Patrick Vermeulen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Patrick Vermeulen
Other publications TiSEM, Nov 1, 2016
Industry and Innovation, May 22, 2020
ABSTRACT This study investigates the mechanisms accounting for the two-way relationship between i... more ABSTRACT This study investigates the mechanisms accounting for the two-way relationship between innovation and exporting in sub-Saharan Africa. We hypothesise that the relation between innovation and subsequent exporting is mediated by market investment. We also hypothesise that customer feedback mediates the relation between exporting and subsequent innovation. We test these hypotheses using repeated cross-sectional data from the 2006/07 and 2013 World Bank Enterprise Surveys. We also use data from the 2013 Innovation Follow-up survey. We indeed find that market investment mediates the effect of innovation on subsequent exporting and that customer feedback mediates the effect of exporting on subsequent innovation. We conclude that innovation policies aimed at fostering novel product innovation may be important for creating a new market space on the export market. Furthermore, investment in information and communications technology infrastructure is likely to enhance faster response to market needs.
Strategic Organization, Jan 29, 2018
Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes ... more Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes in industry structures, and enhanced competitive dynamics. In order to understand the opportunities and challenges within such an environment, extant theory argues that firms need to develop scanning capabilities. However, since the effect of environmental characteristics on the development of firm capabilities in lower income countries is unclear, we analyze how different environmental characteristics drive or hamper such capabilities. We focus specifically on scanning capabilities that allow firms to respond swiftly to changing needs by monitoring their environment. We include four environmental characteristics: environmental dynamism, heterogeneity, formal and informal competition. We investigate this in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, from which we mustered a sample of 440 manufacturing firms. Our main results indicate that environmental dynamism and informal competition have a paralyzing effect on the development of firms' scanning capabilities in East Africa, which implies that environmental characteristics may hamper rather than help the development of firm capabilities.
Proceedings - Academy of Management, Aug 1, 2017
Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes ... more Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes in industry structures, and enhanced competitive dynamics. In order to understand the opportunities and challenges within such an environment, extant theory argues that firms need to develop scanning capabilities. However, since the effect of environmental characteristics on the development of firm capabilities in lower income countries is unclear, we analyze how different environmental characteristics drive or hamper such capabilities. We focus specifically on scanning capabilities that allow firms to respond swiftly to changing needs by monitoring their environment. We include four environmental characteristics: environmental dynamism, heterogeneity, formal and informal competition. We investigate this in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, from which we mustered a sample of 440 manufacturing firms. Our main results indicate that environmental dynamism and informal competition have a paralyzing effect on the development of firms' scanning capabilities in East Africa, which implies that environmental characteristics may hamper rather than help the development of firm capabilities.
In today's globalising world, economists and business community actors acknowledge the importance... more In today's globalising world, economists and business community actors acknowledge the importance of innovation for productivity growth supporting economic growth and development. However, there is little literature and theory on innovation low income countries and particularly on manufacturing firms in Africa. In the framework of a DFID-funded research project entitled 'Enabling Innovation and Productivity Growth in Low Income Countries (EIP-LIC)', a team of researchers from the University of Nairobi and Radboud University Nijmegen investigated the interactions of Research and Development (R&D), foreign technology and technical efficiency in firms in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The original working paper is entitled 'R&D, Foreign Technology and Technical Efficiency in Developing Countries' (2015) by Laura Barasa,
European Journal of Innovation Management, Jan 14, 2019
Purpose-Countries in Africa have a common goal policy of industrialisation that is expected to be... more Purpose-Countries in Africa have a common goal policy of industrialisation that is expected to be driven by investing in innovation that yields efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the technical efficiency effects arising from innovation inputs including internal R&D, human capital development (HCD), and foreign technology adoption in manufacturing firms in Africa. Design/methodology/approach-This study uses cross-sectional firm-level survey data from the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey and the linked 2013 Innovation Follow-up Survey. A heteroscedastic half-normal stochastic frontier is used for analysing the technical efficiency effects of innovation inputs of 418 firms. Findings-This study reveals that internal R&D, and foreign technology have negative effects on technical efficiency. Notwithstanding, the combination of foreign technology and internal R&D, and foreign technology and HCD reinforce each other's effects on technical efficiency. Practical implications-This study provides evidence that whereas individual innovation inputs may not yield positive efficiency outcomes, the combination of absorptive capacity enhancing inputs comprising internal R&D and HCD with foreign technology is vital for enhancing technical efficiency in manufacturing firms in Africa. This study offers important lessons for managers in manufacturing firms in Africa. Originality/value-This study is virtually the first to investigate the relationship between innovation inputs and efficiency in Africa. This study demonstrates that investing in foreign technology in isolation from absorptive capacity enhancing innovation inputs diminishes efficiency. HCD and internal R&D are imperative for building absorptive capacity that enhances efficiency outcomes arising from foreign technology.
