Goal Multiplicity and Innovation: How Social and Economic Goals Affect Open Innovation and Innovation Performance

Integrating insights from the strategic goal literature and the knowledge‐based view of the firm, this article proposes that the pursuit of social and economic strategic goals by commercial firms affects their innovation performance through different knowledge sourcing activities. The strategic goals, knowledge sourcing practices, and innovation performance of 1257 Belgian firms are investigated. Results show that both social and economic strategic goals are associated with the use of external information sources, but only the pursuit of social goals inspires firms to engage in external collaboration. No evidence is found of an inherent conflict between social and economic strategic goals. Instead, the two types of goals are independent of each other, that is, an emphasis on social goals does not preclude an emphasis on economic goals and vice versa. Moreover, firms’ external knowledge sourcing and innovation performance benefit most when strongly held social goals align with strongly held economic goals. These findings offer new insight into the nature and the effects of goal multiplicity among commercial firms. They open up a new perspective on the potential positive effects of the joint pursuit of social and economic strategic goals instead of seeing them as inherently conflicting, as past research has typically done. We illustrate how social strategic goals can deliver unique benefits to a firm, independently of and in addition to economic strategic goals. Our findings also contribute to the open innovation literature by revealing strategic goals as a driver of firms’ knowledge sourcing practices. Our findings suggest that solely emphasizing economic goals may be one reason why firms struggle to implement open innovation practices and do not reap their full benefits. The practical implications of our research are discussed.     

集聚经济、创新溢出与区域创新绩效

推动经济增长的主导因素由传统的劳动力、资本积累向创新要素数量与网络化程度转变。从来源看,区域创新源于区内自主创新与区外创新溢出。区域自主创新能力直接受创新要素禀赋条件的影响,集聚经济因素通过空间外部性作用直接影响区域创新要素集聚能力与水平。同时区域经济发展过程中形成的空间依赖产生区间创新溢出;对外开放过程中产生创新的国际溢出,都对区域创新绩效产生重要影响。实证分析结果表明,从整体上看,集聚经济与创新溢出皆对区域创新绩效有显著影响。因此,应通过强化集聚经济效应,构建开放式创新环境,提高吸收能力以充分利用创新溢出效应,并促进企业价值网与区域创新网“两网合一”,降低交易成本,不断提升区域创新绩效。     

Competition & Innovation: Evidence from U.S. Patent and Productivity Data

Is there any evidence that innovation and technological progress are constrained by competition and fostered by monopoly power? Our results, based on a constructed dataset of U.S. manufacturing industries observed over more than two decades, suggest that this is not the case. On the contrary, using both patent statistics and productivity growth as alternative measures of innovation and technological change, we observe faster technological advances in more competitive markets. These results are robust to changes in the econometric techniques used to model nonlinearity in the competition‐innovation relationship and to alternative methods of computing market power.     

企业技术创新与企业经济绩效关系的探析

本文以总资产收益率和净资产收益率作为反映企业经济绩效的因变量,以研发密度、技术人员比率、资本支出率和专利作为反映企业技术创新的自变量,同时选用控制变量资产负债率（Debt）和企业规模（Size）进行回归估计,得出如下结论：企业研发密度、企业技术人员比率、专利授权数均与企业经济绩效之间存在正相关关系,资本支出率与企业经济绩效之间存在负相关关系。     

竞争、内部人控制与经济绩效--许继集团治理结构及其绩效的经济学解释

许继集团内部治理结构具有所有权与控制权高度分离、科层结构中所有者与经营者之间的相互制衡机制弱化的特征,为管理专业化的实现、企业家才能的发挥提供了前提和一定的激励,而产品市场上的激烈竞争、股票市场上的股价波动及信息披露压力缓和了该结构可能带来的股东与经理层之间严重的代理问题,从而使许继具有了取得优良业绩的制度基础.     

