An Empirical Study on Entrepreneurial Orientation, Absorptive Capacity, and SMEs’ Innovation Performance: A Sustainable Perspective

PurposeThe study explored the mediating role of potential and realized absorptive capacities in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and radical innovation performance among manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).Design/methodology/approachEmpirical analysis was based on 357 manufacturing SMEs in Ghana. Various validity and reliability checks were conducted before the presentation of the actual analysis, which was conducted using ordinary least squares approach, run using SPSS (v. 20).FindingsFindings revealed that potential and realized absorptive capacities significantly mediated the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and radical innovation performance among manufacturing SMEs. Further, it was identified that ambidexterity in absorptive capacity also had a greater effect on radical innovation performance among manufacturing SMEs.Research limitations/implicationsSince the data used were cross-sectional, the relationships measured represent only a snapshot of time. Longitudinal studies could therefore be adopted in the future to complement the cross-sectional conducted.Practical implicationsWhile managers of manufacturing SMEs seek to achieve higher radical innovation performance through entrepreneurial orientation, it should also be noted that both potential and realized absorptive capacities have a significant role to play in this relationship. Managers must therefore also seek to invest time to build both potential and realized absorptive capacities, as they define greater innovation success.Originality/valueSome past studies have considered absorptive capacity as composite variable, therefore added both potential and realized absorptive capacities to form a single variable. Others also presented potential and realized absorptive capacities individually. This current study extends the body of knowledge by presenting an ambidexterity position between potential and realized absorptive capacities.

Download Full-text

Accelerating Green Innovation Performance from the Relations of Network Potential, Absorptive Capacity, and Environmental Turbulence

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13147765 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 7765

Author(s):

Shuizheng Song ◽

Md Altab Hossin ◽

Xiaohua Yin ◽

Md Sajjad Hosain

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Absorptive Capacity ◽

Bootstrap Method ◽

Manufacturing Firms ◽

Innovation Performance ◽

Mediation Effect ◽

Environmental Turbulence ◽

High Tech ◽

Green Innovation ◽

The Relationship

The demand for sustainable development and the advantages of industries are expediting over time with the triggering of green innovation performance (GIP). Improving a firm’s GIP, especially in manufacturing industries, can accelerate green development and mitigate the global-concerned environmental issues. Thus, to investigate GIP from its antecedent factors, we delineate the relationship between network potential, absorptive capacity, environmental turbulence, and GIP based on social network theory, organizational learning theory, and contingency theory. We tested our hypotheses based on 233 sets of questionnaire surveys from high-tech manufacturing firms in China through deploying the hierarchical regression and bootstrap method. Our empirical findings reveal that the network potential dimensions, including network position centrality (NPC), network structure richness (NSR), and network relationship closeness (NRC), significantly positively impacted the GIP. The absorptive capacity (AC) partially mediated the relationship between the network potential dimensions and GIP. Environmental turbulence (ET) as an essential mechanism not only positively moderated the relationship between AC and GIP but also enhanced the AC mediation effect. These findings indicate that manufacturing firms should continue to improve network potential and AC and respond rapidly to changes in the external environment to enhance GIP, consequently contributing to the sustainable development of the economy.

Download Full-text

Effects of Emerging-Economy Firms’ Knowledge Acquisition from an Advanced International Joint Venture Partner on Their Financial Performance Based on the Open Innovation Perspective

Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity ◽

10.3390/joitmc7010067 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 67

Author(s):

Choo Yeon Kim ◽

Eun-Hwa Seo ◽

Canisha Booranabanyat ◽

Kwangsoo Kim

Keyword(s):

Financial Performance ◽

Knowledge Acquisition ◽

Absorptive Capacity ◽

Open Innovation ◽

Joint Venture ◽

Emerging Economy ◽

Innovation Performance ◽

Mediation Effect ◽

International Joint Venture ◽

International Joint

Although emerging-economy firms (E-E firms) must have a keen interest in improving their performance by utilizing knowledge transferred from their advanced international joint venture (IJV) partner, there has been little research on the performance implications of E-E firms’ knowledge transferred from their advanced IJV partner. So, drawing on open innovation and organizational learning perspectives, we examine whether, how, and when E-E firms’ knowledge acquisition from their IJV partner has a positive impact on their financial performance. Based on data collected from 127 Thai manufacturing firms with a local IJV partnered with an advanced overseas firm, our results reveal that E-E firms’ knowledge acquisition from their IJV partner has an overall positive influence on their financial performance in terms of growth and profitability. Our results further show that innovation performance mediates the relationship between E-E firms’ knowledge acquisition and their financial performance based on a moderated mediation analysis including innovation performance as a mediator and absorptive capacity as a moderator. It is also found that the positive mediation effect of innovation performance is more pronounced in the presence of higher absorptive capacity than otherwise. That is, our results show that even among E-E firms which have acquired much knowledge from their IJV partner, those with higher absorptive capacity achieve better innovation performance than those with lower absorptive capacity, and improved innovation performance subsequently contributes to producing superior financial performance. The key conclusions, implications, and limitations of our study are presented based on these findings.

Download Full-text

Impacts of Geographic Clusters and Network Status on Innovation Performance: An Empirical Study on Manufacturing Industry in China

2009 International Conference on Management and Service Science ◽

10.1109/icmss.2009.5305215 ◽

2009 ◽

Author(s):

Chun hua Bai ◽

Lu Sun

Keyword(s):

Empirical Study ◽

Manufacturing Industry ◽

Innovation Performance ◽

Network Status

Download Full-text