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The purpose of this paper is to understand if and how the technological diversifications of collaborating firms and public research organisations (PROs) affect the technological impact of the resulting joint-patented innovations.

The authors conduct an analysis on a database of 590 dyadic joint patents, assigned to both firms and PROs, registered from 1976 to 2010 to the US Patent and Trademark Office and belonging to green technological classes, as defined by the International Patent Classification green inventory.

The study reveals that the assignees’ technological diversification has a significant influence on the impact of the patents jointly developed. Indeed, the results show that the most impactful joint patents result from collaborations involving technologically diversified firms.

This research sheds further light on the establishment of R&D collaborations between firms and PROs to jointly innovate. Specifically, it provides a novel perspective to investigate the impact of joint patents, by focussing on the assignees’ technological profile.

The present work suggests that firms characterised by a higher degree of technological diversification are more likely to co-develop patent of higher technological impact, as resulting from collaboration with PROs.

This study investigates the factors affecting the impact of joint patents resulting from collaborations between firms and PROs. In particular, the present research focusses on the effect of a relevant characteristic of the partners, such as their technological diversification.

Knowledge assumes a pivotal role in the open innovation (OI) paradigm. Yet OI has been scantly investigated by adopting a knowledge management (KM) lens. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of the KM practices analysed by prior literature to support OI activities.

To perform a valuable literature review, the steps for systematic review proposed by previous studies have been adopted. These steps have yielded a final sample of 34 articles. Afterward, the authors have distinguished and analysed the identified articles according to the three main OI processes, i.e. inbound, outbound and coupled OI processes.

This research groups and highlights the most relevant KM practices to support OI activities on the basis of the inbound, outbound and coupled OI processes.

Despite knowledge is the most relevant resource exchanged in OI activities, this is the first attempt to highlight how knowledge should be managed in an OI context by adopting a KM lens. Furthermore, the authors also identify relevant topics that have been so far understudied, which the authors suggest as future research directions.

This study aims to verify the influence of chief executive officer (CEO) cognitive trust and governmental support on marketing innovation. Additionally, it evaluated the influence of CEO cognitive trust on the marketing innovation of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs).

The authors empirically assessed the impact of CEO cognitive trust on SMME marketing innovation. Furthermore, the authors examined the mediating effect of governmental support on this relationship. The authors then studied a sample of 1,770 SMMEs in China by applying partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The authors found that CEO cognitive trust was negatively associated with marketing innovation. Moreover, governmental support has a competitive mediating effect on this relationship. Thus, while governmental support is urgently needed to enhance the marketing innovation of SMMEs, CEO cognitive trust negatively impacts this relationship.

This study empirically establishes the importance of CEO cognitive trust and governmental support as antecedents in SMME marketing innovation. This contributes to the knowledge base of the management field, adding to important streams in the wider business literature, such as marketing studies, leadership management, strategic management and innovation. While the model is parsimonious, the relationships it highlights are robust and can be generalized to other contexts.

Managers must not only have high levels of trust and authority but must also embody these characteristics rationally. Simultaneously, managers must actively establish a trusting relationship with the government, thereby improving their company’s ability to integrate government policy information while also actively seeking governmental support. These measures are helpful in enhancing the marketing innovation capabilities of SMMEs.

SMMEs occupy an important position in all countries’ economies and their vitality directly determines the strength of the economy. Formulating reasonable marketing strategies will help enhance market competitiveness and promote the rapid development of SMMEs.

The literature on marketing innovation has paid little attention to CEO cognitive trust, while CEOs’ cognitive characteristics are an increasingly relevant antecedent in SMME marketing innovation. This study analyzed CEO cognitive trust as a possible antecedent of marketing innovation activities in SMMEs, with this influence path being evaluated. This study extends the current knowledge in this field by considering the effects of CEO cognitive trust on marketing innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to understand if and how the adoption of an open innovation (OI) strategy, that is acquiring externally developed knowledge, influences the innovation performance of firms and how this relationship is moderated by the recruitment of highly educated employees and the implementation of employee training activities.

The authors conducted an analysis based on the results of the 2010-2012 Italian Innovation Survey and considered only manufacturing firms. Accordingly, the econometric analysis was based on 2,836 firm-observations.

The study reveals that acquiring externally developed knowledge positively affects the innovation performance of firms. Additionally, while the moderation effect due to recruiting highly educated employees is not statistically significant, the implementation of training activities negatively moderates the investigated relationship.

The present research confirms the positive effects of the adoption of OI strategies on the innovation performance of firms and, additionally, shows that implementing employee training activities may negatively influence the abovementioned relationship.

The present study suggests that firms acquiring externally developed knowledge should be careful in performing employee training activities, since they may hinder the positive effects of adopting OI strategies.

