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This study intends to examine the relationships between external knowledge sourcing (EKS), organizational ambidexterity (OA), and manufacturing performance (MP) in the context of large manufacturing firms within a dynamic environment setting. The research framework and derived hypotheses are grounded in the knowledge-based view (KBV) and dynamic capability (DC) theories.

A self-administered online survey was used in this study to gather data. Respondents were the operation leaders representing large manufacturing firms. The collected data were screened for invalid responses, and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

The study reveals that OA and EKS play key roles in achieving a better MP. Likewise, OA also mediates the relationship between EKS and MP.

Cross-sectional data were collected from large manufacturing firms within five focus sectors in Malaysia. A similar study can be conducted with more sectors of different contexts to confirm the findings.

Knowledge is critical for the firm to react to environmental dynamism, and the ability to manage it ambidextrously will enable the firm to enhance its performance.

This study offers empirical insights from the perspective of the large manufacturing firms in Malaysia, which are undergoing an Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) transformation. This study bridges the knowledge gap by revealing the value that EKS can facilitate MP, exploring OA as the prevalent factor and demonstrating how KBV and DC can be applied in this study.

This study focuses on resolving empirical inconsistencies in the relationship between external search breadth and innovation performance. Based on research on the knowledge-based view and innovation barriers, three internal barriers that weaken the effectiveness of external search breadth are discerned: information, rigidity and financial barriers.

For empirical analysis, the Korean Innovation Survey 2016 of manufacturing firms was utilized. This study defines innovation performance as the number of patent applications and new product introduction that are analyzed through zero-inflated negative binomial and logistic regressions, respectively.

The empirical analysis showed three findings. First, external search breadth has a positive relationship with the number of patent applications but not with new product introduction. Second, financial barrier weakens the positive association of external search breadth with the number of patent applications. Third, the interactions of external search breadth with the three internal barriers are negatively related to new product introduction.

This study makes two theoretical contributions. First, by examining barriers to external knowledge search, this research helps identify potential bottlenecks in this search. Second, the study reveals that the effectiveness of external search breadth may have a boundary in firm innovation by showing that this search affects patent application and new product introduction differently.

Drawing upon insights from knowledge-based theory and the learning perspective, this study aims to explore safeguarding strategies in open innovation. Geographic diversity and collaborative breadth can effectively protect proprietary innovations that limit knowledge leakage concerns.

Using a cross-industry sample from the Taiwanese Technological Innovation Survey III, which covered 1,519 firms, the authors investigate the conditions under which partnership portfolios affect radical innovation.

The findings suggest that the partnership portfolio has an inverted U-shaped influence on radical innovation and that this relationship is moderated by geographic diversity and collaborative breadth. This work identifies a balance in the tension between diverse partnership portfolios and knowledge leakage with regard to open innovation activities.

This study provides senior managers with an indication of the relationships between partnership portfolios and innovative knowledge protection, identifying the geographic diversity and collaborative breadth that serve as safeguards to prevent leakages of a firm’s innovative knowledge.

This study makes an original contribution to the empirical exploration of innovation knowledge protection and provides new insights into the field of open innovation. The authors, thus, balance the tension between partnership portfolios and knowledge leakage.

Current open innovation (OI) and external knowledge search (EKS) research primarily shows a positive linear relationship between EKS and innovation at an individual level. However, organizational scholarship argues that excessive EKS may harm innovation. This study combines the knowledge-based view (KBV) and attention-based view (ABV) to articulate a nonlinear theory of EKS and innovation at the individual level.

The authors constructed a multi-sourced dataset covering 59,798 USA pharmaceutical patents spanning from 1975 to 2014 and employed negative binomial fixed-effect models to examine theoretical hypotheses.

We find a significant concave curvilinear relationship between EKS and innovation quantity as well as innovation quality at an individual level. An individual’s knowledge breadth and depth moderate the relationship between EKS and innovation, such that the threshold at which EKS has diminishing returns for individual innovation is higher for inventors with a broad range of knowledge and those with deeper expertise in the domain where they are innovating.

Managers should guide inventors toward a moderate investment of time and effort in EKS and should caution against over searching. Besides, managers should recognize that an inventor’s capacity for EKS is determined in part by their breadth of knowledge across various domains as well as the depth of knowledge they have in the knowledge domain where they are innovating.

We provide both parties with a clearer understanding of when EKS can begin to deteriorate an individual’s innovation performance why that deterioration occurs, and we also highlight two individual-level knowledge characteristics to take into consideration when deciding when to cease the EKS process.

This study provides a novel holistic understanding of OI and knowledge management for policymakers and organizations to nourish innovation dynamism and make the best of knowledge stocks in the community, which in turn will create endless power for sustainable social change and inclusive development.

