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This paper aims to identify the combination of innovation determinants driving the creation of innovative products amongst market leaders and market followers in food and beverage (F&B) firms.

This research is based on the case study methodology by using two types of data sources: (1) semi-structured interviews with industry experts and (2) in-depth interviews with managers. In addition, a questionnaire adapted from prior research was used to consider market and firm types.

Suggesting an integrated theoretical framework based on firm-based factors and market-based factors, this study identified a combination of determinants significantly impacting innovative products in the market. Specifically, these determinants are competition intensity and innovation capability (a combination of research and development (R&D) investment and marketing capabilities). The study also examined how these determinants vary depending on whether the firms are market leaders or market followers.

This research provides practical insights for managers working in the F&B industry by using case studies and exploring the determinants of developing innovative products. In doing so, suitable strategies can be selected according to the market and firm situations.

The originality of the study is shown by focussing on how different combinations of market and firm factors could be applied in creating successful innovative products in the food sector.

This study examines current dynamics, consolidates current knowledge, elicits trends, identifies and analyzes primary research clusters, offers future directions, and develops an integrated framework for Product Advantage (PA) research.

Using the SCOPUS database, this study applied bibliometric analysis (208 articles) and conducted content analysis on the 35 curated articles selected using a combination of bibliographic coupling and the most cited articles.

This study presents the field’s publication trends, most relevant authors, articles, journals, and knowledge structures. It identifies six primary research themes and four major clusters using the thematic map and bibliographic coupling. Marketing and PA, New Product Development (NPD) and PA, Product Innovation and PA, and New product speed and PA are the main clusters. Finally, this study offers directions for future research and provides an integrated framework for PA research.

By developing an ADO framework of PA, the study offers key insights into how PA shapes product outcomes and identifies key antecedents of PA. Firms must focus on firm factors such as market and technological orientation; product factors, such as development time and pre-announcement proficiency; external factors, such as competition; and environmental factors, such as competitive intensity and technological turbulence. It enables firms to create products with high PA, shaping product outcomes and contributing to their competitive advantage.

This is the first study to conduct a two-stage sequential hybrid review of quality articles on PA. It offers an Antecedents-Decisions-Consequences (ADO) framework based on significant studies and offers cluster-wise directors for future research.

This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the industry practice to guide the formation of support tools with a rigorous theoretical backing. Cross-functional teams are an essential component in new product development (NPD) of complex products to promote comprehensive coverage of product design, marketing, sales, support as well as many other activities of business. Efficient use of teams can allow for greater technical competency coverage, increased creativity, reduced development times and greater consideration of ideas from a variety of stakeholders. While academics continually aspire to propose methods for improved team composition, there exists a gap between research directions and applications found within industry practice.

Through interviewing product development managers working across a variety of industries, this paper investigates the common practices of team utilization in an organizational setting. Following these interviews, this paper proposes a conceptual two-dimensional management support model aggregating the primary drivers of team success and providing direction to systematically address features of team management and composition.

Based on this work, product managers are recommended to continually address the positioning of members throughout the entire NPD process. In the early stages, individuals are to be placed to work on project components with explicit consideration toward the perceived complexity of tasks and individual competency. Throughout the development process, individuals’ positions vary based on new information while continued emphasis is placed on maintaining a shared understanding.

Bridging the gap between theory and application within product development teams is a necessary step toward improved product develop. Industrial settings require practical solutions that can be applied economically and efficiently within their organization. Theoretical reflections postulated by academia support improved team design; however, to achieve true success, they must be applicable when considering product development.

This study aims to explore how to overcome and address the loss of exploratory innovation, thereby achieving greater success in exploratory innovation. This phenomenon of loss occurs when enterprises decrease their investment in and engagement with exploratory innovation, ultimately leading to an insufficient amount of such innovation efforts. Drawing on dynamic capabilities, this study investigates the relationship between organizational foresight and exploratory innovation and examines the moderating role of breakthrough orientation/financial orientation.

This study used survey data collected from 296 Chinese high-tech companies in multiple industries and sectors.

The evidence produced by this study reveals that three elements of organizational foresight (i.e. environmental scanning capabilities, strategic selection capabilities and integrating capabilities) positively influence exploratory innovation. Furthermore, this positive effect is strengthened in the context of a high-breakthrough orientation. Moreover, the relationships among environmental scanning capabilities, strategic selection capabilities and exploratory innovation become weaker as an enterprise’s financial orientation increases, whereas a strong financial orientation does not affect the relationship between integrating capabilities and exploratory innovation.

