Inbound open innovation in SMEs: indicators,non-financial outcomes and entry-timing

This study contributes to the literature on inbound open innovation in three ways. Firstly, it verifies the suitability of three groups of innovation activities (external information sources, cooperation and acquisition of machinery, knowledge or R&D) as indicators of open innovation, by modelling their relationship with the openness of the development of new products. Secondly, it relates these activities to three non-financial product-oriented outcomes of small and medium enterprises (SMEs): quality, product range and market share. When significant, the signs of the relationships are always positive. Thirdly, it is the first to link two streams of the literature on innovation within SMEs: open innovation and entry-timing. We distinguish between pioneers (the first to introduce innovations onto the market) and followers and find that most open innovation activities relate to the pioneering behaviour. This should be taken into consideration when designing public policies supporting innovation. Data include Spanish innovative SMEs from the Community Innovation Survey.     

Linking technology innovation strategy,intellectual capital and technology innovation performance in manufacturing SMEs

The research interest on Intellectual Capital (IC) has been increasing, adopting different definitions and developing diverse measurement tools. Nonetheless, little research focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the relation between IC and innovation management. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of technology innovation strategy on the IC development and then on innovation performance in manufacturing SMEs. After conducting a survey, measures of IC for SMEs have been performed and an integrated structural equation model has been created. Results demonstrate that technology innovation strategy affects all IC components, the internal structural capital supports the relational and human capital, and the latter two influence firm technology innovation performance. This study contributes to developing an IC measurement system in SMEs and to emphasise the importance of single IC components in improving technology innovation performance.     

Product innovation: testing the relative influence of industry,institutional context and firm factors

This article analyses the influence of industry characteristics (concentration and technological opportunity), the institutional framework (social capital and spillovers from the public sector) and some firm factors (external and internal R&D) on product innovation in a unique integrated framework. Based on a sample of Spanish industrial firms, these variables were found to be positively related to firms’ product innovation. Also, results show that in institutional environments with significant levels of social capital and spillovers, firms change their innovation strategy focusing on external R&D.     

How external partnering enhances innovation: evidence from Chinese technology-based SMEs

If China is to make the leap from being a manufacturer of goods, often for others, to being a world-class innovator, then Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have an important role to play in achieving this future goal. Much recent debate has focused on innovation activities of multinational corporations in China, with little attention paid to the role of indigenous SMEs and how they attempt to become more innovation oriented. This paper presents findings from 10 case studies of SME firms based in the Zhejiang Province of China to try and establish to what extent external partnerships have helped them become more innovative and competitive. The most common forms of partnering used by these firms is collaboration with universities, with customers and key suppliers, which has implications for how learning and absorptive capacity affects the firm's innovation strategy.     

社会资本组件对个体双元创新的作用机制研究

社会资本对个体双元创新的影响在学术界受到重视,厘清社会资本与个体双元创新的关系对有效提升企业创新能力至关重要。基于社会资本的3个维度提出3对组件(Components),即结构维度的结合网络与桥接网络、关系维度的普遍信任与特殊信任以及认知维度的共同愿景与组织多样化,探究每对组件对个体利用性创新与探索性创新的差异性影响,分析各组件缓解个体因兼顾利用性与探索性创新所面临时间冲突困境的平衡作用,构建双元兼顾的一致型和适应型社会资本理论架构,为管理者善用和慎用社会资本组件、提升员工双元创新能力提供理论依据。     

Direct and configurational paths of open innovation and organisational agility to business model innovation in SMEs

ABSTRACT

Discussions on opportunities and enablers have remained lacking despite the continued growth of business model innovation (BMI) research. In order to investigate the formation mechanism of BMI in small-medium enterprises (SMEs), we proposed an integrated model, which included factors derived from organisational internal resources and capabilities via the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities view (DCV). Structural equation model (SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) were utilised to test the survey data collected from 245 SMEs in China. SEM results support the hypotheses, except that on the impact of outbound open innovation on market capitalising agility and on BMI. The fsQCA analysis revealed that four configurations of open innovations and organisational agilities can sufficiently explain high levels of BMI, and two configurations of these factors lead to low BMI. The theoretical and practical implications of such findings were also provided.     

