Organizational innovation as an enabler of technological innovation capabilities and firm performance

This study assesses the relationship between organizational innovation and technological innovation capabilities, and analyzes their effect on firm performance using a resource-based view theoretical framework. The article presents empirical evidence from a survey of 144 Spanish industrial firms and modeling of a system of structural equations using partial least squares. The results confirm that organizational innovation favors the development of technological innovation capabilities and that both organizational innovation and technological capabilities for products and processes can lead to superior firm performance.     

Prior Knowledge and New Product and Service Introductions by Entrepreneurial Firms: The Mediating Role of Technological Innovation

Most research on new product and service development by entrepreneurial firms takes an individual‐level, prelaunch perspective or firm‐level postlaunch perspective. Our study examines two components of the new product and service introduction process: how entrepreneurs' prior knowledge underpins (1) firm technological innovation prior to the introduction of new products and services (prelaunch) and (2) postlaunch viability of those new products and services. Our findings, based on a series of analyses of data from 158 entrepreneurial firms, show that formal technological innovation fully mediates the relation between prior knowledge and the introduction of viable new products and services.     

Innovation,firm size,and firm age

This paper uses a new data set on innovation output to assess the degree to which the level of innovation in manufacturing firms is influenced by firm size and firm age. Indicators of innovation output used are the number of new products introduced as a function of firm sales and the proportion of firm sales obtained from products first introduced in the previous five years. While the evidence is mixed, the results tend to indicate that it is possible to separate the effects of age and size in assessing the level of innovation. Both firm size and firm age tend to be inversely related to innovative output.     

Economic Benefits of Renting Software

In this article, we analyze the economics of a monopoly firm selling and renting a packaged software product by employing an intertemporal monopoly pricing game to model the firm's pricing strategy. The game models the software product as two versions; the first version is available in the first period and the second, a revised version, is available in the second period. The second version benefits from consumer reports of bugs and requests for additional features. This is modeled using delayed network externalities that take effect only in the second period. We observe that the introduction of the rental product in the first period leads to an increase in profits. We also find that the firm's profits are monotonically increasing with the intensity of the network effect. As the intensity of the network effect becomes stronger, the firm chooses to reduce its prices in the first period to expand the size of its network and later increases prices in the second period. Because many of the customers who choose to rent in the first period subsequently make a purchase in the second period, the firm is able to capture the benefits of network externalities in the first period without reducing sales in the second period. For high levels of network intensity, consumer surplus and social welfare are also higher.     

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.     

服务模块化对金融企业创新绩效的影响：组织模块化的调节作用

本文通过数据样本证实服务模块化对金融企业创新绩效存在正向影响。在此基础上,进一步发现组织模块化对服务产品模块化－创新绩效之间的关系有正向的调节作用,但对服务流程模块化－创新绩效之间的关系的正向调节作用未予证实。加入到“镜面假设”的新近对话中,有助于探明产品模块化、流程模块化和组织模块化三个维度之间的关系,从而把握技术型创新与管理型创新之间的紧密联系。     

What do firms know? What do they produce? A new look at the relationship between patenting profiles and patterns of product diversification

In this work, we analyze the relationship between the patterns of firm diversification, if any, across product lines and across bodies of innovative knowledge, proxied by the patent classes where the firm is present. Putting it more emphatically, we investigate the relationship between “what a firm does” and “what a firm knows.” Using a newly developed dataset matching information on patents and products at the firm level, we provide evidence concerning firms’ technological and product scope, their relationships, the size-scaling and coherence properties of diversification itself. Our analysis shows that typically firms are much more diversified in terms of products than in terms of technologies, with their main products more related to the exploitation of their innovative knowledge. The scaling properties show that the number of products and technologies increases log-linearly with firm size. And the directions of diversification themselves display coherence between neighboring activities also at relatively high degrees of diversification. These findings are well in tune with a capability-based theory of the firm.     

我国民营高新技术企业自主创新能力建设模式研究——来自广东的实证研究

当前我国民营高科技企业在技术能力建设方面机遇与挑战并存,从技术创新模式和技术能力演化理论角度看,企业建设持续自主创新能力的路径主要有:与用户需求同步发展,积累技术力量;培育客户,搭建平台,利用核心优势整合平台资源,模仿创新,集成创新;利用我国的资源比较优势,从降低成本入手,形成自己的技术特征,升级技术等级;产学研结合,完善知识产权制度,积极参与技术标准的制定,在充分借助外脑的基础上提升自己的自主创新能力。     

