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Absorptive capacity (AC), the ability to leverage external knowledge for innovation, helps explain the mixed findings on family firms' (FFs) innovation performance. Our research focuses on the chief executive officer (CEO)’s role – whether family or non-family and founding or later generation – in influencing AC. We also explore how firm size and environmental dynamism affect these relationships, offering insights into varying AC levels among FFs.

Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models were estimated to test the hypotheses using a sample of 364 FFs in Spain.

FFs’ AC is greater when the CEO is a family member, and even more so when the family CEO belongs to the founding family generation. While AC diminishes in larger FFs, this effect is mitigated when the CEO is a family member. The predicted moderating effect of environmental dynamics is not supported by the analyses.

This paper adds insights about the drivers of heterogeneity in innovation among FFs, addressing recent calls for more nuanced views of how family members drive the strategic behavior of the business and incorporating considerations of different types of FFs based on the identity of the firm CEO. The results overall support the theoretical claims and also open up important questions for future studies.

Innovation goes beyond creation, concentrating on enhancement, which is essential for advancement. Since 1998, the European Journal of Innovation Management (EJIM) has been a leading forum dedicated to thought leadership and research on the advances in innovation management. Given that EJIM has run over two decades, the time is now opportune to reflect on the journal's contributions to innovation management. Thus, this paper aims to retrospectively review the productivity, impact and knowledge of innovation management research in EJIM.

This paper adopts a bibliometric methodology to engage in a retrospective review of EJIM. The bibliographic data of 757 papers published in EJIM from 1998 to 2021 were retrieved from Scopus and analyzed using performance analysis and science mapping techniques.

The productivity (publication) and impact (citation) of innovation management research curated by EJIM have grown prolifically over time. Though EJIM operates with a European title, the journal receives and publishes contributions worldwide (e.g. Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania). Noteworthily, the knowledge of innovation management research in EJIM can be divided into four categories: basic themes (general), which comprise innovation, open innovation, new product development and product and process innovation; motor themes (well-developed), which consist of organizational culture and innovation and leadership and creativity; niche themes (very specialized), which include dynamic capabilities and business model innovation; and emerging or declining themes (weakly developed or marginalized), which is made up of research and development (R&D) and green innovation.

This paper offers a seminal retrospection of EJIM and the journal's productivity, impact and contribution to innovation management.

This paper aims to conduct a tertiary review to analyse the state of the art of literature reviews on knowledge management (KM) published in academic journals and provide an overview of their evolution. From 2000 to 2022, about 500 reviews have been published in the KM field, with most systematic studies compared to bibliometric or meta-analytic studies, and an absence of previous tertiary studies. Therefore, given the lack of previous tertiary research, this paper provides a complete picture of the evolution of review topics in the past and presents implications for both researchers and practitioners.

A classification scheme was defined to cluster and evaluate the literature reviews, both in terms of methodological approach and content. Regarding the content, the various secondary papers were classified according to the purpose of the research (state of the art, taxonomy, research agenda and research framework), the unit of analysis (small and medium enterprise, large company, start-up and university), the KM models adopted and the thematic areas addressed. Furthermore, a tertiary review methodology was identified integrating two main approaches: a bibliometric approach for cluster identification and a systematic approach for the discussion.

Two categories of contributions emerge from the results: those concerning research topics that have found a continuous interest over time and those that have not yet found a constant research interest. This latter aspect is relevant to help researchers conduct future literature analysis in KM research to bridge existing research gaps.

This paper provides a unique compendium of search directions to offer a comprehensive overview of the scientific debate about KM. This overview can also be used as a managerial panacea to identify best KM practice guidelines from existing reviews.

This is a unique attempt to conduct a tertiary study on KM for more than two decades by providing insights into the structural body of knowledge through academic progress in the subject of KM. Thus, this study expands the field of KM and provides original approaches for research in the field.

This paper conceptually aims to discuss the dual role of knowledge management (KM) and technological innovation, which brings about innovations, although it can be limited by psychological and emotional ownership.

This study examines the real impact of the paper on KM and technological innovation in family small to medium enterprises (FSMEs). This is a unique context affected by psychological and emotional ownership. However, COVID-19 has forced FSMEs to consider new strategies and practices to preserve their competitive advantage.