Proceedings - Academy of Management, Aug 1, 2017
Other publications TiSEM, 2015
This paper analyses the commercialization of innovations in Tanzania, using firm level data. Spec... more This paper analyses the commercialization of innovations in Tanzania, using firm level data. Specifically, it assesses the relative importance of firm, innovation and environmental level factors in commercialization, and how innovation is linked with commercialization. The analysis reveals that firm investment in internal research and development significantly impact both product innovation and commercialization of innovations in Tanzania, implying internal knowledge base is the main link between innovation and commercialization of innovations. Commercialization of innovations in Tanzania is influenced by cooperation with domestic and foreign firms, investment in research and development, and purchase of intangible technology with cooperation with domestic firms having the largest impact on commercialization, followed by investment in research and development. Knowledge acquisition and firm cooperation with other firms have greater impact on commercialization when undertaken by firms with histories of doing so in the past than when undertaken by firms for the first time.
Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose o... more Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2017
Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes ... more Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes in industry structures, and enhanced competitive dynamics. In order to understand the opportunities and challenges within such an environment, extant theory argues that firms need to develop scanning capabilities. However, since the effect of environmental characteristics on the development of firm capabilities in lower income countries is unclear, we analyze how different environmental characteristics drive or hamper such capabilities. We focus specifically on scanning capabilities that allow firms to respond swiftly to changing needs by monitoring their environment. We include four environmental characteristics: environmental dynamism, heterogeneity, formal and informal competition. We investigate this in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, from which we mustered a sample of 440 manufacturing firms. Our main results indicate that environmental dynamism and informal competition have a paralyzing effect on the development of firms' scanning capabilities in East Africa, which implies that environmental characteristics may hamper rather than help the development of firm capabilities.
This study investigates the relationship between firms’ innovation activities and efficiency in m... more This study investigates the relationship between firms’ innovation activities and efficiency in manufacturing firms in developing countries. We examine whether innovation activities including internal research and development (RD the relation between adoption of foreign technology and technical efficiency is negative and lastly, internal R&D in combination with the adoption of foreign technology have a positive effect on technical efficiency. We use cross-sectional firm level survey data from the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey and the linked 2014 Innovation Follow-up Survey for examining the effect of innovation activities on firms’ technical efficiency. We test our hypothesis using cross-sectional stochastic frontier analysis. We find that internal R&D has a negative and significant effect on technical efficiency. Adoption of foreign technology on the other hand does not have a significant effect on technical efficiency. Nevertheless, the combination of internal R&D and adoption...
This research examines how gender diversity interacts with women’s economic opportunity, such as ... more This research examines how gender diversity interacts with women’s economic opportunity, such as prevailing laws, practices and attitudes in a country allowing women to participate in the workforce under similar conditions like men, to explain innovation in developing countries. We suggest that the level of women’s economic opportunity in the country, within which firms operate, moderates the effect of gender diversity on a firms’ likelihood to innovate. We examine the proposed moderating effect in a cross-country study using firm level data of the World Bank Enterprise Survey for 15,157 firms in 15 developing countries in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. We test our hypotheses using a hierarchical binary logistic regression. Our findings support the relevance of women’s economic opportunity for gender diversity in the firm ownership structure and its workforce. We find that gender diversity increases the likelihood to innovate for firms operating in countries with rising lev...
