Differential effects of firm generated content on consumer digital engagement and firm performance: An outside-in perspective

Social media contains a massive amount of information, which provides researchers and practitioners with an invaluable source of data to conduct research from end-users' perspectives, in order to influence firm strategic choices. Although an extensive amount of research has been developed in B2C and B2B marketing context, few social media studies take a dive into potential linkages between external and internal marketing contexts in an industry specific paradigm. This study aims to bridge B2C and B2B social media marketing, by adopting the outside-in perspective as theoretical lens. Using a large-scale dataset, collected from a micro-blogging site, and consumer-oriented information assembled from multiple sources, we empirically examine the inter-relationship between firm-generated messages, consumer digital engagement, and firm sales performance in the movie industry. Theoretically, this study builds upon the outside-in perspective and extends the current knowledge of the outside-in perspective to the social media context. It also bridges the B2C and B2B marketing literature by demonstrating that the insight garnered from B2C social media interactions should be integrated into the B2B firm interactions, communications, and decision makings. Managerially, this study provides movie practitioners with important implications.     

A note on outbound open innovation and firm performance

The concept of open innovation has attracted a lot of interest over the past decade. In light of a relative emphasis on inbound open innovation (indicating an outside‐in process) in prior research, this brief note addresses the relationship between outbound open innovation (indicating an inside‐out process) and firm performance. In particular, it suggests that outbound open innovation may have positive and negative effects on firm performance based on potential benefits and risks of transferring technology. To what degree these effects materialize depends on internal factors, e.g. desorptive capacity, and external factors, e.g. appropriability. Consequently, a proficient internal management of outbound open innovation is critical to avoid its potential risks and to capture its substantial benefits. In this regard, future research may substantially deepen the insights into the relevance and role of outbound open innovation.     

Effects of innovation types on firm performance

Innovation is broadly seen as an essential component of competitiveness, embedded in the organizational structures, processes, products and services within a firm. The objective of this paper is to explore the effects of the organizational, process, product and marketing innovations on the different aspects of firm performance, including innovative, production, market and financial performances, based on an empirical study covering 184 manufacturing firms in Turkey. A theoretical framework is empirically tested identifying the relationships amid innovations and firm performance through an integrated innovation-performance analysis. The results reveal the positive effects of innovations on firm performance in manufacturing industries.     

Strategic orientations,marketing proactivity and firm market performance

Guided by strategic orientations, firms must continuously deliver superior value in order to maintain a strong position in the market over the long-term. This study explores how two prominent strategic orientations (i.e., market and technological orientations) influence a firm's marketing proactivity and performance, with marketing proactivity being the key to delivering continuously superior value. Specifically, we examine how the cultural (i.e., a proactive market orientation) and the behavioral (i.e., market pioneering) dimensions of marketing proactivity, and the interaction between them, affects a firm's market performance. A structural equation modeling analysis of survey data from 109 firms shows that a proactive market orientation and market pioneering have a significant positive impact on the sales per employee and the growth rate of a firm. Our findings suggest that market pioneering strengthens the positive relationship between proactive market orientation and sales per employee and growth rate. A firm's technological orientation is positively related to both its proactive market orientation and market pioneering. However, the responsive market orientation of a firm only has a significant positive effect on proactive market orientation, and not on market pioneering. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.     

Learning orientation, firm innovation capability, and firm performance

Contemporary organizations require a strong learning orientation to gain competitive advantage. Based on in-depth interviews with senior executives and a review of the literature, the present investigation delineates four components of learning orientation: commitment to learning, shared vision, open-mindedness, and intraorganizational knowledge sharing. A framework is tested using data from a broad spectrum of US industries. Learning orientation is conceptualized as a second-order construct. Its effect on firm innovativeness, which in turn affects firm performance, is examined. The results generally support theoretical predictions, and some interesting findings emerge.     