基于技术多元化的企业创新绩效研究：技术重构与开放度视角的剖析

技术多元化对创新绩效的影响研究已成为创新管理领域的热点话题,但对于两者之间内在机理的理论和实证研究仍显不足。为此,文章从技术重构、企业开放度角度剖析技术多元化与创新绩效间的作用机理,并运用沪深两市信息技术、医疗保健行业371家上市公司企业样本进行实证研究,结果表明：(1)技术多元化对创新绩效具有显著的正向影响;(2)创造式技术重构、精炼式技术重构均在技术多元化与创新绩效之间起中介作用,并且两类技术重构的作用不尽相同;(3)开放度对“技术多元化--创造式技术重构”的关系具有显著正向调节作用,而该调节作用在“技术多元化--精炼式技术重构”间则并不显著。     

Product Differentiation,Industry Concentration and Market Share Turbulence

Building on the current theory of industrial concentration, we analyze the relation between market size and product differentiation, and show how product differentiation impacts market share turbulence. We first propose that in markets where vertical product differentiation dominates, firms will have an incentive to escalate investment in advertising and/or R&D as market size increases. Secondly, such (firm‐specific) investments will make competitive advantage more sustainable as the firm is less imitable. This will not be the case if the market is primarily characterized by homogeneous products or horizontal product differentiation. Our predictions are tested using an original EU dataset for 1987 and 1997. Our results strongly support our predictions – the degree of market share turbulence increases with market size. However, this relation is weakened by competitive investment in advertising and R&D.     

On the Relationship Between Acquisitions, Divestitures and Innovations: An Explorative Study

Firms increasingly use acquisitions and divestitures to acquire strategic assets such as technological know-how and technological capabilities that can contribute to their innovation potential. This study investigates whether firms combining acquisitions and divestitures have been more innovative than those that did not. It uses an empirical model to examine the relationship between acquisitions and/or divestitures, on the one hand, and the probability of firms to produce innovations, on the other hand. Innovations are distinguished according to products and/or processes that are “new to the firm” as a proxy for all innovations including imitations and those that are “new to the market” which is a proxy for so-called real innovations, excluding imitations. In order to test the model a data set is used that includes 2381 firms and was derived from the Dutch Community Innovation Survey (CIS-2) survey for the years 1994–1996. The estimation results show that divestitures in the services industry affect the probability to innovate positively in case of innovations that are “new to the firm”. In the manufacturing industry, a stable and positive correlation was found between acquisitions and/or divestitures on the hand, and real innovation activities of firms on the other hand.     

Devaluation,Innovation, and Prices

We investigate the effects of exchange rate changes on innovation by a multinational corporation. The firm enjoys a monopoly in the home market but engages in Cournot competition with a domestic firm in the foreign market. Changes in currency values affect the multinational firm’s profits in domestic currency units, and thus influence the optimal level of process innovation as well as output and prices in the two markets. We find that a devaluation of the home currency will lead the home firm to increase its output in both the home and foreign markets, and increase its spending on R&D. We also find that currency devaluation in the home market leads to lower prices in both markets.     

Firm Leadership and Innovative Performance: Evidence from Seven EU Countries

This paper considers the effect of different firm leadership on the innovative performance of firms from seven EU countries. We investigate whether owner-led or manager-led firms achieve a larger share of their turnover with product innovations. Economic theory does not propose clear answers to this question. In the empirical analysis, it turns out that the manager-led firms are more active innovators: the share of sales based on new products is larger if firms' managers do not hold any of the firms' capital. Surprisingly, there are no differences between the seven countries included in the regression analysis.     

Occupational Choice: The Influence of Product vs. Process Innovation

Prior studies have found that knowledge gained from work experience is a way to gather insights for business opportunity recognition. However, little is known about the specific types of knowledge that lead to business founding. Utilizing concepts from knowledge spillovers and from the opportunity recognition literatures, this paper argues that an organization’s technological innovation activities can help its employees develop specialized knowledge that provides them with the entrepreneurial opportunities to found new businesses. Besides highlighting the positive relationship between technological innovation activities in organizations and the propensity of individuals leaving the organizations to start new businesses, this paper also provides a more fine-grained explanation of the types of technological innovation activities that can lead to business founding. We argue that knowledge acquired through product innovations is more easily adopted by individuals for commercial uses, while knowledge acquired through process innovations must be integrated with other parts of the organization to be valuable. This study proposes that product innovation activities in an organization, more so than process innovation activities, are related to new business founding. Implications for opportunity exploitation and ways to exploit knowledge spillovers are discussed.      

准入规制与技术创新:基于自然垄断行业的经验分析

准入规制对自然垄断产业技术创新的影响依据其类型而不同.与竞争性市场相比,进入规制对成本节约的Ⅰ型技术创新不产生特别影响,但对创造产品需求的Ⅱ型技术创新产生抑制作用.另一方面,Ⅰ型技术创新对既有的准入规制有一定的强化作用,而Ⅱ型技术创新通过刺激需求,改变原垄断行业的自然垄断特征,会导致放松规制.对移动通讯业与治污行业的实证研究支持了上述论断.     