We all know that smoking is bad for you. Yet, smoking regulation remains contentious on the basis... more We all know that smoking is bad for you. Yet, smoking regulation remains contentious on the basis of endangering individual rights, their discriminatory potential, and, notably, due to economic considerations. Smoking bans are part of a larger agenda of tobacco control focusing on health issues and involving, on one side, various activist groups whose interests are often aligned with those of the state as a powerful ally, and on the opposing side the tobacco firms as well as various organizations such as bars. This ongoing contention results in smoking bans being difficult to implement. In our study we focus on the resistance to smoking bans by small bars in the Netherlands. We investigate how small bars engaged the state in a David-versus-Goliath scenario, in order to overturn the smoking ban and avert the economic hardship they expected to incur resulting from it.
Firm innovation not only is a product of internal processes of knowledge differentiation and inte... more Firm innovation not only is a product of internal processes of knowledge differentiation and integration. It also depends on factors in the external environment of the firm stimulating or hindering these processes. This study examines external conditions for knowledge integration and differentiation among innovating South African manufacturing firms. Many South African organizations are technology-followers focused on incremental innovation by exploiting existing technologies. Informed by network and geographical theoretical perspectives, four external conditions for knowledge integration and differentiation were identified: network range and development zone (for knowledge differentiation), geographical relational embeddedness and spatial immobility (for knowledge integration). On the one hand it is found that in the South African context, a higher level of diversity of external knowledge sources (network range) is associated with a higher probability of exploitative product innova...
Our study seeks to examine the bi-directional relationship between innovation and exporting in fo... more Our study seeks to examine the bi-directional relationship between innovation and exporting in four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. We hypothesize that there is a positive relationship between innovation and subsequent exporting, and that this relationship is mediated by market creation. We also hypothesize that there is a positive relationship between exporting and subsequent innovation, with customer feedback mediating this relation. We analyze firm-level data from a repeated cross-sectional survey design from the 2006/07 and 2013 World Bank Enterprise Surveys and 2013 Innovation Follow-up survey. Our results show that the relation between innovation and subsequent exporting is positive and significant. However, we find a positive but non-significant relation between exporting and subsequent innovation. These relations broadly nuance a bi-directional relationship between innovation and exporting. Furthermore, we find that market creation significantly mediates about 32.5% of the ...
This paper analyses the impact of different knowledge sources of product innovation in Vietnam us... more This paper analyses the impact of different knowledge sources of product innovation in Vietnam using firm-level data. We analyze the separate impacts of internal knowledge, collaborative knowledge, and regional knowledge. The analysis reveals that internal knowledge sources from internal R&D have a positive influence on product innovation. However, not all kinds of collaborative knowledge sources have significant effects on innovation. Only collaborative knowledge gained from inside the supply chain affects product innovation positively. Apparently, the capacity to benefit from working with knowledge institutes and absorbing knowledge from the environment do not materialize in new products.
Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2021
Purpose This paper aims to investigate the antecedents of process innovation to provide more alte... more Purpose This paper aims to investigate the antecedents of process innovation to provide more alternates for Vietnamese firms as they are still struggling to find an appropriate innovation strategy. Design/methodology/approach The research analyzes the separate impacts of each innovation strategy on process innovation using logistic regression models. Data were collected using a stratified random sampling method. Findings The results show that having an innovation strategy is good for innovation, regardless of whether the strategy is internal or external. Internal and external strategies are proved not complements but substitutes. However, the internal strategy seems to be most beneficial. Weak institutional settings further strengthen the importance of internal strategies, whereas strong institutional settings favor external strategies. Originality/value This paper analyzes the impact of different innovation strategies on process innovation in Vietnamese firms using firm-level data....
Long Range Planning, 2019
THEORY AND HYPOTHESIS Innovation is keynot only for highly technologically advanced firms in deve... more THEORY AND HYPOTHESIS Innovation is keynot only for highly technologically advanced firms in developed countries but also for small firms in emerging nations (Zanello et al., 2016). This insight is supported by the finding that "the build-up of innovative capacities has played a central role in the growth dynamics of successful developing countries" (OECD, 2012, p. 4). Innovation can differ in its degree of radicalness and can take various forms such as new products, processes, as well as marketing or organizational methods. The minimum requirement to qualify as an innovation is that it must be new (or significantly improved) to the firm, even if adopted from other firms (OECD, 2005). In this study, we focus on process innovation, which refers to the "implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method. This includes significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software." (OECD, 2005, p. 49). Innovation frequently suffers from downsizing (Hansson & Gandolfi, 2015), but for the below outlined three non-mutually exclusive reasons, firms nevertheless commonly engage in downsizing: First, according to the economic perspective on downsizing, firms rationalize downsizing as a means to cut cost and with that to improve a firm's financial performance (McKinley et al., 2000). Second, as summarized in the industrial organization thesis, downsizing is often utilized in situations of low labor productivity, industry decline or a highly competitive environment (Kawai, 2015). Third, the cognitive reorientation towards perceiving downsizing as a way to be flexible and competitive increasingly validates downsizing as a suitable management practice (McKinley et al., 2000) to align strategy and resources (Agwu, Carter, & Murray, 2014).
