The Driver of Green Innovation and Green Image – Green Core Competence

This study proposed a novel construct – green core competence – to explore its positive effects on green innovation and green images of firms. The results showed that green core competences of firms were positively correlated to their green innovation performance and green images. In addition, this research also verified two types of green innovation performance had partial mediation effects between green core competences and green images of firms. Therefore, investment in the development of green core competence was helpful to businesses for the enhancement of their green innovation and green images. Furthermore, this study found that green core competence, two types of green innovation performance, and green images of medium & small enterprises (SMEs) were all significantly less than those of large enterprises in the information and electronics industry in Taiwan. Therefore, there was the advantage of firm size for the green core competence in this industry, and it was imperative for SMEs to develop and create their green core competences to strengthen their green innovation performance, and green images.     

Innovation Capability and Performance Of Manufacturing SMEs: The Paradoxical Effect of IT Integration

In theory, IT integration through applications such as enterprise resource planning, manufacturing resource planning, and electronic data interchange provides an organization with the ability to exploit innovation capabilities. Based on survey data obtained from 309 Canadian manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this study aims to identify the enabling effect of IT integration on the innovation capability of manufacturing SMEs—in terms of growth and productivity outcomes—and to verify if this effect is subject to industry influences. While the firm's innovation capability was found, as expected, to be positively related to the growth and productivity of manufacturing SMEs, the results underline paradoxical effects of IT integration in this regard. While IT integration was not seen to enable the innovation capability of manufacturing SMEs in terms of growth, it was seen to have a disabling effect on this same capability with regard to productivity.     

Entrepreneurial orientation,entrepreneurial competencies,innovation, and performances in SMEs of Pakistan: Moderating role of social ties

The current study examines the mediating role of innovation and entrepreneurial competencies in entrepreneurial orientation’s relationship with financial, social, and environmental performance. This research also determines the role of social ties in strengthening the association between innovation and entrepreneurial competencies with social, financial, and environmental performance. Using multi-source and time-lagged studies, the data was collected from 297 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan, and structural equation modeling was used to test direct, indirect, and moderating hypotheses. The findings show that entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial competencies, and innovation positively correlate with all the types of performance under investigation and confirm the mediating role of innovation and entrepreneurial competencies. Additionally, social network ties strengthen innovation—financial performance, and entrepreneurial competencies—social performance relationship. This research proposes significant theoretical and managerial implications by determining the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on SMEs in Pakistan.     

正式与非正式知识搜索、知识属性与产品创新

基于正式、非正式搜索的视角,以217家浙江中小型制造企业为样本,研究外部知识搜索对产品创新绩效的影响机制。实证结果表明：正式和非正式搜索对产品创新绩效均具有显著的正向影响,而知识缄默性正向调节正式搜索和产品创新绩效之间的正向关系,负向调节非正式搜索与产品创新绩效之间的正向关系;技术复杂性负向调节非正式搜索与产品创新之间的关系。上述发现确认了外部知识搜索在中小企业创新活动中的重要作用,同时也从知识属性角度识别了影响外部知识搜索效能的重要情境条件。     

The role of innovation,entrepreneurial self-efficacy and local uniqueness on marketing performance in small and medium-sized restaurants

ABSTRACT

The growth of the food service business in Indonesia cannot be optimized by small and medium restaurants due to a lack of innovation and entrepreneurial skill. This present study combines marketing and entrepreneurship literature and explores the link among innovation, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and marketing performance. Using a purposive sampling methodology, data were collected from 124 respondents of small and medium-sized restaurants in Bogor city, Indonesia. This study used Structural Equation Modeling to analyze the influences of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, innovation and local uniqueness on marketing performance. The findings indicate that innovation activity has a direct significant influence on marketing performance. This study also indicates that entrepreneurial self-efficacy positively influences marketing performance reflected by increasing sales, profits and number of customers. In addition, local uniqueness, which is an intermediary variable, is not affected by innovation activities and does not directly affect marketing performance. Even though this study supports most hypotheses, two out of six were not. As such, the results of this study provide important practical insights as well as interesting contributions to the theoretical advancements in entrepreneurship and marketing especially in the setting of small and medium-sized restaurants.     

