Too much of a good thing? Absorptive capacity,firm performance,and the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation

Absorptive capacity (ACAP) refers to a firm's ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit new knowledge. Research has yet to acknowledge the possibility of limits to the financial returns of this important strategic construct. This study suggests an inverted‐U shaped relationship between ACAP and financial performance. Based on data from 285 technology‐based small and medium enterprises, we observe gains within three prospective, secondary measures of growth to diminish beyond lower levels of ACAP, even turning negative and becoming harmful beyond intermediate levels. We find that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) moderates the ACAP‐performance relationship, enhancing financial gains at lower levels of ACAP and mitigating the decline in financial performance at higher levels of ACAP. Further, with higher EO, higher ACAP can be achieved before financial returns diminish.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do Individual Employees' Learning Goal Orientation and Civic Virtue Matter? A Micro‐Foundations Perspective on Firm Absorptive Capacity

Research summary : In this study, we build on the micro‐foundations perspective and investigate how individual characteristics contribute to the development of firm absorptive capacity. In particular, we assess how individual learning goal orientation affects firm potential and realized absorptive capacity. Furthermore, we study how individuals' civic virtue acts as a micro‐level social integration mechanism that moderates the effect from firm realized absorptive capacity to potential absorptive capacity. Using the multilevel structural equation modeling technique and data from 871 core‐knowledge employees nested in 139 high‐technology firms, we find support to our major hypotheses. Together, this study finds support for the micro‐foundations' perspective and generates novel insights on how individual‐level factors could be linked with firm‐level heterogeneity in absorptive capacity. Managerial summary : We study how employees' characteristics contribute to a firm's absorptive capacity, that is, the ability of a firm to identify, assimilate, and exploit knowledge from the environment. Because firms have increasingly tapped into external resources to foster innovation over the past two decades, absorptive capacity is crucial to firm learning and success. Using data from 871 core‐knowledge employees in 139 high‐technology firms, we find that individual employees' learning goal orientation, the tendency to seek improvements in employees' competence and to understand or master new things advances the development of a firm's potential and realized absorptive capacity. More important, individual employees' civic virtue, the discretionary involvement in company issues, serves as a social integration mechanism that reduces the gap between firm potential and realized absorptive capacity. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

高管薪酬激励、创业战略导向与创业型企业成长性关系研究

本文基于2012～2014年创业板上市公司的非平衡面板数据,研究了高管薪酬激励与创业型企业成长性之间的关系,探讨了创业战略导向作为企业内部的增长战略倾向对上述关系的调节作用。研究结果表明：高管货币薪酬、权益薪酬、薪酬差距与创业型企业成长显著正相关;创业战略导向会负向调节高管货币薪酬与创业型企业成长性之间的关系、正向调节权益薪酬与创业型企业成长性之间的关系,而对薪酬差距与创业型企业成长之间关系的调节作用未得到验证。     

Thinking inside the box? Intellectual structure of the knowledge base of innovation research (1988–2008)

Innovation is becoming increasingly popular as a concept as well as a field of research. As a field, it has accumulated a significant amount of scientific knowledge. Based on bibliometric data from four major social science disciplines—economics, sociology, psychology, and management—this study presents a ‘global view’ of the field by combining longitudinal and structural perspectives. It identifies major research traditions in the field, determines the content and disciplinary composition of each tradition, and maps the changes in the intellectual structure of the field over time. The study suggests that innovation research is becoming increasingly compartmentalized between economics and management disciplines and each segment is becoming increasingly self‐contained. A strategy along with a framework is suggested for making research contribution to the field. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Value innovation in business markets: Breaking the industry recipe

