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1 – 10 of 416This paper aims to explore how to build firm’s radical innovation capability from its own knowledge resources. It proposes the impact of knowledge base on radical innovation and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how to build firm’s radical innovation capability from its own knowledge resources. It proposes the impact of knowledge base on radical innovation and outlines why and how appropriability regimes are important throughout the radical innovation capability development process.
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaire and in-depth interviews were used to empirically test the relationship between knowledge base, appropriability regimes and radical innovation capability. To correct for potential endogeneity, a two-stage regression model was used to test the interaction effects
Findings
By examining 237 firms involved in R&D activities in high-tech manufacturing firms in China, this paper finds that when a firm have a deep knowledge base, strategic appropriability regime may reduce concerns about problems such as knowledge leakage and innovation appropriation associated with deep knowledge bases. In contrast, legal appropriability regime will also tend to strengthen the positive effect of knowledge breadth on radical innovation capability.
Research limitations/implications
In this study, self-reported measures are used because of their potential for concept specific accuracy; future research might wish to replicate our model and test it with objective data.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for the fit between the existing internal knowledge base and the way a firm appropriates from its knowledge, and provides entrepreneurs and managers with direct implications about how to manage knowledge resources for radical innovation capability development.
Originality/value
This paper provides a more nuanced understanding of how knowledge base and value appropriability mechanisms jointly affect radical innovation capability development.
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Marco Ceccagnoli and Frank T. Rothaermel
This chapter explores the extent to which an innovator is able to capture innovation rents. After examining the two main drivers of such rents, the strength of the appropriability…
Abstract
This chapter explores the extent to which an innovator is able to capture innovation rents. After examining the two main drivers of such rents, the strength of the appropriability regime and the ownership of specialized complementary assets, the chapter examines how their interaction is so critical in affecting imitation, commercialization options, and firm performance. After reviewing the underlying conceptual framework and empirical evidence, and using a perspective that cuts across both time and industries, the authors then discuss the implications of innovation profits for the resources to be devoted to the discovery of new or improved product and processes.
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Wenhong Zhang, Yapu Zhao, Longwei Tian and Dong Liu
The purpose of this paper is to explore how boundary-spanning demand-side search (BSDSS) fuels radical technological innovations as well as how innovation appropriability…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how boundary-spanning demand-side search (BSDSS) fuels radical technological innovations as well as how innovation appropriability moderates this relationship. In particular, based on Teece’s (1986) argument regarding the appropriability of innovation, the authors divide factors to influence innovation appropriability into two types: external institution related and internal capability related.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a survey methodology. Specifically, the authors collected a sample composed of 150 high-tech manufacturing Chinese firms.
Findings
Results show that BSDSS has a positive effect on radical technological innovations. Further, the authors find that dysfunctional competition and political ties negatively moderate the main effect, whereas firms’ legal and IPRs protection capabilities positively moderate the main effect.
Research limitations/implications
One major limitation is that the findings are based on data derived from Chinese firms, which may limit the generalization of the findings.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that firms competing Chinese market, both Chinese and foreign firms, should actively leverage BSDSS to boost radical technological innovations. Chinese firms should pay attention to the negative roles of appropriability hazards originating from external institutional environment. Foreign firms in Chinese market should be cautious on potential dysfunctional competition from local competitors, such as imitation and intelligence property violation, and enhance appropriability through building internal capabilities, such as legal and IPRs capabilities.
Originality/value
The study highlights the crucial roles of BSDSS in radical technological innovations, as well as the moderating roles of innovation appropriability. These results provide new insights into the drivers of radical technological innovations.
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Sergio David Cuéllar, Maria Teresa Fernandez-Bajón and Felix de Moya-Anegón
This study aimed to examine the similarities and differences between the ability to analyze the environment and exploit new knowledge (absorptive capacity) and the skills to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to examine the similarities and differences between the ability to analyze the environment and exploit new knowledge (absorptive capacity) and the skills to generate value from innovation (appropriation). These fields have similar origins and are sometimes confused by practitioners and academics.
Design/methodology/approach
A review was conducted based on a full-text analysis of 681 and 431 papers on appropriation and absorptive capacity, respectively, from Scopus, Science Direct and Lens, using methodologies such as text mining, backward citation analysis, modularity clustering and latent Dirichlet allocation analysis.
