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This study aims to examine the relation between innovation ambidexterity and organisational performance and the moderating effect of business experience on a sample of IT companies. Various authors pointed out the necessity to analyse not only explorative and exploitative innovation separately, but also their combined effects on organisational performance. These effects are assessed by using polynomial regressions in testing the research hypotheses. Business experience contributes to important differences in both the quantity and quality of resources available, which are critical for innovation. With only a handful of papers specifically addressing business experience in the context of innovation ambidexterity, this study fills a major research gap. The findings demonstrate the positive influence of innovation ambidexterity on organisational performance. In terms of business experience, the findings show that in new ventures it moderates the relation between innovation ambidexterity and organisational performance, while in established companies no relation was found. Business experience is rarely used to explain interactions between innovation and performance and, as such, we provide new insights on how both new ventures and established companies make use of business experience in their innovation approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to examine empirically the extent to which firm-specific action, innovation, and an external factor, the quality of regional institution, affect firms' productivity. To this end, a firm-level dataset from 15 African countries was used and the three-step CDM approach was employed to estimate the relationship. The empirical results of the study highlight that firms that invest in R&D are more innovative and innovative firms are more productive, indicating the importance of innovation for firms' productivity. In addition, regional institutional quality has a significant positive effect on productivity, particularly for firms at low productivity distribution. Therefore, improving the quality of regional institutions, in addition to promoting R&D and innovation, is essential to enhance the productive capacity of firms in Africa. The present study contributes to the existing literature by providing new empirical evidence on the role of regional/local institutions on firm productivity for a region, Africa, which needs productivity enhancement the most. It is also recommended that further studies, similar to this one, should be carried out in order to better understand the topic in the context of African firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the three-way interaction effects of transformational leadership, technological innovation (i.e. product and process innovation) and competitive intensity on firm performance by detecting three-way interactions involving slope differences in moderated multiple regression. Based on a sample of 182 manufacturing enterprises in China, this paper finds that firms under transformational leadership are more likely to conduct process innovation, that the joint effect of the interaction between process innovation and competitive intensity is negatively related to firm performance and that the joint effect of the interaction between transformational leadership and competitive intensity is positively related to firm performance. Accordingly, this paper concludes that a firm should conduct more process innovation in a moderately competitive environment, but it should conduct less process innovation in a fiercely competitive environment, where in stronger transformational leadership should be adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationships between competitive strategies, innovation, and firm performance within the context of Turkish manufacturing companies. The data were collected from top management of the firms via Computer Assistant Telephone Interviewing method. One hundred and forty manufacturing firms operating in various sectors including textile, automotive supply, computer and electronics provide the basis for this empirical research. In order to test our model, we employ structural equation modelling using partial least squares. The results show that competitive strategies such as cost-leadership and differentiation can lead to innovation, which, in turn, increase firm performance. Managers implement cost-leadership and differentiation strategies to take part in competitive market conditions; however, they should put additional importance on innovation that plays a significant role as a bridge between competitive strategies and firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One conclusion from the knowledge-based view is that firms develop knowledge from experience. This paper examines the conditions under which firms’ R&D experiences might have stronger or weaker effects on innovation capabilities. We posit that any potential benefit depends on the nature of this experience. In particular, we look at how technological area experience and experience diversity affects innovation capabilities. We further propose that, in order to leverage their experience, firms need to consider how the interactions of technological area experience and experience diversity affect performance. To test this model, we draw on a data set of 3034 drug development projects undertaken by 30 large pharmaceutical companies between 1980 and 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have provided valuable insights into the networking phenomenon and its impact on firms' performance. Nonetheless, a wide spectrum of issues remains unexplored. Using the network approach, this paper examines the different patterns of intermediation between otherwise disconnected firms and its impact on innovation performance. Our research was conducted on a well-known confectionery cluster in the Valencia region. The data allowed us to calculate four brokerage roles, depending on the affiliation of the organisations involved. Through these values, we open the ‘black box’ of brokerage by examining the differential contributions made to innovation performance by the coordinator, gatekeeper, representative, and liaison roles. These differences between roles are based on the tacit or explicit nature of the knowledge transferred and the specificities of each broker profile. Consequently, the research makes a relevant contribution to the network and cluster literatures and implies some useful recommendations for policy-makers and individual firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]