求构念内涵与结构。在此基础上,以"动机构建→授权导引→能力发展"为脉络研究价值共创视角下企业创新能力提升机理。发现：（1）用户参与的社会性价值预期能够有效提升企业二元性创新能力;（2）用—企共享的独异价值预期（功能性价值）能够有效提升企业渐进性创新能力;（3）顾客授权在"用—企"共享的社会性价值诉求与渐进性创新能力之间起到局部中介的作用。     

Entry modes and national systems of innovation

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have contributed to the productive and technological upgrading of many host economies, whereas discussion about entry modes and developmental effects is far from being concluded. We explore the relative importance of national systems of innovation in various forms of firm internationalization. We hypothesize that, adopting a dynamic perspective, institutional stability and the consolidation of R&;D capacities reinforce entrepreneurship and become key driver mechanisms to improve the attraction of foreign entries. The empirical analysis is built upon a sample of countries with dissimilar levels of development using longitudinal data for the period 1998–2004. The findings confirm that the relative technological advance of host countries differ for cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&;A) compared to other entry modes, taking into account the diversity of the developing world, the potential of emerging economies and the need to investigate new drivers for the attraction of FDI.     

Review of female immigrant entrepreneurship research: Past findings,gaps and ways forward

We conduct a review of the literature on entrepreneurship by females with an ethnic minority background based on immigration to a new country and focus on entrepreneurial resources, entrepreneurial strategies, outcomes, and context. The intersection of gender and ethnicity influences entrepreneurship in specific ways that we discuss. The literature review indicates that particular (human, social, and financial) resources help shape entrepreneurial strategies, which in turn result in particular outcomes at the individual, firm, and societal levels. These factors are influenced by the co-ethnic and host country cultural and institutional contexts that we review. Situating our study in the mixed embeddedness perspective, we organize and synthesize extant research on the business endeavors of female immigrant entrepreneurs and discuss important gaps that provide opportunities for future research. We also address policy and practice implications.     

应用全面创新管理提高中小型企业创新能力研究

在全球抗争危机中创新型企业(包括中小型企业)表现出了其独赋的优势,而中小型企业在其转型和升级中也需要借助全面创新管理提升其创新能力.本文首先探讨了什么是创新型企业;继而讨论了如何走向创新型企业及其三个阶段:"二次创新--组合创新--全面创新";紧接着对全面创新管理的内涵、特征做了较详讨论.然后对本专辑的论文安排结构作了简要介绍.     

研发投入对企业绩效的影响研究 ——基于企业金融化水平门限回归

本文选取1435家A股上市公司2011—2018年度的面板数据,以企业金融化水平作为门限变量,研究企业研发投入对企业绩效的非线性影响关系。研究结果表明:(1)企业金融化行为给研发投入对企业绩效的促进作用带来严重的时滞效应,研发投入对当年企业绩效不存在促进作用;(2)研发投入对未来一年企业绩效有双门限效应,二者呈倒N型关系,在第二区间内研发投入促进未来一年企业绩效;研发投入对未来二年企业绩效有单门限效应,在第一区间内研发投入促进未来二年企业绩效;(3)在适度的企业金融化水平区间内,研发投入才会促进未来企业绩效。本文指出上市公司金融化水平最优区间占比分布具有区域、行业和企业性质异质性,并进一步基于实证研究结果提出了相应的政策建议,有利于企业合理管理研发投入和防止企业脱实向虚。     

我国高新技术企业规模与创新分布

利用 960家高新技术企业的调查结果 ,分析了我国高新技术企业规模与企业创新能力之间的关系 .企业规模以企业雇员数量作为分类 ,按照国际通用的分类标准分析了各个规模层次的企业创新费用、R&D费用、销售额及创新率的分布规律 .在将研究结果与国外学者的研究结果和一般工业企业的情况进行了比较之后发现 :(1 )高新技术企业 R&D强度随着企业规模的增大呈阶梯下降趋势 ;(2 )创新强度大体呈现“凸 U”型分布 ;(3)相当一部分小型高新技术企业的创新效率较低     

公司创业精神、市场营销能力与市场绩效的关系研究

公司创业精神是企业所拥有的最为异质的资源之一,它对企业的市场绩效有着显著的影响.通过以中国的调研数据来探索公司创业精神的丰富内涵,并验证公司创业精神与市场绩效之间的关系.同时,从理论和实证2个方面研究了公司创业精神对市场绩效的作用途径,发现市场营销能力在其中发挥着中介的作用.     

Strategic Innovation,Corporate Entrepreneurship and Matching Outside-in to Inside-out Approaches to Strategy Research1

This paper calls upon strategy researchers to employ a more holistic view of research into the firm. In the past the division between the outside-in, or market selection and positioning perspective, and the inside-out, or management of internal change perspective, has acted to spur advances in knowledge. Now it is acting as an impediment to further progress. One avenue through which these perspectives can fruitfully be combined is in a deeper exploration of the role of innovation and corporate entrepreneurship. Four propositions are offered upon which a useful platform can be built and it is suggested that the implied research agenda will help the field move forward, faster.     

Software firm evolution and innovation–orientation

The software industry is experiencing dramatic growth worldwide. This paper offers a theoretical framework to examine the growth and evolution of software firms from an innovation–orientation perspective. While it is apparent that the attitudes and perceptions of a firm’s key stakeholders towards innovative product development hold valuable insights on its future growth and evolution, such a perspective has received limited theoretical attention in studies on firm evolution. In this paper, we define a software firm growth stage model that reflects the changes in a firm’s process and product portfolios. We offer a set of research propositions that link the innovation-related attitudes and perceptions of a firm’s internal stakeholders to firm evolution. The research model has several important implications for both research and practice and can be extended to other high technology contexts.     

Innovativeness as an Unintended Outcome of Franchising: Insights from Restaurant Chains

A growing trend in improving innovation outcomes is to go outside the firm's boundaries. One mechanism by which firms extend organizational boundaries is through franchising their channels. Yet, the effects of franchising on innovation outcomes have been overlooked in the literature. We propose that a firm's emphasis on franchising will affect its organizational innovativeness, conceptualized as product and process innovativeness, independently and with other firm characteristics—franchising experience, firm size, financial leverage, and slack resources. We find support for our hypotheses using a nonlinear seemingly unrelated regression model estimated using panel data from 38 U.S. restaurant chains between 1992 and 2005. The positive effect of the emphasis on franchising on product innovativeness is stronger for firms with high financial leverage, but weaker for firms with high slack resources. For process innovativeness, the effect is stronger for firms with high financial leverage but weaker for large firms, and for firms with high franchising experience and high slack resources. The findings indicate that a firm's emphasis on franchising has contingent effects on product and process innovation outcomes. Thus, franchising emerges as a competing mechanism (to alliances and joint ventures) that extends organizational boundaries and affects organizational innovativeness.