The role of intellectual resources, product innovation capability, reputational resources and marketing capability combinations in firm growth

This article examines the extent to which combinations of intellectual resources and product innovation capability, and reputational resources and marketing capability, influence the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to meet or exceed performance goals. Empirical results drawn from 171 SMEs suggest that when the combination of intellectual resources and product innovation capability in addition to the combination of reputational resources and marketing capability are high, SME growth is enhanced. However, a high level of intellectual resources combined with a low level of product innovation capability as well as a combination of a high level of reputational resources with a low level of marketing capability (and vice versa) are not significantly related to growth. These results imply that a high level of resources cannot compensate for a low level of capabilities (and vice versa).

[1]  Chun-Ju Wang,et al.  Internal Resources, External Network, and Competitiveness during the Growth Stage: A Study of Taiwanese High–Tech Ventures 1 , 2008 .

[2]  S. West,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions. , 1994 .

[3]  A. Ramos-Rodríguez,et al.  What you know or who you know? The role of intellectual and social capital in opportunity recognition , 2010, 2401.17448.

[4]  M. Terziovski.  Innovation practice and its performance implications in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector: a resource‐based view , 2010 .

[5]  Peter J. LaPlaca,et al.  INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT , 2011 .

[6]  Henrik Tötterman,et al.  Start-ups , 2005 .

[7]  Alistair R. Anderson,et al.  Entrepreneurial Social Capital , 2007 .

[8]  Neil A. Morgan,et al.  Benchmarking Marketing Capabilities for Sustainable Competitive Advantage , 2005 .

[9]  L. Berry.  Cultivating service brand equity , 2000 .

[10]  Michael Song,et al.  Marketing and technology resource complementarity : An analysis of their Interaction Effect in two environmental contexts , 2005 .

[11]  V. Story,et al.  Entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation as drivers of product innovation success: A study of exporters from a developing economy , 2013 .

[12]  Dovev Lavie.  The Competitive Advantage of Interconnected Firms: An Extension of the Resource-Based View , 2006 .

[13]  Janek Ratnatunga,et al.  The role of marketing , 1995 .

[14]  Larry E. Toothaker,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions , 1991 .

[15]  Moses Acquaah.  Managerial social capital, strategic orientation, and organizational performance in an emerging economy , 2007 .

[16]  G. Hult,et al.  TOWARD GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF MARKET ORIENTATION AND THE RESOURCE-BASED VIEW , 2007 .

[17]  Zi-Lin He,et al.  Exploration vs. Exploitation: An Empirical Test of the Ambidexterity Hypothesis , 2004, Organ. Sci..

[18]  W. Hulsink,et al.  Networks in Entrepreneurship: The Case of High-technology Firms , 2001 .

[19]  E. von Hippel,et al.  Sources of Innovation , 2016 .

[20]  Nicolai J. Foss,et al.  Entrepreneurship, Subjectivism, and the Resource-Based View: Towards a New Synthesis , 2006 .

[21]  David Carson,et al.  Innovative marketing in SMEs , 2009 .

[22]  Cengiz Yilmaz,et al.  Market Orientation and Planning Flexibility in SMEs , 2007 .

[23]  J. Partanen,et al.  Innovation Types and Network Relationships , 2014 .

[24]  J. D. Sherman,et al.  Differential effects of the primary forms of cross functional integration on product development cycle time , 2000 .

[25]  Scott L. Newbert.  Empirical research on the resource‐based view of the firm: an assessment and suggestions for future research , 2007 .

[26]  K. Ibeh,et al.  The drop and collect survey among industrial populations: Theory and empirical evidence , 2002 .

[27]  M. Lindell,et al.  Accounting for common method variance in cross-sectional research designs. , 2001, The Journal of applied psychology.

[28]  D. Aaker.  Managing Assets and Skills: The Key to a Sustainable Competitive Advantage , 1989 .

[29]  Richard Makadok.  Toward a synthesis of the resource‐based and dynamic‐capability views of rent creation , 2001 .