This study contributes to the OI literature, by showing the positive effects of the acquisition of externally developed knowledge on the innovation performance of firms and by analysing the moderating role of human resources management practices, which is an aspect scantly discussed in the literature.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The authors investigate antecedents of marketing innovation in small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs). They found CEO cognitive trust to be negatively associated with marketing innovation, and government support to have a positive impact.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists, and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format

Technological platforms encourage the exchange of knowledge and creation of new ideas that create new value for participating members who pool and combine their knowledge, facilities, tools and skills, thus contributing to the development of innovative solutions. This paper focuses on hackathon platforms, working as open innovation intermediaries, investigating their role and functions and exploring how they encourage the collaboration and the innovativeness among participants in order to boost their innovative new ideas.

The research method is a qualitative design that includes in-depth interviews of ten stakeholders that play different roles in “Hack for Travel,” the case under analysis. It is a hackathon organized entirely online, as a response to the crisis generated by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Findings revealed six processes developed by the hackathon platform used to effectively organize the event and facilitate participants to cooperate and share knowledge in order to boost the spread of innovative ideas. Results identify how hackathons should be organized and through which processes they work as innovation platforms.

This is one of the first attempts to study the increasing phenomenon of hackathons, providing theoretical contribution and practical implications about their role in developing innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how a food and beverage packaging company manages internal and external stakeholders to achieve sustainable innovation outcomes, as well as to contribute to the spread of sustainability paths along the supply chain, on which it operates.

A case study approach was chosen and applied multiple methods of semi-structured interviews and a documentation review.

Results reveal a structured stakeholder relationship management, according to which the packaging company acts through a stakeholder engagement process to both acquire and share new knowledge to address stakeholder pressure. Co-creation models result in a winning strategy to exploit knowledge, above all in a supply chain context, where actors should act as a part of a strictly interlinked system, involving external stakeholders (also suppliers) and internal stakeholders in joint eco-innovation projects. The case study shows the potential strategic role of a packaging company in affecting relevant actors of the supply chain through the promotion of a sustainability culture.

The first limitation is linked to the chosen case study approach, which does not allow for results to be generalized. Future works could arrange panel data analysis to investigate in depth the behavior of several packaging companies regarding stakeholder relationship management.

Managerial implications mainly underline that, to fully address market stakeholder pressure, managers should recognize the relevance of acquiring and sharing new knowledge from external sources, without underestimating the need to integrate it with internal stakeholders (employees) for its exploitation.

The present work is original for the food and beverage industry, with specific attention on the packaging sector, which, until today, has been widely investigated regarding food and waste loss reduction strategies, but less often from the perspective of stakeholder relationship management in addressing sustainability.

This work provides new insights into possible managerial choices and development directions for practising open innovation (OI) in companies. The purpose of this paper is to explore the different practices, actors and tools adopted for opening up the innovation process, in particular, by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are still facing difficulties in its implementation.

The paper is based on a literature review and an exploratory survey of a sample of 85 European SMEs.

The study identifies a total of 23 practices, 20 actors and 11 tools involved in the OI processes of companies. It highlights, through literature and empirical evidence, how different combinations of practices, actors and tools are put into practice.

The developed framework offers new insights both from OI literature and from practitioners’ point of view into the supporting decision-making processes regarding which practices to implement, tools to adopt and actors to collaborate with. A wider investigation is recommended to include more variables to define the differences among the combinations of practices, actors and tools in terms of types of innovation (e.g. product, process, etc.), the openness degree and other contextual factors.

The originality of this paper is based on the fact that it focusses on a practical perspective of OI implementation, building a framework of reference from previous literature and empirical investigation.

This work aims to offer a better understanding of the inevitable challenges related to the digital transformation in the family-owned low-tech SMEs, examining the role assumed by familiness in this specific context. To this end, it examines the main factors that influence the adoption and implementation of digital technologies in the family-owned low-tech SMEs.

The study uses a multiple case studies approach, by investigating the case of family-owned low-tech SMEs operating in the winery sector and located in the South-Italy area.

Based on the empirical evidence, findings show how familiness influence the digital transformation of family-owned SMEs and highlight three main factors – individual, process and organization – relevant for the introduction and use of digital technologies in the productive and innovative activities of these organizations.

This paper fills the research gap existing in the literature on the family business. Firstly, it focuses on the digital transformation phenomenon and underlines how familiness, within family-owned low-tech SMEs, can differently influence the firm's innovation processes primarly based on the use of digital technologies oriented to enable business improvements. Then, it identifies diverse dimensions that can act as “barriers” or “facilitators” for adopting advanced digital technologies within the organizations here examined.