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Prior research from transaction costs economics argued that central firms perform better because they have superior access to information to discipline their alliance partners. Central firms may also, however, face higher costs and risks of unintentional learning and weaken their competence through structural inertia. We propose that these costs and risks are influenced by the learning capacities of the firms in the network and can explain different outcomes for focal firm performance.

To test our predictions, we use instrumental variable–generalized method of moments estimation techniques on 15,517 firm-year observations from equity alliance portfolios in the global food industry across a 21-year window.

We find support for our predictions and show that the relationship between network degree centrality and firm performance is negatively influenced by partners’ learning capacity and positively influenced by focal firms’ learning capacity, while firms with low network degree centrality benefit less from their learning capacity.

Future developments in transaction cost economics may consider partner and focal firms’ learning capacity as moderators of the network degree centrality – firm performance relationship.

In alliance decisions, managers must consider that the combination of high network degree centrality and partners’ learning capacity can lead to high costs, risks of unintentional learning, and structural inertia, all of which have negative consequences for performance. In concentrated industries where network positions are controlled by a few large firms, policymakers must acknowledge that firms may face substantial barriers to collaboration with learning-intensive firms.

This study is the first to develop and test a comprehensive transaction cost analysis of the central firm’s unintended knowledge flows and structural inertia in alliance networks. It is also the first to incorporate theoretically and empirically the hazards of complex and unintended information flows on the relationship of network degree centrality to performance in equity alliance portfolios.

This research aims to investigate how absorptive capacity impacts artisan businesses' innovation performance in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Additionally, the study examines the role of strategic orientation (customer and technological orientation) as a mediator.

The study analysed data from 408 artisan entrepreneurs using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The research model was built on the “Dynamic-Capability Theory” of absorptive capacity and the “Resource-Based Theory” of performance.

The study’s findings suggest that both realised and potential absorptive capacity positively and significantly impact innovation performance. Moreover, customer and technology orientations positively and strongly influence innovation performance. Additionally, potential and realised absorptive capacity has a favourable impact on customer and technology orientation. The mediation analysis results indicate that customer and technological orientation have complementary partial mediation between potential absorptive capacity and innovation performance. Finally, mediating variables like customer and technological orientation show complementary partial mediation for realised absorptive capacity.

The research model would enrich the existing literature and offer an improved understanding of how absorptive capacity enhances the innovation performance among artisan entrepreneurs and concurrently validates the theory of “Dynamic-Capability Theory” of absorptive capacity and the “Resource Based Theory” of innovation performance of a firm.

Indirect knowledge leakage to rivals located near alliance partners represents a significant risk that has received limited scholarly attention. Hence, the question of how to manage this risk – which the authors term “partner-rival co-location risk” – in nonequity alliances remains unanswered, and this study aims to suggest establishing a steering committee to oversee the partnership.

Drawing on the agglomeration economies and alliance governance literatures, the authors develop a set of hypotheses and perform a series of empirical tests on 470 nonequity alliances in the US biopharmaceutical industry.

The authors propose that there is a positive linkage between partner-rival co-location risk and the formation of a steering committee in a nonequity alliance, which receives strong empirical support. Further, this relationship is significantly moderated by the breadth (alliance scope) but not the depth (reciprocal interdependence) of interaction between the partnering firms.

This paper is a pioneer to shed light on “partner-rival co-location risk” and how partner-rival co-location risk affects the governance decision of whether to establish a steering committee in a nonequity alliance, thus offering important theoretical and practical insights into competition and cooperation in alliance management.

Digital technologies open up unprecedented opportunities for the Chinese wind power industry to make rapid and comprehensive decisions. However, the relationship between digital technology adoption and radical and incremental innovations has not been empirically assessed. In addition, reconfiguration capability is the ability of firms to transform and respond to changes. How such an organizational capability influences the effectiveness of digital technology adoption is a black box. In response, this study aims to assess the relationship between digital technology adoption and radical and incremental innovations in the Chinese wind power industry and elucidate the moderating role of reconfiguration capability.

Based on the data of listed companies in the Chinese wind power industry from 2006 to 2020, this study constructs regression models and validates the hypotheses.

The correlation between digital technology adoption and incremental innovation in the wind power industry in China is significantly positive, but the relationship between digital technology adoption and radical innovation is not significant. In addition, reconfiguration capability significantly enhances the incentive effect of digital technology adoption on incremental innovation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the earliest to explore the heterogeneous relationships between digital technology adoption and radical and incremental innovations in emerging economies, advancing the theoretical insights into how digital transformation can foster different categories of technological innovations. Moreover, this study embeds dynamic capability theory into digital transformation research by exploring the boundary conditions for the effectiveness of digital technology adoption from the perspective of organizational dynamic capability, thereby expanding the boundaries of existing knowledge.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of relationship quality among team members in the project team on knowledge transfer effectiveness and analyze the role of organizational structure in the influencing process.

The hypotheses are verified by the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis using Smart PLS 3 software with the data collected from 236 questionnaire samples in Chinese construction industry.

The results indicate that relationship quality has a direct impact on knowledge transfer in project teams and centralization has a negative impact on relationship quality. Moreover, relationship quality plays a mediating role between centralization and knowledge transfer effectiveness and formalization plays a negative moderating role in the effect of relationship quality on knowledge transfer effectiveness.

