Miriam Delgado-Verde

Organizational knowledge assets and innovation capability

Purpose – Organizational knowledge assets are key organizational factors responsible for firm innovation, as well as effective management. Traditionally, a good piece of research takes the innovation processes from an external perspective, leaving aside the internal complexity that characterizes innovation dynamics. Nevertheless, the innovation capability of a certain firm depends very closely on the intellectual assets and organizational knowledge that it possesses, as well as on its ability to deploy them. In this sense, this paper aims to test empirically the relationships between organizational knowledge assets and the innovation capability of the firm.Design/methodology/approach – The data collection was carried out through a questionnaire on a sample of 251 Spanish high and medium‐high manufacturing firms. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and multiple linear regressions were also used.Findings – Based on the literature review, this work explores the nature and measurement of organization...

Towards a knowledge‐based view of firm innovation. Theory and empirical research

Purpose – The purpose of this guest editorial is to highlight the importance of knowledge management and organizational learning in firm innovation, offering an integrative framework to understand this complex business phenomenon.Design/methodology/approach – Based on the literature review, the guest editorial shows a general review on “A Knowledge‐Based View of Firm Innovation” articulating and integrating a total number of ten theoretical and empirical contributions about this topic.Findings – Theoretical and empirical works are organized in three main topics. The first one refers to the importance of external knowledge, networking, and relationships as key drivers of firm technological innovation, offering an “open or relational innovation framework”. The second one shows several papers on the growing importance of KIBS (Knowledge‐Intensive Business Services) in a Knowledge Economy and Society. Finally, this general review integrates papers about organizational context, and its role on knowledge manage...

Radical innovation from relations‐based knowledge: empirical evidence in Spanish technology‐intensive firms

Purpose – The present paper seeks to provide a new insight into intellectual capital classification by theoretically and empirically differentiating relations‐based knowledge into social capital and relational capital. Additionally, taking into account the key role played by radical innovation to compete in the context defined by the “knowledge‐based economy”, the aim is to empirically investigate the possible effect of both relations‐based intellectual capital components on the development of this kind of innovation by firms.Design/methodology/approach – Data were obtained from a questionnaire responded to by 251 Spanish high and medium‐high tech firms. Based on their answers, exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis are carried out.Findings – As theoretically proposed, relations‐based intellectual capital can be separated into social and relational capital, with social capital as the main component. Both elements have a significantly positive influence on radical innovation developed by firms...

Directions of external knowledge search: investigating their different impact on firm performance in high-technology industries

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to identify the different directions of external knowledge search and to investigate their individual effect on performance at the firm level. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical study is based on survey data gathered from two distinct informants of 248 large- and medium-sized high-tech manufacturing Spanish firms. In dealing with concerns on simultaneity and reverse causality, perceived time-lags among dependent and independent variables were introduced. Quantitative methods based on questionnaire answers were used. Findings – Findings reveal six distinct external search patterns and indicate that, while market sources such as customers and competitors are positively associated with performance, knowledge acquired from general information sources, other firms beyond the core business and patents and databases have no significant effect. Moreover, knowledge obtained from science and technology organizations and from suppliers displays an inversed U-shaped effect o...

Vertical relationships, complementarity and product innovation: an intellectual capital-based view

In recent years, the role of a firm’s external relationships in technological innovations is becoming increasingly important among innovation scholars. Following this trend, our paper proposes a new model as a way of analysing vertical collaboration supplier and customer relationship (SUCU) effects on product innovation outputs. Taking complementarity among business actors as the main thesis of this article, we identify four distinctive vertical collaboration profiles with different impacts on the level of product innovation. Results indicated that manufacturers that maintain those supplier and customer relationships simultaneously have a higher level of product innovation. Moreover, customer relationships have a more important role than supplier ones within the development of product innovation.