Communicating Competency in References: A Qualitative Analysis of the Utilization of References in Mechanical Engineering

ABSTRACT

Purpose: In order to explore the multiplicative interaction between clustering and reach, as well as their effect on members’ knowledge production and patent value, the authors researched university–industry collaboration networks in the emerging interdisciplinary field at a corporate level.

Methodology: The authors based their research on a platform of nano-biopharmaceuticals complex network analysis. Furthermore, they built a network to analyze the influence of small-world properties, as well as the impact of the largest component on the patent value of innovation activities at a corporate level. In this article, the authors conduct an empirical investigation of university–industry patent innovation collaboration in the nano-biopharmaceutical field and propose that their research be considered as new evidence in addition to the previously published literature in this field. Given the pre-existing high skew of patent values in relation to registered patents, they used weighted patent value in the measurement of university–industry innovation performance, rather than simple patent counts.

Results: The results show that small-world structures have a parabolical influence on patent innovation performance at corporate level.

Findings: The findings go beyond previous research results and can contribute to policy formulation and relevant entrepreneurial decisions in the establishment of university–industry collaboration.     

资源匮乏、拼凑策略与中小企业产品创新关系研究

资源对创新的作用研究多集中在资源富余的一面,但是在竞争日趋激烈的今天研究资源匮乏的作用同样很有必要。尤其是,已成为社会创新中坚力量的中小企业在资源普遍匮乏的同时,又灵活通过拼凑致力于创新,分别有研究据此推断资源匮乏和拼凑策略可能引致中小企业创新,但是这些论断尚需细化分析与验证。文章分类分析并以科技型中小企业为样本证实：资源匮乏和中小企业产品创新之间存在显著的倒U型关系;只有选择拼凑有利于中小企业产品创新,并行拼凑的作用恰好相反;连续拼凑负向调节资源匮乏和中小企业产品创新关系,选择拼凑则正向调节这一关系。分类别和多角度探讨资源匮乏、并行策略对于中小企业创新的作用表现是对相关研究的拓展和推进,对理解和促进我国当前中小企业的创新实践也具有参考价值。     

Analyzing Export Behavior Through Managerial Characteristics and Perceptions: A Multiple Case-Based Research

ABSTRACT

The decision-maker's role in international activity is crucial, particularly in the case of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, the extant literature on internationalization is characterized by a lack of consensus among scholars as to what constitutes the managerial factor in determining exporting. Therefore, this study focuses on the following issue: Which are the decision-maker's characteristics and perceptions that may influence the export behavior of SMEs? To address this main research question, a multiple-case study method is applied across four Spanish exporting SMEs. The findings show that high educational level, language skills, high-risk tolerance, innovativeness, as well as strongly perceived export stimuli compared to low and relatively easy to overcome export barriers positively influence the export involvement and development in these investigated SMEs. The study provides further insights into the research topic by jointly studying managerial characteristics and perceptions in the Spanish context where the exporting activities have not been as widely studied so far.     

E-marketing services and e-marketing performance: the roles of innovation,knowledge complexity and environmental turbulence in influencing the relationship

The business-to-business electronic marketplace (e-marketplace) is becoming critical for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, which e-marketing services determine a firm’s e-marketing performance and how innovation, knowledge complexity and environmental turbulence influence the relationship between e-marketing services and e-marketing performance are under-researched topics in the field. We first empirically tested 176 SMEs from China to evaluate which e-marketing services are significantly related to e-marketing performance and how these services collectively influence the performance. Then, we used an NK model to examine how innovation, knowledge complexity and environmental turbulence mediate/moderate the relationship. The results show that five e-marketing services (e-CRM, e-SCM, e-competitiveness, IS/IT integration and information transparency) can greatly influence e-marketing performance; innovation positively mediates the relationship between e-marketing services and performance; and knowledge complexity and environmental turbulence positively moderate the relationship.     