Productivity, innovation and R&D: Micro evidence for Italy

By exploiting a rich firm level data-base, this paper presents novel empirical evidence on the effect of process and product innovations on productivity, as well as on the role played by R&D and fixed capital investment in enhancing the likelihood of introducing innovations at the firm level. Our results imply that process innovation has a large impact on productivity. Furthermore, R&D spending is strongly positively associated with the probability of introducing a new product, whereas fixed capital spending increases the likelihood of introducing a process innovation. The latter result might reflect the fact that new technologies are frequently embodied in new capital goods. However, the effect of fixed investment on the probability of introducing a process innovation is magnified by R&D spending internal to the firm. This implies that R&D can affect productivity growth by facilitating the absorption of new technologies.     

CEO权力强度与企业双元创新投入决策——市场化水平及内部控制的调节作用

如何选择合适的创新策略,是企业管理者面临的重大战略问题。以市场化水平和内部控制为调节变量,基于2014—2017年中证高新技术企业指数成分股数据,研究CEO权力强度与企业双元创新投入决策关系,结果发现：CEO权力强度促进企业创新投入;相较于利用式创新投入,结构权力对探索式创新投入的抑制效应更显著,所有制权力、专家权力和声誉权力对探索式创新投入的促进效应更显著;相较于探索式创新投入,市场化水平对CEO权力强度与利用式创新投入的调节效应更显著;相较于利用式创新投入,内部控制对CEO权力强度与探索式创新投入的调节效应更显著。结论拓展了CEO权力与双元创新研究领域,可为企业利用CEO权力调节双元创新投入水平提供实践指导。     

高管团队异质性、断层线与创新战略——注意力配置的调节作用

以2011—2015年中国沪深A股129家上市公司为研究样本,检验了高管团队异质性和高管团队断层线强度对企业创新战略的影响,以及高管团队的注意力配置在其中的调节作用。研究结果表明:高管团队的任期异质性和职能背景异质性正向影响企业的创新战略;高管团队的断层线负向影响企业的创新战略;高管团队的注意力配置对其异质性、断层线与企业创新战略的关系起调节作用。     

Access to finance for innovators in the UK's environmental sector

Technological innovations are seen as one of the best solutions to mitigate the environmental impacts of economic activity. Yet, the innovative success of firms, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in the environmental sector is dependent on the presence of appropriate external financing to support their innovative activity. In an attempt to understand the circumstances surrounding the financing of 330 UK SMEs from the environmental sector between 2007 and 2010, we investigate the relationship between different types of innovation activity and sources of external finance. We observe a clear division of labour between the three external sources of finance, namely, banks, venture capital and government in terms of the types of innovations they finance. We also identify that finance gap affects environmental SMEs with early-stage and less applied research projects. We discuss the challenges for UK environmental SMEs to engage in innovative activity and call for an increased government action in order to support innovative SMEs with early-stage projects and to instil confidence in the private investors by signalling long-term commitment.     

智力资本要素内部契合对探索式创新和利用式创新的影响

为探究知识经济时代企业如何充分利用智力资本提升创新水平,基于人-组织契合理论,构建智力资本跨维度契合影响创新战略理论模型,运用回归分析法,对中国246家高技术企业样本进行实证分析。结果发现,组织资本与人力资本辅助性契合对利用式创新具有正向影响;社会资本正向调节组织资本与人力资本辅助性契合对利用式创新和探索式创新的影响;组织资本、人力资本和社会资本补充性契合正向影响双元型创新。     

Does social capital determine innovation? To what extent?