This paper studies intra-project knowledge transfer from the perspective of relationship quality of project teams and explores the antecedent and moderating role of organizational structure in the influence of relationship quality on knowledge transfer.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are indispensable tools for Knowledge Management (KM) practices in today’s knowledge-intensive and globally interconnected marketplace. This paper seeks to investigate the impact of family ownership on ICT investments in an emerging economy (EE) context.

This empirical paper uses data from 300 large Indian listed firms with 2,650 observations in the period 2008–2017, to test its hypothesis.

The results indicate that family firms are not favourably inclined towards ICT investments for formalizing their KM practices. However, under certain contexts, such as higher foreign institutional ownership or business group affiliation, they are more willing to invest in ICT resources.

This study establishes a nuanced understanding of how family firms approach ICT investments and KM practices. This research can help family owners/managers to commit sufficient resources on ICT projects.

Literature on KM has largely emanated from developed countries. This is one of the first papers from an EE context that studies the impact of family ownership on ICT investments and subsequent KM practices. In this way, this paper offers specific insights into the context of Indian family firms and offers some interesting findings that can contribute to the literature, policy and practice.

This paper aims to conduct an analysis of the influence of both the breadth and depth of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) undertaken by Chinese high-tech listed companies during the period spanning 2010–2019. The data pertaining to these companies was used as a research sample to analyze the effects of OFDI on radical innovation performance.

Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the proposed models, using survey data collected from 442 high-tech companies in China.

The findings of this study indicate a curvilinear (i.e. U-shaped) relationship between the breadth/depth of OFDI and radical innovation performance. Additional analysis reveals that OFDI plays a role in facilitating innovation breakthroughs by enhancing the internal dynamic capabilities of companies. Moreover, it is observed that a well-established institutional environment in the host country of investment can positively moderate the relationship between OFDI breadth/depth and radical innovation performance.

This study proffers a significant contribution to the understanding of the crucial role played by OFDI from emerging economy companies in enhancing radical innovation performance. Moreover, it offers theoretical guidance for multinational companies aiming to foster innovation breakthroughs.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are currently showing an increasingly open innovation (OI) approach. Public policies supporting the adoption of OI by SMEs are becoming a priority for policymakers. Therefore, the aim of this article is to contribute to the literature by mapping scholars' policy recommendations for implementing OI among SMEs.

The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature (SRL) on the topic to achieve this purpose. A total of 99 academic articles were selected from the Web of Science and Scopus databases to suggest the main scholars' policy recommendations to implement OI among SMEs.

Results indicated that scholars' policy recommendations for OI adoption in SMEs can be organized into: research and development (R&D), networking, collaboration, knowledge and intellectual property rights (IPR), ecosystem, managerial capabilities, funding and incentives and sustainability policies.

Only relevant articles about this topic have been included due to the reliance on the interpretations of the authors. The analysis of the literature revealed that the authors did not always distinguish policies dedicated to SMEs and those dedicated to large companies. Moreover, policies are not matched according to each OI dimensions (e.g. inbound, outbound and coupled OI).

The article uses a systematic literature review method that combines qualitative and quantitative analyses. This method contributes to theoretical development of OI policies dedicated, in particular to SMEs. This paper also provides policymakers and researchers with insights on the scope of OI policies that could support economic growth.

Although the literature provides insights into the role of experiential learning based on prototypes in identification of latent customer need, it offers different views on the role of product prototypes in improving the efficacy of learning customer need, and also neglects the role of vicarious learning in prototype-based experiential learning. In a data-rich environment, market big data create new opportunities to learn from vicarious, digitalized experiences that are not observable with prototype-based learning. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compare the effects of product prototype strategies – basic prototype strategy and enhanced prototype strategy – on identification of latent customer needs, and determine how each prototype strategy interacts with vicarious learning based on market big data to identify latent customer needs.

We collected data from 299 Chinese manufacturing firms via on-site surveys to explore our research question. All of our hypotheses were supported by the regression results.

This study finds that both the enhanced and basic prototype strategies (experiential learning from direct market experience based on prototyping) have positive effects on latent need identification, but the effect of enhanced prototypes is stronger. Furthermore, the enhanced and basic prototype strategies have different interaction effects with market big data (vicarious learning from indirect market experiences) on latent need identification.

This research extends the literature on prototype-based learning for latent need identification. It also contributes to the experiential prototype-based learning literature by exploring the role of vicarious learning based on market big data.

Due to the constantly increasing competitiveness along with the complexity of knowledge, firms perceive collaboration as a key strategy that preserves firms' radical innovation performance. In this context, this paper aims to examine how firms’ partners’ diversity in open innovation activities influences the development of radical innovations, critical for social development. In particular, this study analyzes how the functional and geographical breadth of the firm’s collaboration portfolio affects its radical innovation performance. Furthermore, it also explores the role of firm size as a moderator in the relationships proposed.

This research employs panel data analysis, using a sample of 4,677 Spanish firms, with data sourced from the PITEC database.

The results of this study show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the functional and the geographical breadth of collaborations and the firms’ radical innovation performance. Moreover, this study finds partial support for the moderating role of firm size, in the sense that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large firms vary in their optimal number of diversity of partners.

This research provides a better understanding on how partners’ functional and geographical diversity, along with organizational characteristics such as firm size, affect how firms benefit from collaboration for innovation. This study shows that both SMEs and large firms experience diminishing returns when their collaboration networks become overly diverse in pursuit of radical innovation, due to increased costs. However, in SMEs, the turning point occurs at a later stage, consistent with the idea that small firms need broader functional networks to access complementary and novel resources they usually lack.