Organizational innovation,technological innovation,and export performance: The effects of innovation radicalness and extensiveness

This study focuses on the relevance of different types of innovation for firms’ export performance. Despite ample research on the innovation–performance relationship, previous studies have mainly focused on technological innovations, leaving the effects of organizational innovations relatively unexplored. Hypotheses on the relationship between organizational and technological innovations and firm export performance are tested by structural equation modelling using data from 218 Swedish export ventures. The results indicate that organizational innovation enhances export performance both directly and indirectly by sustaining technological innovation. Moreover, by fine-graining our analysis of the mediating role of technological innovation, according to its radicalness and extensiveness, for organizational innovation, we show how the latter enhances both the radicalness and extensiveness of technological innovation although, notably, only extensiveness is actually beneficial for export performance. This study helps alleviate the scarcity of research examining the links among different types of innovation in relation to export performance and contributes to international business and marketing literature by generating new evidence regarding the mechanisms through which organizational and technological innovations may improve export performance.     

Absorptive capacity,innovation and cultural barriers: A conditional mediation model

The construct of absorptive capacity has two dimensions: potential absorptive capacity (PACAP) and realized absorptive capacity (RACAP). This study addresses these two dimensions separately, and analyzes their influence on innovation outcomes (IO) in organizations. The study also examines the mediating role of RACAP in the relationship between PACAP and IO. Furthermore, the paper contains a discussion on the moderating role of cultural barriers (CB) in decreasing the PACAP–RACAP link. Consequently, this study builds and tests a conditional process model. Data comes from a sample of 110 firms from the Spanish automotive components manufacturing sector. Results from variance-based structural equation modeling and the PROCESS tool show that RACAP fully mediates the influence of PACAP on IO, and that CB negatively conditions this indirect effect. This study provides evidence that when CB attains medium-to-high values, this indirect influence is not different from zero.     

Organizational culture,innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model

Innovation is the key to organizational survival and therefore the study of processes that support innovation should be of interest to researchers and practitioners alike. Schein's multi-layered model of organizational culture offers a useful framework for thinking about processes that foster innovation. A defining characteristic of the model is the subtle but important distinctions between the varied “layers” of organizational culture (i.e., values and norms, artifacts and behaviors). The basic assumption of this study is that Schein's model offers a tractable explanation of cultural processes that support organizational innovation, especially in service firms. Despite the intuitive appeal and practical value of Schein's conceptual framework, empirical research in relation to the model is limited. This paper develops a rationale for an empirical model based on Schein's conceptual model; the study reports a test of an empirical model. Data collected from approximately 100 principals of law firms provides a suitable empirical context for a test of the model. The findings generally support the hypothesized relationships. A key result is how layers of organizational culture, particularly norms, artifacts, and innovative behaviors, partially mediate the effects of values that support innovation on measures of firm performance. The findings have implications for theory and practice, especially in relation to building an organizational culture within professional service firms that fosters innovative behavior.     

Creative workforce density, organizational slack, and innovation performance

This study examines the effects of creative workforce density and organizational slack on innovation performance. This article suggests an inverse U-shaped relationship between creative workforce density and innovation performance and proposes two governing forces relating to this relationship. Moreover, this study suggests that different slacks vary in affecting innovation. When adding absorbed and unabsorbed slacks as moderators, the relationship between creative workforce density and innovation performance becomes strengthened or attenuated respectively. Comprehensive secondary data on 305 Taiwanese firms in IT sector support the prediction. This article also discusses the managerial implications and highlights future research directions.     

Impact of international entry choices on the nature and type of innovation: Evidence from emerging economy firms from the Indian bio-pharmaceutical industry

As emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) enter foreign countries in search of new markets, seeking to expand their knowledge bases, research on the type and nature of innovation activity is needed to address the impact of EMNEs’ choices related to international expansion. Building on prior literature on entry mode and location choices, as well as on organizational learning, we argue that how and where an EMNE expands internationally will impact the nature of its innovation. We carry out empirical analysis on a sample of 167 Indian bio-pharmaceutical firms for the period from 1997–2017. Our findings suggest that greenfield ventures foster innovation in core technologies, while cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) foster innovation in non-core technologies. In addition, locating subsidiaries in high income countries encourages product innovations, while locating in low income countries encourages process innovations. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on differences in learning outcomes of EMNE internationalization.     

A comparative study of the application of systems thinking in achieving organizational effectiveness in Malaysian and Pakistani banks

The present work is a comparative study of the banking industry of Malaysia and Pakistan. The paper aims to measure the impact of individual systems thinking on the overall organizational effectiveness. Skilled individuals are considered as an asset of the organization especially when these individuals exhibit systems thinking capabilities that helps in achieving effectiveness. The sample consisted of 368 respondents belonging to lower and middle tier levels in the banking sector of both countries. The results indicate that Malaysian banking employees are ahead of their counterparts in Pakistan while applying systems thinking. The study is significant in enhancing the understanding of the importance of systems thinking for organizational effectiveness. The study has managerial implications for the top management of banks.     