Ambidexterity is key to successful enterprise innovation. Compared with exploitative innovation, it is by no means easy to engage in exploratory innovation, which is especially important in high-tech companies. While the loss of exploratory innovation has been observed, few empirical studies have explored ways to promote exploratory innovation more effectively. A key research implication of this study pertains to the role of organizational foresight in the improvement of exploratory innovation in the context of high-tech companies.

This paper contributes to the broader literature on exploratory innovation and organizational foresight and provides practical guidance for high-tech companies regarding ways of avoiding the loss of exploratory innovation and becoming more successful at exploratory innovation.

This paper aims to review the extant literature on open innovation and new product development (NPD) using bibliometric analysis to gauge the evolving journey of this concept in the domain of Business and Management.

The researcher used the Scopus database to search the relevant documents for bibliometric analysis. The data range was from 2006 till June 2023. Citation analysis, co-citation analysis and co-occurrence of authors' keywords were used for bibliometric analysis.

The paper charts the intellectual structure of literature related to open innovation and NPD. The five major themes emerge as prominent themes in the literature, i.e. Open Innovation: Conceptualization, Dynamic Capabilities and Competitive Advantages; Open Innovation: Contingencies and Possibilities; Co-creation and New Product Development (NPD); Open Innovation for Businesses: A Shifting Paradigm; and Implementing of Open Innovation in Industries: Cases. Besides this, the study also reveals the most influential authors, journals and countries in their contribution to open innovation and new product development. Future research directions are also presented.

The present study contributes on academic and managerial fronts. The study provides important insights contributing to the open innovation and NPD literature. From the organizational point of view, the study provides a detailed understanding of the concept of open innovation and NPD that can aid managers in acquiring a comprehensive knowledge of the concept before using it as a strategic intervention.

The present study identifies the gradual progression of this research area over time. It delineates key themes emerging from past literature, providing avenues for future research.

This study aims to investigate the effect of the virtual spokesperson type on the consumers' preference for new products. To meet the consumer needs of Generation Z, virtual spokespeople have become new assistants in brand marketing. However, how virtual spokespersons drive consumer preference for new products is minimally understood.

This research conducts three experiments to investigate the influence of virtual spokesperson type on consumers' preference for new products.

The research shows that, for radically new products, competent virtual spokespersons improve consumers' perception of self-efficacy and thus consumers' preference; for incrementally new products, warm virtual spokespersons improve consumers' perception of social connection and thus consumers' willingness to buy.

This study broadens research on brand spokespersons and virtual spokespersons. This research also enriches and expands research on the consideration of new product types in brand spokespersons.

The purpose of this study is to examine the underlying mechanisms of exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation between social media usage and organizational agility, and elucidate the moderating role of learning goal orientation (LGO) in the above relationships, based on adaptive structuration theory (AST).

Based on a multiple-respondent matched survey of 334 Chinese e-commerce firms, authors employed structural equation modeling to examine the correlations among social media usage, exploitative innovation, exploratory innovation and organizational agility. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the moderating role of LGO.

This study's empirical findings demonstrate that exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation mediate the relationship between social media usage and organizational agility in different ways. Further, LGO positively moderates the relationship between social media usage for customer acquisition and exploratory innovation, as well as the relationship between social media usage for customer relationship and exploitative innovation.

Firms are advised to leverage different types of social media usage to facilitate exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation and promote organizational agility. In addition, LGO within a firm should be established to enhance the effects of social media usage on exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation.

This study adds to the literature on social media usage by proposing and examining exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation as explanatory mechanisms to facilitate organizational agility. This study further identifies LGO as a boundary condition of social media usage's effect on exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation. By contextualizing social media as advanced information technology, this study contributes to the contextualization of AST in the social media context.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the moderating effect of digital transformation (DT) on the relationship between innovation capacity and the performance of agrifood businesses.

Based on a structured questionnaire, data on 98 agrifood small and medium-sized enterprises operating in Spain were collected. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling to test the proposed model and study the moderating effect of DT on the relationship between the innovation capacity and performance of agrifood businesses.

