Technological Innovativeness and Firm Performance in Slovenia and Romania

This study contributes to a better understanding of performance induced by technological innovativeness by developing and testing a model. The model clarifies the nature of the influence of technological innovativeness and its organisational and inter-organisational antecedents (organisational support for innovativeness and technological alliances) on firm growth, profitability and wealth creation. Survey data were collected from firms in two countries: Slovenia and Romania; structural equation modelling was employed to test the model and the hypothesised relationships. Support for most of the model hypotheses was found. Among the control elements in the model, country, industry technological opportunities and firm age were found to be the most influential.

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

[2]  B. Davies,et al.  The paradox of co‐operation and competition in strategic alliances: towards a multi‐paradigm approach , 2003 .

[3]  J. Farley,et al.  Corporate Culture, Customer Orientation, and Innovativeness in Japanese Firms: A Quadrad Analysis , 1993 .

[4]  Allen M. Weiss,et al.  The relationship between a firm's level of technological innovativeness and its pattern of partnership agreements , 1997 .

[5]  P. Soh The role of networking alliances in information acquisition and its implications for new product performance , 2003 .

[6]  Erkko Autio,et al.  Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2001 Executive Report , 2001 .

[7]  P. Bentler,et al.  Comparative fit indexes in structural models. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[8]  R. Eisenberger,et al.  Perceived Organizational Support and Employee Diligence, Commitment, and Innovation , 1990 .

[9]  F. Rothaermel Complementary Assets, Strategic Alliances, and the Incumbent's Advantage: An Empirical Study of Industry and Firm Effects in the Biopharmaceutical Industry , 2001 .

[10]  B. J. Zirger,et al.  The influence of development experience and product innovativeness on product outcome , 1997 .

[11]  Anil Menon,et al.  Making Innovation Happen in Organizations: Individual Creativity Mechanisms, Organizational Creativity Mechanisms or Both? , 2000 .

[12]  Stephen G. Green,et al.  Top management support of R&D projects: a strategic leadership perspective , 1995 .

[13]  T. Das,et al.  A Resource-Based Theory of Strategic Alliances , 2000 .

[14]  S. Zahra Environment, corporate entrepreneurship, and financial performance: A taxonomic approach , 1993 .

[15]  J. Hagedoorn Understanding the rationale of strategic technology partnering: Nterorganizational modes of cooperation and sectoral differences , 1993 .

[16]  Jörg Lackenbauer Catching-up, Regional Disparities and EU Cohesion Policy: The Case of Hungary , 2004 .

[17]  D. Bell,et al.  The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. , 1974 .

[18]  R. Gulati,et al.  The Architecture of Cooperation: Managing Coordination Costs and Appropriation Concerns in Strategic Alliances , 1998 .

[19]  Keith Dickson,et al.  "There are two sides to every story": Innovation and collaboration within networks of large and small firms , 1991 .

[20]  Jari J. Ritsila Regional differences in environments for enterprises , 1999 .

[21]  R. Hisrich,et al.  Corporate entrepreneurship contingencies and organizational wealth creation , 2004 .

[22]  V. Pucik,et al.  Relationship between innovativeness, quality, growth, profitability, and market value , 2005 .

[23]  Erol Taymaz,et al.  Does innovativeness matter for international competitiveness in developing countries?: The case of Turkish manufacturing industries , 2004 .

[24]  Igor Gurkov Business innovation in Russian industry , 2004 .

[25]  Toby E. Stuart Interorganizational alliances and the performance of firms: A study of growth and innovation rates i , 2000 .

[26]  Maryann P. Feldman,et al.  Research Universities and Local Economic Development: Lessons from the History of the Johns Hopkins University , 2003 .

[27]  D. Slevin,et al.  Strategic management of small firms in hostile and benign environments , 1989 .

[28]  Robert D. Hisrich,et al.  Ethics and entrepreneurs: An international comparative study , 2003 .

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

[30]  Gary A. Knight,et al.  Cross-cultural reliability and validity of a scale to measure firm entrepreneurial orientation , 1997 .