绿色创业企业先动式顾客导向对突破式绿色产品创新的作用研究

为了探索先动式顾客导向对突破式产品创新的真实影响,本研究以绿色创业企业为研究对象,将突破式绿色产品创新划分为以技术为基础的突破式绿色产品创新和以市场为基础的突破式绿色产品创新,将突破式绿色产品创新兼容性与重要性作为中介变量构建了先动式顾客导向和两种类型突破式绿色产品创新之间关系的概念模型,并以国内193家企业为样本进行了实证研究。研究发现：先动式顾客导向在促进突破式产品创新的过程中存在着局限性,即先动式顾客导向对以技术为基础的突破式绿色产品创新有正向的显著影响,但对以市场为基础的突破式绿色产品创新的正向影响不显著,突破式绿色产品创新兼容性与重要性在先动式顾客导向和以技术为基础的突破式绿色产品创新之间发挥着部分中介作用。     

Heterogeneous ability,career choice and firm size

Entrepreneurial ability is the ability to innovate new products. Managerial ability is the ability to maintain the profitability of current operations. By assuming heterogeneous abilities of acquiring and maintaining an endogenous number of production processes, the model of this paper predicts a distribution of firm sizes, a diversity in the composition of R&D and chosen career. Firms conduct product improvement if and only if managerial ability is high relative to entrepreneurial ability. Individuals choose careers as either innovative entrepreneurs, managerial entrepreneurs or salaried employees depending on their abilities. An individual's entrepreneurial ability may not be high enough to choose a career as an innovative entrepreneur, but if managerial ability is sufficiently high, then a career as a managerial entrepreneur is optimal. Managerial ability has an effect on expected firm size if and only if the individual is a managerial entrepreneur.This material is based upon work supported by the Research Committee of the Rutgers Graduate School of Management. I wish to thank two anonymous referees for helpful suggestions.     

Product Innovation in Family versus Nonfamily Firms: An Exploratory Analysis

How family firms manage product innovation remains an overlooked topic in existing business research. This happens despite the fact that family businesses play a crucial role across all economies, and they often use technological innovation to nurture their competitive advantage. By drawing upon the resource‐based view of the firm as well as agency, stewardship, and behavioral theories and using empirical evidence gathered through a multiple case study, the paper studies how and why the anatomy of the product innovation process differs between family and nonfamily firms. The analysis shows that family businesses differ from nonfamily ones as regards product innovation strategies and organization of the innovation process.     

Inter-firm relational resources in cloud service adoption and their effect on service innovation

This study examines (1) inter-firm relational resources for cloud service adoption and (2) their effects on service innovation. A research model and the related hypotheses are developed based on resource-advantage (R-A) theory that combines inter-firm relational resources identified in theoretical and empirical research as important antecedents of cloud service adoption and its effect on service innovation. This study collects data from 165 managers from service firms in Taiwan. The results show that resources, including reliability, cost, and compatibility significantly affect a firm’s cloud service adoption. Furthermore, the adoption of cloud service significantly contributes to service innovation. The findings add to the current understanding of service innovation in two important ways. First, drawing on R-A theory, this study is among the first attempts to identify inter-firm relational resources (reliability, cost, compatibility, and customer orientation) for cloud service adoption and their effect on innovation performance. Second, this study introduces cloud services as effective technological platforms for a firm and its business partners to share, integrate, and reciprocate information, knowledge, and experience for service innovation.     

The effect of exogenous product familiarity on endogenous consumer search

When a consumer is familiar with one product but not its competitor, she is faced with a decision: either buy what she knows, or engage in search to learn more. When search is costly, competing firms may attempt to encourage or discourage search by adjusting prices. In this paper we consider how competitive dynamics between two quality differentiated firms are affected if one product enjoys a familiarity advantage. Familiarity is defined as a consumer’s ex-ante knowledge of fit for a particular product. An increase in the level of familiarity for one product allows a firm to charge higher prices since there are more consumers with information on that product relative to the competition. We call this the direct effect of familiarity. However, an increase in familiarity also has an indirect effect, since it gives the rival firm a stronger incentive to decrease price in order to encourage searching, in turn increasing overall competition. The effect of familiarity on profits depends on the magnitudes of these effects, and it is moderated by the level of quality differentiation between products. For very high or very low levels of differentiation, the results are relatively straightforward. However, when the level of differentiation is moderate, the results are more nuanced, with the higher-quality firm realizing higher profits from more familiarity, even if it must lower prices due to the indirect effect. We also find that, contrary to conventional wisdom, overall competition may be higher when firms are more quality differentiated. This is driven by the fact that higher quality differences bolster the indirect effect, with a lower quality firm providing deeper price cuts to counter increased familiarity of a high quality rival. We conclude by examining how changes in the cost of searching impact equilibrium outcomes.