An analysis of social media marketing strategy and performance in the context of fashion brands: The case of Taiwan

This study examines the social media strategy and performance of fashion brands. Drawing upon the resource-based view, the study explores the influence of entrepreneurial orientation, innovation orientation, and market orientation on social media strategy and performance. Analysis was conducted using data on 207 Taiwanese fashion brands. These data were collected from a mail survey. Structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis were used to test the empirical relationships proposed in the research hypotheses. The results indicate that social media strategy affects performance; entrepreneurial orientation and innovation orientation affect social media strategy; entrepreneurial orientation positively affects performance; and innovation orientation and market orientation positively affect performance.     

The impact of customer relationship management capability on innovation and performance advantages: testing a mediated model

Abstract

Customer relationship management (CRM) and innovation are widely considered to be valuable capabilities associated with competitive advantage. However, there is a lack of research demonstrating how they work together to produce performance advantages. This research investigates the mediating role of innovation between CRM and performance. The authors examine the direct impact of both CRM and innovation on firm performance. Moreover, they investigate the role of innovation as a mediating mechanism to explain the effect of CRM on performance. The authors use structural equation modelling to test the relationships among these constructs. The results support the direct impact of CRM and innovation on performance. Also, the findings indicate that the indirect effect of CRM on firm performance through innovation is significant. These results reinforce the view that developing close relationships with customers enhances a firm's ability to innovate.     

Firm Size and Innovation in European Manufacturing

The paper investigates the differences between small, medium-sized and large firms regarding their performance in the introduction of new products and processes. After a review of the relevant literature, two models are proposed and tested in search for different business strategies and innovation inputs connected to product and process innovations. The empirical analysis uses innovation survey (CIS 2) data at the industry level for 22 manufacturing sectors, broken down in three firm size classes, for eight European countries. Special attention is devoted to tackling the issues of possible endogeneity of the regressors and of unobserved sectoral heterogeneity. The results – strengthening the findings of previous studies – show that product and process innovations, though having some complementarities, are associated to different innovative inputs and strategies pursued by firms. Systematic differences also emerge between the behaviour of large firms and SMEs.      

Market Orientation, Innovativeness, Product Innovation, and Performance in Small Firms

Most research on market orientation, innovation and performance is related to big enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this study a model is developed to investigate the combined effect of market orientation and innovativeness on product innovation and company performance, for small firms. A specific feature of our research is that we use an objective measure for product innovation in contrast to the self-reported measures commonly used in research on innovation. To test our model data from 152 rose growers were used. This study's results show that the owner's innovativeness permeates all variables in the model and has a positive influence on market orientation, innovation, and performance. An interesting research result is also that customer market intelligence influences product innovation positively or negatively, depending on whether the innovativeness of the owner in the new product domain is weak or strong.     

Catch‐up through Collaborative Innovation: Evidence from China

Collaborative innovation has received the attention of management scholars for decades. The primary focus of our research is to explore the mechanisms that drive innovation catch‐up of latecomers in an emerging economy through research and development collaborations (i.e., academic and industrial collaborations). Using a sample of 1,066 firms in a high‐tech cluster in China, we find that collaborative innovation strategy has an inverse U–shaped effect on a firm's innovation performance. In addition, the relationship between collaborative innovation strategy and innovation performance is positively moderated by absorptive capacity © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Firm size and innovation

In an innovation survey in the Netherlands, we find considerably more SMEs which perform small scale R&D than are found in the official R&D surveys. Nonetheless, SMEs appear on average to be somewhat less R&D intensive than large firms. Only when we restrict our observations to firms which perform some R&D, there is no systematic relationship between size and R&D. Among the barriers to innovation the following are particularly important to SMEs: information deficits with respect to instruments of innovation policy; a lack of capital; a lack of management qualifications; problems in finding adequate technical information, and problems in finding qualified employees.     

