Tangible slack versus intangible resources: the influence of technology slack and tacit knowledge on the capability of organisational learning to generate innovation and performance

Literature has stated contradictory arguments about the importance of tangible and intangible resources. Meanwhile, the knowledge literature insists on the importance of tacit knowledge and a more traditional innovation literature and many practitioners have preferred to be focused on the importance of specific and tangible resources in organisational learning to generate innovative processes. In particular, the second perspective highlights the abundance of technological resources given the growing importance of information technology. Our sample of 575 technological firms operating in Spain shows that both resources are required to successfully implement the capability of organisational learning. Besides showing the positive relationship between this capability and the variables of innovation and performance, our results find that tangible and intangible resources have positive relationships with innovation and performance. In any case, our analysis allows us to discover the particularly strong influenc...

[1]  Alice Lam Tacit Knowledge, Organizational Learning and Societal Institutions: An Integrated Framework , 2000 .

[2]  Joel Mokyr,et al.  The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress , 1991 .

[3]  J. S. Long,et al.  Testing Structural Equation Models , 1993 .

[4]  James C. Anderson,et al.  STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING IN PRACTICE: A REVIEW AND RECOMMENDED TWO-STEP APPROACH , 1988 .

[5]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Measuring organizational performance in the absence of objective measures: The case of the privately-held firm and conglomerate business unit , 1984 .

[6]  G. Hult,et al.  Innovation, Market Orientation, and Organizational Learning: An Integration and Empirical Examination , 1998 .

[7]  S. Scott,et al.  DETERMINANTS OF INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOR: A PATH MODEL OF INDIVIDUAL INNOVATION IN THE WORKPLACE , 1994 .

[8]  Kevin G. Corley,et al.  On The Performance Of Technology-Sourcing Partnerships: The Interaction Between Partner Interdependence And Technology Attributes , 2000 .

[9]  Joel Mokyr,et al.  The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress. , 1991 .

[10]  I. Nonaka A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation , 1994 .

[11]  T. G. Cummings,et al.  Organization Learning Disorders: Conceptual Model and Intervention Hypotheses , 1998 .

[12]  M. Frese,et al.  Innovation is not enough: climates for initiative and psychological safety, process innovations, and firm performance , 2003 .

[13]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge and the Speed of the Transfer and Imitation of Organizational Capabilities: An Empirical Test , 1995 .

[14]  Sumit K. Majumdar,et al.  New technology adoption in US telecommunications: The role of competitive pressures and firm-level inducements , 1993 .

[15]  P. Senge,et al.  The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook , 1994 .

[16]  G. Zaltman,et al.  Innovations and organizations , 2020, Organizational Innovation.

[17]  F. Damanpour Organizational Innovation: A Meta-Analysis Of Effects Of Determinants and Moderators , 1991 .

[18]  Harbir Singh,et al.  Learning and protection of proprietary assets in strategic alliances: building relational capital , 2000 .

[19]  Robert G. Cooper,et al.  Winning at new products : accelerating the process from idea to launch , 2001 .

[20]  Mikko A. Junttila,et al.  A resource-based view of manufacturing strategy and the relationship to manufacturing performance , 2002 .

[21]  Wallace E. Carroll,et al.  Determinants of transnational new product development capability: testing the influence of transferring and deploying tacit overseas knowledge , 2001 .

[22]  M. Glynn Innovative Genius: A Framework for Relating Individual and Organizational Intelligences to Innovation , 1996 .

[23]  Sanjay Sharma Managerial Interpretations and Organizational Context as Predictors of Corporate Choice of Environmental Strategy , 2000 .

[24]  J. Hulland,et al.  Managing An Organizational Learning System By Aligning Stocks and Flows , 2002 .

[25]  P. M. Podsakoff,et al.  Self-Reports in Organizational Research: Problems and Prospects , 1986 .

[26]  Kenneth A. Bollen,et al.  Structural Equations with Latent Variables , 1989 .

[27]  P. H. Friesen,et al.  Strategy‐making and environment: The third link , 1983 .

[28]  Andrew C. Inkpen,et al.  Believing Is Seeing: Joint Ventures and Organization Learning* , 1995 .

