Innovation capability: A sociometric approach

To remain competitive worldwide, firms need to focus on their knowledge-based activities and possess specific abilities that allow them to unravel their potential to innovate. This need has led to an increasing interest in understanding the factors that allow a firm to develop its innovation capability. However, given the complexity of the phenomenon, there is no consensus on the nature and definition of innovation capability. Moreover, most existent studies have focused on studying innovation as a psychometric phenomenon; however, this approach neglects the social dimension of the construct. Thus, an exploratory study is conducted to examine a firm’s capability to innovate from a sociometric perspective. To achieve this objective, 61 surveys were distributed in the biotechnology area of a Mexican university. In addition, informal relations and knowledge sharing are analyzed as determinants of innovation capability. Since, the multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure (MRQAP) is applied.The results reveal that friendship relations become the base for knowledge sharing and, at the same time, this factor positively impacts a firm’s innovation capability.