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Despite the rising interest in eco-innovation, few studies have examined how open innovation (OI) actually increases eco-innovation performance. Drawing on capabilities theory, this study aims to investigate how two specific organizational capabilities (alliance management capability and absorptive capacity) individually complement OI strategies (inbound and outbound) to increase eco-innovation performance, while taking into consideration high and low levels of environmental uncertainty.

To test the hypotheses, the authors used a primary survey and secondary proxy data sources from 232 Taiwan-based manufacturing firms. The authors collected survey data for measuring OI strategies, followed by secondary proxy data for measuring alliance management capability, absorptive capacity, environmental uncertainty and eco-innovation performance.

The results indicate that in highly dynamic environments, alliance management capability complements inbound/outbound strategies to increase eco-innovation performance. However, absorptive capacity complements only inbound strategies, not outbound strategies.

These findings have important implications for managers attempting to increase eco-innovation performance by using OI in dynamic environments.

The findings provide new evidence that configurations of OI alone are not enough for increasing eco-innovation performance. Instead, firms’ eco-innovation benefits more when OI are complemented by alliance management capability.

This study makes an original contribution to the eco-innovation literature by demonstrating how organizational capabilities complement OI to increase eco-innovation performance in dynamic environments.

Prior research on supply chain management has advanced substantially our understanding of how suppliers’ knowledge affects manufacturers’ green innovation. However, overlooking the suppliers’ diverse green knowledge in supplier networks, namely, green knowledge diversity, has limited our understanding of both supply chain management and green innovation development. To address this important issue, this study aims to rely on social network theory as the overarching framework and knowledge-based view as the underlying theoretical foundation to examine how green knowledge diversity contributes to manufacturers’ green innovation performance, while considering three types of supplier network properties (network strength, network heterogeneity and network density).

This study collects both survey and secondary proxy data from 209 manufacturing firms over three time periods (mid-2018, mid-2019 and mid-2020). PROCESS macro is applied to test the research hypotheses.

The results provide compelling evidence that green knowledge management processes partially mediate the effect of green knowledge diversity on manufacturers’ green innovation performance. The effect of green knowledge diversity is strengthened by supplier network strength and supplier network heterogeneity, but hindered by supplier network density.

This study provides a practical guide to help manufacturers enhance green innovation performance by properly managing and leveraging their suppliers’ diverse green knowledge domains in supplier networks.

This study contributes to the supply chain management and green innovation literature by offering novel theoretical and empirical insights into how manufacturers can use their supplier networks to strengthen green innovation.

Drawing on the resource-based view, this paper aims to extend prior information technology (IT) B2B service research by building and empirically testing a theoretical model in which organizational agility mediates the relationship between organizational capabilities (IT capability and organizational learning) and service innovation performance, under conditions of entrepreneurial alertness.

The theoretical hypotheses are confirmed by partial least squares analysis of survey responses collected from 170 IT B2B service firms.

The results reveal that the effect of either IT capability or organizational learning on service innovation performance is fully mediated by organizational agility, and organizational agility has a greater impact on service innovation performance under a high level of entrepreneurial alertness than under a low level.

The results of this study provide specific managerial guidelines for how to effectively manage organizational mechanisms to enhance IT B2B service innovation performance.

This study contributes to the literature of service innovation, IT B2B (industrial) marketing and dynamic capability by providing theory-driven and empirically proven explanations to help managers better understand the IT capability-service innovation relationship from the perspective of organizational mechanisms (organizational agility, organizational learning and entrepreneurial alertness).

Prior research on business analytics has advanced substantially our understanding of how social media analytics affect business performance. However, the specific value of social media analytics to product innovation has not been fully explored and appreciated. To address this important issue, the present study draws on the resource-based view and the knowledge-based view to examine (1) whether the use of social media analytics strengthens radical product innovation to a greater extent than it does incremental product innovation and (2) how knowledge-exploration competence and knowledge-exploitation competence mediate the influence of social media analytics on radical and incremental product innovation.

