Abstract
Although previous studies have contributed substantially to our understanding of the role of external collaboration on product innovation in the context of high-tech industries in developed countries, there has been limited attention to the role of knowledge search on process innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in extreme institutional environments. Drawing on the open innovation and absorptive capacity literatures, two key findings emerge from our study of 124 SMEs operating in the automotive industry. First, we find that external knowledge search breadth, but not depth, is related to the development of process innovation. Second, process innovation is positively related to performance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Small Business Management |
| Early online date | 6 Dec 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 6 Dec 2020 |
Bibliographical note
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Journal of Small Business Management on 6 Dec 2020, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00472778.2020.1844491Keywords
- Open innovation
- absorptive capacity
- attention-based theories
- process innovation
- search breadth
- search depth