The impact of technological innovation capabilities on competitive performance of Iranian ICT firms

Abstract

Recently many researches have studied technological innovation capabilities (TICs) and their impacts on firm’s competitive performance in the field of manufacturing industries. This paper pursued Yam et al. (2004) framework to study the relevance of TICs and firm's competitive performance in a mainly-service-based industry in Iran (ICT). Empirical data were collected through a questionnaire from 218 Iranian ICT firms. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to examine the drivers of competitive performance in these firms. The results of this study supported the expected positive relationship between TICs and competitive performance of Iranian ICT firms. Further, the results verified that resource allocation, R&D, learning and marketing capabilities can significantly improve the innovative outcomes of Iranian ICT firms. The paper contributes to TICs literature by providing empirical evidence on how ICT firms can enhance their competitiveness by utilizing TICs.