This study tested the proposed model using data collected from 205 manufacturing firms. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the research hypotheses using LISREL 8.80 software program.

The statistical findings provide compelling evidence that the use of social media analytics is more likely to lead to radical product innovation than to incremental product innovation. In addition, knowledge-exploration competence only partially mediates the relationship between social media analytics and radical product innovation. Knowledge-exploitation competence not only partially mediates such a relationship, but also fully mediates the link between social media analytics and incremental product innovation.

This study contributes to the social media analytics and innovation literature by offering novel theoretical and empirical insights into how firms can leverage the value of social media analytics to create superior product innovation.

Building on the socio-cultural theory and the climate literature, the purpose of this paper is to examine: how to effectively manage computer-mediated platforms to improve innovation performance, and which types of computer-mediated platforms firms should be more involved with.

The multivariate mediated regression method and relative effect analysis were employed to test the model.

Analyses reveal that online creative climate mediates the effects of the perceived innovation policy on both novelty and meaningfulness of creative behaviors. In addition, online creative climate is positively related to both radical and incremental innovation performance. Further, the relative performance results of the four types of computer-mediated platforms are found to be unequal.

The results suggest to managers that establishing creative climates in computer-mediated platforms is a promising approach to improve firms’ innovation performance. The results further indicate that managers should acknowledge the advantages and limitations of each type of computer-mediated platform in order to increase innovation performance. Otherwise, firms may misallocate resources and investment efforts in computer-mediated platforms.

By categorizing computer-mediated platforms into four types, this study provides the first synthesis of personal interactions that occur in computer-mediated environments. This study presents the first empirical assessment of how creative climate can be used as a facilitator for improving innovation performance and which type of computer-mediated platforms is more appropriate for radical or incremental innovations.

While service scholars have generally supported the idea that service modularity enhances firm performance, the literature offers very little evidence of the actual process through which service modularity continuously contributes to firm performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the link from a capability perspective: service modularity capabilities-service modularity-new service advantage-firm performance, as well as the moderating role of radical innovation capability in the effect of service modularity on new service advantage.

To examine this link, data were collected from a cross-industry survey of 231 leading service firms. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical moderated regression analyses were employed to test the model.

Analyses reveal that new service advantage mediates the service modularity-firm performance relationship. Moreover, service modularity capabilities act in an important antecedent role to configure service modularity. Among the findings, it is worth emphasizing that radical innovation capability not only strengthens the positive effect of, but also alleviates the negative effect of, service modularity on new service advantage.

This study provides a more complete understanding of how service modularity enhances firm performance by discovering the hidden role of new service advantage that bridges service modularity and firm performance, clarifying the role of service modularity capabilities in configuring service modularity, and confirming the important role of radical innovation capability in sustaining the effectiveness of service modularity.

Drawing on complementarity theory, the purpose of this study is to posit that social media use enhances the effect of supplier involvement on new product development (NPD) performance, while two key firm capabilities further enhance the moderating effect of social media use: market and technological knowledge-processing capabilities.

To test the hypotheses, the authors used a longitudinal survey of 367 firms, from seven major manufacturing industries: information technology (22.1 per cent), automotive industry (19.6 per cent), chemicals (18.2 per cent), textiles (13.3 per cent), machinery (12.5 per cent), energy (10.1 per cent) and others (4.1 per cent).

The results support the expectation that social media use and two firm capabilities (market and technological knowledge-processing capabilities) enhance the effect of supplier involvement on NPD performance in terms of product innovativeness, market performance and financial performance. Interestingly, post-hoc analyses indicate that supplier involvement has an inverted U-shaped relationship with product innovativeness. In addition, social media use not only strengthens the positive effect of, but also alleviates the negative effect of, supplier involvement in product innovativeness.

The findings of this study provide new evidence that supply chain members’ use of social media better enables them to enhance their innovation performance with supplier involvement.

