Abstract
This paper studies the effect that ambidextrous knowledge, i.e., oriented knowledge within a firm towards the development of exploitation activities and oriented knowledge towards the development of exploration activities, has on employee creativity, research and development, and sustainable product innovation. We contend that both tacit and explicit knowledge affect employee creativity, research and development, and sustainable product innovation. We empirically tested our hypotheses by using multisource data collected from 245 Spanish firms across fourteen industries. Our structural equation models indicate that these two types of individual knowledge predict employee creativity, which in turn strengthens research and development projects, and sustainable product innovation performance. The results confirm that the relationships between knowledge, creativity, research and development, and sustainable product innovation performance are strong with a high learning capability. A multi-group structural analysis also reveals that positive relations between tacit and explicit knowledge, employee creativity, research and development, and sustainable product innovation performance are stronger within firms that have employees with high learning capability. We provide pertinent recommendations for managers. The efforts and investments made in knowledge support the development of new ideas, new research and development projects, and sustainable product innovation success; employee learning capability has a strong influence on knowledge, creativity, and sustainable product innovation.
Highlights
Given the absence of a clear connection between knowledge, creativity and product innovation performance (PIP) [1,2], this paper questions how knowledge could be an antecedent of creativity and sustainable PIP
Innovation requires employees with unique and exclusive knowledge [95]. Our study considers it important to introduce a new relationship between both types of knowledge and research and development (R&D), so Hypothesis 4b (H4b) and Hypothesis 5b (H5b) are considered, as tacit knowledge may be relevant in the initial phases of R&D
Few studies have examined the relationships between tacit knowledge, creativity and PIP and R&D [1]
Summary
Given the absence of a clear connection between knowledge, creativity and product innovation performance (PIP) [1,2], this paper questions how knowledge could be an antecedent of creativity and sustainable PIP. The suggestion that knowledge processes influence organizational outcomes in informal networks was made some time ago [7]. These lines of thinking stress that there is a variance between an organization’s formal denotation (explicit knowledge) and actual (informal) working (tacit knowledge). Explicit knowledge is formal in nature because it comprises formal policies that are “implemented” by management. It is, in our opinion, an incomplete view of the potential impact of knowledge on creativity and PIP, which other components of knowledge can encourage
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