Abstract
This study, by the application of a linear regression by ordinary least squares (OLS), aimed to explore the relationships between knowledge management practices (KMP) and innovation outcomes (product, process, organizational, and commercial), and how they can be moderated by two dimensions of the entrepreneurial orientation (proactiveness and risk taking). This empirical study used survey data from a sample of 288 Spanish family small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The results revealed a positive effect of all the KMPs studied for at least one of the innovation variables studied. Regarding the moderating effect of proactiveness and risk taking on the KMP-innovation outcomes relationship, proactiveness negatively moderated the relationship between knowledge creation and product/process innovation. Moreover, a positive moderating effect was found for the case of knowledge application and process innovation. With regard to risk taking, the evidence found was mixed, and confirmed for some KMPs and all the innovation measures, with the exception of process innovation. The only positive moderating effect found was for knowledge storage and product innovation, whereas, contrary to expected, a negative moderating effect was found for knowledge creation, transfer, and application practices and commercial, product, and organizational innovations, respectively.
Highlights
At present, the advent of the “new knowledge economy” has led to the consideration of knowledge as one of the most important organizational resources to develop sustainable competitive advantages (Biscotti et al 2018; Mustafa et al 2016) and obtain superior organizational performance and success (Spender 1996; Schiuma et al 2012; Del Giudice and Maggioni 2014; Lotti Oliva 2014)
A gradient test revealed that the slope between knowledge creation and commercial innovation was non-significant when risk taking was high (t = 0.232, n.s.), whereas the slope for low risk-taking was significant (t = 2.735, p = 0.007). These results reveal that a firms risk-taking attitude negatively moderates the effect of knowledge creation on commercial innovation, 0.5 not providing support for Hypothesis 5b (H5b)
This paper aimed to study the relationships between knowledge management practices (KMP) and innovation outcomes and how they can be moderated by two dimensions of the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in a sample of 288 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) Spanish family firms
Summary
The advent of the “new knowledge economy” has led to the consideration of knowledge as one of the most important organizational resources to develop sustainable competitive advantages (Biscotti et al 2018; Mustafa et al 2016) and obtain superior organizational performance and success (Spender 1996; Schiuma et al 2012; Del Giudice and Maggioni 2014; Lotti Oliva 2014). Firms are paying increasing attention to knowledge management (KM) (Calvo-Mora et al 2016; Hussinki et al.2017), which is defined as “the organized process of creating, capturing, storing, disseminating, and using knowledge within and between organizations” Given this situation, this paper had two aims. It provided evidence about knowledge management practices (KMP), which are defined as a set of management activities related to knowledge resources to achieve organizational goals (Stanovcic et al 2015), and their influence on firms’ innovation outcomes, which are identified as a critical factor for the continued growth and vitality of organizations and economies (Garud et al 2013). The relevance to explore this singular context has been justified by several authors (Andersén 2015; Gupta and Bhattacharya 2016; Fang et al 2018) by suggesting that in family firms, the identity overlap between the family and the firm
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