European Journal of Innovation Management, 2019
Purpose Countries in Africa have a common goal policy of industrialisation that is expected to be... more Purpose Countries in Africa have a common goal policy of industrialisation that is expected to be driven by investing in innovation that yields efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the technical efficiency effects arising from innovation inputs including internal R&D, human capital development (HCD), and foreign technology adoption in manufacturing firms in Africa. Design/methodology/approach This study uses cross-sectional firm-level survey data from the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey and the linked 2013 Innovation Follow-up Survey. A heteroscedastic half-normal stochastic frontier is used for analysing the technical efficiency effects of innovation inputs of 418 firms. Findings This study reveals that internal R&D, and foreign technology have negative effects on technical efficiency. Notwithstanding, the combination of foreign technology and internal R&D, and foreign technology and HCD reinforce each other’s effects on technical efficiency. Practical implicat...
Research Policy, 2017
This study examines how firm-level resources interact with regional institutional quality to expl... more This study examines how firm-level resources interact with regional institutional quality to explain innovation in East Africa. We hypothesize that the institutional environment within which the firm operates moderates the effect of firm-level resources on innovative output. We examine the moderating role of institutions with regards to the transformation of firm-level resources including internal research and development, human capital and managerial experience into innovative output using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey and the Innovation Follow-up Survey for three countries in East Africa including Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. We test our hypotheses using a clustered robust standard errors logistic model. We find that the effects of firm-level resources vary depending on the institutional environment and that regional institutional quality positively moderates the effects of the firm-level resources.
Other publications TiSEM, Nov 1, 2016
Industry and Innovation, May 22, 2020
ABSTRACT This study investigates the mechanisms accounting for the two-way relationship between i... more ABSTRACT This study investigates the mechanisms accounting for the two-way relationship between innovation and exporting in sub-Saharan Africa. We hypothesise that the relation between innovation and subsequent exporting is mediated by market investment. We also hypothesise that customer feedback mediates the relation between exporting and subsequent innovation. We test these hypotheses using repeated cross-sectional data from the 2006/07 and 2013 World Bank Enterprise Surveys. We also use data from the 2013 Innovation Follow-up survey. We indeed find that market investment mediates the effect of innovation on subsequent exporting and that customer feedback mediates the effect of exporting on subsequent innovation. We conclude that innovation policies aimed at fostering novel product innovation may be important for creating a new market space on the export market. Furthermore, investment in information and communications technology infrastructure is likely to enhance faster response to market needs.
Strategic Organization, Jan 29, 2018
Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes ... more Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes in industry structures, and enhanced competitive dynamics. In order to understand the opportunities and challenges within such an environment, extant theory argues that firms need to develop scanning capabilities. However, since the effect of environmental characteristics on the development of firm capabilities in lower income countries is unclear, we analyze how different environmental characteristics drive or hamper such capabilities. We focus specifically on scanning capabilities that allow firms to respond swiftly to changing needs by monitoring their environment. We include four environmental characteristics: environmental dynamism, heterogeneity, formal and informal competition. We investigate this in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, from which we mustered a sample of 440 manufacturing firms. Our main results indicate that environmental dynamism and informal competition have a paralyzing effect on the development of firms' scanning capabilities in East Africa, which implies that environmental characteristics may hamper rather than help the development of firm capabilities.