Managing internationalization and innovation tradeoffs in entrepreneurial firms: Evidence from transition economies

For entrepreneurial firms (EFs), internationalization and innovation present two major avenues for growth. Prior research, based primarily on EFs from advanced economies, demonstrates mixed insights for the relationship between these strategies. A deeper understanding of the tradeoffs involved in the internationalization-innovation relationship may help better comprehend the issue. In this study, we draw on the organizational learning and capabilities-based literatures to examine the relationship in the context of EFs in transition economies (EFTEs). Our findings suggest that in EFTEs, internationalization is negatively associated with the likelihood of innovation. We also find that three knowledge-based capabilities of EFTEs (absorptive capacity, appropriation capability, and managerial capability) positively moderate the aforementioned negative relationship. We do not find any evidence of reverse causality (EFTE innovation impacting internationalization). Our research provides novel insights to the IE literature by shedding light on the internationalization–innovation tradeoffs that EFTEs experience.     

Linking organizational culture, structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating role of knowledge management

Practices of knowledge management are context-specific and they can influence organizational effectiveness. This study examines the possible mediating role of knowledge management in the relationship between organizational culture, structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness. A survey was conducted of 301 organizations. The results suggest that knowledge management fully mediates the impact of organizational culture on organizational effectiveness, and partially mediates the impact of organizational structure and strategy on organizational effectiveness. The findings carry theoretical implications for knowledge management literature as they extend the scope of research on knowledge management from examining a set of independent management practices to examining a system-wide mechanism that connects internal resources and competitive advantage.     

跨国公司人力资源系统、企业文化与创新绩效关系的实证研究

本文通过实证研究确定跨国公司人力资源系统和企业文化对创新绩效的影响,以及企业文化在人力资源系统和创新绩效间存在的中介作用。在前人研究的基础上,构建了三者之间关系的基本模型,提出了三条基本假设。通过对长三角地区的150家跨国企业进行问卷调查,运用多元回归法分析了有效数据,发现注重培训、基于绩效的薪酬、发展团队三项人力资源实务和企业文化对创新绩效有影响,其中注重培训和公司文化对创新绩效的影响显著,而人力资源系统主要通过企业文化的中介作用来影响创新绩效。     

Multi-item models for evaluating managerial and organizational resources in service firms

Services are the primary source of wealth in almost every nation around the world. Domestic competitiveness increasingly depends on the health of its service firms. Then understanding the source of competitive advantage for the case of service industry is a challenge that cannot be deferred. Resource-Based View literature gives sound evidences that intangible assets like managerial and organizational resources are the primary source of competitive advantage, especially in the service industry. However, the development of managerial tools for measuring and managing these resources remains as an open gap. In the last few years, some academic work has been devoted to develop intangible assets measurement devices. Nevertheless, these scales are either oriented towards manufacturing industry or do not take specifically into account the distinctive features of service delivery. This study replies the multi-item model proposed by Camisón (Manag Res 3(1):27–48, 2004) over a sample of 152 medium and large services companies. We have taken different tests to demonstrate validity and reliability of the scales. Results show that these scales may also be suitable for being used in all the types of service companies. However, some partial modifications should be done in order to give more relevance to soft managerial competences and to organizational human capital. This study was carried out as part of research project (reference GV2007-075) which has been subsidized by the “Valencian Government Programme Scientific Research and Technological Development Projects”.     

Triad lessons: Generalizing results on high performance firms in five business-to-business markets

Significant differences are known to exist among organizations operating in different countries due to different national and organizational cultures, strategic orientations, and management styles. Less clear, however, is whether there are significant patterns of differences in how marketing-related factors drive performance in the most successful firms regardless of country. Building on a previous study of major Japanese firms [Deshpandé et al., 1993. Journal of Marketing 57, 22–27], an exploratory study compared samples of business-to-business relationships of Japanese, English, French, German, and US companies. We found the expected significant differences in organizational cultures, but found no country-specific slopes or intercepts in regressions relating factors such as innovativeness, organizational climate and culture, and market orientation to business performance. Successful firms appear to transcend differences in national culture and develop a common pattern of drivers of success which include primary focus on organizational innovativeness, a participative work climate, and an externally oriented organizational culture.     

Developmental management: Theories,methods, and applications in entrepreneurship,innovation, and sensemaking

This paper summarizes the best papers of the Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy (GIKA) conference, which took place in July 2013 in Valencia, Spain. The Journal of Business Research has published a special issue entitled “Developmental management: Theories, methods, and applications in entrepreneurship, innovation, and sensemaking”. All of them went through many rounds of double-blind reviews and revisions. Theories, methods, and applications are the three pillars to solve the issues in entrepreneurship, innovation, and sensemaking. Entrepreneurship contributes to the quality and future hopes of a sector, economy or even a country. The role of the entrepreneurs is crucial in creating value. Innovation has become important as the global economy seeks to escape from a period of major recession. In organizations, sensemaking consists of cognitive strategies for interpreting reality. It is interesting to examine how these three issues interacting with each other. And these papers contribute to various perspectives of these interactions in different countries.     

