Profiting from product innovation: The impact of legal, marketing, and technological capabilities in different environmental conditions

Although product innovation is a key tool for firms competing in the marketplace, innovating firms often fail to obtain economic returns from their product innovations. This study examines the moderating effects of legal, marketing, and technological capabilities on the relationship between product innovation and firm performance in different environmental conditions in order to identify how a firm can leverage these capabilities to profit from product innovation. Based on the data of 223 Chinese firms, this study finds that legal capability positively moderates the relationship between product innovation and firm performance, especially when competitive intensity is high; the moderating effect of marketing capability is positive, although it is weakened by market turbulence; and technological capability has a negative moderating effect, which becomes more significant as technological turbulence increases.     

Effect of Alliance Orientation on Firm Performance: An Empirical Study on High-Technology Firms in China

Based upon the dynamic-capability view and social capital theory, this paper examines the effect of alliance orientation on firm performance. Hypotheses are tested with data collected from 195 high-tech firms in China. Results show that alliance orientation has a significant and positive effect on firm performance. Moreover, market dynamism exerts a positive moderating effect on the relationship between alliance orientation and firm performance, whereas technological dynamism negatively moderates the relationship. Moreover, relational capital partially mediates the same relationship and the interaction effects of alliance orientation and market dynamism on firm performance.     

Technological opportunism and firm performance: Moderating contexts

Technological opportunism is a sense-and-respond capability of firms with respect to new technologies. This research examines the effect of technological opportunism on firm performance from the dynamic capabilities' perspective, and how such an effect depends on relevant firm and/or market contingencies. Analyzing data from a variety of Taiwanese manufacturing industries, the authors find that technological opportunism has a positive effect on firm performance. The technological opportunism–firm performance link is negatively moderated by market orientation and network externality, and positively moderated by technological turbulence. These results confirm the underlying theme of the dynamic capabilities approach to technological changes and contextual (environmental and organizational) relevance. The finding that technological opportunism and market orientation fail to produce any synergistic impact implies that technological opportunism is a more influential source of a firm's competitive advantage.     

Technological opportunism effects on IT adoption,intra-firm diffusion and performance: Evidence from the U.S. and Spain

The paper pursues a joint analysis of the direct influence of the level of a firm's technology opportunism capability on performance and on the adoption and intra-firm diffusion of Internet-based technologies. The study here examines the mediating effect that intra-firm diffusion exerts on the relationship between capabilities and performance. This study uses the results from a survey of 100 Spanish and 109 American franchise firms. Results indicate that the firm's level technological opportunism influences the adoption and intra-firm diffusion of technology and also has a positive impact on performance. While intra-firm diffusion is a driver of performance, adoption has no influence. Finally the indirect impact of technological opportunism on performance differs across countries. While for American firms, the integration of technologies into activities that related to communication with partners has a positive impact on performance; Spanish managers should focus on the integration of these technologies into back-end functionalities.     

Exploratory and exploitative OFDI from emerging markets: Impacts on firm performance

This study identifies exploratory and exploitative OFDI as two distinct approaches for emerging market (EM) firms to overcome their liability of foreignness in overseas markets. It assesses the performance impacts of both types of OFDI through investigating three sets of questions. (1) What are the differential impacts of exploratory and exploitative OFDI, and how long do they persist? (2) How do industry factors in the home country, including technological turbulence and competitive intensity, moderate these effects? And (3) how can firms balance these two types of OFDI across time? Based on multi-sourced data of 766 Chinese firms during 2008–2015, the results show that both types of OFDI promote performance, yet the positive effect of exploratory OFDI lasts longer than that of exploitative OFDI. Moreover, technological turbulence strengthens the effect of exploratory OFDI and weakens that of exploitative OFDI, but competitive intensity strengthens the effect of exploitative OFDI only. Finally, sequential ambidexterity improves firm performance through exploratory‒exploitative OFDI process.     

Customer Orientation in Chinese Industrial Firms and Global Marketing Implications

Abstract

The study focuses on the moderating role of environmental context (demand unpredictability and technological turbulence) and technological context (production technology routineness and product complexity) on the relationship of customer orientation with market performance relative to the industry in Chinese state-owned industrial firms. The results show significant moderating effects of technological turbulence and production technology routineness: the greater the technological turbulence and the more routine the production technology, the stronger the customer orientation-market performance relative to the industry relationship. The results also show that market performance relative to the industry is positively affected by customer orientation, but inversely affected by demand unpredictability. The findings have implications for global marketing as well as for theory development.     