Proceedings - Academy of Management, Aug 1, 2017
Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes ... more Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes in industry structures, and enhanced competitive dynamics. In order to understand the opportunities and challenges within such an environment, extant theory argues that firms need to develop scanning capabilities. However, since the effect of environmental characteristics on the development of firm capabilities in lower income countries is unclear, we analyze how different environmental characteristics drive or hamper such capabilities. We focus specifically on scanning capabilities that allow firms to respond swiftly to changing needs by monitoring their environment. We include four environmental characteristics: environmental dynamism, heterogeneity, formal and informal competition. We investigate this in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, from which we mustered a sample of 440 manufacturing firms. Our main results indicate that environmental dynamism and informal competition have a paralyzing effect on the development of firms' scanning capabilities in East Africa, which implies that environmental characteristics may hamper rather than help the development of firm capabilities.
In today's globalising world, economists and business community actors acknowledge the importance... more In today's globalising world, economists and business community actors acknowledge the importance of innovation for productivity growth supporting economic growth and development. However, there is little literature and theory on innovation low income countries and particularly on manufacturing firms in Africa. In the framework of a DFID-funded research project entitled 'Enabling Innovation and Productivity Growth in Low Income Countries (EIP-LIC)', a team of researchers from the University of Nairobi and Radboud University Nijmegen investigated the interactions of Research and Development (R&D), foreign technology and technical efficiency in firms in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The original working paper is entitled 'R&D, Foreign Technology and Technical Efficiency in Developing Countries' (2015) by Laura Barasa,
European Journal of Innovation Management, Jan 14, 2019
Purpose-Countries in Africa have a common goal policy of industrialisation that is expected to be... more Purpose-Countries in Africa have a common goal policy of industrialisation that is expected to be driven by investing in innovation that yields efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the technical efficiency effects arising from innovation inputs including internal R&D, human capital development (HCD), and foreign technology adoption in manufacturing firms in Africa. Design/methodology/approach-This study uses cross-sectional firm-level survey data from the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey and the linked 2013 Innovation Follow-up Survey. A heteroscedastic half-normal stochastic frontier is used for analysing the technical efficiency effects of innovation inputs of 418 firms. Findings-This study reveals that internal R&D, and foreign technology have negative effects on technical efficiency. Notwithstanding, the combination of foreign technology and internal R&D, and foreign technology and HCD reinforce each other's effects on technical efficiency. Practical implications-This study provides evidence that whereas individual innovation inputs may not yield positive efficiency outcomes, the combination of absorptive capacity enhancing inputs comprising internal R&D and HCD with foreign technology is vital for enhancing technical efficiency in manufacturing firms in Africa. This study offers important lessons for managers in manufacturing firms in Africa. Originality/value-This study is virtually the first to investigate the relationship between innovation inputs and efficiency in Africa. This study demonstrates that investing in foreign technology in isolation from absorptive capacity enhancing innovation inputs diminishes efficiency. HCD and internal R&D are imperative for building absorptive capacity that enhances efficiency outcomes arising from foreign technology.
Proceedings - Academy of Management, Aug 1, 2017
Other publications TiSEM, 2015
This paper analyses the commercialization of innovations in Tanzania, using firm level data. Spec... more This paper analyses the commercialization of innovations in Tanzania, using firm level data. Specifically, it assesses the relative importance of firm, innovation and environmental level factors in commercialization, and how innovation is linked with commercialization. The analysis reveals that firm investment in internal research and development significantly impact both product innovation and commercialization of innovations in Tanzania, implying internal knowledge base is the main link between innovation and commercialization of innovations. Commercialization of innovations in Tanzania is influenced by cooperation with domestic and foreign firms, investment in research and development, and purchase of intangible technology with cooperation with domestic firms having the largest impact on commercialization, followed by investment in research and development. Knowledge acquisition and firm cooperation with other firms have greater impact on commercialization when undertaken by firms with histories of doing so in the past than when undertaken by firms for the first time.
Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose o... more Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2017
Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes ... more Firms in East Africa face highly uncertain environments, fueling environmental dynamism, changes in industry structures, and enhanced competitive dynamics. In order to understand the opportunities and challenges within such an environment, extant theory argues that firms need to develop scanning capabilities. However, since the effect of environmental characteristics on the development of firm capabilities in lower income countries is unclear, we analyze how different environmental characteristics drive or hamper such capabilities. We focus specifically on scanning capabilities that allow firms to respond swiftly to changing needs by monitoring their environment. We include four environmental characteristics: environmental dynamism, heterogeneity, formal and informal competition. We investigate this in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, from which we mustered a sample of 440 manufacturing firms. Our main results indicate that environmental dynamism and informal competition have a paralyzing effect on the development of firms' scanning capabilities in East Africa, which implies that environmental characteristics may hamper rather than help the development of firm capabilities.