[30]  Yadong Luo,et al.  Guanxi and organizational dynamics: organizational networking in Chinese firms , 2001 .

[31]  Kristian Möller,et al.  Marketing capability—A key success factor in small business? , 1987 .

[32]  Aron O'Cass,et al.  Achieving superior innovation-based performance outcomes in SMEs through innovation resource–capability complementarity , 2011 .

[33]  G. Day.  The Capabilities of Market-Driven Organizations , 1994 .

[34]  Vassiliki Bamiatzi,et al.  Strategies for superior performance under adverse conditions: A focus on small and medium-sized high-growth firms , 2014 .

[35]  J. R. Moore,et al.  The theory of the growth of the firm twenty-five years after , 1960 .

[36]  J. Spender,et al.  The Resource-Based View: A Review and Assessment of Its Critiques , 2009 .

[37]  R. Hall.  The strategic analysis of intangible resources , 1992 .

[38]  G. Dowling,et al.  Corporate reputation and sustained superior financial performance , 2002 .

[39]  José L. Barbero,et al.  Managerial capabilities and paths to growth as determinants of high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises , 2011 .

[40]  Jeremy Galbreath,et al.  Which resources matter the most to firm success? An exploratory study of resource-based theory , 2005 .

[41]  Li-Chang Hsu.  Clarifying the Effect of Intellectual Capital on Performance: The Mediating Role of Dynamic Capability , 2012 .

[42]  G. Hult,et al.  Innovativeness: Its antecedents and impact on business performance , 2004 .

[43]  Mike W. Peng,et al.  Managerial Ties and Firm Performance in a Transition Economy: The Nature of a Micro-Macro Link , 2000 .

[44]  K. R. Conner.  A Historical Comparison of Resource-Based Theory and Five Schools of Thought Within Industrial Organization Economics: Do We Have a New Theory of the Firm? , 1991 .

[45]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Market orientation: Antecedents and consequences , 1993 .

[46]  K. Zhou,et al.  Competitive position, managerial ties, and profitability of foreign firms in China: an interactive perspective , 2009 .

[47]  Simon S. Gao,et al.  Risk management capability building in SMEs: A social capital perspective , 2013 .

[48]  Liam Fahey,et al.  The resource-based view and marketing: The role of market-based assets in gaining competitive advantage , 2001 .

[49]  J. Barney,et al.  IS THE RESOURCE-BASED " VIEW " A USEFUL PERSPECTIVE FOR STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT RESEARCH ? , 2001 .

[50]  D. Storey.  Optimism and chance: The elephants in the entrepreneurship room , 2011 .

[51]  G. Pisano.  The R&D Boundaries of the Firm: An Empirical Analysis , 1990 .

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

[53]  Maxwell K. Hsu,et al.  The moderating role of institutional networking in the customer orientation–trust/commitment–performance causal chain in China , 2008 .

[54]  D. Leonard-Barton.  CORE CAPABILITIES AND CORE RIGIDITIES: A PARADOX IN MANAGING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT , 1992 .

[55]  S. Hunt,et al.  The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing , 1994 .

[56]  Nina Rosenbusch,et al.  Is innovation always beneficial? A meta-analysis of the relationship between innovation and performance in SMEs , 2011 .

[57]  P. Schoemaker,et al.  Strategic assets and organizational rent , 1993 .

[58]  D. Mueller.  Entrepreneurship and Growth , 2011 .

[59]  J. A. Trespalacios,et al.  Trust as a moderator of the relationship between organizational learning and marketing capabilities: Evidence from Spanish SMEs , 2012 .

[60]  Dean Patton,et al.  Realising potential: The impact of business incubation on the absorptive capacity of new technology-based firms , 2014 .

[61]  F. Langerak.  The effect of market orientation on positional advantage and organizational performance , 2003 .

[62]  Scott L. Newbert.  Value, rareness, competitive advantage, and performance: a conceptual‐level empirical investigation of the resource‐based view of the firm , 2008 .