The Successful Product Pioneer: Maintaining Commitment while Adapting to Change

Introducing pioneering products is an important entrepreneurial activity and the lifeblood of small businesses, yet previous literature on pioneering and performance in small firms has been inconclusive. Based on data gathered from entrepreneurs in 51 small computer firms, the study found that commitment (entrepreneurial confidence) and adaptability (corporate entrepreneurship and environmental dynamism) were especially beneficial to pioneers. The other three variables (product championing, marketing emphasis, and technological newness) contributed to performance across all new product introductions but did not have modifying effects on pioneering introductions in particular.     

Technological acquisition and investment: lessons from recent indian experience

Most of the existing studies on investment functions ignore the role of technology acquisition in influencing investment decisions. This study argues that technology acquisition will decisively influence investment behavior, modernization, and expansion plans of firms. However, capability of the firms to acquire technology differs considerably. Following the Schumpeterian paradigm, we maintain that the entrepreneur's decision to invest and expand would depend on the technological opportunities available. The main role of the entrepreneur in the Schumpeterian framework is to exploit an invention or new technology in introducing new processes and products. The policy regime in India prior to 1985 did not permit the firms to take advantage of technological opportunities created abroad in introducing new technologies and expanding their capital base. The reforms introduced since 1985, for the first time, permitted the Indian firms to expand their product range, introduce new technologies, and increase their capacities without obtaining prior official sanction.This study, therefore, examines the role of technology acquisition in influencing investment decisions of private corporate firms in the aftermath of Indian economic reforms introduced in 1985. Using pooled cross-section data for 1987-88 to 1989-90 on a sample of 325 large corporate firms from seven industries, the present study examines the interfirm differences in investment behavior. The focus is on the impact of the first phase of economic reforms introduced in India post-1985. The model specified in the study postulates that acquisition of new technology made possible by economic reforms brings down costs and boosts demand. This increases the profit rate for firms using new technology. Technology acquisition per se takes place through technology imports via licensing or arms-length purchase of technology through the market, intrafirm transfer of technology by way of foreign direct investments, and direct import of capital goods embodying new technology. The process is facilitated by R&D expenditures.Empirical tests of the model carried out for each industry separately indicate that interfirm differences in the investment rate at the firm level are due to a number of factors. Opportunities to import machinery and license technology through arms-length purchase of technology influence the investment rate positively as these expenditures promote acquisition of technology. In other words, a government policy aimed at discouraging technology imports would also deter the growth of firms. Government policy before 1985 did hinder technology imports. This was partly to protect indigenous technology and partly to conserve foreign exchange. The results of the study further show that in-house R&D expenditures promote capacity expansion. This is despite the fact that most sample firms had small R&D budgets. Firms with R&D units are better placed to locate new technology and adapt it to suit Indian market conditions. This facilitates exploitation of technological opportunity leading to expansion of capital stock. However, the ability of a firm to exploit technological opportunities depended, to a considerable extent, on the age of its plants and machinery. This is because firms with older machinery and plants find the switch to new technology more difficult as most of their equipment and machinery are not suitable for modernization. The results of the study show that firms with machinery of recent vintage modernize and expand their capital base, using new technology, since it is easier for them to make the change.These empirical results have several policy implications for decision-makers in both the public and private sectors. The policymakers can draw inferences about the positive impact of the economic reforms on the capacity expansion and growth of firms. This, perhaps, provides a justification for taking the reform process to its logical end. Because economic reforms facilitate technology acquisition and capacity expansion, decision-makers ought to initiate the reform process in other spheres where it is yet to commence. Furthermore, modernization of plant and machinery and technology acquisition are a continuous process. The cost of modernizing a plant with dated machinery will be very high as older, outdated machinery is not compatible with the current vintage. An upgrade, therefore, is difficult if not impossible. Interruption of a technological upgrade due to changes in government policy ranging from total ban on technology imports to liberal import policy would enhance the cost of technology acquisition. The empirical results also indicate that even modest R&D activities facilitate the identification, location, and importation of relevant technology. Thus, firms with in-house R&D units grew faster. In countries like India, vigorous encouragement of R&D ought to be on the policy agenda of both corporate and government policy framers.Though our sample deals with Indian firms, it has relevance for other countries, because in most countries higher growth rates are being registered in industries that have been experiencing rapid technological development with better technological opportunities. Further, in a given country, firms that went in for acquisition of new technology invested more.     