This study provides practical direction to help manufacturing managers enhance innovation performance outcomes of supplier involvement.

This study makes an original contribution to the supply chain literature by empirically demonstrating the key enablers that increase the efficacy of supplier involvement.

Despite extensive published research into the relationship between open innovation (OI) activities and performance, the nature and direction of the relationship remain inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship as to how firms’ inbound and outbound OI activities, as well as their interaction influence incremental and radical innovation performance. The authors also consider the potentially mediating roles of knowledge learning and organizational capabilities in such a relationship.

To investigate this relationship, data were collected from a cross-industry survey of 304 leading Taiwanese-based firms. Three-stage least square analysis was employed to test the model.

Analyses reveal that knowledge learning and organizational capabilities mediate the OI activities-innovation performance relationship. In addition, a firm focussing on inbound activities enhances its radical innovation performance, but hinders its incremental innovation performance, while focussing on outbound activities produces the opposite effects. Among the findings, it is worth emphasizing that the effect of the interaction between inbound and outbound activities on innovation performance can be counter-productive.

The findings demonstrate that existing studies only partially explain the effects of OI activities on innovation performance. Understanding how OI activities influence innovation performance will facilitate more informed decision making, leading to more effective use of OI activities.

The results suggest that managers need to consider knowledge learning and organizational capabilities in order to fully capture the potential effects of OI activities. Managers also need to be aware of the limitations of OI activities.

The theoretical model presented here offers a timely contribution to the theory base underpinning the development of OI activities for innovation performance.

This study aims to examine the roles of dynamic innovation capabilities and open innovation activities in breakthrough innovation. Drawing from the absorptive capacity perspective, organizational inertia theory, and open innovation, the authors seek to argue that dynamic innovation capabilities have a curvilinear effect on breakthrough innovation that is moderated by open innovation activities.

A mail survey was sent to the top 1,000 firms in Taiwan, the target respondents being senior managers with experience in developing at least three successful breakthrough innovations in the past five years. A total of 218 usable questionnaires were collected, resulting in a respondent rate of 22.9 percent.

The findings support the argument that dynamic innovation capabilities have an inverted U‐shape relationship with breakthrough innovation. Meanwhile, open innovation activities strengthen the positive effects of dynamic innovation capabilities on breakthrough innovation.

The findings enrich the existing literature by proposing and confirming empirically that open innovation activities help firms with effective coordination of dynamic innovation capabilities.

Managers must be aware of the limitations of their existing dynamic innovation capabilities in terms of developing breakthrough innovation.

This study not only resolves the conflicting views about the relationship between dynamic capabilities and innovation but also adds to the existing literature that indicates the failure of leading firms in the face of rapid environmental change.

While co-innovation with third parties (e.g. customer or supplier) has been widely documented, the literature seems to pay scant attention on co-innovation with business partners. Building on the resource dependence theory (RDT) and the input-process-output model, the purpose of this paper is to examine how four criteria of business partner selection affect service delivery co-innovation, which, in turn, influences firms’ competitive advantage.

A mail survey was sent to 600 IT service firms in Taiwan, the target respondents being senior marketing managers in charge of collaborative new service development. A total of 120 usable questionnaires were collected, for a response rate of 20 percent.

The findings support the argument that all four criteria of business partner selection have positive relationships with service delivery co-innovation. Meanwhile, adopting these criteria, firms’ service delivery co-innovation is able to create superior competitive advantage.

The findings enrich the existing literature by proposing and empirically confirming that the use of appropriate criteria to select business partners enhances the effectiveness of firms’ service delivery co-innovation and competitive advantage.

Managers must be aware of the criteria to select their business partners, in terms of developing service delivery co-innovation.

This study adds to the service innovation literature by providing support for the RDT that partner reliability, partner complementarity, partner expertise, and partner compatibility are important business partner selection criteria to create service delivery co-innovation and achieve firms’ competitive advantage.