Findings
In business disciplines, the fields are considered different; however, in other disciplines, it was found that some authors defined them quite similarly. The citation analysis results showed that appropriation was more relevant to absorptive capacity, or vice versa. From the dimension perspective, it was found that although appropriation was considered a relevant element for absorptive capacity, the last models did not include it. Finally, it was found that studies on both topics identified the importance of appropriation and absorptive capacity for innovation performance, knowledge management and technology transfer.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to examine in-depth the relationship between appropriation and absorptive capacity, bridging a gap in both fields.
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Desmond Ng and Leonardo F. Sanchez-Aragon
The purpose of this study is to theoretically and empirically advance a concept of competitive antecedents to absorptive capacity (AC) research and to explain their relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to theoretically and empirically advance a concept of competitive antecedents to absorptive capacity (AC) research and to explain their relationship to a firm’s innovative performance. A firm’s competitive antecedents involve a relative advantage in a firm’s ability to access external knowledge – (i.e. relative advantage in external knowledge flows) – and a relative advantage in appropriating these external knowledge flows (i.e. relative advantage in appropriability regime).
Design/methodology/approach
By drawing on network and market share explanations, hypotheses were developed in which a firm’s AC is argued to mediate the influence of these competitive antecedents on a firm’s innovations. In using linear and negative binomial estimation methods, a mediation analysis of the US biotechnology industry was conducted.
Findings
A firm’s competitive antecedents have a positive influence on a firm’s AC and that these influences indirectly impact a biotechnology firm’s product innovations.
Originality/value
While a firm’s innovation is widely attributed to its AC, this study’s concept of competitive antecedents shows that a firm’s competitive advantage lies upstream from its AC.
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Satu Nätti, Pia Hurmelinna-Laukkanen and Wesley J. Johnston
The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of service innovation in networks. Especially the most loosely coupled forms of innovation networks, innovation communities…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of service innovation in networks. Especially the most loosely coupled forms of innovation networks, innovation communities, can be valuable in service innovation, but may not be manageable in the traditional sense. Rather, they may require orchestration characterized by discreet guidance that also accommodates the specific nature of services. Through informed orchestration, it is possible to deal with several contingencies, and influence the absorptive capacity at the network level to generate new service innovations.
Design/methodology/approach
These issues are examined through literature review and a case study.
Findings
The findings suggest that individual orchestration mechanisms may be more closely connected to certain contingencies than others, and that both orchestration mechanisms and contingency factors have a role in absorptive capacity development within service innovation networks.
Research limitations/implications
While the case study approach limits the possibility to make wide generalizations, the in-depth insights provide valuable knowledge.
Practical implications
There has been a shift from inter-firm competition towards competition between networks of organizations, increasing relevance of absorptive capacity at the network level.
Originality/value
Despite the recent increase in service innovation literature, research on service innovation taking place in networks is scant. Knowledge on some aspects can be derived from more traditional notions on technological innovation, but both the distinctive features of services and central characteristics of innovation networks make it necessary to reconsider some of the established views. In particular, managing – or rather orchestrating – service innovation is still a challenging area.
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Peter T. Gianiodis and Jill A. Brown
We extend the literature on scientific discovery and commercialization by examining entrepreneurial action by university-based scientists. Specifically, we investigate the…
Abstract
We extend the literature on scientific discovery and commercialization by examining entrepreneurial action by university-based scientists. Specifically, we investigate the decision process and the paths to commercialize academic technologies. University-based technology transfer involves multiple stakeholders with competing interests; hence, we believe researchers should apply a multilevel theoretical lens, which starts with the disclosure of discoveries made by scientists in their labs. We build a multilevel framework that views the scientists’ choice to first disclose viable discoveries to pursue entrepreneurial action as a function of three factors: (i) a scientist's rent orientation, (ii) a university's rent doctrine, and (iii) the rent doctrine of the scientific field in which the scientist conducts research. We suggest that commercial disclosure most often occurs when there is alignment between these three factors. Lastly, we advance an agenda for future empirical research by developing specific propositions about the key constructs and relationships concerning university-based entrepreneurial action.
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M.Muzamil Naqshbandi and Sharan Kaur
– The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the effectiveness of innovation protection mechanisms in four high-tech industries in Malaysia.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the effectiveness of innovation protection mechanisms in four high-tech industries in Malaysia.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey is administered to 339 managers working in four Malaysian high-tech industries.
Findings
The authors find that in most industries, patents are considered as the most effective innovation protection mechanism, while lead time is considered as least effective. In firms with private and foreign ownerships, patents and in firms categorized as “others” “moving quickly down the learning curve” are considered as the most effective protection mechanisms. It also emerges that “being first to market (lead time)” is considered as the least effective protection mechanism under all ownership structures. Further, young and middle-aged firms report patents, while old firms report secrecy as the most effective innovation protection mechanisms.