[29]  Morten T. Hansen,et al.  Knowledge Networks: Explaining Effective Knowledge Sharing in Multiunit Companies , 2002 .

[30]  B. J. Zirger,et al.  The effect of acceleration techniques on product development time , 1996 .

[31]  R. Grant The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation , 1991 .

[32]  L. Bourgeois On the Measurement of Organizational Slack , 1981 .

[33]  Howard Pack The cost of technology licensing and the transfer of technology , 2000 .

[34]  B. Kogut,et al.  Exploring internal stickiness : Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm , 2007 .

[35]  Donald A. Schön,et al.  Organizational Learning II: Theory, Method, and Practice , 1995 .

[36]  R. Gulati Is Slack Good or Bad for Innovation ? , 2007 .

[37]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Concept of “Ba”: Building a Foundation for Knowledge Creation , 1998 .

[38]  Toyohiro Kono,et al.  Organizing for Effective New Product Development , 2007 .

[39]  野中 郁次郎,et al.  The Knowledge-Creating Company: How , 1995 .

[40]  Richard Hawkins,et al.  The knowledge production function: lessons from biotechnology , 2000, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[41]  William H. Glick,et al.  Conceptualizing and Measuring Organizational and Psychological Climate: Pitfalls in Multilevel Research , 1985 .

[42]  B. Wernerfelt,et al.  A Resource-Based View of the Firm , 1984 .

[43]  A. Edmondson Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams , 1999 .

[44]  Mark Dodgson,et al.  The competitive challenge: Strategies for industrial innovation and renewal: David J. Teece, (Ballinger Publishing Company, 1987) pp. 256, $26.95 , 1988 .

[45]  Roy Lubit Tacit Knowledge and Knowledge Management: The Keys to Sustainable Competitive Advantage , 2001 .

[46]  C. O. Scharmer Organizing Around Not-Yet-Embodied Knowledge , 2000 .

[47]  Laura J. Spence,et al.  Environmental management and the small firm: an international comparison , 2000 .

[48]  Massimo Marraffa,et al.  Organizational learning II: Theory, method and practice , 1998 .

[49]  Francisco Javier Lloréns Montes,et al.  Flexibility, fit and innovative capacity: an empirical examination , 2005, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[50]  Alison M. Konrad,et al.  Formalized Hrm Structures: Coordinating Equal Employment Opportunity Or Concealing Organizational Practices? , 1995 .

[51]  O. Douglas Moses,et al.  Organizational slack and risk-taking behaviour: tests of product pricing strategy , 1992 .

[52]  Douglas J. Ayers,et al.  Integration And New Product Development Success: The Role Of Formal And Informal Controls , 2011 .

[53]  M. Hitt,et al.  International expansion by new venture firms: International diversity, mode of market entry, technological learning, and performance. , 2000 .

[54]  Stephen M. Shortell,et al.  New Organizational Forms for Enhancing Innovation: The Case of Internal Corporate Joint Ventures , 1991 .

[55]  Mark P. Sharfman,et al.  Antecedents of Organizational Slack , 1988 .

[56]  J. Spender Making knowledge the basis of a dynamic theory of the firm , 1996 .

[57]  J. Barney Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[58]  Almas Heshmati,et al.  Knowledge capital and performance heterogeneity: : A firm-level innovation study , 2002 .

[59]  P. Senge THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE , 1997 .

[60]  Vijay Mahajan,et al.  Issues and Opportunities in New Product Development: An Introduction to the Special Issue , 1997 .

[61]  M. Russo,et al.  A Resource-Based Perspective On Corporate Environmental Performance And Profitability , 1997 .

[62]  野中 郁次郎,et al.  The knowledge-creating company , 2008 .

[63]  R. Calantone,et al.  Learning orientation, firm innovation capability, and firm performance , 2002 .

[64]  Bernard L. Simonin Ambiguity and the process of knowledge transfer in strategic alliances , 1999 .

[65]  John Bessant,et al.  Innovation and Organizational Learning: the Case of Computer‐Aided Production Management , 1993 .

[66]  I. Nonaka,et al.  Organizational Capabilities in Product Development of Japanese Firms: a Conceptual Framework and Empirical Findings , 1998 .