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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.

The purposes of two experiments were to examine how brands may create a broad brand impression and benefit brand extensions by crafting logo frames.

Two experimental studies were conducted. Study 1 examines how removing and breaking logo frames expands perceived brand breadth. Study 2 considers the implication of this logo frame effect and indicates the impact of logo frames on brand extension scenarios.

Removing and breaking logo frames could expand perceived brand breadth and, in turn, benefits the brand extensions, especially for promotion-focused consumers. However, prevention-focused people held favorable brand extension attitudes when the brand logo constructs a complete frame due to its perceived trustworthiness.

As an initial exploration, this study conceptualizes and manipulates logo frames as full framed, partial framed and open logo. Future research studies could include further design features in the examination.

If a brand seeks to be broad, removing or breaking its logo frame is an alternative. However, consequential negative impressions on brand extension attitudes among prevention-focused customers should be considered.

This study is the first investigation into the impacts of logo frame patterns on consumers’ perception of brand breadth and the consequent extension attitudes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of firms’ features on innovation performance in Industry 4.0, focusing on the concepts of breadth and depth of openness in the innovation process.

Using data gathered from 96 firms active in Industry 4.0 (I4.0) in Italy, a Poisson regression analysis is conducted to investigate the relationship between the openness of firms’ innovation processes at the level of knowledge sources and their innovation performance in I4.0.

The results highlight the relationship between the level of openness and innovative performance in I4.0. In particular, the breadth of the openness of the innovation process of enterprises is curvilinearly related to innovation in I4.0, taking an inverted U-shape.

Managers of firms operating in I4.0 should consider openness as a strategic response to the knowledge requirements and risks associated with the innovation process in complex technologies.

Through the questionnaires administered mainly to highly qualified individuals, an original and unique database has been created with information on the openness of the innovative process and the innovation performances in I4.0.

The purpose of this study is to explore the process of scaling second-hand fashion and how different strategic paths develop over time. This is theoretically grounded in two distinct scaling logics synthesised from the literature: a process that includes strategies for organisational growth (breadth-scaling) and a process that influences change in formal and informal institutions (depth-scaling).

The paper presents a process-based study based on the growth of a second-hand fashion retail organisation over 20 years. Qualitative materials such as interviews, observations and documents were collected and analysed.

The findings illustrate how a circular business model (CBM) can make use of a mix of strategies aiming for both organisational growth and impacting practices and habits within the fashion industry. Strategies building on breadth-scaling logic are found to be a prerequisite for engaging with depth-scaling strategies since they contribute to necessary resources and confidence, while depth-scaling secures future scaling opportunities by changing the conditions for scale.

The study contributes to the relatively scant literature on the process of scaling CBMs by exploring how different strategic paths unfold over time. The process-based approach, in combination with the two scaling logics, gives new insights into how CBMs go from niche to mainstream and thus influence the transition to a circular economy (CE).

Organizations that decide to invest in innovation must define how this will be done: internally, externally or in a hybrid way, developing internal research and establishing partnerships with other agents of the innovation system. This paper aims to analyze whether the service companies’ intensity of openness and innovation efforts are related to their innovative and financial performances. Open innovation assumes that organizations should use external and internal resources as they develop new technologies.

The study used data from the survey of technological innovation (Pintec). As regards innovations, it was considered the commercial and operational innovation performances and the innovative novelty performance. As regards financial performance, it was considered the overall net sales per employee. The intensity of open innovation was measured by the combination of breadth and depth (diversity and importance of the interfaces). The innovative effort was measured by spending on innovation activities. Regressions were applied to evaluate a set of hypotheses.

The results indicate that companies with a greater orientation toward open innovation presented better scores. The results also lead to the conclusion that foreign firm ownership structure and being part of a corporate group were the factors that caused the greatest impact on financial performance in the service sector.

The study provides empirical data on the importance of open innovation in improving organizations' performance, especially the breadth of open innovation.

The study contributes to expanding the research field addressing the relationship between service innovation and performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relational dynamics for innovation and, in particular, the impact of the openness of innovation process on the innovation capacity of organisations in restricted geographical contexts.

Through a negative binomial regression, the work analyses how the characteristics of the openness of the organisation’s innovation process in the period 2004-2010 influence the firm’s patent productivity in the following period (2011-2016).

The breadth of the open innovation (OI) process, here measured by the number of external network ties that an organisation realises for the realisation of its patents, has a positive effect on patent productivity. The depth of the openness, that is, the intensity of external network ties, has an equally positive influence on the innovative performance. However, after a tipping point, the patent productivity tends to decrease, underlining the costs and problems of OI practices.

This study considers only patent collaborations in the city of Florence. Therefore, it focusses on codified innovations and on a single territorial case study.