In this scenario, knowledge exchange, knowledge absorption and technology adoption appear relevant to the innovation process. This study offers a framework for how the duality of KM and technological innovation affects innovation.

Although extant research has explored technological innovation outcomes, a literature review reveals that accumulated studies on the drivers of technological innovation and KM in the context of FSMEs require further inquiry. Family members’ emotional ownership may foster KM because identification with organizational goals enhances individuals’ willingness to access and share information and stimulates new products and technological development.

Unicorn companies, such as Facebook, Uber, and Airbnb, significantly impact our economies. This happens although they had a dramatic initial start – at least in terms of financial performance – that would have let any other “conventional” business close. In other words, Unicorns challenge the start-ups’ problems traditionally associated with early failure (liability of newness). This paper aims to understand what helps Unicorn firms initially survive despite huge losses.

By adopting a behavioral lens, this historical case study article focuses on key strategic decisions regarding the famous social media Unicorn Snapchat from 2011 to 2022. The case combines secondary data and a thematic analysis of Snapchat founders’ and investors’ interviews/comments to identify the behavioral antecedents leading to Snapchat’s honeymoon.

Snapchat network effect triggered cognitive biases of Snapchat founders’ and investors’ decisions, leading them to provide initial assets (i.e. beliefs/goodwill, trust, financial resources and psychological commitment) to the nascent Unicorn. Therefore, the network effect and biases resulted in significant antecedents for Snapchat’s honeymoon.

The authors propose a general, theoretical framework advancing the possible impact of biases on Unicorns’ initial survival. The authors argue that some biases of the Unicorns’ founders and investors can positively support a honeymoon period for these new ventures. This is one of the first case studies drawing on a behavioral approach in general and on biases in particular to investigate the liability of newness in the Unicorns’ context.

The paper aims to investigate the role of the network in managing the tradition and innovation paradox in the agribusiness industry. In particular, this study aims to demonstrate that agribusiness firms can innovate through tradition by joining a network, to capture the way intellectual capital (IC) is created, shared and transformed.

The authors approached the study using the social capital conceptual framework, considering the network a critical determinant of social capital, which enhances the organization's ability to share, create and utilize knowledge. Then, the authors also employed the extended territorial strategy theory. The authors derived empirical evidence from companies belonging to the PGI-labeled Consortium of Pasta di Gragnano (Consortium). The authors used a quantitative approach, carrying out a panel data analysis.

The results suggested that belonging to Consortium had a positive impact on the operating performance, the financial performance and the environment where consortium firms operate. Thus, being part of a network helps firms to innovate in a traditional industry.

The evidence of this work provided several implications for managers, IC community and the policy public. For managers, the authors observed that agribusiness firms can preserve their traditions through knowledge sharing with firms that operate in the same network. For IC community, the authors contributed to the debate on the social capital theory, arguing that the one area of IC that has received significant attention is the role of the network, which enhances the organization's ability to generate, share and apply knowledge effectively (Lin, 2017; Solitander and Tidström, 2010). Finally, the authors argued that policymakers should implement new reforms that facilitate the formation of networks, especially in socio-economic contexts where the unemployment rate is high.

This is the first study that employs quantitative analysis to investigate this paradox.

This research focuses on the relationship between Top Management Team heterogeneity (TMT) and University Spin-Offs (USOs) economic performance according to a micro-foundational perspective. The purpose consists in exploring whether a high academic representation in TMTs may improve USOs’ performance and how their competencies and backgrounds affect USOs’ economic success.

The authors employed data from the Italian platform Netval to identify the entire population of USOs in southern Italy. They selected both pure and hybrid spin-offs that had at least one academic member on the TMT. Applying these conditions to our sample selection, the authors came to a population of 136 firms. They applied a hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

Our main findings reveal that the USOs’ economic performance improves with more academicians in the TMT and even in the same scientific field. Our data also shows that CEO duality has a negative impact on economic performance.

This work takes for the first time a micro-foundational perspective to analyze individual-level factors that affect USOs’ performance. The authors tried to bridge a research gap in the USO literature, shedding light on the relationship between TMT composition and new venture performance, considering some significant interactions between team members. Our expected findings also contribute to the general literature on entrepreneurial teams in new ventures and suggest a means to reconcile some inconsistent literature results on TMT heterogeneity and USO performance.