Design leadership,work values ethic and workplace innovation: an investigation of SMEs in Thailand and Vietnam

Abstract

This study established a new three-dimensional model identifying the relationship between design leadership, workplace values ethic (WVE) and workplace innovation. Based on an analysis of 696 usable questionnaires distributed among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand and Vietnam, our results revealed that WVE influences leadership behavior. In addition, design leadership has a significant effect on the four dimensions of workplace innovation, thus confirming an interactionist theory perspective. Furthermore, examining the under-researched Thai and Vietnamese SME context, the findings indicated that the relationship between WVE and workplace innovation is mediated by leadership behavior. In this way, the study extends the design leadership, innovation and values literatures.     

基于复杂网络理论的中小企业集群协同创新研究

中小企业集群创新具有复杂社会网络结构特征。针 对我国中小企业集群网络协同创新能力差的现实,从复杂网络理论出发,分别从构建完备的中小企业集群创新复杂社会网络平台、构建中小企业集群“独联体”式协同创新小世界网络、完善中小企业集群协同创新社会服务支撑网络、强化集群网络内企业的增值性创新能力、注重中小企业集群网络的经济升级和劳动力社会升级等9个方面,给出了提升中小企业集群协同创新能力的策略建议。     

Competitor orientation in successful SMEs: an exploration of the impact on innovation

The impact of market orientation on organisational performance has been the subject of many studies illustrating variance with firm size. Although small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are inherently customer-oriented, research has identified that they have significantly lower levels of competitor orientation than large firms and that competitor orientation is significantly related to organisational performance. In addition, studies have illustrated that SME success is linked to innovative problem solving, new product development and resource optimisation. SMEs are inherently innovative in how they adopt creative approaches to overcome constraints associated with their size. Given that SMEs often neglect to focus on competitors, this study explores the relationship between competitor orientation and organisational performance through an innovation lens. This study uses a qualitative research approach to investigate seven successful SMEs as case studies. The findings indicate that SMEs seeking optimal organisational performance should pay close attention to direct and indirect competitors in order to identify opportunities and build sustainable competitive businesses.     

An Investigation of Spanish SME Innovation during Different Economic Conditions

This study investigates product, process, and management innovation among a sample of Spanish manufacturing small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) during the current economic downturn and a period of economic growth. Tobit analyses examined whether the level of process, product, and management innovation changed during the recessionary period relative to the expansionary period; and MCO estimations were used to show whether the recession affected the relationship between SME innovation and performance. Three main findings are: (1) innovation among Spanish manufacturing SMEs declined during the recent economic crisis; (2) the type of innovation at Spanish manufacturing SMEs changed during different economic conditions; and (3) innovation was positively associated with firm performance during the economic expansion and recession years. The results demonstrate the importance of adopting innovation into SME strategy over the business cycle. The findings have relevance to SMEs, government policymakers, and providers of consulting services.     

The influence of family ownership on SME performance: evidence from public firms in Taiwan

The relationship between family ownership and firm performance has gained increased attention in the business strategy and financial economics literature. Most existing studies use large companies as the research sample; studies that explicitly investigate the influence of family ownership on the performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remain sparse. This study raises this issue explicitly by investigating the influence of founding-family ownership on the return on assets and Tobin’s q of 341 public SMEs in Taiwan, during the period of 2002–2006. It emerges from the data that family ownership is prevalent and substantial in Taiwan, representing half of the public SMEs and accounting for more than 11 percent of their outstanding equity. It was found that the influence of family ownership on SME performance is positive and significant. Overall, the results suggest that family ownership is an effective organizational structure for SMEs in Taiwan.