[31]  Mark A. Mone,et al.  Organizational Decline and Innovation: A Contingency Framework , 1998 .

[32]  Kari Sipilä,et al.  Communication as a Determinant of Organizational Innovation , 2000 .

[33]  Amnon Frenkel,et al.  Local milieu and innovations: Some empirical results , 1998 .

[34]  S. Thornhill Knowledge, innovation and firm performance in high- and low-technology regimes , 2006 .

[35]  William G. Egelhoff,et al.  Innovative capabilities of a firm and the use of technical alliances , 2000, IEEE Trans. Engineering Management.

[36]  J. Günther,et al.  Eastern Germany in the Process of Catching Up : The Role of Foreign and West German Investors in Technological Renewal , 2005 .

[37]  Jin K. Han,et al.  Market Orientation and Organizational Performance: Is Innovation a Missing Link? , 1998 .

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

[39]  Štefan Bojnec Business and Managerial Start-ups, R&D, and Product Innovation in Slovenia , 2001 .

[40]  Jeffrey S. Hornsby,et al.  An Interactive Model of the Corporate Entrepreneurship Process , 1993 .

[41]  D. Bamber The Coming of Post-Industrial Society — A Venture in Social Forecasting , 1980 .

[42]  Željka Šporer Knowledge-Based Economy and Social Capital in Central and East European Countries , 2004 .

[43]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Clarifying the Entrepreneurial Orientation Construct and Linking It To Performance , 1996 .

[44]  M. Storper The Resurgence of Regional Economies, Ten Years Later , 1995 .

[45]  Bruno Crépon,et al.  Research, Innovation, and Productivity: an Econometric Analysis at the Firm Level , 1998 .

[46]  Javier Revilla Diez,et al.  Technological Capabilities and Innovation in Southeast Asia , 2006 .

[47]  Shaker A. Zahra,et al.  The effects of business-university alliances on innovative output and financial performance: a study of publicly traded biotechnology companies , 2002 .

[48]  J. Hagedoorn,et al.  The effect of strategic technology alliances on company performance. , 1994 .

[49]  R. Hisrich,et al.  Intrapreneurship: Construct refinement and cross-cultural validation , 2001 .

[50]  G. Duysters,et al.  Alliance Group Formation Enabling and Constraining Effects of Embeddedness and Social Capital in Strategic Technology Alliance Networks , 2003 .

[51]  B. Kogut Joint ventures: Theoretical and empirical perspectives , 1988 .

[52]  Sjoerd Beugelsdijk,et al.  Entrepreneurial culture, regional innovativeness and economic growth , 2007 .

[53]  Steven H. Hanks,et al.  Measuring the performance of emerging businesses: A validation study , 1993 .

[54]  Roberto Camagni,et al.  THE CONCEPT OF INNOVATIVE MILIEU AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR PUBLIC POLICIES IN EUROPEAN LAGGING REGIONS , 2005 .

[55]  W. Powell,et al.  Interorganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology. , 1996 .

[56]  F. Floyd,et al.  Factor analysis in the development and refinement of clinical assessment instruments. , 1995 .

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

[58]  Markku V. J. Maula,et al.  Explorative and Exploitative Learning from External Corporate Ventures , 2005 .

[59]  R. Gulati Alliances and networks , 1998 .

[60]  P. Bentler,et al.  Significance Tests and Goodness of Fit in the Analysis of Covariance Structures , 1980 .

[61]  C. Fiol Squeezing Harder Doesn't Always Work: Continuing the Search for Consistency in Innovation Research , 1996 .

[62]  R. Morgan,et al.  Deconstructing the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance at the embryonic stage of firm growth , 2007 .

[63]  Anders Malmberg,et al.  Industrial geography: location and learning , 1997 .

[64]  D. Mowery,et al.  Strategic alliances and interfirm knowledge transfer , 1996 .

[65]  Dianne M. Finkelstein,et al.  A Beginner's Guide to Structural Equation Modeling , 2005, Technometrics.