This paper deals with two questions: Does social capital determine innovation in manufacturing firms? If it is the case, to what extent? To deal with these questions, we review the literature on innovation in order to see how social capital came to be added to the other forms of capital as an explanatory variable of innovation. In doing so, we have been led to follow the dominating view of the literature on social capital and innovation which claims that social capital cannot be captured through a single indicator, but that it actually takes many different forms that must be accounted for. Therefore, to the traditional explanatory variables of innovation, we have added five forms of structural social capital (business network assets, information network assets, research network assets, participation assets, and relational assets) and one form of cognitive social capital (reciprocal trust). Based on the survey data administered from April to June 2000 to 440 manufacturing firms of diverse industries in a region in the southwest of Montréal, we have found that 68.5% of the firms have developed product or process innovations during the 3 years preceding the survey. Assuming that innovation is not a discrete event but a complex process, we have modeled the decision to innovate as a two-stage decision-making process: in the first stage, the firms deal with the decision about whether to innovate or not whereas, at the second stage, the firms that have decided to innovate must make a decision about the degree of radicalness of the innovation to undertake. In a context where empirical investigations regarding the relations between social capital and innovation are still scanty, this paper makes contributions to the advancement of knowledge in providing new evidence regarding the impact and the extent of social capital on innovation at the two decision-making stages considered in this study. Regarding the decision to innovate or not that firms must initially make, we have provided strong evidence that diverse forms of social capital influence this decision and, more importantly, that marginal increases in social capital, especially in social capital taking the forms of participation assets and relational assets, contribute more than any other explanatory variable to increase the likelihood of innovation of firms. As for the decision to be made at the second stage concerning the magnitude of radicalness to bring in the development of new product or process innovations, this paper contributes to the advancement of knowledge by supplying the strongest evidence that diverse forms of social capital determine the radicalness of innovation, and more importantly, that social capital taking the form of research network assets contributes more than any other explanatory variable to explain the radicalness of innovation. The second variable that exerts the strongest impact on the radicalness of innovation is the number of different advanced technologies employed by firms for production.     

制造型企业商业模式创新与经营绩效关系研究

商业模式创新对经营绩效的积极效用得到了广泛关注,但对二者内在逻辑关系的认识仍需深化。基于双元能力视角,探讨制造型企业商业模式创新与经营绩效的内在联系,运用192家制造型中小企业数据分析发现,因效率边界作用,效率型商业模式创新与经营绩效呈倒U型关系,而由于新颖效应,新颖型商业模式创新与经营绩效关系为U型;双元能力在效率型商业模式创新与经营绩效的倒U型关系,以及新颖型商业模式创新与经营绩效的U型关系中都发挥正向调节效应。     

我国中小企业上市公司资本结构关联规则分析

以我国40家中小企业上市公司为研究对象,利用其财务报表数据,总结出中小企业上市公司的资本结构具有资产负债率总体水平偏低、负债结构不合理,流动负债比重极高的特征。进一步分析了企业的资产负债率与负债利息率、流动负债比重和资产收益率之间的关联规则,并比较了样本企业与其所处行业在关联规则上的差异。最后指出:银行应针对中小企业的具体财务指标情况对之采取不同的贷款政策;中小企业应重视资本结构管理,根据其内外财务环境及自身的盈利能力进行资本结构的战略规划。     

Antecedents and consequences of green innovation in the wine industry: the role of channel structure

In this study, we place green innovation in a broader technology development, commercialisation and distribution context to test hypotheses in three areas: (1) the internal vs external drivers of green innovation; (2) the effect of green innovation on business performance; and (3) the role of channel structures (the degree to which producers sell directly to consumers or businesses) in making green innovation more productive in terms of business performance. To test our hypotheses, data from an international survey among 123 wineries is used. Our results suggest that internal drivers, i.e. environmental management and quality management in particular, play a greater role than external drivers (e.g. government and regulatory pressures) on the adoption of green innovation strategies. Producing and using organic products and processes and recycling activities are found to have a significant direct positive impact on business performance. Our results also confirm the moderating effect of channel structures: the benefits of green innovation in terms of business performance are larger when firms use more direct sales channels (selling wine directly from the wine cellar to consumers and businesses).     