The Russian Default

This article argues that the international financial markets' massive involvement in Russia had at best a limited basis in developments in the real economy, while financial inflows from the West both enabled and encouraged Russia to avoid the restructuring which lies behind the economic recovery elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe. The best hope for a positive future for Russia is to allow many Russian banks and firms to go bankrupt and to change the nature of foreign financing. Liberal reforms could then be pursued with a clean slate. However, the author sees little likelihood of either of these happening.     

Development of intellectual property laws for the Russian Federation

In most industrialized nations, the concept and body of intellectual property laws is well into its third century of development and testing. The Russian Federation, however, has created and implemented an entirely new body of intellectual property law since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. As American and other western firms work with the Russian Federation as a supplier and customer, they must recognize that the new nation has abandoned a legal philosophy denying the existence of intellectual property in favor of intellectual property laws recognizing and favoring private development and ownership of such property. This paper examines the Russian intellectual property laws and points out adaptations that western nations should make when dealing with similar entities in the Russian Federation. The study assumes familiarity with Russian history, language, and geography. A caution to domestic firms is that they should retain experienced legal counsel to deal with negotiations and contracts with Russian business interests.     

Technological intensities and economic performance: a study of foreign and local electronics firms in Malaysia

This article compares technological intensities (TI) and economic performance of foreign and local electronics firms in Malaysia. The results show that foreign firms enjoyed higher labour productivity, wages and export intensity than local firms, though technological intensities between both sets of firms were similar. The econometric results show a strong and positive relationship between labour productivity and technological intensity in all the samples. The higher coefficient of TI in the local sample compared to the foreign sample shows that productivity in local firms is driven much more from in-house technological effort at host-sites than in foreign firms who can access technology from their parent plants. However, the relationship between TI (contributed by differences in R&D intensity) and export-intensity in the local sample is negative demonstrating that much of such effort is devoted to inward-oriented production. Reversing the relationship also produced the same negative relationship in the local sample. Skills intensity enjoyed a positive relationship with TI with similar coefficients. The positive and significant relationship between wages, and R&D and TI shows that the more technology-intensive local firms pay higher wages to attract human capital.     

Learning Orientation and Performance Satisfaction as Predictors of Small Firm Innovation: The Moderating Role of Gender

Research on innovation in the context of small entrepreneurial firms is limited. Limited available studies on innovation in small firms are devoted mostly to firms operating in knowledge-intensive or technology industries and ignore the vast majority of small firms operating in traditional and less knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy. The rapid pace of technological change and the intensifying environmental turbulence in our economy influence all firms, including the majority of small firms that are perishing at a faster rate. Innovation is a key competitive tool for survival in a turbulent environment. Thus, it is important to understand factors influencing innovation in small firms. In this paper, we explore how learning orientation, a small-firm owner’s satisfaction with firm performance, and the firm owner’s gender influence innovation in small firms. We test the proposed model on a sample of small firms located in the United States of America.     

Enhancing performance of cross-border mergers and acquisitions in developed markets: The role of business ties and technological innovation capability

This study examines the determinants of performance of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (cross-border M&As) in developed markets initiated by firms from emerging markets. Drawing on social network theory and organizational innovation literature, we hypothesize that business ties of the acquiring firm increase performance of cross-border M&As via enhancing the acquiring firm's technological innovation capability and that environmental turbulence strengthens this mediating model. Moreover, the interplay of cultural distance and technological innovation capability would decrease performance of cross-border M&As. To test the model, we collected data from 186 Chinese firms initiating cross-border M&As in developed markets. As predicted, we found that (1) technological innovation capability of the acquiring firm positively mediates the relationship between business ties and performance of cross-border M&As; (2) environmental turbulence positively moderates the relationship between business ties and technological innovation capability; and (3) cultural distance negatively moderates the relationship between technological innovation capability and performance of cross-border M&As.     

Is market orientation affected by the product life cycle?

Considerable scholarly interest has been shown in the relationship between market orientation and business performance. Although a number of environmental moderators have been postulated to influence the market orientation–performance link, extant findings are inconclusive. This study takes a different approach by conceptualizing product life cycle stages in terms of variations in competitive intensity, market and technological turbulence. Data collected in Hong Kong reveal that Atuahene-Gima's [Atuahene-Gima, K. (1995). An exploratory analysis of the impact of market orientation on new product performance: A contingent approach. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 12: 275–293] product life cycle measure successfully discriminates stages in terms of market and technological turbulence, but fails to capture variation in competitive intensity. Market orientation is also found to be more highly valued by firms in growing and mature markets than firms in introductory and declining markets. Finally, the link between market orientation and firm performance is found to be strongest for firms in the growth stage and weakest for firms in the introductory stage of the product life cycle.     