The results underline the importance of the adoption of OI practices in restricted geographical contexts (such as cities, clusters or industrial districts) but with several limitations. Only collaborating more with others does not foster the organisation’s invention productivity, but different types of evidence are found here.

An original database has been created, containing all the information on patents realised in the area of Florence from 2004 until 2016, and a social networks analysis was applied to identify the local innovation networks.

This study aims to investigate the impact of diverse practices in sustainability reporting and assurance on the disclosure of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Specifically, the authors examine the disclosure of SDGs along two dimensions: disclosure breadth, denoting the number of goals mentioned, and disclosure depth, encompassing the extent of actions disclosed to advance these goals.

Using a panel Tobit regression analysis, the authors analyse the communication on progress questionnaires from 299 companies (resulting in 1,015 firm-year observations) participating in the United Nations Global Compact from 2017 to 2021.

The findings revealed that greater adherence to Global Reporting Initiative standards increases SDG disclosure breadth; external assurance using publicly recognised standards, more than proprietary methods, is associated with SDG disclosure breadth and depth; and the review of information by multiple stakeholders improves the depth of SDG disclosure more than evaluation by a panel of peers.

The originality of this study lies in its examination of the intricate interplay between sustainability disclosure and assurance practices, on the one hand, and the disclosure of SDGs, on the other. Uniquely, the authors consider the various levels of implementation of these practices, allowing for a comprehensive assessment of their influence on SDG disclosure.

Family firms that simultaneously engage in multiple levels of innovation – incremental and radical – are likely to enjoy performance advantages across generations. The purpose of this paper is to research under which management conditions (i.e. top management team (TMT) diversity in terms of generational or non-family involvement) family firms are more likely to achieve innovation ambidexterity. Also, the paper addresses the mediating role of open innovation (OI) breadth in this relationship.

A large cross-sectional sample of 335 small- and medium-sized family firms is used. The hypotheses were tested in a mediation model. The relationship between TMT diversity and ambidexterity is measured using a binominal regression analysis, the one between TMT diversity and OI breadth using a Tobit model.

Drawing on the family firm upper echelon perspective, the results indicate that TMT diversity induced through external managers and multiple generations is positively related to innovation ambidexterity. As the mediation analysis reveals, the relationship can be explained by the higher propensity of diverse TMTs to get involved in OI breadth. The findings add to the discussion on family firm heterogeneity and its influence on different kinds of innovation.

So far, few studies have been concerned with ambidextrous family firms. Contrary to their reputation, this study identifies family firms as radical as well as open innovators. As such, this research takes account not only of the heterogeneity of family firms, but also of the heterogeneity of family firm innovation.

Internet search is a $120bn business that answers lists of search terms or keywords with relevant links to Internet webpages. Only a few companies have sufficient scale to compete and thus economics of the process are paramount. This study aims to develop a detailed industry-specific modeling of the economics of internet search.

The current research develops a stochastic model of the process of Internet indexing, search and retrieval in order to predict expected costs and revenues of particular configurations and usages.

The models define behavior and economics of parameters that are not directly observable, where it is difficult to empirically determine the distributions and economics.

The model may be used to guide the economics of large search engine operations, including the advertising platforms that depend on them and largely fund them.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies on knowledge creation for innovation purposes by assessing the relationships among the variety of I4.0 technologies adopted (breadth I4.0), the penetration of these technologies within the firm’s value chain activities (depth I4.0) and the mediating role of both internal (inter-functional (IF)) and external [with knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS)] collaborations in this process.

The study employed a quantitative research design. By administering a survey to entrepreneurs, chief operation officers or managers in charge of the operational and technological processes of Italian manufacturing firms, the authors collected 137 useful questionnaires. To test this study's theoretical framework and hypotheses, the authors ran regression and mediation analyses.

First, the results highlight the positive link between breadth I4.0 and depth I4.0. Moreover, the results show the key role played by increased collaboration among the firm’s business functions and by relationships with KIBS in creating knowledge to innovate processes and products when I4.0 technologies are adopted.

The variety of I4.0 technologies adopted enables a firm to use such technologies in various value chain activities. However, the penetration of I4.0 into the firm’s value chain activities (depth I4.0) does not per se directly imply the production of new knowledge, for which a firm needs internal collaboration among different business functions, in particular with the production area, or collaboration with external partners that favor I4.0 implementation, such as KIBS.

To achieve innovation goals by creating new knowledge, especially in the manufacturing industries, firms should encourage internal and external collaboration when I4.0 technologies are adopted. Moreover, policy makers should not only consider fiscal incentives for the adoption of such technologies, but also encourage the building of networks between adopting firms and external actors.

The study is one of the first attempt that provides empirical evidence of how I4.0 enables the creation of knowledge to innovate processes and products, highlighting the relevance of collaboration both within the company and with external partners.