专利执行保险、技术创新与企业绩效

作为知识产权保护重要制度之一,专利执行保险通过降低技术溢出损失和外部融资约束提升企业技术创新,进而对企业绩效产生深远影响。本文基于沪深A股2012~2019年上市公司微观数据,实证研究专利执行保险实施背景下专利保护对企业技术创新和财务绩效的影响。研究发现:专利执行保险对企业技术创新存在显著的“创新激励”效应,特别是对创新投入和创新产出的提升作用明显,在考虑控制内生性问题后,上述结论仍成立;技术溢出损失效应和外部融资约束是影响专利执行保险创新激励效应的重要机制和渠道;专利执行保险和企业技术创新对企业财务绩效影响显著,其中对滞后5期内的企业财务绩效提升最为明显。研究为完善知识产权保护对创新激励作用探讨,加快专利执行保险试点推广以及如何激发企业创新提供理论价值和政策启示。     

Only the Brave: Product Innovation,Service Business Model Innovation,and Their Impact on Performance

Recent empirical findings concerning the performance effects of service business model innovation (servitization) and its interplay with product innovation are mixed. Using the lenses of the demand‐based view on value creation and complementarity, the performance impact of two key service business models is examined: the product‐oriented model and the customer‐oriented model, implemented jointly with product innovation. Results indicate that the interplay between service business model innovation and product innovation results in long‐term performance benefits coupled with a degree of short‐term performance sacrifice. Service business model innovation in isolation from product innovation results in short‐term profit gains but long‐term knowledge loss and, thus, market performance decline. Our study suggests that firms need to look beyond the evidence on short‐term effects in order to achieve superior performance in the long run.     

Designing Competitive Electricity Markets,Hung-po Chao and Hillard G. Huntington,editors.

Review of Industrial Organization -     

Industrial Relations and Economic Performance

Postwar concern about our industrial relations system has been dominated by three issues: pay; performance at workplace, company and national level; and industrial action. In each case the focus of interest is the link between the institutions, procedures and processes of the system and the outcomes that it generates. This paper evaluates evidence on these three issues for the last quarter-century, since the publication of the Donovan Report in 1968. Special attention is given to information from successive WIRSs. The evidence suggests that (i) industrial action is of minor importance; (ii) the industrial relations system can no longer be held to stymie company performance; (iii) the pay-jobs trade-off is as intractable as ever.     

Diversification, Concentration and Economic Performance: Korean Business Groups

The purpose of this paper is to analyze empirically some of therelationships involving corporate diversification, concentration and economic performance for agroup of 25 of the largest Korean chaebols or business groups over the period 1985–1995. UsingHerfindahl–Hirschman indices of inter-industry diversification and intra-group member firm concentration,our results indicate that increased conglomerate diversification does not affect chaebol profitswhereas changes in internal member firm concentration do. Of particular interest with respect to bothdiversification and concentration are our findings that a quadratic relationship exists between groupprofits and the number of member firms, with both smaller and larger chaebols having higher profitsthan intermediate size chaebols. A similar relationship also exists with respect to group size measuredin terms of total assets. Since the number of member firms is included as an explanatory variable, ourresults imply that profitable chaebols expand primarily within their existing industries ratherthan by adding firms in new markets.     

中国区域碳生产率与能源消耗、经济增长关系比较研究

本文对1995～2013年中国30个省市、自治区的碳生产率、人均能源消费与人均GDP进行单位根检验,并对30个省市、自治区的平稳面板数据进行Grange因果关系检验,研究结果表明：碳生产率与能源消费之间为双向Granger因果关系,能源消费与经济增长为双向Granger因果关系,经济增长是碳生产率的单向Granger原因。当每多消费一单位的能源,对非资源型省份 碳生产率的负向影响将比资源型省份大,即非资源型省份碳生产率下降的水平比资源型省份下降的要多,同时非资源型省份经济增长带来的碳生产率水平上升幅度要大于资源型省份。     

The Effects of Race and Worker Productivity on Performance Evaluations

Using personnel data from a large firm, we examine the role of race, supervisor's race, and worker productivity on performance ratings for a diverse employee population. Controlling for worker productivity and other demographic variables, black employees receive lower ratings than whites. These differences in performance evaluations are associated with the racial composition of the subordinate-supervisor pair. Racial differences between subordinate and supervisor lead to lower ratings for both black and white subordinates.     