俄罗斯国家经济安全对中俄经贸合作的影响

20世纪以来,俄罗斯经历了乌克兰危机、西方经济制裁、国际油价下跌等外部因素的冲击,经济安全遭受严重威胁,在此背景下的俄罗斯政治经济战略势必波及中俄经贸合作,进而影响丝绸之路经济带建设。本文从贸易合作和对外直接投资合作方面,基于计量模型剖析俄罗斯国家经济安全对中俄经贸合作的影响过程及关联因素。研究表明俄罗斯国家经济安全危机提升了中国在俄贸易伙伴国中的地位,促使俄与中国产能合作的意愿强烈,直接投资和产能合作逐渐成为推动中俄经贸合作向纵深发展的强劲动力;俄罗斯国家经济安全危机对中俄罗贸易有显著负向影响,中俄政治关系对贸易合作有显著正向影响。这是提高中国对俄罗斯投资、提升高新技术产品在俄罗斯进口比重的机遇期,亦是推进丝绸之路经济带的重要机遇期。经济强势崛起的俄罗斯和经济体系全面崩溃的俄罗斯对丝绸之路经济带的推进均有重要影响,在与其发展战略协作伙伴关系过程中,中国恰到好处地拿捏平衡其中的大国利益边界至关重要。     

External technology acquisition and firm performance: A longitudinal study

External technology acquisition has been viewed as an important method used by firms to achieve higher economic returns. However, only a few studies have evaluated the contribution of external technology acquisition to firm performance. This lack of research is surprising because the benefits of external technology acquisition to innovation output have been emphasized extensively in the literature. This study therefore investigates the extent to which external technology acquisition effects a firm's performance, and how this effect is moderated by internal R&D efforts. This analysis concentrates on the electronics-manufacturing industry, taking advantage of the relative abundance of data on longitudinal investigation variables. A longitudinal sample allows this examination to control extraneous effects and to provide more convincing evidence for the relationship between external technology acquisition and firm performance. The analytical sample comprises a total of 341 Taiwanese electronics-manufacturing firms over the period from 1998 to 2002. The least square dummy variable analysis method reveals that external technology acquisition does not provide a significant contribution to firm performance per se; however, the positive impact of external technology acquisition on firm performance increases with the level of internal R&D efforts. Verifications for robustness and the split-sample analyses both validate the results in the setting of larger firms.     

The Impact of Environmental Turbulence on the Perceived Importance of Innovation and Innovativeness in SMEs

This study investigates how market turbulence, technological turbulence, and competitive intensity affect the perceived importance of innovation and innovativeness, and thus SMEs’ business performance. Structural equation modeling is conducted on a sample of 373 SMEs. Our findings show that both market and technological turbulence increase the perceived importance of innovation, but only market turbulence impacts SMEs’ innovativeness directly. The perceived importance of innovation mediates environmental turbulence’s influence on a firm’s innovativeness. Competitive intensity has no significant effect on the perceived importance of innovation and innovativeness. Finally, innovativeness enhances business performance when using both perceptual and lagged objective performance data.     

Unveiling the global focus-performance relationship in family firms: The role of the board of directors

Drawing on the resource-based view, this study examines how board composition and board tasks affect the relationship between the firm’s global focus and performance in private family firms. Based on a sample of 234 Belgian private family firms, our empirical analyses reveal that nonfamily involvement in the board attenuates the negative relationship between the firm’s global focus and performance. Furthermore, our results show that the global focus-performance link turns positive at higher levels of board networking and advisory tasks, whereas board control task has no significant effect. Ultimately, these findings underscore the board of directors as a key governance contingency, highlighting its important role in overcoming the challenges of global expansion in private family firms.     

Re‐Examining Supply Chain Fit: An Assessment of Moderating Factors

Research has emphasized the importance of matching products' characteristics with their supply chain design (i.e., supply chain fit). Fisher ( 1997 ) introduced the notion of supply chain fit and indicated that before developing a supply chain firms must consider the nature of the demand for their products. I expand on the Fisher ( 1997 ) framework by offering a more comprehensive understanding of when it pays off for firms to deploy resources to achieve supply chain fit. I argue that it is simplistic to assume that perfect supply chain fit will always lead to improved financial performance because the benefits generated by perfect supply chain fit might be offset by the resources deployed to achieve that fit. In order to execute this research I use archival and survey data to evaluate the moderating effects of six dimensions of environmental uncertainty (e.g., munificence, market dynamism, technological dynamism, technical complexity, product diversity, and geographic dispersion) on the relationship between supply chain fit and financial performance.