Outbound open innovation and its effect on firm performance: examining environmental influences

Firms may open up their innovation processes on two dimensions. While inbound open innovation refers to the acquisition of external technology in open exploration processes, outbound open innovation describes the outward transfer of technology in open exploitation processes. Prior open innovation research has focused on the inbound dimension, whereas the outbound dimension has been relatively neglected. Therefore, this article addresses the relationship between outbound open R&D strategies and firm performance. We use data from 136 industrial firms to test four hypotheses on the moderating effects of environmental factors in the relationship between open innovation strategies and firm performance. The results show that the degree of technological turbulence, the transaction rate in technology markets, and the competitive intensity in technology markets strengthen the positive effects of outbound open innovation on firm performance. By contrast, the degree of patent protection does not facilitate successful open innovation. The results are crucially important to managers because they show under what environmental conditions open innovation strategies enhance performance.     

Partners' centrality diversity and firm innovation performance: Evidence from China

While most studies of firm innovation with a social network perspective have focused on the focal firm's network structure, we explore the value of second-order social capital by examining partners' network structure to better understand firm innovation. Specifically, we examine how centrality diversity of the focal firm's network partners affects its innovation performance. A longitudinal study of Chinese publicly listed manufacturing firms from 2000 to 2016 indicates that partners' centrality diversity in a firm's board interlock network is positively related to that firm's innovation performance. We also find that the focal firm's knowledge breadth weakens the effect of partners' centrality diversity on innovation performance for the focal firm, while the proportion of non-independent ties between the focal firm and its network partners strengthens the effect.     

Changes in firm knowledge couplings and firm innovation performance: The moderating role of technological complexity

We investigate the effect of changes in a firm's knowledge couplings on its innovation performance. We develop arguments to explain how changes in couplings among existing knowledge domains and those between new and existing knowledge domains affect the generation of valuable inventions. We also examine how observed domain complexity, an indicator of the inherent interdependencies among knowledge domains, moderates the effects of changes in a firm's knowledge couplings on innovation performance. Our results suggest that a change in couplings among existing knowledge domains hurts innovation outcomes, but not when the degree of domain complexity is high, whereas coupling new and existing knowledge domains leads to improved outcomes, but not when the degree of domain complexity is high. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

R&D,networking expenses,and firm performance: An integration of the inside-out and outside-in perspectives

Is outside-in networking less influential than inside-out R&D on firm performance? Over the past three decades, the inside-out perspective stands at the core of the marketing literature, whereas there is a subconscious bias toward the outside-in perspective. Building on the outside-in and inside-out perspectives of the firm, this study answers the question of whether outside-in networking is indeed less effective than inside-out R&D for enhancing firm performance. The empirical findings based on multiple archival data sources collected on firms operating in China indicate that the effects of networking expenses on firm performance are not weaker than those of R&D expenses. The findings also indicate that the effects of inside-out R&D and outside-in networking expenses are enhanced when firms operate in regions with stronger consumer protection whereas inside-out R&D expenses become less effective in a corrupt environment.     

Industry cognitive distance in alliances and firm innovation performance

This paper focuses on the role of industry cognitive distance in innovation alliances on firm innovation performance. Drawing from the literature on technological cognitive distance in alliances, we elaborate on the role of industry cognitive distance between partners and its impact on managerial attention to investigate the role of numbers of alliances of low (intra-industry) and high (inter-industry) industry cognitive distance on firm innovation performance. Intra-industry alliances offer lower opportunities for innovation compared to inter-industry alliances and are less demanding on firm management due to higher cognitive similarity between partners from the same industry. We propose that trade-offs between innovation opportunities and management efforts result in an inverted U and a U-shaped relationship between the number of intra- and inter-industry alliances and innovation performance, respectively. We find support for both hypotheses in the context of the UK bio-pharmaceutical sector.     

Supplier traits for better customer firm innovation performance

Previous research on embedded ties with suppliers in an innovation context has ignored the need for customer firms to assess and select suppliers on the basis of market orientation strategies and relationship marketing attributes. To address this void, this study investigates the effects of suppliers' downstream customer orientation and supplier-customer homophily (i.e., similarity of the supplier and the customer) on the customers' innovation performance. Data pertaining to new product development projects with contributions from supplier firms was collected on both sides of the supplier-customer dyad. The analysis shows that downstream customer orientation and supplier-customer homophily have a significant impact on the customer firms' new product efficiency (i.e., project cost and project speed) and new product effectiveness (i.e., innovativeness), which in turn positively influence new product performance in terms of profitability, market share, and growth.     