The industrial marketing as well as the strategic management literature stresses the importance of “value innovation” in order to create/sustain competitive advantage and to rejuvenate the organization.In the first part of this article the construct of value innovation is operationalized within the context of selected business-to-business markets. We report the results of an ongoing research project; starting from traditional ways of value creation, the study reveals different types of value innovation initiatives undertaken by industry participants. We observe, however, that networks, firms and managers are embedded in industry recipes. These recipes block the creation and realization of value innovation. Some firms are trying to break out of existing frames and their experiences pinpoint to specific ways of markets sensing, strategic marketing and different marketing-mix tools. As such, the research frames value innovation initiatives in the existing industry contexts and managerial frames, and identifies drivers, barriers and perceived success factors for the process of value innovation.The second part of the article then looks at the stages of value innovation and their impact on marketing, organizations and networks. Based on the data analysis, the paper posits propositions which stress the concept of “multilevel absorptive capacity”.     

网络、资源与竞争优势:一个企业社会学视角下的观点

资源一直是企业获取竞争优势的主要战略因素。本文以“传统资源”为研究起点,刻画了企业行为的社会嵌入性特征,并通过引入“网络资源”这一概念揭示出一个更加全面、以企业网络及其关系资本为背景的资源分析框架,完善地拓展了传统的资源基础论观点。     

Absorptive capacity,learning, and performance in international joint ventures

This paper proposes and tests a model of IJV learning and performance that segments absorptive capacity into the three components originally proposed by Cohen and Levinthal (1990). First, trust between an IJV's parents and the IJV's relative absorptive capacity with its foreign parent are suggested to influence its ability to understand new knowledge held by foreign parents. Second, an IJV's learning structures and processes are proposed to influence its ability to assimilate new knowledge from those parents. Third, the IJV's strategy and training competence are suggested to shape its ability to apply the assimilated knowledge. Revisiting the Hungarian IJVs studied by Lyles and Salk (1996) 3 years later, we find support for the knowledge understanding and application predictions, and partial support for the knowledge assimilation prediction. Unexpectedly, our results suggest that trust and management support from foreign parents are associated with IJV performance but not learning. Our model and results offer a new perspective on IJV learning and performance as well as initial insights into how those relationships change over time. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

股权结构对合资企业绩效的影响研究——基于组织学习的视角

作为影响国际合资企业发展和运作的一个重要因素,股权结构与企业绩效的关系研究,是相关学术领域的一个重要议题。但不同学者的研究结论依然存在分歧,表明合资企业股权结构与其绩效之间的关系并不单纯。本研究从组织学习视角,运用吸收能力这一构念,对合资企业股权结构与绩效之间的复杂关系,以及内部作用机制进行探究,以期为这一重要研究议题,提供来自中国市场的证据。通过对95家中外合资企业的实证研究,我们发现,中外双方均衡持股的合资企业拥有最高的绩效,中方控股的次之,外方控股的最低。同时发现,合资企业的吸收能力在股权结构影响企业绩效的过程中起到完全中介的作用,较好地揭示了股权结构对合资企业绩效影响的作用机制。研究者建议,中国企业在参与国际合资时,对于股权控制问题应非常慎重,且不能轻易放弃控股权;在股权结构不变的条件下,则需要有意识地通过组织管理控制策略,提高企业的知识吸收能力,以获得更高的绩效。     

企业社会资本与技术创新：基于吸收能力的实证研究

本文针对我国企业社会资本影响技术创新的机制问题展开分析,从企业社会资本的特征维度出发,引入吸收能力的视角,提出了基于吸收能力的企业社会资本与技术创新绩效的概念模型。在问卷调查的基础上,通过多元线性回归分析和结构方程模型分析,对我国企业社会资本如何影响技术创新的问题进行了实证研究。研究结果表明,在不考虑吸收能力作用的情况下,企业社会资本的结构、关系和认知等三个维度的水平对于我国企业技术创新绩效的提升均具有积极显著的作用;企业社会资本三个特征维度的水平通过提高吸收能力进而正向影响技术创新绩效;其中,认知维度在结构维度和关系维度发挥效应中承担中介变量的作用。为提高企业技术创新绩效,建议以知识的获取和利用为导向,注重企业社会资本三个维度水平的均衡提高。