Search results

The purpose of this paper is to advance knowledge by exploring how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) search for external knowledge in their open innovation processes, and how the search can be advanced.

This exploratory research employs a qualitative multiple case study design. A literature review of open innovation in SMEs and external knowledge search is used to build the premises of this study. Semi-structured interviews with eight SMEs are employed to collect subsequent exploratory empirical data.

This exploratory study revealed that SMEs adopted a combination of cognitive and experiential search heuristics where cognitive search was practiced during the innovation research process when searching for external knowledge, whilst experiential search was practiced during the innovation development process. Concerning the search space, this study found that SMEs mainly explored local knowledge, and occasionally pursued distant knowledge when confronted with complex problems. The reason for the above behavior was explained to be related to the reduction of costs and risks associated with innovation activities.

External knowledge plays a pivotal role in open innovation. Although extant studies have shed some light on how large firms search for external knowledge, however, it is not clear how SMEs search for external knowledge. Moreover, this study focuses on learning about both the search space and the search heuristics at both the research and the development stages of the innovation process.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the combined effects of different modalities of long-term knowledge accumulation and short-term knowledge searching on the generation of high-impact ideas. The authors aim at providing useful conclusions for academic scholars.

Two dimensions of the cumulative knowledge structures of researchers are measured: knowledge depth and knowledge breadth. The search strategies employed by researchers are classified as local search and distant search. The authors use researchers’ historical publications to measure cumulative knowledge structures. References contained in these publications serve as an indicator of knowledge searching behaviors and are used to measure search strategies. Highly cited papers with random-but-matched papers from the same journal published in the same year are adopted to test the hypotheses.

The knowledge depth of researchers positively predicts the generation of high-impact ideas. Knowledge breadth has a bell-shaped relationship to the generation of high-impact ideas. Two instances of “strategic fit” between the knowledge structures and search strategies of researchers are identified; namely, knowledge breadth combines most effectively with local search, and knowledge depth combines most effectively with distant search in generating high-impact ideas.

Using article references to measure authors’ knowledge search behaviors may lead to biases. Future research should perform a survey to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the knowledge search behaviors of scholars.

A “T-shaped” knowledge structure in the long run is recommended for maximal generation of high-impact ideas. Researchers who have not adopted this optimal knowledge structure can employ a matched search strategy to leverage their existing knowledge structures.

This paper is among the first to examine the interactive effects between the cumulative knowledge structures and short-term knowledge searching strategies of researchers. The authors have enriched the exploration and exploitation theory by adding the dimension of time into the analysis.

The purpose of this study is to explain how factors relating to resource availability affect managerial risk-taking with regard to the geographic and institutional proximity of cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) targets. The paper further considers the impact of organizational learning by testing the moderating effect of the acquiring firms’ prior international M&A experience.

This study uses linear regression with robust standard errors to account for dependence among clustered observations at the firm level. The authors used country and industry fixed-effects specifications to account for unobserved heterogeneity.

The results suggest that when internal and external resources are more abundant, firms pursue cross-border M&As that are more geographically and institutionally distant. The findings further indicate that a firm’s prior international M&A experience positively moderates the aforementioned relationships..

Extending the behavioral theory of the firm beyond organizational slack resources, the results highlight the importance of taking a multi-level, open-systems perspective of the strategic impact of resource availability. The authors’ theory and findings also provide a more nuanced view of the critical role organizational learning plays in the relationship between resource availability and organizational outcomes.

This is the first study to the authors’ knowledge that develops and tests a theoretical model exploring the impact of both internal (organizational slack) and external (environmental munificence at both the industry and home-country levels) resource availability, as well as prior organizational experience on an important multinational business practice.

We argue that a fundamental issue regarding how to search and how to switch between different cognitive modes lies in the decision rules that influence the dynamics of learning and exploration. We examine the search logics underlying these decision rules and propose conceptual prompts that can be applied mentally or computationally to aid managers’ decision-making.

By applying Multi-Armed Bandit (MAB) modeling to simulate agents’ interaction with dynamic environments, we compared the patterns and performance of selected MAB algorithms under different configurations of environmental conditions.

We develop three conceptual prompts. First, the simple heuristic-based exploration strategy works well in conditions of low environmental variability and few alternatives. Second, an exploration strategy that combines simple and de-biasing heuristics is suitable for most dynamic and complex decision environments. Third, the uncertainty-based exploration strategy is more applicable in the condition of high environmental unpredictability as it can more effectively recognize deviated patterns.

This study contributes to emerging research on using algorithms to develop novel concepts and combining heuristics and algorithmic intelligence in strategic decision-making.

This study offers insights that there are different possibilities for exploration strategies for managers to apply conceptually and that the adaptability of cognitive-distant search may be underestimated in turbulent environments.

Drawing on insights from machine learning and cognitive psychology research, we demonstrate the fitness of different exploration strategies in different dynamic environmental configurations by comparing the different search logics that underlie the three MAB algorithms.