[63]  Allan Afuah.  How much do your co-opetitors' capabilities matter in the face of technological change? , 2000 .

[64]  J. Wincent,et al.  Supporting innovation in government-sponsored networks: The role of network board composition , 2013 .

[65]  Marc T. Junkunc.  Managing radical innovation: The importance of specialized knowledge in the biotech revolution , 2007 .

[66]  David J. Storey,et al.  Small Business and Entrepreneurship , 2010 .

[67]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Culture′s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values , 1980 .

[68]  Xianggui Qu,et al.  Multivariate Data Analysis , 2007, Technometrics.

[69]  B. Anderson,et al.  The influence of firm age and intangible resources on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm growth among Japanese SMEs , 2013 .

[70]  Linda F. Edelman,et al.  Co-alignment in the resource–performance relationship: strategy as mediator , 2005 .

[71]  Patrick A.M. Vermeulen,et al.  Determinants of Product Innovation in Small Firms , 2006 .

[72]  John Fahy,et al.  A resource-based analysis of sustainable competitive advantage in a global environment , 2002 .

[73]  Gary G. Hamilton,et al.  Asian business networks , 1996 .

[74]  Östen Wahlbeck,et al.  The role of (transnational) social capital in the start-up processes of immigrant businesses: The case of Chinese and Turkish restaurant businesses in Finland , 2012 .

[75]  Rajesh Sethi,et al.  Can Quality‐Oriented Firms Develop Innovative New Products? , 2009 .

[76]  Qing Cao,et al.  Unpacking Organizational Ambidexterity: Dimensions, Contingencies, and Synergistic Effects , 2009, Organ. Sci..

[77]  Malte Brettel,et al.  Configurations of resources and capabilities and their performance implications: an exploratory study on technology ventures , 2010 .

[78]  Charlotte H. Mason,et al.  Market orientation, marketing capabilities, and firm performance , 2009 .

[79]  Rob Lee,et al.  Networks, Communication and Learning during Business Start-up , 2008 .

[80]  P. Jackson,et al.  Examining the Antecedents and Consequences of Corporate Reputation: A Customer Perspective , 2009 .

[81]  R. M. Hall,et al.  A framework linking intangible resources and capabilities to sustainable competitive advantage , 1993 .

[82]  R. Bagozzi,et al.  On the evaluation of structural equation models , 1988 .

[83]  Sveinn Vidar Gudmundsson,et al.  Entrepreneurial orientation, firm strategy and small firm performance , 2014 .

[84]  J. Poon,et al.  Effects of Self-concept Traits and Entrepreneurial Orientation on Firm Performance , 2006 .

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

[86]  G. George.  Slack Resources and the Performance of Privately Held Firms , 2005 .

[87]  L. Ngo,et al.  Examining the Firm's Value Creation Process: A Managerial Perspective of the Firm's Value Offering Strategy and Performance , 2011 .

[88]  Yuan Li,et al.  Entrepreneurial Orientation, Organizational Learning, and Performance: Evidence from China , 2009 .

[89]  Charles E. Bamford,et al.  Contrasting Entrepreneurial Economic Development in Emerging Latin American Economies: Applications and Extensions of Resource-Based Theory , 2007 .

[90]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[91]  Sydney Gregory,et al.  Culture's consequences: international differences in work-related values , 1982 .

[92]  Peter G. Klein,et al.  Entrepreneurship, Subjectivism, and the Resource-Based View: Towards a New Synthesis , 2006 .

[93]  K. Woldesenbet,et al.  Supplying large firms: The role of entrepreneurial and dynamic capabilities in small businesses , 2012 .

[94]  R. Hamilton,et al.  Factors distinguishing small firm growers and non-growers , 2011 .

[95]  J. Cope,et al.  Social Capital and Entrepreneurship , 2007 .

[96]  P. Wolf,et al.  Exploring innovating cultures in small and medium-sized enterprises: Findings from Central Switzerland , 2012 .