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The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of outsourcing new product development (NPD), and specifically of factors affecting the outsourcing decisions, by exploring the practices of the most innovative firms.

The paper draws on an internet‐based survey sent in winter 2008 to 494 medium‐sized firms in four industries which achieved a 77.3 percent response rate. The sample is split into the best firms and the rest, and a best practice analysis is performed with correlation analysis.

The best firms focus on knowledge issues to a higher extent, while cost and geographical proximity are more important for the rest firms. The best firms prioritize knowledge integration and development of knowledge about the outsourcing process higher.

The sample is taken from medium‐sized Swedish manufacturing firms. Future samples need to be expanded to further generalize the conclusions. Results show that further research combining resource and cost perspectives is needed.

Managers are recommended to not only find access to needed knowledge, but also give time to integration on a personal level, as this protects knowledge and lowers costs in the long‐run.

Studies of outsourcing NPD are few and, to the authors’ knowledge, no quantitative studies on the topic have been made.

The construction sector is often accused of being inefficient, conservative and non-innovative, although some commentators have suggested that the construction sector is not backward, it is merely different to other industries. One of these differences is the uniqueness of construction projects, which are determined by the characteristics of the site, interaction of project participants (also partly site specific) and the relationship between contractors and building product producers (which changes from one project to another). These factors are known to colour construction innovation. Previous research into the Swedish construction sector has identified a significant gap between the building product producers who are ‘product focused’ and the contractors who are ‘project focused’, with concerns expressed about effectiveness of communication between two. The findings of previous research imply, both implicitly and explicitly, that this gap may be hindering innovation within the construction sector. This appears to have implications for those concerned with construction, the building users and society as a whole. In this paper the authors provide an extensive review of the literature and research findings from which a number of unique insights are offered. The reasons for the gap between producers and contractors are discussed and a number of innovative measures are proposed that may help to bridge the gap, and hence improve innovation systems. The paper concludes with some practical findings for producers and contractors as well as some thoughts on where future research should be targeted.

Research has indicated that small and medium sized firms (SMEs) play an important role in the growth of the economy. However, in order to be able to compete at an international level, most SMEs are bound to work in alliances in order to gather enough knowledge and resources for product and technology development or to be able to penetrate a larger market. Alliances can be formed with different types of actors (i.e., suppliers, customers, agents, universities, consultancies); in the alliance, information and knowledge are gathered and created. Information is defined as "knowledge that can be transmitted without loss of integrity," which includes facts, axiomatic propositions, and symbols. This knowledge can be categorized as domain-specific, procedural, or general. In the present study, a case approach is used to investigate how different types of information and knowledge generated through distributed product development are integrated into the firm, what methods are used, and some conclusions on what methods are more successful for each type of information or knowledge. Results indicate a very high representation of formal information sharing (document exchange) even if there is a high degree of agreement among the respondents that personal meetings and continuous information sharing would be better if they had a system for this. Therefore, the conclusions should lead to systems that address the above problems.

The study, which compares the success factors for eco‐innovations with those factors for other innovations, is intended to improve understanding of how eco‐innovations achieve market success.

A case study design is used. Six eco‐innovations cases and six other innovations cases are compared. Data were obtained mainly from interviews with the eco‐innovators and the other innovators, written materials about the innovations, and secondary data from an earlier quantitative study.

The study shows that there are both similarities and differences in the success factors for the two types of innovations. One similarity is that a network with diverse competences supports successful innovators. However, for eco‐innovators the network is used more for solving technological problems. Other innovators use the network to a greater extent for assistance with financing and marketing. In addition, eco‐innovators have greater difficulty than other innovators in attracting venture capital for development.

The results indicate that an interesting approach for future research would be to take a life‐cycle perspective that identifies the factors that influence the further growth and development of eco‐innovative firms.

The identification of the success factors for eco‐innovations' development may improve their chances of success. Furthermore, the results can help policy‐makers improve the support system for commercialization of eco‐innovations.

As a comparative study of success factors for eco‐innovations and other innovations, the study presents a new way to identify such factors for eco‐innovators.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between HRM practices and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in large established firms. More specifically, the purpose is to add to the understanding of the influence of HRM practices on EO.

An e-mail survey was distributed to a sample of Swedish and German manufacturing firms in high-tech and medium high-tech manufacturing industries, and firms in knowledge-intensive services sectors, with more than 250 employees. In total, 810 surveys were distributed, with a response rate of 12.7 per cent.

The results show that an emphasis on entrepreneurial aspects leads to an increased EO only in the case of training and development. A conclusion therefore is that it seems difficult to recruit personnel or to use appraisal and rewards as to create EO on a firm level.

The study indicates that firms aiming to increase their EO should make sure to emphasize entrepreneurial aspects during staff training and development activities.

This empirical study paves the way towards a better understanding of the link between HRM practices and EO. The results should be of interest for both HR professionals and researchers interested in understanding this important relationship.

This paper aims to explore the impact of enterprise niche on dual innovation performance and the moderating role of innovation openness on the relationship between enterprise niche and dual innovation performance.

This study uses the panel data of the enterprise technology patents of China's Top 100 Electronic Information Enterprises from 2009 to 2018. Multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

Niche width has a significant positive impact on exploitative and exploratory innovation performance. Niche overlap has an inverted U-shaped effect on exploitative innovation performance and significantly positively affects exploratory innovation performance. Innovation openness negatively moderates the impact of niche width on exploitative innovation performance and positively moderates the impact of niche overlap on exploitative innovation performance.

This study provides new insights into the effects of enterprise niche on dual innovation performance by showing the moderating role of innovation openness. The study finds a strategic logic of moderate niche overlap, clarifies the innovative effect of different innovation openness modes and reveals the construction and management mechanisms of enterprise niche and innovation openness strategy.