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In this conceptual work, we describe cross-disciplinary meaning and language related to the innovation phenomenon located in a business context. Our work attempts to find common meaning and language for innovation that can be applied across all business innovation projects irrespective of the business discipline, and to synthesize these common terms into an innovation communication and planning tool. The objective of providing a common meaning and language for innovation is to give practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders a shared communication platform, and common language and meaning that assist incumbents to discuss and collaborate during innovation projects without the boundaries created by siloed, nuanced, and discipline-specific understandings. The outcome of the paper is a conceptual framework and canvas tool constructed from universal meaning and language for business innovation with the aim of providing a set of common questions that business practitioners could ask during times of innovation. Furthermore, the Business Innovation Canvas provides new directions for future study and the development of tools that take advantage of common meaning and language to aid innovation practitioners and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the knowledge-based view (KBV), we investigate how and under what conditions knowledge search, including problemistic and slack searches, affects radical and incremental innovation. Using a data set composed of 247 Chinese firms, this study finds that slack search promotes radical and incremental innovation directly while problemistic search can positively affect radical and incremental innovation by the mediating role of knowledge integration capability (KIC). In addition, learning inertia strengthens the positive effect of problemistic search on KIC. This paper primarily contributes to innovation literature by clarifying and verifying how problemistic and slack searches affect radical and incremental innovation from the combined perspective of knowledge inertia and KIC. It also creates a foundation for further empirical investigation by explaining why existing studies have different views on the impacts of knowledge search on firm innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual embeddedness of inventors' cooperative networks influences firm innovation. This paper explores the mechanism of synergy between network structural embeddedness (network centrality and structural hole) and relational embeddedness (relational strength) on firm innovation using data from Chinese listed automobile companies. This paper further explores the mediating role of exploitative learning and exploratory learning between the synergy of cooperative network dual embeddedness and innovation. The results show that the synergy of network centrality and relational strength hinders innovation, while the synergy of the structural hole and relational strength promotes innovation. The synergy of centrality and relational strength hinders exploitative learning, while the synergy of the structural hole and relational strength promotes exploitative learning. Exploitative learning plays a mediating role between synergy of structure and relational embeddedness and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firm-level innovation in sub-Saharan Africa remains under-researched. To address this gap, this paper examines the obstacles to innovation faced by small, micro, and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa. Using the 2018 Business Innovation Survey, we apply the double-hurdle model to investigate factors determining a firm's decision to invest, and the intensity of innovation. Our results show that cost and institutional obstacles were significantly more important as disincentive factors for medium-sized enterprises while knowledge obstacles were significant disincentive factors for large enterprises. In addition, market obstacles hampered investment among large enterprises. Interestingly, none of these factors was found to deter innovation intensity among small and micro enterprises. The study findings suggest that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to innovation policy and intervention programmes to support innovation within firms of different sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate empirically the effects of technology management on firm innovation, this paper considers the antecedents and multidimensional views of technology management mechanisms on innovation performance in medium- and large-scale manufacturing firms in a developing country, namely Ethiopia. Using simple random sampling, a total of 200 firms were chosen for this study to obtain responses from respondents. Four hypotheses were proposed for testing. Structural equation modelling and cross-sectional design were used to analyze the data using the LISREL 8.80 SIMPLIS program software tool. This study finds technology transfer and technology acquisition have significant positive effects on process innovation, product innovation, and method innovation. Technology process has a significant positive effect on process and method innovation. Technology absorption has a significant positive effect on product innovation. The major implication of this study is that technology management, coupled with appropriate technology management policies and strategies, is an appropriate resource to be used in the organization to enhance firm performance, particularly innovation and creativity. The paper contributes to the literature in that, unlike previous studies that are based on one aspect of technology management practices, this study examined the effects of each different type of technology management dimension on firms' innovation. Thus, this study helps to gain further insights into the effects of technology management practices on firm innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 requires that manufacturing firms not only innovate but also generate more radical and different varieties of innovation, often incorporating new types of knowledge. To advance such types of innovation, several studies in Innovation and Economic Geography foreground that firms need to combine knowledge in novel ways. The contribution of this paper is to investigate in-depth how manufacturing firms with traditional roots combine new generative knowledge in and beyond a local productive system (LPS), what enables them to access and integrate such knowledge from external sources, and how this relates to the firms' innovation performance, with a focus on radical and varied forms of innovation. Findings show that firms standing out in terms of innovation performances combine complementary types of knowledge through internal and external sources, particularly at national and international levels. Moreover, firms that have complementary knowledge internally are able to access new knowledge beyond the borders of the LPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance and benefits of measuring innovation in businesses, standard methods for innovation measurement, such as the Oslo Manual, largely exclude the agricultural sector. As a result, innovation scholars in developing countries struggle to develop knowledge to understand innovation in agricultural businesses. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to guide research on the measurement of innovation in the agricultural sector in developing countries, focusing initially on commercial agricultural businesses. The proposed framework provides an analytical reference point with detailed methodological guidelines for scholars and practitioners of innovation studies who wish to understand the complexities and dynamics of innovation in commercial agricultural businesses (including forestry and fishery businesses). A practical example, based on an empirical study that used this framework to measure innovation in South Africa's agricultural sector, illustrates how it can be put into practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper examines the nexus between innovation and employment growth. In contrast to most studies that employ data from technologically advanced economies, the study uses well-documented data from a leapfrogging and catching-up economy in sub-Saharan Africa. We find a positive relationship between process innovation and employment growth among Nigerian manufacturing and services firms from 2005 to 2010. Furthermore, product innovation is also positively related to employment growth in manufacturing. This study's peculiarity is that innovative firms' ability to grow rely on their operations in regional and export markets, respectively. Our study contributes to the understanding of innovation and firm development in emerging economies. [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]