This study examines the effects of organizational attention on technological search in the multibusiness firm. We argue that attentional specialization and coupling, or (respectively) attention given to problems within and across units, affect a unit’s ability to engage in distant and local search by shaping how problems are perceived and addressed. We test this theory by applying a probabilistic topic model to all Motorola patents issued from 1974 to 1997, thus identifying and measuring attention to technical problems. Our results suggest that (a) subunits with specialized attention are not myopic but instead explore broadly and (b) tight attentional coupling across units increases the breadth of search. This study contributes to attention-based views of the firm and to studies on organizational design and search.

Drawing upon upper echelon, regulatory focus and attention theories and focusing on SMEs, the purpose of this paper is to answer questions on how the motivational disposition (promotion vs. prevention regulatory focus) of CEOs affects their information search patterns (i.e. search selection and intensity) and consequently organizational level engagement in different types of innovation activities (exploration vs. exploitation).

A quantitative study was conducted collecting data from the CEOs of SMEs operating in the dynamic wine and spirits industry in Greece. The data were collected in two independent time streams and the proposed theoretical model was tested by applying OLS regression analysis.

The current research provides evidence that differences in CEOs’ level of promotion and prevention focus trigger different information search selection and search intensity patterns. Nonetheless, the attention to innovation components act as mediators only in the hypothesized relationships between a CEO's level of prevention and promotion focus and exploration. Paradoxically, filtered through attention to innovation and triggered from the same motive, that is to reduce negative emotions, promotion focus CEOs choose to direct resources to exploitation and avoid investing in exploration, whilst the opposite was supported for prevention focus CEOs.

The results highlight the important role of a CEO's regulatory focus orientation in promoting diverse attention to innovation patterns and firm-level innovation tendencies towards exploration and/or exploitation.

This study's contributions extend and combine the theories of regulatory focus, UET and attention in the field of managerial/entrepreneurship behavior and innovation. Therefore, they are valuable for understanding the determinants of firm-level innovation choices (exploration vs. exploitation) in SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate venture capital (CVC) investment and the level of knowledge transferred from start-ups to corporate investors. It also delineates the conditions under which CVC investment facilitates the knowledge transfer.

A longitudinal design is used to examine annual snapshots of CVC investment and patent citing activities for the period from 1995 to 2005. This paper uses a negative binomial Poisson regression model to test proposed research hypotheses.

The authors found that that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the number of CVC investments and the level of knowledge transferred from the start-up. The results of this study also found that knowledge diversity of the investing firm moderates the inverted U-shaped relationship.

This research contributes to the search literature by conceptualizing CVC investment as a distant search process for sourcing external knowledge from start-ups. By arguing theoretically and demonstrating empirically the effects of tie strength of CVC structure and technological knowledge diversity on organizational knowledge transfer, this current study extends the previous understanding and applicability of social relations and technological diversity to understand CVC activity.

The globalization of knowledge has driven an increased emphasis on cross-border, high-technology acquisitions where a target firm in a technology industry is acquired by a firm in another nation. However, learning depends on similarity of knowledge, and we find that needed similarity can be provided by either technology or culture. As a result, firms can learn from acquiring targets at increasing cultural distance or at increasing technological distance, but not both. We find an interaction where acquisitions made at longer cultural distances and less technological distance, and acquisitions at shorter cultural distances and greater technological distance improve financial performance. This means technological distance and cultural distance are substitutes or represent a trade-off where improved acquisition performance depends on having commonality (low distance) for one of the variables.

A firm's geographic boundaries represent an important demarcation line when searching for new knowledge. Prior research on geographic search has generated conflicting results concerning its influence on firm innovation outcomes. The purpose of this study is to fill the gap by examining how and under which conditions geographic search affects firm radical innovation performance.

This study hypothesizes a positive association between a firm's geographic search and radical innovation performance, which is mediated by potential absorptive capacity (PAC). It further proposes that the influence of geographic search on PAC will be moderated by a firm's collaborative network. Drawing on a random sample of 286 Chinese manufacturing firms, the theoretical model is tested.

The study's results show a positive relationship between geographic search and radical innovation performance, which is partially mediated by PAC. Moreover, attributes of collaborative networks (i.e. diverse location of and strong relational ties with partners) are observed to enhance the positive effect of geographic search on PAC.

This paper advances the understanding of how and when firms can better capture the benefits of geographic search in the development of radical innovation.

This study aims to reveal the contribution mechanism of various types of intrafirm networks formed among inventors to firms’ searching for new knowledge. This study also intends to show how this mechanism is influenced by the geographic dispersion of inventors and the external alliance of firms.

This study develops an analytical framework building on social network theory to explain the collective search among inventors within the firm. The authors validate the hypotheses using the data from 316 publicly traded biotechnology firms in the USA.

As demonstrated by the findings, intrafirm network clustering facilitates the search for new knowledge. The geographic dispersion of inventors’ location has a negative moderating effect on this relation, whereas the number of alliance partners has a positive moderating effect on this relation. By contrast, the search for new knowledge is hampered by the intrafirm network average path length. The geographic dispersion of inventors positively moderates this relation, whereas a firm’s alliance partner number negatively moderates this relation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the joint effect of intrafirm networks, inventors’ geographic locations and external alliances on the new knowledge-searching process. This study points out that new knowledge acquired through inventors’ geographic locations and alliance partners is internalized efficiently according to different types of internal networks.