The contingent effects of political strategies on firm performance: A political network perspective

Research Summary: We examine the performance impact of corporate political strategies by analyzing the relationships among firms and various government institutions. While a firm's political connections to a focal government with decision‐making authority enhance performance, connections to a rival government competing with the focal government harm performance, particularly when the rivalry is intense. Firms can neutralize the negative effect from this political rivalry by using direct or indirect connections to a constraining government with power over the focal government. We find support for our conjectures based on an analysis of interactions among Chinese steel firms and the central and provincial governments in acquisition decisions during the industry's consolidation period of 1999–2010. Managerial Summary: Firms invest in political capital in order to influence public policies in their favor. However, the government is a not a monolithic entity and the relationships among various government institutions can alter and even reverse the effects of a firm's political strategy. This research shows that a firm's political connections can be both an asset and a liability. That is, although firms benefit from their connections to governments with decision‐making authority, they can be caught in the crossfire when there is a rivalry between governments. Furthermore, our research suggests that firms can cope with the negative impact from political rivalry by taking advantage of the structural relationships within the political system and influencing governments that have constraining power.     

Strategic orientations,incentive plan adoptions,and firm performance: evidence from electric utility firms

This study examines the performance implications of the fit between strategic orientations and incentive plan characteristics. Research hypotheses are based on a framework that draws upon managerial discretion and agency theories to identify the links between firm strategy, managerial motivation and control, managerial risk-bearing, and incentive plan characteristics. A pooled cross-sectional, time series research design is used to test hypotheses in a sample of 50 electric utility firms. Consistent with theory, results indicate that annual bonus plans that use cash incentives and accounting measures of performance lead to better performance among firms with Defender strategic orientations. In contrast, firms with Prospector strategic orientations realize performance benefits when they adopt stock-based incentive plans and use market measures to evaluate managerial performance. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The relationship between innovation culture and innovation outcomes: exploring the effects of sustainability orientation and firm size

Being sustainability‐oriented has become a key strategy for many firms. Equally, innovation culture and innovation outcomes have long been recognized as important contributors to the growth of firms. However, the literature on sustainability and innovation provides limited understanding of the important relationship between sustainability orientation, innovation culture and innovation outcomes. Given that large firms and small firms differ in building and employing their strategic assets, firm size matters in understanding the relationship. Through the lens of resource‐based view, we develop a theoretical model embedding the four components and test it using data from a global survey: the 2012 Comparative Performance Assessment Study. Our research contributes to sustainability literature and innovation theory by providing an integrated framework to explicate the mechanism through which the innovation culture of the firm impacts on innovative performance through the sustainability orientation of the firm. The findings advance our understanding of the extent to which sustainable orientation can explain the relationship between innovation culture and innovation outcomes. Our evidence shows that the innovation culture of a firm facilitates the sustainability orientation of the firm and that the converse also applies. The research also contributes to our knowledge of the differences between large and small firms in leveraging their strategic assets in terms of innovation culture and sustainability orientation to facilitate superior innovation outcomes. Although firm size moderates the relationship between innovation culture and innovation outcomes, the research shows that this no longer holds when sustainability orientation is included in the relationship. A strong sustainability orientation can be a competitive advantage for firms in the R&D Management delivery of superior innovation outcomes.     