Innovation leadership: Best-practice recommendations for promoting employee creativity,voice, and knowledge sharing

Innovation—the implementation of creative ideas—is one of the most important factors of competitive advantage in 21^st century organizations. Yet, leaders do not always encourage employee behaviors that are critical for innovation. We integrate existing literature on the critical factors that serve as antecedents of innovation, including employee voice and knowledge sharing, which in turn lead to creativity and innovation. Based on existing empirical research, we offer evidence-based recommendations for managers to become innovation leaders by: (1) developing the right group norms, (2) designing teams strategically, (3) managing interactions with those outside the team, (4) showing support as a leader, (5) displaying organizational support, and (6) using performance management effectively.     

Dynamic ambidexterity: How innovators manage exploration and exploitation

Firms must excel at both exploration and exploitation to ensure long-term survival and prosperity. However, firms often have difficulties in doing so because they have to accommodate the contradictory logics of exploration and exploitation. This article examines the logics of exploration and exploitation, evaluates the difficulties of accommodating both logics, and identifies dynamic ambidexterity as a new way to overcome these difficulties. To achieve dynamic ambidexterity, firms need to support structural ambidexterity at the corporate level, contextual ambidexterity at the business-unit level, and sequential ambidexterity at the project level. I believe that the notion of dynamic ambidexterity and its managerial practices can help firms manage exploration and exploitation and ensure long-term survival and prosperity.     

Entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana: enterprising Africa

This study adopts a multi-level theoretical framework to examine data from 496 entrepreneurs in Ghana. Seven types of innovation activity are analysed against three categories of variables: the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the internal competencies of the firm, and firm location. Across all respondents, the incidence of incremental innovation was far greater than novel innovation. The extent of innovation was related to the education level of the entrepreneur. Firm size and involvement in exporting were positively related to innovation, but firm growth is less systematically so. Innovation was greater in firms located in conurbations compared to firms located in large and small towns. We conclude with suggestions for policy to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana.      

Determinants of organizational performance: some implications for top executive leadership in Korean firms

ABSTRACT

Leadership, although commonly assumed to be greatly significant, is not typically studied in terms of structural characteristics accounted for in organizational performance. The effect of top executive leadership is explored here as a key factor that reflects organizational characteristics by offering a new framework and presenting an empirical test of Korean business firms. This research can be possibly made by focusing on the size of the leadership which explicates the difference between structural, resource and contextual variables in organizations. The multivariate regression analysis shows that firm size, leadership, debt and export significantly affect organizational performance, as measured by net income. The mechanism of Korean business firms needs to readjust to the new environment for organizational performance.     

Divergent diffusion: Understanding the interaction between institutions,firms, networks and knowledge in the international adoption of technology

Why do certain technologies diffuse globally while others spread only within certain areas of the world? I analyze the uneven process of international technology diffusion by focusing on how institutions moderate the impact of firm, network, and knowledge characteristics on the adoption of technology. The study shows that better economic institutions lower transformation costs; that similarities across social institutions minimize transmission costs; and that effective political institutions reduce transaction costs for technology diffusion. The impact of each institution-type on the diffusion process is based on the relative weight of the three different knowledge dimensions embedded in the technology. Complex technologies are most affected by economic institutions; tacit technologies are most dependent on social institutions; and systemic technologies are most influenced by political institutions.     

Institutional difference,organizational experience,and foreign affiliate performance: Evidence from Polish firms

We draw from the institutional economics and organizational learning theories to clarify two international business debates. The first debate involves how institutional distance affects foreign affiliate performance: some propose a negative and others a positive direct effect. We clarify this debate by differentiating between negative and positive institutional difference. The second debate involves how experience modifies this relationship: some propose a negative and others a positive moderating effect. We clarify this debate by differentiating between similar and dissimilar experience, creating four moderating effects: Advantage of Challenge Anticipation, Advantage of Opportunity Anticipation, Disadvantage of Polymath Downgrading, and Disadvantage of Specialist Upgrading.     

The Effect of Management Leadership Style on Marketing Orientation,Service Quality,and Financial Results: A Cross-Cultural Study

ABSTRACT

The significance of customer and market orientation has been closely examined in the marketing and management literature. Recent research has focused on how to assess the antecedents of market orientation and the effect of market orientation on business performance via various mediating and situational variables. The present study investigates the impact of management leadership style on market orientation and collaboration between the management and the employees. Their effects on business performance are also scrutinized. The study was conducted on a sample of managers in Taiwan and the United States. A cross-country comparison yields many interesting findings and important managerial implications, as well as future research directions.