Research limitations/implications
This paper restricted analysis to the high-tech sector in Malaysia, and thus, the findings are not generalizable to other industries. Second, this paper took into consideration only four innovation protection mechanisms. The authors suggest that future research should investigate the issue at hand in other industries and consider other innovation protection mechanisms to have a holistic view of how Malaysian firms view different innovation protection mechanisms.
Practical implications
In addition to providing inputs for policy-making, the results of this paper are expected to help practitioners in deciding on the right kind of innovation protection mechanisms for their innovations based on their industry, ownership structure and firm age.
Originality/value
This paper is the first of its kind conducted in the Malaysian high-tech sector and as such is expected to help policy-makers to design and implement effectively innovation protection policies.
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Dario Milesi, Vladimiro Verre and Natalia Petelski
The purpose of this paper is to show how science-industry R&D cooperation (SIRC) generates effects on the strategy developed by firms to appropriate the benefits of innovations…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how science-industry R&D cooperation (SIRC) generates effects on the strategy developed by firms to appropriate the benefits of innovations. Given the plurality of cooperation patterns between firms and public R&D institutions and the variety of appropriation mechanisms used by firms to protect generated knowledge or to strengthen their market position, this paper investigates to what extent different forms of cooperation are associated with different effects on appropriation strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
As evidence of this, the authors carry out a multiple case study, covering nine biopharmaceutical Argentine firms whose innovation projects are developed in cooperation with public R&D institutions. Using critical dimensions identified by public-private R&D cooperation literature, the paper analyzes the characteristics of cooperation in the cases studied, looking for different patterns. Given the existence of various appropriation mechanisms identified by appropriability literature, the paper analyzes how firms use (or not) those mechanisms within the specific context of jointly generated innovation.
Findings
The paper shows that SIRC generates opposing effects on the various appropriation mechanisms used by firms, both challenging and strengthening them. Likewise, the identification of three cooperation patterns in Argentine biopharmaceutical sector, namely, contract R&D, internalization and coordination, allows appreciating how each pattern affects differently the appropriation mechanisms used by firms, being the coordination one, the most functional to the appropriation strategy of firms analyzed.
Research limitations/implications
The arguments presented here are necessarily limited to the biopharmaceutical Argentine sector, which is strategic to the country, for accumulated capabilities in scientific and business aspects. The analysis could be enriched by extending it to other industries with similar innovation characteristics and to other countries, where patents have a similar weight (emerging countries) or a different one (developed countries).
Practical implications
Innovation and public-private collaboration policies may benefit from the analysis presented here, which helps to assess advantages and challenges of different SIRC logics on firms’ appropriation issues and to considerate which aspects allow cooperation and appropriation combining in a more virtuous form.
Originality/value
There is no paper that explicitly examines the effects generated by different SIRC patterns on the appropriation strategy of firms, conceived as a combination of different mechanisms which may include patents but is not limited to them.
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Pia Hurmelinna‐Laukkanen and Paavo Ritala
Profiting from service innovations can be challenging. It is not only a question of pricing and marketing the services appropriately, but also of keeping competitors from…
Abstract
Purpose
Profiting from service innovations can be challenging. It is not only a question of pricing and marketing the services appropriately, but also of keeping competitors from imitating them. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how service innovation differs from technology/product innovation in terms of protection, and how this shows in collaborative innovation activities.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper offers a literature review combining discussion related to service research and strategic management. Empirical evidence is provided in the form of a multifaceted case study illustrating some of the aspects of collaborative service innovation.
Findings
The results indicate that characteristics separating service innovations from product or process innovations influence the efficacy of protection. This, in turn, may make or break the subsequent value appropriation. Furthermore, as service innovation typically includes collaborative activities, there is another twist to protection: companies must protect knowledge that brings them competitive advantage, but on the other hand they need to foster knowledge sharing, which may be in conflict with protective measures. As a result, service innovators cannot rely solely on intellectual property right strategies, as their counterparts working with products might do, but the service element requires taking a wider look around, and utilizing means such as human resource management, lead time, and contracting.
Originality/value
The novelty of this paper lies in its analysis of two very recent trends: collaboration (and coopetition) in innovation, and the tendency to introduce business models that bring service innovations to the core of the offering. Augmenting prior knowledge, the paper brings forth issues that need to be acknowledged when service innovations are created, protected, and appropriated.
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