Vertical integration,innovation, and alliance portfolio size: Implications for firm performance

We examine the consequences of alliance portfolio configuration by focusing on contingencies that affect the impact of alliance portfolio size on innovation and financial performance. While increasing alliance portfolio size is expected to positively impact innovation and financial performance, we propose that, at high levels of innovation of the focal firm, increasing alliance portfolio size dampens financial performance. We also propose that firm boundaries moderate the impact of alliance portfolio size on innovation and financial performance differently. Specifically, vertically integrated firms benefit less (more) than their vertically specialized counterparts in leveraging higher innovation (financial) performance with increasing alliance portfolio size. Our analysis suggests that both vertical scope and innovation levels of the firm play an important role in understanding how alliance portfolios impact performance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Skew and heavy‐tail effects on firm performance

Research summary : Most strategic management studies adopt an average‐centered view that uses the central tendency to explain between‐group variation in performance (i.e., performance differences between business units, firms, industries, and countries). In this study, we explain within‐group variation using a variance‐centered view that focuses on the peripheral characteristics of performance distributions as defined by skew and heavy tails (i.e., variance and kurtosis). Drawing on performance feedback theory, we hypothesize that successful firms tend to develop a positive skew in their performance distributions, which we call a “positive skew effect” in this study, and that heavy tails moderate this effect. Our analysis of the performance of a group of foreign affiliates provides general support for our hypotheses at both the firm and segment (industry and country) levels. Managerial summary : Managers of multi‐business firms use various approaches to improve the aggregate performance of their business units. Some expand the range of upper performance outliers (exploration) or reduce the range of lower outliers (downsizing); others improve the performance of current business units (exploitation). We find that firms with superior performance tend to have a balanced mix of the three approaches. We also find that segments (countries and industries) with higher mean performances provide environments that facilitate the entry of productive firms and the exit of unproductive firms and provide environments in which incumbents can further improve their performance by learning from others. We observe that successful firms and segments have a positive skew in their performance distributions, which we call a “positive skew effect.” Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of opportunities and founder experience on new firm performance

Much prior research in entrepreneurship has focused on the role of the founder's knowledge in affecting new firm performance. Yet, little is known about how and why the entrepreneurial opportunity itself shapes outcomes in this arena. We begin filling in this critical gap in the literature by examining how the riskiness of the opportunity not only affects start‐up performance, but also conditions the relevance of the founder's distinct knowledge endowments. Analyses of a sample of 451 new firms show that the riskier the opportunity, the greater the performance of the start‐up, above and beyond founder characteristics. Moreover, the value of founder knowledge is relative to the type of opportunity exploited: high‐risk opportunities favor founders with managerial experience, whereas low‐risk opportunities favor founders with industry experience. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ceo change and firm performance in large corporations: Succession effects and manager effects

This paper argues that the succession/performance relationship is a function of two distinct, complementary concepts: manager effects and succession effects. Hypotheses are tested using a cross-sectional/longitudinal research design, with a sample of 209 large corporations. The results suggest that announcements of CEO changes are typically associated with a reduction in the value of the firm, as reflected in the perceptions of the stock market, and that CEO successors tend to significantly influence the production and investment decisions of their firms. These results hold for both insider and outsider succession.     

Walking the tight rope of coopetition: Impact of competition and cooperation intensities and balance on firm innovation performance

This study empirically investigates an important question in the coopetition literature: to what extent does coopetition impact a firm's innovation performance? With a focus on the intensity of competition and intensity of cooperation of a focal firm with its alliance partners, our theory proposes that a moderate level of competition with alliance partners is more beneficial than a very high or a very low level of competition. We further develop the concept of “balance” in coopetition and examine how the interplay of competition and cooperation and the balance between the two matter for innovation performance. Results from our empirical study using data from the semiconductor industry show that competition and cooperation intensities have non-monotonic positive relationship with firm's coopetition-based innovation performance. Further, balanced coopetition (i.e., when competition is moderately high and cooperation is high) has a positive effect on innovation performance. A key contribution of this paper is the conceptualization and empirical demonstration of the effects of various aspects of coopetition such as competition dominant, cooperation dominant, and balanced coopetition on innovation performance.     

CEO duality and firm performance: A contingency model

Several studies have addressed the CEO duality-performance relationship, with inconsistent results. This paper proposes that these inconsistencies can be resolved by integrating agency and stewardship perspectives on duality. Using data from 192 firms in 12 industries, both the direction and magnitude of the duality-performance relationship was found to vary systematically across Dess and Beard's (1984) environmental dimensions. These results provide partial support for both agency and stewardship perspectives.