Matching external search strategies with radical and incremental innovation and the role of knowledge integration capability
ISSN: 1746-5265
Article publication date: 13 July 2021
Issue publication date: 5 October 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the differential effects of two external search strategies on radical innovation (RI) and incremental innovation (II) and explore the mediating role of knowledge integration capability (KIC).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on the data collected from a sample of 241 firms from Chinese electronic information industry. The author conducted a hierarchical regression analysis using SPSS and PROCESS to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The results showed that both external search breadth and depth have positive effects on RI/II performance. The author also found that the effect of search breadth on RI is greater than that on II, and the effect of search depth on RI is less than that on II. Moreover, the author discovered that KIC fully or partially mediates the relationship between external search strategies and RI/II.
Originality/value
The paper provides a finer grained understanding concerning the difference in the impacts of the two external search strategies on RI/II performance. The paper also adds to the existing literature by explaining the path in which external knowledge search influences RI/II through the mediation effect of KIC.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author appreciates the help of anonymous reviewers and Professor Ruta Kazlauskaite in improving this paper. This research was partially supported by the Humanity and Social Science Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China (Grant 17YJC630069), the Humanity and Social science Research Project in Anhui Province (Grant SK2020A0831) and the Research project of Anhui Province Federation of Social Sciences (Grant 2020CX099).
Citation
Liu, B. (2021), "Matching external search strategies with radical and incremental innovation and the role of knowledge integration capability", Baltic Journal of Management, Vol. 16 No. 5, pp. 765-784. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJM-05-2021-0184
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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