The study finds support for the hypotheses and shows the existence of a direct positive relationship between the DT and performance of agrifood businesses. Developing new practices focussed on customer service and performing actions such as improving sales, promoting a new product or service and including a post-sales service influence the capacity of a business to undertake DT.

Future studies should include other factors in the analysis. For example, the impact of knowledge transfer and research and development (R&D) on agrifood businesses' performance should be studied. Education and training, as well as having a diverse network, can help develop and boost businesses' capacity to use and apply the required innovation. Networks play an important role in learning how to apply DT.

This quantitative study is the first to examine the moderating effect of DT in the Spanish agrifood sector on the relationship between innovation capacity and performance. The study examines the role of the DT of companies and explores the competitiveness and efficiency tools that digitalisation offers. Innovation capacity is crucial for the application of these tools.

This research investigates the impact of strategic research and development (R&D) (one led by a firm’s innovation orientation) on stock market performance during the economic disruption caused by the 2016 demonetization of high-value currency notes in India. It shows how firms’ strategic focus on innovation and integrated R&D initiatives can help mitigate shareholders’ losses and protect market value during negative macroeconomic shocks.

We analyzed financial and administrative data from firms listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 500 index and used the Fama French market model with appropriate instruments accounting for possible endogeneity to identify the impact. To ensure the reliability of our findings, we conducted robustness checks with alternate event windows, estimation methods, and variable measurements.

Strategic R&D plays a crucial role in building resilience against macroeconomic shocks. It effectively mitigated shareholders’ losses in the immediate aftermath of the shock, with an elasticity of abnormal returns of 7.65% on day zero, 13.1% during the first five days and 10.5% after the first fortnight. We also find that firms that are business-to-business (B2B), as well as those that are older and less leveraged, are better able to combat such a shock.

The study looked at one shock, namely demonetization. Future research is needed to demonstrate the generalizability of results during other macroeconomic shocks, like the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on relatively near-term impacts, leaving the long-term value-creation effects of strategic R&D unexplored.

Innovation orientation acts as a structural enabler, allowing firms to make strategic R&D investments that mitigate losses during macroeconomic shocks. It explains that managers should avoid myopically managing R&D investments and align them with the firm’s innovation focus to enhance value creation.

While the currency demonetization was widely considered to be detrimental for firms as an unannounced negative monetary shock, our research shows that firms with high levels of strategic R&D were successfully able to counteract such a shock.

This is the first study to examine the short-term loss mitigation impact of firms’ focus on innovation and strategic R&D. It emphasizes the role of innovation-focused strategies during economic crises.

As sustainable performance has a central role in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) performance literature, this study aims to examine the influence of networking capabilities in enhancing sustainable performance through knowledge workers’ productivity and digital innovation. It also examines the sequential mediating role of knowledge workers’ productivity and digital innovation on networking capabilities and SMEs’ sustainable performance relationship.

Data were collected from 308 knowledge workers in the information technology sector and analyzed using the Hayes Process Macro bootstrapping method to test the proposed hypotheses.

Results indicate that knowledge workers’ productivity and digital innovation individually and sequentially mediate the relationship between networking capabilities and SME’s sustainable (economic and environmental) performance, surprisingly, they do not act as a mediator between networking capability and SME’s social performance. SMEs should prioritize investments in the professional development of their knowledge workers through training and skill enhancement programs. This investment equips knowledge workers with the tools to effectively use the knowledge and resources acquired through networking. Thus, knowledge workers may improve performance by using these resources to tackle challenges.

Although this research focused on this specific context, it is prudent to acknowledge that additional factors may also exert influence on sustainable performance within SMEs, factors that managers may consider when making decisions. Methodologically, the cross-sectional design of this research poses a potential limitation, as it does not allow for the complete elimination of endogeneity concerns. However, it is worth noting that scholars have endorsed the use of cross-sectional data in cases where management researchers aim to expand beyond well-documented and longitudinal data sets.

This research offers practical recommendations for SMEs to improve their sustainable performance through networking. SMEs should seek partnerships with complementary knowledge to improve operations and for other performance-oriented benefits.

This study adds significantly to the literature on sustainable SME performance by studying the interdependent effects of networking capabilities. It also represents the individual and sequential mediation mechanism that links networking capabilities to SME success through knowledge worker productivity and digital innovation.