Social capital,knowledge sharing,and innovation capability: an empirical study of R&D teams in Iran

Effectively encouraging employees to share valuable knowledge can increase and sustain a firm's competitive advantages. This study adopted an integrated approach to understand casual relationships among knowledge sharing (KS) enablers (social capital factors), mechanism of forming KS behaviours (knowledge collecting and knowledge donating) through individuals’ KS intention, and KS outcome (innovation capability) within research and development teams. The research model was developed by reviewing literature and tested with survey data collected from 230 employees in multiple companies in Iran. Results of partial least squares analysis indicated that social interaction ties (as a structural capital factor), trust, reciprocity, and team identification (as relational capital factors) significantly associated with KS intention. KS intention, in turn, was significantly related to KS behaviours (knowledge colleting and knowledge donating). In addition, findings revealed that members’ willingness to collect and donate knowledge can affect team innovation capability. This study also discusses the implications for fostering social capital and KS behaviours to enhance team innovation capability.     

外部知识搜寻及其双元性对科技型中小企业管理创新的影响

外部知识搜寻对内部资源不足的科技型中小企业管理创新有着重要意义,结合知识搜索理论和组织双元理论,探讨外部知识搜寻及其双元性对科技型中小企业管理创新的影响与边界条件。通过318家科技型中小企业调查数据,运用层次回归方法进行实证分析,得出以下结论：知识搜寻宽度对科技型中小企业管理创新有着倒U型影响;知识搜寻深度对管理创新有着正U型影响;平衡式知识搜寻正向促进科技型中小企业管理创新;组合式知识搜寻对管理创新不存在显著影响。     

我国中小企业资本结构影响因素研究——基于上市中小企业的实证检验

企业资本结构影响因素研究对企业融资具有重要意义,中国中小企业的特殊性决定了其资本结构与一般企业存在差别。通过对影响中小企业资本结构的因素进行逻辑分类,用稳健回归方法分析了各个因素与中小企业资本结构的关系。研究发现行业因素、中小企业的企业规模、盈利能力、竞争能力、成长性、非债务税盾和资产担保价值对中小企业的资本结构选择影响显著。研究证明西方理论对中国中小企业的部分适用性,同时也发现中国市场环境下中小企业资本结构具有一定特殊性。     

The co-evolution of business incubation and national innovation systems in Taiwan

Incubation has already proven to be of great value in promoting small and medium enterprise (SME) entrepreneurship activities and technological development in developed and developing countries. Incubation not only provides a diversified and integrated service for entrepreneurial ventures but also contributes upward to regional and national innovation and economic growth. Building upon the logic of co-evolution theory, this paper argues that incubation acts at the meso-level as a critical interface between macro-innovation systems and micro-business ventures. These multi-directional coupling elements in innovation ecology co-evolve to achieve collective interests and excellence, which in turn may stimulate technological development and social change. Important processes/mechanisms, including a policy kit and action, strategic networking, supportive associations, knowledge and intellectual capital management, among others, are discussed. Drawing on the national innovation system (NIS) and business incubation (BI) experience in Taiwan, we discuss the future prospects of incubation and innovation policies, including industrializing and globalizing incubation activities and virtual business incubation.     

Productivity,innovation strategies and industrial relations in SMEs. Empirical evidence for a local production system in northern Italy

The paper aims to provide an original contribution to evaluating several kinds of relations between four areas of innovation activities – training, technology, organization, ICT (information and communication technologies) – and industrial relations and firm’s economic performance. Quantitative evidence for a SME‐based local production system is provided by exploiting two datasets: the first is derived from a direct survey carried out in 2005 collecting data on innovations, labour flexibility and industrial relations; the second is represented by a panel of official balance sheets data for the period 1998–2004. The analysis is divided in two consequential parts. We first examine the drivers of different innovation strategies and subsequently we exploit innovation indicators as potential drivers of firm’s productivity. The results show that training activities and organizational changes have strong links with many industrial relations indicators, thus emerging as industrial relations driven innovations. On the contrary, ICT and technological innovation seem to be more influenced by firms’ past performances than by industrial relations. The analysis on labour productivity drivers shows that training activities are the most relevant factors; then, ranked consequently, technological innovation, organisational innovations and, finally, ICT also appear to impact on productivity levels. It is worth noting that the role of ICT emerges more robustly when endogeneity is specifically addressed. Finally, the role of firm size seems here to be overshadowed by other drivers.