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Several studies show that identity is a critical success factor in design-intensive industries, leading managers and executives to identify solutions that enable firms to simultaneously innovate while preserving their link with the past. Accordingly, scholars have recently revealed the role of the so-called innovation through tradition strategy. Thus, the purpose of this study/paper is to understand how design intensive firms may exploit knowledge pertaining to the past.

The research contributes to this line of inquiry by conducting a longitudinal analysis of two leading Italian design-intensive firms, B&B Italia and Cassina S.p.A. Specifically, through almost 30 h of interviews with 11 key informants and the analysis of various secondary sources, a unique database of over 900 products covering the period of 1960-2016 was developed.

The findings reveal that both firms leverage knowledge from the past mainly to preserve firm identity, as indicated by the two indicators used to capture the use of knowledge pertaining to the past (i.e., design tradition intensity and design tradition depth). In addition, the study shows that the values of these indicators significantly increase when ownership control shifts from family-based to fund-based.

The paper looks at design artifacts as a source of knowledge, exploring how they can support firms in reinforcing their identity. The original contribution to the design through traditional literature is in unveiling the product signs dimension of this particular innovation strategy.

The authors propose and test a theoretical framework that develops and analyzes precursors to firm acquisitions to determine if acquirers differ from other firms.

The authors use longitudinal, archival data from a sample of the largest firms in the global pharmaceutical industry from 1991 to 2012 with 1,327 firm-year observations.

The authors integrate prior research to show that the firm characteristics involving (1) R&D investment, (2) prior experience and (3) network centrality influence the likelihood that a firm will complete an acquisition.

In contrast to research focusing on the performance of acquiring firms, the authors show that firm characteristics predict acquisition activity by highlighting that acquiring firms differ from other firms. The authors also develop how network synergies can be realized by acquirers that have information advantages from more central network positions.

The purpose of this study is to showcase that the valuation of startups is still considered to be more “art than science”. Moreover, such non-rigorous approaches often lead to valuations, which turn out to be too high, which in turn has become a well-known phenomenon to a broader audience due to shining examples such as We Work. This is reason enough to revisit the important topic of where we stand today with startup valuation procedures and methodologies.

Literature synthesis and exploratory analysis.

While some studies describe sound results about how to assess startups, what the authors found was that many questions remain open or have not been covered at all. This is the reason why the authors needed to apply a substantial amount of reasoning in the analysis of studies, which do not exactly deal with startup companies. The authors provided some interesting impulses for future research.

Based on an original overview of the current state of research about the valuation of startup companies, this paper makes the following principal contribution to both the literature and practice: on the one hand, the authors assess four impact factors on startup values critically; on the other, the authors provide an outlook on promising future research avenues.

This paper aims to determine what the brand performance consequences of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities would be during times of recession for well-known brands.

Based on signaling theory, this paper investigates if CSR activities serve to signal higher brand value for consumers via perceptions of better quality and greater differentiation, specifically during recessions. This study incorporates a representative longitudinal sample of known US firms for the analyses, which is accomplished through generalized method of moments estimations.

The findings empirically demonstrate that CSR initiatives during recessions are actually associated with increased perceptions of brand value. More specifically, during recessions, CSR initiatives such as charitable contributions provide a signal to customers of higher brand quality.

This study did not control for the costs of doing specific CSR activities that may be less visible to consumers.

While individual firms or managers may not be able to prevent recessions from happening, they can limit the negative impact of recessions on their performance by engaging in CSR activities (or refrain from cutting back) during these times.

Because CSR initiatives during recessions result in more favorable consumer perceptions of the brand, engaging in CSR aligns both social and managerial interests, owing to the economic gains from CSR investments.

During times of recession, some critics indicate that CSR may be an unaffordable luxury. On the contrary, this research shows that managers may want to consider CSR activities as a means of increasing the value of their brands, especially during economic recessions.

This paper aims to study whether Peruvian manufacturing firms that implement innovation have positive performance and whether R&D activities moderate these relationships.

Using a data set of Peruvian manufacturing firms from the 2018 National Survey of Innovation, a LOGIT model analysis was applied to 774 companies. In addition, the authors fitted different models into subsamples to explore the moderating effects of R&D on manufacturing firms. Finally, the regression models were computed using R software.

The results indicate that product, service and marketing innovation are associated positively with an increase in market share, while process and organizational innovations are associated positively with productivity. Moreover, companies with R&D are more productivity-oriented than companies without R&D.

This study contributes to the literature on innovation management by supporting the assumption that innovation results in increased productivity and expands market demand. In addition, findings highlight that R&D is essential for boosting firms’ productivity.

Managers should consider an appropriate combination of the innovation portfolio and R&D investments to make progress and increase performance in the company. In addition, policymakers should consider that investments to promote the development of R&D activities in manufacturing companies will likely lead to médium- or long-term returns.

The correct use of indicators to measure these relationships could help the policymaker to design and measure policy instruments more efficiently.

These results provide a deeper understanding of how the effects of innovations implemented by manufacturing firms, especially service and process innovation, improve their performance.

The purpose of the current study is to illustrate the importance of strategic agility (SA), the capacity to respond agilely to a rapidly changing environment, for digitally transforming firms during the COVID-19 crisis. A secondary purpose of the study is to conceptually frame SA as a function of the creative to realized intangible capital (IC) ratio.