This study contributes to OI theory by highlighting the non-linear nature of the relationship between EKS and innovation on an individual level. This represents a fundamental shift in theory on EKS and individual innovation by suggesting a major rethinking of how the two concepts relate, revealing the dark side of EKS in knowledge management if inventors engage in excessive EKS. Likewise, our study’s incorporation of the ABV informs KBV scholarship by highlighting the role of the limited attentional capacity of individuals in firm knowledge management.

Firms are engaging in eco-innovation as a response to environmental concerns. Due to its complexity, firms are searching, absorbing and using externally acquired knowledge toward implementing eco-innovation. Thus, this study aims to examine how different external knowledge sources affect the eco-innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies.

The study uses an Ordered Probit regression analysis for 318 developing economy SMEs to examine the impact of vertical flows (suppliers and customers) and horizontal flows (competitors and scientific organisations) on eco-innovations.

On the vertical dimension, the results show that external knowledge from suppliers is positively associated with eco-product and eco-process innovations. However, external knowledge from customers is positively associated with eco-product innovation, but not eco-process innovation. On the horizontal dimension, external knowledge from competitors contributes to eco-process innovation, but not to eco-product innovation. Finally, external knowledge from scientific organizations is positively related to eco-product and eco-process innovations.

First, the study contributes to the external knowledge literature by focusing on developing country SMEs. Second, the methodology used in this study constitutes a novelty as it provides a tool that categorizes firms according to the extent of emphasis they placed on both eco-product and eco-process innovations. Finally, it offers new evidence by revealing that the effects of external knowledge on eco-innovations are differentiated and not equally beneficial to firms.

This research helps firms pursue an open innovation strategy but want to minimize competitive pressure from other external entities. A theoretical framework is constructed to analyze the impact of openness on innovation performance, exploring different effect of firms' external search channels.

This paper employs a stepwise hierarchical regression approach to assess the effect of openness on technological innovation considering the role of information technology adoption and political ties. The effect is conducted using a large-scale sample of 1,073 Chinese manufacturing firms over the period 2011–2013 as empirical research objects.

There are two stages of the open technological innovation process while the information technology (IT) adoption and political ties are the key consideration in emerging markets. Openness is curvilinearly (taking an inverted U-shape) related to innovation performance. Both information technology adoption and political ties generally help firms to turn broadly sourced external knowledge into technological innovation performance. This will stimulate “one plus one is greater than two” effect not only in the process of achieving performance goals, but also in the process of technological innovation.

This quantitative research illustrates the importance relationship between firms' open behaviors and technological innovation performance in emerging markets. It helps us understand firms' current constrains of open strategy of technological innovation and helps domestic or foreign investors to make strategic collaboration choices in emerging economies according to the degree of openness, informatization level, political connections, which is equally important for research and practice.

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 relationship between corporate culture and inbound open innovation (OI) has been limited to two sub-constructs: a culture for openness and an innovation culture, but until now a richer conceptualization of corporate culture is missing.

The authors apply Quinn and Rohrbaugh's (1983) competing values framework and regress these together with company internal and external control variables on five measures of inbound OI, reflecting product innovation, process innovation and the sourcing of innovation activities. The authors use data from a survey of more than 250 Swiss companies, primarily SMEs.

The importance of the firms' market environments suggests that the results are affected by the specific situation in which the firms found themselves at the time of the survey: after a strong currency shock, inbound OI activities seem to be a reaction to external pressure that favored planning and rule-oriented (formal) cultures to implement cost-cutting process innovations.

Companies should develop a vision and a strategy, ensure open and transparent communication, have suitable reward and support mechanisms in place, adjust structures and processes, and institutionalize and formalize any change whenever they are confronted with a situation that requires a quick reaction and an adjustment to their degree of openness.

The paper clarifies the relationship between cultural traits and inbound OI, using a well-established understanding of corporate culture and differentiating between innovation types. It points to the importance of the external environment in order to understand the role of culture.

This study aims to investigate how international entrepreneurial firms (IEFs) successfully commercialise innovative products/services internationally. In doing so, the authors examined the role played by the international dynamic marketing capability (IDMC) in the relationship between explorative and exploitative innovation and commercialisation. In addition, the authors also evaluated how the breadth and depth of international networks facilitate IEFs in upholding the effects of the IDMC to influence commercialisation.

To test the research model, structural equation modelling is used based on time-lagged survey data drawn from 201 Malaysian IEFs. To validate the results, additional robustness tests and endogeneity analyses have been performed.

The findings show that the IDMC positively mediates the relationship between explorative and exploitative innovation and commercialisation. Furthermore, the finding exhibits that the effects of the IDMC on commercialisation are positively moderated by the breadth and depth of international networks.

Given the fragmented and general nature of the extant marketing research on the IDMC, the study contributes to the international marketing literature by providing rich and nuanced pertinent knowledge. This study advances dynamic capability theory in relation to IEFs by establishing the IDMC as a functional capability suited to enable them to successfully commercialise the products/services resulting from explorative and exploitative 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.