Organizational Knowledge Creation in the Chinese Context

Fostering knowledge creation through network capability ambidexterity with the moderation of an innovation climate

Purpose

This paper aims to adopt the knowledge-based view and social network theory to investigate the relationship between network capability ambidexterity and knowledge creation (KC) in the context of open innovation. It also examines the moderating effects of innovation climate on this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper developed a model including network capability ambidexterity, innovation climate and KC. A total of 463 samples were collected from China to test the model and hypotheses by SEM.

Findings

The empirical results indicate that network capability ambidexterity is the crucial antecedent of KC. Specifically, network capability ambidexterity consists of the balanced and combined dimensions that both have significant and positive effects on KC. More importantly, the balanced dimension has a stronger effect on KC than the combined. In addition, an innovation climate positively moderates the effects of network capability ambidexterity and KC.

Originality/value

This study advances a new understanding of how network capability ambidexterity influences KC. Moreover, investigating the relationships should provide fresh insights into network capabilities and KC for practitioners in the open innovation context.

Distributed leadership and exploratory and exploitative innovations: mediating roles of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing and organizational trust

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to highlight the impact of distributed leadership (DL) on exploitative and exploratory innovations through the mediating effects of organizational trust (OT) and tacit and explicit knowledge sharing (KS).

Design/methodology/approach

Focusing on a quantitative approach, an empirical study was performed within a sample of information and communication technology Tunisian firms. The data collected was analyzed through the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method.

Findings

Findings revealed that DL is a driver of tacit and explicit KS, and exploitative and exploratory innovations. It also highlighted that tacit KS is associated with these two types of innovation. In this line, results showed that tacit KS plays a mediating effect between DL and exploitative and exploratory innovations. Moreover, our research highlighted that DL has a positive impact on OT that in turn boosts tacit and explicit KS.

Originality/value

This paper investigates the links between DL and exploitative and exploratory innovations within knowledge intensive firms (KIFs) that have never been studied in the literature within the context of business firms. This paper pioneers the examination of the mediating roles of explicit and tacit KS and OT in these links as well. This paper highlights the importance of DL for KIFs and sheds the light on how this collectivist approach of leadership creates an atmosphere of trust and fosters tacit and explicit KS to boost exploitative and exploratory innovations.

Boundary Conditions of the Curvilinear Relationships between Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility and New Product Performance: Evidence from China

This study examines whether a firm’s environmental corporate social responsibility advances the growth of its new product performance, and investigates the moderating roles of a firm’s heterogeneous local institutional environment and ownership type. Based on a multi-informant survey dataset of 303 Chinese firms, we found that a firm’s environmental corporate social responsibility has a U-shaped relationship with the firm’s new product performance. In addition, compared with non-state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises with a higher environmental corporate social responsibility would receive relatively lower new product performance. Firms located in the provinces with a lower local institutional development level and higher environmental corporate social responsibility may experience relatively higher new product performance than firms located in the provinces with a higher local institutional development level.

Social Exchange and Knowledge Sharing among Knowledge Workers: The Moderating Role of Perceived Job Security

Drawing on perceived organizational support (POS) theory and employee-organizational relationship theories, this research investigated the association between POS and knowledge sharing as well as the potential moderating effects of perceived job security. Study participants were 255 information technology professionals and their supervisors working in the information technology industry in China. Findings showed that POS was positively related to knowledge sharing, and, as expected, perceived job security moderated the association. More specifically, the positive association between POS and employee knowledge sharing held only for employees who perceived higher job security from their organization. In contrast, POS was not significantly associated with knowledge sharing when employees perceived their job security to be relatively low. This latter result is consistent with contentions from employee-organizational relationships theories that limited investment by employers is likely to lead to lower contributions from employees. The findings are also congruent with arguments from social exchange theory that meaningful reciprocity is built on a history of open-ended exchanges whose development may be inconsistent with a shorter-term employment horizon.

Knowledge Spillovers, Search, and Creation in China's Emerging Market

Prior research and the articles included in this special issue demonstrate that in emerging markets in general and in China in particular, knowledge spillovers exist between foreign firms and domestic firms. As domestic markets become more sophisticated, and competition between domestic firms and foreign firms becomes stronger, knowledge is flowing to and being sourced in many different directions: from overseas head offices to foreign firms then on to domestic firms; from domestic firms to domestic firms; and from domestic firms to foreign firms, and back to the multinational corporations' head offices in the form of reverse spillovers and reverse innovation. We propose that knowledge spillovers, search, and creation in an emerging market are a dynamic and reciprocal process with knowledge flowing between and among foreign and domestic firms. This represents a fertile field for future research and we have identified a number of areas ripe for study.

Larger or Broader: Performance Implications of Size and Diversity of the Knowledge Worker's Egocentric Network

Management scholars and practitioners emphasize the importance of the size and diversity of a knowledge worker's social network. Constraints on knowledge workers' time and energy suggest that more is not always better. Further, why and how larger networks contribute to valuable outcomes deserves further understanding. In this study, we offer hypotheses to shed insight on the question of the diminishing returns of large networks and the specific form of network diversity that may contribute to innovative performance among knowledge workers. We tested our hypotheses using data collected from 93 R&D engineers in a Sino-German automobile electronics company located in China. Study findings identified an inflection point, confirming our hypothesis that the size of the knowledge worker's egocentric network has an inverted U-shaped effect on job performance. We further demonstrate that network dispersion richness (the number of cohorts that the focal employee has connections to) rather than network dispersion evenness (equal distribution of ties across the cohorts) has more influence on the knowledge worker's job performance. Additionally, we found that the curvilinear effect of network size is fully mediated by network dispersion richness. Implications for future research on social networks in China and Western contexts are discussed.