To inferentially corroborate the hypothesis, this study exploits the results of a recent firm-level survey, conducted under the H2020 project GlobalInto (2021). Via OLS and ordered logistic regressions, the relationship among SA, economic performance and IC was tested.

The exploratory findings implied that the more strategically agile companies were those that responded more effectively to the pandemic crisis, but only if they were ahead in terms of digital transformation. Moreover, the results implied that firms that were able to efficiently convert their creative IC into realized IC were the most strategically agile.

This study developed a new conceptual framework for digitally transforming firms that included the role of SA and the IC conversion ratio in the context of extreme threats to the survival of firms. Some preliminary practical recommendations were offered to management about how to measure the IC conversion ratio as well as how to stimulate and reward greater creativity among employees, filling a notable gap in the SA literature that provides less than precise guidance about how this concept can be measured.

The ongoing business dynamics show two aspects for generating innovation: first, high-impact innovations are developed jointly by several actors, such as universities, enterprises, and governments. Second, startups are better suited to develop innovation during crises or periods of low growth as experienced at the moment. Based on these aspects and drawing on the constructs of the triple helix, this study analyzes the influence between the characteristics of the actors on the quality of the startup ecosystem from a global view.

The study examines the cross-section data of 35 countries between 2017 and 2018 and applies the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for assessing the relationships between the triple helix on the quality of the startup ecosystem on a country-level.

The findings suggest that each actor of the triple helix individually does not positively affect the quality of the startup ecosystem. Yet, when analyzing the actors jointly by creating a second-order latent variable (i.e. triple helix), the study found out that in this way, the triple helix construct has a positive effect on the quality of the startup ecosystem.

Although a large body of prior literature indicates the importance of generating interrelationships among the different entities involved in ecosystems, few studies provide empirical evidence from a global perspective of the need for these entities to act in an overlapping manner. The present study supports previous research and reinforces the importance of the triple helix for a more innovative environment.

This study aims to investigate how dynamic tensions between performance measurement system (PMS) uses enable organizations to achieve both exploitation and exploration and enhance firm performance.

The authors collected survey data on 153 Italian companies. Scales for each construct were validated through an exploratory factor analysis. Data on firm performance were cross-validated by using lagged accounting data. The authors tested our hypotheses using hierarchical ordinary least squares regressions, together with bootstrapping procedures for the test on mediation.

A diagnostic use of PMS has a positive association with both exploitation – e.g. reductions in total costs and lead times – and exploration, e.g. introduction of new products and extension of product ranges. The dynamic tension created by a joint diagnostic and interactive use has the strongest association with organizational ambidexterity, measured as the multiplicative interaction between exploration and exploitation.

If an organization or business unit is mainly pursuing exploitative goals, a mainly diagnostic use of PMS would be most suitable. If goals are both exploitative and explorative, a mix of diagnostic and interactive uses would be most effective.

This research helps reconcile conflicting views in the literature. The diagnostic use of PMS, far from acting as a “negative force,” appears to be necessary to guide opportunity search and to establish an appropriate scope for exploration-related activities. The authors’ focus on the uses of PMSs shows that ambidexterity is achieved through managerial capability, rather than just through the introduction of systems and structures.

This study, a conceptual paper, aims an answer the question, how significant cluster ambidexterity is for the resilience of individual clusters.

The authors draw up an abductive synopsis of empirical information and relevant theoretical sources. A case study is used to illustrate some of the findings.

The results of the analysis show that the ambidexterity of a cluster can contribute to its resilience when adverse external developments arise. Ambidexterity proves to be simultaneously a common strategy of key cluster actors and a mechanism for coping with critical situations and developments that can be activated by the cluster actors and may – eventually – lead to cluster resilience. While ambidexterity does not guarantee cluster survival, it can contribute significantly to their economic resilience under adverse conditions.

The concept is developed on a limited empirical basis and would need to be tested and deepened by comparing a wide range of case studies from different clusters.

A better understanding of the importance of ambidexterity for the development of industrial clusters contributes to a better fine-tuning of cluster support policies.

Ambidexterity as a concept originating from business administration has so far only been rudimentarily tapped for empirical and theoretical cluster research. The paper identifies and develops a path how this could be accomplished to a greater extent in the future.

Despite best intentions, mergers and acquisitions often do not live up to the expectations for performance. This study examined how the salience of multiple identities creates dynamics in postmerger integration processes and how these dynamics influence the acquisition of the target's capabilities.

The authors conducted an in-depth case study of a large American consumer goods multinational corporation's acquisition of a family-owned German beauty business and examined responses to decisions and events during the postmerger integration process.

The results show how and why efforts to acquire unique target capabilities might not deliver the hoped-for results. The authors discovered multiple identities that became salient during the postmerger integration process which subsequently influenced interpretations and reactions to decisions and events and which created intergroup dynamics. The authors also noted the role of language in making these identities salient. Such dynamics pose challenges to managing the postmerger integration process and to acquiring sought after capabilities.

This study reveals how different identities become salient in the interpretation of particular events and decisions, resulting in emotional and behavioral reactions and intergroup dynamics. Furthermore, it uncovers the role of language in making identities salient. This study offers further insight into identity dynamics when the capability of the target firm is the motive of the acquisition.