R&D Cooperation,Partner Diversity,and Innovation Performance: An Empirical Analysis

Existing literature on research and development (R&D) alliances focuses on formation motives and performance impacts of these alliances but hardly on diversity of the partners' portfolio. Cooperation with a diverse set of partners leads to learning opportunities with regard to both cooperation and innovation skills and hence is expected to enhance the firm's innovation performance. This paper examines two research questions: (1) the impact of functional and geographical diversity of R&D partners on radical and incremental innovation performance of product innovating firms, and (2) the organizational determinants of partner diversity in R&D alliances. The empirical analysis is based on data from the Dutch Community Innovation Survey, R&D and Information and Communication Technology Surveys, and Production Statistics, which lead to a representative sample of 12,811 innovating firms in the period 1994–2006. Through random‐effects panel Tobit estimates, econometric models for both research questions are estimated. The results indicate that functional and geographical diversity act through different channels. Functional diversity leads to a variety of knowledge intake and synergetic effects necessary to develop and commercialize novel products. Geographical diversity results in successful adaption of existing products to different local requirements such as technical standards, market regulations, and customer preferences. The organizational determinants of both kinds of partner diversity are prior experience, patenting, and information technology infrastructure.     

Networks,Infrastructure and the New Task for Regulation. Werner Sichel and Donald L. Alexander,editors.

Review of Industrial Organization -     

Boards of Directors,Innovation, and Performance: An Exploration at Multiple Levels

This work reports on an investigation of the dynamics of governance over breakthrough innovation within Fortune 1000 firms. The primary research question investigates the boundary of agency theory within the firm. Using agency and stakeholder theoretic perspectives, the study tests the hypothesis that innovation will thrive in firms that combine a board of directors operating in accordance with a high agency theoretic focus in addition to an innovation governance board operating deeper within the firm that employs a strong stakeholder theoretic orientation in its behavior. The model is tested with data from 98 large firms. Results suggest that the relationship between board of directors' behavior and the firm's overall innovativeness is mediated by innovation decision‐making boards that (1) promote projects that are breakthrough in scope, (2) incorporate input of diverse constituencies within the firm, (3) exhibit patience with financial results, and (4) engage in frequent, informal interactions with project teams. Firms exhibiting high board of director agency orientation in combination with loyalty to mandate, patient financial capital disposition, inclusiveness, and project team interaction as described above for innovation governance board decision‐making prove to be the most innovative as measured by external indicators. For firm innovativeness, consolidated managerial power and behavior is frequently present at the upper levels of the firm, but must be broken down at deeper levels of the firm. This research offers implications to innovation decision‐makers as to how to proceed if the intent is to offer commercializably successful breakthrough innovations.     

Sustainability,Social Media Driven Open Innovation,and New Product Development Performance*

Sustainability and social media use in open innovation play important roles in a firm's new product development (NPD) process. This research examines, in conjunction, the roles of sustainability and social media driven inbound open innovation (SMOI) for a firm's NPD performance, and further, takes a more refined approach by differentiating between different types of SMOI activities. To this end, this research develops and tests a conceptual framework, which predicts that (1) a firm's sustainability orientation (SO) is positively associated with its NPD performance, (2) customer focus (CF) partially mediates the SO–NPD performance link, and (3) particular SMOI activities moderate the CF–NPD performance link. The empirical results, using data from the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA)'s comparative performance assessment study, provide support for most of the framework. Notably, this research documents a positive link between SO and NPD performance, as well as a partial mediating role of CF. The results further suggest that social media driven open innovation activities focused on gathering market insights enhance CF directly, while social media driven open innovation activities that garner technical expertise enhance the link between CF and NPD performance. This paper bridges the separate literatures on sustainability and open innovation, and contributes to the NPD research. The findings suggest that managers should take a strategic approach to sustainability and embed it in the NPD process. Furthermore, managers should manage social media based open innovation carefully to fully benefit the firm during the front end and back end of NPD.     

Market Dominance: How Firms Gain,Hold, or Lose It and the Impact on Economic Performance David I. Rosenbaum,editor.

Review of Industrial Organization -