This study investigates the relationship between firms’ innovation activities and efficiency in m... more This study investigates the relationship between firms’ innovation activities and efficiency in manufacturing firms in developing countries. We examine whether innovation activities including internal research and development (RD the relation between adoption of foreign technology and technical efficiency is negative and lastly, internal R&D in combination with the adoption of foreign technology have a positive effect on technical efficiency. We use cross-sectional firm level survey data from the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey and the linked 2014 Innovation Follow-up Survey for examining the effect of innovation activities on firms’ technical efficiency. We test our hypothesis using cross-sectional stochastic frontier analysis. We find that internal R&D has a negative and significant effect on technical efficiency. Adoption of foreign technology on the other hand does not have a significant effect on technical efficiency. Nevertheless, the combination of internal R&D and adoption...
This research examines how gender diversity interacts with women’s economic opportunity, such as ... more This research examines how gender diversity interacts with women’s economic opportunity, such as prevailing laws, practices and attitudes in a country allowing women to participate in the workforce under similar conditions like men, to explain innovation in developing countries. We suggest that the level of women’s economic opportunity in the country, within which firms operate, moderates the effect of gender diversity on a firms’ likelihood to innovate. We examine the proposed moderating effect in a cross-country study using firm level data of the World Bank Enterprise Survey for 15,157 firms in 15 developing countries in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. We test our hypotheses using a hierarchical binary logistic regression. Our findings support the relevance of women’s economic opportunity for gender diversity in the firm ownership structure and its workforce. We find that gender diversity increases the likelihood to innovate for firms operating in countries with rising lev...
We all know that smoking is bad for you. Yet, smoking regulation remains contentious on the basis... more We all know that smoking is bad for you. Yet, smoking regulation remains contentious on the basis of endangering individual rights, their discriminatory potential, and, notably, due to economic considerations. Smoking bans are part of a larger agenda of tobacco control focusing on health issues and involving, on one side, various activist groups whose interests are often aligned with those of the state as a powerful ally, and on the opposing side the tobacco firms as well as various organizations such as bars. This ongoing contention results in smoking bans being difficult to implement. In our study we focus on the resistance to smoking bans by small bars in the Netherlands. We investigate how small bars engaged the state in a David-versus-Goliath scenario, in order to overturn the smoking ban and avert the economic hardship they expected to incur resulting from it.
Firm innovation not only is a product of internal processes of knowledge differentiation and inte... more Firm innovation not only is a product of internal processes of knowledge differentiation and integration. It also depends on factors in the external environment of the firm stimulating or hindering these processes. This study examines external conditions for knowledge integration and differentiation among innovating South African manufacturing firms. Many South African organizations are technology-followers focused on incremental innovation by exploiting existing technologies. Informed by network and geographical theoretical perspectives, four external conditions for knowledge integration and differentiation were identified: network range and development zone (for knowledge differentiation), geographical relational embeddedness and spatial immobility (for knowledge integration). On the one hand it is found that in the South African context, a higher level of diversity of external knowledge sources (network range) is associated with a higher probability of exploitative product innova...
Our study seeks to examine the bi-directional relationship between innovation and exporting in fo... more Our study seeks to examine the bi-directional relationship between innovation and exporting in four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. We hypothesize that there is a positive relationship between innovation and subsequent exporting, and that this relationship is mediated by market creation. We also hypothesize that there is a positive relationship between exporting and subsequent innovation, with customer feedback mediating this relation. We analyze firm-level data from a repeated cross-sectional survey design from the 2006/07 and 2013 World Bank Enterprise Surveys and 2013 Innovation Follow-up survey. Our results show that the relation between innovation and subsequent exporting is positive and significant. However, we find a positive but non-significant relation between exporting and subsequent innovation. These relations broadly nuance a bi-directional relationship between innovation and exporting. Furthermore, we find that market creation significantly mediates about 32.5% of the ...
This paper analyses the impact of different knowledge sources of product innovation in Vietnam us... more This paper analyses the impact of different knowledge sources of product innovation in Vietnam using firm-level data. We analyze the separate impacts of internal knowledge, collaborative knowledge, and regional knowledge. The analysis reveals that internal knowledge sources from internal R&D have a positive influence on product innovation. However, not all kinds of collaborative knowledge sources have significant effects on innovation. Only collaborative knowledge gained from inside the supply chain affects product innovation positively. Apparently, the capacity to benefit from working with knowledge institutes and absorbing knowledge from the environment do not materialize in new products.
Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2021
Purpose This paper aims to investigate the antecedents of process innovation to provide more alte... more Purpose This paper aims to investigate the antecedents of process innovation to provide more alternates for Vietnamese firms as they are still struggling to find an appropriate innovation strategy. Design/methodology/approach The research analyzes the separate impacts of each innovation strategy on process innovation using logistic regression models. Data were collected using a stratified random sampling method. Findings The results show that having an innovation strategy is good for innovation, regardless of whether the strategy is internal or external. Internal and external strategies are proved not complements but substitutes. However, the internal strategy seems to be most beneficial. Weak institutional settings further strengthen the importance of internal strategies, whereas strong institutional settings favor external strategies. Originality/value This paper analyzes the impact of different innovation strategies on process innovation in Vietnamese firms using firm-level data....
Long Range Planning, 2019
THEORY AND HYPOTHESIS Innovation is keynot only for highly technologically advanced firms in deve... more THEORY AND HYPOTHESIS Innovation is keynot only for highly technologically advanced firms in developed countries but also for small firms in emerging nations (Zanello et al., 2016). This insight is supported by the finding that "the build-up of innovative capacities has played a central role in the growth dynamics of successful developing countries" (OECD, 2012, p. 4). Innovation can differ in its degree of radicalness and can take various forms such as new products, processes, as well as marketing or organizational methods. The minimum requirement to qualify as an innovation is that it must be new (or significantly improved) to the firm, even if adopted from other firms (OECD, 2005). In this study, we focus on process innovation, which refers to the "implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method. This includes significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software." (OECD, 2005, p. 49). Innovation frequently suffers from downsizing (Hansson & Gandolfi, 2015), but for the below outlined three non-mutually exclusive reasons, firms nevertheless commonly engage in downsizing: First, according to the economic perspective on downsizing, firms rationalize downsizing as a means to cut cost and with that to improve a firm's financial performance (McKinley et al., 2000). Second, as summarized in the industrial organization thesis, downsizing is often utilized in situations of low labor productivity, industry decline or a highly competitive environment (Kawai, 2015). Third, the cognitive reorientation towards perceiving downsizing as a way to be flexible and competitive increasingly validates downsizing as a suitable management practice (McKinley et al., 2000) to align strategy and resources (Agwu, Carter, & Murray, 2014).
European Journal of Innovation Management, 2019
Purpose Countries in Africa have a common goal policy of industrialisation that is expected to be... more Purpose Countries in Africa have a common goal policy of industrialisation that is expected to be driven by investing in innovation that yields efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the technical efficiency effects arising from innovation inputs including internal R&D, human capital development (HCD), and foreign technology adoption in manufacturing firms in Africa. Design/methodology/approach This study uses cross-sectional firm-level survey data from the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey and the linked 2013 Innovation Follow-up Survey. A heteroscedastic half-normal stochastic frontier is used for analysing the technical efficiency effects of innovation inputs of 418 firms. Findings This study reveals that internal R&D, and foreign technology have negative effects on technical efficiency. Notwithstanding, the combination of foreign technology and internal R&D, and foreign technology and HCD reinforce each other’s effects on technical efficiency. Practical implicat...
Research Policy, 2017
This study examines how firm-level resources interact with regional institutional quality to expl... more This study examines how firm-level resources interact with regional institutional quality to explain innovation in East Africa. We hypothesize that the institutional environment within which the firm operates moderates the effect of firm-level resources on innovative output. We examine the moderating role of institutions with regards to the transformation of firm-level resources including internal research and development, human capital and managerial experience into innovative output using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey and the Innovation Follow-up Survey for three countries in East Africa including Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. We test our hypotheses using a clustered robust standard errors logistic model. We find that the effects of firm-level resources vary depending on the institutional environment and that regional institutional quality positively moderates the effects of the firm-level resources.